If You Didn't Win...

Check out this interview and contest at Novel Thoughts!!

Happy Friday :)

For the record - I love Twilight and I thought Eclipse was the best of the films yet, but this is still hilarious:

Crossover

When Nightshade hits the stores this October, I hope it finds it way into that lovely land called "Crossover," meaning it will appeal to young adults and adult adults. Crossover lit has been hitting the big time of late. I was shopping at the Red Balloon Bookshop yesterday and found several of my favorite "adult" books, The Mists of Avalon for one, now shelved in YA. So the currents of crossover are flowing both ways, YA into Adult and Adult into YA. I say hurrah to this trend!

I've recently happened upon another serendipitous crossover: history and my fiction writing. I've always been interested in the ways pop culture depicts and recreates history. When I lectured on the influence of Freud on historical analysis I used The Wolfman as an illustration. I use Buffy Season 4 "Pangs" to talk about the problems of Thanksgiving and historical misinformation and Firefly's "Jaynestown" to discuss public history, memory, and commemoration. Pop culture is fertile ground for historical excavation.

So I was thrilled to write a chapter in the upcoming anthology: Twilight and History.

(Isn't the cover cool?!)

My essay uses Jasper's character to examine ideologies of violence, American masculinity and the Civil War. Having the chance to wear my history and YA hats at the same time was so much fun!

Crossover is good thing - for history and pop culture; for adult and young adult literature. In this case crossing the streams is not very bad - it's so, so good.

Let's hope lots more happens in the future!

2! Romantagonists

REMEMBER: CONTEST SUNDAY! BOOKS TO GIVE AWAY!!

Anyone out there like me who when faced with saccharin sweet, gooey love sometimes roots for the baddies?

Anyone? *crickets*

Even if I'm on my own, I'm giving it up for my top Stop-Love-At-All-Costs Villains:

Maleficent. Okay - so admittedly Prince Philip is one of the hottest Disney heroes out there, but how can you not love Maleficent. She is awesome (rumor has it she's getting her own movie. You go girl!)


Brett and Jemaine.Though not villains in the strictest sense, these two are their own worst enemies when it comes to romance. From petty rivalries to wonky habits I don't think a Mrs. Flight of the Conchords is viable.

Wicked Witch (Snow White's Step Mom). This poor lady doesn't even get a name. But how awesome is her box?! I want a box like that. And Snow White is sooooo annoying. I'd give her a poisoned apple too.

Jacob.
I'm Team Edward, but I still like having Jake around. Do I need to say why? Look at the picture.

Adam. He ultimately fails due to Buffy's awesome kick-ass skills, but at least he tried. Because Riley is a doof. A doof I say.

Any thorns between the roses you like to cheer on?

Art Forms

Today was a good mail day. Came home to find a lovely rectangular package containing Buffy #31.Unlike most comic book fans, I came to the graphic form late. Being introduced to Sandman in my early 20s and then staying loyal to Buffy by subscribing to Season Eight.

Though Dark Horse's Buffy the Vampire Slayer remains my sole subscription, I've become increasingly fascinated by the graphic novel form. I think it is wonderful, engaging and possessing an urgency in its execution that is ever so compelling.

There's been a recent flurry of publishing news about graphic novels sparked by the announcement that Twilight will be released in graphic form this March. A number of other YA authors, including Cynthia Leitich Smith, Cassandra Clare, and Melissa Marr, whose work I admire will also be coming out with graphic tie-ins to their series. I hope that this surge in graphic production is the form coming into its own and not just a trend, and it's a dream of mine to someday be counted among authors who've published graphic novels.

So what do you think about graphic novels? Like, don't like? Do they offer something print-only books don't?

What about books like Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan that include illustrations?Looking forward to your thoughts!

Camera Hunt and John Green

Still looking for the camera, but in the mean time here's what I think might be the most apt, hilarious discussion of Twilight out there from the writing-whirlwind that is John Green, author of Looking for Alaska and An Abundance of Katherines.

