Don't Kill That Character!

So today I'm talking about a love triangle that ended up in character assassination that really drove me crazy when I read this book. And I'm not going to tell you what book it is because I can't figure out how to talk about it without spoilers :)

Here's the story. Girl has a Best Friend Boy and a Shoved-Together-in-Plot Boy and she ends up loving both of them but not knowing which one she's really in love with. For a long time. Including lots of kissing and banter with both guys.

BUT THEN, to help Girl make her final decision, Author X commits a heinous literary crime. Character assassination. (That is, his personality got assassinated, not the actual character. That would have made the choice really easy.) Best Friend Boy suddenly becomes I-Hate-The-Bad-People-They-Should-All-Die Boy. So obviously Girl chooses dependable, calm Shoved-Together-in-Plot Boy over him.

WHICH WAS THE WRONG CHOICE!

Okay, I admit I had a bias for Best Friend Boy from the beginning. I thought he was cooler and smarter than his rival, plus he had a long history with Girl. Despite all that, I am completely fine with Girl's being in love with Shoved-Together Boy. I am NOT fine with the unnecessary destruction of Best Friend Boy. Yeah, a little character development should happen at the end of a book or series because people change. However, people don't become destructive maniacs overnight. (Actually, Shoved-Together boy did, but that wasn't his fault. He got better!)

Rant over.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 8,200

Oh The Irony

Why have I never gone to a book festival before?  More importantly, why could I not have realized this a year or even a week ago? Free Austin Teen Book Festival last weekend? I was home the whole time, so I'm not that crushed to have forgotten about it, but still.

Then I got excited about the Texas Book Festival that's also in Austin and that happens to be the weekend of October 22. When I will be going home again! I don't understand why these dates have to be so ironic!

I love the sight of a nice tall stack of books.

Then again, maybe I do. This is the stack of books I just checked out from the library. It's a beautiful, gigantic stack, but these represent only 4% of the nearly 300 books on my to-be-read list. This is why I shouldn't go to book festivals - I already have too many books recommendations and I have a lovely library to supply me with all the books I want. For free!

I'm still a bit bitter. Just think, all those gorgeous books in one room together...curse you, cosmic irony! (Is that the right one? Or is it dramatic? I haven't needed to remember in a long time.) Someday, I will go to a festival and meet really awesome authors and maybe even be one myself :)

Official More Blessed Word Count: 7,731

Lazy Saturday Songs

I love Eurovision!

For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about (you should probably check out their website [or Wikipedia] instead of listening to me). Ahem. Let me introduce you to some of my favorites from the last couple of years of competition.

(You thought this was going to be another thought-provoking post? Ha! I'm sleepy and my brain is fried and I haven't even started studying for the three tests I have this week. I really don't know where that insightful post came from yesterday.)

Lithuania: This song will randomly get stuck in my head and then I have to play it. Several times. And dance. Also, matching plaid pants? Awesome.

Norway: Despite my sister's horror, the lovely Alexander Rybak is one of my favorite singers. And he was born in Belarus. Cute AND tri-lingual!

Russia: Dima Bilan. This is the guy who started it all (for me, not the actual contest). I found out about him because he's buds with Yevgeni Plushenko and his wife, who actually are both in the video. I'm just a bit jealous.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 7,365

This I Believe...Politically

I try not to discuss politics, especially on the Internet. I don't mind the heated arguments people get in over which side is right and which side is delusional/uninformed/evil but I just don't want to get a headache thinking about how much of a mess we're in.

So I won't be discussing my politics (although it's kind of obvious from my blog name, isn't it?) but something that's been bugging me. Last week, I had a conversation with a 12 year old (for anonymity's sake, let's call her Emma) who had some very strong opinions on a lot of current issues. However, I happen to know that these beliefs come straight from her parents, with the help of a particular news source and probably also online. She has every right to those opinions, but I wonder if she even knows why she thinks that way.

This made me very grateful for my parents' policy of not talking about politics when I was younger. At the time, I didn't like it - I remember in elementary school being upset that my parents wouldn't tell me who they voted for. It was during the 2000 Presidential election and we had done a school project where we had to research the candidates and decide which one we liked, so I wanted to know if they felt the same way. I still don't know who got their votes. On the other hand, even without talking to Emma's parents, I know exactly who they voted for, and I'm sure she does too (just not in 2000, when she was one).

I don't know how different my views would be if my parents had told me. They're both pretty moderate so I wouldn't have gotten a clear vision of the "correct" political side like Emma has, but it might have made me dilute some of my strongly held beliefs. I've built my political ideas from a lot of different sources and values and they continue to evolve, but no matter what, I know they're my own. No one told me what was right to think and I didn't try to think like anyone else.

