'Being a Girl' in America

On the 25^th October, an American edition of BEING A GIRL will hit the shelves in bookstores in the USA.  It’s pretty much like the British edition except that:

·        - The spelling and vocab is like... totally American.

·        - It’s full of references to some awesome women I hadn’t actually heard of until I found myself writing about them - women like Mary Edwards Walker who was a surgeon in the American Civil War and then later got arrested for wearing men’s clothes!  And Carli Lloyd who is A-MAZING at playing football.  I mean soccer.

·         It’s got a seriously lovely rhubarb n’ custard cover.  Complete with Gemma Correll's distinctive doodlings.

In fact, Gemma’s lovely doodlings are in place throughout and there’s even a couple of new American ones to sit alongside my new American words.  This is not bad going for a couple of women from Ipswich, England, don’t you think?

Anyway, to celebrate this lovely American object, I’m going to give a couple of copies away.  I’ll send one copy to someone in America and one copy to someone in the UK who fancies learning a bit more about some American sheroes.  If you want the chance to win one, you just have to email hayleylong@hayleylong.org with the magic words:  Hey, H!  Your sneakers are looking fresh to def and I’m loving your shell-toes.*

And do it before midnight of October 14^th.  Sorted.

Anyway, because I’ve got/gotten so rotten at writing my blog, I thought I’d seize this opportunity to list 10 of my Favourite/Favorite American Things.  Here they are in reverse order:

10.  Nirvana.

       Oh Kurt Cobain.  I STILL LOVE YOU.  If only you’d married me and not Courtney Love EVERYTHING WOULD HAVE BEEN OK.  Maybe.  Ok, perhaps I’ve over-simplified a very difficult set of circumstances.  For anyone, who has three minutes to spare, here is sad, beautiful Kurt singing About a Girl.  The grimace at the end is particularly heart-breaking.  Sob.

9.   Thelma and Louise

       Oh how I LOVE this film/movie - even though the first time I ever watched it, it was on a VHS video that had been dubbed into French and I could only understand one word in sixty.  It was still clear to me that this was a highly entertaining film.  The beginning is harrowing and necessarily so because there has to be a believable reason why Thelma and Louise go so ape-sh*t.  But really... who doesn’t want to punch the air when they blow up that dodgy trucker’s juggernaut?

8.  Coney Island

      You’d think the seaside in New York City would be all gee-whizz and flashy, wouldn’t you?  But nope – it’s like a sandier and sunnier version of Felixstowe.  There are rickety rollercoasters, ancient Big Wheels, hot dogs and candy floss and endless kiosks of tat.  I felt right at home there.

7.  Simon Rich

      You may not know him but if you like reading stuff that makes you laugh, you SHOULD know him.  This man is PROPER FUNNY.  He also contributed to the film script for Inside Out which is the only cartoon film that has ever made me cry.  Recently, I wrote 20,000 words about Simon Rich for an MA in American Literature.  In spite of this, I still like him.  If you don’t know him, a good place to start is the novel, Elliot Allagash.

This man is funny.  Also, he looks like a child.

6.  The Good, The Bad and The Ugly

    Another film set in the American West.  I’m a little bit obsessed with the American West even though guns make me scream.  But this film!  It’s epic!  And the soundtrack is epic too.  In fact, these opening titles are probably the best opening titles in the history of film.

5.  Spoonbill and Sugartown Bookstore 

  This is a fantastic little bookshop/store in Williamsburg, Brooklyn.  Now, everyone likes The Strand bookshop in Manhattan and they are right to do so because it is enormous and fabulous but Spoonbill and Sugartown is fabulous too!  I like it because it isn’t enormous.  It’s just a couple of rooms of very carefully chosen books.  It was in here that I first discovered Simon Rich and went on to read everything he has ever written.  I also like this shop/store because it has cats in it.  Sometimes they are sitting on the book that you want to look at and so are actually in the way.  Except that cats in bookstores are never in the way.

      This photo is by amieok.  I got took it from Spoonbill and Sugartown's tumblr thing.

4.  The Grand Canyon

     Did I mention that I have a thing about the American West?  Well, you can’t get more yee-hah than this place.  It’s nuts.  I was twenty when I visited the Grand Canyon and I’ll never forget the weird, discombobulating effect that it had on my head.  Basically, my brain couldn’t process what my eyes were seeing.  Red mountains.  In a big crack in the ground.  Weird.  Brilliant.

