Monthly Archives: May 2011

Offcentre Book Club: A BLUE SO DARK, Discussion 2

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Aura’s mother has not been well, but this new episode drives the middle portion of the book. Grace’s tornadic behavior—trying to keep the world spinning with her feet, a frenzy of fire and paint and loud music—has a similar whirlwind effect on Aura’s life. She’s missing classes, trying to teach herself to drive, dodging adults’ questions, making excuses, shedding her friendships, all as she gets wrapped up in this constant battle to keep her mother safe.

The water imagery isn’t as prevalent, but Grace remains a force of nature; one of those ugly facts that appear with no rhyme or reason. Not unlike tornadoes, really. I’m from Oklahoma and have experienced countless tornadoes. To me, they are as typical as Grace’s madness is to Aura. When J first came to Oklahoma, he woke me up in the middle of the night, panicked. There were tornado sirens! The weathermen were on TV without commercial interruption! Doppler shows these scary swathes of red and orange!

I dragged myself from bed; studied the TV map; shrugged and went back to sleep. We aren’t in the path. It’s springtime. This happens. I know what it is to stand in a field under a black-green sky and see that angry freight train down the path. This is normal and I’m not afraid.

But just because we’re familiar with terrifying forces doesn’t make them any less destructive. Neighbors in Joplin and Moore—I am so sorry, and I am thinking/hoping/praying for you.

Aura, too, accepts her mother’s madness even as she searches for ways to end it; she refuses to turn to doctors, medication, family. She has opportunities to turn to her father and her grandmother and her friends but she turns them down. Her best friend, Janny, sees what’s happening; sees the way Aura pretends it’s okay; and refuses to take part in the charade.

How do you feel about Aura’s reaction to her mother’s episode? What about her mounting dread that this sickness (which she deems interchangeable with creativity) lies dormant in her, too?

 

P.S. If you want to help victims of this year’s tornadoes, the wonderful folks at Help Write Now held some awesome auctions, but those have all closed; they do, however, still have links to great places to donate directly.



Death by a Thousand Papercuts

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You know those little obnoxious things that—when you remember them—drive you batty, but the effort it would take to resolve them is so much greater than that single moment of irritation. But then they keep happening. And keep happening.

For instance, when we moved to DC, we changed our phones to a 202-area code number. The number I got apparently belonged to someone who was a club promoter. I know this because I get phone calls at 3am telling me that my appearance on MTV was awesome, or thanking me for working an event. I get texts every single day for events at various sports bars, comedy clubs, and dance parties. My aggravation level when this happens: VEIN-BURSTING ANNOYANCE I HAVE TO DELETE ANOTHER TEXT MESSAGE/VOICEMAIL AND POSSIBLY TRY TO FALL BACK ASLEEP BUT NOW THERE IS A DOG WHO KNOWS I’M AWAKE AND THAT I MIGHT POSSIBLY BE CONVINCED TO FEED HIM BREAKFAST. My aggravation level two minutes later: completely back to normal and hopefully asleep. (Unless the dog is persistent.)

I could look up how to block texts from certain numbers, or research my various phone-related options, or even, god forbid, answer the texts/calls and ask the person to leave me alone I don’t even know what a Club Davinitee is or how to employ one in a combat situation. But I hate phone calls as a general rule, I hate dealing with customer service, I hate I hate I HATE, and by the time I figure out how to resolve the issue it’s no longer in my face, annoying me.

Today, though, I’m sitting down and making a list of every little compounding irritation that annoys me—things that don’t work, subscriptions that need cancelled, things that need changed—and how I can go about fixing it. (Yes, I’m supposed to be writing—how could you tell?) I will get through this list and fix everything on it, no matter how many terrifying, aggravating phone calls I have to make.

And believe me—I really hate having to make phone calls.

Now. Tying this back to writing. If you’re in the revision stage, you may have spots in your manuscript that you know aren’t working—tiny plot points, sentences, characterization—but they’re really minor, and really, it gives you a headache trying to think of how to fix them, and seriously, it’s just one spot, surely your critique partner/agent/editor/readers will overlook that one thing, right? Your eyes start to jump over it when you’re reading through your manuscript, and pretty soon, you can easily forget it exists.

