Dawn Metcalf's Blog, page 40
April 5, 2011
Flying in Good Company: 3 Great Books
Due to wonkiness on the part of LJ yesterday, this post was delayed until right about now.
Having had a coast-to-coast flight during the past week, I decided to gift myself with no internet access, a fully-charged laptop, and a few TBR books from my ever-present pile. Including some great conversations and excellent people-watching, what I came away with was a rough outline for another WIP, a review of my current WIP, and a few great recommendations for upcoming reads that I couldn't wait to share with everyone I've ever met!
I've haven't had a lot of reviews yet, but those I have say that it's "weird" which makes me deliriously happy. Dreamland Social Club is another book which is delightfully weird and made me deliriously happy! A revisit to a childhood and a carny world the main character, Jane, never knew set on Coney Island, half-forgotten memories, and black and white reel-to-reel films. The flavor of this book was just too incredible to describe and I loved reading about the transformation of Jane as much as the slew of phenomenal secondary characters, from Little People to half-men, true geeks and tatooed hotties. This was One Great Book! (I'll admit I've been coveting this one as both Tara and I received cover kudos from the illustrious Betsy Bird on Fuse8 and this is also a sibling book as we share an editor at Dutton Books!)
I'm not really into contemporary YA, I'm a genre girl at heart, but I have to say that the latest Sarah Dessen book, What Happened To Goodbye was so lovely and heartfelt, there was blinking and tears that I tried to hide from the unsuspecting iPod users next to me. McLean's struggle with self-identity in the face of constant change and echoes of her past coming face-to-face with reality struck a chord with me and that wish to be someone else, somewhere else, growing up. Dessen blended the character McLean seamlessly into a world of restaurants, teen technology, wacky friends and new heartthrob genius, Dave Wade. There were so many times I wanted to put down the book and give each character a hug, all I could do was think who I could tell about this book so that they could love it too! (Hear about what the author has to say about the book here.)
Have I gabbed enough about my love of The Tale of Despereaux? Well, Kate DiCamillo's lyrical, storyteller voice comes through again in her latest book, The Magician's Elephant. Reminiscent of Les Misérables, (a personal favorite of mine), it has the incredible and impossible mixing with accidental meetings and twists of fate in a joyful and tragic tale of promises, truths, the opening of our hearts and the blessing of forgiveness. What I love most about DiCamillo's writing is that her stories feel like old fairy tales but with modern values I respect and admire. The Newberry Award winning tale of a mouse following his heart might still be my favorite, but this was a wonderful read I wanted to bring home to my daughter at once!
And, so, now I have shared them with you. Go! Now! Read!
Having had a coast-to-coast flight during the past week, I decided to gift myself with no internet access, a fully-charged laptop, and a few TBR books from my ever-present pile. Including some great conversations and excellent people-watching, what I came away with was a rough outline for another WIP, a review of my current WIP, and a few great recommendations for upcoming reads that I couldn't wait to share with everyone I've ever met!
I've haven't had a lot of reviews yet, but those I have say that it's "weird" which makes me deliriously happy. Dreamland Social Club is another book which is delightfully weird and made me deliriously happy! A revisit to a childhood and a carny world the main character, Jane, never knew set on Coney Island, half-forgotten memories, and black and white reel-to-reel films. The flavor of this book was just too incredible to describe and I loved reading about the transformation of Jane as much as the slew of phenomenal secondary characters, from Little People to half-men, true geeks and tatooed hotties. This was One Great Book! (I'll admit I've been coveting this one as both Tara and I received cover kudos from the illustrious Betsy Bird on Fuse8 and this is also a sibling book as we share an editor at Dutton Books!)
I'm not really into contemporary YA, I'm a genre girl at heart, but I have to say that the latest Sarah Dessen book, What Happened To Goodbye was so lovely and heartfelt, there was blinking and tears that I tried to hide from the unsuspecting iPod users next to me. McLean's struggle with self-identity in the face of constant change and echoes of her past coming face-to-face with reality struck a chord with me and that wish to be someone else, somewhere else, growing up. Dessen blended the character McLean seamlessly into a world of restaurants, teen technology, wacky friends and new heartthrob genius, Dave Wade. There were so many times I wanted to put down the book and give each character a hug, all I could do was think who I could tell about this book so that they could love it too! (Hear about what the author has to say about the book here.)
Have I gabbed enough about my love of The Tale of Despereaux? Well, Kate DiCamillo's lyrical, storyteller voice comes through again in her latest book, The Magician's Elephant. Reminiscent of Les Misérables, (a personal favorite of mine), it has the incredible and impossible mixing with accidental meetings and twists of fate in a joyful and tragic tale of promises, truths, the opening of our hearts and the blessing of forgiveness. What I love most about DiCamillo's writing is that her stories feel like old fairy tales but with modern values I respect and admire. The Newberry Award winning tale of a mouse following his heart might still be my favorite, but this was a wonderful read I wanted to bring home to my daughter at once!
And, so, now I have shared them with you. Go! Now! Read!
March 28, 2011
Writer Ninja & A Brief Lo-aitus
It's Monday and I have drawn a winner from the #BlackBeltWriter Challenge and it is:
@sjaejones
YAY! Please ping me with your mailing address so your WRITER NINJA can sneak into the right mailbox and draw merrily upon your WIP while your back is turned!
Oddly enough, Writer Ninja was made to celebrate my finally getting my 2nd degree Black Belt (Nidan) after ten years of on-again-off-again training but, like the journey to publication, the course does not run smooth nor predictably and while I did manage to do the incredibly grueling endurance portion of the test (despite having pneumonia and influenza A, go me [?!?]), the technical portion was postponed until next week to allow my immune system time to recover...unfortunately, my grandmother passed away in the interim and now I shall be going to her funeral. Therefore, there will be a short hiatus (being a low point, perhaps is this a lo-aitus?) on the blog as well as my life in general as I leave to commune with my family, cuddling up and crying/laughing/mourning/remembering together.
My Bubbe was an amazing woman who endured hardships and challenges that boggle the mind and shudder the spine of anyone who could even imagine living through such things today, and yet she did so with dignity, grace and an enduring faithfulness to her family, no matter the definition. We talked more as adults than ever we had when I was little and I'm proud to have known her as a person and loved her as a person and shared our lives beyond a Hallmark card or two. We talked often, I listened lots. If I learned anything from her, it is this: life is precious and so are the people in it.
So until somewhat later, peace & keep writing!
@sjaejones
YAY! Please ping me with your mailing address so your WRITER NINJA can sneak into the right mailbox and draw merrily upon your WIP while your back is turned!
Oddly enough, Writer Ninja was made to celebrate my finally getting my 2nd degree Black Belt (Nidan) after ten years of on-again-off-again training but, like the journey to publication, the course does not run smooth nor predictably and while I did manage to do the incredibly grueling endurance portion of the test (despite having pneumonia and influenza A, go me [?!?]), the technical portion was postponed until next week to allow my immune system time to recover...unfortunately, my grandmother passed away in the interim and now I shall be going to her funeral. Therefore, there will be a short hiatus (being a low point, perhaps is this a lo-aitus?) on the blog as well as my life in general as I leave to commune with my family, cuddling up and crying/laughing/mourning/remembering together.
My Bubbe was an amazing woman who endured hardships and challenges that boggle the mind and shudder the spine of anyone who could even imagine living through such things today, and yet she did so with dignity, grace and an enduring faithfulness to her family, no matter the definition. We talked more as adults than ever we had when I was little and I'm proud to have known her as a person and loved her as a person and shared our lives beyond a Hallmark card or two. We talked often, I listened lots. If I learned anything from her, it is this: life is precious and so are the people in it.
So until somewhat later, peace & keep writing!
March 24, 2011
Katniss: More Than Just Skin Deep
Finally weighing-in on the whole Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss thing and while really intelligent folks are debating the casting pros and cons (including literary smart ladies that I respect and admire like Malinda Lo and Sarah "JJ" Jones), I will admit my bias by saying what I first thought upon seeing a photo of the actress chosen to play the Hunger Games MC, all I could think was:
"Isn't she a bit...white?"