20-year-old me pondering the enormity of The Grand Canyon.  This photo is so old it's fading away.

3.  Red Velvet Cake

      Seriously though – do I need to explain myself?

2.  Louis Sachar

     He’s the bloke that wrote Holes.  If you know me at all, you’ll know I love this book.  It’s a work of actual genius.  There is not a single unnecessary sentence in the whole book.  And it’s set in the American West.  I really like Louis’ book The Cardturner as well.

 1.    Girls with Guitars

Ohhhhh.  For me, nothing will ever beat the American Indie bands of the 80s and 90s and the feisty girls who played in them.  I’m talking about bands like Belly and The Breeders and The Throwing Muses and Mazzy Star.  This stuff all sounds as great to me today as it did when I was nineteen.  I’ll sign off with indie pop music’s greatest ever twins.  Kim and Kelley Deal, I salute you.

*I may have stolen these words from Estelle.

Being a Girl is Essentially Being a Feminist isn’t it?

Courtesy of YALC on Twitter

So there I was on the stage at the very marvellous YALC* in London’s Olympia.  I held the mike in my hand and - in front of an audience of three hundred or so people - I said these words: ‘I’m going to say something which I know may seem controversial.  I’ve no more felt the need to tell people I’m a feminist than I’ve needed to tell them I’m a woman.  To me, it’s a given.  For me, the two are inextricably linked.’

The panel was called Being a Girl and all the questions the five female authors (including me) had been given to think about beforehand included the words feminism or feminist.  And all of us were singing from the same hymn sheet.  Of course we were.  Because what woman doesn’t want the same life opportunities, freedoms and everyday respect that is granted to a man?  

I made this personal revelation to open the discussion up a bit in order to show that being a girl/woman and believing in equality isn’t in the exclusive domain of those who make use of the word feminist when describing themselves.  For the record, I never have done.  I love books and music and travel and trainers and rabbits and riding a bike.  I keep an eye on the news and on politics.  If asked to describe myself this is what I’d be most likely to tell you.  I might also say I’m short.  But – and this may seem totally contradictory - if some random stranger or overly-familiar-unfamiliar called me shorty or titch, there’s a good chance I’d give them a Vulcan Death Glare and maybe even a verbal dressing-down.  Because I don’t like labels being imposed upon me by others. 

I recognise that labels can be empowering and can bring people together against adversity but I have a concern that they may exclude just as they include.  And they suggest a deviation from a default norm.  The point I was hoping to make was that I feel comfortable enough to describe myself as a woman and leave the feminist part unsaid.  Because that is now surely intrinsic to what it means to be a girl/woman in today’s western culture; hence the name of the panel: Being a Girl.  If we understand that this necessarily overlaps with feminist values, it makes sense of why every question concerned feminism.  I also tried to say that if any woman does believe that men should have certain rights and freedoms over those extended to women then it is the views of these women which are now marginal enough to need a label.  Not mine.

My comment created a difference of opinion on the panel and provoked some lively debate.  This is good in a discussion, and weathering a bit of disagreement is a part of life.  But (literally) one or two comments on social media since then have misquoted me or suggested misunderstanding.  Normally I don’t engage with internet debate but this time I’m going to.  Equality for women is such an important issue that because I maybe wasn’t clear enough last Saturday I’m going to be clearer now.

Firstly, I did not make any attack on feminists.  I expressed a concern over labelling. 

Neither did I say that I haven’t ever felt any inequality of opportunity or mistreatment because of my sex.  Actually I have.  Here’s one early example.  When I was about 16, my school sent me to a mock interview at a local branch of a high street bank.  The ageing male bank manager took one look at me and – as I remember it - said, ‘We employ ex-carnival queens and some real beauties in this bank so why should we employ you?’  After a moment of shocked silence, I said, ‘I wouldn’t want you to employ me because I wouldn’t want to work here.’  This Charming Man said, ‘Shall we save each other’s time and end this now?’  And I said yes and got up and left.  This was the late 80s – barely a generation ago.  Can you even imagine a bank manager saying this now?  It’s unlikely, I think.  Small steps but there’s some progress.

Lastly, I did not say that there’s nothing left to fight for and that we have achieved equality.  Because clearly we haven’t.  But progress has been made since that bank manager’s comment and since the 1960s before the Equal Pay Act existed and also since the days when women didn’t even have the right to vote.  And now I feel we have also earned the right to interpret the default identity of a twenty-first century western woman as one who believes in her right to equality.  Because I think we all agree on that, don’t we?  And I’m using the word western not to diminish any other women but simply because I’m not in any position to comment on any other situation.

