Claire Hennessy's Blog, page 33

This and that from around the internet

–> This is a really nifty piece about young adult versus adult fiction.

–> This is a new blog about YA fiction in the UK.

–> This is a great post from author Candy Gourlay about taking wrong turns along the writing path.

–> This is a useful post about writing in the mornings.

–> This is a thought-provoking post from YA author Kody Keplinger about disablity and diversity in YA fiction.

–> This is the first proper post at Cheetah Books, a group blog focusing on gifted & talented characters as represented in fiction – looking at Jane Eyre as a GT character.

–> And this is just delightful.

–> Finally, this is one of those love it/hate it Glee covers (have to admit I'm a fan)…

YA titles out by Irish authors this year…

(Just a quick-round up of YA books out soon, and later on in the year, by Irish writers.)

Sheena Wilkinson's Grounded, sequel to the award-winning Taking Flight, is out this week. (Have read first few chapters – super stuff.)

Laura Jane Cassidy's Eighteen Kisses, second in her Jacki King series, is out in May. (Have also read the start of this – can't wait to read the rest.)

Graphic designer Ian Somers has his first book, Million Dollar Gift, out in May. (Try this one with the boys first.) And there's another O'Brien Press debut from Erika McGann, The Demon Notebook, in September.

June sees Pauline McLynn, actress and writer for grown-ups, turn to teenage fiction with Jenny Q, Stitched Up.

Ruth Frances Long has her debut YA title, The Treachery of Beautiful Things, out in August. (Currently reading – review will be coming shortly.)

Sarah Rees Brennan has two books out – one with Justine Larbalestier, Team Human (out July), and the beginning of a new trilogy, Unspoken, out in September. (Review of the latter coming shortly.)

Denise Deegan's And Actually…, the third book in her Butterfly Novels series, will be out in September. We hear from Rachel this time around.

And for younger teens, lots of further books in series. Bob Burke continues his Third Pig Detective Agency series with The Curds and Whey Mystery in June, while Judi Curtin's third Eva book, Leave It to Eva is out in August. And September sees both Sarah Webb's fifth Amy Green book, Dancing Daze (ballet!), and Anna Carey's second Rebecca book, Rebecca Rules (school musical!), out in the shops.

(Do let me know if there's any I'm missing!)

Book-review and movie-review post!

So recently, as I mentioned, I read Suzanne Collins's The Hunger Games trilogy…

My thoughts:

Finally! It's not that I haven't been hearing about how great the books are for years, it's just that a) I have ten bajillion things on the to-read list at any given time; b) things with sequels are often intimidating, particularly when there are tan bajillion things on the to-read list, and c) I'm not all that mad about action sequences. Or survival stories. It takes a lot to suck me in, and to persuade me to care about the characters. With The Hunger Games it wasn't just Katniss's bravery or burgeoning rebellion that did it for me, but also characters like Effie Trinket and Haymitch who made me buy into the world and believe in it, with their very different responses to their involvement in the lethal Games. Characters are tricky in dystopian fiction – they need to be authentically of the world they come from, rather than mouthpieces for the reader's or author's culture. But they also need to recognise – or grow to recognise – some of the problems within that world. It's something that's done really well here, not just with Katniss but with several of the characters. And I loved the media spin on the 'survival' side of things – it wasn't just a case of surviving the Games but about creating a certain image or story for the cameras. (That, I think, makes it quite relatable – most of us haven't been involved in a battle-to-the-death recently, but many of us create/monitor our online personas, for example.) Anyway. Loved the characters, the high stakes, and the fast pace. And Peeta, as I may have mentioned. I don't necessarily see myself rereading these – part of the joy is seeing what happens next – but they definitely made me more excited for the movies.

And then I went to see the first Hunger Games movie (spoilers below)…

Movie-ish thoughts:

SQUEE. I really really liked the movie, and got shivers when Katniss volunteers (which is in the trailer, yes, but what a moment). Watching it so close to the books meant that there were very few surprises (in terms of big plot stuff), but also that certain things were anticipated. (Lots of biting of nails and holding of breath.) I thought the film format worked really well for capturing both the propaganda and the wackiness of the Capitol – seeing that clip they play at the Reaping, for example. I also loved-loved-loved any time we got to see the clips of the Games on the TV screens (though would have liked to see more of it), and also seeing behind the scenes with what the Gamemakers were doing. I adored Effie (she gets so many of the best lines) and Haymitch (loved that we got actual notes from him with the parachute, and seeing him working it with the sponsors was just brilliant) and Cinna (so lovely) and Caesar (hilarious). Loved that last scene with Seneca Crane. Adored seeing both Katniss and Peeta showing off for the cameras, and the unease Katniss has in contrast with Peeta's smoothness. Would have liked a little more done with the berries scene, maybe a cut to the Gamemakers. Generally I felt it worked really well on film, although like so many adaptations, am not sure how it works for people who haven't read the books (although I think most of the essential backstory and worldbuilding stuff makes it in there).

