Gender Issues

I haven't blogged in quite a while, so I thought I should kick off my return to blogdom with a bang: how I changed David to Dana...

While reworking my entire work-in-progress novel for a third time, I had a revelation. After getting asked over and over by my fellow critiquers if my girl main character had feelings for the boy sidekick character, David, I thought about whether this sidekick really needed to be a boy. By changing him to a girl might help some of my plot problems. I decided to go for it: David would become Dana.

At first thought, all I would need to do was a quick find/replace of the word "him" to "her," "he" to "she," etc. But, as I reread the scenes with Dana, I realized that changing a character's gender wasn't going to be that simple.

As David, the sidekick character was nonchalant, active, and outspoken. As a boy, these characteristics weren't anything that stood out. However, once the character became a girl, the traits made quite a statement about her personality. For instance, when David guzzled his milk, it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. But when I changed the character to a girl (Dana), she no longer could get away with guzzling the milk without the reader drawing conclusions about what she was like.

As I shared the problem with a writing listserv I belong to, the topic caused quite a stir. Many people felt that we need more strong, tomboyish girls in children's literature. Although I agree, I also worried about creating a different stereotype. You see, this character races sled dogs. By having her be a "tomboy," I was afraid I was then giving the impression that a girl has to be masculine to be a musher. I didn't want that either. I went back and forth as to how "feminine" Dana should be. I wrote scenes both ways: with Dana as what might be considered a traditional female character and with Dana as what would be considered a tomboy. I was still torn.

I went back and forth with advantages to both traits for this character. Unfortunately, I had to decide for myself who this character was before I could begin my David to Dana transformation. Regardless to what I did, it was definitely going to be more than a matter of changing some "he's" to "she's"...

A Reunion of Pastries

In February, I posted an article called “Life with Luna” on the website for the TAILS Humane Society where I adopted my dog. I was trying to track down the whereabouts of her siblings: Fritter, Crumpet, and Waffle. Yes, all breakfast foods, including our Crepe, which my husband and I renamed Luna.

I was excited to hear back from Lane, the TAILS PR committee chairperson. She found the story interesting enough to help me by contacting the other dogs’ families and letting them know of my search.

A couple days later, I received an email from a family who had adopted Waffle. Soon we were exchanging pictures of our dogs, including a great one of Waffle (now Piper Mae) in her ballerina tutu for Halloween.

Piper

Next we got word from the adopter of Crumpet, who was renamed Grommet. He was also doing well, give or take a chewed cell phone or shoe.

After learning about their new lives, I decided to organize a Pastry Reunion. I invited the other two families for a dog playdate. While the plans were being set, another family contacted me, telling me they saw my TAILS article and had adopted Croissant (now Peanut) from a PetSmart store. I didn’t even know there was a Croissant! She quickly got an invitation to the reunion.

I emailed TAILS asking how many were in the litter—obviously not the four I had originally thought. It turns out there were seven “baked goods” altogether: Fritter, Crumpet, Waffle, Crepe, Croissant, Muffin, and Pancake.

Although the reunion was only one day away at that point, I asked Lane if she could call the families of Pancake and Muffin and pass on my information. Within hours, Muffin’s mom called me. She would bring over Sadie (formerly Muffin) the following day for the party.

The next morning, Luna, my husband and I impatiently awaited the arrival of Luna’s sisters (Grommet couldn’t make it), setting up—what else—but pastries for the humans and bakery-style dog biscuits for the four-legged gals.

And what a party it was! The girls got along wonderfully with one another—chasing each other around for hours while us humans caught up on similarities and differences of the litter. It was wonderful to find out what each dog was up to and to see that they all went to good homes. More than one of us had thought about going back to TAILS and adopting a second one from the litter but found out they had all already been adopted.



After our reunion, Muffin/Sadie’s family said they were interested in a second reunion, possibly for the dogs’ June birthday (hopefully the “guys” can make, it too), and Croissant/Peanut’s family has set up a website to share photos of the reunion and home life.

Now if we can only track down Pancake and Fritter, our entourage of pastries would be complete…

A special thanks to Lane at the DeKalb TAILS Human Society for helping track down the families. You can learn more about TAILS at http://www.tailshumanesociety.org/.

Luna after the party

Through the Eyes of a Dog

Casualties of Luna

As I prepare my dinner, Luna, as usual, looks on eagerly. As I'd like to think she's watching intently to be able to some day surprise me by making my chicken casserole recipe from memory, there is a chance she's hoping I drop scraps that she can snarf up. Today, she was extra fascinated with what I was throwing away in the garbage can. As I tossed a bit of enchilada away, she ran over to try to peek inside. Same with the leftover pumpkin pie from Thanksgiving. That made me think--what does she think the garbage can is for? I doubt she knows it's a bin for refuse. The following is an account of what I believe are Luna's definitions for items in my house:

Kitchen garbage can: a large serving bowl filled with a mixture of lots of tasty morsels, all mixed together. A melting pot, if you will of the day's meals. A little hard to reach the food, but in a year or so, it shouldn't be a problem.

