Patti O'Shea's Blog, page 182
June 28, 2011
Insurrection!
My heroine and I spent the past weekend arguing. About a major plot element that sets up the entire romance.
Keep in mind that she originally voiced no opposition as I formed the general plot for this story. I thought that meant it was all good. As it turned out, it wasn't.
I've mentioned before that my characters refuse to do what I want them to do if it's something they don't agree with. I sit and spin my wheels until I go back and change what they don't like. This time, I didn't even write the part of the scene yet that she was objecting to. This was a pre-objection. :-)
Actually, I'm okay with her objecting before I reach that part of the scene. It saves me from writing stuff I won't be able to use and keeps me from coming to a complete stop as I try to figure out what's wrong. It just would have been nice if she'd said something earlier.
I guess the fact that we spent an entire day arguing is my fault. I should have just agreed to change what she didn't like. It wasn't as if I had a choice, but this was a major structural piece of the story and I didn't want to give it up.
As it turned out, though, it wasn't too difficult to fix the issue. This surprised me. I expected to spend a lot of time struggling with this, but when I went to bed Saturday night, the answer popped into my head.
Sometimes there are epiphanies.
Keep in mind that she originally voiced no opposition as I formed the general plot for this story. I thought that meant it was all good. As it turned out, it wasn't.
I've mentioned before that my characters refuse to do what I want them to do if it's something they don't agree with. I sit and spin my wheels until I go back and change what they don't like. This time, I didn't even write the part of the scene yet that she was objecting to. This was a pre-objection. :-)
Actually, I'm okay with her objecting before I reach that part of the scene. It saves me from writing stuff I won't be able to use and keeps me from coming to a complete stop as I try to figure out what's wrong. It just would have been nice if she'd said something earlier.
I guess the fact that we spent an entire day arguing is my fault. I should have just agreed to change what she didn't like. It wasn't as if I had a choice, but this was a major structural piece of the story and I didn't want to give it up.
As it turned out, though, it wasn't too difficult to fix the issue. This surprised me. I expected to spend a lot of time struggling with this, but when I went to bed Saturday night, the answer popped into my head.
Sometimes there are epiphanies.
June 26, 2011
One of My Perfect 10s
I'm not a huge fan of historical romance. TBH, I find the future infinitely more fascinating than the past, which is probably why I enjoy Science Fiction Romance so much. I get the characterization, relationship and growth arcs, and happy ending that I love, but in the future or on another planet or on a space ship. Historicals...well, I used to buy them and then they'd sit in the To Be Read pile while I read all the futuristic and contemporary romances that I bought. The cycle was repeated month after month before I finally realized I wasn't going to read those books no matter how interesting the plot sounded.
That said, I do have a some historical romances that I've loved. One of these is a sweet regency called A Suitable Match by Joy Freemen.
To briefly sum up the plot, the hero and heroine are the victims of a matchmaking plot that is very convoluted. It becomes further convoluted by misunderstandings that arise in the course of the book. These aren't "why don't they have a conversation" misunderstandings, but ones that arise because of what they were told by the matchmaker and perfectly logical in that context.
There were also some assumptions made by the hero because the heroine's father and cousin were drunken reprobates. He believed she didn't have the strict upbringing her station required because of this, but that wasn't the case. The heroine, who loves a lark, finds it amusing to let him believe he's right.
What I loved about this book was the humor. The lines flying between the characters, particularly the h/h made me LOL when I read the book. The heroine even zinged the hero a few times and that made it even better. The characterization was good, the growth arcs of the characters realistic, and while the culmination is the h/h kissing (no sex =8-O), I found myself waiting expectantly for that to happen.
There were a couple of stretches for plot that were a little difficult for me, but because it was a humorous story, I was willing to give the author more leeway than I would in a book that wasn't funny. There's also the prerequisite troublemaking young lady who wants the hero for herself and that's something I'm not real fond of, but I was willing to overlook this, too, because of how much I liked the h/h and the humor.
