So I finally think I know what I’m going to write next. I mean, as soon as I finish this short story (DIE, SHORT STORY, DIE!), and I’m SO excited. There will be romance! There will be hijinks! There will be adventure. There may even be… frocks.
I do so love a story with some good frocks. I know that may surprise some of you, as there were approximately zero frocks in all of the Secret Society Girl stories, and only one good frock in Rampant and Ascendant. But I positively adore frocks.
There is a frock in For Darkness Shows the Stars, which is funny, because of all my heroines, that one has the least opportunity to frock it up. And yet, she does, since that’s how much I love me some frocks, people.
What are your favorite frockalicious stories, and what are your favorite frocks in those stories?
A recent frockalicious story that I loved was Unlocked by Courtney Milan. I shall forgive her for naming the villain in her story Diana, because Courtney gives very good frock. There’s even a frock on the cover, and because this book was self-published, I know Courtney DID choose that frock.
And if you read the book, you’ll learn why.
My very favorite frock in a book is, of course, the Imperialis Moth frock that Philip Ammon designs for Edith Carr in A Girl of the Limberlost. Philip has spent hte summer studying moths with Elnora Comstock, and has decided that they are the “embodiement of June” and so he convinces his fiancee to use them as an inspiration for their June engagement party.
Here is a description of that marvelous frock:
For she stood tall, lithe, of grace inborn, her dark waving hair piled high and crossed by gold bands studded with amethyst and at one side an enameled lavender orchid rimmed with diamonds, which flashed and sparkled. The soft yellow robe of lightest-weight velvet fitted her form perfectly, while from each shoulder fell a great velvet wing lined with lavender, and flecked with embroidery of that color in imitation of the moth. Around her throat was a wonderful necklace and on her arms were bracelets of gold set with amethyst and rimmed with diamonds. Philip had said that her gloves, fan, and slippers must be lavender, because the feet of the moth were that color. These accessories had been made to order and embroidered with gold… in her heart she thought of herself as “Imperialis Regalis,” as the Yellow Empress.
Elnora has some interesting frocks in this book, too, but no frock has ever impressed upon me the way Edith’s has — and in the scene quoted above, it’s about to have a VERY big impression on all the characters involved.
(And of course my favorite frock COVERS are on the Luxe novels, by Anna Godbersen. The frocks inside are good too, but those covers make me weep with frocky joy.)
So tell me of the frocks you love, and the stories those frocks come with.
For years, I re-read The Anne of Green Gables series (up thru Anne’s House of Dreams), A Girl of the Limberlost, and the Chronicles of Narnia (except for the Last Battle) every year. Every. Year. I have also read A Little Princess multiple times, as well too many books about Greek myths, romance novels, horror novels and other children’s books too many times to count.
Recently, I haven’t been much for rereading, because I’ve become aware of how many books there are out there to read (Out there? No, try my bookshelf!) But I have read Laini Taylor’s Lips Touch 3 Times multiple times, just to savor the beautiful language. Also, Karen Katz’s Where’s Baby’s Belly Button? Over and over and over. Q starts laughing the second I pick it up. It’s definitely her favorite book (though I keep trying to get her into Sandra Boynton, like any good Yalie).
Happy Earth Day, guys! I am spending Earth Day NOT being outside because 1) I have a manuscript due to my editor early next weekend and I’m working my butt off on it and 2) It’s freaking COLD out there. Seriously, how is it late April and 40 degrees outside? (And it’s supposed to be 80 on Easter! Weather in DC is WEIRD.)
Anyway, I have a puppy sleeping on my lap so clearly she doesn’t want to be out in this gray, dreary weather either.
What better way to celebrate earth day than to discuss tree-saving ebooks?
Today marks the publication date of Amanda Brice’s full-length debut, CODENAME: DANCER.This book was a Golden Heart finalist — it’s a light teen mystery suitable for fans of Ally Carter’s Gallagher girls and Jennifer Barnes’ “Squad” books.
Isn’t that cover divine? I swear, a lot of the indie covers I’ve seen lately are better than the ones coming out of New York.
Also out now is the ebook reprint of Mari Mancusi’s post-apocalyptic adventure, RAZOR GIRL. I read this book back when it was originally released and loved it. It was a huge inspiration to me when writing my own, recent post-apocalyptic book.
