(no subject)

I have not had anything to post for ibarw but that does not mean I am not reading, and thinking, and getting outraged when appropriate--or simply annoyed.

Today I was making a flyer for the book clubs I'm going to start at the library this fall, so I searched the stock photography sites to see if I could find a photo of some cute munchkins reading. Who would ideally be munchkins of color, because that reflects the demographics of the library, and I do not want to send the message that reading is for white kids only.

Who wants to guess how many I found?

Zero.

Mind you, I didn't search all the way through the pay stock photo sites, but I searched at least a couple hundred pictures. And I found more pictures of dogs reading books than people of color reading books.

This? Is kind of awesome.

I get asked at least once a day if we have any books by Zane. "No," I say. "She's really popular, you'd probably have to put a book on hold."

All I knew of her until recently was that she was an amazingly popular erotica writer; and, also, that she had written twincest. And that her books are among the most stolen at our library and many other libraries.

So I was impressed by this article in the Charlotte Observer. She has a degree in chemical engineering! And her family is religious North Carolina folks: father is a Ph.D. theologian. That's courageous.

I mean, I am embarrassed about people related to me reading my writing. My writing is relatively tame and my family is not even religious.