Praise for Useful Fools . . .
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BooklistCASchmidt |
With any luck, you're here because you've read (or want to read) Useful Fools. The book's about two Peruvian teens who fall in love in the middle of a terrorist war in Peru. Because Useful Fools is about terrorism, it has spots where you'll want to close your eyes and look away. Please don't. Despite all the bad things that happen to Rosa and Alonso, good things happen, too. They have friends, and family, and their love for each other. Like the rest of us, they have good things to hang on to in the face of all the crap that goes on in the world. You can read excerpts from the novel, from Alonso's and Rosa's viewpoints, right here. Why did I write Useful Fools?
I lived through the terrorism the book describes. Not as a victim, but as a journalist. Some of the things in the book happened to real people I cared about. I wrote the book, in part, to bear witness to their courage and humanity. I also wanted to get inside the minds of kids who become terrorists. What drives a young man to strap a bomb to his body? How can he claim to fight for good, yet do such evil? We need these answers if we're going to make it through the twenty-first century. Want to buy Useful Fools?
Visit your local bookstore, or order it online at Barnes and Noble or Amazon.com or Penguin . |
Aside from this website, my other work-in-progress is a sci-fi eco-thriller. It has time travel and a plague and it's kind of scary. But like Useful Fools it has a lot of hope, too. Five kids set out to save the world and find love and friendship along the way. I hope you'll read it someday . . .
You can email me here.
If you heard about the August 2007 earthquake in Peru and want to help, here are two groups that are accepting donations.
And if reading Useful Fools makes you want to do something to make the world a better place, you can.
I grew up in a small rural town. There were a lot of stray dogs and cats around, so some friends and I started raising funds for a local animal shelter. First we held a bake sale. (We sold some really horrible bread.) Then we started a newspaper recycling business. We gave all our profits to the shelter. Within a year, we were running that shelter every Sunday. It was fun. Kinda stinky at times, but fun. And the animals loved us. (Someday I'll write a book about it.)
What I'm saying is, if you care about a problem in your community, do something about it. Volunteer at an animal shelter. Read books to elementary school kids. Clean up your local park. Shelve books at the library. Start a recycling program at your school. Join an existing organization or start your own group. But do something.
If you want to help work at a national or international level, you can do that too. You can write letters, help build houses, organize other teens to work for human rights. You can make a difference. Here are some international groups that need your help: