M.B. Robbins's Blog

My Imagination Come to Life

Last week, my mother and I went to Colorado to visit my sister, and while we were out there, we went to the Great Sand Dunes National Park and Preserve.
The sand dunesThis is one of the coolest places I've ever seen, not only because it is a random bit of Sahara between the semi-arid high plains and jagged, still-snowy peaks of the Colorado Rockies, but also for a more personal reason:
This place was taken straight out of my imagination.
My novel White Stone is set on a desert river surrounded by hills. I looked at a lot of pictures of rivers, desert towns, and sand dunes while writing it, so I didn't exactly make the setting up out of whole cloth, but I didn't know that a place like it actually existed.
The Medano Creek at sunsetIt was like someone opened up my brain, created in all ways the desert river I'd imagined for White Stone, and then set me loose to play in it.
How can I describe how amazing it was? The White Stone series has been my main writing project--more than that: my obsession--for years, but I'd never felt closer to it than I did while at the Great Sand Dunes.
It is an unbelievable place, and it was an unbelievable experience. I have no other words for it.

Things I Love, and Hate, About YA Fiction

I love YA fiction. The genre has gained some serious (and often deserved) backlash for the piles of trite, boring shit it contains, but that doesn't stop me from loving it--because, if you're willing to wade through the shit, you can find some gems like Markus Zusak's The Book Thief (which I universally recommend to all people at all times), Gail Carson Levine's Ever (which is probably considered middle grade, but given the whole girl-being-sacrificed-to-her-god premise and some subtle-but-there references to sex could go either way, genre-wise), and Shannon Hale's Books of Bayern (which are the books that showed me it is possible to do strong female characters right).

But then there are the rest of them...

This rant is inspired by my getting Victoria Aveyard's The Red Queen on sale on Audible and discovering in the first few minutes of listening that it contains some of the things I love, and hate, most about YA fiction.  So, after all that ado, here are

The Things I Love About YA Fiction:

Fantasy. As a die-hard fan of fairy tales, I love stories that include magic, heroes, damsels, and other larger-than-life characters. For me, reading should be an escape from reality as much as a reflection of reality, and I love stories with fantastical elements.Dystopia. The YA dystopia has fallen on rough times since The Hunger Games made it crazy popular. But dystopias can be fascinating, a glimpse into a writer's head about what they consider the pressing issues of today's society.Coming-of-age. One of the reasons I love YA is because the teenage years are so full of confusion, drama, and lots of people trying to figure out "who they are." Coming-of-age stories can capture all those things marvelously.

and

The Things I Hate About YA Fiction:
Bitchy Female Leads. I blame Katniss Everdeen for this one. The thing is, for Katniss it works. Her hardened, closed-off personality was kind of the point, and at the time, it did stand out among all the shapeless Bella Swan. But enough already. Being bitchy doesn't make you strong and independent; it just makes you bitchy. I'm looking at you, America Singer (Kiera Cass's The Selection trilogy).Love Triangles. Don't misunderstand, I'm all for complicated romantic situations. But girls, it's time to understand that stringing two guys who like you along because you just *can't decide* is unkind and unfair. Grow up, and start making some hard choices. Sure, you may break the unpicked guy's heart, but he'll be better off in the end.

