Cyber Traveling

Over the past couple of weeks, I've done a few guest posts and interviews here and there. Some of them have been quite fun and I thought I'd share the links in case anyone feels like adventuring into unknown blogs this weekend. Enjoy.

My Advice to Alice as She Wanders Wereland: This is piece I did for vvB32 Reads, one of the most creative blogs out there in my opinion which mixes reviews, book information, and online storytelling. One such theme was werewolves and cleverly putting Alice in Wereland. I wrote a little verse in the Cheshire Cat style, giving Alice a warning of her predicament. I also created a piece of art for it, also found in the post.

My Commentary of Zombies: For the fabulous review site Paperback Dolls, they asked me to write a little piece about my take on modern zombies. Here my English Literature degree pays off as I can talk topic with the best of them.

BONUS: Here's their review of Zombie Blondes.

A New Interview Where I Discuss Pure Sunshine and Perfect World: The blog Actin' Up With Books has decided to do a series of interviews with PUSH authors and I'm honored to be the first one. In this interview I discuss my road to publication and some of my experiences from when I was a writer just starting to discover myself as an author.

Peeking Under Rocks

The entertained public is a puzzlement to me at times. Routinely, the confusion stems from the unexplainable success of indescribably awful trash. Other times, I find myself amazed as to why some pre-packaged piece of trash, which all indicators and marketing experts predict hit status for, fail so miserably. Don't get me wrong, this pleases me. But I don't get it. If you liked the last turd, what made you suddenly develop aesthetics?

There are also times when the entertained public rewards something stellar. Inception is one of those times. After seeing it, part of me is thrilled that a complicated story could continue to do well at the box office. Nolan has intriguing way of telling a story that's very literary in nature, but translates wonderfully to film. It's nice to see people interested in it...even if most of them are only interested in seeing cities fold in half or people walking on walls. Which brings me to the point of this post:

I'm amazed at the overwhelming inability of many people to grasp a layered story.

In every article I've read and most online reviews, there is this prevailing theme of having to see the movie more than once to get everything that is going on. The majority opinion is that the movie is 'soooo confusing'. Huh? It was? I mean, it was complex and layered, but it wasn't confusing. If you paid attention, it wasn't hard to keep track of the plot. You had to think, but they were constantly reminding you visually or directly of where you were and what was happening. It wasn't Finnagens Wake for crying out loud!

So while the movie's success is pleasing, the revelation concerning the public's lack of comprehension skills, ability to think on multiple levels or understand inventive storytelling is very upsetting. I see this all of the time in book reviews too, where people only read the action on the surface and not any of the under layers. As someone who obsesses about the under layers, the extended metaphors, and importance of the moments in between action, this trend disturbs me.

Am I expecting everyone to see that the pace of Pure Sunshine mirrors the peaks the valleys of an acid trip? Not really. Do I think readers will pick up on the fact that the ever diverging interpretations of the same moments by Henry and Catherine in The Heights are symbolic of how fate is pulling them apart? I hope so. Did I expect people to pick up on the metaphor of the appeal of fascism in Zombie Blondes? I did and I expected too much of too many people apparently.

So while I hope that Inception's success will spawn more complex movies with the budget for visuals currently reserved mostly for garbage, I won't hold my breath. Because let's be honest, most people just wanted to see cities fold in half and people walk on walls. I will just have to take comfort in knowing that those people probably suck at checkers.

Young Adults Keep Getting Younger...

In the ten years since I wrote my first YA novel Pure Sunshine, the landscape for the genre has changed drastically. So much so, that I question if that book, a semi-cult classic, would ever get published today. Probably not.

At that time, the "teen" tag was a kiss of death for a book. However, the publication of a few high profile books started to renew the genre. Smack (or Junk as it's known in the UK), Speak, and The Perks of Being a Wallflower brought booksellers tenuously back into the fold. These new books were being written for that 15-20 year old reader, writing about their experiences. And guess what? It worked. Those readers gravitated to the books. Then a funny thing happened...

With the success of books like Twilight, the genre rapidly started to skew younger. The 11-13 year old girl became the target audience. Given that they read a lot more, it was natural that their tastes would soon dominate the YA shelves in book stores. In response, the more successful books in the teen category became safer and cleaner. I understand that. Publishers have an obligation to respond to a changing market...the question is, does the writer?

The answer is tricky because writing with an audience in mind can be dangerous. It's always better to tell a story the way it needs to be told and then find an audience for it. However, as a writer of fiction for children, there is a level of responsibility that comes with that. There's also a bit of savvy that comes with being a professional writer that requires you to know the market if you have a hope of being read. AND TRUST ME, all writers want to be read regardless of what they might say.

So what does one do?