But there isn’t just one spot like that, is there. There could be dozens—all lurking below the surface of your manuscript, building up into one massive ball of aggravation. It’s the death by a thousand paper cuts—the tiny little things that aren’t working, that will keep your story from being the powerful story you want it to be.

WRITE THESE PROBLEMS DOWN. You don’t have to come up with a solution right now, you don’t have to tear your book apart just yet. But force yourself to read, really read your manuscript and acknowledge that those little problems exist. Put together a nice list. Then, you can put your brain to work on solutions.

Good luck—and consider wearing gloves.

Genre vs. Brand

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In talking with coworkers, family, and friends the past few months about my writing efforts, one of their first questions is always “What type of books do you write?” What they’re really asking, of course, is what genre do I write, but I find the distinction interesting when coming from people who haven’t obsessively researched the publishing industry like I have. So I answer with genres:

“Well, my finished book is fantasy, and I’d like to write more in that series, and I have other fantasy ideas as well… But my new project is a historical YA, and I’ve done some other types of YA in the past, and I really like writing that… Maybe some contemporary stuff with a fantastical bent…”

That’s about the point that I get the Head Bob, but more or less, I answered what they really asked. And the answer was: whatever crazy story demands to be written, genre be damned. I read almost everything and want to write almost everything, too.

And answers like that strike fear into the heart of agents and publicists.

I recently read an article from mystery author Elizabeth Spann Craig warning writers against spreading themselves across genres. Her central point was that your fans will pick up your book expecting a story very much like the ones they’ve already read; they want to read another of your stories, not you trying to be Jodi Picoult or Brandon Sanderson or Dean Koontz. I agree wholeheartedly—don’t step into another genre trying to write to an established convention or standard. Let the standard-bearers do what they do best.

Where I respectfully disagree, however, is the idea of genre as a line that cannot be crossed. If you write fantasy novels with murky moralities, dark forces, and political intrigue, then as long as you stay true to your style, you can write an equally satisfying police procedural with murky moralities, dark forces (perhaps internal ones rather than magical), and political intrigue. In this case, your identity as a writer isn’t so much about the genre you write than it is your style—your themes—your hallmarks.

Steven Spielberg directed Schindler’s List and Jurassic Park. Somber Holocaust epic, and rollicking science-fiction dinosaur romp. Both amazing movies. Both extremely successful. They couldn’t be more different—but he directed these in the same year. What do they have in common? Here are some of Spielberg’s trademarks—his “brand”—as pulled from IMDb:

Important images, or characters, are often seen through the rear-view mirror of a car (Duel (1971) (TV), E.T.: The Extra-Terrestrial (1982), Jurassic Park (1993), Schindler’s List (1993), A.I. Artificial Intelligence (2001)).

Protagonists in his films often come from families with divorced parents, with fathers portrayed as reluctant, absent or irresponsible.

A common theme in many of his films is ordinary people who discover something extraordinary – people, places, artifacts, creatures, etc.

Obviously, Spielberg has a lengthy career of successful, brilliant movies to his credit, and that gives him leeway to do whatever the hell he pleases. He established himself and his craft first. Don’t scattershot yourself straight out of the gate.

And Joss Whedon—who hasn’t cursed the Joss Whedon Gratuitous and Senseless Killing of Major Characters trademark? Whether it’s a contemporary (some would say YA) paranormal setting, a western science fiction opera, or a super-hero musical, you know Whedon’s hand when you see it. The humor, the dialogue, the situations, the occasional musical numbers, and, yes, the slaughter.

But if you want to write in multiple genres, think about the similarities in your stories, not the differences. Embrace those common threads, because those are what will define you as a writer. Themes, character tropes, situations, complexities, imagery, comedic timing, lyricism. Focus on what’s in front of you, and stay faithful to your most-loved genres (don’t write a brilliant mystery novel and never return to the genre again), but make your writing about more than its genre dressing. Make your own genre—make your own brand. And if that brand only falls into one genre or a cluster of closely-related genres—then that’s great, too!

But that’s just my opinion and philosophy when approaching a new story; and untested ones at that. What type of books do you write?

