Mike Jung's Blog, page 31
May 29, 2012
Blurbs are really fun, yo
Fans of Matthew Cody’s POWERLESS will find much to like about GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES. Hey look, I wrote my own blurb…
Seriously, aren’t they? Here’s something I didn’t know – you can actually get two blurbs from the same person! One that’s like the official blurb that might go on the actual book jacket, and one that’s the unofficial blurb that really won’t work on the book jacket for a variety of reasons but is so flipping awesome that you wanna use it somehow anyway. Such it is with this unofficial (or maybe just “semi-official”) blurb from Matthew Cody, author of the outstanding MG superhero novel POWERLESS, as well as its upcoming sequel SUPER. Ready?
“If Stan Lee had written Freaks and Geeks it would look like this!” – Matthew Cody, author of POWERLESS
Now, the reason this blurb won’t be used on the book itself should be pretty apparent – 9-12 year old kids are very unlikely to give a rodent’s hairy patootie about a late 1990s genre-busting TV show that was unceremoniously canceled after a single season. However, long-standing fans like myself who still mourn the untimely demise of Freaks and Geeks (as well as the equally lamentable termination of his slightly more recent series Undeclared) just might fall over and hit their heads on the floor from lurching, uncoordinated glee, just like I did.
Of course Stan “The Man” Lee is the all-powerful demigod who, in concert with the immortal Jack “King” Kirby, led Marvel Comics through the most fertile and game-changing era of character creation in the history of the comic book industry. GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES is peppered with not-so-subtle references to their creations.
In other words, this semi-official blurb won’t mean a lot to the typical middle-grade reader, but it pushes a whole slew of MY personal fanboy buttons. Pretty great, huh? I tell ya, this “being a writer” thing just keeps getting more and more fun…
m.
May 10, 2012
My First Ever Review! Sort of!
Do you know Kari Anne Holt, author of MIKE STELLAR, NERVES OF STEEL and the zombie haiku epic BRAINS FOR LUNCH? She’s terrific (and has an incredible manuscript in progress!), and her son just provided the very first review of GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES. It’s flippant, derisive, uninformed, and AWESOME!
I think it’s the “trust ME” at the end that tips this review over into the realm of true greatness. You have to respect such unshakable conviction, right?
May 7, 2012
The Curious Phenomenon of Evolving Self-perception
The Curious Phenomenon of Evolving Self-Perception
I’m cross-posting this here because I need content for my personal blog and I’ll do whatever I have to in order to get it! I am a selfish, selfish man. However, I would prefer that you go to the original post on EMU’s Debuts and read it there first. But whatever, dude, do you what you want. IT’S A FREE COUNTRY…
GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES belongs on the Arthur A. Levine Books shelf! Yes it does!
As the release date for Geeks, Girls, and Secret Identities approaches, I seem to be going through some changes in self-perception. Yeah yeah, I know what you’re thinking – “Mike, you’re clearly a megalomaniac, which means you’re not capable of changes in self-perception!” Here’s a little secret: I’m not really a megalomaniac. I’m actually a quivery ball of emotional insecurity, which makes it a bit strange that lately I feel…good about my writing career? And not in a spoofy “I’m the king of the world” way, but in a “oh wow, THAT just happened” kind of way, or a “perhaps all this good stuff happening to me is justified” kind of way.
For example, I now have advance reader copies winging their way out into the world, and I was asked to whip up a list of suggested readers. I asked a bunch of people who I know to one degree or another, which was hard enough, but in a burst of uncharacteristic real-world bravado I also asked one of my very favorite kidlit authors if I could send them an ARC. Someone who I don’t actually know at all – no email, no Facebook conversations, not even a single-tweet exchange on Twitter. Nada. And that person said “sure, I’d love to take a look.” At which point my head suddenly – oh wait, I think it’s about to happen aga–
Oh man, ain’t that pretty?
*head explodes*
Uh, sorry. I’ll clean that up later… Anyway, the fact that this person is willing to read my ARC is FANTASTIC! It’s fantastic partly because it’s something that seemed so far out of reach three years ago, when I was scuffling through the query process and revising in what often felt like a state of intense psychological isolation. I have the best critique partners in existence, but it really isn’t the same as working with colleagues in the publishing industry the way I do now. I partially defined my writerly identity with terms like aspiring, up-and-coming, and just plain unpublished. And the word I’ve used more than any other is, of course, writer. But now I find myself growing increasingly comfortable with a different term, one that I’ve always perceived as having a certain air of untouchability: author.