Less Serious, More Giggles

So after my reflective post of yesterday, I thought we needed to revert to more standard blog fare. I'm working up a series of posts waxing eloquently (not really) upon the things I enjoy about the holiday blitz. We'll start those this weekend, for now - more awesome Twilight spoofage:



Ooh, and big writerly moment. NIGHTSHADE is now available for pre-order on Amazon! Cover still top secret, but that magical pre-order button is there. Plus, it made me giggle that Amazon reminds you that should you order my book, it will not arrive before December 25...

Cannot Stop Laughing

If it hasn't been obvious from previous posts, I love Twilight and can't wait for New Moon. I also love parodies. So last night's SNL made me very, very happy.

I Have No Clothes (But I Have a Contract!)

I find myself in a strange liminal space.

My book is edited, copy edited and has been handed over to the incredible Penguin sales juggernaut.

The cover shoot just happened and I'm thrilled: amazing photographer, perfect concept - but I won't see results for another couple of weeks.

My web site is about to go live - but not quite yet.
I hesitate to ask the faceless man how it's going (he scares me).

In some ways I feel like my book just vanished. That I have all this excitement but no physical manifestation as yet of the book itself to help me believe. It's floating out there in New York *waves, hello New York!* with amazing people, but sometimes I blink and worry what if none of this has actually happened? Thank the stars I get to keep a copy of my contract.

But maybe the strange sensations of a world out of place isn't the result of the in-between place of publishing I'm living in. Maybe I'm just still in shock from seeing this:
No, you're not wrong - it is, indeed, Twilight Barbie.

And WOW in the space of writing this post I gained two more followers. Welcome!!!

Good Luck & Godspeed, or Why I'm Not Doing NaNo

I've been feeling a little left out. All my bloggerly friends are embarking on the month-long writing frenzy that is NaNoWritMo.





I love the idea of NaNo and maybe if I were more of a planner I could make it work for me. But my writing is like a fever that grips me and doesn't let get. I can't really plan for it. (Except for copy edits, I've now learned that I can plan for copy edits. Thank goodness.)

I'm also nearly finished with WOLFSBANE (Nightshade Book 2) and will need to keep my focus on revision of that beast and getting it into the hands of my lovely critters.

But I'm feeling a little lonely, wishing I could be in the NaNo frenzy that has gripped the writing work for this newborn month of November. I'll follow fellow authors' progress with interest and cheer them on from the sidelines.

Maybe next year.

Speaking of NaNo folks who I admire, thanks so much to Carrie Harris for the honorable mention in her Twilight + Classic title mashup contest!! Carrie's contests are a blast, I'd highly recommend perusing the entries and entering yourself in the next round.

I Vant to Suck Your Blohd

Ah, vampires. How do we love thee? Let me count the ways (70 million copies of Twilight sold...)

Glancing at any bestseller list it seems that the nation has been overtaken by vampire mania. From Twilight to House of Night to Vampire Academy, it's clear that undead is the new black.

I've long been fascinated by vampires. I read Dracula at age 10 and have gobbled up vamp lit and films ever since. But for me the moment of truth came in 1997 when Buffy the Vampire Slayer premiered on the WB (remember the WB? Dominion of the teen drama? Dawson's Creek, Felicity, anyone?)

It was love at first bite and I've been faithful. BVS is the best show I've ever seen. My morning ritual is to watch an episode as I eat breakfast, repeat, until I get through all the seasons and then start over again. It never gets old.

But Buffy slays vampires, and this post is about the lords and ladies of the night themselves.

So what is it about vampires that fascinates us? Arguably most of us like the sun, so why would we want to hang out with folks who could never join us at the beach?

The current phenomenon of vampire love, while impressive, is not new. Like werewolves, vampires have a long, diverse history of lore and the current manifestation of vampire types reflects this range of mythology.

I have my own theories, but I'd like to ask you two questions.

1) Why are vampires so popular and enduring?

2) What is the best type of vampire (scary, sparkly, somewhere in between)?



