Freeman Ng

First, read this courageous comment on the bombing and shooting in Norway.

We had our own “Oslo moment” here in the U.S., of course: the 9/11 attacks. In the aftermath, there was a lot of talk about tightening national security even at the cost of compromising our freedoms. A point that was often made in defense of more, and more extreme, measures was that no matter how strong our security was already, the terrorists would only need to find one crack in the wall, and they’d be in again.

Around this time, I was working on my still in-progress YA novel on the death of Arthur, a sequel to my novel on the Quest for the Holy Grail, and these debates found their way into the following scene, which takes place after Arthur’s victory over the Ten Kings. I offer it now in order to join my voice, in however small a way, to that of “Ola”, the commenter linked to above. (more…)

During lunch at a recent SCBWI conference, I was telling some of my table mates about the big differences I’ve encountered in the nine SCBWI conferences or retreats I’ve attended in the past three years, when I realized I was now an expert on them. (more…)

Or: “How the Internet has expanded what it means to be published.”

About a week ago, I read a piece by Andrew Leonard, one of my favorite Salon.com columnists, about Clarence Thomas’ crazy solo dissent in the recent Supreme Court decision on corporate political spending. (Along the theme of this post: I say “columnist” though you could also call him a blogger.  However, what is a blog that exists as part of a larger publication but a column?) I’d long been aware that Thomas often stood alone on issues brought before the court, and realized that now was the time to finally write about it. (more…)