Awesome Book #2
Book #2 is one of those I got kind of mad about after I read it because, GRRR, I DID NOT WRITE IT MYSELF! Same Difference by Siobhan Vivian totally moved the hell out of me and has stayed fresh in my mind even now, months and months after I read it. So I guess because of its awesomeness I can forgive it for springing forth from the mind of someone WHO IS NOT ME. Ahem.
(Maybe? I can work on it?)
There are a lot of big themes in Same Difference: self-identity, reinvention, artistic passion, independence. But I think what hit me hardest was friendship. (If you read Vivian’s first novel, A Little Friendly Advice, you know this is something she really knows from all angles.) For me growing up (and even now) friendship is not this little simple easy breezy joyful experience. It is messy and multilayered and complicated and sometimes causes you way more pain than your romantic entanglements (or at least as much). You think you get your friends, and sometimes you’re right (to your horror) and sometimes you’re way wrong (to your relief… or, right, maybe your horror). It’s scary stuff to grow up on your own alongside other people who are doing the same. You can only hope you’ll end up at the same stops along the way. (Hell, I’m in my thirties and these sorts of concerns still occasionally give me pause.)
So I admire Emily’s journeys – both literal, to art camp, and figurative, as she navigates new worlds within herself. Keeping the story tethered to this theme of friendship really made it drenched in reality for me. It would have been an easy way out for an old choice to prove stagnant and immature, or a new one to be impulsive and dangerous, but Vivian doesn’t take the easy way out with this one.
Also! There’s art! There are makeover-type scenes! There is a cute boy! GO READ IT!
Buy it from an indie bookseller now!
Filed under books, writers | Comment (0)BEDA… Again! Also, Awesome Book #1
Last year I blogged every day in April. That was kind of crazy. And for some reason? I’m going to do it again. This actually dovetails nicely with an idea I had to talk about some YA books I love. I was really inspired by this fantastic post my friend wrote. The whole thing is really A++ but I loved this:
I hate that people are ashamed of reading beautifully written, delightful, award winning books just because they come from the young adult section of the bookstore.
HELL, YEAH.
Anyways, then I got all hung up on award-winning vs. non, people I knew vs. big shiny superstars, popular vs. not, new vs. old, etc., and decided WHAT AM I DOING LET’S JUST TALK ABOUT SOME BOOKS I LIKE A LOT!
Book #1 is one I’ve been discussing a bunch lately: Albatross by Josie Bloss. Agh, this book is awesome. It’s not a fun read by any stretch of the imagination, but it’s compelling and emotionally honest and painful-in-a-great-way.
The obsessive relationship at the center of Albatross is tough to read, tougher to ponder. I obviously can’t speak for everyone but I know many of the people I know, myself included, have at times let an individual without my best interests in mind have too much control over my life. I admire how deftly Bloss handles Tess and Micah; even my brain THAT TOTALLY WANTED THE BEST FOR TESS got swept away by it all at times too.
Also, in this age of ALL-CONSUMING LOVE STORIES (I’m not naming names) that sometimes make me a little uncomfortable, it’s refreshing to see a take on obsessive love that’s painted as dangerous. I also really appreciated how easily this book could have been the tale of girl-on-girl hate as well, one of my pet peeves in sometimes-otherwise-upstanding YA lit, and skirted that thanks to Tess’s growth and realizations.
Also! There is music and family drama and swimming! DON’T MISS IT.
Buy it from an indie bookseller now!
Filed under books, links, writers | Comment (1)Taking Care of Terrific
In a break from rewriting, I’m trying to get through my stack of library books. I’ve been slowly adding all the Lois Lowry books I haven’t yet read, and just started Taking Care of Terrific. Lowry does a lot of things I love, but I could probably sum it all up by pointing to the fact that she wrote this sentence:
Filed under reading, writers | Comment (0)The problem with most people’s lives is that they have lost the capacity to believe that Gregory Peck would be along.
Tips for Life
In case you were thinking you couldn’t get through a day more without some life advice from me, this is your lucky Monday!
Firstly, if you live in the Los Angeles area, please do not dine in at Electric Lotus. If you call for delivery or take out, you will miraculously receive an entree double the size of the tureen brought to your table. Also the side of rice is a gigantic container. Also, you will pay the same amount. YOU WILL THANK ME FOR THIS. I got three LARGE AND IN CHARGE meals out of one order of palek paneer and HALF of the rice, which I split with my friend.