Wooden furniture: today I learned that wood makes a great between-meal snack. After getting a nice chunk off a table, something called Bitter Apple was sprayed on it, which ended up not tasting so bad.

The words "Luna, come in the house!": this is usually said with lots of enthusiasm. I have no idea what it means, but the more I run around, the more my owners shout it out, so it must mean I'm doing something good.

Grass: An outdoor treat. I'm very good at pulling it up from the roots.

Ladybugs: Great to watch, terrific to eat.

Stuffed toys: Cotton stuffing wrapped in a tough outer coating. I have gotten good at getting to the goods inside. I'm down to ripping them open within 5 minutes.

My Newest Office Mate

Presenting Luna Miel--my on-task manager.

My husband and I adopted Luna from a DeKalb shelter after seeing her picture on petfinder.com. Having a puppy in the house is like having a newborn baby. My life schedule was put on hold as I needed to be sure I was home to take Luna out every three hours and was pulled every which way as she chased any squirrel we saw on our "walk."

Luna has been a lot of fun, though. She loves to run and hop around the yard, crawl all over us, and play with her toys. She doesn't care if I wear sweatpants all day, "forget" to put on my makeup, or decide to sit at my computer eating a whole bag of candy corn.

But Luna still needs to be watched any time she's out of her kennel, which is how she got assigned the role as my on-task office manager. Often she choses to fall asleep right by my feet as I'm writing. At first this was annoying; if I got up to eat or procrastinate, she would follow me. I was forced to sit there and work if I wanted her to stay asleep and out of trouble. That's when I realized I was actually getting writing done. Regardless to whether I wanted to get up and abandon my computer, it was easier just to sit there and type.

So, two months later, I have a completed novel--a novel that had been stuck in a drawer for a couple of months before I got her. I have no choice than to thank my silly four-legged friend. So, writer friends: are you having trouble sitting down and writing? Adopt a puppy! :)

For those folks that are serious as to wanting to adopt an animal, petfinder.com is a great resource. Something I learned later, however, is that you really should talk with an expert about what kind of dog would be good with your family dynamic.

Environmental Planner: My Second Mission

If you read my last entry, you'll know that I have decided to put in my two cents on how businesses can "green up" their act. My last mission was hotels. Now I'm on to restaurants.


Recently, I was eating at one of my favorite fast food chain restaurants--Chipotle (I can't resist their chips and guacamole). It made me think about how many people must frequent these places every day.


Now, Chipotle is great because their meat is hormone-free. However, they, along with all fast food chains, could use some work on the amount of waste they generate. I think the biggest way to reduce waste would be for them to ask, from the moment they say hello, or in the case of Chipotle, the moment they pull the tortilla out of the tortilla press, "Is this for here or to go?" A "For Here," should require a totally different process of set up.


First, the burrito, burger, sub, etc. would not need to be wrapped up. Instead, it could be put on a reusable plate. Second, any sides of guacamole or salsa could also be put in a little reusable cup instead of one of those plastic cups that's marked that it's recyclable but there's nowhere to recycle it in the store. Same with fries: put it in a reusable dish.


Next, the utensils. We toss so many utensils. And I'll bet sometimes you take a spoon or a knife and never even use it. (Who hasn't?) For eating in the restaurant, metal utensils should be available. (And for To Go'ers, there are those biodegradable utensils made from potatoes.)


Last, so many napkins and condiments get wasted at restaurants. Since most people won't want to get up mid-meal, they "stock up" for the family on supplies before sitting down, taking enough napkins for an army and enough ketchup and salt packets to cover twenty hot dogs and thirty bags of popcorn respectively. Once they've finished their meal, having used four napkins, only two ketchup packets and three salts, they usually toss the rest (what else could you do--take them home in your purse?). Restaurants can solve this problem by having everything on the tables: a napkin dispenser, salt and pepper shakers, and condiments. Now I'm not one for those nasty ketchup bottles; they're the best environmentally but probably not the most sanitary. So I'll let restaurants keep the little packets. Just think, though, how many wouldn't be wasted if they were in a little basket on the table? You use one. It turns out you need a second one--there it is, right there. Same with the salt and napkins.


So, as you can see, there's lots of room for improvement out there. I wonder which fast food chain will be the first to think of this.

Environmental Planner--My First Mission

Now that I am no longer teaching, I thought it was time to take on a new career. I have no training or schooling, and my title is self-appointed, but I am now, unofficially, an environmental planner! My job is to inform the public (or anyone reading my blog) of ways public places can reduce their amount of wastefulness. My first assignment…hotels.