[image error]
The obvious reference was that she was pale and blond. Katniss was described as having dark hair, olive skin and gray eyes. Now all of these things can be changed with contacts, hair dye/wigs and a lot of makeup or digital coloration, but the image that first popped to mind when I was reading Suzanne Collins' description was more like the famous "Afghan Girl" from National Geographic:
Incredibly piercing photo by Steve McCurry
Now if this girl was staring at me while reading a drawn bow in my direction, my last thought would have been: "That's it, I'm dead." And I don't care how hold she was, she would have made me believe she could lead a revolution simply by giving a look of determination with those eyes. But the underlying key for me of this image isn't that she was dark-skinned, dark-haired and gray-eyed, but that she was dirty, tired, and being recorded by a privileged outsider so unlike herself.
THAT is Katniss.
My real want for a match for Katniss is less about race and more about class. (Not something I worry about in terms of an actress chosen, although I'm not amused that casting was closed to actresses of color, but has more to do with the interpretive eye behind the camera. I'm looking at you, Gary Ross.) In America, race and class are often tied together by almost invisible strings, in most of the rest of the world, that's not the case. It is class and caste that determine who lives and dies with access to things like food, education, medicine and human rights far moreso than the color of the skin; regionalism, language, and less tangible divides cut between the Haves and the Have Nots no matter how small a country or how large a nation. But we notice race. It's easy to spot and point to and say "There! That's the reason for unfairness!" but in the dystopian future of The Hunger Games, I don't think it's race that has anything at all to do with it. These were the scrapings of humanity left over from the folly of almost total annihilation and it was merely where you lived vis-a-vis the Capitol that segregated one person from another. Railing against the system caused the leveling of District 13 and the establishment of the gruesome Hunger Games. It wasn't based on hair color, eye color, genetics or beliefs, it was all about where you were born: in the Capitol or in a District. Period.
And it's not easy to write about class or caste, so I give Suzanne Collins real credit; it's a minefield of potential misreadings and implied "-isms" that bother people with (let's call it) "Westerner's Guilt" to live off almost unconsciously off of the unfair labor of others. I think Paolo Bacigalupi did a great job of it in SHIP BREAKER and Cory Doctorow collapsed the real and surreal economic divides in FOR THE WIN. I messed with it a little myself, not realizing until people remarked on it that my Mexican-American main character was not a recent immigrant or lived in a "lower/working class" family; she was a third-generation American living in an upper-middle-class suburb of Illinois. She had her own bathroom suite, a bath pillow, her own credit card, and a pile of college applications, and evidently that made her an unusual depiction of a latina teen. (My first thought was, "Really?" Because I was a third-generation American from an upper-middle-class suburb of Illinois and knew these girls myself.) But it was an invisible barrier that I'd crossed without realizing because I have the biased advantage of not realizing that there was a barrier to be crossed. And therein lies the difference.
So for me the role of Katniss is less about the genetic makeup of the skin and more a question of perspective: will the young woman playing Katniss be able to gaze out from her layers of dirt and sweat and ground-in degradation of her District and inspire me to topple a corrupt system of government? Or is this more a willowy blond "Femme Nikita" type trope as is seemingly the case with the new film, Hannah? That is what's at stake for me with Ms. Lawrence and Mr. Ross: a matter that's more than just skin deep.
I hope that they do it justice.
"Isn't she a bit...white?"
[image error]
The obvious reference was that she was pale and blond. Katniss was described as having dark hair, olive skin and gray eyes. Now all of these things can be changed with contacts, hair dye/wigs and a lot of makeup or digital coloration, but the image that first popped to mind when I was reading Suzanne Collins' description was more like the famous "Afghan Girl" from National Geographic:
Incredibly piercing photo by Steve McCurry
Now if this girl was staring at me while reading a drawn bow in my direction, my last thought would have been: "That's it, I'm dead." And I don't care how hold she was, she would have made me believe she could lead a revolution simply by giving a look of determination with those eyes. But the underlying key for me of this image isn't that she was dark-skinned, dark-haired and gray-eyed, but that she was dirty, tired, and being recorded by a privileged outsider so unlike herself.
THAT is Katniss.
My real want for a match for Katniss is less about race and more about class. (Not something I worry about in terms of an actress chosen, although I'm not amused that casting was closed to actresses of color, but has more to do with the interpretive eye behind the camera. I'm looking at you, Gary Ross.) In America, race and class are often tied together by almost invisible strings, in most of the rest of the world, that's not the case. It is class and caste that determine who lives and dies with access to things like food, education, medicine and human rights far moreso than the color of the skin; regionalism, language, and less tangible divides cut between the Haves and the Have Nots no matter how small a country or how large a nation. But we notice race. It's easy to spot and point to and say "There! That's the reason for unfairness!" but in the dystopian future of The Hunger Games, I don't think it's race that has anything at all to do with it. These were the scrapings of humanity left over from the folly of almost total annihilation and it was merely where you lived vis-a-vis the Capitol that segregated one person from another. Railing against the system caused the leveling of District 13 and the establishment of the gruesome Hunger Games. It wasn't based on hair color, eye color, genetics or beliefs, it was all about where you were born: in the Capitol or in a District. Period.
And it's not easy to write about class or caste, so I give Suzanne Collins real credit; it's a minefield of potential misreadings and implied "-isms" that bother people with (let's call it) "Westerner's Guilt" to live off almost unconsciously off of the unfair labor of others. I think Paolo Bacigalupi did a great job of it in SHIP BREAKER and Cory Doctorow collapsed the real and surreal economic divides in FOR THE WIN. I messed with it a little myself, not realizing until people remarked on it that my Mexican-American main character was not a recent immigrant or lived in a "lower/working class" family; she was a third-generation American living in an upper-middle-class suburb of Illinois. She had her own bathroom suite, a bath pillow, her own credit card, and a pile of college applications, and evidently that made her an unusual depiction of a latina teen. (My first thought was, "Really?" Because I was a third-generation American from an upper-middle-class suburb of Illinois and knew these girls myself.) But it was an invisible barrier that I'd crossed without realizing because I have the biased advantage of not realizing that there was a barrier to be crossed. And therein lies the difference.
So for me the role of Katniss is less about the genetic makeup of the skin and more a question of perspective: will the young woman playing Katniss be able to gaze out from her layers of dirt and sweat and ground-in degradation of her District and inspire me to topple a corrupt system of government? Or is this more a willowy blond "Femme Nikita" type trope as is seemingly the case with the new film, Hannah? That is what's at stake for me with Ms. Lawrence and Mr. Ross: a matter that's more than just skin deep.
I hope that they do it justice.
March 22, 2011
Now THAT'S Dedication!
Research is a big part of "getting it right" on paper when we want our fiction to feel real, but no one warns us that research can be everything from a momentary time suck to a brand new obsession. I've found myself in the library neck-deep in Encyclopedias of Victoriana and etiquette books just to get the tone of a period piece right, let alone some of the things I've heard other authors doing in the name of research.
Now sometimes research is just a good excuse to do something you always wanted to do; Leah Cypress (MISTWOOD) took a falconing lesson, Denise Jaden (LOSING FAITH) shot a few arrows during a high school archery practice, Caroline Starr Rose (MAY B.) signed up for flamenco classes "in honor of my (future) Gypsy novel. Ole!" Helen Landalf (FLYAWAY) volunteered for a summer at PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center's bird nursery and "used tweezers to feed worms to baby birds" while Sonia Gensler (THE REVENANT) "climbed the very steep path to the top of a Welsh hillfort -- in rain, wind and sleet -- all for a book that got me an agent but never sold." [She attached a photo of her "suffering" looking beautiful on a rocky backdrop before admitting, "Actually, it was glorious. So this probably doesn't count."] But other times I wonder what these folks are *really* up to...