Starred-review-collecting EMU J. Anderson Coats touched on this in her early post on how we answer the question “What do you do?” It’s funny how loaded one little six-letter word can be, isn’t it? Writer, author, author, writer, which one am I, oh I don’t dare call myself an author, etc. One of the things I appreciate most about the kidlit world is that people are clearly invested in living the self-examined life – logically enough, since it’s a prerequisite for the writing process. There’s a widespread awareness about how we project ourselves as public figures, assess our place on the continuum of children’s literature, discuss potentially sensitive topics, and affect the feelings of our colleagues and friends. I value this tremendously.
The thing is, I also struggle with this. I’ve struggled with it before, but now it’s happening differently, probably because the advent of my career as a published author feels so much bigger than anything I’ve previously experienced in my professional life. I’m struggling with the balance between being sensitive/diplomatic/cautious/humble and being expressive/optimistic/risk-embracing/celebratory.
I don’t want to be a jerk, you know? I’m entirely too capable of being a jerk. But I also feel really good about my place in the kidlit community, optimistic about my book’s prospects, and confident in my own abilities. Back in my pre-published days (which are still pretty recent), I started making a very informal list of things I wanted to happen during my journey to publication. They were things I thought I’d really love to experience and were contained within the big dream of publication, but they also qualified as dreams in their own right. And those things have actually started happening!
Really good movie, BTW.
In a scene from the old James L. Brooks movie Broadcast News, William Hurt’s character says, “What do you do when your real life exceeds your dreams?” Albert Brooks’s character responds, “Keep it to yourself!” That’s not an uncommon sentiment, and I do want to be mindful of the pitfalls of excessive self-adulation. L.B. Schulman touched on this in her early post on “Spreading the Good News.” I know the danger of being perceived as a braggart is real – in fact, the danger of genuinely becoming a braggart is real. I’m both a writer and a library professional, so I spend a lot of time in the company of people who share my don’t-be-a-blowhard concerns, which I think is much more positive than not.
But.
There are times when these tendencies have inhibited me. There’ve been moments when I may have robbed myself of joy and satisfaction in the pursuit of diplomacy, and that by trying not to irritate people through excessive self-regard I’ve unnecessarily put myself down. That’s the last thing I want to do right now, because I have this extraordinary feeling that my professional life is metamorphosing into something that has more purpose and meaning than it’s ever had before.
I keep returning to the great warhorse in my stable of quotes, Marianne Williamson’s astonishing insight into our deepest fears, and realizing that I don’t want to play small. I want my light to blaze like the sun! I’m very happy, and I’ve tried to be open about expressing it. The infancy of my career has been more than a dream come true: it’s been an entire series of dreams come true. I’ve driven myself like a plowhorse to get here, and I’ll continue to drive myself as my career progresses. I’ve described myself as many things during the journey to publication. I’m a newbie! I’m a wannabe! I’m a dreamer, a writer on the verge, a burgeoning creative professional! Now I’m adding one more thing to the list, yes I am, right out there for the entire world to see.
Look alive, world. I’m an author.
May 3, 2012
Guest appearance at YA Muses
April 3, 2012
What Diversity Means to Me
The latest post in Ellen Oh's diversity blog series is by author Zoe Marriott.
g This post first appeared on Hello Ello, the blog of friend, critique partner, and on-the-verge-of-ruling-the-universe author Ellen Oh, who was kind enough to invite me to share my thoughts on diversity. I'm cross-posting here a couple of weeks after my original post went up on Ellen's blog because I believe in the importance of the topic and want its presence on my blog as well, but you should definitely read the entire series, which is outstanding, thought-provoking, and written by a slew of authors who deserve every second of air time they get.
********************
I've wanted to write a children's book since my days as a preschool teacher – my first love was actually picture books, although I write middle grade novels now. One of my favorites back then was Peggy Rathmann's OFFICER BUCKLE AND GLORIA, and it still amazes me to think that years later the editor of that book, Arthur Levine, is now my editor.
I later took a class in picture book illustration at UC Berkeley that was taught by Julie Downing, which was when I discovered that picture books are REALLY HARD. I was easily discouraged back then, so I spent the next 10 years daydreaming about writing children's books while pursuing other things.
It was only when my daughter was born in 2006 that I realized I was at a crossroads. I could succumb to the notion that raising a family meant surrendering my long-held dream, or I could choose to test my mettle and truly commit to pursuing my dream. Thankfully, I chose the latter.