I can only speak from my own experience and I know that when my first few novels came out, the majority of fan mail came from teenagers between the ages of 15 and 17. Then I noticed a trend. The letters started coming from younger and younger teens. When I got my first email from an eleven year old reader of Zombie Blondes, I have to admit I was a little surprised. Though definitely younger than some of my books, there's definitely some difficult and troubling scenes in there. I imagined an 11 year old reading the scene in Hannah's zombie boyfriend's bedroom. It certainly gave me pause to think.

I wouldn't say that I really changed anything drastically. I haven't changed the way I write and I don't sugar coat because of a younger reader. I trust that if they've decided to read it, they are mature enough to. What I have done though is to bring down the age of my characters. Instead of writing about 17 years old characters, I'm writing about 13 and 14 years old characters. That probably doesn't sound so significant, but it is. These characters see the world through a different lens. I haven't compromised anything. I believe I'm still giving an honest view of the world, I'm simply exploring from a different starting point that is more relevant to the audience.

One day, I hope there is room on the shelves again for edgier fiction. I have plenty of ideas still in the tank. But for now, I'm more than happy writing about the issues facing the actual readers.

Monday Morning Glory

One of the things I love about writing is the way it can be looked at from under a microscope or through the lens of a telescope because there so many elements that make up really great writing. So far in this series, I've looked at perfect phrases, sentences, stanzas, but there's also the paragraph. Sometimes a complete thought needs several sentences to shine (and sometimes a whole book). Here is a paragraph that never fails to move me:

There was madness in any direction, at any hour. If not across the Bay, then up the Golden Gate or down 101 to Los Altos or La Honda. . . . You could strike sparks anywhere. There was a fantastic universal sense that whatever we were doing was right, that we were winning. . . . And that, I think, was the handle—that sense of inevitable victory over the forces of Old and Evil. Not in any mean or military sense; we didn’t need that. Our energy would simply prevail. There was no point in fighting—on our side or theirs. We had all the momentum; we were riding the crest of a high and beautiful wave. . . . So now, less than five years later, you can go up on a steep hill in Las Vegas and look West, and with the right kind of eyes you can almost see the high-water mark—that place where the wave finally broke and rolled back."

— Hunter S. Thompson Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas

This works on every level. A compact, clearly expressed journalistic point of view on a time and culture told in breathtaking prose. The imagery is intense. The overwhelming sense of defeat and sadness is tangible. And that final metaphor is simply brilliant.

Without a doubt, this is a paragraph that has had a strong influence on my own writing, not just stylistically, but also grammatically. I think its influence is easiest seen in my first two novels Pure Sunshine and Tomorrow, Maybe. One of the reasons this quote meant so much to me was that during the writing of both of those books, the W. era in the nation and Giuliani era in my city, I was feeling quite similar to Hunter in that passage. In the '90s counter-culture, there was also that feeling that we were doing something, changing things simply by the way we chose to live. We had decided not to live by the rules that had been set up for us by people we didn't think understood us.

Strides had been made, or I believed they had, and I was watching them all being rolled away like the last big wave. I kept thinking about Hunter S. Thompson's quote and couldn't help but think history had repeated itself in a way. But I didn't believe in giving up and turning Yuppie like previous generation had (many have though, a great many). I believed we could still chose to ignore and disobey what we knew to be unjust. This idea of rejecting those forces is very strong in both of my early novels...the idea of discovering your own morality and defining a more fair world for ourselves.

Great Expectations of Genius

Last night, I watched Steamboy, the first feature film from legendary anime director Katsuhiro Otomo. It was his first directorial full-length movie since 1988's Akira. I've been waiting to see this film since it came out in '05. Akira was one of those movies that shaped my teen years and in many ways influenced my artistic interests not only in film, but literature and art as well. Naturally, my expectations would be set way too high for any film to match...which truthfully is part of the reason I delayed so long in viewing.

I reassured myself that it wasn't beyond the realm of possibility to hope for a masterpiece. After all, Otomo was involved in 2001's Metropolis, another anime must-see. And there had been nearly 20 years between this in Akira. A genius can cook up something great in that time...think Chinese Democracy. So, I watched eagerly.

There's no denying the lushness of the 1850's Victorian England scenery and the amazing, Seussian nature of the machines. That's one thing a great anime film does...draws you into its world and lulls you into its dream. Steamboy certainly achieved this. But shortly after the story began picking-up steam, literally, it seemed to dissolve before my eyes.

The characters quickly confused me with there choices and motivations. Ray, the boy at the center of the movie, was so easily misled and manipulated that he was hard to root for. Early in the movie, he leaves the girl behind who is obviously interested. She was only character that kept her head in a difficult situations and she saved his skin. Then, after she's quickly disposed of, Ray falls for a truly despicable character...who I think was meant to be appealing. By that point, it was impossible for me to root for him. Because of that, I barely cared if he won or lost. 