Natalie Standiford (CONFESSIONS OF THE SULLIVAN SISTERS) got sneaky: "I went to the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown NY to look at the Cardiff Giant for a book called THE STONE GIANT. The Cardiff Giant is a statue of a giant that people thought was a fossil of a real giant in the 1860s. They keep it in ditch under a tent. My very tall boyfriend crawled into the ditch with him for a height-comparison picture (the giant was taller.)" Myra McEntire (THE HOURGLASS) "toured the club floor/offices/grounds of a Ritz Carlton. They gave me a cookie on the club floor. And a lot of strange looks everywhere else." And while Jen Nadol (THE MARK) met with a mortician to know more about working in a funeral home, (despite more than one "challenge" to actually succeeding), Saundra Mitchell (THE VESPERTINE) used to attend actual autopsies. (No, I didn't ask...)
But it isn't always fun and games. Jenny Moss (WINNIE'S WAR) "went through every death certificate for every person who died in Galveston County from Sept-Dec 1918 to figure out how many had died of the influenza. It took foreeeever & as an added bonus, I did get to see how many ways one could die in 1918." Brenna Yovanoff (THE REPLACEMENT) "watched a billion youtube videos of people skinning catfish by nailing their heads to a tree and just sort of . . . undressing them. Okay, three videos. The technique doesn't invite a lot of variation."
Some brave souls take the direct route, like when Beth Revis (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) relived the moment that she accidentally gagged herself when trying to figure out what shoving tubes down her MC's throat would feel like. (She says her husband liked the "kisses in the rain" experiments much better!) Terry Lynn Johnson (DOGSLED DREAMS) "choked down the inner bark of a white birch and drank birch twig tea. Yum. (Actually, no. Not recommended!)" Lisa Albert (MERCY LILY) let herself get stung by a honeybee "so I could write the Apitherapy/Bee Venom Therapy sting scenes with authority...BVT is a holistic treatment used for pain management and it's proabably the most extreme thing I've done for the sake of research so far." Rae Carson Finlay (THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS) was trying to capture what an epic journey of fearless heroes would really be like; "I took advantage of a very rainy day (and by "rainy" I mean "deluge") to go outside and walk around fully clothed. I wanted to see what it was like to be soaking wet and freezing. I squished around in the mud for an hour, getting wetter and wetter and wetter and colder... Good times." Or why not go for broke as Tessa Gratton (BLOOD MAGIC) says, "I'd actually go with the time I cut myself in the kitchen and bled all over the counter because I was taking notes, instead of cleaning it up getting a bandage." (Tessa!!!) But Ruta Sepetys (BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY) won the "Maybe I Went A Bit Too Far" trophy, admitting that there are regrets: "To research Between Shades of Gray I agreed to take part in a prison simulation experience and was locked in a former Soviet prison overnight. Worst decision I've ever made in my life. There were rats the size of cats." ((shudder))
While research can't all be fun and glamorous, it can certainly get us into trouble like when nice Jewish girl Sarah Darer Littman (CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET CATHOLIC) snuck into the chapel at Manhattanville College and sat in a confessional, wondering the whole time if lightning would strike her down! Victoria Schwab (THE NEAR WITCH) "shut myself in a broom closet to see how, if one needed to kick a door down, they'd go about it (how they'd get their foot through said brooms to said door, and where they'd kick." (She went on to report that no doors were irreparably damaged in the process.) Ambyre White (FORGET-HER-NOTS) wanted to be sure to get the flower scents "just right" so: "I had my nose in every bloom I saw, even if that meant "trespassing" in someone's yard. Who's going to put away the crazy lady who just wanted to smell the lilacs?!"
And lest you think these are "minor" brushes with being bad, there is evidently a common career hazard of ending up on the FBI Watch List:
"I once got into a discussion on Twitter about the best way to kill someone, but at some point we lost the #amwriting hashtag. This continued until someone else pointed out we were now most likely on some FBI watch list! Oops." -- Lisa Gail Green (CURSED)
"I put myself on the FBI watch list by repeatedly googling "molotov cocktails" "how to make molotov cocktails" and "how much damage would a thrown molotov cocktail do to a wooden structure". However, I did not google "molotov cocktails made with faerie liquor" which might have made my FBI flag more interesting." -- Kiersten White (PARANORMALCY)
"I'm also probably on some watch list somewhere, even though I was doing research WITH the FBI because I was googling disturbing porn video names for research for WTGP. Besides giving myself nightmares...I had to make sure to clear my browser history in case my teens went on my computer and thought I was even more a freak than they already do." -- Sarah Darer Littman (WANT TO GO PRIVATE)
There also ought to be a warning label for when you're the Significant Other of a dedicated writer: it's a hazardous thing to love someone bent on being bizarre for a living! Carrie Ryan (THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH) "made my husband run down a path on top of a mountain in the middle of a winter night under a full moon so I could figure out just how many details I could and couldn't see (much of the book took place at night under a full moon). It was awesome, I kept making him go back and said, "Come running at me like a zombie!" I think the poor thing might have been barefoot too (not my fault he didn't want to grab shoes)." Holly Nicole Hoxter (THE SNOWBALL EFFECT) ruefully remembers, "One time when I was 19 or 20 and still writing short stories, I had my boyfriend drive me to the travel plaza just so I could walk in and walk out again (to see what setting details my character would notice when he did the same thing). For some reason I was embarrassed to explain to the boyfriend that it was story research, so he definitely thought it was bizarre." And my own husband, Better-Than-Boyfriend, tolerates my incessant questions about physically mauling somebody and lets me borrow hapless minions for the sake of seeing two people fight/grapple/hit/grab/punch/lift & throw one another. Is this research or merely creative sadism? (Don't answer that!)
However, it's no surprise that Maggie Steifvater (THE WOLVES OF MERCY FALLS) takes the cake: "For a horror book I was writing, I once invited 23 authors to a hunting lodge in the middle of Missouri when there was snow predicted." And we all know how *that* turned out...
So what is the craziest/weirdest/extremist thing YOU ever did for research? Comment below and share the crazy! It's nice to know that we're in good company.
Now sometimes research is just a good excuse to do something you always wanted to do; Leah Cypress (MISTWOOD) took a falconing lesson, Denise Jaden (LOSING FAITH) shot a few arrows during a high school archery practice, Caroline Starr Rose (MAY B.) signed up for flamenco classes "in honor of my (future) Gypsy novel. Ole!" Helen Landalf (FLYAWAY) volunteered for a summer at PAWS Wildlife Rehabilitation Center's bird nursery and "used tweezers to feed worms to baby birds" while Sonia Gensler (THE REVENANT) "climbed the very steep path to the top of a Welsh hillfort -- in rain, wind and sleet -- all for a book that got me an agent but never sold." [She attached a photo of her "suffering" looking beautiful on a rocky backdrop before admitting, "Actually, it was glorious. So this probably doesn't count."] But other times I wonder what these folks are *really* up to...
Natalie Standiford (CONFESSIONS OF THE SULLIVAN SISTERS) got sneaky: "I went to the Farmer's Museum in Cooperstown NY to look at the Cardiff Giant for a book called THE STONE GIANT. The Cardiff Giant is a statue of a giant that people thought was a fossil of a real giant in the 1860s. They keep it in ditch under a tent. My very tall boyfriend crawled into the ditch with him for a height-comparison picture (the giant was taller.)" Myra McEntire (THE HOURGLASS) "toured the club floor/offices/grounds of a Ritz Carlton. They gave me a cookie on the club floor. And a lot of strange looks everywhere else." And while Jen Nadol (THE MARK) met with a mortician to know more about working in a funeral home, (despite more than one "challenge" to actually succeeding), Saundra Mitchell (THE VESPERTINE) used to attend actual autopsies. (No, I didn't ask...)
But it isn't always fun and games. Jenny Moss (WINNIE'S WAR) "went through every death certificate for every person who died in Galveston County from Sept-Dec 1918 to figure out how many had died of the influenza. It took foreeeever & as an added bonus, I did get to see how many ways one could die in 1918." Brenna Yovanoff (THE REPLACEMENT) "watched a billion youtube videos of people skinning catfish by nailing their heads to a tree and just sort of . . . undressing them. Okay, three videos. The technique doesn't invite a lot of variation."
