My younger brother's reaction to the latest news was fairly close to mine: "I had no idea G. Peck was still alive. " And he's an avid film buff.

That's all. I have nothing much to add, for once.

(Except that I'm 42, by the way, if you've been wondering) 

Two novels, actually. And the truth is it happened about ten days ago, after about five days of negotiations that were electrifying (I got so emotionally involved, it felt like it was my book). But Publishers Weekly just published news of it in its Hot Deals section a few minutes ago (online--I think the print edition follows in a few days). Here's the entry: 

An unusually large deal for a YA author was signed by Kristin Marino at Delacorte; her offer came within 24 hours of receiving four chapters of Girls for Breakfast, a comic coming-of-age story by David Yoo about a young Korean-American boy trying to get used to life and the opposite sex in a scrubbed American suburb; it was signed with Steven Malk at Writers House.

{This is not quite Dave pictured here. I do have a fun photo, but he's picture shy. Or . . . (I'm not allowed to say, sensitive bastard. He made me take that out, too. Writing about your friends, sheesh. So far I do not recommend it.) Hennyway, I went with Generic Asian Character as a stand-in. Partly as homage to Tracey Ullman. (And what has become of that woman? I love her. Can't she get any work?) This guy's more of a "Southern" gentleman than Dave, but so much the better.}

YA means Young Adult, which now means high school to college readers, and his is geared toward the older end of that.  (Today, even Catcher in the Rye would probably have to be published YA--anything that involves a main character in college or younger ...) It also should have mentioned that this was a first novel. I'll keep you posted, and link to Amazon once it's there.

He's been writing 3/4-time for the past five years--since we finished the MA program at U of Co-Boulder--temping the other 1/4 and living on dirt in a dinky apartment on the East Coast. I visited him out there a couple years ago there (when I got a speaking gig to pay my airfare) and we had a blast. It's a good life, but a quiet one. Now he can devote more time to writing. And visit to the dentist again!  I can't wait till I can afford the dentist. (It's been five years, since the student health service ended when we left school again.) And he's actually thinking about health insurance. I've got that, thank God. Blue Cross rates are actually kinda reasonable here. My double hernia operation might have sent me into literal bankrupty last year without it.

Anyway, we're all ecstatic here.

(P.S., read this entry fast, because he'll probably make me take half of it down.)

Update: OK, he did make me pull most of the good stuff; hope you enjoy what's left. He also suggested that I mention that he ministers to lepers or runs a program for retarded people. (You can decide which Dave actually said that. But please address all complaints to use of the term "retarded people" to him.)

     I covered Columbine for Salon for several years, breaking several major national stories and winning awards for my coverage. I am now working on a book about what actually drove the killers to do it. I get emails all the time from people discovering my work on the web, who are hungry for more information and frustrated about how to find it. There doesn't seem to be a single good central repository of information: each news org has an its own archive, but typically it's just its own material. Worse, much of the published material was wrong, and remains wrong in the archives; the complete Columbine record is a mass of confusion, and no guide exists to help the reader interpret it. 

I set up a permanent link on the left side of this page; just click on the picture of Dylan and Eric stalking the Columbine High School cafeteria with automatic weapons.

I'm still in the process of building it, but the key information is there now. I will continue expanding it and welcome suggestions.

Entries from Eric Harris's secret journal (still working on a chunk of that)

• Dylan Klebold's bloody prescient story written for Creative Writing class
• 11,000 pages of police files scanned in and posted online by the Boulder Daily Camera.

The eight main categories of info are:

1.   Yahoo Full Coverage: three sites which link to nearly everything available online.

2.   Comprehensive News stories: Four one-stop stories that tell the full tale (or most of it).

3.   Newspaper/Magazine Archive Sites--which provide a complete index to all their Columbine stories.

4.   Specialized sites: either a raft of information of one specific type, links to other diverse material, or a key story on a key development.

5.   Books. (Many on boys and violence there now, but still under construction. Includes a link to the first full chapter of Brooks Brown's book.)

6.   Key news stories on major developments--UNDER CONSTRUCTION.

7.   Officials/Spokespersons and contact info. UNDER CONSTRUCTION (much of the material moved to #8). (And Jeffco Sheriff John Stone is gone, if you hadn't heard.)

8.   List of all official material released via court order, with details on how to obtain each. 

Update: I'm filling in some of the links now, and just stumbled across a great resource. The Jeffco Sheriff's Department has released so much material over the last few years (all kicking and screaming, under court order). Very hard to keep track of it all, and they farming out distribution to different private companies. I get regular emails asking how to obtain this stuff. Well Jeffco now has a website listing everything they released and how to obtain it (and they've centralized acquisition with themselves, thank God--though good luck dealing with them). It's all in the Almanac now.

See later info on updates here (the Almanac itself is dynamically updated. Any links you click here should take you to the latest version.)

I understand most of you will roll your eyes at this, but I'm a writer and these things bug me. The phrase in my blog description: "paltry acts of treason that defile ..." -- should it be "that" or "which"?

I'm not talking grammar necessarily--though maybe--but I'm mostly interested in what works. What works?

(I waited all day until I had another post, so it wouldn't sit up there on top, chasing people away.)