Marie Lu's Blog, page 65
October 29, 2015
Los Angeles and SoCal! I’m so excited about our event happening...
Los Angeles and SoCal! I’m so excited about our event happening tomorrow (Friday, 10/30) at 7pm!
Details:
Marie Lu, Margaret Stohl, Anna Carey, & Kali Wallace
in convo with
Sarah Enni of First Draft LIVE!
When: Friday, Oct. 30, at 7 PM
Where: Vroman’s in Pasadena, 695 E. Colorado Blvd.Pasadena, CA 91101
In celebration of Halloween, we are sitting down with hosts Sarah Enni and Elissa Sussman to discuss everything bloodcurdling and bizarre in YA literature, as well as our own books. It’ll be tons of fun! Muhahaha. And yes, signed books will be at the event!
(First Draft Live is a bi-monthly panel dedicated to fostering a community of young adult readers within Los Angeles. Through a rotating roster of KidLit authors and pre-determined discussion topics, we ask participants to speak as fans and members of the young adult community We hope to facilitate a fun and casual conversation between readers and authors in the same vein as First Draft Podcast, the event’s namesake and inspiration.)
Literally everywhere I go. It’s like a duckling parade....
Literally everywhere I go. It’s like a duckling parade. #puppypile #scaredofwindydays
October 26, 2015
Post-tour food celebration with the husband.
Post-tour food celebration with the husband.
Post-tour food celebration with the husband.
Post-tour food celebration with the husband.
Post-tour food celebration with the husband.
Post-tour food celebration with the husband.
randomnessoverhere:
I spent waaayyyyy to much time on this...
October 25, 2015
Fancasting Legend characters
I’ve heard that there has been some bickering among Legend fans about the fancasts of the characters–mostly, that some choose to cast Caucasian actors and some choose to cast PoC actors, and that I originally envisioned Metias to look something like Ben Barnes, who is clearly Caucasian, even though Metias and June are technically of mixed race.
This is a valid complaint. All of the arguments are valid. The thing is, I have never been good at casting my characters. I sketch them out in an attempt to know what they look like, but it’s so very particular that casting is always difficult for me. It’s entirely possible that I am envisioning Metias to be way whiter than he should be. The Iparis siblings are a melting pot of ethnicities–in my notes, I wrote them down as being of Hispanic, Native American, and White heritage (based on populations that live in Southern California). I’ve envisioned June as everyone from Hailee Steinfeld to a young Morena Baccarin to a young Priyanka Chopra. I think she would fit any of these. I also admit that I did originally write Metias while picturing Ben Barnes in my head.
There are Legend characters who are very obviously PoC in appearance–Pascao and Razor, for example, are both clearly African-American to me, and Kaede is 100% Japanese. Day looks very hapa in my head. But I don’t want to dictate fancasts for anyone, especially for the characters who are more nebulous (June, Metias, Anden, etc). People of mixed race exist on a huge spectrum of appearance. I’m not saying that whitewashing isn’t an enormous Hollywood problem that I constantly rail against (don’t even get me started on Akira or Avatar: The Last Airbender), but sometimes…..it’s a tough call. Be kind and patient to others in the fandom, and know that it is absolutely okay to criticize me as the creator. Just because I’m an author of color doesn’t mean I always make the right decisions or envision the right people or say the right thing. I am as capable of making mistakes as a Caucasian author, and I’m glad when people call me out for it. I’m trying to grow with each book I write, and that includes the amount of care and thought I should be putting into each of my characters’ heritages and identities. I’m trying to do better each time.
I hope this is helpful! I don’t want to intrude too much into your conversations, guys–I want you guys to make the world your own, in the way that matters to you, and I want to keep building characters that resonate with you. Okay, signing out. Hugs. <3
Neil deGrasse Tyson, speaking last night in Pasadena. Sobbiiing...
A video posted by Marie Lu (@marieluthewriter) on Oct 25, 2015 at 9:19am PDT
Neil deGrasse Tyson, speaking last night in Pasadena. Sobbiiing
October 24, 2015
Okay, this is pretty cool.
Okay, this is pretty cool.
Okay, this is pretty cool.
Okay, this is pretty cool.