The film covered so much of the ground already trampled in Akira, but without nearly the level of cleverness. Where Akira is a layered epic that requires many viewings to unravel, Steamboy is so transparent that everything important it tries to say, rings false or poorly thought-out.

The movie left me extremely disappointed. But that's the curse of genius. As an artist, when you create such an all-consuming and culturally important work of art, how do you ever achieve that again?

Though, I don't presume to understand the kind of pressure some one of Omoto's stature must feel, I can relate to some extent. There's always the drive to create the best you can each new time around. However, there's always this little computer in the brain that compares what you're working on with everything you've done previously. That's why there's always this pang of defeat whenever someone tells me "I've read all of your books. I love them, but Pure Sunshine is my favorite." A downward trajectory is not what one aims for.

But it's also fair to say, creating anything that is meaningful to someone, even once, is a gift and something to be proud of. Plus, everyone is entitled to fail some of the time. I don't won't to be too harsh on Steamboy. I hate tearing things down and I really dislike the culture of critics that is nowhere more prevalent than in blogs. To create anything that strives for greatness is worthy of praise...and Steamboy is still better than anything a critic creates. 

Perhaps someone else will love this movie and see in it what I saw in Akira. It's just impossible for the human mind not to compare and I suppose Akira is just his version of Pure Sunshine for me. 

Banned Books Week Begins Today

"Intellectual freedom—the freedom to access information and express ideas, even if the information and ideas might be considered unorthodox or unpopular—provides the foundation for Banned Books Week.  BBW stresses the importance of ensuring the availability of unorthodox or unpopular viewpoints for all who wish to read and access them." from the ALA website

Today marks the start of Banned Books Week, an international event that celebrates books that have been frequently banned or challenged in so-called free nations like ours because of their content, suggestions, or simply their use of language. As an author and book lover, this is obviously a subject that's very important to me. But it's even more important to me as a person. The idea of censoring thought is one of the most despicable concepts that I can imagine...the one place where freedom needs to be absolute is in our thoughts.

The reasoning behind banning or challenging books is to protect people for potentially dangerous ideas. I suppose in its roots, it goes back to the notion of temptation by the devil, but the whole concept is absurd. Even in the Biblical teachings, there's nothing to suggest the world could or should, be free of temptation because morality needs to be tested in order to hold any conviction. People need to be free to make up their own minds about subjects otherwise their opinions are hallow and empty. 

The majority of books in our society that are challenged are generally children's books or books for teenagers, to keep kids from encountering things that may be upsetting. Now, I'm all for that...but that is not the job of society, or PTA's or School Boards, or local governments. It's the job of individual parents to decide what is or isn't appropriate for their child. If they find something unsuitable, that's their right. But there is no excuse for any self-righteous behavior that pushes their judgement on others.

Personally, I've always been of the opinion that encountering upsetting things in books is better than facing them in real life. Books provide an insight to situations that allow readers to experience things at a distance. And for the most part, the subjects that are most challenged are subjects that readers will more than likely encounter or already have (drugs, sex, and hatred). Not so coincidentally, these are also subjects that often only get talked about in hushed whispers in most families. So in many ways, books can provide reflection that otherwise isn't there.

I've had some first-hand experience with challenged books thanks to my first novel, Pure Sunshine, which is essentially a record of LCD experiences among teenage friends over the period of two days. Needless to say, it's not necessarily a favorite among some parents, teachers, or social crusaders.

    The sun fell from the sky to go and sleep elsewhere. It was a surrender of sorts, a passing of its reign for the moon to awake. And I lived for that in-between transience when the glass buildings reflected the brilliance of twilight, when the sky was swept with a short and sudden color of flames before fading dull and gray. I waited. On the park bench, I faced the clouds and waited for that perfect moment when the drugs take over.   page 1

Because the book takes no moral stance on the characters' drug use, instead trying to capture the real experience, this book has often been criticized for glorifying drug use (though, in my opinion there's a lot un-glorifying moments as well). There is a fear that teenagers reading a book like this, devoid of some heavy-handed "Just Say No" message, will run right out and take acid. To me, that seems ridiculous. I would argue that the kid who would do that, would do it anyway. And over the years, more teens have actually written to me with the opposite response...that after reading the book, their curiosity had been satisfied and that they had no desire to try the drug. I think we need to be more trusting of people to make the right decision...granted a lot of times that won't happen. But regardless, I don't think anything sets people to make wrong decisions more than trying to force a so-called "correct" one upon them. 

 If you agree...do yourself a favor this week and read a dangerous book. You can find a list here.