Offcentre Book Club: A BLUE SO DARK, Discussion 1

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I didn’t get as far as I’d like in A BLUE SO DARK for this week’s discussion due to a slew of other obligations, but I’m at around page 50 now. I’m really loving the writing and carefully crafted story—there is a lot going on, even though Ms. Schindler tells it in few words. My thoughts keep returning to the following aspects in particular:

Water

As I suspected, the water and, in particular, the ocean is a powerful theme already. We see the murky “chocolate milkshake” waters of post-storm Florida, the stylized waves on Aura’s crush’s necklace, poolside summers with her best friend Janny, and the beach photo of her mother and grandmother, waves crashing against their legs. A metaphorical sea washes over descriptions of her mother’s madness, too, sometimes as a tide but often as a force that pulls her under.

Schizophrenia

We have yet to see Aura’s mother Grace take a bad turn, but the physical manifestations are there, even when she’s seemingly fine. The unwashed, sick smell; her oily hair; her shaking hands and franticness in searching for a hair tie.

Denial

Aura’s dad wears an excellent mask of denial. We first see it in their Florida vacation, when he stubbornly tries to “prove” to Aura that they’re having a good time even though she hates it, and it continues into the present: covering up Grace’s sickness with medication, covering up his failed first marriage with a new one.

 

And everywhere, little signs of how Aura resembles her mother keep popping up, but I’m going to withhold comment on them until later.

 

What symbolism have you found in A BLUE SO DARK so far? Any interesting story elements that jump out at you?



Offcentre Book Club, May: A BLUE SO DARK by Holly Schindler

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This month, we’ll be reading our inaugural book club book, A BLUE SO DARK by Holly Schindler. The Offcentre Book Club is a no-pressure reading group. Once a week, I’ll be posting discussion points. If you’re reading the book as well, you’re invited to respond to the discussion either in comments or on your own blog (and kindly provide a link if you do, so I can reference it in the main post!); or you can write a discussion post of your own (and provide me a link for these as well). Enjoy!

 

May: A BLUE SO DARK by Holly Schindler

Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left them. Convinced that “creative” equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears.

 

Thoughts Before Beginning

All the Flux books I’ve read have struck me with their delicate pacing, allowing a deeper look into characters’ psyches, and lush descriptions, and based on the synopsis, I expect our peek into Aura’s mother’s madness and Aura’s own struggles will be similar. I read Joyce Carol Oates’s BLONDE a few months back, and a decent portion of the story covered the very young Marilyn Monroe learning to live around her mother’s insanity—practiced rituals, affectations, acceptance of lies—that kept them in balance until it just wasn’t enough. I suspect A BLUE SO DARK will be similarly wrenching.

And who wouldn’t love that cover art? The girl adrift in unknown waters is a clear but powerful metaphor. There are two other books coming out very soon whose covers convey a similar sense of being lost in the currents:

IMAGINARY GIRLS by Nova Ren Suma

Chloe’s older sister, Ruby, is the girl everyone looks to and longs for, who can’t be captured or caged. When a night with Ruby’s friends goes horribly wrong and Chloe discovers the dead body of her classmate London Hayes left floating in the reservoir, Chloe is sent away from town and away from Ruby.

But Ruby will do anything to get her sister back, and when Chloe returns to town two years later, deadly surprises await. As Chloe flirts with the truth that Ruby has hidden deeply away, the fragile line between life and death is redrawn by the complex bonds of sisterhood.

With palpable drama and delicious craft, Nova Ren Suma bursts onto the YA scene with the story that everyone will be talking about.

I love the tagline: “Secrets never stay below the surface.” I think that applies to all three covers here—sooner or later, we must come up for breath, and face the consequences.

 THE UNBECOMING OF MARA DYER by Michelle Hodkin

Mara Dyer believes life can’t get any stranger than waking up in a hospital with no memory of how she got there.
It can.
She believes there must be more to the accident she can’t remember that killed her friends and left her strangely unharmed.
There is.
She doesn’t believe that after everything she’s been through, she can fall in love.
She’s wrong.
Straightforward but chilling, huh? Here we have someone else helping her to the surface—or is he the one holding her under? Is it really a male character, or only representative of some other force?
I’ll post the first discussion points on Friday. I look forward to hearing your thoughts!