Alliance for Deaf Children Petition to the White House

Hello everyone,

It's been so long since I have posted, but life happens. Then today, I find out there is a petition to the White House requesting that President Barack Obama and the rest of the federal government recognize American Sign Language as a language and as the language of instruction for deaf babies and children. This petition was put together by the Alliance for Deaf Bilingual Children. It was brought to my attention in an e-newsletter from the Deaf Bilingual Coalition. In order to be recognized for consideration by the White House, there needs to be 25,000 signatures. They only need another 8000+ to reach that goal, and I am calling on all of you readers (regardless how few there really are on this little blog) to do your part and show your support for the Deaf community by telling the government that deaf children should be ignored and misled no longer. I will post a link at the end of this rant. It will require you to sign up for a whitehouse.gov account, but it seems to just be a way for them to account for signature verification. i just did it myself and it took only a minute.

I cannot stress the importance for this enough. We live in a country where signing for hearing babies has become a popular option for many parents, yet all this time and historically it has not been considered appropriate for deaf children (go Audism). Many schools for the deaf refuse to recognize ASL as their language of instruction. Nearly every audiologist in the country makes no referral of deaf children and their parents to meet someone who is culturally deaf so that they can learn about more than just assistive hearing technologies like hearing aids and cochlear implants. Audism such as this has created a gross imbalance in what parents of deaf children receive for information on all the options available to them. ASL and the Deaf community almost never get equal representation. This petition could be a huge first step in laying a foundation for equality to be built upon.

As I mentioned earlier, I could not say enough in support of this petition. I hope what I have said is enough to help you seriously consider clicking the following link and sign the petition. Here is the link

https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/officially-recognize-american-sign-language-community-language-and-language-instruction-schools/CRPw2JLk?utm_source=wh.gov&utm_medium=shorturl&utm_campaign=shorturl

Please show your support!

Until next time,

R. M.

Come on App Store, really?

Hello to everyone,

Long time, no time. My apologies. There will be some more book reviews coming, but not until sometime in November.

I am posting this via my mobile app. Not sure how to entirely use this, but as long as text will post, the blog will happen. I was looking at certain mobile apps that teach people American Sign Language. There were some made by people I recognize from DVD programe, etc. Others just looked flat-out awful. For the most part, I have to say I'm disappointed with what's out there.

One app description actually claimed that American Sign Language is a language for people who cannot speak or hear. My first thought was "Really? Only for those who can't speak or hear?" So, from one perspective it came off as this is something for those who are disabled. I don't know, it must just be the CODA in me, but that's a ridicuklous statement. If that's their approach and understanding to Deaf people and ASL I am scared to see what's inside.

This did get me thinking about other things, though. First, I need to do something to put something correct about ASL and Deaf awareness in the app pool. I'm thinking its about time I learn to develop my own apps and get them out there. This needs to happen. The current available apps for the most part, are giving Deaf culture and ASL a bad reputation. So I'm going to try and bend the curve the other way. Besides, the next best thing to a Deaf person making a good quality ASL app is to have a native ASL signing CODA do it. Perhaps there can be an app for other things, too. Time to brainstorm!

Until next time,

R. M.

Book Review: Armor of God - The Paladin by Tracy Lesch

Hello everyone,

Time for another book review. I do have to apologize again for the inconsistency in my posts as of late. Work has been very busy, and it affects everything else. So I guess just don't expect a weekly post for some time. I will do my best. The book to discuss is titled Armor of God - The Paladin by Tracy Lesch.

Armor of God - The Paladin was a finalist in the 2012 Global eBook Awards.  The book follows Jean Baptiste, a monk turned warrior in service of the Christian God, battling demons and evil wherever he goes. 

There isn't any more I wish to divulge in the description, but I do want to say this - I am not a very religious person, if at all. For that reason, I was very hesitant reading this book, What I decided to do for myself was to take the perspective that this was really no different than reading any mythological based story. If it's good for Zeus, Odin, and Roman Deitys, why not Christian ones too? It really did allow me to open up to it, and look at the book objectively.

With that being said, I am very glad i took that approach. What I found was a really good story of loss, revenge, and work towards self-redemption.  Lesch's story is told by Baptiste himself, in first person, which adds a nice perspective to things. It also narrows the view down to that of the main character, but in this case, it felt essential in learning about Baptiste's past and the events that led him down his path. The battle scenes are quite descriptive and painted wonderfully vivd images in my mind. There are certain moments when the story almost has a Bram Stoker's Dracula feel, where the hunt is on. 

Overall I have to say this book is quite a good read, and worth the time. I look forward to Lesch's sequel, Armor of God - The Heretic. I give this book 4 stars. If you can deal with the religious component, give this book a go. You'll be pleasantly surprised.

