Dawn Metcalf's Blog, page 32

Merry Making!

For all those who celebrate:

***MERRY CHRISTMAS!***


Festivities ala Hogwarts, c/o fanpop.com!

Having no idea about this myself, I hear that this involves presents, pine trees, and the Snoopy Dance. I approve! And to add to the heaps of loot, I'm happy to announce the winner of the "Don't Miss This If You Missed It" Contest Giveaway:

katemacetak!

Congratulations!!! And may this be a year of wonderful writing, reading & goodies for all!

Holiday Hilarity from YA to You!

The holidays are well upon us. You can tell be the frantic merry-making and gobs of cardboard boxes peoples' doors and halls. And here to share some holiday "ruach", is some stuff to bring you smiles for this festive holiday hilarity:

First, herein lies a bit of brilliance via the incredibly talented Saundra Mitchell who, aside from being a stand-up lady in both the writerly world and the comedic sense, is also an incredible baker and has a flair for the fun. I was thrilled when she asked me to join her and a lot of cool YA Authors in an escapade of silliness: "From YA to You!" Enjoy!



Second, how can one survive the wrapping of presents without double-sided sticky tape? Well, while I've been gluing my fingers together and tearing tissue-thin wrapping, I kept thinking of this vid of Simon's Cat which always kept me sane. Enjoy some more!



And lastly, there is *ONE MORE DAY* to enter my "Don't Miss This If You Missed It" contest giveaway for the holidays, ending tomorrow at midnight. Tell your friends, tell your neighbors, tell the hyper-intelligent robotic cyber-cat that is masquerading as an alien invader in your home: the more the merrier and they count as more chances to win!

Happy Channukah!

For all those who are celebrating, HAPPY CHANNUKAH!


Thanks to www.chicagonow.com for the pretty (and awesomely color-coordinated with my blog) holiday pic!

We in Chez Metcalf kicked the Festival of Lights off right this year starting with batches of homemade latkes, my mother's famous sufganyot (traditional doughnuts, but instead of jelly filling [blech!] these are bursting with vanilla-amaretto cream!) & a couple of gifts for the children after lighting various things on fire. (Fortunately, not one of them was my hair...)

And this morning, I successfully taught a kindergarten class how to gamble. Nothing says the holiday spirit like hearing little six-year olds scream: "Gimel! I win the pot!" I even got to make a Jewish Guilt joke. What could be better?

Chag sameach, everyone!

The "Don't Miss This If You Missed It!" Contest Giveaway!

Just in time for the holidays, I wanted to offer up a special prize pack for anyone who's just *dying* to read some really good books but got caught between the rock of pre-holiday crunch-time and the hard place of a TBR pile that just won't quit. It's hard to keep up with all the great reads that are out there, so here's a few treasures you might have passed by in

***The "Don't Miss This If You Missed It" Contest Giveaway!***


One Grand Prize Winner gets to weather the weather curled up with all of this!

Perfect for gift-giving, sharing with a friend, or keeping it all to yourself! BWAHAHA!

The Grand Prize includes:

4 great reads you might have missed featuring "Awesome Chicks in YA Fic":
* The first installment of the NIGHTSHADE trilogy by Andrea Cremer
* The debut from Karen Mahoney, THE IRON WITCH (Book 1)
* Tara Altebrando's first masterpiece, DREAMLAND SOCIAL CLUB
* A signed, hardcover copy of my debut, LUMINOUS
3 hot-n-sweet chili-lime lambada gourmet lollipops
2 single serve packets of divine Bellagio's Sipping Chocolate
1 "Fan of YA" complete collection of 2011 bookmarks

What do you have to do?

HERE'S HOW TO ENTER:

1) Write in the comments section something you've accomplished this year, something you're really proud of in 2011 (e.g.: getting a book published, receiving a second degree black belt, managing not to lose your marbles, etc.) You hit the mark. You did it. GO YOU! This is your entry! Be sure to include your email in your post.

2) Link this contest on Twitter, Facebook, or your blog for additional entries. (This counts as 1 ENTRY EACH, for a possible 3 ENTRIES.) Be sure to include these links in your comment!

Sample format: "Don't Miss This If You Missed It!" Contest Giveaway: great reads from 2011, bookmarks, candy & chocolate! http://bit.ly/vdPk6l [Plz RT]

Simple, no? Well, last but not least:

3) Link everything in the comments section with your grand total and you're entered to win! YOU MUST COMMENT ON *THIS POST* WITH LINKS FOR YOUR ENTRY TO BE ENTERED INTO THIS CONTEST!

4) This contest is open to US residents only.

This contest runs from right now until next Friday, December 23rd. Winners will be announced Holiday Weekend, with much merry-making. Treat yourself to

Go forth, don't miss out & good luck!!!

Two Little Words

Sorry to be so absent, but it comes down to two words: "Looming" & "Deadline" (to which I'd like to respond "Gone out. Backson. Bsy backson.")

Winnie the Pooh solves everything!