And as a final note, I just have to have a mini squeeeeeeee because of awesome (but super secret) news from Editor Jill today. Will share when able!

Does This Happen to You?

Still sequestered with H1N1. This is a miserable virus, may none of you be struck down by its evil symptoms.

One thing I've noticed about myself is that in addition to physical symptoms, when I'm sick I become an emotional weakling. Self-esteem plummets, doubts arise, and I tear up at everything.

Case in point, throughout my quarantine I've been comforting myself by watching Buffy. Ah, Buffy how you sustain in times of trial. I don't know if it's being sick, or simply sentimental but watching Buffy triumph over evil and her own personal demons has had me wiping tears away on several occasions. I was going to post a sappy moment to share, but then I found this and its awesomeness knocked my socks off (only tears of laughter here):



Angsty Edward vs. classic Buffy sass, it doesn't get better. But hilarious vid remix notwithstanding, Buffy has been bringing me to total sap tears. Now I love Buffy and have been devoted to Joss Whedon's oeuvre for many years, but even I recognize that such tearful episodes indicate that I'm not exactly myself.

Does this happen to you when illness strikes? Other weird non-physical results of a weakened immune system?

Friday Round-Up

I'm doing a great job of procrastinating today. I need to reread the Twilight series to prep for the article I'm contributing to a forthcoming Blackwell anthology on the role of history in Twilight. My particular article focuses on Jasper, and I think it will be an interesting experiment to read a novel with an eye to a supporting rather than the main character.

Supporting characters often make or break a book for me. My own supporting characters are just as vital, if not more, than the MCs. I get frustrated by stories where friends or family appear only as back story or plot movers. I like severe entanglements, startling twists, and key events tied into the lives, hopes, and fears of supporting characters.

My investment in a novel, and particularly in a series, rests in how much I care about what happens to the other characters in the book and not just the protagonist.

Case in point: Harry Potter. My favorite characters in the Harry Potter series are probably Fred and George Weasley, with Hagrid coming in at a close second.



Supporting characters with that much dynamism fill out a world and draw the reader in.

Do you have favorite supporting characters? How do you treat supporting characters in your own writing?

On a final note, Joss Whedon finally made the comment I've been waiting for.

Happy weekend!

Go, Go Graphic Novel!

In further tales of ALA, BEA buzz, the belle of the ball seems to be David Small's graphic novel, Stitches.
I wasn't a comic book kid, though I do have fond memories of perusing my piano teacher's children's cast-off stacks of X-Men while I was waiting for my mom to pick me up. So when it comes to comics and graphic novels I feel like a newbie trying to sneak into a venerated and esoteric society.
I stumbled into the land of graphic novels by way of loyalty to Buffy the Vampire Slayer. When Joss Whedon announced the series would continue in Season 8 with Dark Horse Comics, I'd signed up months before the first issue was out.

And I loved the new format instantly. Graphic novels are an incredible medium of communication. The monumental devotion that fans of Neil Gaiman's Sandman display are enough of a testimony to the depth and strength of writing and worlds built by creators of the graphic medium.

With the growing interest in graphic novels, publishers and marketers alike are bringing more and more of the medium to an ever-growing audience.

There's even a Twilight graphic novel in the works.

My question then becomes how does one go from writer to writer of graphic novels/manga? One of my favorite YA authors, Melissa Marr, has manga in the works that complement her novels.

My only brush with this medium is the comic I made for my husband's birthday last year. And while I'm still blushingly proud of the creation, it hardly makes me a graphic novelist.

Who is the keeper of the bridge between novelists and graphic novelists? How does one cross over, or preferably, live a writing life on both sides?

Scents and Sensibility

I love perfume. I'm fascinated by the way crafted scents have top, mid, and deep notes. At the perfume counter I'm a nightmare, spending hours sniffing bottle after bottle trying to pick out the flowers and spices on my own before reading the notes on the label, more often than not leaving without buying anything but with a head full of ideas about the way perfume works.
When I'd just begun writing my novel, and had only just shyly admitted to a few friends and family that I dreamed the dream of being a writer, I was accosted by my cousin with the following:

"Are you going to write lots about how they smell? I really don't want to read anymore about how great somebody smells."