How much did I like this book? The first time I read it, I'd checked it out of the library in hardcover. I immediately hunted down my own hardcover of the book and I don't like hardcovers. :-) My shelves are all setup for mass market paperback size and the cost... Way more than I'd normally pay, but I had to have my own copy of this book.
On my spreadsheet, I rate books 1-10. I gave A Suitable Match a 10. IIRC, there are only ten books that I gave a perfect score.
That said, I do have a some historical romances that I've loved. One of these is a sweet regency called A Suitable Match by Joy Freemen.
To briefly sum up the plot, the hero and heroine are the victims of a matchmaking plot that is very convoluted. It becomes further convoluted by misunderstandings that arise in the course of the book. These aren't "why don't they have a conversation" misunderstandings, but ones that arise because of what they were told by the matchmaker and perfectly logical in that context.
There were also some assumptions made by the hero because the heroine's father and cousin were drunken reprobates. He believed she didn't have the strict upbringing her station required because of this, but that wasn't the case. The heroine, who loves a lark, finds it amusing to let him believe he's right.
What I loved about this book was the humor. The lines flying between the characters, particularly the h/h made me LOL when I read the book. The heroine even zinged the hero a few times and that made it even better. The characterization was good, the growth arcs of the characters realistic, and while the culmination is the h/h kissing (no sex =8-O), I found myself waiting expectantly for that to happen.
There were a couple of stretches for plot that were a little difficult for me, but because it was a humorous story, I was willing to give the author more leeway than I would in a book that wasn't funny. There's also the prerequisite troublemaking young lady who wants the hero for herself and that's something I'm not real fond of, but I was willing to overlook this, too, because of how much I liked the h/h and the humor.
How much did I like this book? The first time I read it, I'd checked it out of the library in hardcover. I immediately hunted down my own hardcover of the book and I don't like hardcovers. :-) My shelves are all setup for mass market paperback size and the cost... Way more than I'd normally pay, but I had to have my own copy of this book.
On my spreadsheet, I rate books 1-10. I gave A Suitable Match a 10. IIRC, there are only ten books that I gave a perfect score.
June 24, 2011
Coffee: The Greatest Addiction Ever
Coffee does, indeed, rock!
June 23, 2011
Authors, Ebook Backlists, and the Sweet Spot
On Twitter this weekend we were talking about books and the conversation had me mentioning a couple of mystery series written by a romance writer. There are romances in both of the series, but they're a subplot, not the main plot. Thinking about these books made me wonder if they were in ebook format yet or not. I went over to take a look.
And there was the first book for my favorite of the two series. Yea! Except it was priced at $8.99. Huh?
This surprised me. The series was old enough that I thought it would cost a lot less, even with agency pricing. Especially since it ended after only four books. I would have liked the title on my Kindle, but I wasn't paying that much when I had a paper copy on my shelves. (A paperback, BTW, that cost $5.99 and then I probably had a discount on it, too.) I thought the price was ridiculous. There wasn't a disclaimer from Amazon saying that the price had been set by the publisher, so I scrolled down. The publisher listed was one I'd never heard of before and definitely not who put it out originally.
This got me curious. I Googled them and checked out the website that came up. It was a literary agent who started e-publishing authors' backlists in 2001. I think that's the date they listed on their site.
All I could think was wow.
First of all, they only give the author 50% until a certain sales threshold is met, then it goes to 60%. The 60% is okay if they're providing other services besides just formatting the books and uploading them. I'm sorry, but it's not that hard to format and the author could hire that out at a flat rate if she wasn't tech savvy. (And to my dismay, many authors are most definitely not tech savvy.) The cover put on the book was lame enough that I could have done it myself, another huge strike. That's my quality measure when it comes to graphics--if I can do it, it's not good enough.
My second thought was this agency is grossly mismanaging the ebook publishing endeavor, and not only with the poor cover art. Okay, at least they're mismanaging with this one book by this one author. I didn't check out the other books they handle, but I'm assuming they're doing the same thing with everyone else, too. The pricing is ridiculous.
