This week’s CWILL BC question, in honor of Freedom to Read Week, is:

Do you ever find yourself self-censoring your writing? How do you decide what’s appropriate and what’s not?

I have to say, I sometimes WISH I found myself wondering whether my content was appropriate. (Or should that be “were appropriate”? I more often find myself wondering about grammar…)

I distinctly remember thinking, as a teen, that young adult novels came nowhere near grasping the complications and conflicts of real life. But now, whenever I even attempt to add a real-life level of complication to my work, I end up with chaos.

In other censorship notes, I’ve written one sex scene in my entire life and it’s as yet unpublished. My husband says it’s good but… well… he would, wouldn’t he?

Okay, shifting gears.

Not realizing that it was Freedom to Read Week, but nonetheless appropriately, I just finished reading Deborah Ellis’s Three Wishes. And wow, what a brave and amazing and talented woman to capture the voices of Israeli and Palestinian children like that. Deborah Ellis, you are my hero of the week.

I also finished Beth Goobie’s Hello Groin a couple nights ago. If one book was going to come close to capturing how complicated high school can get, this would be the one.

Thank God this blog piece doesn’t need a title. What the heck would I call it? Sex, more sex, and the Middle East?