Two points:

One - My cousin had just finished reading Twilight, in which there is a lot of emphasis on the allure of scent.

Two - This particular cousin is a guy who read Twilight and loved it. Except for the smelly bits.

The vehemence of his opinion threw me and got me to thinking. First why did the (over) emphasis on scent in Twilight provoke such a strong reaction? And second, whether I was including scent as a major character descriptor.

Though I'm speculating, I think that the aversion to "oh she smells so good, must have her" writing is a reaction to non-specific and repetitive references to an alluring scent. As with any descriptions (visual, aural, or otherwise) less is more and specific trumps vague.

Scent is a powerful referent and I believe it can work very well in writing, but only when used with the same careful construct that you'd apply to any character building in your writing.

I knew I was indeed including smells in my novel. In my own mind the reason for this choice was (and still is) obvious. Scent is the sense that has the closest link to memory. While someone's devilish smile or punk hair cut may catch our attention, the way someone or something smells has the ability to pull us from our current location into another place and time.
The particular scents attached to my characters are very much linked to who they are, and could even be seen as reflective of his/her most inherent and defining traits.

I use short, declarative statements to connect scents to my characters. A classic case of showing not telling. An example from my book: "His scent was all around me. Leather, sandalwood, bonfires in autumn."

But never: "I couldn't believe how great he smelled, all I wanted was to be closer to him." Noooooooooooo!

Scents place a character, help to build who they are in the narrative. As I mulled over smelliness and writing, I realized that my characters all have a signature perfume. So as a fun exercise (for me at least, and I hope for you too) I've created a list of just a few characters and the scents that define them. I can't give away their names (sorry), but I've listed the first letter and gender. What's interesting to me is that I don't include all of these attributes in my writing - but I know exactly how each person in my book smells. It really matters that much to me.

Do your characters stink too?

C (girl): Snow, pine, cotton
R (boy): Leather, sandalwood, bonfires
S (boy): Wet grass, the air before a storm, clover
B (girl): Toffee, dark chocolate, cinnamon
A (boy): Ivory soap, mint, pencils
M (boy): Myrrh, aged paper
N (boy): denim, vinyl, bergamot
S (girl): Amber, faded rose, black tea
L (boy): Mahogany, cloves, fog
A (girl): Red apples, black licorice

Sometimes You Can Have It All

As a general rule I keep a mental (and sometimes physical) barrier between my academic -

I, Professor:
- and fiction writing worlds.

I, Artist:
Though history itself always plays a part in the worlds and characters I build in my novels (because history inherently makes us and our societies what we are), the writing I do as a professor and that I do as a novelist run along parallel but non-intersecting roads.

Until now.
I'll have a chapter in the upcoming anthology History and Twilight (Blackwell, 2010).

One of my favorite parts of teaching history is examining the role of popular culture in the creation and reimagination of historical narratives. The Twilight series is full of such examples; through my reading of all four books I mulled over the ways history is constantly invoked in the lives of its central and supporting characters.

Soon I'll be sharing those ideas with all of you.

Serendipity is alive and well.

Can't Help Myself...

Apologies to any Twilight haters out there, but...



I can't wait! Plus, it's nice to know that if someday my books could make the leap to movies at least they can do nice things with instant shape-shifting. I was also very happy to see that Summit sought out First Nations' actors to play the role of the Quileutes in New Moon. The deployment of "Indian" characters without the acknowledgment or realization that Native American peoples are very much a part of our contemporary world happens all too often in book, film, and real life. If you're interested in this topic two great works are Celluloid Indians and "Indian Wars: The Movie" in Indians in Unexpected Places.

Happy weekend!

To Each Her/His Own?

I've been following BEA in cyberspace and stumbled across an amazing thread.

This discussion began after last year's BEA, but has taken on a life of its own. A year later there are still new comments being posted on the thread.

The topic: "The Book Loved by Everyone But You."