I'm not a proponent of selling books in eformat for $2.99, not even backlist. I think that's too low and devalues the incredibly hard work it takes to write a full-length novel, but at the same time, there's no way I'm paying $8.99 either--not even for a new release. It made me wonder how many other people would have bought the ebook if the price had been less. If it had been $5.99 or lower, I know I would have picked up the book in electronic format because it's just easier to have it accessible on my Kindle.
So from where I'm standing, the author got a bad cover and she's getting only 50% royalties unless she passed whatever threshold amount was set, which I doubt because they're pricing her out of sales. This doesn't sound like a good deal to me or a smart way to handle backlist.
And there was the first book for my favorite of the two series. Yea! Except it was priced at $8.99. Huh?
This surprised me. The series was old enough that I thought it would cost a lot less, even with agency pricing. Especially since it ended after only four books. I would have liked the title on my Kindle, but I wasn't paying that much when I had a paper copy on my shelves. (A paperback, BTW, that cost $5.99 and then I probably had a discount on it, too.) I thought the price was ridiculous. There wasn't a disclaimer from Amazon saying that the price had been set by the publisher, so I scrolled down. The publisher listed was one I'd never heard of before and definitely not who put it out originally.
This got me curious. I Googled them and checked out the website that came up. It was a literary agent who started e-publishing authors' backlists in 2001. I think that's the date they listed on their site.
All I could think was wow.
First of all, they only give the author 50% until a certain sales threshold is met, then it goes to 60%. The 60% is okay if they're providing other services besides just formatting the books and uploading them. I'm sorry, but it's not that hard to format and the author could hire that out at a flat rate if she wasn't tech savvy. (And to my dismay, many authors are most definitely not tech savvy.) The cover put on the book was lame enough that I could have done it myself, another huge strike. That's my quality measure when it comes to graphics--if I can do it, it's not good enough.
My second thought was this agency is grossly mismanaging the ebook publishing endeavor, and not only with the poor cover art. Okay, at least they're mismanaging with this one book by this one author. I didn't check out the other books they handle, but I'm assuming they're doing the same thing with everyone else, too. The pricing is ridiculous.
I'm not a proponent of selling books in eformat for $2.99, not even backlist. I think that's too low and devalues the incredibly hard work it takes to write a full-length novel, but at the same time, there's no way I'm paying $8.99 either--not even for a new release. It made me wonder how many other people would have bought the ebook if the price had been less. If it had been $5.99 or lower, I know I would have picked up the book in electronic format because it's just easier to have it accessible on my Kindle.
So from where I'm standing, the author got a bad cover and she's getting only 50% royalties unless she passed whatever threshold amount was set, which I doubt because they're pricing her out of sales. This doesn't sound like a good deal to me or a smart way to handle backlist.
June 21, 2011
Writer Commitment Or Writers Should Be Committed (One of the Two)
(The play on words in the title is intentional, BTW.)
Writing is a commitment. It's true before you sell, but it's even more true afterward. The tough part is that most people don't understand this and that includes family.
In general, people think that an interruption is "just a minute" and that you can jump right back into writing without any effort. This is so not true. A one minute interruption can make me completely lose what I was going to write and I'll never remember it exactly the same way no matter how long I think about it. And that one minute interruption? It can take me a half an hour or more to get back into the writing spot inside my head.
Others seem to think that if my fingers aren't moving on the keyboard, I'm not writing and it's safe to disturb me. This is so wrong. A lot of my time is spent in my head, figuring things out. One of my favorite quotes is: "Typists type, writers stare out the window." I can't remember who said it to attribute it, but it's accurate. I might be taking a break to get a drink of water or something, but my head is still working.
The other big issue that comes up all the time is people don't understand why you can't just take the day off and do what they want you to do. After all, it's no big deal, it's just one day, right?
Wrong. Really. The problem with this logic is the person assumes that all writing time is 1) productive and 2) results in keepable words. Some days writing time is not productive. Some days It might take me an hour to get a paragraph right. X hours does not produce X words on schedule. Writing is way too fickle for that.
