Recent unkind words about Dr. Louann Brizendine's "The Male Brain" are truly baffling. She's been taken to task for employing "the best-seller strategy" in high-profile publications like Newsweek and the New York Times' Sunday Book Review. The question this raises strikes me as so obvious that I hesitate to raise it for fear that it's me who's missing something equally obvious. But I've thought it through, and I'm pretty sure it's not me. The question: Who in the world wouldn't employ the best-seller strategy to get her message out there?

If you're in possession of information or knowledge that you believe is important to share with as many people as humanly possible, why wouldn't you go the mass-market route? If you're making a movie with a message that might do the world some good, wouldn't you make it with an eye to getting it into as many theaters as possible? Did the director of "Precious" try his best to maintain a low profile for his movie? If you're a painter, would you not attempt to create a "language" that allows you to communicate with those who see your work?

It's about communication, people. Brizendine has arrived at some conclusions about relations between the sexes that would behoove us all to consider. She's offered men and women the possibility of a greater understanding each other. Should she have deliberately tried to limit the size of her audience despite the importance of the message?

Everyone who knows me, or who reads this blog, knows I'm the poster child for National Novel Writing Month. I evangelize for NaNoWriMo in the off-season and am a bundle of nervous energy in the months leading up to the big November event. What many people don't know is that NaNoWriMo has a little sister, Script Frenzy. Realizing that there is a lot more to writing than fiction prose, the NaNo folks launched Script Frenzy in 2007, and over 3,000 writers have won the challenge since then. Unlike Nano, where the goal is words, Script Frenzy focuses on pages. Participants must create 100 pages of original Screenplay, stage play, TV show, short film, or graphic novel during the month of April. Frenziers are also allowed to have a partner-in-crime, and the page count goal is the same whether you're writing alone or with a partner.