A novella that empowers bystanders to stand up to bullying
On the blog today I have author Tahlia Newland to talk about her new young
adult novella, You
Can’t Shatter Me. Tahlia writes magical realism and contemporary
fantasy for young adults & adults. You Can’t Shatter Me is a heart-warming
magical realism story that will inspire and empower teens and adults alike with
its solutions for the bullying issue. She has two short stories available free
on kindle for a limited period, Not Me, It
Can’t Be from 28th June to the 2nd July and A Hole in the Pavement from 3rd to 7th July.
What’s the novella about?
It’s about a sixteen year old girl called Carly
who wants to write her own life and cast herself as a superhero, but when she
stands up to a bully, the story gets out of her control. Dylan, a
karate-trained nerd who supports her stand, turns out to be a secret admirer,
and Justin, the bully, makes Carly his next victim. While romance blossoms,
Dylan faces attacking words, an unreliable movie director, a concrete habit
that requires smashing, and an unruly Neanderthal. Meanwhile, the bully’s
increasing harassment forces Carly to deal with flying hooks, unflushable
cowpats, and deadly dragons. An old hippie shows her an inner magic that’s
supposed to make her invincible, but will Carly learn to use it before the
bully strikes again and Dylan resorts to violence?
What is this novella’s contribution to solving
the bullying issue?
Ways to deal with bullying are embedded in
the story of a girl and her new boyfriend who stand up to a bully and then have
to learn to handle his retribution. The books tells us that
- standing up to bullies takes courage, but we all have to do it if we want a world
free of bullying.
- there are ways to handle being bullied, and ultimately, if you
feel good about yourself and strong inside you’ll be able to handle it
okay and you’re more likely not to be bullied.
- The book provides, as an
integral part of the story,
- analogies as a way to help people remember methods for
handling the bullying and the anger that comes from it.
- meditation instructions as a way to practice staying calm and
clear-headed so you can do it even in the face of abuse.
- Bullies are often bullied themselves. They bully because they
aren’t happy in themselves. They feel weak and powerless and they pick on
those they feel are easy targets. To stop the bullying in the long term,
they need to be helped to feel better about themselves, treated with
kindness not hatred. They are not bad people, they just behave badly. They
are sick, not evil.
- to cure the problem in the long term, the victim and the bully
both need the same thing. They need to develop a good self esteem. Feeling
good about yourself is like an immunisation against the disease of
bullying for both sides of the problem.
The biggest, and for some probably radical,
contribution that this book makes to this issue is that it lays out a method of
gaining self esteem on the deepest level, a self esteem that doesn’t require a
person to be good at anything, simply to learn how to feel their inherent
goodness. It even offers a way to strengthen this natural inner warmth, or
empathy, into love, a force powerful enough to change the way you relate to
others and them to you.
Do these solutions work?
Yes. I’ve used the analogies and the
viewpoints they represent to help my daughter negotiate the trials of the
school ground and also various teens at the high schools I’ve worked in as a
teacher. I’m constantly amazed by the immediate positive effect they have.
Trailer
Book Links
Purchase links
Ebook
Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Shatter-Me-ebook/dp/B008DME8PAFiles for all devices: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/174488
Paperback
The
paperback will be available via all major book retailers worldwide. If you
would like to be notified when it’s released please fill in the form here.
Author bio & links
Tahlia is an avid reader, an extremely
casual high school teacher, an occasional mask-maker and has studied
philosophy & meditation for many years. After scripting and performing in
Visual Theatre shows for 20 years, she is now a bone-fide expatriate of the
performing arts. She lives in an Australian rainforest, is married with a
teenage daughter and loves cats, but she doesn’t have one because they eat
native birds.
Don’t forget to pick up one of Tahlia’s
free short stories for your kindle, Not Me,
It Can’t Be from 28th June to the 2nd July and A Hole in the Pavement from 3rd
to 7th July.
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