Dave Milbrandt's Blog, page 8
December 21, 2013
In Defense of YA Literature
If you’ve been to your local booksellers lately, it is clear the Young Adult offerings have grown from occupying a couple of shelves into a legitimate section with assorted subgenres springing up. Like any genre, there are great, OK, and fairly poor examples of writing in this category, but to dismiss it wholesale, as some are wont to do, is unfortunate.
Now, I’m not saying this because I am secret fan of boy wizards or vampires who sparkle. I came to this particular party rather late and primarily because I was curious as to why my students were so fascinated with certain authors.
I started with Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games trilogy and devored them as fast as I could get copies from the school library. I found her sense of voice to be fascinating, as I did the theme of sacrifice that runs throughout the series.
Recently I consumed the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I loved how she wove notions of identity, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and healing into a dystopian Midwestern landscape.
Don’t get me wrong, as I am well aware these books are not perfect from a literary standpoint. While many teens not have a problem with sentence fragments and the obsessive usage of present-tense verbs, the English teacher in me has to take a deep breath and put such concerns aside in order to find the often-compelling story within. A friend of mine recently said that he didn’t care how a book was categorized, because a good story was a good story and I agree with him.
I may have two Eric Metaxes books, one from my friend Joseph Bentz and the latest John Grisham novel on my kindle all ready for me to read but it was nice, just for a while, to imagine what it would be like to be a member of the Dauntless faction in a rebellion-ravaged Chicago.
If you ask me, that’s a good story for young and old alike.
Now, I’m not saying this because I am secret fan of boy wizards or vampires who sparkle. I came to this particular party rather late and primarily because I was curious as to why my students were so fascinated with certain authors.
I started with Suzanne Collins and her Hunger Games trilogy and devored them as fast as I could get copies from the school library. I found her sense of voice to be fascinating, as I did the theme of sacrifice that runs throughout the series.
Recently I consumed the Divergent series by Veronica Roth. I loved how she wove notions of identity, self-sacrifice, forgiveness and healing into a dystopian Midwestern landscape.
Don’t get me wrong, as I am well aware these books are not perfect from a literary standpoint. While many teens not have a problem with sentence fragments and the obsessive usage of present-tense verbs, the English teacher in me has to take a deep breath and put such concerns aside in order to find the often-compelling story within. A friend of mine recently said that he didn’t care how a book was categorized, because a good story was a good story and I agree with him.
I may have two Eric Metaxes books, one from my friend Joseph Bentz and the latest John Grisham novel on my kindle all ready for me to read but it was nice, just for a while, to imagine what it would be like to be a member of the Dauntless faction in a rebellion-ravaged Chicago.
If you ask me, that’s a good story for young and old alike.
December 3, 2013
A ‘Tortoise’ in This Hare-brained World
Having spent a few years teaching history, I often found myself reminding students that previous generations got along just fine without a particular device or gizmo.
The myth that drives our culture today is that we need more tools to do more things more quickly. Now, when it comes to paying bills online as opposed to writing out checks and placing stamps on envelopes, I am all for such innovation. But the double-edged sword that is modern technology drives us to practically hyperventilate when things aren’t moving quickly enough for our liking. We need it now, now, now and when our demands for the immediate are not met, our internal pressure cooker click.
While I struggle to combat such tendencies, I am not as successful as I would like to be. For example, I am able to verify any time I wish my current book sales. This may sound like a blessing, but it is so easy for this to lead to thrice-daily checking of numbers that probably should be examined, at the most, weekly for the first month and then once a month thereafter. Fixating on how many sales have, or have not, been recorded can quickly transform someone from a diligent supervisor of their work to an obsessive person needing to feast on data like whales dine on krill.
There is, and always has been, a value in being patient in our world of instant gratification. I was just never very good at learning that lesson.
Toward that end, here’s to becoming a “tortoise” in this hare-brained world.
The myth that drives our culture today is that we need more tools to do more things more quickly. Now, when it comes to paying bills online as opposed to writing out checks and placing stamps on envelopes, I am all for such innovation. But the double-edged sword that is modern technology drives us to practically hyperventilate when things aren’t moving quickly enough for our liking. We need it now, now, now and when our demands for the immediate are not met, our internal pressure cooker click.
While I struggle to combat such tendencies, I am not as successful as I would like to be. For example, I am able to verify any time I wish my current book sales. This may sound like a blessing, but it is so easy for this to lead to thrice-daily checking of numbers that probably should be examined, at the most, weekly for the first month and then once a month thereafter. Fixating on how many sales have, or have not, been recorded can quickly transform someone from a diligent supervisor of their work to an obsessive person needing to feast on data like whales dine on krill.
There is, and always has been, a value in being patient in our world of instant gratification. I was just never very good at learning that lesson.
Toward that end, here’s to becoming a “tortoise” in this hare-brained world.
November 30, 2013
Some events in your life are watershed moments and this, for me, is one of them. Today I became a published November 23, 2013
Thankful for Perspective
With Thanksgiving just a few days away, I’m like everyone else who is concerned about who’s bringing what to dinner and what time we need to arrive.
I suppose it is a national pastime to obsess over the minutiae of these celebrations. If an item is forgotten or was not in stock, we devote a seemingly inordinate amount of time lamenting over its absence and strategizing how we can resolve the dilemma.
