Molly O'Keefe's Blog, page 8

I Think We Broke It…

Jeff Bezos was asked on a 60 Minutes interview if he felt bad about potentially destroying businesses as a result of Amazon’s growing success. The business in question was more brick and mortar book stores and independent booksellers. He shrugged and basically said it’s on every business to do whatever they can to be successful. Companies go out of business. Amazon will too someday.

But for now bottom line, he’s giving the customer what they want and if that kills book stores then too bad. At the end of the day the customer decides. And while in some ways this makes me sad, I do see his point. He didn’t set out to destroy brick and mortar stores. He set out to provide a service. Which ultimately customers loved.

It’s like You’ve Got Mail. Tom Hanks ate Meg Ryan’s cute little children’s book store. Well Jeff Bezos just ate Tom Hanks. It’s the way of business.

But the other industry that he’s irrevocably altering is publishing. Again, not Jeff’s fault. A platform was provided for authors to sell their books directly to consumers. Some see this as a huge advancement.

And the same business logic holds true. It’s up to every business to do what it can to be successful. Every individual author is now their own business.

I think that’s the problem though. I think that’s what we broke. I think authors because we are now “the business” started thinking less about writing books and more about selling books. In this race to the Amazon Bestseller list we bought fake reviews, flooded the market with content, and dropped prices to .99. Impacting the overall the quality of books themselves and the trust we have with readers.

Some might dispute the quality issue, but I don’t think it can be. Yes, there are some self-published books out there that are better than some traditionally published books. But if we’re just looking at over all grammatical structure, spelling, homophones, cohesiveness of storytelling, accurate research – with the thousands and thousands of self-published books out there when considering ALL the books – the quality as a whole has dropped.

We did this. We became our own Walmart and we ate publishing. In a race for finding that hidden gold where you could somehow tap into the zeitgeist of readers and make millions on a book that took very little effort to write.

But that’s business right?

Here’s where I think we lost sight of something important. Publishing wasn’t just a business about money. At least not in its conception. It was about finding the best stories out there and making them better and bringing them to the masses. Yes, if you were good at what you did you made money. But publishing was also part of the creative process. It was about making art.

Maybe that got lost somewhere in traditional publishing’s best-seller or bust mentality. It’s certainly taking a hit now with so many books being put out there for purchase that haven’t been properly edited.

And so maybe this post is a bummer about how everything is ruined and will never be the same, BUT here is the rub. This will change again. Business will evolve, readers expectations will change, authors will try new strategies. Who knows what is coming next.

That’s the real ending of You’ve Got Mail. Tom Hanks goes bust because his book store goes under. Meg Ryan starts up a new boutique children’s book store – because children’s books are still doing well in print form – and he ends up working for her.

Father Son Films

I recently saw the movies About Time and Nebraska and while they’re very different movies, it struck me that they’re both essentially about the father/son relationship.

Yes, About Time was marketed as a romance, and sure, there is a romance. And I’m not saying it’s a trivial part of the story, but I don’t think it was the heart of the movie (in spite of Rachel McAdams being the main feature on the posture and in the ads). The real “moments” in the film, and they are lovely moments, are more about the protagonist (played by Domhnall Gleeson, who was new to me–although looking on his imdb page, he was in True Grit and Dredd… must watch those again and OMG he was one of the Weasley brothers. Of course! Clearly not new to me…) and his dad, played by the always fabulous Bill Nighy. 

Like so many British films of this ilk, About Time is populated by interesting, almost impossibly quirky characters, and just watching them kept me entertained. The time travel aspect of the movie (mostly) made sense and I kind of admired how they brushed off the “big issues” with time travel. Like when Tim (the protagonist) asks his dad about the risk of the butterfly effect when he travels back in time, his dad replies, “Hasn’t been an issue for me.” And that’s all we get.

And then later there is a rule, and I’m not sure it completely made sense, (or if it did, then other things should have changed too…) but because that rule ends up being such an important limitation and drives the most important decision/moments/realizations of the movie, I, for one, gave them a break and didn’t think about it too much.

It’s a sweet film. Not one you had to rush out to the theatres to see, but definitely worth it if you want a feel good movie some time. Lovely.