(Now, important question: did Peeta look a little short to you? Josh Hutcherson and Jennifer Lawrence are apparently the same height, 5′ 7", though I suspect she gets put in boots that add half an inch or so. Is this some misguided attempt to make us seriously doubt that Peeta is better than Gale? Hmmph.)

(And another final thought: I don't think the film lacked any goriness or viciousness, although I know some people have suggested such things. It's pretty darn violent. What did seem very toned down was the disability side of things – Katniss's hearing, Peeta's leg. Much more striking than seven seconds of blood 'n' guts, surely?)

(Okay, I'm done.)

(PEETA.)

(Now I'm done.)

Love Triangles

I recently finished reading the Hunger Games trilogy (more thoughts forthcoming in the next book-review post), and had been vaguely aware that – along the lines of Twilight and Harry Potter – there had been some 'Team Peeta', 'Team Gale' type stuff going on within the fandom.

My question upon finishing was: 'really, people rooted for Gale in this little love triangle? Seriously? Peeta! Peeta all the way! He BAKES!'

And I found myself wondering whether I had rooted for him the whole way through because that had been the author's intention, or because of my own reading/interpretation of the text.

I can think of very few love triangles where I've genuinely understood the girl's (tends to be the girl, especially in YA fiction – which is a whole other issue) conflict. Often when it happens in TV settings there's a clear favoured outcome – e.g. with Duncan/Veronica/Logan on Veronica Mars, Logan wins all the way with the fans – or there's a back-and-forth between what the writers are doing and what the audience is responding to.

(any excuse for a Logan/Veronica clip…)

With books the love triangle may be partly invented by the fans rather than explicitly there in the text. I'm thinking of the Harry/Hermione fans in the early/middling days of Harry Potter fandom. I completely fail to see what Hermione sees in Ron, and would have liked to have seen Harry/Hermione happen, but never had any sense that the books would ever go there, or wanted the readers to believe that they might go there.

With things I've read recently, the possible 'love triangle' has been more about 'romantic false leads' and 'dragging out the tension' than anything else. Yet I'm never quite sure to what extent this is about becoming attached to a particular romantic lead as a reader (Leon in Caragh O'Brien's Birthmarked trilogy, for example) and not wanting to give up on that, rather than the whether or not the author is convincingly setting up a new/existing character as an alternative romantic interest.

I wasn't torn about 'Gale vs Peeta' in The Hunger Games, though I know some people were and know that it's there within the books as a dilemma. What I'm contemplating is whether this is about how this is set up, or about how I read the books as an individual reader, bringing existing preferences (e.g. baking over hunting!) to the equation.

And I also want to mention the one trilogy (albeit it still unfinished) where I genuinely was/am torn about the way the love triangle would go – Logan/Aura/Zachary in Jeri Smith-Ready's Shade trilogy. Without getting too spoilery about how the books go, I found myself liking Zachary an awful lot while at the same time completely getting how Aura was conflicted and hoping that there might be some way of making the Logan thing work. But I also wonder to what extent that's about the paranormal elements of that world and how they factor in to keeping people apart/together.

Just something I'm pondering. For anything (films, books, TV) featuring love triangles, did you know from the beginning who you were rooting for – or did you find yourself torn? And did the author/creator end up providing you with a satisfactory resolution? Do you root for characters or outcomes even when you sense the author/creator isn't going to go there, or do you hunt for indicators about how it'll turn out in the end?

Stealing the time to write

Some quick thoughts on writing and time (I know, my obsession) today:

I'm always reluctant to say to people "oh, you just have to make the time" too bossily, because the fact is I do not have a husband or children or invalids to care for or physical illness, and these are things that take time and energy away from individual creative pursuits and there's no way of getting around that or willing it away with the power of positive thinking. You do have to make the time, to steal it back for yourself, if you want to write, because there will always be other people making demands of you, but honestly, truly, the only person who can assess just how feasible that is in your current situation – if it is genuinely something you can do without devastating other parts of your life – is you.