The number of comments intrigued me as I found both books that I adored (The God of Small Things, Cold Mountain, Love in the Time of Cholera, Harry Potter) on the list as well as those I similarly despised (The Giving Tree, The Great Gatsby, She's Come Undone). It's a fascinating conversation to follow and reveals both a problem and a need:

Problem - Reader guilt/secrecy; need - absolution.

Why do we feel shame when a book that's been lauded doesn't suit us? If variety is the spice of life, surely there remains room for a veritable seasoning pantry of literature to match diverse tastes.

Yet readers and writers seem loathe to admit when a "classic" or "critically acclaimed" text fails to set their hearts afire. Similarly we're encouraged to hide our love of "bestsellers" or "commercial" books. I can't tell you how much I struggled with the idea that I was making a horrible confession when I posted about my love of the romance genre.

This phenomena has become particularly apparent in the abundance of threads devoted to love and hate of Stephenie Meyer's Twilight.

Everyone and their mother has come out of the woodwork to heap praise or lob grenades at this series.

My own position on Twilight is mixed, so here's a summary.

Do I like this series? Yes. Correction, loved it. Stayed up several nights devouring all four books.

Do I think the writing is good? Not particularly. The story is good. The writing could be better, but I don't think that Meyer's writing is so horrible that she needs to be crucified for it. And I thought Stephen King's knock of her work was particularly petty and unnecessary. The writing community needs to get better at supporting authors rather than spending time tearing down success stories. Critiques of Meyer by other writers smack of sour grapes.

Do I think the gender politics of the book are okay? No, absolutely not. Some of my favorite critiques of this text are about the problematic nature of Bella and Edward's relationship and the whole issue of Bella's lack of self-esteem. However, I think anything that makes people excited about reading and gets us talking about gender and society is a very, very good thing. And it's still a damn good story.



The vitriol that accompanies criticisms of popular books juxtaposed by the secrecy with which readers surround their dislike of "literary" monuments makes me wonder why we're all so afraid to just live and let live. The one truth that rises to the surface in discussions about finding an agent and a publisher is that this industry is subjective. What works for one agent or house may not be the "right fit" for another. Nathan Bransford's "Agent for a Day" contest really drives this point home.

I believe I can love Stephenie Meyer, Kurt Vonnegut, J.K. Rowling, and Gabriel Garcia Marquez without the forces of the universe punishing me with sudden death by lightning strike.

Life is hard enough without petty squabbles about the books we're allowed to love and those we're encouraged to scoff at.

Reading is a gift all around. I think there is plenty of room for love, and I could just do without the hate.

*Comics courtesy of "Angry Little Girls," by Lela Lee. I love her work, but I do not endorse the ads attached to the comics, my apologies, they're just tied to the embedded text. Visit Lela's website: www.angrylittlegirls.com

When it Rains...

Within 24 hours of the call I had another agent interested in the novel, when I told her I'd accepted representation from another agency she said she was sorry she hadn't read my submission earlier because I was a "damn fine writer."

Wow. I'm all glitter and bells right now.

I subjected my husband, Will, to the Twilight DVD, which he found mildly amusing. He had a great take on the Bella discovers Edward's true identity dialogue:

Bella: Your skin is pale white and ice cold...sometimes you talk like you're from another time...I know what you are...

Edward: Say it. Out loud. Say it.

Will: You're a grad student

Touche.

Speaking of movie anticipation - I'm loving the trailer for Spike Jonze's _Where the Wild Things Are_.

A number of folks have said they're worried it won't be like the book. It's clear to me that the film will NOT be like the book, but that's why I think it has so much promise. The narrative is about joy, loss of innocence, and the wildness of children's imaginations. I think it will be a wonderful interpretation of the spirit of Maurice Sendak's classic children's book.

Writers Draw Blood

If you'd like to see fangs bared and claws come out, check out the 200+ posts on Nathan Bransford's blog (which I follow religiously) regarding Steven King's public critique of Stephenie Meyer. I've never seen blog posts go up so fast.