This book is available at the Smashwords website for the cost of $2.99. Not a bad price if you ask me. Here is the link:  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/113682

Until next time,

R. M.

Book Review / Author Interview: War Outside My Window by Dea Dickinson / Christy Sloat

Hello everyone,

Today's post was a little bit late, and by that I mean perhaps a week or more. My apologies to anyone who may be reading. I had a short interview with Christy Sloat, author of The Brown House. I also recently read a short poetry book entitled War Outside My Window by Dea Dickinson. It seemed like a good idea to combo these two into one post so as not to come off to brief, and to possibly make up for the recent lack of posts. Let's have the interview first.

1) When did you first start writing?

 

I have been a writer for as long as I can remember. Always making up little stories of a kid. My imagination always ran wild. But I started my first novel, The Many Lives of Avery Snow, three years ago. I wanted to write and to put my thoughts to paper. Then low and behold I had a novel.

2) As I had stated in my review of The Brown House, I am not a fan of the paranormal romance/young adult genre. I know that many people who follow The Fraser File are, so I gave the book a go. I think you're a great writer and very technically sound. I also think you hit the nail on the head in writing this as a first-person narrative. You really seemed to be able to get into a teenager's (Brylee Branson's) mindset. Did this come easily to you?

 

Thank you, I hope there are more readers who havent tried books in this Genre that give it a shot due to your review.

 

To answer your question, yes it did come easily to me. I am by far not a teen, but I have a teenage neice who I watch and mentally take notes. Her behavior is much like Brylee. She was my inspiration for her. Not every teen is like Brylee. Brylee sees the world in the honest way that it is. The nitty griddy tough life we all live, that most teens don't see. Brylee saw because her life fell apart all at once.

 

It's easy to write as a teen because I think I read so many YA books and I adjusted my head to that genre. I love to read them because they make me remember my youth. You can never be too old for YA.

3) I understand there is a sequel to The Brown House. Are there or will there be more books coming in this series?

 

Yes I plan on doing a short novella in the early spring on one of the characters, Kayla. Her story just has to be told so I decided to do a short story on her life. I am also planning on debuting the next novel on this series in the summer of 2013. So many people want me to hurry up and write it. But I have 2 series going at the same time. I only have so much time in one day. I can't say how many books we will end up with this series, only time will tell.

4) What other books have you written and what genres are they?

 

The Many Lives of Avery Snow and Ianni. They are paranormal romance and I enjoy writing them too. But I love writing suspense more.

5) Lastly, if you could tell the readers where they can purchase The Brown House and your other works. 

 

My books are available on Amazon, Kindle, Nook, Barnes and Noble, Books-a-million and more. Pretty much everywhere. I have also been accepted to be on the shelves of Barnes and Noble for my first book and I am super excited about that.

 

http://www.amazon.com/Christy-Sloat/e/B0071MMCU6/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_pop_1

 

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/s?keyword=christy+sloat&store=allproducts&page=%2Findex.asp&prod=univ&pos=&box=

 

Thank you for the interview, Christy.

 

Ok, now for part two. 

 

 

I want to go on record that I am not as much into poetry as I used to be. I have written quite a bit of my own, but over the years I have gravitated away from it somewhat. This book was a gift from my sister, who shall remain nameless. After reading War Outside My Window by Dea Dickinson, I decided a review is in order.

It's definitely a straight-forward book of poetry. Poetry for me is hit or miss, and a lot of what I read in this book didn't appeal to me. There are some that did however, especially the title poem. The ones that I enjoyed weren't for the flow or rhyming schemes, however. It was for the content. In some of her other pieces the rhyming scheme came off a little underdeveloped. I find it tough to use that word sometimes, though, because there might not be enough time in the world to fix how cheesy a rhyme sounds. Certain ones are just not meant to be in a piece. I've committed this same flaw in several of my pieces, and either found a better scheme, or just avoided it entirely. What really draws me into a poem isn't the words themselves or the rhyming schemes in general. It comes back to the content. If it can give me a clear mental image of what is being conveyed and the content is interesting to me, then I tend to enjoy it. I feel that Dea Dickinson did a pretty decent job of that in some of her poems, and out of those, some had content I related to or found interesting. I'd have to say that a good chunk of what I didn't care for was more to do with content than writing style, et cetera.

In light of that, and knowing that poetry is a very subjective thing to review and comment on, I will give it 3 and a half stars. It wasn't necessarily my cup of tea, but it might be for you in you enjoy poetry at all. It's at least worth picking up and reading. Decide for yourself from there.

The ebook is available for purchase/download at authorstand.com

for $!.50.