Then there’s Nebraska. Which I loved. A lot. But a much less commercial kind of movie. It’s filmed in black and white which fits it perfectly. It’s set in the present, but in small towns and on backroads, and with characters who slightly seem caught in another era, so the black and white seemed a perfect choice. The basic idea of this story is an old man (played by Bruce Dern) gets one of those “You might have won a million dollars!” letters in the mail and takes it seriously and is determined to go collect his money in person. “I’m not going to trust a million dollars to the mail!”

The characters in the movie seemed so real (especially in contrast to the quirky ones in About Time). And most of them weren’t particularly nice or conventionally interesting, but the dynamics between them all were very interesting, at least for me.

The main character in this movie is played by Will Forte who was never one of my favs on SNL. In fact, I found just about every character he played on SNL annoying. But he was good in this. Really good. He really grew on me and by the end of the movie I was really loving his character. He plays a son of an alcoholic, who by all rights doesn’t owe his (very prickly, at least to his son) dad a thing… and yet he really goes out of his way to help and protect and defend his father. And I loved how the relationship between him and his brother (played by Bob Odenkirk) played out too. There are some seriously funny moments in this movie.

As a girl, clearly I can’t 100% relate to the father/son dynamic, but I think anyone can relate to a parent/child dynamic and I found a lot to relate to in this movie. Mostly how the main character was able to look beyond past transgressions and grievances, and allowed himself to be kind in the present. I wish I could do more of that…

What’s your favorite father/son movie?

Thanksgivukkah Miracle!

For those of you who aren’t my friends on Facebook or who haven’t liked my Facebook author page (and why not? I am super-friendly. We should totes be BFFs. Get over there and friend me or like me now, okay?), I managed to get my first chick lit novel, Do Me, Do My Roots, up on Amazon and available for Kindle on Thanksgivukkah.

Maureen blogged about Thanksgivukkah last week with a graphic that I think explained it beautifully. For the first time in over 180 years and the last time for more than 70,000 years, Thanksgiving and Hanukkah (or Chanukkah or Chanukka, seriously, spell it however you want to spell it. You’ll be using the wrong alphabet, no matter what) overlapped. I celebrated by serving a Turbrisket:

Making a Squashorah (that’s a menorah made from a squash):

But most importantly, on a day where I was surrounded by family and friends, I made available a book that I could only have written with the support of my family and friends. I would not have come through what I had come through without them. The book is dedicated to my sisters, biological and otherwise. So, you know, if you feel like it, check it out. I think you might like it.

Christmas Wish List

Less than a month till Christmas, and if you’re like me, you haven’t started shopping yet. But I have been thinking about what I want this year for Christmas.

1) Same Canada pricing as in the US. I can’t tell you how many book promo deals get announced that are not available through Amazon Canada. I know it’s a publisher issue, but it’s really annoying. I wouldn’t mind even paying a slight increase, say 20% to take into account taxes and duties, on you know, downloaded files, but in this case, a book gets discounted in the States to $3.99, and for us Canadians, it’s $14.99. Why? I know it bugs readers in the UK and Australia as well. So Santa, please fix this.

2) Another great Urban fantasy series, like the Moning Dreamfever books. I’m ready to get lost in a series again.

3) A great literary fiction novel that is totally gripping. The ones I’ve picked up have been great for getting me to sleep at night, but I’m looking for one that will make me want to stay up late reading.

4) For Iris Johansen to start writing historicals again. I really miss her dark, rich historicals with the intense plotting. I know she’s a bestseller in suspense, but this is my wish list.

5) Another Ya series like the Hunger Games and the Girl of Fire and Thorns.

That’s it, it’s not so bad, and I don’t think I’m being greedy. I want 2014 to be a great reading year. Did I miss anything? What’s on your list?

 

 

Happy Thanksgivukkah!

Catching Fire

Watching (and loving) Catching Fire, and seeing the trailers for other upcoming movies based on YA books, made me reflect on possible reasons why some YA series have done well as movies and others have tanked.

Now, for anything in entertainment, there’s always an element of luck and other uncontrollable variables. If a series does well as books, and tanks as a movie, it could just be that the movie sucked: bad casting, bad directing, bad writing…

But given which ones have done well, and which ones have tanked, I have another hypothesis: Maybe the movies that tanked were based on books that, well, either sucked or weren’t well suited for movie adaptation.