What’s very different and very cool about Razor Girl is it is told in two separate (and alternating) timelines, showing the characters both before and after the apocalypse that changes both of them forever. If you like dystopian, post-apocalyptic or zombie fiction. or just action-adventures and Disney World, this is totally the book for you. And of course, like all of Mancusi’s titles, it’s chock-full of winking pop-culture geeky references and tongue-in-cheek humor. (The “Razor Girl” of the title is a play on a William Gibson character.) Available on Smashwords and Kindle.
I have the paperback of this book (I keep it on my beloved out-of-print keeper shelf next to Rocki St. Claire’s Hit Reply and Cara Lockwood’s Pink Slip Party). But now it IS back in print! Yay for the ebook backlist revolution!
Speaking of ebooks, I will go ahead and put in another plug for Errant, which is my first ebook venture. (Buy it on Kindle, Nook, and Smashwords. Read a free sample here.) If you DID pick up a copy, thank you! If you’ve already read it, either in the ebook form or when it was in Kiss Me Deadly, thank you also. I’m currently working on another one but I had to take a breather so I could finish my revisions. Which it’s time to get back to.
Have a great weekend, everyone! I’m trying to decide if I should give my just-started solids baby a taste of Easter Candy. A little taste won’t kill her, right?
People have been asking for my take on the whole Bitch Magazine debacle. There’s some incorrect information out there, so I thought I’d try to clarify my position.
Last week, I learned that my novel RAMPANT had been placed on the Bitch Magazine’s 100 Young Adult Books for the Feminist Reader. I was initially very pleased — it was a great list, I’d read a bunch of the books on it, and I was glad that the list compilers recognized the feminist themes in my book.
I was looking at the list and saw that a discussion had sprung up around one of the titles on the list, specifically, Sisters Red, by Jackson Pearce. One comment stated “surprise” that the book was included, because there had been a blog review of the book that took issue with one passage and said it “promoted rape culture.” The response from the list compiler, Ashley McAllister, was basically “thanks for letting me know, I’ll replace it.” I was shocked by that, since I thought that the list was made up of books that the compiler/s were familiar with and, you know, recommended.
Having read both the book and the blog post in question, I disagreed with that interpretation, so when the compiler came back on and said that the editors had decided to re-read (or read for the first time) three of the books on the list that “dealt with the subject of rape” I contacted them and said that there were LOTS of books on the list (I counted at least a half a dozen, very quickly) that dealt with the subject rape, including my own, and if they questioned the appropriateness of Sisters Red because one reader who has a blog disliked/misinterpreted a single pagssage, they could certainly find something similar on every other book on the list. I urged them to keep the list as originally published, as a diverse and varied selection of literature that would be of interest to a feminist reader.
In the ensuing day and a half or so, I was not online — I was in Florida, visiting with my parents and watching my three month old’s bottom gum erupt with four teeth. Yes — FOUR.
Anyway, I came back to see that they had chosen to remove Sisters Red from the list, as well as Tender Morsels and Living Dead Girl. At that point, a bunch of YA authors were asking to be removed from the list because they took issue with this behavior and the arguable cowardice of the editor. As I was reading their comments, I saw that McAllister had responded to my comment from a day earlier, saying how happy she was that I was happy to be part of such a diverse list. There was no comment about whether or not they reconsidered Rampant.
At that point, I asked them to remove Rampant from the list. There is a lot of talk going on right now about how the authors who asked to be removed from the list did so “in solidarity” with the removed authors. While I definitely support that motivation, it was not my motivation. Frankly, my motivation can be summed up in the graphic accompanying this post. (Credit for the graphic goes to Sarah W. of Smart Bitches, Trashy Books.)
Sisters Red was removed following: 1) there are characters in the novel who express anti-feminist, “victim blaming” views which may be traumatic to the reader, 2) there was a reader of the book who chose to interpret that character’s viewpoint as being the one sanctioned and championed by the author.
Yes, and George Lucas really hates kids, since he let Anakin go on that child-killing spree in Revenge of the Sith.
If this is the justification by which Sisters Red was removed from the list — that someone on the internet read a passage of it and didn’t like it or didn’t understand it — then Rampant does not belong on the list, either. There have been people who didn’t like or understand passages of it. There have been people who interpreted the fact that immediately after being raped, one character experiences confused, guilty feelings about what happened to her (and is also blamed by another character), as being anti-feminist and triggering and the other buzzwords that Bitch Magazine is so concerned about.
