'BIG BANG' IN THE 'BU…COOL Y.A. WRITERS

Every day I wake up and pinch myself I'm so grateful to be living in Malibu with my mom and dad. It's a magical place and so, sometimes, we forget just how special it is. Take last night. We were all lounging together on the bed when we heard a loud 'bang' that sounded like a gunshot. Thankfully, it wasn't the neighbors run amok but the prelude to a spectacular fireworks show at Paradise Cove that lit up the ocean and the highway. The shelling lasted for 20 minutes. By then, this pit bull was beyond freaked (loud noises and wind storms still take me back to my scary days as a homeless puppy) but Eugenie and Lou said it was the best show ever in the 23 years they've been living here. When they saw me shaking and quaking, they hauled me up onto the bed and spooned me until I settled down.  

Chill-axing after the 'Big Bang'

Lou and Eugenie wanted me to mention that several friends have recently published Y.A. (Young Adult) novels. K.V. Flynn's ON THE MOVE takes place in the SoCal skater culture, while Justine Fontes' DEADLY DRIVE and BENITO RUNS offer gritty 'high-low' tales (advanced stories, accessible vocabulary) set in an urban Texas high school. If you're looking to spur your kids' interest in reading, give these gems a look-see.

 

DOG WRITERS - A NEW TAKE ON 'ANIMALS

Lou and I just received the Summer 2014 issue of Rough Drafts, the Dog Writers Association of America newsletter, and what did we find inside? A profile of my favorite dog writer and pit bull dad, and a very nice feature on GIMME SHELTER. Thanks to Ida Estep and Elaine Gewirtz for sponsoring us, and to Vicky Clarke for the great job editing Ruff Drafts.

A couple weeks ago, we had the honor or emceeing Malibu Methodist Church's 'Blessing of the Animals'. Every animal guardian received a medallion of St. Francis and a card with this very cool message from naturalist/writer Henry Beston: "We need another and a wiser and perhaps a more mystical concept of animals. We patronize them for their incompleteness, for their tragic fate of having taken form so far below ourselves. And therein we err. For the animals shall not be measured by man. In a world older and more complete than ours they move finished and complete, gifted with extensions of the senses we have lost or never attained, living by voices we shall never hear. They are not brethren, they are not underlings; they are other nations, caught with ourselves in the net of life and time, fellow prisoners of the splendor and travail of earth."

Tanner & Porter listening to 'other voices'