I know we’ve discussed (years ago, probably) why more romance novels aren’t developed into feature films. I do believe that a large part of that is male bias and prejudice against the romance genre etc. etc. but… it’s also been suggested that most great romance novels are too internally focussed to come across well on the screen. That it’s hard to capture the inner conflict and journey that’s so crucial to romance. Yes. Definitely there have been fabulous romance movies that defy that, but I also think there’s some truth to it, and I’m wondering if the amount of focus on the romance is the dividing line between YA series that have translated well to the big screen and ones that haven’t…

It’s hard to do this without examples. I can think of two fairly big movie flops in the past year. The film based on the Beautiful Creatures books and the one based on the Cassandra Clare series. Full disclosure. I started but did not finish either of these books. And I only saw one of the movies (I didn’t see Beautiful Creatures). But I do think that a lot of the emotional attachment that readers had to these books involved the romance. And sure, there’s action, but the action is, perhaps, secondary to the romance in importance, certainly for the readers. So, if the romance on the screen doesn’t live up to the romance in the fans’ minds… The movie flops.

The Hunger Games, on the other hand, is translating well to film. And based on my new hypothesis, I’d suggest that this is because the romance is secondary (tertiary?) to the other story lines in the books. I’m not saying that readers weren’t invested in Team Peeta vs. Team Gale, but it’s not the most important element of the story.

I sat, for Catching Fire, between a few groups of young women/teens and their reactions to the trailers were interesting/telling too… When the Divergent trailer came on, they were practically jumping up and down with glee in their seats, but when the Vampire Academy trailer came on, I actually heard one of them say, and I quote, “Um. No.”

 

I did read both of those books and enjoyed both, and while it’s been several years since I read Vampire Academy, what I remember most (one of the only things I remember) was the romance. The dark, mysterious older man the protagonist falls for. Whereas with Divergent, I do remember Four, sure, but more so I remember the ideas, the action, the tension of going against family and a teen deciding who she really wanted to be…

I’m liking my theory, but where it all falls apart is the Twilight series. They were books that definitely centered around a romance, and yet did well on the big screen. Maybe because they came first? Maybe because the books were such a HUGE phenomenon? Maybe because the chemistry of the off-screen romance between Stewart and Pattinson got captured on screen? Maybe because of Stewart’s near-constant panting?

I dunno… But the other film based on a Stephenie Myers romance (The Host) was one of the worst movies ever. And those are strong words coming from me. Especially since it starred Saoirse Ronan…

Thoughts anyone? Has anyone else seen Catching Fire yet? The Divergent trailer?

Ooh! Bright! Shiny!

Today I typed the two scariest words in an author’s repertoire: Chapter One. I have enough of the idea of the book — of its characters and its shape and its form — in my head to start. Right now, it is beautiful and pristine and, frankly, I love it. It is clearly brilliant.

So why so scary?

Because I know it will never live up to the amazing bright shininess I want it to be. It just can’t. Nothing is that good. But, oh, I so want to try because what if this time is the time that it actually lives up to what I want it to be? What if this time my inner genius comes out to shine? Really, it could be it. I mean, why not, right?

Which is, to be honest, even more scary in its own way.

And really, none of it matters. I’m going to do it anyway. I don’t know why I have to dither over it, but apparently I do. Today I hit the point when I’d dithered enough, wrote Chapter One and then “Somehow it seemed appropriate that I was drunk when I got the call.”

Wish me luck! I’m diving in!

Vulnerability in heroines

I’m watching Master’s Of Sex right now, and surprisingly really enjoying it. It’s my favourite show that’s currently airing. I started watching because I love Michael Sheen, and he’s great, but his character is difficult at times to like, but what’s really holding my attention in the show are the female characters.

Two in particular, Virginia Johnson and Libby, who is Master’s wife.