Some brave souls take the direct route, like when Beth Revis (ACROSS THE UNIVERSE) relived the moment that she accidentally gagged herself when trying to figure out what shoving tubes down her MC's throat would feel like. (She says her husband liked the "kisses in the rain" experiments much better!) Terry Lynn Johnson (DOGSLED DREAMS) "choked down the inner bark of a white birch and drank birch twig tea. Yum. (Actually, no. Not recommended!)" Lisa Albert (MERCY LILY) let herself get stung by a honeybee "so I could write the Apitherapy/Bee Venom Therapy sting scenes with authority...BVT is a holistic treatment used for pain management and it's proabably the most extreme thing I've done for the sake of research so far." Rae Carson Finlay (THE GIRL OF FIRE AND THORNS) was trying to capture what an epic journey of fearless heroes would really be like; "I took advantage of a very rainy day (and by "rainy" I mean "deluge") to go outside and walk around fully clothed. I wanted to see what it was like to be soaking wet and freezing. I squished around in the mud for an hour, getting wetter and wetter and wetter and colder... Good times." Or why not go for broke as Tessa Gratton (BLOOD MAGIC) says, "I'd actually go with the time I cut myself in the kitchen and bled all over the counter because I was taking notes, instead of cleaning it up getting a bandage." (Tessa!!!) But Ruta Sepetys (BETWEEN SHADES OF GRAY) won the "Maybe I Went A Bit Too Far" trophy, admitting that there are regrets: "To research Between Shades of Gray I agreed to take part in a prison simulation experience and was locked in a former Soviet prison overnight. Worst decision I've ever made in my life. There were rats the size of cats." ((shudder))
While research can't all be fun and glamorous, it can certainly get us into trouble like when nice Jewish girl Sarah Darer Littman (CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET CATHOLIC) snuck into the chapel at Manhattanville College and sat in a confessional, wondering the whole time if lightning would strike her down! Victoria Schwab (THE NEAR WITCH) "shut myself in a broom closet to see how, if one needed to kick a door down, they'd go about it (how they'd get their foot through said brooms to said door, and where they'd kick." (She went on to report that no doors were irreparably damaged in the process.) Ambyre White (FORGET-HER-NOTS) wanted to be sure to get the flower scents "just right" so: "I had my nose in every bloom I saw, even if that meant "trespassing" in someone's yard. Who's going to put away the crazy lady who just wanted to smell the lilacs?!"
And lest you think these are "minor" brushes with being bad, there is evidently a common career hazard of ending up on the FBI Watch List:
"I once got into a discussion on Twitter about the best way to kill someone, but at some point we lost the #amwriting hashtag. This continued until someone else pointed out we were now most likely on some FBI watch list! Oops." -- Lisa Gail Green (CURSED)
"I put myself on the FBI watch list by repeatedly googling "molotov cocktails" "how to make molotov cocktails" and "how much damage would a thrown molotov cocktail do to a wooden structure". However, I did not google "molotov cocktails made with faerie liquor" which might have made my FBI flag more interesting." -- Kiersten White (PARANORMALCY)
"I'm also probably on some watch list somewhere, even though I was doing research WITH the FBI because I was googling disturbing porn video names for research for WTGP. Besides giving myself nightmares...I had to make sure to clear my browser history in case my teens went on my computer and thought I was even more a freak than they already do." -- Sarah Darer Littman (WANT TO GO PRIVATE)
There also ought to be a warning label for when you're the Significant Other of a dedicated writer: it's a hazardous thing to love someone bent on being bizarre for a living! Carrie Ryan (THE FOREST OF HANDS AND TEETH) "made my husband run down a path on top of a mountain in the middle of a winter night under a full moon so I could figure out just how many details I could and couldn't see (much of the book took place at night under a full moon). It was awesome, I kept making him go back and said, "Come running at me like a zombie!" I think the poor thing might have been barefoot too (not my fault he didn't want to grab shoes)." Holly Nicole Hoxter (THE SNOWBALL EFFECT) ruefully remembers, "One time when I was 19 or 20 and still writing short stories, I had my boyfriend drive me to the travel plaza just so I could walk in and walk out again (to see what setting details my character would notice when he did the same thing). For some reason I was embarrassed to explain to the boyfriend that it was story research, so he definitely thought it was bizarre." And my own husband, Better-Than-Boyfriend, tolerates my incessant questions about physically mauling somebody and lets me borrow hapless minions for the sake of seeing two people fight/grapple/hit/grab/punch/lift & throw one another. Is this research or merely creative sadism? (Don't answer that!)
However, it's no surprise that Maggie Steifvater (THE WOLVES OF MERCY FALLS) takes the cake: "For a horror book I was writing, I once invited 23 authors to a hunting lodge in the middle of Missouri when there was snow predicted." And we all know how *that* turned out...
So what is the craziest/weirdest/extremist thing YOU ever did for research? Comment below and share the crazy! It's nice to know that we're in good company.
March 17, 2011
Calling All Black Belt Writers: This Means YOU!
In the wake of recent tragedies, there are good things happening and ways we all can help; anything from making a donation to the Red Cross or Doctors Without Borders or, coming from our community, entering the auction for kidlit4japan, but I want to invite you to do something positive and meaningful on a much smaller, more selfish scale: something for me and something for you, because collectively, we can do anything.
I may have mentioned only about a bazillion times that my second degree black belt test is this weekend. I have been training for this, on and off, for the past ten years. Ten years. The last four months have been a grueling regimen of strict diet, physical and scheduling challenges, and increasing my workouts from four hours a week to four hours a day...just in time for me to get hit with a double-whammy of both the flu and pneumonia.
I have been resting, taking fluids, and imbibing a whole host of meds. Unfortunately, as of this date, it's a slow recovery and I'm nowhere near healthy. The test will likely not be rescheduled and I can't make my body heal any faster, so it comes down to this: am I going to try my best? The answer: "Damn straight!" but I don't think I can do this alone.
Herein I have invented the Black Belt Writer Challenge!
Since I obviously won't be able to write my usual daily word count during my testing time (roughly 5pm on Friday "til whenever" and picking up again on Saturday from 3pm "til whenever"), I am challenging *YOU* to write in my stead, going beyond your usual limits, on your own projects. The challenge is to DOUBLE YOUR NORMAL DAILY WORD COUNT during one Butt In Chair writing session at the keys sometime between this Saturday, March 19th, and next Saturday, March 26th. Post your amazing total on Twitter with the hashtag #blackbeltwriter and I will randomly pick one person to win a handmade-by-me, one-of-a-kind, especially-for-this-contest-thingie
WRITER NINJA!
Writer Ninja is cloaked in a black cotton gi wielding a deadly #2 pencil and a patented Red Pen O'Doom™!
(P.S. Sorry the camera was out of batteries so this is the best I could do via Droid.)
It's about busting through walls.
It's about going for broke.
It's about pushing beyond limits.
It's about cheering one another on.
It's...
The Slapped-Together Rules for Dawn's Insanely Crazy Double-Your-Word-Count Black Belt Writer Challenge:
1) Sit down sometime between Saturday the 19th and Saturday the 26th and write twice as much as you normally do.
[If you'd like double *my* word count, I wrote 2-3K per day = 4-6K!] This is going to be on the honor system, so I trust that you rock!
2) Brag about your total word count on Twitter with the hashtag #blackbeltwriter
3) Remember to cheer one another on: Black Belt Writers FTW!
4) If you return and comment on this post, we can cheer for one another in the thread and see who joined in the insanity, which would be incredibly comforting during my recovery period.
5) On Monday the 27th, presuming that my brain is fully functional, I will choose a winner at random and announce it on the blog.
Yes, this is scary, and senseless, and almost certifiably insane, but I think I know just the right people to join me in spirit during this do-or-die event and I want you to feel the rush of busting through your own glass ceilings and doing what you previously thought was impossible! And in the spirit of NaNoWriMo-meets-Nidan training, a community of supporters can carry us further than we ever thought possible.
You can do this. I can do this. We can do this. So who's with me?
I may have mentioned only about a bazillion times that my second degree black belt test is this weekend. I have been training for this, on and off, for the past ten years. Ten years. The last four months have been a grueling regimen of strict diet, physical and scheduling challenges, and increasing my workouts from four hours a week to four hours a day...just in time for me to get hit with a double-whammy of both the flu and pneumonia.
