9 Inspiring Speakers Reveal Our Hidden Biases
Black Lives Matter, Me Too, Gay Pride and other civil rights movements, continue to beg the question: Are you part of the problem or part of the solution? So I turned to TED talks for answers. Nine inspiring speakers reveal our hidden biases—why they go unchecked, how they harm, and ways we can do better. Without exception, everyone is biased. We have biases about race, religion, gender, sexuality and more. We might profess to feel one way but react otherwise. Do these sound familiar? Africans are poor. All Asians love martial arts. Jewish mothers are overbearing. White men
Dealing with Rejection in Children’s Publishing
After a long hiatus from kidlit, I skipped back over with bluebirds on my shoulders to write for children again. But soon I remembered what I didn’t miss: dealing with rejection! Since I’d been published multiply in the 2000s, I thought I could woo a new editor. So I researched names to query then waited for my welcome. When the kidlit rejections rolled in, it didn’t go well. Imagine writer roadkill. Source: Roadkill Toys Why was my writing rejected? Lots of reasons: tastes had changed, picture books were abundant, and submitting via agent had become the norm. This expression was truer than ever: Children’s
Does Finding Happiness Still Matter?
Geographically speaking, 2020 is an epic mess, and it’s not over yet. A killer virus has us by the throat. Cataclysmic fires continue to devastate the west coast. And storms and earthquakes are shaking us up. Beyond U.S shores are more quakes, fires and floods, a locust infestation, a fatal volcanic eruption, and COVID-19 on every continent but Antarctica. Sounds like the plagues at a Passover Seder. But that mayhem is our here and now, so I was plagued by questions that were dead serious: - Would my family and friends survive the pandemic? - Would New York City revive? - Would