This is the reason I read. The reason crazy people work crazy hard on crazy books and then deal with all the hassle and waiting and rejection that is publishing.
My darling sister once (recently) made fun of me for reading "silly" books. There's nothing wrong with reading literature or the classics or whatever you want to categorize as "not silly" books. But I can assure you - really assure you - that commercial/entertaining/silly books are just as meaningful and deep as those serious, esoteric novels.
I've read quite a few of these very well-done, highly intelligent books recently. Anna and the French Kiss, The Dark and Hollow Places, and Supernaturally aren't simply about kissing or escaping zombies or paranormals [kissing]. They're about finding a home, for the most part. They're also about the mistakes we make and the beliefs we hold and the people we meet along the way. Basically, about humanity. That's why I liked them so much.
And then we come to today. And oh my goodness the magic is just seeping through me making it impossible not to tell you how amazing The Goblin War is. MAGICAL. AMAZING. OMG. [I should remember this I-have-to-write feeling the next time I'm sitting not knowing what to write in my own book experiment...]
I've already mentioned how much I love this series and author. I love it for the plot and the world and Hilari Bell's awesome writing and the characters. The characters. I realize I may sound completely insane, but these people and goblins (the goblins!) are some of my greatest heroes. I wish so desperately that they were real so that I could meet them.
Most especially Makenna. [Yes, the one I'm naming my first kid after.] I didn't realize until just now, finishing this book, that my obsession with her is due to the fact that I'm just like her - or at least hope to be. She's [a misanthrope who saves humankind], uncompromising in her loyalty to her goblin friends/army, brilliant in her strategy, and always fights for those who don't have anyone fighting for them.
And she wins.
That's what I'm most afraid of in the future: that all my dreams and work and everything will have been useless. That I'll fail in attempting to finish my Personal Legend. (Oh, The Alchemist. Another inspiring book.) Sure, the attempt is worth a lot, but succeeding is worth so much more.
For Makenna's successes, I'm willing to put up with all the stupid happy endings literature has to offer.
I think it's good to have role models wherever you can find them - in real life, in gossip magazines, in silly books, in scholarly papers. Makenna, and all her literary and real comrades, is someone I know I can turn to for a bit of humor, a bit of steel, and a whole lot of dedication to my cause.
So I will proudly keep reading and writing silly Young Adult novels that mean a whole lot more to me than a bunch of intellectual tomes.
[My word count, for those of you keeping track, is still the same BUT I have been working on the book. In a non-writing way. While I get back into the swing of getting things done. And quit making excuses. I am also trying to figure out a way to put it in a sidebar so I don't have to keep tacking it onto the ends of all my posts.]
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