Here’s an example (whited out for spoilers):
“Is it?” Lilith folded her arms over her chest. “Guess I’m just not like perfect, easygoing Neil, who is far too polite to say the things that need to be said. Well, maybe it’s not proper, but if you’d stayed inside, where you belonged, this never would have happened.”
“Enough!” I shouted so loudly that the words reverberated off the mosaic walls. Phil’s chin was high but trembling. “How can you possible talk that way to her, knowing what she’s been through?”
“Because Philippa knows full well she’d get a hell of a lot worse from her father. Why do you think she’s staying here rather than going home?”
Phil wouldn’t meet my eyes.
My novel includes passages such as these because the characters live in OUR world — a world where one in six women is sexually assaulted, a world where women can and do feel confused or guilty after being raped, a world where women are sometimes — even often — blamed for being raped. We write to explore these topics. I wrote because I, personally, find this subject matter to be very close to my heart. I would never attempt to speak for every woman who has been sexually assaulted, but I was very concerned with crafting a story that reflects with integrity and honesty the experiences of those around me who have been through similar situations.
That the supportive role is played by the heroine of the novel and the victim blaming comes from the mouth of a character who is wrongheaded and insane at best and villainous at worst should probably make it pretty clear how I feel about the issue, but whether or not I was successful in portraying what I set out to is not the issue here. The passage (and others like it) exists, and some people have had problems with it. If this is the metric by which the Bitch List is judged, then Rampant is only on the list because they didn’t happen to get a complaint about it yet.
I was initially honored to be on the list because I thought it meant that Bitch had read my work, appreciated its feminist outlook, and was recommending it to others. Now I think they just didn’t happen upon one of these negative reactions.
I’ve recently learned that the editors of Bitch have chosen not to honor the request of writers that asked their books to be removed from the list. It seems to be a misunderstanding as to the nature of the list — we were considering the list to be an honor (one we could deny), and they were considering it as a review. We were considering it to be a published list that could be printed out and passed along to librarians or teachers interested in tracking down recommended reads. There are many such lists in the YA world — ALA’s lists for reluctant readers, NYPL’s “Stuff for the Teen Age,” Locus’ list of recommended SFF reads — but apparently, that’s not what this was, since the most recent comment from the editors is that the list will be in a state of constant flux (rather like the IMDB top films, or the Amazon bestseller list, perhaps?)
Anyway, that’s my take. I think it’s inappropriate for them to have removed those books from their list, but I also think it’s inappropriate for my book to remain on it, given the way the editors seem to give a lot of weight to the misguided complaint of a reader or two. And, as a former journalist, I think that’s not how good journalism works — stand by your opinions, correct your facts.
As previously mentioned, tonight I will be appearing at a Zombies vs. Unicorns panel at the Baltimore Book Festival alongside editors Holly Black and Justine Larbelestier, and fellow contributors Kathleen Duey, Carrie Ryan, and Scott Westerfeld (a little birdie told me Sarah Rees Brennan might be in the audience. I’m just saying…) Click on the link above for all the info about where and when.
Come see the zombies go DOWN!
There will be copies of Zombies vs. Unicorns on hand for your purchasing and having-autographed pleasure, as well as — and hold on to your hats, folks: EARLY COPIES OF ASCENDANT. I know! It’s not even out until next week, and I have managed to arrange for COPIES FOR YOU.*
And why do you want to read Ascendant? Well, take a gander at what some of hte bloggers who got their hands on the ARCs have had to say:
Ascendant blew me away. I didn’t think it could be any better than the first, but wow. Everything was heightened and way more intense- the sexual tension, the action, the emotion. I finished this book with a heavy breath…Ascendant is a mind-blowing sequel and I applaud Diana for hooking me so deeply. I devoured the entire book in only a few short hours because I literally could not put it down. If you’re a fan of the first, do not waste any time reading this when it comes out. I absolutely loved it!
After reading Rampant, I was so pumped for Ascendant. Astrid came back just as awesome. She was just as brave and strong as the first book, but now she has a fraction of doubt about what she is doing…Peterfreund’s writing was stunning and ingenious. I could picture every move on the battle scene. I loved Ascendant, more then Rampant. It was unpredictable and ingenious. I think that you should start this series soon, I am sure that you will not regret it.