It is also available on Lulu.com in paperback and ebook (pdf)

Until next time,

R. M.

Book Review: Picker by Chad Schimke

Hello everyone,

Time again for another book review. This is again, not a review of a work involved in the Global E-Book awards, more of those are still to come. This post in particular is a review of author Chad Schimke's Picker.

Picker is somewhat of a crime thriller. I look at it as more of a crime drama, but that's probably just splitting hairs on my part. The setting is New Mexico and follows Fernando, a young man who has just inherited the role of crime boss from his father via his mother, who somewhat held it all together until he was of age to take on the responsibility. Fernando is in a position in which he can't escape, despite his desire and effort to be someone normal.

As for my take on this novel, I thought it was ok overall. There were some things I really enjoyed about the book, and it was mostly Schimke's descriptions of the New Mexico area, as well as when he touched on Native American life of tribes indigenous to the area. I found that Schimke has a knack for the historical aspect of fiction, which was refreshing for me, as I was pretty well parched out from many of the other books I have been reading recently. Schimke has a lot of potential as a writer.

Having said that now brings me to the not so good aspects of Picker. The story jumped around a lot, going from historical Native American settings, to Fernando's father's past, and to Fernando's present itself. There was a theme going on, and I could pick up on it, but it was very convoluted. There were so many things that Schimke could have done in his writing to explore the relationships and contrasts further. If he had done this, I would have been a much bigger fan of the story. Instead, what I read was something that felt way too short and needed so much more. Despite the strength of his settings, backgrounds, and writing style in general, it had too many gaps in the story and not enough ties. I can appreciate an author's attempt to not become lengthy and long winded, but in my opinion, a great author recognizes that it's the story itself that needs to be told, and that will dictate how lengthy it needs to be. My gut feeling is that Schimke wasn't quite there yet in this novel.

I do believe that Schimke has a high upside if he continues to write, so I hope he does. As for Picker itself, I am only giving this book 3 stars. It was ok. I hope he lives up to his potential in future books, and I plan to check in on one and find out for myself someday.

Until next time,

R. M.

Book Review: The Brown House by Christy Sloat

Hello everyone,

I had the opportunity to read and review The Brown House by Christy Sloat. The book is definitely not in a genre I normally like to read. There are very few YA books that I have ever gotten into. Paranormal is hit or miss for me. Romance novels are almost always out of the question for me, too. However, the reason I decided to take this on was for you readers out there. I have a very mixed crowd of followers, but I am aware that many of you book lovers who do read this are quite fond of YA, paranormal, and romance genres. This one has all three, so I figured as a "thank you", I'd swallow my aversion to these genres, and give it a read.

Tghe story is about a teenager names Brylee, who moves with her family from California to New Jersey. She didn't want to come, but soon makes friends with the girl next door, Lyn, and then of course, there is the romantic interest in her older brother, Ephraim. The house Brylee now lives in seems to be haunted, and it's up to her to solve the mysteries of the home's past occupants. Sorry for not giving more info, but I hate to give any story away completely.

For starters, I have to say that I really did not enjoy this book. This doesn't mean it wasn't good writing. In fact, Sloat is an excellent writer in my opinion. My problem was the genre. Unfortunately, I still have a hard time finding any YA novel that interests me. I found the content boring because I don't really relate to it. This story was narrated in first person (Brylee), and Sloat seemed to really catch the essence of a teenager's perspective on things. Her descriptions of scenery were adequate for a YA novel, and even the romance portions were written well. The haunted and spooky aspects of the story were developed well, and the ability to carry this plot into a sequel looks so far to me to be a good choice. One thing I did notice was that at times I felt more character development was needed for the supporting cast. Maybe Book Two does that, but I will never find out. 

I want to stress how good of a writer I think Christy Sloat is. I remember feeling the same way about Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone. I tried to read it when it first came out and before the movie was released. I remember thinking that J. K. Rowling was an excellent writer, but I was bored by the fact that the characters were kids. Sloat is a very competent writer, and it shows in her work. I wish I was into the genre even a little bit more than I am, because I would have really gotten into it, I think. With Sloat being an independent writer and having little exposure, I can't use popularity as a basis of comparison, either. But I know what I read, and it was technically quite good. If Sloat wrote about medieval fantasy, I'd definitely give it a shot. I suppose the only other way to describe it is to liken it to how I feel about music. I'm sure that many of you can appreciate bands who are very good in there genre, even if you dislike it. For example, I would take classic Gun's N' Roses any day of the week over anything else. I also loathe country music in general. However, there are times when I am stuck having to listen to country music, and I do notice that some bands/performers out there are just far superior than others. Despite the fact that I hate country music,. I can appreciate the quality of product that some country artists come up with, and I'll still turn the radio dial to something more favorable every time I have the opportunity. 

