Reading, Writing, Books, Type 1 Diabetes, Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, Stem Cell Research, Lefty Politics...
Music
The Pixies, Dropkick Murphys, Pogues, Flogging Molly, Death Cab for Cutie, Green Day, Nine Inch Nails, The Smiths, The Killers, The White Stripes, The Velvet Underground, The Violent Femmes, Sex Pistols, Billy Bragg, Johnny Cash, The Ramones, Psychedelic Furs, Snow Patrol, The Cure, Elliott Yamin, Tony Bennett, jazz, classical, and....??
Movies
A Clockwork Orange, Rebel Without a Cause, The Breakfast Club, Donnie Darko, Ferris Bueller's Day Off, Grease, The Wizard of Oz, Rear Window, pretty much anything directed by Alfred Hitchcock
Books
Twenty Love Poems and a Song of Despair by Pablo Neruda, Memoirs by Pablo Neruda, Bobby Sands: Writings from Prison by Bobby Sands, The Secret History by Donna Tartt, American Appetites by Joyce Carol Oates, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn by Mark Twain, Codependent No More by Melody Beattie, Bill's famous book of course, and Shakespeare (everything)
Heroes
My son (10 years old dxed with Type 1 Diabetes 7/17/04), my daughter (great all-around girl), Pablo Neruda, Bobby Sands, Bill Wilson
My newest book is titled TINK and is forthcoming from G.P. Putnam's
sons in late 2008 or early 2009. Read more about it below!
In the traditions of Gregory Maguire's Wicked and Geraldine
Brooks' March, Tink is the dark and fearless biography of an
all-too misunderstood character from one of childhood's best-loved
classic novels.
Tink takes a Neverland born of youthful imagination and infuses
it with dark, multilayered conflicts, telling the romantic, brutal,
and ultimately hopeful tale of the Irish changeling known as Tinker
Bell. Heretofore, Tink was merely a jealous faery who played second
fiddle to Peter Pan; but this bold new novel reveals her to be a
complicated, sensual, powerful, and in some ways tragic woman haunted
by her past and battling her own demons of drink and obsession. Along
the way, Tink finds herself intertwined with such classic characters
as Captain James Hook and Wendy Darling, whose motivations and actions
are far more complex than anyone ever thought.
In Tink, the common house faery who is capable of only one
emotion at once is blown fully into the character that she is, with
dark and light sides, flaws and strengths. A completely realized
journey of the human spirit, a complex exploration of the temptations
of power and the search for identity, and a tale of rising above past
pains to meet the future, this original, ambitious novel is steeped in
the details of Irish history and legend, the secret Tinker language of
Shelta, the glory days of pirates, and the darkest, unexplored corners
of Neverland itself. Extending far beyond J.M. Barrie's well-loved
faery tale, Tink takes on a life and spirit all its own and
adds adult resonance to one of childhood's most intriguing characters,
who despite her flaws has a hardscrabble ability to triumph against
the odds.
Besides my passions for reading and writing, I am committed to
juvenile diabetes advocacy and awareness. My 10-year-old son was
diagnosed on July 17, 2004, and I want a cure more than anything in
the world.
Learn more about me at my website, or check out my blog.
Find out more about Type 1 Diabetes at Children
with Diabetes.Do you know the difference between Type 1 and
Type 2?
"Compulsively readable... delicious and slightly macabre. It's easy
to see Posse as the descendant of [Julian F. Thompson's The Grounding
of Group 6] and other thrillingly gloomy YA classics such as John
Neufeld's Lisa, Bright and Dark, Joanne Greenberg's I Never Promised
You a Rose Garden or Paul Zindel's oeuvre...."
-The Washington Post Book World
"This taut, psychological thriller is the tale of three women haunted
and scarred by a violence shared in their mutual past. A finely
crafted page-turner, this is a great read for fans of Donna Tartt or
Joyce Carol Oates."
-Bonnie Raught,
Chester County Bookstore,
West Chester, PA (Staff Pick)
"O'Connor paces her book expertly, weaving together the voices of her
three narrators to create maximum suspense... a riveting and
emotionally charged read. No fluff here."
-Chicago Tribune
"Unforgettable, dark... The triumph of this novel consists in its
compulsive readability... it feels great, it feels terrible, you want
more, you shouldn't do more, you do more, it's over, it's not, it can
never be over." -San Francisco Chronicle
"An angsty, serious novel of lost dreams and sexual damage"
-Marie Claire (UK)
"'You have now entered a Chick-Lit-Free Zone,' warns this debut novel
on Page 1. And it's true: There's nothing pink and frilly about this
tale of three high-school girls, bonded by miserable home lives and
then sworn to secrecy by a horrible event that ruins their lives. It's
scathing, dark and impossible to put down."
-The Newark Star-Ledger
"A sizzling page-turner."
-Cosmopolitan
"Don't disbelieve the hype. [The Bitch Posse] is good a debut as it's
cracked up to be... It's edgy, smart and sexy, like its heroines...
What could have been just another coming-of-age story is redeemed by
strong narrative voices, pungent writing and a splendid Grand Guignol
finale."
-Tatler (UK)
"There's a buzz about this book that tells us it's going to be huge
this summer... it's more bitch lit than chick lit. Reminiscent of cult
movie 'Heathers', it revels in the seedy underbelly of American life,
and features the kind of female angst Alice 'Lovely Bones' Sebold
would be proud of... The novel flits back and forth from school days
to adulthood, where none of the girls remains in contact but all share
a dark secret. Believe us when we say you won't be able to rest until
you find out what it is."
-Glamour (UK)
"O'Connor nails the intense, us-against-the-world, overcooked emotion
that defines the friendship of teen girls and the druggy delirium of
first, sexual love. She also has a sharp eye for the posturing of the
young and unloved, perfectly describing the pretense of toughness that
belies a raw, gelatinous core."
-The Cleveland Plain-Dealer
Who I'd like to meet: Joyce Carol Oates, Thomas Pynchon, Elliott Yamin, Gary Hall Jr., Barack Obama, John Lasseter
Happy EARLY Birthday from Holly and Jillian (remember, she shares same birthday as you). She's wearing my birthday gift to her as I let her open it tonight since I leave town tomorrow for a week.
I do a site you might dig. It's all about art, music, literature, and we're taking a firsthand look at medical marijuana in California. Check it out and spread the love.