So that’s why I feel that being a girl and being a feminist have become inextricable and that, actually, the word feminist is just another layer of language on top of a rather wonderful truth.  Who gave us the Equal Pay Act?  Was it feminists working at the Ford Motor Factory?  Or was it women working at the Ford Motor Factory?  Take your pick.  Also I think you’ll learn more about me if I tell you that the last piece of music I bought was a lavish repressing of The Miseducation of Lauryn Hill on heavy black vinyl or that the last book I got was Go Set a Watchman than if I tell you I’m a feminist. 

I’m not setting myself up in opposition to anyone who does call themselves a feminist.  And I’m not truly bothered if anyone calls me one either – because by any dictionary definition, it’s true anyway.  And actually, all of us on the panel were advocating the importance of real and diversifying voices in fiction.  Hey, my voice is real too!  I’d prefer not to be slammed down or told I must shout my feminism on Twitter.  I can assure you that because I don’t shout it out it doesn’t mean I’m passively enjoying unearned gains while others fight for me.  I fight for myself.

I hope that now explains more clearly why I don’t use the word feminist when describing myself.  

Three final thoughts: 

       1.  Had I said I don’t choose to describe myself as straight or female or childless or British would I have caused any consternation?

       2. On the panel, I quoted Ferris Bueller.  I’m now going to quote Darth Vader.  In Star Wars: Revenge of the Sith, Mr Vader says, ‘If you’re not with me, you’re my enemy.’  Personally, I think his aggression is divisive and unhealthy.  There is room for a whole spectrum of opinions on the same ‘side’.

      3. The panel was amazing and I feel honoured to have been a part of it.  I’d mix it up on a panel again with any one of those girls/feminists/women.  YALC is AMAZING.  Thank you so much to all the very many audience members who tweeted lovely things and to those who took the trouble to come and chat to me in REAL.  The discussion was really interesting and, for me anyway, so was writing this blog post.

*      *Young Adult Literature Convention

The 'Being a Girl' Book Launch

Well, Being a Girl is now out in bookshops and on the loose.  And what a hoot we had at the launch in Norwich Waterstones.  Firstly, there was badges and then there was wine and, after that, there were words too awkward to comfortably say out loud.

And then there was LIVE drawing by the marvelously talented Gemma Correll...

And there was rather a lot of book signing too.

And to top it all, there was even fabulous live music (except I must admit a total stupid fail because I haven't got any pictures of the ridiculously talented Woodland Creatures (lionesses if ever there were any) - so here they are in all their proper splendidness on the Youtubes.

And that's all there is to say other than this:  If you haven't read Being a Girl yet, I'd be very pleased if you would :)

More events are coming up this summer.  Keep an eye on my website www.hayleylong.org for more details when I can tell 'em.

Ten People Who Are Excellent at Being a Girl ....or Definitely Were Excellent Once Upon a Time.

So Thursday June 4^th is the day that ‘Being a Girl’ officially hits the bookshops!  To mark this occasion I thought I’d write a quick blog post listing a few of the noteworthy women I hugely admire.  Some of these women have done (or did) extraordinary and brave things and others are on this list simply because they have the attitude of a winner and do creative things which brighten my world. 

I managed to sneak quite a few of these names into the book - I’m not going to tell you which ones though.  You’ll have to read the book or try and second-guess my mind...

So – in no particular order.

            Malala Yousafzai

If ANYONE on this planet is excellent at being a girl, it’s Malala.  Some big tough men with guns were so scared of this teenage schoolgirl that they shot her in the head to stop her going to school.  Did that work? 

NO.

And why not?

Because Malala is the bravest person in the world, that’s why. 

2            Edith Cavell

A Norwich girl – like me and Gemma Correll*.  Except that Edith Cavell has her own monument outside Norwich cathedral and she also has a very nice and swanky bar/restaurant named after her in Norwich too.

Why?

Because Edith was a true heroine.  Or hero if you prefer.  Or even a shero for that matter.

Why?

Because, while working as a nurse in Brussels during WW1, she was accused of helping allied soldiers escape from Nazi-occupied Belgium.  Poor Edith was shot by firing squad.  They never taught me about that in my history lessons.       

