Alisa M. Libby's Blog, page 9

bella swan: boring or bad?

Being a YA author, I've been asked what I think of Twilight. What I think of Bella Swan. Recently, this question was posed in a more pointed fashion: do I think that, as a woman writer, Stephenie Meyer should have made Bella a stronger and more self-reliant young woman? A role model for her many young female readers?

I completely see the point of this question. But my answer gets tricky, so I'm addressing it here.

As a reader, I found Bella Swan troubling. She didn't offer any logical reasons as to why she trusted this boy who crept into her room at night to watch her sleep, even as he was telling her NOT to trust him (these are red-flag behaviors, certainly). She persisted in her certainty that he was good and would never hurt her even though she knew very little about him other than his beauty. She told us more about Edward's beauty than about his character. Or her own.

But as a writer, I can't fault Meyer for any of her decisions simply because they were just that–her decisions, not mine. That was the character she wanted to create, and it is completely within her creative right to do so. I wanted to write about a murderous Countess–another work of fiction, not a role model.

Allow me a slight tangent: There are plenty of historical novels about girls growing up hundreds of years ago as tomboys who want to cut their hair and wear britches and go to war like their brothers do. They're not interested in staying home and sewing or cooking or any of those other "menial" tasks expected of women–they want an exciting life of the sea, or battle, or travel, or whatever it is that the boys are doing because they can do it just as well.

And that's all fine and good, and those stories are exciting, but those characters are anachronisms to the age in which they supposedly exist. While I'm sure there were girls who would have rather lived a boy's life than a girl's, there were many others who took the prescribed path that they were given, out of a sense of duty or otherwise. What about their stories? Are they less interesting, less worth telling? Don't they offer a more revealing and accurate picture of the time period?

That's not to say that Bella Swan is an accurate depiction of her time period (I hope not). I think she's more an accurate depiction of a character in a romance novel–which is exactly what she is. Realistically, she should not have been so trusting of Edward simply because he had a pretty face, simply because she wanted to believe that he was harmless. That is, admittedly, a dangerous message at it's core. But maybe our readers can learn from that, instead of parroting it? If authors are expected to have positive role models as their main characters, that can put a stranglehold on creativity akin to self-censorship. If every book is written to contain a role model, a moral, a lesson, our books may slip from the creative to the pedantic, and we risk losing the very readers we aim to reach.

But you know me. I write about girls who do bad things.

i share with you my shame

I have a lot of writing notebooks. A lot of them. Tom often makes jokes about that crazy dude in the movie "Seven". You know, the murderer. With all the notebooks.

Recently I did an informal count: 20 composition notebooks. About fifteen spiral notebooks. And that's not counting the various cloth-bound books I've favored over the years. The stained purple books are likely the oldest. That was the novel I started writing in 3rd grade. One of my first writing lessons: don't leave your novel-in-progress in your book bag along with a rotting banana. Lesson learned.

Last week I was filled with an uncommon zeal: I'm tired of all of this clutter, I need to clean this stuff out. I rarely refer to any of these notebooks, so why keep them? I certainly don't want anyone else reading my early work: Lots of rhyming poetry. Not to mention the journals from college in which I'm looking at a rose and feeling the world move through me or some such like. So I started parsing through the pile to determine what to shred and what to keep.

Well. I can't get rid of the aforementioned purple books. Or the hardback diaries (pictured, left) which were my diaries throughout high school (sadly this pile is one short, as one diary mysteriously disappeared many years ago…sigh.) Also, the gorgeous gold-stamped volume I took with me to Europe is a keeper, as are all of my college diaries. The writing notebook I started second semester junior year, when I slowly started coming back to myself after Dad died (below, right); that's probably one of the bravest books I own, so there's no parting with it (it also marks my decopage phase).

I poked through the older books and found the poetry of eleven-year-old me, clearly obsessed with Tennyson and Greek Mythology. Other writings I described to Tom as "Lady Poe." As I read, and cringed, and sighed, and laughed, I realized that I'm not ready to part with all of this stuff. So I packed up some boxes for storage in the attic, and another box to remain in the office.

