Don Rearden Dedicates Novel to Memory of Seketl’e Jacobs - GalleyCat

Click below to read the Galley Cat story about the auction for Seketl'e:

Don Rearden Dedicates Novel to Memory of Seketl’e Jacobs - GalleyCat

What we can learn from the Spirit of a Little Warrior

Thanks to so many of you, particularly the generous folks from the YK Delta, the book auction was a success. We raised a bunch of money to help Torin & Helena.
Margaret Chase won out in a heated last minute bidding war for over $400 --- all of which has been put into the Seketl'e Jacobs fund at Wells Fargo, where you can still make a donation.

A Little Alaskan Warrior, Seketl'e Jacobs

Margaret's daughter's name, Panika, will go into my new book. I can't thank Margaret enough, along with all of you who checked out the auction and put in a bid. Quyana-cakneq! Many thanks.
The spirit of Seketl'e Jacobs continues to inspire so many of us. He fought an epic battle and taught us all a little something about life and love in the process. Cherish those who are close to you, especially the little ones, and when you yourself feel blue, remember how this little warrior fought with all he had and pick up the fight where he left off and don't ever give up.

Help Seketl'e Jacobs! And Get Your name in My New Novel!

Seketl'e Jacobs

Get your name in a novel and help an Alaskan baby!

Seketl'e is just three weeks old and his condition is called hepatic hemangioendothelioma. It is a rare condition of the liver, with his being more rare due to the abnormally large size of his liver. He is at the Children's Hospital in Seattle and will be getting a liver transplant; he has been placed at the top of the donor list. The surgery is expected to take place in the next few days.

This is an auction to help Seketl'e Jacobs, son of Torin and Helena Jacobs. If you win the auction you will have your name used as a character in my new novel Moving Salmon Bay, and receive a signed copy of an original manuscript, and a signed copy of my debut novel The Raven's Gift (Penguin Canada, 2011). *This is an unpublished novel going out to editors in the US next week.

All proceeds will go towards the fund in Seketl'e Jacobs name at Wells Fargo. (Even if you don't win the auction, please donate to the fund at any Wells Fargo or Wachovia bank.)

About Moving Salmon Bay:

Moving Salmon Bay offers an intimate glimpse in the contemporary lives of an impoverished rural community suffering from the effects of global warming: melting permafrost, failing salmon runs, and rising seas. Readers will fall in love with the eclectic tapestry of unique characters and their struggles as the strands of each of their stories converge in a powerful story of redemption and hope. 

Sustenance For Sale... A poem

I wrote this poem Jan 10th, 2011 after reading about an auction happening in NYC. I couldn't bear to instigate the outcome...Only today to learn it sold for 4.6 million.





Sustenance For Sale

In New York City a Yup'ik mask
sits in a display case
as they ready for auction
whispers of prices in the millions
for the mask of sustenance
this very mask that brought 
the warm southwinds

three lifetimes of winters ago
a Yup'ik man crafted this mask
with feather, sinew, wood, bone
transporting the shaman
to a world where he could 
speak with the spirits
bringing seals and spring

and now, when the gavel drops
that sustenance will be sold
to the highest bidder

2011 Resolution: A poem a day for a (half) Year

My 2011 resolution was to write a poem a day for the whole year. I made it six months, right up to the birth of my son and his subsequent five day stay at the NICU. Great material there, but writing poems was the last thing on my mind. 
So I came away with half a year's worth of poems, and a few of them aren't bad. I'm posting this one today as I think about my good friend who is enroute with his wife and three week old son to the Children's Hospital in Seattle. I feel so fortunate to be holding my boy in my arms today, and I hope my friend gets to hold his soon too. 

(A poem from Jan 3, 2011, after a prenatal checkup)

"1 in 1000 of my Children"

I heard your heart today
for the first time

a thousand characters
I have fathered
a thousand plots conceived 

always dreaming, to do
to my readers
what your heartbeat
did
to me
today

Avoiding Dirty Diapers: How to be a stay at home dad and writer...

 I'm currently writing this blog post on my iPhone, sitting in a rocking chair, holding my son, and singing the most ridiculous song to him. I have always been good at multitasking when it comes to writing projects -- a screenplay and novel always in the works, along side a myriad of student essays to grade -- but this is a whole new beast.

After I heard the news we had a baby on the way I sat down and wrote a new book. Mostly just because so many friends and family insisted that once we had a kid "everything would change" and they followed that great bit of wisdom with the inspirational, "good luck getting any writing done."