By the way, the French legendary singer, Edith Piaf, is named after our Edith!  AND HOW COOL IS THAT?

Very.

3            Harriet Tubman

I first came across the name of Harriet Tubman when I was working at a school in North London yonks ago.  In the English Department of that school, we taught a whole unit based on Harriet and about how she was a runaway slave in the southern states of America and about how she helped hundreds of other slaves escape to the slave-free states in the north.  We made newspaper articles and Wanted posters and wrote poems about her and everything.  Everyone should know the name of Harriet Tubman.  Just think though – if I hadn’t ever set foot in that school I may never have heard of her!  This is why going to school is good.

4.            J.K Rowling

I’m going to come totally clean with you here.  I’m not a massive Harry Potter fan.  I mean, I’m not an anti-fan or anything!  I don’t dislike those books.  I just – y’know – wouldn’t have them as my chosen specialist subject on Mastermind or anything.  BUT I am a massive fan of JK Rowling. 

Why?

Because she’s cool and dignified and pays her proper share of taxes and cares about social issues and writes whatever she wants to write and quietly does her thing and hasn’t gone berserk with all that money she has and turned her back garden into a go-kart track or anything (OK, I’m just assuming now).  Oh, and when she goes on Twitter she TOTALLY OWNS IT.  Well done Missus :)

5                    Neneh Cherry

You are probably saying who?

This is who:

Let me tell you something about Neneh Cherry:

She is sooooooo cool.  Still.

6            Donna Tartt

She writes a novel every ten years.  And every twenty years, it’ll be a novel I love so much that I am left SPEECHLESS by how much of a GENIUS this woman is.

7                    Kim and Kelley Deal

You are probably saying who?

This is who:

Are they good at being girls?

Well they’re certainly very good at being baaaaad girls.  They are pop twins with badattitude and, together, they are responsible for one of my all-time favourite pop tunes, Cannonball.  Kim also played guitar in The Pixies for years.  I can’t IMAGINE how much fun it might (sometimes) be to be a Deal twin.  Thanks to these two, I’ve had hours of air guitar bliss over the years.

Harriet Thompson

I saw Harriet on the news just the other day.  She ran the San Diego marathon and she’s 92!!!!

I couldn’t even be bothered to do a fun-run and I’m only 24!!!

PJ Harvey

I love PJ Harvey.  She isn’t everyone’s cup of tea and I’m glad about that because then she wouldn’t be an acquired taste, would she?  Here she is singing with a dead crow on her head:

Being a Girl is being launched at Norwich Waterstones Friday 5 June 7pm.

*Me and Gemma are both originally from Ipswich though - which can get awkward in Norwich.

Being a Girl Launch

Being a Girl

'Being a Girl' arrives in UK bookshops on June the 4th.

HOOORAH!

But ahead of publication day, I've been sent a few copies.  And better than that...

 I HAVE ONE WHICH HAS BEEN SIGNED BY THE WONDERFULLY TALENTED AND ARTISTIC PUG-SCRIBBLER OTHERWISE KNOWN AS GEMMA CORRELL.  

In one of those rather lovely twists of fate, it turns out that Gemma, lives in the fine city of Norwich - just as I do.  And this is marvelously handy for eating cake together and asking her to sign some books.

SOOOO... if you'd like a chance to win this ahead-of-publication signed copy, all you have to do is RETWEET or SHARE my Twitter or Facebook post which linked to this blog post.  But you must also be following or liking me on either Twitter or Facebook too.  Otherwise how will you know who's won?

My twitter account is @hayleywrites
My facebook page is
https://www.facebook.com/HayleyLongAuthor

Oh - and I'll sign it too of course!  And if you like I'll dedicate it to you or to
whoever else you want.

You have until midday of Tuesday April 7th - and then I'll randomly chose a winner

This giveaway is only open to people with a UK address - BUT there are French, Dutch and other versions in the pipeline.  So if you are reading this in Lyon or Utrecht or... somewhere else... keep watching this space.

Meanwhile, here's a sneaky look inside:  Remember how catty high school was?  Gemma and I decided we were Wandering Strays.  Which one are/were you?

There is another type of cat, of course - the one we all would love to be - but she's over the page.

Oh - and Gemma and I aren't the only Norwich women associated with this book.  There's a nod of respect to Edith Cavell too:

Anyway, Happy Easter!  For all the latest event information, please keep an eye on my website:
www.hayleylong.org

Bye bye x