Also, there are days where you can write lots of pages, think they're awesome, and then wake up the next morning and realize you made a wrong turn. Sometimes that wrong turn happened a couple of days earlier and I just didn't realize it until that moment. There are plenty of times where I lose a lot of work. Too much work.
And keep in mind that there are frequently multiple people asking for "just one day." Now if it's a big family deal, that's one thing, but a lot of the requests come from others--acquaintances, colleagues, etc. It's tough to say no. Others do not understand and it becomes an issue because of this. Explaining it? Well, the fallback is always, "but it's just one day." It's actually easier to just go along than to say no, but wow, you have to learn to protect the writing time, because if you don't, you'll miss deadlines.
So writing takes commitment, it takes being able to say no even when it's easier to say yes. It's not easy, but then nothing about writing ever is.
Writing is a commitment. It's true before you sell, but it's even more true afterward. The tough part is that most people don't understand this and that includes family.
In general, people think that an interruption is "just a minute" and that you can jump right back into writing without any effort. This is so not true. A one minute interruption can make me completely lose what I was going to write and I'll never remember it exactly the same way no matter how long I think about it. And that one minute interruption? It can take me a half an hour or more to get back into the writing spot inside my head.
Others seem to think that if my fingers aren't moving on the keyboard, I'm not writing and it's safe to disturb me. This is so wrong. A lot of my time is spent in my head, figuring things out. One of my favorite quotes is: "Typists type, writers stare out the window." I can't remember who said it to attribute it, but it's accurate. I might be taking a break to get a drink of water or something, but my head is still working.
The other big issue that comes up all the time is people don't understand why you can't just take the day off and do what they want you to do. After all, it's no big deal, it's just one day, right?
Wrong. Really. The problem with this logic is the person assumes that all writing time is 1) productive and 2) results in keepable words. Some days writing time is not productive. Some days It might take me an hour to get a paragraph right. X hours does not produce X words on schedule. Writing is way too fickle for that.
Also, there are days where you can write lots of pages, think they're awesome, and then wake up the next morning and realize you made a wrong turn. Sometimes that wrong turn happened a couple of days earlier and I just didn't realize it until that moment. There are plenty of times where I lose a lot of work. Too much work.
And keep in mind that there are frequently multiple people asking for "just one day." Now if it's a big family deal, that's one thing, but a lot of the requests come from others--acquaintances, colleagues, etc. It's tough to say no. Others do not understand and it becomes an issue because of this. Explaining it? Well, the fallback is always, "but it's just one day." It's actually easier to just go along than to say no, but wow, you have to learn to protect the writing time, because if you don't, you'll miss deadlines.
So writing takes commitment, it takes being able to say no even when it's easier to say yes. It's not easy, but then nothing about writing ever is.
June 19, 2011
Two Reviews, One Blog Post
One of my favorite stories is an old Harlequin American romance by M.J. Rodgers. The Adventuress has a mild-mannered librarian heroine who moonlights as an action/adventure writer who has a recurring protagonist. She's on a helicopter in Hawaii with the hero (who's the pilot) when it crashes thanks to a hijacker. The knock in her head, has the heroine believing she's the character in her book. As they try to survive in some very remote terrain, the heroine impresses the hell out of the hero.
You know, of course, that the action/adventure aspect grabbed me immediately, but I also liked the "become the book character" aspect as well. I have a fair amount of keeper books and I broke those down further to reread books. The Adventuress is a reread book for me. I love it!
It totally reminds me of the movie, American Dreamer starring JoBeth Williams and Tom Conti. I don't own many DVDs, but this is one I had to have. In this story, the heroine wins a trip to France, goes alone, and she's hit by a car. When she wakes up, she believes she's the character in the Rebecca Ryan novels that are written by the Tom Conti character.
Her delusion gets the pair mixed up with some real bad guys and soon they're in danger and trying to figure out what's going on.
