Archive for March, 2011

The value of humor

27
March
2011

I originally thought we were going to see SUCKER PUNCH this weekend. I mean, the trailer was pretty nifty. Dragons! Airships! Girls kicking butt! But both the critical reviews and the informal feedback led me to believe that I would be better served just watching the Disney mash-up trailer again instead. At this point I have too many suspicions that the people behind SUCKER PUNCH are of the belief that girls in sexy outfits kicking butt = female empowerment. Not that there aren’t plenty of great movies with girls in sexy outfits kicking but who are also empowered and have agency in their worlds.

So anyways, instead we say RED RIDING HOOD. And I really enjoyed it. It helped that I had just rewatched Veronica Mars Season 1, so I was predisposed to associate Amanda Seyfried with excellence. But I also loved the visuals (especially the village and Grandmother’s house), the band of multi-ethnic werewolf-hunters, and the fact that the love “triangle” wasn’t particularly sordid or annoying. But when it was over and Bob and I were walking out of the theater I kept feeling like there was something that had been missing. I finally figured out what it was.

Humor.

There was not a single scene or bit of dialog in that movie that made me laugh (intentionally). And it made me realize just how important humor is. Even in a dark romantic story about werewolves. Even in an epic fantasy adventure (hello, Merry and Pippen!). It’s the comedic notes that allow us, in a way, to take the brutal, epic stuff seriously. And without them, I ended up laughing at a number of inappropriate moments, because they just seemed so overblown and over-dramatic.

I really liked the definition that author Laura Amy Schlitz gave of comedy, in her recent write up of her choice in the ongoing Battle of the Books at School Library Journal. She writes:

Comedy is a celebration of human resilience. At its best, it takes the tensions and failures and tragedies of life, and transmutes them. It pulls the threads taut, mending the rift in the cloth. It draws the toxins out. And of course this is tremendously refreshing, because we are surrounded by tensions and failures and tragedies.

It’s fitting that I should be thinking of humor and comedy now. Because one of the writers who taught me the power of humor, how the best books make you cry and laugh, was Diana Wynne Jones. The world lost a huge creative talent when she passed away earlier this week. DOGSBODY was one of the books that made me want to be a writer. When I daydream about the kind of writing career I aspire to, I think of her. What an amazing legacy she has left us. Dozens of books, filled with flights of imagination and dazzling characters. And so many readers– so many authors, including me!– who name her as an inspiration.

Thank you, Diana Wynne Jones, for inspiring me to dream and to create. For making me cry over the ending of DOGSBODY and laugh over Chrestomanci’s quirks and hope for a happy ending for Howl and Sophie.

I will confess that I have not read every book by Diana Wynne Jones. I do that sometimes, with my most beloved and prolific favorite authors. Because I don’t want the day to come when there are no more. So I am, indeed, grateful that I still have copies of HEXWOOD and CONRAD’S FATE and several others sitting on my to-read shelf. I think it’s probably a time to pick one of them up and remind myself of the magic and wit and humor that Diana Wynne Jones gave us.

The hard days

21
March
2011

Sometimes there are easy writing days. Sure, I still have to overcome my basic inertia and the lure of easy entertainment and online dabbling and frittering. But I have a core belief in the project. I want to know what happens next. I want to see how my characters and my world will surprise me. I have faith I am going in generally the right direction.

Then there are the hard days. When the universe seems to shift overnight and suddenly I’ve lost that faith. My characters are distant. I’m fumbling around in the dark and I don’t even know if there’s anything to find. The plot has turned into this many-headed monster that my brain can’t contain. I still have faith in the story, but it’s blind and tenuous and I worry I am going to lose it completely.

I’ve had a stretch of hard days lately. I know, intellectually, that I will get through it. It’s happened before. It will happen again. I tell myself that especially with this book, where I’m trying to push myself, it is even expected. I am striving to do something new, and it isn’t going to be easy. It shouldn’t be easy!

Even when I want it to be easy.

Some days, when it’s hard, I just need to write it down. Then, next time I have a hard day I can look back and remember that it is all part of the process. Or maybe one of you is having a hard day (week, month) too, and we can commiserate, and it will be a tiny bit better for both of us because we will know we aren’t alone.

It’s spring now, and I have seen crocuses blooming down the street. There are short green stubs in my own front yard. I have my window open just a crack even though it is dark and cold, because the birds are in full chaotic symphony. If the birds and the crocuses can make it through winter, I can make it through these hard days (weeks, months), right?

Giveaway winners and cover!

15
March
2011

First up, my handy random number generator picked me some winners for the Faery Book Giveaway:

wandering dreamer will get Small Persons With Wings
DM Domini will get Rebel
Lara will get Arrow

If any of you are reading this, please email me at deva at devafagan dot com with your mailing address! I’ll also attempt to contact you via the info in your entry comments. Thanks to all who participated! I wish I had copies enough for everyone!

The next news isn’t all that new if you follow me on twitter or Facebook, but for anyone who missed it, CIRCUS GALACTICUS now has a cover! Whee!


Click to engalacticize! Hope you all like it!

Circus Galacticus also available now on NetGalley for reviewers, and on various booksellers for pre-order. Wow. It’s starting to become real!

And since you don’t get to see any of the characters on the cover, here’s a sneak peak at some of the art I commissioned for the character glossary that I’m working on for this website. The full art won’t be going up for a few more months, but I’m too excited now not to share a few excerpts…

The art is by the talented Loraine Sammy and I can’t wait to share the full pieces with you! She did amazing work!

Miscellany

04
March
2011

First, a reminder: there’s still time to enter the giveaway for faery books here!

Second, some events: I’ll post more details later, but I’m attending an event here in my hometown of Hallowell on Saturday April 9th at the Harlow Gallery from 1-3PM, with other local artists of all sorts. And on Thursday May 12th I will be at the Cambridge Public Library at 7PM as part of the Diversity in YA tour, along with Malinda Lo, Cindy Pon, Holly Black, Francisco X. Stork, and Sarah Rees Brennan. EEEEE! I would love to see some friendly faces in the crowd!

Third, a PSA: There’s been internet chatter about a YA Mafia. I, of course, belong to the MG Mafia, where we get together to drink butterbeer and exchange tips on how to train your dragon, but I did want to answer author Janni Lee Simner’s call for folks to stand up virtually and say “hey, go ahead an review my books, whether you like them or not.” So there it is. I generally try to avoid reading reviews of my books unless my editor sends them to me, but I’m grateful for every thoughtful review anyone does care to put out there. I don’t like every book published, so I don’t expect every reader to like mine either!

Fourth, food: I think that at least a third of the posts I have starred in my google reader are recipes. Here are two I am thinking of trying in the near future: salt-crusted chicken and lemon-meringue cupcakes.

Fifth, travel: Sadly there is no space or budget for a big trip this year, but next spring Bob and I are really hoping to travel to England & Wales (first time for me). Until then I content myself reading travel books and blogs like this. I must say I am very envious of the green… everything here is still covered in several feet of snow!

Sixth, writing: I just passed 50K words on my current project (of a projected 80-90). It is so strange to me now to remember starting it on January 1st of this year, struggling for hours to get down 600 words. The blank page is one of the scariest things in the world: the feeling that you have to strain and struggle to pull something out of nothing. But now that the book has some heft to it, though, it is starting to pull me along. Whew! It’s a nice reminder that the little steps really do add up…

Onward!