But I do think that if you are in a situation where you absolutely cannot make the time, if you genuinely-truly-when-you-really-think-about-it-and-are-honest-with-yourself don't have the choice to steal bits of time for your own creativity, twenty minutes here and there, that it is not good for you. That it's damaging, not 'normal', not 'just how things are for everyone', and that – whether you were to end up using time for yourself to write or to do anything else – it's a situation where it is really worth asking for help, if you can, where and when you can.

I want to say as a general rule, no one reading this is in that situation, but then again, I don't know. I don't know your situation, the particular circumstances, the stresses and pressures and demands of your life. I don't know just how bad it is. My point is, I guess, that it's pretty damn bad if you really-genuinely-truly can't find any time to write ever. 'Cause most of us? We can. We really-genuinely-truly can. It is not something that requires drastic lifestyle choices, quitting jobs and abandoning our lives. It's seeing little pockets of time and using them in a focused way. That's all it is. Writing doesn't have to take over your life to fit into it.

Book-review post!

(All of these read on Kindle! Yes, I have succumbed. I still own and will continue to buy more print books than I can ever reasonably hope to read, but now I have two kinds of epic to-read list! These are a mix of YA and contemporary women's fiction, published either earlier this year or last year.)

Sophie Kinsella – Six Geese A-Laying

A free e-book – a Christmas short story about an exclusive pre-natal group with a mysterious twist. Really loved the concept behind this – amusing and touching all at the same time.

Jojo Moyes – The Last Letter From Your Lover

Ellie, a journalist, is having an affair with a married man; when she finds a letter from someone in a similar situation from the 1960s it prompts the reveal of another love story. In 1960, a young woman, Jennifer, wakes up in hospital with no recollection of the accident that brought her there or the man who is her husband. Slowly we see the reveal of the events that led to that accident, as well as what happens afterwards. This is a complex and twisty love story with plenty of mystery, with a gorgeous ending – a book that's a real treat to read.

Sophie Kinsella – I've Got Your Number

New Sophie Kinsella! Poppy is engaged to a fancy academic, Magnus, whose parents seem to disapprove of her (she's 'only' a physiotherapist, not a professor). When she loses her engagement ring (a priceless family heirloom) but finds someone else's phone (the PA to a super-busy executive type, Sam), life gets a little crazy. Poppy insists on keeping the phone – her own's just been stolen and this new one is the number she'll be contacted on if the ring turns up – but that means forwarding messages onto Sam… or perhaps answering a few of them herself. Poppy is a very likeable heroine – as Sam later notes, she's a little too please-like-me, the complete opposite to him – and Sam is just delightful (he helps her cheat at Scrabble from afar – ah, true love!). Immensely readable and enjoyable. (I will note that the footnotes in this one, which I adore, are probably easier to read in print than on Kindle. But I did like the immediate gratification element of being able to order a book on the day of its publication and have it straight away.)

Stephanie Perkins – Lola and the Boy Next Door

I adored Stephanie Perkins's first novel, Anna and the French Kiss, and this is a sort-of related title in that Anna and St Clair appear, although honestly I think it would have worked just as well as a stand-alone. (We know Anna and St Clair are happy and in-love, we don't need to see it!) Lola is fashion-crazy, a girl who loves costumes and creation. She's dating Max, an older musician, who her parents disapprove of; her birth mother got pregnant at seventeen and there's a fear of history repeating itself. The boy next door is the delightful Cricket – well dressed and an eccentric inventor type – who Lola hasn't seen in years, and who's moved back with the rest of his family, including his twin, the cold and competitive Calliope. As with Anna there's much more going on than just a love story – family issues, friends, an individual passion, a well-utilised setting (San Francisco, in this case) – but the love story is exquisite. (Oh, Cricket!)

Abby McDonald – Getting Over Garrett Delaney

Another smart, fun, pop-culture-tastic, feminist read from Abby McDonald. Sadie has been hopelessly in love with her best friend, Garrett, for years, and just when she thinks he's finally about to announce he feels the same way about her too, he reveals that he's fallen in love with someone else. Again. So she decides to detox – with the help of her new colleagues at the local coffee shop – and realises she needs to reinvent herself. Or more accurately, discover herself. This is an insightful take on the interests we develop in response to that charismatic someone else, and the things we hide because that someone else doesn't approve. Also on hopeless crushes. And self-help programmes. Really enjoyed reading this one.