I reviewed the first book in this series Rampant earlier this summer. Ascendant blew it out of the water. The way Peterfeund writes Astrid’s transformation throughout the book is at times so heart-wrenching and beautiful that I actually felt tears spring to my eyes. I fell in love with Astrid in a way that I wouldn’t have thought possible after reading the first book. By the end I was SO SAD that it was over!
I am having a really hard time writing this review because A) I don’t want to reveal too much and B) right now, having literally just finished it, all I can think or say is Oh. My. God. This book was AWESOME! I was torn between feeling bad for Astrid, wanting to “stop being an idiot!”, and wanting to cry for the unicorns. So I will just say this, if you have read Rampant, you MUST read Ascendant. This book brings adventure, emotion, and most of all answers that you will NEVER believe! Hats off to Diana Peterfreund. You, Madame, are an AMAZING storyteller and I look forward to reading anything and everything you write.
Ascendant, which is the sequel to Rampant, was not what I was expecting. Rampant was filled to the brim with action whereas Ascendant was more filled with emotions and introspection. It wasn’t JUST an entertaining read…it really made me think about the ethics of it all (killing unicorns, experimenting on them, capturing them)…Astrid begins to connect with unicorns on another level which begins her questioning her dedication to hunting and living the life that she was thrust into. There are some moments that truly made my heart feel heavy. It is easy to sympathize with Astrid. All the hunters have had to give up so much, but Astrid is expected to live up to the Llewellyn name and it seems an impossible task. This book isn’t just about killer unicorns, it is about strong women who are finding themselves and learning to fight for what they believe in.
If you want a novel that will suck you in with action, adventure and a little unicorn killing then Ascendant is the book for you! Diana Peterfreund takes on the ride of a lifetime with the sequel to Rampant. Astrid is back with even more drama in her life. I was really intrigued by this novel and thoroughly enjoyed it.
And don’t take their word for it. You can read a big excerpt yourself at the Harper Collins website:
It’s been a pretty good week. A starred review in School Library Journal for ZvU that says I “wow readers”, the announcement of my long-secret secret project, news from my editor as of yesterday that Morning Glory has ALREADY gone back for a second printing (a month before release!), Carrie Ryan coming into town for a visit, and topping off with what I’m sure will be an awesome panel…
I wonder what amazing development next week will bring?
___________
* Although I did get an email yesterday from a reader who says he spotted a copy in a midwest Borders. So apparently there are a few trickling out.
Why do I write so many strong female characters? When I was a kid, 7-8 books out of all books written for kids through teens had boy heroes. Those that had girl heroes showed them at “feminine” pursuits, or if they were a little feisty, a male hero had to bail them out by book’s end. Only the historical novels had strong girls; most of them “settled down” by the end. I was reading “boy books”: TREASURE ISLAND, TOM SAWYER, THE THREE MUSKETEERS, Robin Hood, King Arthur, and Edgar Rice Burroughs. When I encountered fantasy, I had the same problem: virtually no girl heroes. The ones I found, adult women all, settled down, hated other women, or died. I didn’t understand why there were no girls (or those that existed were severely compromised) in the adventure books, so I began to write what I wanted to read: adventure books with girl heroes. As a published YA writer I came along at a time when that was what booksellers, parents, and librarians were looking for, and along with some other writers, I found my place in publishing.
Pierce’s work is what laid the groundwork for books like mine. If her Alanna books weren’t still sitting on the shelf in every bookstore almost three decades later, no publisher would take a chance on Astrid, or Katsa, or other female heroes of teen fantasy. I write the books I do because I could never find enough of them growing up. I read and re-read Greek myths and fantasies like The Horse and His Boy because Aravis Tarkheena was a warrior woman, and they were few and far between. (It was much later in life, sadly, when I discovered Tamora Pierce and other writers like her.) We have been enjoying (for the last four or five years) a wonderful influx of these kind of books. The current discussion of whether or not boy readers are getting the shaft is… not entirely accurate. I didn’t see “but what about the girls?” whines when it was all Harry Potter all the time. Girl readers were expected to love Harry, or make do with Hermione (who is awesome, it’s true), but people seem to accept that girls will read “boy books” and not vice versa. (I think sometimes you can sneak ‘em in, especially if the writer is a boy, like Scott Westerfeld’s Tally Youngblood in the UGLIES series). I have very few boy readers. My dad, however, adores my books, but he’s in large part responsible for my love of warrior women, so there’s that.