Virginia is the twice divorced, single mother of two children who is striving for more, for a career, for respect and finds herself caught up in the excitement of real scientific discovery. She’s, as portrayed by the show, not as constrained by the 50′s version of what a woman should be, and as played by Lizzy Caplan, smart, driven and completely sympathetic. The show does a great job of exposing her vulnerability as she progressed from secretary to research assistant, to, I assume, respected scientist. She relies on Masters, because he’s chosen her to help him, she’s trying to juggle her children and a demanding work schedule, and compete with men, who have none of her disadvantages and lack her drive. It’s relatable to a modern woman, even though the show is set in the 50′s.

On the opposite end of the scale is Master’s wife, Libby, shown in the first episode as a typical 50′s wife, who dresses for dinner and rather weirdly calls her husband, “Daddy”. She wants nothing more than to have a child and so far, she’s had no success. And she’s lonely, and her husband pays little attention to her. She’s warm and kind and a little tragic and a wonderful character to watch, especially her growth over the show as she realizes her husband isn’t as attracted to her as she’d like, and she’s cut off from the world and how she deals with that has been fascinating to watch. She’s a woman with as little power as Virginia, but in completely different circumstances.

What I love is that rather than having the women at odds, the writers have made them friends, at least up until the point I’ve seen.

And then there’s the storyline featuring Allison Janney, who plays a woman who’s life if falling apart and she’s heartbreaking to watch and dignified in the loss of everything she’s known. It’s gorgeous..

Anyone else watching the show? I’m seriously loving it.

 

 

 

I’m Loving the Lizard

Jane from Dear Author recommended The Last Hour of Gann. This book featured… yep, you guessed it, a Lizardman hero. Colonizing humans crash land on a planet. The heroine, Amber, meets the hero, Meoraq (I’m sure I’m spelling his name wrong – I spell it different every time) and their crazy journey of love, sex, faith and self-awareness begins.

Now I will say there is a ton of controversy around this book. A lot of it dealing with sexual violence. There is a rape scene that I’m dreading and really hoping I can find a way to skip around it without compromising my experience with this book.

But overall this book has been a game changer for me. Because I went into it thinking Lizardhero? Seriously? And really I mean our mind goes there. This is a romance, there is going to be sex. Is it going to be gross? Am I going to be skeeved out by lizard sex? Does even reading about lizard sex make me weird? Some people were actually calling it Dino Porn.

And like the rant Molly had against the term Mommy Porn, it applies here too. Because we as romance readers get so conditioned into the self-shaming of what we enjoy. Can you imagine trying to explain to a man that you’re reading a romance featuring a lizard hero? He’s going to look at you like you’re crazy or maybe into something kinky… when it’s so not about that.

This book is about two people from two different cultures, faith and societies who fall in love anyway. It’s absolutely what a romance is supposed to be. It’s how they fall in love and why they fall in love. And you as the reader can see and feel it happening with them. So that by the time they have sex you’re so intimately connected to them and their journey that the experience is real and amazing and you’re cheering in your head… Yeah!!!! They finally did it!!!

This has nothing to do with the hero being a lizard. This has everything to do with why two people come together and sometimes how the sex solidifies that bond and creates all new problems too. It’s a reminder to me why sex in romance isn’t so much about titillation, but about the full experience of this couple’s journey.

I love this lizard. I would date this lizard. I would sit down and talk with him for hours about his thoughts and faith. And yes, I would have sex with this lizard because this book reminds me that it isn’t about what we look like or how we’re shaped. That sex, really good sex, is everything about who we are as people and the connection we have to one another.

Creating Real Men

A friend posted a link to this blog on Facebook a few days ago. It’s all about how to know you’re dating a real man. I loved it. Partly because the description really fit the man in my life, but also partly because it occurred to me that it was a great checklist to keep in mind when creating a hero.

I went ahead and took a peek at his blog on the difference between bad boys and jerks. I feel like he hit the nail on the head and made some important points that, again, I want to keep in mind for the next hero I create.

I’ve read a lot of craft books in my time. I’ve read a lot of novels and thought about what I liked and didn’t like about various characters. I think I’m going to stop doing that and start reading relationship books instead.

I have to admit, until my friend posted the blog, I’m not sure I knew who James Michael Sama was. I’m still not sure and I’m really hoping I’m not singing the praises of a total asshat here. Anybody know him? Read his blog? Think it’s not a bad way to create a hero?