Jessica Martinez – Virtuosity

What I know about classic violin-ing (is that a word?) could fit on the back of a pin, but I adored this debut from Jessica Martinez about seventeen-year-old Carmen, a homeschooled anxiety-drug-taking girl on the verge of a major competition, hoping to transition from 'child prodigy' to 'successful adult performer'. Her main rival is Jeremy – also precocious – who she becomes obsessed with, and then involved with. Meanwhile, her scheming mother, Diana, is up to no good behind the scenes… Fascinating read.

New York, New York…

Sometime last year I began getting New York cravings, which is most unlike me. You know those people who love travelling, those starry-eyed-with-wanderlust types? That's not me. The thought of backpacking anywhere fills me with horror. And as someone who uses and loves words, the frustrations of being somewhere where you don't understand or speak the language overwhelm the charms of new-shiny-magical-experiences. (I am a pretty boring person, really. It's what happens when you live inside your head a lot.)

But I'd been to New York a few years before, and loved it, or at least the pieces I'd seen (almost entirely Manhattan-ish). And the cravings hit. And then Laura mentioned she was planning on visiting there again soon…

(Her thoughts and indeed photos are up, for any of you that are interested!)

So, yes. Some high points:

–> William Shatner is currently doing a one-man show on Broadway (running for only three weeks – may be just finishing up now, actually). Did not know this 'til I arrived and passed by a theatre/theater with his face and 'Shatner's World' on it. Was clearly fate. It. Was. Awesome.

–> Saw a wonderful cast including Alan Rickman in a marvellous play called Seminar, in which he plays a grumpy, snarky writing teacher. IT IS GENIUS. So many wonderful moments, and comments ranging from insightful to deranged on the matter of writing. And, y'know, Alan Rickman.

–> The New York Public Library is very very pretty altogether. I love the Lego lions inside the main entrance.

–> Know it's a cliche, but, oh, the view from the Empire State Building observation deck at night… wow.

–> There is lots and lots of art in the Guggenheim, the Met, and MOMA. (How many water lilies did Monet paint, incidentally?! Sheesh.)

–> The Strand remains my favourite real-life bookshop.

Okay, apparently I have much more to say about the Broadway things than the sights. But I have scribbles about the sights, in a notebook, along with other thoughts and notes and plans. I left feeling slightly overwhelmed but also inspired – like what Julia Cameron calls 'artist dates', but turned up to eleven. Work has been slightly manic this past week or so, but I'm keeping that notebook nearby and will turn it into something a little more whole by the end of the year, hopefully.

Next up on the blog this week: book-review post! Including some things first read on – gasp! – Kindle.

Some things (with links)

–> Recent interview with Sophie Kinsella, whose new book I've Got Your Number is just out. In which the interviewer is a tad condescending and Kinsella is mightily zen. (There's as well.)

–> On a related note, a piece about reader-shaming and genre fiction.

–> Over at DIY MFA, there's a great post about what you promise the reader in the opening pages of a story or novel.

–> On the non-writerly, personal side of things, there is a super piece here about bad relationships. Aimed at teenagers, but worth reading at any age.

–> And on a happier TV junkie note, some fabulous bits of Cougar Town Season 3. (I may have mentioned my love of this show previously. It is very very funny, and has a super cast. YAY for season 3!)

Series Fiction and Authorship

Recently went to see Young Adult with some lovely ladies, the film in which Charlize Theron plays a woman who can't quite get over her high school glory days. This extends to her career as a quasi-ghostwriter for a longrunning teen book series, Waverly Prep, where the heroine, Kendall, is amazingly beautiful and perfect.







So, obviously, y'know, there is a plot to the movie, but also we get to see snippets of Waverly Prep (always Kendall's reflections about her own fabulousness – never any dialogue or action – it's amazing). And there's a great scene where the writer, Mavis, tries to sign books in a bookshop but her name is the tiiiny one on the inside cover, underneath the Creator name. But then again, at least her name's actually on the book.

It got me thinking about my favourite series of that ilk and how they handle the whole authorship thing (because I am weird like that). You know, the ghost-written or half-ghost-written or speedily-written kind, where six or twelve or twenty-four books would come out a year.