Writers out there: what do you do with your finished notebooks? Do you, too, have shelves like those of a cinematic maniacal killer?

Paul Simon and Paul Muldoon at JFK library

Last Friday, Tom and I went to the JFK library to hear a forum about "lyrics as literature" with Pulitzer-prize winning poet Paul Muldoon, and…Paul Simon (need I say more?). It was really interesting – mainly a discussion, though Paul Simon did play some songs for us, which was awfully nice of him. My favorite part was when they were discussing the use of mundane, every day words in the midst of poetry: like Simon's use of the word "Gatorade" in one of his songs. In response to this, Muldoon said "Everything's available" – a whole world of words out there for you to use in your work, be they high-minded and esoteric, or refreshing bottled beverages. These two Pauls are not only hugely successful, but they clearly still take such joy in writing. Muldoon, for all of his success, had a humble attitude (he expressed suspicion of self-described "artists") that I found encouraging.

A day for Observing the Obscure in history

On February 13, 1542, Catherine Howard ascended the stairs of a scaffold and laid her neck upon the cold wooden surface of the chopping block. Over 460 years later, I went to visit the place of Catherine's execution at the Tower of London, and her burial site in the Chapel of St. Peter ad vincula. There was no special mention of this being the anniversary of her execution, and I was struck by the sight of Catherine's bare crest beside Anne Boleyn's flower-laden one.

There is a reason for this, of course: Catherine Howard did not have a lasting impact on history. She was not the provocateur that Anne was, resulting in the king's divorce of his first wife and breaking from the Catholic Church. Catherine came years after all of that drama, when Henry was still casting around for a wife to love him and bear him what he most wanted: another son to stand in line for the throne of England. Her 18 months of marriage to King Henry had few lasting effects. Lacey Baldwin Smith puts it so beautifully – and rather heartbreakingly – in A Tudor Tragedy: "Even in doing her royal husband wrong, Catherine is strangely inconsequential; Henry would surely have grown old and senile, even without the knowledge that he had been cuckolded and cheated."

Catherine's marriage did have a lasting effect for her: let's not forget that neck upon the block, and the fall of the ax that swiftly followed. Catherine was young when this happened – by all accounts either a teenager or in her early twenties – and undeniably immature and naive, if not entirely innocent of all wrong-doing. History is filled with such people – many of them young, immature, naive – caught in the sticky web of politics and power. On this February 13, lets take a moment to ponder the fate of those barely named, barely accounted for in history. The ones who rarely escaped with their lives.

bookmark contest!

You know what's great about being an author? Aside from hearing from readers and all the other cool stuff. Being invited to do things – like judge a bookmark contest! I have no expertise in bookmarks, unless you count, you know, using them. But I was invited to be a judge at the MSLA bookmark contest last Thursday. We – a venerable group of local authors, school librarians and MSLA leaders – gathered at the Plympton Elementary School in Waltham, Massachusetts, where all of the entries were arranged on tables in the library. I was teamed up with picture book author Stephen Krensky, who luckily is a pro at judging a good bookmark. We narrowed the field down to two honorable mentions and one winner, which will be produced as an actual bookmark.

The bookmarks were amazing – these students are doing some really great, creative work, and I hope they keep at it. Some of my personal favorites included a dragon, one of a child reading in the company of wolves (this looked surprisingly cozy) and another filled with fairies and vampires and monsters and all my favorite fantasy things. Lovely. Good work, everyone!

Also present: Ralph Masiello, David Yoo (pictured, above), Jacqueline Davies, and others whom I did not get to meet, personally. And librarians, who are among my favorite people on this earth. Also, Ralph Masiello (who draws gorgeous picture books) showed us an early copy of THE MYSTIC PHYLES, The Journal of Abigail Thaddeus by Stephanie Brockway and Ralph Masiello. This book looks amazing – written in diary format and heavily illustrated, it chronicles a young girl's research of magical beasts. This is exactly the type of book I wanted to read at age 12! Oh, and now, too. But we have to wait – it will be out this summer.

middle school, horror of horrors

I just got word that the bloody Countess of Hungarian legend was a topic of discussion in the cafeteria of my Middle School alma mater, thanks to my talk with the Girl Scouts on Monday.

