Hanni offering Harper a little advice.

Thanks to our friend Jenny Fischer, Harper and I will be signing books from 11:30 am to 2 pm this Saturday, June 18 at Bookfest 2011 in Glen Ellyn, one of Chicago’s western suburbs. Glen Ellyn’s Bookfest 2011is an all-day event for the entire family — lots of authors and activities all over downtown Glen Ellyn, including special events at their Public Library, too.

You might remember my friend Jenny from a post I published here about the independent bookstore she works at – The Bookstore is one of the sponsors of this Saturday’s Bookfest 2011, and that’s where our book signing table will be: The Bookstore, 475 N. Main Street in Glen Ellyn. From the Just the Bookstore blog:

Beth is the author of Hanni and Beth: Safe and Sound, an award-winning book about the love and trust between guide dogs and people who are blind. Beth and her dog Hanni will be at The Bookstore to greet customers and sign copies of her book.

Okay, so it won’t be Hanni doing the signing and greeting in Glen Ellyn — she’s retired from all this book promotion stuff! Harper’s got big paws to fill, but I think he’s up to the challenge. I look forward to showing him off to you all — if you live anywhere near Glen Ellyn please come out and see us anytime between 11:30 am and 2 pm. After that we’re hightailing it to the Glen Ellyn Public Library with Jenny to hear keynote speaker Mary Doria Russell, author of The Sparrow. Glen Ellyn Bookfest 2011 is free and open to the public. For a complete schedule of Bookfest 2011 events throughout Downtown Glen Ellyn this Saturday, link to the Downtown Alliance Website.

The great Roger Ebert.

It took a year for me to go from seeing spots to being completely blind. During those twelve months Mike and I were determined to keep doing all the things we’d enjoyed doing together when I still had 20/20 vision.

Going to movies, for example.

Mike would hold my hand in the theatre, warn me where the steps were, lead me down an aisle and direct me to a seat. If I kept my head still I could find a clear opening in-between the blobs in my field of vision and narrow in on the action up on the screen.

I saw Prince’s body in “Purple Rain,” Darryl Hanna’s fin in “Splash.” I remember the round hat on the little Amish boy in “Witness.” I didn’t need Mike’s play-by-play back then. I could see well enough to figure out who was saying what to whom.

Except for that one time we went to see a foreign movie. What a mistake! I know some French and German, but I couldn’t concentrate on the words I was hearing while working so hard to see. Trying to track the subtitles was ridiculous—they just moved too quickly. We walked out on “La Cage aux Folles,” the first time I’d ever left a movie early.

My eyesight diminished quickly after that. Eventually the screen went totally black. Nothing the doctors could do. I gave up on movies.

But then film critic Roger Ebert started his Overlooked Film Festival in Champaign Urbana, where we were living at the time. The before-and-after lectures make the overlooked films more accessible to people like me. My guess is Roger didn’t have people with disabilities in mind when he decided to host talks and panels before and after films there, but hey, ain’t life grand when ideas like that turn out to be “universal design?!”

Roger Ebert’s Film Festival, affectionately known as “Ebertfest” by locals, helped me realize I can still appreciate movies. Among my favorite Ebertfest films over the years: Murderball, The Secret of Roan Inish, and American Movie.

Roger Ebert accepted an award from Access Living at the disability advocacy organization’s annual gala last night in Chicago. Access Living’s “Lead On!” award recognizes national leaders who have helped reframe the understanding of people with disabilities and who have helped to remove the barriers-physical and attitudinal-that exclude people with disabilities from career pursuits and everyday life.

Roger Ebert represents the very embodiment of what the award stands for. Thyroid cancer has left him unable to speak. He has no lower jaw, and friends tell me his face can be difficult to look at. Others might stay inside, slow down, retire. Not Roger. He just keeps on doing the work he loves-reviewing movies, Blogging, attending film festivals and continuing to manage his own festival, too.

