Fabulous Hunger Games Fansite!
Today, I'm pleased to welcome Sheila Cordero (left) and Lindsay McComber (right), who created and run the popular Hunger Games fansite, hggirlonfire.com.
I recently interviewed Kira and Matt of Nightlock Podcast on TOR.com. I started the interview by noting that, in addition to being an author, I've been a part of science fiction, fantasy, and horror fandom for 25 years. After meeting an interesting variety of Hunger Games fans on the internet, I began wondering what drives them. What is it about the Hunger Games that they love so much? What do they think about the upcoming movie? Kira and Matt had some interesting answers, and so do Sheila and Lindsay. Read on!
Lois: What inspired you to create hggirlonfire.com , and what can fans expect to find on your site?
After reading the books we were so captured by the story and emotional depth of the characters that we found ourselves wanting the opportunity to connect with other fans by developing a site that provided the most current Hunger Games news and gave fans like us an outlet to share in our Hunger Games obsession. On our site, readers can expect to find not only the latest news reading the Hunger Games books and movie, but also information about the Hunger Games cast members other projects and participation in events.
Lois: How many people are involved with hggirlonfire.com , and what are your different functions?
We are currently a team of 5 Hunger Games obsessed fans!
Lindsay and Sheila are the founders and admins for the site. We maintain the site's daily operations coming up with special features, contests, and tracking the news.
To help keep up with all the news on a daily basis, we have 3 amazing, dedicated and talented bloggers in Colleen, Amie and Ella.
Lois: Are the actors portraying the tributes close to your visions of the characters in the book?
A lot has been debated about the actors cast in the Hunger Games movie. While visually we don't believe any of the actors fit the images we had in our heads, we support their casting, and after seeing some of the images from the movie, reading different interviews, and of course that AMAZING trailer, we couldn't be happier with the casting choices made. We also appreciate that much of the casting has been with relative newcomers and are excited to see what they bring to their characters.
Lois: I'm interested in your take on some of the main characters. For example, I think of Katniss as kind, thoughtful, resourceful, intelligent, heroic, and forced to act hard and tough due to the extreme circumstances of the Hunger Games. Do you agree? If not, how do you view Katniss' personality?
Yes, Katniss is all of these things. For us, she is the epitome of a survivor. She has endured such a difficult life at such a young age and found the strength to pull herself together to survivive. Whether that was learning to hunt and gather plants to eat, stepping up to take the place of her sister at the reaping, finding the courage to open herself up to possible love, and facing her fears to become a symbol of hope for people. At the same time Katniss doesn't claim to be more than she is, a young girl thrown into an impossible situation and experiencing all the fear and uncertainty that goes along with that.
Lois: Everyone's talking about the actors chosen to portray Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth) and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson). Do they meet your expectations as the two main male characters in the Hunger Games?
We know a lot has been said about these actors not living up to the image that fans had in their heads as they read these stories. While we can certainly understand the initial fan reactions to the casting, for us, it was ultimately more about whether these 2 actors could capture the essence of Gale and Peeta. Could we believe them in these roles, and would we feel the same way about them as we did about the characters in the book. Listening to interviews from both Josh and Liam, watching their work in other films, as well as the images we've seen and the Hunger Games trailer, we think the right decision was made. We have found that Josh does seem to embody all the traits of Peeta that fans love, and Liam exudes just the right amount of grit we imagined in a character such as Gale.
Lois: Oddly, I was very fond of Haymitch Abernathy in the books. He appealed to me as an "uncle" type of character, someone who cared about the kids in the arena; but like Katniss' mother, Haymitch had suffered long and hard, and he was too far gone to function well. His drunken behaviors added a bit of amusement and lightness to the story. What do you think about Haymitch?
Haymitch breaks our heart. While his antics in the book were great points of humor to relieve some of the seriousness of the story, when we think about who Haymitch was as a person and how he became the way he is, it's really a pretty tragic story. Haymitch was an intelligent young man who won his games by figuring out the so called "chink" in games. While in the games, Haymitch killed to survive, then witnessed the death of his district 12 ally. After the games, the Capitol kills Haymitch's family and he is left essentially alone, to deal with all of his feelings and the trauma from his experience. Then year after year, he is forced to mentor the district 12 tributes only to watch them die in their games. His only means of coping was by drinking himself into a stupor on a daily basis and become the source of of jokes. But internally, Haymitch was a tortured soul, one who was angry at the Capitol, and not surprisingly became a central player in the rebellion against the Capitol.
Lois: Do you have a favorite stylist?
Cinna of course is our favorite stylist. We loved his interaction with Katniss and the relationship they were able to form.
Lois: It's almost obligatory to ask everyone, "Which is your favorite book of the three?" I've been surprised by some of the answers! Which book did you like the best, and why?
Lindsay's favorite book is Hunger Games. I tend to like origin stories and this is the book that introduced me to Katniss and the world she lives in. As bad as that world is, I can't help but love the book that was my first glimpse into this world, and my first introduction to characters that I love so much.
Sheila's favorite book is Catching Fire. I loved this book because I really enjoyed reading about Katniss and Peeta's experience after the games, and what happens to them.
Lois: Do you think there's a danger that the real world could someday become like the world of the Hunger Games? Are people so mean to each other, so greedy, so vile that we're in danger of blowing ourselves into oblivion (via some sort of apocalyptic event) and then subjecting our children to gladiator-type death arenas? Are we capable of the inhumanities of the Hunger Games?
It's hard to imagine our world being like the Hunger Games. We like to think that people are better than that, and that we have enough controls in place to prevent such an occurrence, but then again, I think if there wasn't a balance of people in this world who fight to do the right thing, people can certainly be capable of some of the inhumanity of the Hunger Games.
Lois: Of all the inhumanities of the Hunger Games, which ones do you think are the worst?
The starvation of the children in this book was really tough. It made me so sad to read about Katniss' starvation with her family and that there were no resources she could turn to to get help. It broke our heart to read Rue exclaim she's never had a whole leg to herself before, and reading about how even the people in District 11 who provided food to the Capitol, never had enough to eat themselves.
Lois: Finally, I'd love to know more about the people behind hggirlonfire.com. Are you big fans of other series? When not running hggirlonfire.com, what other things do you enjoy?
When not obsessing about the Hunger Games, we are all big fans of Harry Potter and Twilight. Lindsay is the main admin for a Team-Twilight.com and Sheila blogs for this Team Twilight as well.
Lois: Thanks for stopping by, Sheila and Lindsay. I enjoyed interviewing you very much. For fans, please hop over to hggirlonfire.com and check them out!
In this holiday season, all best wishes to all Hunger Games fans!
~~Lois