The whole essay is worth a careful read, because Pierce also discusses the way you can get a boy interested in reading a so-called “girl book” (hint: talk about the decapitations, not the girl finding love), and since she’s been in the biz for a while, she knows this conversation pops up every few years. For myself, I think it’s obvious from all my published books, action fantasy and chick lit, that I’m interested in exploring the way young women interact with society, so women’s issues do find a way to worm themselves into my books. I am doing it purposefully, but it is purposefully for ME — it’s what I find myself drawn to writing. (I am finding that is less explicitly the case in the book I’m writing, though that’s a bit of a one-off.)
I hear, over and over again, authors and editors and agents urging writers to “Write what they love.” But I’d argue this is not necessarily the best advice for everyone. While some of you may love to read the genres you’re equally talented at writing in, some of you may find your writing strengths lie elsewhere.
And if so, my advice is to not fight it.
For me, I’m best at comedy. I can easily whip up quirky characters and odd situations and pop culture references galore. And when I’m writing comedy my hands fly on the keyboard and sometimes, I admittedly even make myself laugh out loud, wondering where on Earth my brain conjured up that particular joke.
But for many years, I fought against my natural light style. I tried to write bigger, deeper, more epic novels with dark themes and alternative dimensions. I wanted to be that author with the kick-ass cover of a woman in leather, wielding a sword in a dark, twisted world. Because that’s the kind of book I’d pick up in the bookstore, over the one with a silly cartoon cover and a quirky title. But I’m just not that author. I’m the cartoon cover kind.
A couple of things: you could have bowled me over with a feather when I first read this essay, since I would never have categorized Marianne that way at all. She’s one of the most versatile writers I know. Everything she does, indeed, has that signature snark and pop-culture touches, but she can do light contemporary romance (such as her excellent GAMER GIRL) as well as post-apocalyptica (my other favorite book of hers, RAZOR GIRL). That they both have the word “girl” in the title is pure coincidence, because they are very different books.
Also, who doesn’t love zombies with a touch of fun? I do! (Shaun of the Dead, Zombieland, and I’m salivating for the upcoming Jesse Petersen series.)
So aside from thinking that Marianne is wrong in her estimation of her own talents, I think she has a very good point, here:
Now that’s not to say you can’t include certain beloved themes in your book. You just have to give the story your own voice and twist. For example, I knew I wouldn’t be great at writing a straight medieval. So instead I decided to bring a teen King Arthur to the 21st century in my upcoming novel “The Camelot Code.” He Googles himself and learns his true destiny and decides to join the football team rather than go home and pull the sword from the stone. So, in this way, I was able to incorporate something I love–medieval fantasy novels–with something I’m better at writing–light, humorous young adult fiction. And in doing so I was able to create my own sort of genre mash-up. (After all, where else are you going to find Morgan La Fay accidentally agreeing to a Brazilian wax…)
Sometimes we have to figure out how to write what we love, or, as my other pal Julie Leto might put it, how to incorporate the book our voice into the books of our heart. RAZOR GIRL, for instance, works for me because it utilizes Marianne’s familiarity with genre conventions (the titular Razor Girl is actually a genetically-enhanced warrior created by her father, who was obsessed with William Gibson and cyperpunk stories — Gibson wrote about the “original” razorgirl Molly MIllions), and light teen voice allowed her to tell a post-apocalyptic story using her strengths as a writer. She poignantly juxtaposes scenes of a zombie-infested wasteland with scenes from the before time, when the main characters Molly and Chase were very different people.
I am often asked in interviews why I am still so active in RWA, given that I don’t write romance novels. For years, I tried to write romance novels (I have four of them sitting under my bed), and though my rejection letters would praise my voice/prose/characters, the romance wasn’t quite clicking for them. But then I wrote Secret Society Girl, which, while not a romance novel, ended up being a hit with its readers because of the romance within its pages. Lesson learned: it’s not that I can’t tell a love story, it’s that I’m better when it’s a subplot, and when the book exists out of the genre conventions of the romance novel.
But, like Marianne, I still love romance novels, especially historical romances! But I regularly write with a published historical romance novelist, and the work I see her doing to make sure every word in her book is historically accurate — yikes! Makes me glad I write books set in the 21st century.