I think that's especially important in our sound-bite friendly political climate. People choose one side or the other without knowing why and then declare it the best. Sometimes, you can't even talk to people from the opposite party without being called names or yelled at. I admit that I have said and thought some not so nice things about the opposing party. I guess it's human nature, this splitting into two camps over some issue. And because this is sort of a writing blog, let me also say that politics is starting to play a bigger role in Delaney's story than I originally intended. Bring on the headaches, book.

Official More Blessed Word Count: 6,812

On Humor

I have been laughing a ton today. I'm hanging out at home and so I've spent a good portion of my time making fun of my littlest sister. Most of our conversations today probably wouldn't make sense to anyone else. Even our parents have given us strange looks (and we've got a pretty crazy family).

Sample Conversation
Nats: You're just a hobbit.
Me: Right, like you've ever met a hobbit.
Nats: Umm, I have. You're a hobbit.
Me: You haven't even read The Hobbit, Munchkin butt.
Nats: So my butt's small?
Me: No, it means you're small minded.
Nats: Well you're small brained.

Like I said, we don't make sense. But it sure amuses us. Earlier, I laughed so hard I cried. That was when my mom told my sis to get duct tape (implying but not saying that she would duct tape my mouth shut) and proceeded to steal the computer my sis was using.

Apparently Nats and I never stand next to each other in photos. At least, not ones we want to show people.

The reason I'm telling you all this is to talk about humor in books. (Aha! You knew there was a point to all that, didn't you?!) In Children's or Middle Grade or Young Adult books, humor can be a big deal. Sometimes, it's so the author can talk about touchy subjects without making the whole book dark and depressing. Sometimes, the humor is dark. Then there's all sorts of cute kid's books with fart jokes galore.

You might think that writing these books would be easy - because they're for kids or they're "light" reads. For me especially, writing comedy would be really hard. I like humor alright in books - witty, ironic humor - but I'm not really a big fan of comedy anywhere else. I watch mostly cop/crime TV shows, dramatic musicals and (smart) action movies. And that's how I write.

I may try to be amusing on the blog (although I'm not so sure that works...) but if I tried to make my books light and funny, they would just sound fake. Especially considering my MC's a socially awkward only child who has one (deaf) friend and has to keep her supernatural identity suppressed. That doesn't leave room for witty banter or practical jokes.

Speaking of which: Official More Blessed Word Count: 6,000!!

I Love My Life

Today was a good day. I hung out with preschoolers, repeatedly managed to sing four high A's in a row, noticed I got three pageviews from Russia, and finished book 70/100 for the year.

What was that? Oh right, I GOT THREE PAGEVIEWS FROM RUSSIA!!!

I don't think they're from legit people, just some weird blog advertising site, but still. RUSSIA. My favoritest of all favorite places. I would say my life is complete, but I haven't been there yet so...

That's all really. I am strangely tired and have nothing else of consequence to say. Other than this!

Official More Blessed Word Count: 5,960

On Diversity

This article just popped up on Facebook (sorry, I've already forgotten who posted it) which reminded me of a topic that's been roaming around in my head for a couple of weeks.

Read the article here

I don't want to start an argument about affirmative action or institutional racism, but I do want to point out something people have been talking about in YA recently. I can point you to plenty of blog posts and stats if you need them, but basically, there isn't a lot of diversity in YA.

There's not a lot of diversity in most media, if you think about it. True, there's a lot of supporting characters who are minorities in race or ethnicity, sexual orientation, whatever else you can be a minority in. There are even some main characters like this, just not the ones that get talked about. Twilight? A bunch of white kids (as far as I can tell from two chapters and the movie trailers). Harry Potter? The main characters are all white.

I'm not criticizing these or any authors for writing "normal" white characters. I just think it's something we ignore that we need to think about. I read a fabulous book recently, Bleeding Violet by Dia Reeves, and didn't realize until halfway through the book that the MC is half-Finnish...and half-black. It took a while for my visual image of characters in Tamora Pierce's Trickster series to match their actual skin colors. I'm just as guilty as assuming whiteness as anyone else.

However, I don't think the biggest thing YA lacks is racial/ethnic diversity. What you really don't see often are gay main characters or characters with any sort of disability. (The one thing YA is amazingly good at is family diversity. It seems like almost no one in teen or children's books has a nice, traditional nuclear family.)

So, partially inspired by this, I added a deaf character to More Blessed and decided to make the MC's hometown resemble...several countries in Asia. I want to point out that I wouldn't have done this just to make it more diverse. Delaney needed a friend she couldn't talk to, so she signs instead. The city she lives in didn't have any culture, so I'm giving it one.

I also realized just a minute ago that I haven't been making updates on my book like I was supposed to. I got a bunch of work in this weekend, including a lot of words, some plotting and backstory, and changing the genders of one of my characters. There are currently 14 pages of story and who knows how many of other stuff :)

Official More Blessed Word Count: 5,451