How Not to Propose to Your Lady

*Please note: This post is full of spoilers*
This Valentine’s Day, enamored men and women everywhere will exchange flowers and chocolate, eat romantic candle-lit dinners—and perhaps, at some point, the mood will be right for the gentleman to get down on one knee and pop The Question. There are a million right ways to ask your lady to marry you, from sky-writing above a football stadium to sitting on the couch eating burritos. But, for every right way, there is also a wrong way. So, this Valentine’s Day, here are my Top 5 Ways Not to Propose to Your Lady.
5. Murphy’s LawBernard to Miss BiancaDisney’s The Rescuers Down UnderUnlike the others on this list, Bernard’s trouble is not with a lousy setup or a poor word choice. In fact, he planned a very pleasant, traditional proposal: a romantic dinner at a nice restaurant, a diamond ring, and a few choice words about love. But then everything that can go wrong, does. He spends the entire movie trying to propose to his lady and always getting interrupted, sometimes even by Miss Bianca herself.
Pesky plot, always getting in the way.
Miss Bianca’s (eventual) Answer: Yes
Lesson Learned: Don’t answer your cell phone at the dinner table.
4. The CompromiseEdward Cullen to Isabella SwanStephenie Meyer’s Twilight SagaGirls, is the glittery vampire of your dreams refusing to have sex with you?
Vampires, is the freesia-scented girl of your dreams too lusty for her own good?
Never fear, marriage is here! With a single ceremony, vampires can temper teenage hormones, and girls can get laid by marble gods!
Bella’s Answer: Yes, with one condition
Lesson Learned: If at first you don’t succeed, bribe, bribe again.
3. Psych!Edward Fairfax Rochester to Jane EyreCharlotte Brontë’s Jane EyreThe scene starts off with Jane and Mr. Rochester discussing his imminent marriage to the honorable Miss Blanche Ingram and how, because of it, Jane is about to move from England to Ireland. It ends with Jane and Mr. Rochester engaged.
I’m sorry, did I miss something?
Jane’s Answer: Yes
Lesson Learned: Um...I'm not sure.
2. The Cold, Hard TruthFitzwilliam Darcy to Elizabeth BennetJane Austen’s Pride and PrejudiceElizabeth Bennet and Mr. Darcy are widely considered one of the most perfect romantic couples in all of fiction, but they certainly didn’t start that way, and never is that more clear than the (first) time he proposes to her. “My social class, my family reputation, and even my own better judgment abhor the thought of you. Marry me anyway.”
Charlotte Lu from The Lizzie Bennet Diaries (www.youtube.com/lizziebennet) said it best: that guy really needs to work on his game.
Lizzy’s Answer: Not in a million years!
Lesson Learned: Maybe honesty isn’t always the best policy.
1. The Mandate of HeavenSt. John Rivers to Jane EyreCharlotte Brontë’s Jane EyreWait a minute. Last time I looked, Jane was engaged to Mr. Rochester. So who’s this St. John guy?
OK...Jane’s Big Day gets interrupted with the discovery that all those weird things that’ve happened at Thornfield (the fire, the stabbing, the strange noises, the bone-chilling laughs) are the result of the crazy wife Mr. Rochester keeps hidden in the attic, which makes him almost a bigamist, which Jane can’t handle, so she runs away where she’s taken in by St. John Rivers, who is later revealed to be her cousin, a self-proclaimed “cold, hard, ambitious man” who is determined to go to India as a missionary.
*and breathe*
St. John wants Jane to accompany him to India because he thinks her diligence and intelligence would make her a good lady-missionary, but she doesn’t really want to leave England, especially because she hasn’t heard a single word from or about Mr. Rochester since the night she sneaked out of Thornfield and she’s worried that his wild, headlong nature has led him to harm since she broke his heart, but she still is willing to consider St. John’s offer because of the whole crazy-wife-in-the-attic thing, so she sort of agrees, EXCEPT...he has a condition: he insists that she marry him first, not because they love each other—a fact he pounds in with a sledgehammer—but because God Himself has declared she must. If she refuses, he says, it isn’t him she’s refusing, but GOD.
*and breathe*
Jane, honey, your spunk, intelligence, and moral uprightness make you my all-time favorite heroine. “I must keep in good health and not die” as your plan for avoiding hell is one of the best lines ever written. In a world inundated with girls who let their romantic others walk all over them, your ability to hold your own against Mr. Rochester even when he’s in A Mood is such a breath of fresh air. But, seriously, girl, what the heck is with these proposal scenes?
Jane’s Answer: No
Lesson Learned: “Ordained by God” isn’t a reason for getting married.

