Cheryl Rainfield's Blog, page 115

How sweet is this? Fellow Tweep @wholewidewords (Schuyler Esperanza) just posted a pic of Lolly, her cat, with Scars! She said: "My Lolly kitty gives your book 5 purrrrrrs."

I love it! (beaming)

Do you have a pic of your pet with Scars? I'd love to see it.

Seriously? Then read this.

Here's a teen recommending books & movies about self-injury & eating disorders via YouTube–and she included SCARS! (beaming)

A couple gives out books instead of candy.

I would have loved it; I was a real bookworm; I still am. Just as long as I still got some chocolate at another stop.

What do you think? Would you have liked it as a kid, or not?

Wow! If you like her writing, head on over. I found her first post fascinating.

I just got SCARS back, framed–well, the dustjacket–with the silver GG (Governor General Literary Award) sticker on it–and it feels SO good! (grinning and grinning) I felt like laughing in joy–I actually did, holding it–and now I've put it up on my wall. I'm not used to celebrating myself, though I think that's important. It took me ten years after I got my editing certificate to even frame it. But this…this has so much joy for me!

I've put it up in the hallway entrance, so I'll see it every time I walk in the door. It was either that or the living room, where right now I'm working all the time with my laptop…but I already have a bunch of pictures up there. I might change where I put it, but I want to see it often, to remind myself that all this really happened. That after 10 years of submissions and rejections, I got Scars published–with the *perfect* editor and publisher. And then it's been reaching people. And won an award! All stuff of joy and dreams.

Part of me is still worried people will think I'm egotistical, having it up in their faces–but it's joy for me, and it's my home, and…it feels GOOD! (laughing) It feels like I'm taking in an accomplishment and something I care about so deeply, instead of deflecting it, the way I used to for years. It feels right.

What do you do to celebrate you? To celebrate your achievements or things you care about?

Did you know that there is a 9th book in LM Montgomery's Anne of Green Gables series??? (I LOVE that series.) Well, there is! She delivered it to her publisher the day she died. The Blythes Are Quoted. The paperback version is available today in Canada

For those of you in the US, the hardcover version and the Kindle version are available.

Someone, after watching my It Gets Better video, asked me if it was okay to use the word queer. I appreciated the question. I know it's not always easy to know what is "right" or politically okay–AND it also varies from person to person, depending, of course, on their experiences, their backgrounds, their ways of thinking.

I self-identify as a lesbian woman, as queer, as a dyke. I've preferred "lesbian" for a lot of years. I am lesbian. I don't identify as "gay" because to me that means a gay man–and I feel like, as so often happens in our society, women are left out of the picture. It took me many years, but I finally reclaimed the word "dyke", and, years after that, "queer." I think of it as reclaiming–loving and embracing words that other people have used to hurt me (and others). Knowing that if, to me, they simply mean I'm a woman who loves women (or one woman) then it doesn't have the same power to hurt me, and can be healing. They feel like positive words to me now–and I'm glad of that.

That's my personal take on it. It will vary among others.

What's your take on it?

P.S. Thank you so much everyone who's been sharing my It Gets Better video! It's very important to me, and I really appreciate your helping to spread the word!

You've probably seen or heard about the It Gets Better Campaign in response to all the recent gay suicides resulting from homophobic bullying? I hope you have, any way.

I know what it's like to be bullied, abused, and hated–and to want to kill myself. But I am so grateful I didn't. There is so much good in my life now!

I hope you'll consider watching and/or sharing my It Gets Better video for queer youth, anyone who's been bullied, harassed, or abused and is thinking of suicide.

I LOVE really neat book-related videos. If you do, too, then check this video out. It's fun, and beautifully done.