The movie and book are tied in my mind--I can't think of one without the other popping into my head--and I love them both! I think it's the idea of forgetting your own life and becoming someone else that intrigues me. In real life, putting aside the past and the baggage we've accumulated to change is almost impossible. Yes, we can change, but it's a gradual thing that requires effort. In these two stories, the heroine gets a bump on the head and instantly becomes someone else. There's some pretty cool character growth arcs, too.
My ratings:
The Adventuress - Keeper/Reread book
American Dreamer - 4 stars
You know, of course, that the action/adventure aspect grabbed me immediately, but I also liked the "become the book character" aspect as well. I have a fair amount of keeper books and I broke those down further to reread books. The Adventuress is a reread book for me. I love it!
It totally reminds me of the movie, American Dreamer starring JoBeth Williams and Tom Conti. I don't own many DVDs, but this is one I had to have. In this story, the heroine wins a trip to France, goes alone, and she's hit by a car. When she wakes up, she believes she's the character in the Rebecca Ryan novels that are written by the Tom Conti character.
Her delusion gets the pair mixed up with some real bad guys and soon they're in danger and trying to figure out what's going on.
The movie and book are tied in my mind--I can't think of one without the other popping into my head--and I love them both! I think it's the idea of forgetting your own life and becoming someone else that intrigues me. In real life, putting aside the past and the baggage we've accumulated to change is almost impossible. Yes, we can change, but it's a gradual thing that requires effort. In these two stories, the heroine gets a bump on the head and instantly becomes someone else. There's some pretty cool character growth arcs, too.
My ratings:
The Adventuress - Keeper/Reread book
American Dreamer - 4 stars
June 16, 2011
Story Time
I posted the cover for Crave the Night on Tuesday and this got me thinking about sharing my characters from Enemy Embrace with y'all.
The heroine is Nicole Ruiz. She's a psi tracker--an elite vampire hunter--and she's got a personal crusade. She wants to find the vampire who killed her family when she was ten and avenge their deaths. The vampire in question was out of Los Angeles for a long time, but he's come back at last.
Her hero is Daktan, he's a demon and an executioner (like Andras from Demon Kissed). Dak's been assigned by his king (no less) to take out the same vampire Nicole wants dead. It's a favor the demon king is granting to the vampire clan lord in LA. If you read Blood Feud, you know that the demons and vampires are trying to forge an alliance and this is viewed as one of the bridges. Plus, it doesn't hurt to have a vampire clan lord owe a favor or two, right?
The vampire they both want dead is a rogue. In this world, any vampire who is not affiliated with a clan lord is considered a rogue, but the title itself doesn't connote they're evil. Of course, this particular vampire is, but well, you know.
The clan lords are the original vampires, the origin vampires, and one of them was killed during the war with the demons. All his blood line became "rogue" instantly, but many chose to form affiliations with other clans. There are a large number, though, who didn't. They remain untethered to a clan lord, but there are power plays and issues going on that I hope to address in future stories.
This turned out to be a very complex world, and with stories all being short in length, it means I can only focus on small segments at a time. It's actually kind of an interesting way to reveal society and the issues going on. Blood Feud introduced the demon/vampire divide and that they're trying to form an alliance. Demon Kissed focused on the demon world and the fact that there are human demon slayers out there. Shadow's Caress introduced human vampire hunters and psi trackers. In this case, I use "introduce" to mean when I reveal its existence to the readers. There is a whole bunch more yet to come.
Enemy Embrace will reveal a little bit more of the world. Because Nicole is a psi tracker, I'll show a little more of that. I'm also bringing in another group of humans that have a stake in the magical world beyond demons, vampires, rogues, hunters, and slayers. They won't have a direct role in the story--there isn't space for them--but the wizards are coming. :-) I have a story with a wizard human on the back burner, but he won't be in EE.
The heroine is Nicole Ruiz. She's a psi tracker--an elite vampire hunter--and she's got a personal crusade. She wants to find the vampire who killed her family when she was ten and avenge their deaths. The vampire in question was out of Los Angeles for a long time, but he's come back at last.