So now, as I enter my first real week as a stay at home dad and part-time professor, I am also doing my best to continue my writing projects (all while practicing the Continuum Concept), holding Atticus in one arm, typing with the other...

[Some indefinite amount of minutes later...]

Sorry, you wouldn't know it, but I had to break from writing to feed and take my boy to the bathroom. He's three months old and hasn't had an accident in his cloth diapers in over a month. That is too much information, I know, but I share that with you because the same people who laughed when I said I was going to be a stay at home parent and write also laughed when I began potty training him at one week old. I felt that if people in other parts if the world could do it, so could I. And I did.
So here I am, son passed out on my shoulder, now typing on my phone with both hands. I'll slip over to my computer and post this, then perhaps begin work on the new novel I've been researching for a few years or dust off that old novella and see if I can't breathe some life into it. I'd better go now, I may only have a good ten or twenty minutes to write, but nonetheless, just like staying home with my boy, it will be good.

Jodi Picoult on Writing, Risk-taking Research, Crazy Fans, and Sangria...

“Picoult writes with unassuming brilliance.”

— Stephen King

You've read her books, seen the movies based on her books, and secretly imagined being one of those authors who rule that coveted #1 New York Times Bestseller position.  Here Jodi Picoult takes the time from her busy writing and touring schedule to chat with me about writing, risk-taking, crazy fans, and the perfect end of summer cocktail.

If you could go back in time to when you were first starting to write, what would you tell your younger self? What sage wisdom would you share or what guidance would you give yourself?

 Jodi - To stick to my guns.  I really weighed whether I should write what I wanted/needed to write versus what I thought would sell.  Ultimately I chose to write what I thought had to be written.  It took a lot longer to find a following, but the end result is that now, 20+ years later, people are being described as the "new Jodi Picoult" when way back when that certainly wasn't a sellable point!

My wildest fan/reader experience to date is when an elderly woman at a book signing petted the hair on my hand and asked if it was real.  What is your zaniest fan moment? 

Jodi - I was peeing and someone recognized my shoes...she passed a book under the stall to be signed.  I asked if I could wash my hands first.  Also, I've had people bring books to me while I'm in a sauna in a towel.  I think it's a pretty good rule of thumb to NOT ask for a signature from an author if she is a) in the bathroom stall or b) naked.

You’re willing to do some pretty risky things to research your novels.  Not counting riding behind me on a snow-machine across the Alaskan tundra at -50 in the dead of winter for The Tenth Circle, what has been your riskiest research experience? 

Jodi - Ghost hunting.  Not only were we trespassing, but things happened that to this day I cannot account for with logic.  Long after I had all the research I needed, I kept going back because I was having so much fun!  Also, for SING YOU HOME I interviewed someone from Focus on the Family.  For SIX hours.  That was risky only because I was literally beating my head against the wall at regular intervals.

You’ve had an uncanny ability to write about hot topics before they become media sensations. How do you do this? More specifically, are you psychic, or if you visit a medium, what is her name? I’m kidding.  Here’s the real question: What advice would you tell aspiring novelists who want to tackle a sticky or controversial topic?

Jodi - I don't think I'm psychic - I just worry about the same things everyone else does, so my topics feel timely.  As for a novelist who wants to tackle controversy my biggest advice would be:  Don't preach.  I think it's far more interesting and educational to present both points of view, and to then let your reader decide what's right and what's wrong.  

You travel a ton. Probably too much, so I won’t pester you about getting back to Alaska any time soon. (Okay, I lied. Come back soon!)  What is the #1 Jodi Picoult travel survival tip?

Jodi - SUCH a good question. I guess I'd have to say:  Become your own time zone.  Eat when you need to eat and sleep any time you can, because you may not get a chance again.

 

Finally. Summer is almost over. Any easy favorite end of summer drink recipe you’d share?

  

Jodi - How about peach sangria?  

Mix up a bottle of Reisling, and a bottle of White Cranberry Peach juice; add one orange (sliced), a few strawberries (sliced), a handful of blueberries, and a peach (sliced). Refrigerate.  Yummmmmm.....

Thanks Jodi! Be sure to check out Jodi's website and her latest bestseller Sing You Home

[ Disclaimer: Jodi Picoult only agreed to this interview after I hauled her on snowmachine across the tundra of Southwestern Alaska and threatened to leave her out in the -65 weather unless she would write a great blurb for a novel I had not yet written and submit to this interview. She agreed and was spared from a cold and certain death on the tundra. You can read the results of her research in The Tenth Circle and the blurb she gave for my novel The Raven's Gift. ]