Don’t get me wrong. I love all the treats that grace our holiday table. If there were no fried onions for the green bean casserole, you’d better believe I would hop into the car and hunt for the elusive item.
Considering how little some people have, all of this frantic scrambling seems a bit excessive to say the least. As a teacher, from time to time a student will tell me about the difficulties his or her family is having with paying the bills or putting food on the table. We help where we can, but we know there is much more need out there we may never discover. Bearing this in mind, it is imperative to remember how fortunate so many of us are.
The big project on my plate this next week is publishing a book. Yet for all the energy I have poured into this effort, at this point I simply am pursuing a dream and not relying on the success of this venture to be the determining factor in whether or not we eat this week. I may be doing every thing I can to turn a profit, but I will not suffer catastrophic financial disaster if my dreams do not come to fruition. My ego would be bruised and our household budget would be tighter to be sure, but those damages could be repaired in time.
So, as we enter the season of turkey and trimmings, may we realize how blessed we are and take a moment to give thanks for what we have. Possessing such perspective may be the best gift of all.
I suppose it is a national pastime to obsess over the minutiae of these celebrations. If an item is forgotten or was not in stock, we devote a seemingly inordinate amount of time lamenting over its absence and strategizing how we can resolve the dilemma.
Don’t get me wrong. I love all the treats that grace our holiday table. If there were no fried onions for the green bean casserole, you’d better believe I would hop into the car and hunt for the elusive item.
Considering how little some people have, all of this frantic scrambling seems a bit excessive to say the least. As a teacher, from time to time a student will tell me about the difficulties his or her family is having with paying the bills or putting food on the table. We help where we can, but we know there is much more need out there we may never discover. Bearing this in mind, it is imperative to remember how fortunate so many of us are.
The big project on my plate this next week is publishing a book. Yet for all the energy I have poured into this effort, at this point I simply am pursuing a dream and not relying on the success of this venture to be the determining factor in whether or not we eat this week. I may be doing every thing I can to turn a profit, but I will not suffer catastrophic financial disaster if my dreams do not come to fruition. My ego would be bruised and our household budget would be tighter to be sure, but those damages could be repaired in time.
So, as we enter the season of turkey and trimmings, may we realize how blessed we are and take a moment to give thanks for what we have. Possessing such perspective may be the best gift of all.
November 16, 2013
Entering the Arena
As a child, I fell in love with the places books could take you if you were only willing to dedicate a little imagination to making the journey. Being so passionate about reading, I soon was bitten by the writing bug. My first efforts, not surprisingly, were childish as I copied what I had seen and read rather than created original work of my own. And, while my ability to write journalistic stories grew in high school, college and beyond, my short stories remained slight twists on my own life or ideas from others.
In the summer of 1998, I began to work on what would become my first novel. What I thought was a pretty good product was, in reality, a very rough draft that needed much more work. Foolishly discarding wise counsel, I rushed my story to agents and publishers expecting a book contract in short order.
Instead of instant success, rejections quickly filled an ever-expanding file folder. All aspiring writers have visions of royalties and recognition coming at the end of a long road of struggle. People whose oft-declined manuscript goes on to eventually become a best-selling novel inspire us all to keep writing, submit to agents, grieve over the rejections and submit again.
Many drafts later, I had reached the dreaded milestone of receiving more rejections than there are states in America. That’s when I decided to take a new path, one that would lead me out of this literary wilderness. While tempted to simply give up, I realized I had come too far to abandon the dream that has grasped my soul so many years ago. I tell my students every day not to give up on their dreams, so how could I throw away on my own and not be seen as a hypocrite in their eyes?
A few still may frown at those who take the self-publishing route, but sometimes you just need to move forward in faith and boldness and see what happens. President Teddy Roosevelt famously tipped his hat to the man waging battle in the arena willing to fight with all of his might and “if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Win or lose, I am happy to finally be stepping into the arena.
In the summer of 1998, I began to work on what would become my first novel. What I thought was a pretty good product was, in reality, a very rough draft that needed much more work. Foolishly discarding wise counsel, I rushed my story to agents and publishers expecting a book contract in short order.
Instead of instant success, rejections quickly filled an ever-expanding file folder. All aspiring writers have visions of royalties and recognition coming at the end of a long road of struggle. People whose oft-declined manuscript goes on to eventually become a best-selling novel inspire us all to keep writing, submit to agents, grieve over the rejections and submit again.
Many drafts later, I had reached the dreaded milestone of receiving more rejections than there are states in America. That’s when I decided to take a new path, one that would lead me out of this literary wilderness. While tempted to simply give up, I realized I had come too far to abandon the dream that has grasped my soul so many years ago. I tell my students every day not to give up on their dreams, so how could I throw away on my own and not be seen as a hypocrite in their eyes?
A few still may frown at those who take the self-publishing route, but sometimes you just need to move forward in faith and boldness and see what happens. President Teddy Roosevelt famously tipped his hat to the man waging battle in the arena willing to fight with all of his might and “if he fails, at least he fails while daring greatly, so that his place shall never be with those cold and timid souls who knew neither victory nor defeat.”
Win or lose, I am happy to finally be stepping into the arena.