Her hero is Daktan, he's a demon and an executioner (like Andras from Demon Kissed). Dak's been assigned by his king (no less) to take out the same vampire Nicole wants dead. It's a favor the demon king is granting to the vampire clan lord in LA. If you read Blood Feud, you know that the demons and vampires are trying to forge an alliance and this is viewed as one of the bridges. Plus, it doesn't hurt to have a vampire clan lord owe a favor or two, right?
The vampire they both want dead is a rogue. In this world, any vampire who is not affiliated with a clan lord is considered a rogue, but the title itself doesn't connote they're evil. Of course, this particular vampire is, but well, you know.
The clan lords are the original vampires, the origin vampires, and one of them was killed during the war with the demons. All his blood line became "rogue" instantly, but many chose to form affiliations with other clans. There are a large number, though, who didn't. They remain untethered to a clan lord, but there are power plays and issues going on that I hope to address in future stories.
This turned out to be a very complex world, and with stories all being short in length, it means I can only focus on small segments at a time. It's actually kind of an interesting way to reveal society and the issues going on. Blood Feud introduced the demon/vampire divide and that they're trying to form an alliance. Demon Kissed focused on the demon world and the fact that there are human demon slayers out there. Shadow's Caress introduced human vampire hunters and psi trackers. In this case, I use "introduce" to mean when I reveal its existence to the readers. There is a whole bunch more yet to come.
Enemy Embrace will reveal a little bit more of the world. Because Nicole is a psi tracker, I'll show a little more of that. I'm also bringing in another group of humans that have a stake in the magical world beyond demons, vampires, rogues, hunters, and slayers. They won't have a direct role in the story--there isn't space for them--but the wizards are coming. :-) I have a story with a wizard human on the back burner, but he won't be in EE.
June 15, 2011
June 14, 2011
Crave the Night Cover
Isn't this cover totally awesome? I've shared it on Facebook, but I realized I never shared it on my blog and decided I better fix that. My story is called Enemy Embrace and it's part of the Blood Feud series. (This includes: Blood Feud, Demon Kissed, and Shadow's Caress.)
Blurb for Enemy Embrace: Nicole Ruiz will do whatever it takes to get revenge on the vampire who killed her family--even make a deal with a demon.
Watch for it October 2011!
Also, in other news, I've had requests to make the ebooks for The Troll Bridge and Blood Feud available in stores other than Amazon and Barnes & Noble. Now both stories are available at Smashwords in many formats. You can also find these books as well as my Nocturne Bites shorts and my Light Warrior books available in eformat at Diesel Ebooks. Both should be available shortly at Kobo Books and Sony Ebookstore, but they're not up yet. And of course, for those with Kindle and Nook readers, you can find my books at both Amazon and BN.com.
I'm also working on getting my earliest books into ebook format and will announce here as I manage this. It might take me a little while because my story for Crave the Night is due August 31st, but it is definitely on the agenda.
June 12, 2011
The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth
I finished listening to an audio book this week called The Geeks Shall Inherit the Earth by Alexandra Robbins. It's non-fiction about high school and the non-popular, cafeteria fringe students. (BTW, this is not the book I blogged about on Thursday.)
It follows a group of people in high school--we've got the gamer, the loner, the weird girl, the band geek, the nerd, the new girl, and the popular bitch. (This last label was offered by the girl herself.) It was interesting to see the psychological reasons for all the behavior in high school and it was also interesting that the author gave the kids a challenge to see if they could change perceptions of others.
The book was mostly very interesting, although I thought it could have been a little shorter. Maybe a couple of segments shorter. The end, though, picked back up as the author offered advice to kids (high school is not what the real world is like, so don't despair if you don't fit in there), to parents, and to teachers/administrators.
Lots here resonated for me because I was a nerd/geek/dreamer and way far down on the popularity meter. Actually, I still am a nerd/geek/dreamer, but as an adult, I really don't care, you know? I'm comfortable with my personality, I enjoy being a nerd/geek/dreamer.