I recently came out with my first historical short story, and I had to do a ton of research — about clothing, about inheritance law, about marriage law — to be able to work my way around what was actually a pretty straightforward plot. I specifically chose to set the story in a country where they don’t speak English so that any non-standard word usage could be chalked up to “translation” rather than “but the OED says they weren’t using that word then!” (Quoth my historical writing friend: “Cheater.”)
My love of historicals, romance, and post-apocalyptica combine in my current work in progress, the much-teased post-apocalyptic retelling of Persuasion. But it took years before I figured out exactly how to tell such an unusual story in a voice that worked for me and for what I do. Sometimes it takes getting creative, as Marianne did with her upcoming Camelot Code, another book that was a bit in the making.
I truly believe you can write what you love if you make it your own — and that, as Tamora Pierce says, you should write what you love, because it always is your own.
Home from RWA 2010. What a fun, invigorating National Conference! I haven’t been to Nationals since 2006 (otherwise known as “my pink ribbon year”) so this was a very different experience. My career has changed so much since those days — I now write for several publishers in several genres, I have a bunch of books under my belt, I know so many other writers.
I was discussing this with my fantabulous roommate Erica Ridley, who was signing at her first ever RWA Literacy signing:
Like me, Erica had no books at her first ever literacy signing. I had a bunch of copies of RAMPANT to sign at this signing, and was so pleased by all the fans that dropped by!
I did manage to attend a few workshops at RWA, and they were great! My favorites were “Mending a Broken Scene” with the brilliant and awe-inspiring Roxanne St. Claire (a workshop you should take if you ever get a chance — and one of hte few workshops taht truly works for writers at any level of their careers), “Do As I Say, Not as I Did” with Mindy Klasky and Maria V. Snyder, and the chat with Meg Cabot. Speaking of Meg Cabot, I finally got a chance to meet her, and she signed my ARC of Zombies vs. Unicorns.
I also made a bunch of new friends, like Molly O’Keefe (who won a RITA this year)!
This is Maureen McGowan, Molly O’Keefe, and me. (I am currently trying to decide if I should change my name to Diana O’Peter or Diana McFreund to better match the others.)
Speaking of the RITA, pals of mine made out like bandits this year. First and foremost, a HUGE HUGE congratulations to the marvelous Simone Elkeles, for rocking out the YA Romance category with Perfect Chemistry:
Man, I was giddy when she won. I felt like *I* had won a RITA (you can see my sticky fingers on hers in the photo). I know everyone’s talking about Julia Quinn’s hat trick this week, but I feel like Simone’s win is one of the best stories from RWA — her book is a true romance for teens, and its RITA nod is a recognition by the romance genre establishment.
Here she is enjoying her golden lady:
Simone is represented by Kristin Nelson, whose whole agency made out like a bandit last night:
And last, but certainly not least, there’s Kresley Cole’s paranormal win for her #1 New York Times bestselling book, Kiss of a Demon King. Here I am trying to keep up with the beautiful blondes Kresley and Roxanne:
I guess I should be spending more time in the sun this summer. And wear more black.
And, I hung out with so many other wonderful writers! I had lunch with Team Castle-mates Ally Carter and Jennifer Barnes, as well as the aforementioned Meg and Erica:
I met historical author Victoria Janssen, journalist and young adult writer Gwenda Bond and her husband, sci-fi writer Christopher Rowe:
Gwenda was there to receive her Veritas Award. Christopher was there to support her and to get sick of people saying “a sci-fi writer? What are you doing here?” (Not true, actually, I’m sure he only got that like thirty-five times or so.) That night at the Avon party, which took place in the gorgeous wood-paneled party room of the Living Seas exhibit at EPCOT, Gwenda, Christopher, and I decided that my next project was going to be about the forbidden love between a girl and a were-ray. Behold my inspiration (as pathetically dark and blurry as it is):
We had to get this pic quickly, you see, because of that whole forbidden thing. You guys, he’s a CAPTIVE were-ray. A captive of the Disney Corp. It’s gonna be like Twilight meets Finding Nemo, with a dash of Splash! and a soupçon of Lovecraft.
Thanks to Twitter, I came across a blog post by one Racecar Brown referencing one of my earlier rantsdiatribesexplorations of the topic of bad boys and nice guys in fiction. And, naturally, I was reminded that I never did finish that series. I suppose that’s a good thing, as now, in the midst of an entirely new book, with a very different sort of romantic pairing than I’ve ever written before, my thoughts have changed again.