So I guess that sums it up, really. The Brown House is, in my opinion, a good YA/Paranormal Romance read. I have no doubt that Book 2 is/will be just as good as the first. So for those of you who love this genre, I believe it to be worth your time. I have to give Christy Sloat 4 starts on this one. She is a good author and more people need to discover her. 

Available at Barnes & Noble;  http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-brown-house-christy-sloat/1112134916?ean=2940044689930

Available at Smashwords;  http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/173544

Find it on Amazon;  http://www.amazon.com/Brown-House-Visitors-Series-ebook/dp/B0089FV9JY/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1346216471&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Brown+House

Also available at Kobo and other online ebook retailers.

Until next time, 

R. M.

CODA Not Acceptable?! Says Who?!

Hello everyone,

I would like for you all to take a moment and look over this picture I downloaded from Facebook. Just read through if you can.

As I read this, I began to feel somewhat offended. A Deaf person is telling me that the term CODA is wrong because it is sound based? Whoa, hold on Deaf person, let me see if I can explain my perspective on this.

I grew up in a very rural area with two Deaf parents. Throughout my childhood, I always signed it "mother father Deaf". I was about 17 or 18 the first time I saw the term CODA. It was presented as an acronym, Child Of Deaf Adult/s. When I saw this, I immediately identified with it. It made me feel validated. Always signing "mother father Deaf" was really telling everybody that "yea, my parents are Deaf".  CODA, on the other hand, says that "I AM that child of Deaf parents". Let me see if I can put it another way for you.

CODAs often refer to themselves as living in between two worlds; the Deaf world and the hearing world. Many of us feel as though we are never really quite fitting in fully with either one. 

For myself in the hearing world, I do things differently than most other people I know because I do them in a more Deaf way. I am very blunt with hearing people, and a lot of them are put off by that. All my life I have been criticized by hearing people that I look angry all the time, when in fact I am not. It's just my tendency to wear a "Deaf face". I have given up on explaining this to hearing people, because most of them don't understand it. Most of them can't even wrap their heads around it. The end result is that it leaves me misunderstood and left out of a lot of things in the hearing world. It's been a very frustrating experience.

For myself in the Deaf world, I do things a little bit differently than the Deaf do, especially when I was a kid. I liked my music to be loud and I sang in front of my parents when I listened to my music. I had hearing friends, etc etc. One thing my parents never did for myself or my sisters was give us name signs. I noticed that some of my parents Deaf friends would speak with their own CODA children instead of sign with them. It was very weird in a lot of ways that I cannot readily explain, but often times I felt like I just wasn't one of them. Much like I wasn't a hearing person, either. That's what it means to be between two worlds. Where the hell was my identity?

Ever since I learned the term CODA, I have dropped "mother father Deaf". Every Deaf person I have ever met either refers to me as a "CODA" or asks me if I am Deaf myself. I take great pride in the latter because it makes me feel like signing is so native to me, that Deaf person had no idea I was hearing. I believe my deceased father is looking at that from somewhere and smiling his ass off. In all seriousness, I have never met a Deaf person who was offended by the term CODA. I have met some who didn't know what it meant, but I would then explain "mother father Deaf" and they would say "ok, now I get it". I have never seen a sign for CODA. I have always just fingerspelled it, and it comes out like a fingerspelled loan sign, like "bus" or "bank". The fingerspelling is its own sign. The sign that this Deaf person has seen that is the ASL sign for "self-esteem boost" is one I have never seen before. But I must say, I kind of like it. To me, that's a very ASL way of saying "I am a CODA. Very proud of both worlds to which I belong." I'm not sure how it can be viewed as inappropriate or offensive, but this Deaf person's criticism is a shining example of what CODAs mean when we say that sometimes we don't feel accepted into either world. For me personally, I know many Deaf people who accept me for who I am fully, hearing experiences included. I feel it's a very small minority of Deaf people who don't fully accept that. 

So when I see that term CODA, I feel that yes, it is somewhat English based, but you know what? That's ok because I AM hearing. I love the fact that it is also a term used in music, because I love music, and that's another "CODA" thing. In general, we love music! The fact that I fingerspell CODA like it is an actual sign shows it's somewhat Deaf based, too. And apparently this newly used sign for CODA is very ASL based. You can't criticize it for not being fully ASL. ASL is beautiful, and true CODAs NEVER forget that. But you can't be mad at us for creating our own identity. Just because we identify with hearing in many ways does't mean we disrespect or reject our Deaf identity, and just because we identify with Deaf in many ways doesn't mean we reject or disrespect our hearing identity. Stop making me feel crazy! I will not pick one over the other. I am who I am and that's both! Accept it Deaf! Accept it hearing! If you can't, to hell with you for being so narrow minded!

Just another sliver of what it means to be a CODA.

Until next time,

R. M.