Roger Ebert uses a text-to-speech program called “Alex” to make presentations at film festivals and conferences now. “For me, the Internet began as a useful tool and now has become something I rely on for my actual daily existence,” he told an audience at the Ted Conference earlier this year, explaining why he considers himself fortunate to be born in this era. “[If this had happened before], I’d be isolated as a hermit; I’d be trapped inside my head. Because of the digital revolution, I have a voice, and I do not have to scream.”

Thank you for your courage and your fortitude, Mr. Ebert, and congratulations on receiving this well-deserved “Lead On!” award. All of us benefit from hearing your voice.

One of these is heading to Joplin.

A lot of you come to this blog because you love to read, so I thought you might be interested in this opportunity to donate new and gently-used books to the Joplin, Mo., schools.

The original message came to me via a Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators listserv along with a phone number and email address to use if you needed more information. I left that personal info off this blog post for fear of evil spammers, but if you want the contact info please leave a comment here saying so. I’ll email it your way personally. Here goes with the message:

The Missouri Writers Guild is collecting books for the Joplin schools, which were nearly destroyed by the recent tornado.
MWG president Deb Marshall said, “They have to replace books for K-12. The high school was a total loss, as was one middle school and one elementary. Another elementary and one additional middle school were major, but not total losses. They have also asked us to assist with helping to restore the Teacher Resource Center, which was totaled also. They’re looking for fiction, nonfiction and resource books.”Books can be shipped by Media Mail to: Deb Marshall, 1203 Spartina Drive, Florissant, MO 63031,” she said. “They have no place to store anything yet, so we’re shipping to me until their Resource Librarian has her location established the third week of June, at which time we’ll make a delivery and she can begin to catalog. Anything they cannot use will be distributed to military families in the area. Joplin has a number of National Guard units that have been deployed on numerous occasions to both Iraq and Afghanistan.”

I know you have been generous in the past and often look for good homes for gently used books. Please forward this message to any lists where you think people might be able to help.

Thank you so much for encouraging others to step up for this. The Joplin community needs it and the Missouri Writers’ Guild appreciates it as well.

Best regards,
Deb Marshall
President, Missouri Writers’ Guild

Here's the view out our window of set-up day for Printers Row Lit Fest

Poor Harper! He came home from the Seeing Eye to piles of snow here in Chicago and for weeks — even months — after the snow finally melted, it rained. Harper braved the thunder and learned to maneuver us around puddles, and when the sun finally made its debut last Monday I’m sure he thought he was on easy street. But that’s when the semi-trucks arrived.

This weekend is Printers Row Lit Fest, and the semis were loaded with huge tent poles, panels upon panels of tarps, reels of cables and wires and everything else it takes to convert our little neighborhood into a bookworm Bacchanalia. Streets and parking lots close, huge tents spring up in the middle of streets, sidewalks up and down our block are overtaken by hundreds of exhibitors: booksellers, publishers, and literary organizations. Threading me through a sea of book nerds rushing from one author panel to the next is not going to be easy for dear Harper, but today’s guest blog gives me confidence that he’s up to the challenge.

Longtime Chicago Blackhawk fans will understand how guest blogger Michael Vasko got pegged with the nickname “Elmer” in college. ElmerMichael and his wife Donna moved to Arizona after we all graduated from the University of Illinois, and they were nice enough to come to the Phoenix Public Library when Hanni and I did a presentation there.

That’s when I found out that he and I share something besides our nostalgia for Scott Hall parties: ElmerMichael likes to write, too. He’s completed a couple of novels, and he was motivated to write a short piece after reading my blog posts about some of the troubles I’d been having with Harper. “For some reason, right from the start, I was identifying with Harper,” he said. “Newly graduated, thrown out into the real world and it now being time to shine. It resonated.”

Trying Too Hard

by Michael Vasko

So I’m cruising the internet and come across this story about a girl who had hung around exclusively with only other girls up to now but suddenly found herself out with a boy. For the first time. And how the two of them would go out, but how often times the girl couldn’t help but notice the boy acting unlike those before him. She could tell he liked her, but often times he would wind up doing the wrong thing. Often the socially unacceptable thing. But my god, he was cute so the girl would overlook it. But there came a point where she could no longer continue to overlook his little proclivities. She didn’t really want to break up; but come on, get with it, the girl would think.