Francine Pascal is obviously the queen of this (James Patterson is probably the king). 'Created' the Sweet Valley series, wrote none of 'em (except the ten-years-on sequel, which is generally acknowledged as deeply flawed). Each series was labelled as 'written by' a specific author – e.g. 'Laurie John' for the Sweet Valley University series, 'Jamie Suzanne' for the Sweet Valley Twins books, umbrella pseudonyms for a whole bunch of ghostwriters. Those names were drawn from Pascal's own family. Pascal also created the Caitlin trilogies, the first of which was actually written by Joanna Campbell, who'd go on to create and write the Thoroughbred series, which was eventually taken over by ghostwriters (as far as I know these were mentioned in the acknowledgements).

Cherie Bennett created and wrote the Sunset Island books, and also wrote TV tie-in novels, sometimes with her husband, as C.J. Anders. (Several of the Dawson's Creek tie-in novels are by her – her style comes through and there's snarky dialogue, but inevitably because of the delay between writing and publication and how the series was going, the pairings-up of the characters are always slightly skewed.) Bennett can write quickly, but the continuity sometimes suffers.

There are two different stories of how Cecily von Ziegesar developed the Gossip Girl series, one which is very book-packager-esque and the other is very individual-author-presents-idea-based-on-her-own-high-school-days. It's a packaged series but the idea of the author is a powerful one, marketing-wise, so the second version is played up. Von Ziegesar 'created' The It Girl spin-off but it's ghost-written – I haven't read any of the books so am not sure how the author is listed.

The Cheerleaders series (genius) and series like Point Horror, Point Romance etc tended to be written by who they said they were. Many of the writers – Diane Hoh, Caroline B Cooney, Christopher Pike – went on to write single-title novels or their own series under the names used for these series books. (Christopher Pike is of course a pen-name – named after the captain in the original Star Trek pilot – but as far as I know, Diane Hoh and Caroline B Cooney are Real Names.)

It seems to be more common to have multiple authors acknowledging straight-up that they are multiple authors in series like the Point ones, with different characters/storylines each book, rather than the Cheerleaders series. The more common tendency is to go the route of mystery series – Carolyn Keene or Franklin Dixon, umbrella names for the many ghostwriters of the Nancy Drew and Hardy Boys books.

Very often writers will create a series and write the books initially, then hand over the reins to ghostwriters – K.A. Applegate (Animorphs) or R.L. Stine (Goosebumps) followed this pattern. Or they won't be the original creator of a series but still write the books (Ann M. Martin with The Babysitters Club). The pattern for series like this – the three I've mentioned are all Scholastic series, incidentally – is to have the author be reasonably open about the ghostwriter's 'help'. There's no 'written by' credit, but there is a 'The author acknowledges the help of [whoever] in preparing this manuscript'. It's very clever – anticipates the possible sense of betrayal a young reader might feel when the 'author' (whose life is often shaped in such a way to make it seem like the books are very personally important to them) isn't actually the one who's written the books, because look, it's right there and they're being up front with you, and don't worry, the author is still in charge of things. (It also means that the more obsessive fans of the series can make lists of which ghostwriter penned which books and assess if there are any that are better than others.)

Any other ghost-written or maybe-ghost-written books you loved or still love? Any series you loved as a child and then discovered were ghost-written?

How much do you write each day?

"But how much should you really be writing?" people in creative writing classes ask, looking for the set number, the goal to work towards, something that has been approved by Someone Else.

"It depends," is what you say, because it's all you can say. It depends on so many things.

Are you writing a first draft, or are you revising? (Writing 1000 words is not the same as revising them.)
Are you revising as you go, or just powering through?
Do you know exactly where the book/story is going, or do you need to factor in thinking time? Or research time?
How much time do you have per day? Per week? Per month?
How much can you reasonably write within that time?
What's your limit for 'workable' words per day/week? (e.g. you can write 1000 words a day and know they'll be okay, but going to 2000 words will mean that there's unusable rubbish in there)
Can you write at the same pace throughout the week? When will you take breaks? (Taking breaks = good thing.)
Are you under contract for this book? When is it due and how much do you need to write per day/week/month to meet that deadline?

Would love to hear your answers on this one, everyone! How much do you write each day that you write – and is that every day, every weekday, every second day, or occasional days only?