Would I want to give up my fascination with learning? Not a chance! I still remember how excited I was when I was learning about physics and the M Theory. I was talking to people about it, my mouth moving so fast in my excitement that I stumbled over words, forgot to breathe, missed telling stuff that would put things in context and had to go back and explain. It's like this huge adrenaline rush for me to learn something new.
Would I want to give up my geek? No. I love that I can handle most of my computer/software issues on my own. I love that I can set up macros to make my life easier, format my own ebooks getting frustrated. I love that I can program in HTML and CSS and handle things on my own website. I think it's fun!
Would I want to lose my dreamer side? Never. Not in a million years. It's the dreamer that makes me a writer. The dreamer that transports me to alternate worlds, let's me listen to my characters. If I could only keep one of the traits that made me an outsider in high school, this would be the one I'd never let go of. Stories are part of the core of who I am.
Sorry, I digressed. One of the things that came out in the book that I found interesting was how much meaner the kids seem to be now from when I was in school. Oh, I was picked on and it was miserable a lot of times, but the level of sheer nastiness sounded much greater now than it was then. I also thank God that there was no Facebook when I was in school.
I can recommend this book for anyone interested in the psychological dynamic of teenagers in a school setting. I don't have kids, but I found a lot of it riveting and it answered things about my time in school that I'd never understood. The best part? I really got to like most of the teens that this book followed. I was rooting for Joy who was determined to be optimistic, and Blue who was so smart, but had sluffed off on his schoolwork until it was too late for him to get into the prestigious schools he was interested in attending. I even got to like Whitney, the popular bitch. Her transformation was probably the most radical.
My opinion: entertaining read
It follows a group of people in high school--we've got the gamer, the loner, the weird girl, the band geek, the nerd, the new girl, and the popular bitch. (This last label was offered by the girl herself.) It was interesting to see the psychological reasons for all the behavior in high school and it was also interesting that the author gave the kids a challenge to see if they could change perceptions of others.
The book was mostly very interesting, although I thought it could have been a little shorter. Maybe a couple of segments shorter. The end, though, picked back up as the author offered advice to kids (high school is not what the real world is like, so don't despair if you don't fit in there), to parents, and to teachers/administrators.
Lots here resonated for me because I was a nerd/geek/dreamer and way far down on the popularity meter. Actually, I still am a nerd/geek/dreamer, but as an adult, I really don't care, you know? I'm comfortable with my personality, I enjoy being a nerd/geek/dreamer.
Would I want to give up my fascination with learning? Not a chance! I still remember how excited I was when I was learning about physics and the M Theory. I was talking to people about it, my mouth moving so fast in my excitement that I stumbled over words, forgot to breathe, missed telling stuff that would put things in context and had to go back and explain. It's like this huge adrenaline rush for me to learn something new.
Would I want to give up my geek? No. I love that I can handle most of my computer/software issues on my own. I love that I can set up macros to make my life easier, format my own ebooks getting frustrated. I love that I can program in HTML and CSS and handle things on my own website. I think it's fun!
Would I want to lose my dreamer side? Never. Not in a million years. It's the dreamer that makes me a writer. The dreamer that transports me to alternate worlds, let's me listen to my characters. If I could only keep one of the traits that made me an outsider in high school, this would be the one I'd never let go of. Stories are part of the core of who I am.
Sorry, I digressed. One of the things that came out in the book that I found interesting was how much meaner the kids seem to be now from when I was in school. Oh, I was picked on and it was miserable a lot of times, but the level of sheer nastiness sounded much greater now than it was then. I also thank God that there was no Facebook when I was in school.
I can recommend this book for anyone interested in the psychological dynamic of teenagers in a school setting. I don't have kids, but I found a lot of it riveting and it answered things about my time in school that I'd never understood. The best part? I really got to like most of the teens that this book followed. I was rooting for Joy who was determined to be optimistic, and Blue who was so smart, but had sluffed off on his schoolwork until it was too late for him to get into the prestigious schools he was interested in attending. I even got to like Whitney, the popular bitch. Her transformation was probably the most radical.
My opinion: entertaining read