Hotels are great. They allow me to have everything I need within a ten foot radius. I can watch tv in bed and possibly reach for a cold beverage from the mini fridge a couple feet away. I recently spent the weekend at the plush four-star Hyatt in Los Angeles, making me ponder hotels environmental awareness.

I have been impressed with many hotels recent plunge into waste reduction. Within the last five years or so, hotel beds have begun sporting signs stating that, unless a note is left on the bed, the linens will not be changed. Yay! Why it took over two hundred years for American hotels to realize that bed sheets don’t need to be changed daily, I don’t know, but better late than never. Hotels are realizing that the same is true with bath towels—guests can actually reuse them!
As I was staying at a hotel this last time, I figured out some of my own hotel improvements. Here are a few.

• Install more towel racks/bars. I think the reason hotel patrons don’t reuse towels in their rooms is because there’s nowhere to hang them. If a towel is still wet or I can’t figure out which one is mine sitting on the bathroom counter, I’m less likely to want to use it again. Add a couple pegs to the wall and voilà!—people will be more willing to reuse their towel.
• Have dispensers in the bathtub for liquid body wash, shampoo, and conditioner. [Side note: and conditioner should be standard in hotel rooms now—who doesn’t use it?] Instead of wasting half a bar of soap each hotel visit, hotels should have liquid body wash. The best way to store it would if they attached it to the tub wall where it can be refilled by the hotel staff. Same goes for the shampoo and conditioner. I’m guessing that left behind partially-used bottles of shampoo are tossed by the staff. Even if you’re one to take your half-used miniature bottles home with you not to be wasteful, are you really in need of another one--don’t you already have a closetful?
• Have liquid hand soap by the sink. I grew up in the ‘70s and ‘80s, before liquid hand soap was a staple in American households, but now, the thought of sharing a slimy waterlogged bar makes me want to gag. And, again, either you leave your stay with leftover soap that you toss, or you run out a day early and open a fresh bar.
• Hotels should continue to use glass drinking cups and ceramic mugs versus the disposable variety. Switching to the kind you can pitch was a step in the wrong direction for hotels.
• Create a sign for the hotel room door reading No Cleaning Needed Today. I don’t clean my house daily—why do I need my hotel room to be? This new sign would let the hotel staff know that you won’t need their services at all that day. When you put the Privacy sign on the door to avoid the room being cleaned (which is what I do), I’m guessing they need to keep checking when they can clean your room.

Until hotels listen to me, I am taking actions into my own hands:

• bringing my own hand soap for the sink
• bringing my own body wash (or bar soap in a plastic container), shampoo, and conditioner for the shower
• finding a spot to hang my towel, even if it’s outside on the balcony chair
• using the same lousy paper cup during my stay
• putting the privacy sign up my whole hotel visit so none of my linens are changed or unneeded chemicals sprayed in the bathroom

What do you do?

Join me next week, as I take on restaurants...

The Name Game--Writers' Edition

From top down: Droopy Drawers, Mozzarella, Muddy Waters


I wonder what percentage of parents wait to name a baby until after they first see him or her versus deciding on a baby name before going into labor). I've heard many parents say that once they saw their baby for the first time, they could tell "she was a Sophie" or "he was a Sammy." Names make a huge difference! Think of a name you find ridiculous-sounding; now image if that had been your name your whole life. Do you think you would have lived a different life?

Characters are no different. Your readers can make some assumptions about a character from his or her name alone. If you have a serious story, chances are, you don't want to name your main character something like, say Pickle Snodgrassen, unless you're trying to lighten the mood. I wrote a whole novel based on a name I saw on a gravestone from the late 1800s.

Naming pets in novels or anthropomorphized animals in picture books can be a blast! You can either do the alliteration thing (Gary the guinea pig) or come up with something silly (Droopy Drawers). I prefer the latter. The woman that owns the rescue I got both of my guinea pigs from comes up with great ones for all the guinea pigs that come to her. Sometimes she'll name them after celebrities (Angelina and Brad), others she'll name desserts (Brownie), cheeses, or sophosticated human names (Sven). She's even adopted out two guinea pigs by the names of Wrigley and Comiskey. Check out these adoptables for their names (or to adopt!):

http://search.petfinder.com/shelterSearch/shelterSearch.cgi?animal=&breed=&age=&size=&specialNeeds=&declawedPets=&children=&status=&id=&internal=&contact=&name=&shelterid=IL98&sort=&preview=1

Now it's time to exercise. Below are descriptions of characters. Next to them, I brainstormed possible names I came up with (some make no sense, but just worked for me). Try to come up with your own names.

A lazy black cat: Flipflop, Ted, Meow

A brown and white curious puppy: Chubs, Itchy, Noodles

A white rat: Mozzarella, Gladys, Vanilla Bean

A grumpy five year old boy: Fred Finklestein