Stay tuned for a "Don't Miss It if You Missed It" contest full of books & win, but in the meantime, I have to go nail this edit until I reach my two favorite words: "The End."

Inspiration vs. Craft

I am deep in edits on the soon-to-be-renamed WIP and have been updating the latest draft with the golden feedback of my trusty critique readers. Fortunately for me, they say the same things; these parts are confusing and this scene is my favorite. I find that (aside from needing clarity and needing to seriously hack back on the adjectives) there are always 1-2 scenes that really stand out from the rest of the story, and those were invariably the heart of the idea from the start. These were the scenes that first popped to mind as the original spark took shape, the seeds of inspiration, and the rest is follow-through. My goal is to develop my craft enough so that my writing can match the gift of that first creative burst ala Maggie and carry it through from beginning to end. To have an entire book of such scenes, that would be amazing.

Read some more, write some more & listen to the universe--it might be trying to tell you something!

Fly!

This past weekend, I got to take my daughter to see Peter Pan performed live on stage. We dressed up and took our seats and I got to watch her eyes light up with the magic of the theater, the gilded stage, the heavy curtains, the set over London, the twinkling lights and stars and Tinkerbell, laugh at the ticking crocodile and the blustering Cap'n Hook, and clap her hands wildly to prove that she *did* believe in fairies. It was magic beyond the sparkling pixie dust and pajama-ed children who could fly.


Incredible stage performance by Cathy Rigby as Peter Pan. Photo c/o www.hartford.com

For me, there was another experience; even more than watching my daughter enjoy my first literary crush and the pang of hearing Wendy confess that she was "so much more than twenty" while handing off her daughter to have adventures without her. That was the mother in me. The writer in me, the one who loves children's literature, was delighted to (re-)experience the sheer audacity of a child who was 100% unabashedly brilliant and knew it.

Peter Pan is clever and honest and adventurous and brave. It's not that he's "conceited" (as Wendy first accuses), it's that he cannot tell a lie and when he says that he's the greatest kid he's ever met, he means it. The song "I Gotta Crow" is about feeling so proud and happy about yourself that you just can't keep that feeling in and want to share it with everybody! Polite adults say it's not nice to brag or make someone feel bad about themselves for being not-as-good-as-you and while the mother in me can understand (and preach it to my own kids), the child in me remembers being unapologetic in my happiness doing things I knew I was good at and eagerly wanting to tell absolutely everyone about it. It was a "conceit" born of happiness, a sense of honesty and pride, not having to do with anyone else, completely, positively self-centered in my enthusiasm. But the funny thing is that while I watched Peter Pan, I remembered the piece I had forgotten: the elusive quality that endeared him to Wendy and to all of us in the audience who had ever proudly demanded that Mom look at the picture we drew: Peter Pan wanted *us* to have that feeling, too, about ourselves, for ourselves, so we could do wonders. He wanted us to be happy, to be proud, to have that feeling grow so much bigger than ourselves that--with a little sprinkle of pixie dust--we could fly!

This year, I turned 40. I achieved my second degree black belt. I became a published author and saw my debut novel on the shelf. And now my daughter turns to me and says, "Mommy! I love you! Thank you!"

I flew.



Now go find YOUR wings and fly!

Laughing with The Simpsons Laughing at Me

The latest Simpsons episode starring Neil Gaiman ("The Book Job") cracked me up! Of course I tuned-in for the subject matter and the guest star, but I don't remember laughing so many times out loud during an episode in years...maybe because it felt so horribly true. In the wake of James Frey's one-million-plus-one-lies and his E Lit sweatshop "fiction factory" to "ghostwriting" series and whatever plagiarism scandal you care to name, it's not hard to see why. Mix in the biggest trends to hit the shelves and screens, and it's a YA-dream-(nightmare?)-come-true!

Watching Lisa struggle with an honest attempt to create organic literature (at first I thought she'd been inspired by Jackie Dolamore's Between Sea and Sky instead of The Little Mermaid--sadly depicted in terms of Disney and not Hans Christian Andersen--ah, well) was, as Anindita put it, "hitting a little too close to home." I feel her pain. Well, that and when Patty (Selma?) asked what *kind* of vampire they might use, pointing to several different packed bookshelves. Sigh.

The thing is, I haven't really encountered that "evil business" aspect of the business (of course, I'm not a lead title nor a hired writer, so I might plead grateful ignorance of being under the radar). And while I admit that things in the publishing business are very slow, full of unexpected expectations, and more than often confusing, I am not about to accuse any of the Big 6 of intentionally Machiavellian machinations or spraying their writer labor force with a water hose. (Although that taser scene looked awfully familiar...I think we call that "editing"...)

And I *did* really like Gaiman's cackle at the end! BWAHAHAHA!


Ah. Looks like contract negotiations to me!

Anyone else catch it? What did YOU think?