Secondly, advice I received yesterday at book club from Lisa Yee and am now passing on to you, as if I have any authority on the matter. If you are going blind staring at your writing for revisions because you’ve already been through it at least ten times, switch up your font face, size, paragraph spacing, and margins. It’ll look so weird and different you’ll see it with new eyes. (I can attest to that as I am doing so right now!)
Filed under advice, editing, real life, writers | Comments (3)Book Club FTW
The Pardon My Youth YA book club at Skylight Books continues on in its vein of awesome. This month we read and discussed Judy Blundell’s What I Saw and How I Lied (moderator the always-fantastic and hilarious Lisa Yee) with next month’s book selection Rats Saw God by Rob Thomas (of Veronica Mars, ya know, not Matchbox 20).
Honestly, it’s fairly lame that I am such a lover of books and discussion about books and arguing about books and the search for meaning in books and BOOKS BOOKS BOOKS that it took me to my early thirties before joining a frigging book club. So I beseech you: if you too think books are awesome, do not wait! Get thee to this book club! Or one in your own town! Do it! You will thank me, or at least be happy you followed my advice.
Other discussions had: why we are all pro-library, and how we organize our books. Does anyone else out there adhere to my method of fiction alphabetical by author’s last name, just like a book store? I find it soooo easy to find my books this way, even if keeping them in this order when getting a pile of new books can be a pain. I was definitely an odd ball out for this though.
Filed under books, bookstores, reading, writers | Comments (3)Yes, Yes, a Thousand Times Yes
Justine Larbalestier often says really smart things, and this response to #agentfail is no exception.
Filed under advice, links, writers | Comment (0)YA Author Q&A at Skylight Books
Yesterday I attended a totally awesome panel at Skylight Books (the very best bookstore in Los Angeles!) featuring the YA authors Cecil Castellucci (perhaps most adorable person I’ve ever met), Lisa Yee, Ron Koertge, and Cylin Busby. I learned tons, met cool people, and got some books signed. Living in L.A., it can be tough because obviously most of the publishing world happens in NYC. Obviously, though, that’s not the whole story, considering there are writers here, my agent’s in Colorado, and thanks to the internet and other technology, location is hardly the most important thing. That said: it’s nice to do something in my own city.
In book news, somehow Current Project hit 20k… and I’m not even feeling the need to kill any of it!
Filed under books, events, writers, writing | Comment (0)Twittering YA Writers
Here is an excellent list a kind soul compiled: YA Authors on Twitter
I love how many people are like “oh, everyone’s using this now? I guess I will too” because that is EXACTLY how I feel. I prefer all of my other social networking tools but you can’t fight mob mentality.
Well. I can’t, at least.
Filed under links, technology, writers, y.a. lit | Comment (1)I work on becoming a better person.
I am truly in love with this post by Justine Larbalestier, because I get cranky about other writers in the exact same way she does.
I mean, this is the thing: I live in Los Angeles. Don’t get me wrong; I freaking love Los Angeles. We have a lot of sunshine and nearby(ish) beaches and Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf (hello, lover). Everyone wears jeans all the time, and I never have to put away my open-toed shoes for the winter, and – trust me – you will see celebrities all over and therefore impress all your friends who live elsewhere.*
However, the thing about L.A. one learns is that everyone, from your accountant to your stylist to your boss, is working on a screenplay or a spec script or a one-woman show or a play or a novel. For a lot of those people, though, what “working on” means is “talking about a lot” without any of that pesky thing called “writing”. I think I used to be super judgmental about this (I know, right, me, super judgmental about ANYTHING?) but now I understand there are a million different ways to write something.
For me, though, it’s tough imagining doing it any other way than how I do it! I have tried a million methods, trust me. So many guides say you CANNOT WRITE WITHOUT AN OUTLINE so even though I hate outlines, I’d draw up a little outline, and get really sidetracked with color-coding and font selection, and then I’d either write something crappy off of it or end up trashing the whole thing.
My writing tends to really benefit from the journey and exploration of starting out with characters I’m just getting to know and letting them take me somewhere. That might sound a little crazy, but it just works that way for me. My characters definitely tell me more and more about them, and then I have a much better idea of where the story needs to go.
But I do get that as necessary as that process is for me, to others the process of gathering all information necessary is a must. So while I might mutter “pish posh” and wonder how on earth anyone could know the ending of their book before they’ve even written the beginning, I also accept how valid it is.
But thank you, Ms. Larbalestier, for at least making me feel a little less heinous about my judgey tendencies.
*Except NYC. Those folks are never impressed. With anything.
Filed under links, real life, writers, writing | Comment (0)
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