The Sacred Text

Terri Windling just posted "Dare to be Foolish," a topsy-turvy cry to arms to help artists "find your voice."  In it she refers to a piece of Cynthia Heimel's that in our youth we dubbed "The Sacred Text."  Since it's still not up online - and I'm not about to diss Heimel's copyright by typing it all in, much as I'd like to - I just put some of my favorite bits into TW's Comments section.  And since I went to all that trouble, I am "reprinting" my comment here for you:

 Ah, the Sacred Text! I can't find it online either, which is annoying as I want to make everyone read it - but happily it was reprinted in Cynthia Heimel's collection GET YOUR TONGUE OUT OF MY MOUTH, I'M KISSING YOU GOODBYE. The essay, "How to Be Creative," opens: "Do you ever get to wondering why certain things are so *bad*? Why movies and TV and magazines don't ...make you sweat with enlightenment? Why everywhere around you people and things seem to be catering to some mythical consumer, some strange beast of a person who is exactly like you only completely stupid?"

And goes on to: "We live in a dark and fearful time, a time of polls and ratings and market research..." (which, I would add, is one reason we founded the Interstitial Arts Foundation - remember?)

But for our purposes here, the next best line is: "Everybody lives in fear. We all think we're incredibly weird and depraved and bonkers, and if people knew the real us they'd ...make us live in a Canadian mental institution....[but] it is that very weirdness, the eccentricities and forbidden lusts in our souls that bind us together....

"There is only one way to be creative, and that is to have the courage to examine all our inner ripples and horrors and jokes and transform them into art....

"You want to create, go out on a limb.... Don't listen to anybody, don't copy anything. Go after that twisted deranged core of your being, wrench it into the light, and you will make one million dollars."

THANK YOU, CYNTHIA HEIMEL!

And thank you, Terri, for the reminder.

Another Irritating Vampire

The Datlow/Windling teen vampires that are profound & have literary value & can be genuinely scary YA anthology TEETH is coming this March - and already advance reviews are popping up and torturing me.  Because I hate spoilers, that's why:  I want to come all brain-virginal & pristine to new work by personal heroes like Suzy Charnas & Jeff Ford & Tanith Lee & Kathe Koja and and and..... Which is why when ellen_datlow  sends us links to rave reviews like this one, I have to just skim it to see if my story's  mentioned (me! me! me!) - and deliasherman's, too, as of course I've already read hers (through aherm several drafts).  So far, so good.

Teeth has been selected already for the Junior Library Guild.  Who knows what honors may follow?

For those who hate Amazon,  pre-order from your nearest indy bookseller.  And for those who don't, save $ by pre-ordering at the crazy lowlow price currently on offer there pre-publication. (The same advice goes for Welcome to Bordertown, coming in May - Amazon seems to think the full cover price is $19.99, but I happen to know it's now $22.99.... so do take advantage of Am's pre-pub price of $13.49 if you can.)