Racecar Brown talks mainly about the intense fan reaction to two odious but popular characters: Chuck Bass of the Gossip Girl television show, and Draco Malfoy of Harry Potter. I am most of the way through the second season of Gossip Girl now, and I think Chuck falls on the “love to hate him” side of the spectrum. He’s awful, and he whores around, and etc., but leaving aside the pilot episode in which he tries to rape both Jenny and Serena, his “awfulness” is mostly posited as a sort of rich guy boredom. This is the dude that flies in high priced call girls from Asia — usually two at a time. He opens strip clubs, he takes dirty pictures of Skull & Bones members who try to get him to hurt his friend, and, in a total 180 from his behavior in the pilot, he drops off an underage girl who is throwing herself at him in his limo.
Sailor Boy says that you should usually take everything you see in the pilot of a television show with a grain of salt. The characters aren’t really set yet. How often have you gone back to see the pilot of a show you loved and been like — wait, who IS that person? So I’m willing to give the Gossip Girl people a pass with the whole Chuck Bass: Rapist thing — at least, as far as I’ve seen the show (I just watched the Snowflake Ball episode where Jenny puts Vanessa in the see-through dress.) So I agree with Racecar on that one. The pilot is the problem. He gets it together later on — which is not unlike what the Veronica Mars people do with Logan, though aside from the bum fights and the whole [spoiler spoiler spoiler] at Carrie Bishop’s party, most of what he does isn’t too heinous (and is in fact very similar to Veronica’s shenanigans, and even those two things are certainly no worse than what Weevil pulls. Remember, he and Veronica were actually friends before Lilly died.
(I actually started watching Gossip Girl because I got so many letters from readers saying that Chuck Bass reminds them of Poe and now, having seen it, I can honestly say — Whaaaaaaa? They are both manipulative and given to cruelty, but loyal to the people they love, I’ll grant you that. But Chuck’s every action and entire lifestyle comes from a place of enormous privilege — no one has ever said no to him, and he is depraved because he’s so rich that he’s bored. He is a modern day Valmont. Poe is…. none of those things. His cruelty and manipulation actually come from the fact that he was not born into privilege and he feels he constantly has to fight for it, prove it, and hold on to it by any means necessary. And he isn’t bored because he does have to work so hard ot get what he has — as well as to protect himself from any idea that he might not deserve it. So… I don’t really see it. George and Chuck have more in common, except George is too happy go lucky. A bit more like Nate, perhaps.)
The other example of excessive fan-love Racecar points to is Draco Malfoy. Now, though a fan of Harry Potter, I’ve never participated in the vast, vast world of Harry Potter fandom. I’ve never read the fanfic that some of my writer friends are actually famous for. I don’t know what people like in Harry Potter fandom. I’ve read the books, I’ve watched the movies, I have a Griffindor t-shirt and a sorting hat keychain. That’s it. The nearest brush I ever came to was when a writer friend of mine were at Dragon*Con last year and she went to a panel with Tom Felton on it. Felton, who plays Draco Malfoy in the movies, is I’m sure a very nice young man, and he’s certainly an excellent actor. He was apparently discussing on the panel how a lot of times, the actors visit children’s hospitals and the like on goodwill tours, and he feels bad because the children always want to see the folks who play the “good guys” but never him.
However, this is not the case with the fandom. They love Draco Malfoy. Sometimes they may love him a little too much, as my friend who attended the panel told me that someone came up to him and asked him to autograph a photo she had, which was an erotic photo with his and Daniel Radcliffe’s heads photoshopped onto the bodies of naked men. Understandably, this 22 year old young man refused to do so, which apparently made the fan very upset. But I don’t blame Tom Felton at all. That was not a picture of him and why should he “legitimize” a fake naked photo of himself by signing it? Draco Malfoy may be a fictional being that you can do whatever you want with, but Tom Felton is a real person.
Apparently, even JK Rowling is of the opinion that people’s obsession with Draco is a product of their confusing Felton, who imbues his character with pathos (and good looks) with the very bad person that Rowling created in the book.
“People have been waxing lyrical [in letters] about Draco Malfoy, and I think that’s the only time when [pulling for a certain relationship] stopped amusing me and started almost worrying me. I’m trying to clearly distinguish between Tom Felton, who is a good-looking young boy, and Draco, who, whatever he looks like, is not a nice man. It’s a romantic, but unhealthy, and unfortunately all too common delusion of girls that they are going to change someone.”