Thinking Too Much About The Hunger Games

In case you weren't up on Twitter trends yesterday, the Hunger Games trailer has just released. It looks like this:



Most responses to it went something like this: "OOOOO! WOW! OMG!!! I CAN'T WAIT!!!" with a lot of emoticons and maybe 40,000 more exclamation points and an equal number of ReTweets. Folks instantly started debating about who looked the part or what moment was their favorite, how they're glad it showed X and didn't spoil Y, and whether Gale or Peeta had enough face-time in those teasing two and a half minutes. (Although I never got into the "Team" debate, those bandwagons were a bit too crowded already.) I can honestly say my heart fluttered, but it might be more the Fear Factor because I know what's coming; I know this book and my anticipation since the announcement of the sale of movie rights has been high, worried and hopeful as many others were about what would and wouldn't be depicted when these books were brought to life via Hollywood. But the one thing that struck me watching the trailer is the same thing that struck me when they announced who would be portraying Katniss: the issue of class.

I wrote about this before, but as the residents of District Twelve gathered together onscreen, what I thought was that everyone looked far too healthy, too well-fed, too white to be the residents of the downtrodden miner district. Look at them. Look at Gale and Katniss as we open: they might be sneering at the system from their hidden place beyond the fence, but they are both young, full-lipped, beautiful with rosy cheeks and strong bodies. Healthy. Strong. It's hard to believe that Katniss has ever been on the brink of starvation, let alone submitting her name repeatedly for extra shares of fuel and food.

I can believe her cry when she volunteers, the crack in her voice as they take Prim away, but I can't seem to make the intuitive leap that any of these people are supposed to be from the sickly, resource-poor outskirts of Panem. Maybe I'm stuck thinking that Suzanne Collins' District 12 looks more like Peter Jackson's District 9 in my mind--gritty and gray and suffused with broken things like buildings and people and dreams. Maybe I'm sensitive to my imagining Katniss like the Afghan Girl or Peeta like some kid in a Shipbreaker shantytown. (I shall admit that I squealed a little bit when I saw
And I'm sure it will be very pretty. And I bet Jennifer Lawrence will be amazing. I'm also confident that the *essence* of the book will definitely be there. I'm sure a lot of folks will love seeing this on the Big Screen (and hopefully convince others to pick up the books!), but part of me winces just a little bit at the implied hand-holding, like when some "official-type people" claim authors "write down" to YA; as if those who read these books aren't mature enough to handle seeing something a little less clean, a little less white in their favorite stories. And while I have had mixed-feelings about showing the brutal murders of children by children being glorified as entertainment, (an interesting parallel between the Capitol and what we're doing right now), I am more disturbed by the idea that such stories must be softened or bleached to fit into the mindset of the majority.

Because, as part of the majority, it kinda looks like White Man's Guilt.

Happy Endings, Satisfying Endings & Abiding Hope

Recently I had a fan ask me about happy endings. (I just wanted to re-read that sentence to myself a few times: I have a fan! *SQUEE!*) Ahem. Anyway, the point was that she wanted to know if a) I thought my book had a "happy ending" or not and b) would Consuela and V eventually get their "happy ending" or not? I had to think about that. While I wrote LUMINOUS to stand alone, I'll admit it was envisioned as the first part of a three-part series, a series that I doubt will ever see the light of day through a B&N window. But although I knew how it all ends, would I consider it a happy ending?

I had to put my thinking cap on for that one. Hm.

Well, it depends. Do I think Consuela and V would get on a white horse and go galloping off into the sunset together? Answer: no. That's pretty easy since a) there are no horses in the Flow, b) I doubt either Consuela or V would know how to ride one, and c) life really doesn't work like that and neither do I. (Don't believe me? Re-read the actual ending of The Princess Bride by William Goldman and see what I mean.) And then it struck me that what's better than "happy endings" are "satisfying endings" and then I would say, yes, I see my story as having a very satisfying ending. In fact, I hope they all do.

I would rather feel satisfied than blissful after reaching the end of a really good book.

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What do these gals have in common? Sa-tis-fac-tion!

I thought about a lot of stories that are like that, too. Does The Giving Tree have a happy ending? Did the Gemma Doyle trilogy have a happy ending? Did The Crying Game have a happy ending? Did Buffy have a happy ending? Yes, but not exactly. I would argue that in the realm of greater good or in the larger scope of overall love and happiness that, yes, these characters walked away both bittersweet and (for the most part) happy, but I wouldn't call them "happy endings". However, I would say that they are all incredibly satisfying ones. All the messy ends were tied up, all the emotional upheavals given their due, the characters--from major to minor--were addressed and we knew what had happened to them (even if it made us sad), and the place where the main characters found themselves in the end was, in many ways, one of hope.

Hope is one of the strongest things that holds up a good story and throughout all the gritty, edgy urban-fantasy-ness of what people are concerned about in the black/white/red YA section of reality, the heart that still beats there is one of abiding hope and faith in the good things: love, friendship, and a better day. It's what propels the generations on the ship, Godspeed, it's what allows for sacrifice on Elegy Beach, and it's what lets us let go of Sam and Grace as they fade into Forever. Are these happy endings? Some are. Some aren't. Most don't feel much like "endings" at all, and that (to me) is the best ending of all & the one that I strive to create.

At least, I hope so!