I have been resting, taking fluids, and imbibing a whole host of meds. Unfortunately, as of this date, it's a slow recovery and I'm nowhere near healthy. The test will likely not be rescheduled and I can't make my body heal any faster, so it comes down to this: am I going to try my best? The answer: "Damn straight!" but I don't think I can do this alone.
Herein I have invented the Black Belt Writer Challenge!
Since I obviously won't be able to write my usual daily word count during my testing time (roughly 5pm on Friday "til whenever" and picking up again on Saturday from 3pm "til whenever"), I am challenging *YOU* to write in my stead, going beyond your usual limits, on your own projects. The challenge is to DOUBLE YOUR NORMAL DAILY WORD COUNT during one Butt In Chair writing session at the keys sometime between this Saturday, March 19th, and next Saturday, March 26th. Post your amazing total on Twitter with the hashtag #blackbeltwriter and I will randomly pick one person to win a handmade-by-me, one-of-a-kind, especially-for-this-contest-thingie
WRITER NINJA!
Writer Ninja is cloaked in a black cotton gi wielding a deadly #2 pencil and a patented Red Pen O'Doom™!
(P.S. Sorry the camera was out of batteries so this is the best I could do via Droid.)
It's about busting through walls.
It's about going for broke.
It's about pushing beyond limits.
It's about cheering one another on.
It's...
The Slapped-Together Rules for Dawn's Insanely Crazy Double-Your-Word-Count Black Belt Writer Challenge:
1) Sit down sometime between Saturday the 19th and Saturday the 26th and write twice as much as you normally do.
[If you'd like double *my* word count, I wrote 2-3K per day = 4-6K!] This is going to be on the honor system, so I trust that you rock!
2) Brag about your total word count on Twitter with the hashtag #blackbeltwriter
3) Remember to cheer one another on: Black Belt Writers FTW!
4) If you return and comment on this post, we can cheer for one another in the thread and see who joined in the insanity, which would be incredibly comforting during my recovery period.
5) On Monday the 27th, presuming that my brain is fully functional, I will choose a winner at random and announce it on the blog.
Yes, this is scary, and senseless, and almost certifiably insane, but I think I know just the right people to join me in spirit during this do-or-die event and I want you to feel the rush of busting through your own glass ceilings and doing what you previously thought was impossible! And in the spirit of NaNoWriMo-meets-Nidan training, a community of supporters can carry us further than we ever thought possible.
You can do this. I can do this. We can do this. So who's with me?
March 14, 2011
Third Time's A Charm: Hint #3
Everyone have their bookmarks? No? Okay, well, for those of you who do,* I know that you've been following the giveaway and are eagerly anticipating Hint #3! (I know this for a fact since some of you are writing me and making hilarious guesses, figuring out Hint #1 and Hint #2, crowing your victories, begging for another hint and asking what to do next. I hear you! I hear you! See? Here we are on March 14th, as promised. Patience is a virtue...**)
Here's what you do next:
1) Read Hint #3. (If you are new to finding the super secret surprise hidden in the bookmark, check out previous Hint #1 and Hint #2 or go to www.dawnmetcalf.com and look under "News".
2) Figure out the answer.
3) Do a little Victory Dance because you are both smart & clever!
4) Enter your smart & clever answer to win your secret prize!
So, without further ado, here it is:
Hint #3: What's the last name?
You've got your bookmark! You've got your clues! Go find the secret!
...
Why are you all still here? Oh. Waitaminute. You don't know where to *enter* the answer, do you?
Right! Never fear: there's a hint for that, too! Something escaped from the book cover and is now loose in the enchanted library (...should have never bought that gilded cage from the ogre in the bowler hat...sigh). If you can find it, click it to enter your answer and win your secret prize! There. Two birds with one stone. With me so far? Perfect!
Hint #4: Consuela whispers, "La mariposa."
Now you've got your bookmark! You've got your clues! Go find the secret! GO!
Spread the news: Third time's a charm! Find the secret: Hint #3 is LIVE http://bit.ly/dQfT4L
* If you didn't win a signed bookmark, there will be other giveaways going on right up through launch on June 30th which will include bookmarks, ARCs, swag both delicious and pretty, as well as other neat surprises, so don't worry: we're just getting started!
** ...but who said I was virtuous? ((wink))
Here's what you do next:
1) Read Hint #3. (If you are new to finding the super secret surprise hidden in the bookmark, check out previous Hint #1 and Hint #2 or go to www.dawnmetcalf.com and look under "News".
2) Figure out the answer.
3) Do a little Victory Dance because you are both smart & clever!
4) Enter your smart & clever answer to win your secret prize!
So, without further ado, here it is:
Hint #3: What's the last name?
You've got your bookmark! You've got your clues! Go find the secret!
...
Why are you all still here? Oh. Waitaminute. You don't know where to *enter* the answer, do you?
Right! Never fear: there's a hint for that, too! Something escaped from the book cover and is now loose in the enchanted library (...should have never bought that gilded cage from the ogre in the bowler hat...sigh). If you can find it, click it to enter your answer and win your secret prize! There. Two birds with one stone. With me so far? Perfect!
Hint #4: Consuela whispers, "La mariposa."
Now you've got your bookmark! You've got your clues! Go find the secret! GO!
Spread the news: Third time's a charm! Find the secret: Hint #3 is LIVE http://bit.ly/dQfT4L
* If you didn't win a signed bookmark, there will be other giveaways going on right up through launch on June 30th which will include bookmarks, ARCs, swag both delicious and pretty, as well as other neat surprises, so don't worry: we're just getting started!
** ...but who said I was virtuous? ((wink))
March 10, 2011
Bad Boys
Last night's #yalitchat was about making memorable characters, and one of the biggies that popped up during the lively conversation was the ever-lovin' "Bad Boy". This popular trope that gets some folks' hearts pumping while others respond with a "meh" and still more wave a red flag and get their knickers in a twist. Me, I'm one of the middling-to-latter (I know, big surprise) with a caveat: I think the Bad Boy trope is a double-edged sword that cuts right to the heart of a lot of gender imbalance and puts our real fellows at risk, both IRL and on the page, and gives more than a little mixed-message to our teen readers; male, female and other.
See, here's the thing: it seems to me that more than liking the idea of a Bad Boy, something untamed and wild and more than a little bit dangerous, girls (and dare I say women, young and old), like the fantasy of taming that masculine creature or being the one thing that can "cure" his darker tendencies and reveal that there is a true, kind spirit beneath the rough(ly handsome) exterior. The fantasy is that their love alone can stop all the badness from taking over and, in the end, save his soul and the day for a hot and safely fulfilling happy ending.
In fact, this "hope of redemption" is almost essential to the Bad Boy myth; that this person isn't *all* bad and that there must be something worth loving and "saving" in there. (It can't be just lust, can it? What would THAT say about her?!? *gasp*) We tell the reader, the champion, the main character: "And you--yes YOU--are just the gal to do it!" And yet there was this caution to not wanting to "completely" undo him; that an integral part of his character was to be "bad" and so to undermine that attractive element would to render him dull and useless. Neuter him. Like a puppy.
You see where this can get tricky, can't you?
We say that we want a Sensitive New Age Guy with all the trappings of a Bad Boy, or, conversely, a devil with a heart of gold. He can't be "too" sensitive, or that would be wimpy, and he can't be "too" bad because that would be scary. He should be able to tap into that protective, kill-upon-sight-if-you-touch-her/devil-may-care instinct, but never turn that badassery on us* because that would be "too" bad. We want that power working for us, not against us, and certainly not without our say-so. (Now who hold's puppy's leash?)
In answering the question how could authors show that redeemable quality beneath the surface, I said "he loves animals, small children, and the elderly" and I was only half-kidding; showing some evidence that belies a soft spot goes a long way to making good on an inherently good character, despite their actions or surface dialogue. Many others responded with some element of "self sacrifice", that nothing is more redeeming (or sexy) than a guy who will give up something of himself or what he values to--and I'm projecting this ending here--save or keep the woman he loves...which sounds an awful lot like "saving" him, being the "one thing" that will change him, etc. etc. etc.