(And yet, Malfoy gets off scot-free in the books. I never understood that.)
As I said in my previous post, I was never into the fantasy of the bad boy. I don’t buy that we can really change someone. There’s a part in Pride & Prejudice where Elizabeth explains to Mr. Wickham that Mr. Darcy improves upon acquaintance, but not in “essentials.” She is saying to him that she now understands that Darcy is prickly, closed-off, etc. but essentially, he’s a stand-up guy. (Also that she knows Wickham is lying about Darcy, but that’s a whole other thing.) But that is pretty much where I draw the line, too. I’m okay with bad boys who are essentially okay.
Darcy is not changed by Elizabeth, except in the minor way that he realizes he needs to stop being such a snob. His changing is not from cruelty to kindness, but from impoliteness toward people of a lesser social station to politeness. Still, this is not a major change in who he is. Yes, now he can be friends with Mr. Gardiner. But one imagines that, had he met Mr. Gardiner before, he would not have been cruel to him, but perfectly cordial and distant.
I think we can all agree that getting a snob to lighten up is on a whole different scale than getting an accessory to murder/attempted murderer (which Draco Malfoy is) to “change.”
Jane Austen loved writing about the bad boy/nice guy dichtomy. There’s one in almost all of her books. Yes, even Persuasion. But enough about that for now.
So last night I went to the Printz Award ceremony at ALA — I’ve never been, and it was awesome. All the speeches were so wonderful. I especially enjoyed the one by John Barnes, a long-time science fiction author whose Printz Honor was the result of writing a true book of his heart, a semi-autobiographical novel about a teenage boy in the 1970s: TALES OF THE MADMAN UNDERGROUND.
(Ah, my book list. It grows ever longer.)
And of course, Libba’s talk was gorgeous. Have you all read GOING BOVINE? It’s not the easiest read in the world, especially if you have a weakness for hamburgers, like me. I had to put it down a few times because I’m freaking terrified of prions, y’all. Pretty much any disease of the brain give me the heebie jeebies. It’s that whole “I think, therefore I am,” stuff — I would like to be able to trust my own brain. It’s why zombies are so terrifying. And [spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler spoiler]. But GOING BOVINE is such a powerful, masterful work that I kind of had to get past that, because it is the sort of book that must be read.
I loved hearing Rick Yancey speak, because hearing him talk about crafting his gory Monstrumologist and freak himself out in the middle of the night and deal with his spouse’s take on him writing such a gory book — well, it reminded me of my own process with Rampant. I thought Monstrumologist was definitely gorier than Rampant, but I was pleased that YA had too such bloody books on the shelves at the same time last fall. Occasionally, I see us linked on “if you like this” type of features. I guess we’d fall under the “if you like creepy, coming of age fantasies with maggots, decapitations, and severed eyeballs” heading?
I haven’t read Punkzilla or Charles & Emma, but now I really want to! (See above, re: book list).
I got to sit with Ally Carter and right behind David Levithan and John Green. I caught sight, a few rows back, of Annette Curtis Klause — squee!
Afterward, at the reception, I ran into even more YA pals: Jennifer Lyn Barnes, Coe Booth, and Holly Black.
Some pictures from the evening:
Team Castle reunion! (Me, Jen, Ally, and Holly)
I bask in the glow of talent emanating from David Levithan and Coe Booth. (Do you think it’ll rub off?)
The stunning Libba Bray and her glorious Printz.
I also got to chat at length with a bunch of fabulous librarians, as well as a bunch of folks from New York.
And and AND I got my bookmarks. They are fantastic. But I don’t have a picture of them. I seem to be having some sort of problem with my photo uploader. I’ll remedy that and be back later.
A recent frockalicious story that I loved was Unlocked by Courtney Milan. I shall forgive her for naming the villain in her story Diana, because Courtney gives very good frock. There’s even a frock on the cover, and because this book was self-published, I know Courtney DID choose that frock.
Today marks the publication date of Amanda Brice’s full-length debut, 
So last night I went to the Printz Award ceremony at ALA — I’ve never been, and it was awesome. All the speeches were so wonderful. I especially enjoyed the one by John Barnes, a long-time science fiction author whose Printz Honor was the result of writing a true book of his heart, a semi-autobiographical novel about a teenage boy in the 1970s: 