A Punctuation Family Reunion

The Punctuation Family
Period: The firm-but-kind father.  Though he sets and enforces rules, Period is not too complicated and is happy as long as he is respected.
Comma: The peace-keeping middle child.  Because Comma is always expected to solve every problem (even the ones that really should be settled by Period or Emdash) and her expecations are always changing, she has developed some serious issues--but she still bears the weight of breaking up the complicated into the managable.
Semicolon: Comma's best friend.  Loyal and sensitive, Semicolon is used to bearing some of Comma's load whenever she can.
Colon: The arrogant cousin.  Fortunately, Colon doen't have a lot to do with the family.
Quotation mark: The insecure tag-along.  Often overlooked and sometimes abused, Quotation Mark has gotten to a point where she can't go anywhere by herself.
Apostrophe: The college graduate with the crap job.  Apostrophe wishes she could find a job that lives up to her high expectations, but she keeps being shunted into places she just doesn't belong, such as plural words without any possessions.
Exclamation point: The annoying little brother!  He's always screaming!  Or shouting!  Or yelling!
Question mark: The down-and-out aunt.  Question Mark can't for the life of her get herself together.
Ellipses: The triplets deep in the Terrible Twos.  No one can handle them.
Emdash: Comma's little sister.  Though likeable, sassy, and artistic, Emdash wishes more than anything to be like Comma and is always battling some identity crisis or other.
Bracket: The uncle who shows up for the food, skulks around for a while, and leaves.  Who was that guy, anyway?
Parenthese: The awkward step-child.  She doesn't really belong in the family, but she doesn't seem to belong outside of it, either.

Top 5 Reasons the World Won't End in 2012

The end of the world is a huge thing these days.  With the approach of December 21, 2012, everyone is all about the end of the world--because, apparently, the fact that the Mayan calender finally ends on the winter solstice of 2012 means that the world will, too.  Never mind the fact that the Mayan calender, like everything--yes, even the world--has to end at some point; from what I've seen of it, on the History Channel's Apocalypse Week (which, admittedly, is my favorite week to watch History), the calender does have edges.

But, honestly, people.  The world is not coming to an end.  At least, not yet.

Here's why:

1) Unrest in Libya.  As long as the Middle East is in chaos, the world will continue to spin.  It's when things start resolving, when Israelis and Palestinians sit down in a room together and agree on a sensible two-state solution, when Iraq and Afghanistan enjoy stable governments, free elections, and peaceful streets, that's when it's time to start worrying.  Because, like when my grandfather, who said his whole life that he wouldn't be caught dead in a foreign car, bought a Maserati, peace in the Middle East would be scary.

2) Y2K.  I can't be the only person who remembers what a stink people made about Jan. 1, 2000, how thousands of people in the US spent weeks stocking up on canned goods and toilet paper in December of 1999.  Computers were going to crash (for a reason I never did understand, something about the abbreviation of 2000 being '00).  Jesus was going to return (because of that whole 2000-years-between-creation-and-David-and-Jesus-and-now thing).  The fabric of humanity was going to be torn apart, and the world would dissolve into darkness and chaos.  And what happened on midnight of Jan. 1, 2000?  The ball in Times Square dropped.  Fireworks exploded.  People popped champagne and kissed their sweethearts and sang "Auld Lang Syne"--at least the people not holed up in concrete bunkers, and maybe they did, too, because the world conspicuously did not end.

3) The business of uncertainty.  The world wouldn't dare take away the lucrative potential of end-of-days movies.  If it did, it would probably find itself slapped with a lawsuit.

4) Human nature.  People have been predicting the end of the world since the beginning of time.

5) The nature of extinction.  Species have been disappearing from the Earth for a long time, and that's a fact regardless of whether or not you think that this world existed for billions of years before Homo sapien appeared onstage.  The end of humanity does not necessarily mean the end of the world.  And humans are nothing if not adaptable, so I can't help but think that the end of the world doesn't necessarily mean the end of humanity.  By the time the world ends, we'll probably be living on Mars, or at least on spaceships.

Now, if you'll excuse me, Armageddon is back on.

Introduction

I suck at beginnings, because I never know what I should do with them.  In media res (which is great, but leaves you wondering who the heck these people are) or character introduction (which is great, but leaves you wondering when something's going to happen)?  Important backstory or important world-building?  Do you care more about who I am or what I'm doing?

This is why I hate beginnings: they make my head hurt.  So I think I just skip this first blog entry and try again later.