So the story goes on to say how the girl wondered why the boy acted the way he did; to the point of asking her friends and even delving into the boy’s past. All in an effort to try to learn why her relationship was so different this time. From all her other past relationships. And this effort goes on for some time. And all the while I’m sitting at my desk, reading this story, thinking to myself that I know the answer: HE’S A GUY!

To me, I’m reading a story of a guy out with a girl – and it’s his very first girl at that. And he likes her a lot, and can pretty well tell she likes him too. But then again, what does he really know? He’s new at this. So he’s thinking, I’m pretty sure she likes me, so let’s not screw this up. And so they go out one time, and at the end of their date she says she had a good time and all, but I don’t know, he’s thinking; I think I must have done something wrong. I’ve kinda got an ability to sense these things.

So now the guy gets nervous. And they make a date to go out again. But there’s nothing sadder than a young guy trying to take care of a girl out on a date who is nervous. Now I wasn’t there of course, but I’m reading this story imagining the details; imagining the guy slamming her dress in the car door and then getting all focused on that and forgetting to open the restaurant door for her. And probably making a mess of their actual meal together too. And the harder he would try, the worse things would get; to the point of him thinking that he wishes he had never even gone out with her in the first place.

So I’m reading this story and two thoughts keep going through my mind. The first is: I hope the girl doesn’t give up on this guy. Because of course at first the guy is gonna come off as something less than all those old friends the girl had previously. Because he’s a guy. We’re slow. And easily distracted. And you can tell us to do something and a minute later we’ve forgotten whatever it was you had just said. But it’s not from a lack of trying. If anything, it’s likely we look like goofs because we’re trying too hard. And we’re really not good at doing more than one thing at a time; and new things kind of throw us ’cause we don’t like looking like idiots, which of course guarantees us looking like idiots; and oh by the way, we have no freaking idea how your minds work. But given time, more than you and all those other women can ever guess, we always get there. And we’re always pretty sure we’re worth the wait.

And oh yeah, the second thought was something along the lines of it might help if, in the meantime, in order to help us ultimately get where you want us to be, you provide us with a seemingly unnaturally high level of treats, which has been known to help successfully influence and determine our behaviour.

Hoping for continued success with your new friend,

Michael

Me with Gus at Culver's during a recent visit to Wisconsin.

Last year, a residential school in Quincy in western Illinois discharged emotionally disturbed students with Individual Care Grants because the state had not paid their bills. Rather than allow Tim to suffer a similar fate, the family is prepared to leave Barrington and establish residency in Wisconsin, where the pockets are perceived as deeper.

Deeper pockets in Wisconsin, and, coincidentally, less political corruption, too. Some people in Illinois joke about the corruption here, but it really isn’t funny. Corruption wastes resources and skews priorities. Despite Wisconsin’s battered economy, the state allocates more resources than Illinois does to people like our son Gus. The Tribune story reported that United Cerebral Palsy ranks Illinois 48th out of 50 for providing services, and the University of Colorado’s Coleman Institute of Cognitive Disorders puts Illinois near the bottom for funding autism spectrum disorders. The National Alliance on Mental Illness gives Illinois a “D.”

It’s been this way for a long, long time — in good economic times and bad. So when it came time for Gus to move away back in 2002, Mike and I felt extremely fortunate and grateful to find Gus a home in a facility hours away in Wisconsin, run by Bethesda Lutheran Communities, Inc. We would rather have Gus live closer to home, you know, drop by whenever we feel like it, take him out for ice cream, bring him home to visit now and then. Just like the families in this Tribune story, though, we feel more confident about services in Wisconsin, and we often talk about relocating their ourselves.

You can find out how your state is doing byvisiting the University of Colorado’s State of the the States in Developmental Disabilities project Web site. Mike and I found the information there extremely helpful when choosing a new home for Gus.