I mined a lot of my own childhood interests in doing so – my comic-book geek past, my feelings of alienation and disenfranchisement during my school years, and the bonds of friendship between early teenage boys. But I was also strongly influenced by my present reality as a husband and new father, and that's largely why a girl turns out to be the alter ego of Captain Stupendous.
It's also why my characters represent a variety of ethnicities, because thinking about the reality that my daughter had just entered made it impossible to do otherwise. During my teen years I was almost exclusively surrounded by people of white European descent, and that left its mark on me, but my daughter is growing up in a far more diverse and challenging slice of society than I did. I wanted to write a book that reflects her reality, which is now my reality. I'm honestly not sure if I made that choice for her benefit, or for mine, but it felt like the only valid choice I could make.
Ellen asked me why I think books like mine are important to our kids. I have some trouble thinking about my book in terms of importance. I hope kids will think my book is entertaining and funny, and that it'll provide a way for kids to temporarily escape from whatever struggles they're going through, as books so often did for me. I hope reluctant readers will give it a chance, have a good time reading it, and use it as a gateway to other, different books.
I do also hope that kids of mixed ancestry and post-immigrant backgrounds will look at my book and recognize something of themselves in it, even if my book isn't a piercing examination of those aspects of their lives. In fact, I hope that readers will find value in the fact that GEEKS isn't about being a mixed kid or the child of second-generation parents, because I strongly believe that those kids can (and should) have stories that are as goofy, adventurous, lighthearted, and superpowered as anyone else.
What does diversity mean to me? It means complexity. Acknowledging diversity, comprehending it, and incorporating it into our worldviews is challenging. We have to be self-aware, so we can perceive own shortcomings. We must have strength, because without it we'll be unable to contain and manage the anger that an unjust world so often provokes. It's vital to continually learn from the people around us, because the alternative is to live in a destructive state of societal isolation. And we must be vulnerable in our hearts and generous in spirit, because it's only then that we can love and trust each other in the face of such constant exertion.
It doesn't make things any easier that the definition of ethnicity has expanded beyond ethnicity to include sexuality, gender, socioeconomic level, education, and more. The world can feel like an increasingly complex place, and the effort required to engage with it in a truly inclusive way is not insignificant.
That can be very discouraging, and some people clearly view it as a reason to entirely dismiss the concepts of diversity and inclusion, but they're wrong. It's vital that our individual mentalities evolve to match the increasing complexity of the world, because I believe a simplistic understanding of it is dangerous. An unwillingness to grapple with that complexity can directly contribute to the horrors of racism, religious hatred, misogyny, and homophobia.
What does this mean for me as a writer? Well, it means being vigilant about my creative choices, happenings in the industry, and the stellar example being set by other authors like Matt de la Peña, Mitali Perkins, and Olugbemisola Rhuday-Perkovich, who are champions of diversity as well as champion authors. It means engaging in meaningful dialogue whenever possible, and taking meaningful action whenever necessary.
It probably means my books will evolve over time, and that my current interest in writing books that are silly and entertaining will expand to include topics that are more explicitly concerned with diversity, at least in terms of my own life experiences. I have a book in me, somewhere below the surface, that will explore brotherhood, multigenerational families, life as the child of immigrants, and the shifting nature of adolescent identity. I need to grow into this idea, but one day I'll have both the chops and the fortitude to write it.
That's not to belittle the books I'm currently occupied with, however. GEEKS is chock-full of superheroes, giant robots, and slam-bang action scenes. It's not heavily focused on my protagonist's ethnic identity, and that's good too. As I said earlier, I think every kid on the planet could use a few laughs and a few daredevil adventures once in a while.
My protagonist is named Vincent Wu. He's half-Korean, as is Polly Winnicott-Lee, the girl he has a mammoth crush on. My own children will always be able to look at my book and find characters with an ancestry similar to theirs, and I'm grateful that Arthur A. Levine Books put that half-Korean boy right there on the cover for everyone to see. GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES won't change the world for anyone, but it might introduce a hint of needed complexity for someone.
It could even provide a note of affirmation for a kid who's struggling to find his or her place in the world, and that might be a legitimate way to illustrate the shift from a simplistic worldview to one that's more complex and complete. An isolated and alienated boy explores the world through books, and over time he starts to understand that the world is more vast and multifaceted than he previously suspected. As a result, this terribly lonely boy, who's always believed that the world has no place for him, starts to believe that maybe it does have a place for him after all.
Wouldn't that be glorious? Wouldn't that alone justify all the effort we expend in the name of diversity?