Sigh.
This is where the Edward Cullens rule; the Pucks, the Patches, the Ashes, the Seths, the Jameses and the Robin Hoods: the Bad-Ass Good Guys and they are good at being both bad and dangerous (towards the right people) and protective/loving (towards the right people). They are made helpless, despite themselves, at the goodness emanating from this incredible woman they see before them. It is one of those undeniable attractions that tap into something elemental that brings women who admit that they "know better" to their knees: it's a popular character for a reason! And I like the "strong" characters that get to show their masculine side a lot more than the ones who are indistinguishable from the girls, the best friend who cries on your shoulder or the (L-rd help me) guys who apologize for falling in love or showing a hint of emotion in their "down (i.e. vulnerable) times". Mega ick.
But it's not bad to love the Bad Boy...is it? Well (say we) depends how bad. And this is a nebulous determination defined entirely by women and often unshared with their menfolk as compromising the myth of Prince Charming wherein if the guy really loved you, he'd somehow just know the right answer without you having to tell them. Except the Bad Boy who does his own thing.*** Which we tolerate despite ourselves because he's soooo dreamy. Boys will be boys, right?
So what's a guy to do?!?****
A *real* guy. Like your boyfriend or brother or best friend or dad? Like the teenage male reading your book? That guy. Who is he supposed to identify with? Project into? Try on for size in the safety of book scenarios and e-pages? I'm not happy with holding up an ideal of stalkers-who-care or smoldering sociopaths with the best of intentions any more than I like "strong" female characters who must tote a weapon and detest the idea of babies, marriage and love as a weakness in order to show their strength. It feels like being cornered and an awful lot like a no-win situation to put these two tropes in a room, and yet I can think of a TON of fictional pairings that do just that and we readers have been trained to expect to see the sparks fly. A "good" boy is the best friend (until he kicks someone's teeth in defending best-friend girl and then he can be elevated to the status of Good Guy with Bad Boy tendencies revealed! Hottie!) and a "feminine" girl is a weak, simpering sad sack (until it becomes evident that her Hidden Talent is something that can level the playing field. Go Grrl Power!). How can we give our boys someone to emulate, someone to look up to, without giving the double-standard of "Don't Be 'Too'"?*****
Here's my answer: I don't know. But I'd like to say for the record that sometimes, Bad Boys are just Bad. No redemption required, no excuses necessary, and it's not at all sexy to try to save them. Have at.
* Trust me, I understand this being a wife of a martial artist. I describe Better Than Boyfriend as "the sweetest, kindest, most gentle person I know who can kill someone with their bare hands," and it's true. But I would never want those eyes trained on me when he's in Killer Mode. Hence why I don't train, practice, or spar with my husband!**
** In the dojo, people! Get your head out of the gutter! *grin*
*** Reminds me of Moonlighting. And Taming of the Shrew. (Why not have both?)
**** Luckily, John Rea-Hedrick answered me once. Go read it.
***** Yes, and the same could be said for girls who can't be "too" strong or they're no longer feminine, "too" unreliable or then they're a lying psycho, or "too" assertive or they're a bitch. The knife cuts both ways, or many ways at once, as the case may be. Stupid knives. (P.S. And that is why I think Joss Whedon does an excellent job of balancing his female characters on this knife edge of suck; hence the userpic.)
See, here's the thing: it seems to me that more than liking the idea of a Bad Boy, something untamed and wild and more than a little bit dangerous, girls (and dare I say women, young and old), like the fantasy of taming that masculine creature or being the one thing that can "cure" his darker tendencies and reveal that there is a true, kind spirit beneath the rough(ly handsome) exterior. The fantasy is that their love alone can stop all the badness from taking over and, in the end, save his soul and the day for a hot and safely fulfilling happy ending.
In fact, this "hope of redemption" is almost essential to the Bad Boy myth; that this person isn't *all* bad and that there must be something worth loving and "saving" in there. (It can't be just lust, can it? What would THAT say about her?!? *gasp*) We tell the reader, the champion, the main character: "And you--yes YOU--are just the gal to do it!" And yet there was this caution to not wanting to "completely" undo him; that an integral part of his character was to be "bad" and so to undermine that attractive element would to render him dull and useless. Neuter him. Like a puppy.
You see where this can get tricky, can't you?
We say that we want a Sensitive New Age Guy with all the trappings of a Bad Boy, or, conversely, a devil with a heart of gold. He can't be "too" sensitive, or that would be wimpy, and he can't be "too" bad because that would be scary. He should be able to tap into that protective, kill-upon-sight-if-you-touch-her/devil-may-care instinct, but never turn that badassery on us* because that would be "too" bad. We want that power working for us, not against us, and certainly not without our say-so. (Now who hold's puppy's leash?)
In answering the question how could authors show that redeemable quality beneath the surface, I said "he loves animals, small children, and the elderly" and I was only half-kidding; showing some evidence that belies a soft spot goes a long way to making good on an inherently good character, despite their actions or surface dialogue. Many others responded with some element of "self sacrifice", that nothing is more redeeming (or sexy) than a guy who will give up something of himself or what he values to--and I'm projecting this ending here--save or keep the woman he loves...which sounds an awful lot like "saving" him, being the "one thing" that will change him, etc. etc. etc.
Sigh.
This is where the Edward Cullens rule; the Pucks, the Patches, the Ashes, the Seths, the Jameses and the Robin Hoods: the Bad-Ass Good Guys and they are good at being both bad and dangerous (towards the right people) and protective/loving (towards the right people). They are made helpless, despite themselves, at the goodness emanating from this incredible woman they see before them. It is one of those undeniable attractions that tap into something elemental that brings women who admit that they "know better" to their knees: it's a popular character for a reason! And I like the "strong" characters that get to show their masculine side a lot more than the ones who are indistinguishable from the girls, the best friend who cries on your shoulder or the (L-rd help me) guys who apologize for falling in love or showing a hint of emotion in their "down (i.e. vulnerable) times". Mega ick.
But it's not bad to love the Bad Boy...is it? Well (say we) depends how bad. And this is a nebulous determination defined entirely by women and often unshared with their menfolk as compromising the myth of Prince Charming wherein if the guy really loved you, he'd somehow just know the right answer without you having to tell them. Except the Bad Boy who does his own thing.*** Which we tolerate despite ourselves because he's soooo dreamy. Boys will be boys, right?
So what's a guy to do?!?****
A *real* guy. Like your boyfriend or brother or best friend or dad? Like the teenage male reading your book? That guy. Who is he supposed to identify with? Project into? Try on for size in the safety of book scenarios and e-pages? I'm not happy with holding up an ideal of stalkers-who-care or smoldering sociopaths with the best of intentions any more than I like "strong" female characters who must tote a weapon and detest the idea of babies, marriage and love as a weakness in order to show their strength. It feels like being cornered and an awful lot like a no-win situation to put these two tropes in a room, and yet I can think of a TON of fictional pairings that do just that and we readers have been trained to expect to see the sparks fly. A "good" boy is the best friend (until he kicks someone's teeth in defending best-friend girl and then he can be elevated to the status of Good Guy with Bad Boy tendencies revealed! Hottie!) and a "feminine" girl is a weak, simpering sad sack (until it becomes evident that her Hidden Talent is something that can level the playing field. Go Grrl Power!). How can we give our boys someone to emulate, someone to look up to, without giving the double-standard of "Don't Be 'Too'"?*****
Here's my answer: I don't know. But I'd like to say for the record that sometimes, Bad Boys are just Bad. No redemption required, no excuses necessary, and it's not at all sexy to try to save them. Have at.