This makes my heart sing. Middle school was where I honed years of crippling shyness and self-loathing. That the name of my very bloodiest, scariest, un-shy character is now being spoken within those hallowed halls makes me feel a lot better about the whole thing.

More posts to come! I've been reading and generally lazy about life, but I'm cooking up all kinds of stuff for you!

pay me in cookies

Yesterday I got a chance to talk to a Girl Scout troop in my hometown. (I was a girl scout many years ago, you know.) These girls were bright and had a ton of questions, which always makes a talk more fun. They brought up very important points: why didn't Catherine Howard flee the country instead of marrying King Henry? Why didn't she make herself ugly to avoid the king's advances? The idea of a time when girls weren't allowed to choose their mate, when a girl may be sacrificed for the sake of her family's ambition, was justifiably mystifying for these young women. Things have certainly improved for us (at least in some countries and cultures) over the centuries. And I'm not just talking about the cookies.

I'm working on some posts about censorship and the like. Second-guessing myself at the moment but I hope to post soon.

too much snow.

I'm afraid that all I can write about is the snow. Because there is just so much of it. And there is no place to put it all. And my arm is sore from having to fling the shovelful of snow over the already huge snowbank in our yard. And we're getting more tomorrow. I'm considering boxing some snow and shipping it to friends in warm locales.

In the midst of this storm I'm reading Susan Beth Pfeffer's gripping LIFE AS WE KNEW IT – the wild weather is making this book even more creepy. I've already counted how many cans of soup we have in the cupboard in case we were snowed in…or, you know, if the moon was hit off it's orbit by an asteroid. You never know.

mozart had a birthday and i missed his party.

A belated happy birthday to Mozart, who I had intended to write about days ago, and I'm quite certain I fell asleep thinking that I should write about him but then never actually did so. So…happy birthday. As you know, AMADEUS has been one of my favorite movies since I was about 12. I've always been fascinated by the creative process, and the idea of a born genius, a musical prodigy. As for the movie, my Dad and I always empathized with Salieri. Not that we wanted him to murder Mozart, but how painful to have to compete with living, breathing genius?

In other news, I've been reading and watching the show Skins (the original BBC version). All controversy aside, the episode about anorexic Cassie made me weep outright. So good! I've heard the US version is not quite up to par, for all the hoopla it's stirred up with the censors.

I have to reread my draft. Soon. And fiddle with it. And send it to my agent. I should start this weekend, after reading Volume 4 of the Buffy season 8 comic. Yup, then I'll be ready to revise. Sure, I will.

a very short reading fiesta…but no less celebratory

Don't let my last post fool you – I have not started my new rewrite. I'm taking a writing break, which means I plan to read as much as possible.

My reading fiesta got off to a slow start – I was reading some great writing craft books but then I realized "I'm really tired of writing, and reading about writing." But the novels I picked up weren't clicking for me. I worried: has something gone wrong in my head that this isn't working for me? Then, a brief and thankful reprise to read a first draft of a promising new project by a member of my writing group. Then I picked up Jennifer Donnelly's novel Revolution. And from page one I thought – yes! Thank goodness! A voice that draws me in, a flawed character I care about. This is what reading should be!

And as with all books, there are lessons to learn. I chose this book in particular because it shares a similarity with a project I've been working on for a while: a story within a story. The main character discovers a diary from the French Revolution. I can see how this could work or not work for many readers; it's great to read how Donnelly deals with such a tricky structure.

So I'm reading. And trying (and often failing) to not worry about my various works-in-progress and their current shabbiness. A good distraction? Carolina Chocolate Drops. Enjoy.