* Trust me, I understand this being a wife of a martial artist. I describe Better Than Boyfriend as "the sweetest, kindest, most gentle person I know who can kill someone with their bare hands," and it's true. But I would never want those eyes trained on me when he's in Killer Mode. Hence why I don't train, practice, or spar with my husband!**
** In the dojo, people! Get your head out of the gutter! *grin*
*** Reminds me of Moonlighting. And Taming of the Shrew. (Why not have both?)
**** Luckily, John Rea-Hedrick answered me once. Go read it.
***** Yes, and the same could be said for girls who can't be "too" strong or they're no longer feminine, "too" unreliable or then they're a lying psycho, or "too" assertive or they're a bitch. The knife cuts both ways, or many ways at once, as the case may be. Stupid knives. (P.S. And that is why I think Joss Whedon does an excellent job of balancing his female characters on this knife edge of suck; hence the userpic.)
March 8, 2011
*Hint! Hint!* Last Bookmark Giveaway & Prizes!
It's March 7th!
The sun is shining,
the birds are tweeting,
and it's time for the second hint to unlock the secret surprise in the LUMINOUS Bookmark Giveaway!
Ah, ah, ah -- the clue is hidden on the *back* of this shiny purple bookmark!
This is the third and final round of giveaways for a chance to get a signed bookmark as well as an early entry into my next Giveaway Contest which includes a SIGNED ARC of LUMINOUS!
Be one of the first 30 people who comment below and then you can figure out:
Secret Surprise Hint #2: "unlike eggs and brains, these can be unscrambled"
Think you have an idea? Enter the giveaway, win a bookmark & find the secret! (All hints and details are also available on my website, www.dawnmetcalf.com.)
Official-Type Rules:
1. Leave a comment below so I know you stopped by & an email so I can ping you back!
2. Post about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, your blog, etc. Be sure to include your handle/URL in your comment and spread the word! Tell your friends, librarians, bloggers & tweeps! linkie: http://bit.ly/eUFDXr
3. Come back on March 14th to learn about the third and final clue that brings you one step closer to the ARC Giveaway and Grand Prize Giveaway Contest!
4. This bookmark giveaway and its Secret Surprise contest is open Internationally. The ARC and Grand Prize Giveaway are open to US Residents only.
The sun is shining,
the birds are tweeting,
and it's time for the second hint to unlock the secret surprise in the LUMINOUS Bookmark Giveaway!
Ah, ah, ah -- the clue is hidden on the *back* of this shiny purple bookmark!
This is the third and final round of giveaways for a chance to get a signed bookmark as well as an early entry into my next Giveaway Contest which includes a SIGNED ARC of LUMINOUS!
Be one of the first 30 people who comment below and then you can figure out:
Secret Surprise Hint #2: "unlike eggs and brains, these can be unscrambled"
Think you have an idea? Enter the giveaway, win a bookmark & find the secret! (All hints and details are also available on my website, www.dawnmetcalf.com.)
Official-Type Rules:
1. Leave a comment below so I know you stopped by & an email so I can ping you back!
2. Post about this giveaway on Twitter, Facebook, Tumblr, your blog, etc. Be sure to include your handle/URL in your comment and spread the word! Tell your friends, librarians, bloggers & tweeps! linkie: http://bit.ly/eUFDXr
3. Come back on March 14th to learn about the third and final clue that brings you one step closer to the ARC Giveaway and Grand Prize Giveaway Contest!
4. This bookmark giveaway and its Secret Surprise contest is open Internationally. The ARC and Grand Prize Giveaway are open to US Residents only.
March 7, 2011
Red Rover
Okay, so the kerfluffle over the phantom-boogie-man YA Mafia seems to have quieted down and certainly people who are far more famous, intelligent & good-looking have said it better than me, but perhaps you'd like to consider the word of a relative newbie to the YA community when I say that not only am I certain that is there *no* YA Mafia, but I'd venture to say that the opposite is true: in my experience, there is no more helpful, generous, hand-me-up community that I've ever had the pleasure of meeting (online and off) in my personal and professional careers than the Young Adult writing community.
None. Seriously.
Instead, let me offer up a better image: that we have YA Red Rover. Imagine a line of kids playing in a giant field and you are wandering over, the new kid in town, a little shy and unsure and everyone grasping hands seems to already know one another, chatting and laughing in a long line that stretches across the whole playground. As you step closer, you can overhear their conversations to one another (Twitter), follow a few of their questions and comments (Verla Kay), learn about some of their passionate interests (blogs), and even figure out who some of the Big Names are on the field (pro websites and interviews) and then--now this is key--you put yourself out there. And you know what happens? Someone answers you, someone comments, someone smiles and laughs back. There isn't a person-limit in this game, anyone can play, and the line grows stronger.
♬ Red Rover, Red Rover, let the new kid come over! ♬
And you can join the chain, grasp a hand, say hello. People "Friend" and "Add" and "Follow" but in the real world, the one about learning and connection and acceptance, what really matters is that someone you've never known before is willing to say "Hi" and give you a hand, welcoming you into a world that is foreign and big and exciting and scary and built almost entirely on dreams and stories and the want to share.
Of course it's also built on a foundation of business and marketing and making money as per capitalist credo; it's not all Kumbaya by any means, but the *people* in the writing community are the ones who talk amongst themselves, try to help one another out, make the secrets less secret and the mysteries less mysterious. And I'm not just talking about the pros like Janet Reid, Cheryl Klein, Kristin Nelson, Nathan Bransford and Editorial Anonymous (some of my favorite folks in the field), but people who we connect with and meet online and at conferences and in social networking sites like Verla Kay, SCBWI, RWA, or TweetChats like #kidlitchat or #yalitchat. Our best resources are one another and when one of us succeeds, YA as a whole is seen in a better light -- not lesser or simpler or "dumbing down" ((shudder)) -- and that makes the playing field better for everyone!
A few examples from my own, limited experience:
- When I went to my first conference, I signed up to share a room and split the cost. I met people who introduced me to more people (and more people and more people, including RAs, agents, editors, and marketing professionals), some of whom became crit partners, close friends, and certainly cheerleading fans as I continued on my journey to publication. That in and of itself is a lifeline that EVERY writer can appreciate!
- Charged with the assignment of "go get a web presence", I stumbled onto places like LiveJournal and Twitter. There I started following intelligent, funny writers and joined in conversations or commented on their brilliance, often laughing happily at the keys at the things we had in common or the opinions we shared. From those simple "Hey, me too!" interactions, I was invited to meet up in New York, go to dinner at a conference, talk business with an agent, come along on a writer's retreat, submit to an anthology, join as a moderator...I became who I am as a YA writer because other YA writers invited me to be one, too.
- Taking the train home from SCBWI NY, I happened to sit next to another attendee and we spent the ride talking about what we'd just experienced and sharing the highlights and our stories. When I mentioned that I was working on a book using Mexican mythology, it turned out that she was a professor whose expertise was Mexican folklore! I whipped out my notebook and took notes on everything she had to share for the next hour, giving me the resources, books, personal contacts and ideas that fueled what would become Consuela's foundation in LUMINOUS.
- Just before my website launched, I was having difficulties with one of the things I wanted to do in WordPress and it was affecting everything else surrounding the book and writing and I felt completely helpless. Deflated, I went toodling around Twitter for distraction and saw that someone had asked for help with a query. (I loved helping folks with blurbs on the Blueboards.) So I clicked the link, went to the site, made some suggestions and felt better about myself. I was pinged on Twitter with a "Thank you" and an invitation to see if the next draft had improved. We exchanged a bit, I was able to help, and the writer thanked me profusely with "and if there's anything I can do..." I admitted that I was having a tough time with WordPress. Turns out that's what they did for a living!
- I was completely flummoxed about what to do about bookmarks, having no design degree or software of my own and strapped for cash. I looked over the bookmarks I'd collected over the years and decided to contact the authors of some of the best ones to ask for who did their bookmarks and what they thought should always/never go on them. Every one answered me. Every one was helpful and willing to share. And one went so far as to design my bookmarks for me as a surprise, for which I will be forever grateful.
I could go on and on and on but let me just reiterate that this is less "Mafia" and more "Love In" in my opinion. I am not so naive as to claim that there are no cliques, no angry souls, no bitter writers who covet the careers of others or lord their successes over anyone else; there are such people in the world and I've even met a few. But it is *far* more likely that you will meet a friendly, helpful, welcoming, willing-to-share human being on the other end of the YA blog than a mean, tyrannical Boss's Boss who is trying to crush the opposition like a Coke can. I think we've got more Good Samaritans than Scrooges and far more teammates than competition.
Go to a conference, join a writer's community, leave a question or comment online and see what I mean: in this game, there's always room for more! (And we're all in this game of Calvinball together!)
None. Seriously.
Instead, let me offer up a better image: that we have YA Red Rover. Imagine a line of kids playing in a giant field and you are wandering over, the new kid in town, a little shy and unsure and everyone grasping hands seems to already know one another, chatting and laughing in a long line that stretches across the whole playground. As you step closer, you can overhear their conversations to one another (Twitter), follow a few of their questions and comments (Verla Kay), learn about some of their passionate interests (blogs), and even figure out who some of the Big Names are on the field (pro websites and interviews) and then--now this is key--you put yourself out there. And you know what happens? Someone answers you, someone comments, someone smiles and laughs back. There isn't a person-limit in this game, anyone can play, and the line grows stronger.
♬ Red Rover, Red Rover, let the new kid come over! ♬
And you can join the chain, grasp a hand, say hello. People "Friend" and "Add" and "Follow" but in the real world, the one about learning and connection and acceptance, what really matters is that someone you've never known before is willing to say "Hi" and give you a hand, welcoming you into a world that is foreign and big and exciting and scary and built almost entirely on dreams and stories and the want to share.
Of course it's also built on a foundation of business and marketing and making money as per capitalist credo; it's not all Kumbaya by any means, but the *people* in the writing community are the ones who talk amongst themselves, try to help one another out, make the secrets less secret and the mysteries less mysterious. And I'm not just talking about the pros like Janet Reid, Cheryl Klein, Kristin Nelson, Nathan Bransford and Editorial Anonymous (some of my favorite folks in the field), but people who we connect with and meet online and at conferences and in social networking sites like Verla Kay, SCBWI, RWA, or TweetChats like #kidlitchat or #yalitchat. Our best resources are one another and when one of us succeeds, YA as a whole is seen in a better light -- not lesser or simpler or "dumbing down" ((shudder)) -- and that makes the playing field better for everyone!
A few examples from my own, limited experience:
- When I went to my first conference, I signed up to share a room and split the cost. I met people who introduced me to more people (and more people and more people, including RAs, agents, editors, and marketing professionals), some of whom became crit partners, close friends, and certainly cheerleading fans as I continued on my journey to publication. That in and of itself is a lifeline that EVERY writer can appreciate!
- Charged with the assignment of "go get a web presence", I stumbled onto places like LiveJournal and Twitter. There I started following intelligent, funny writers and joined in conversations or commented on their brilliance, often laughing happily at the keys at the things we had in common or the opinions we shared. From those simple "Hey, me too!" interactions, I was invited to meet up in New York, go to dinner at a conference, talk business with an agent, come along on a writer's retreat, submit to an anthology, join as a moderator...I became who I am as a YA writer because other YA writers invited me to be one, too.
- Taking the train home from SCBWI NY, I happened to sit next to another attendee and we spent the ride talking about what we'd just experienced and sharing the highlights and our stories. When I mentioned that I was working on a book using Mexican mythology, it turned out that she was a professor whose expertise was Mexican folklore! I whipped out my notebook and took notes on everything she had to share for the next hour, giving me the resources, books, personal contacts and ideas that fueled what would become Consuela's foundation in LUMINOUS.
- Just before my website launched, I was having difficulties with one of the things I wanted to do in WordPress and it was affecting everything else surrounding the book and writing and I felt completely helpless. Deflated, I went toodling around Twitter for distraction and saw that someone had asked for help with a query. (I loved helping folks with blurbs on the Blueboards.) So I clicked the link, went to the site, made some suggestions and felt better about myself. I was pinged on Twitter with a "Thank you" and an invitation to see if the next draft had improved. We exchanged a bit, I was able to help, and the writer thanked me profusely with "and if there's anything I can do..." I admitted that I was having a tough time with WordPress. Turns out that's what they did for a living!
- I was completely flummoxed about what to do about bookmarks, having no design degree or software of my own and strapped for cash. I looked over the bookmarks I'd collected over the years and decided to contact the authors of some of the best ones to ask for who did their bookmarks and what they thought should always/never go on them. Every one answered me. Every one was helpful and willing to share. And one went so far as to design my bookmarks for me as a surprise, for which I will be forever grateful.
I could go on and on and on but let me just reiterate that this is less "Mafia" and more "Love In" in my opinion. I am not so naive as to claim that there are no cliques, no angry souls, no bitter writers who covet the careers of others or lord their successes over anyone else; there are such people in the world and I've even met a few. But it is *far* more likely that you will meet a friendly, helpful, welcoming, willing-to-share human being on the other end of the YA blog than a mean, tyrannical Boss's Boss who is trying to crush the opposition like a Coke can. I think we've got more Good Samaritans than Scrooges and far more teammates than competition.
Go to a conference, join a writer's community, leave a question or comment online and see what I mean: in this game, there's always room for more! (And we're all in this game of Calvinball together!)
March 4, 2011
Artists & the Art of Storytelling: Shaun Tan Won an Oscar!
Shaun Tan's The Lost Thing won an award that looks like a mini Iron Man! WHEE! I can't describe how wonderful this is mostly because I've been a slack-jawed fan of his work ever since I read THE ARRIVAL and fell in love with the textless picture book that more clearly captured the immigrant experience that my grandparents were trying to tell me than any other medium I'd ever seen. What could describe the language barrier better than the total absence of language? The quirky and creepy creatures alongside the poignant and empathic characters (often being one and the same) is something that characterizes the art of people like Shaun Tan (and Tim Burton, IMO) and makes them truly remarkable.
It's discoveries like this that feel more like going on an adventure with buried treasure; that feeling I used to get when delving through an old used book store and emerging with a stack which I bought, giddy with guilty pleasure that I'd found them first! Both the art of the writing and the art of the cover, or the body of the picture book or the illustrations in poetry; there is a harmony of images and world-building that gifted artists like Shaun Tan, David Wiesner, and Brian Selznick push beyond. I often think back on this interview clip and think about what can be both said and unsaid in the art of storytelling:
P.S. Check out some of the other associated videos in the sidebar. Fascinating epipahnies for the taking!
I remember gushing just as much for his texted picture book, TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA. Makes you wonder how his brain works. (I do, but not in a Mad Scientist with a circular saw sort of why...why are you looking at me like that?)
You can see tons of the "making of" process here (which I'll admit is one of my favorite parts of watching DVDs like LoTR and Nick Park/Aardman) and this is the official trailer for The Lost Thing (available on DVD!):
It makes me think a lot about what my own cover artist, Alberto Seveso was capturing with his art when he created the image of Consuela Chavez and hints of the Flow and one of her otherworldly skins...
What art/artist inspires you with the stories they tell?
It's discoveries like this that feel more like going on an adventure with buried treasure; that feeling I used to get when delving through an old used book store and emerging with a stack which I bought, giddy with guilty pleasure that I'd found them first! Both the art of the writing and the art of the cover, or the body of the picture book or the illustrations in poetry; there is a harmony of images and world-building that gifted artists like Shaun Tan, David Wiesner, and Brian Selznick push beyond. I often think back on this interview clip and think about what can be both said and unsaid in the art of storytelling:
P.S. Check out some of the other associated videos in the sidebar. Fascinating epipahnies for the taking!
I remember gushing just as much for his texted picture book, TALES FROM OUTER SUBURBIA. Makes you wonder how his brain works. (I do, but not in a Mad Scientist with a circular saw sort of why...why are you looking at me like that?)
You can see tons of the "making of" process here (which I'll admit is one of my favorite parts of watching DVDs like LoTR and Nick Park/Aardman) and this is the official trailer for The Lost Thing (available on DVD!):
It makes me think a lot about what my own cover artist, Alberto Seveso was capturing with his art when he created the image of Consuela Chavez and hints of the Flow and one of her otherworldly skins...
What art/artist inspires you with the stories they tell?
