Thoughts (Sans Werewolves, Sadly)

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. . . although, of course, now I am thinking about werewolves.

Did my booktalk at the library this past Wednesday! It went fine, although I think some of the kids were reading at maybe lower levels and not so into it. Also, I think they didn’t know what to think of me waving books at them and going on in dramatic tones about the fates of Katniss Everdeen and Artemis Fowl.*

Still have not seen the Last Airbender movie. Plan to at some point, but not during its opening week. Perhaps I will instead watch a couple of episodes of the actual show. Meantime, have a video that rehashes in just over a minute why I’m not contributing to the movie’s opening box office haul!

On a totally different note, this is a fascinating article about what might be the effects of this whole “death of traditional publishing” thing I keep hearing about, if indeed it is an upcoming death, not an over-hyped case of sniffles.

Still editing The Dogwatchers! I hope to finish within a week or two. Have I mentioned it’s long?

*separately. That would be an extremely ill-advised crossover.

Writing and Werewolves?

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. . . because based on this list, I have decided that adding “and [insert supernatural creature here]” makes EVERYTHING better!

I mean, I’d heard of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, but you’re telling me there is a book called Northanger Abbey and Angels and Dragons? Which is certain to combine Austen’s original witty period satire with the tension of well-thought-out fantastical plot elements? What could possibly be better?

Break It Down

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So, I just read The Hunger Games and its sequel, Catching Fire. Besides the fact that I am wildly in love with this trilogy, literally missed a meal one day while reading them because I forgot to eat, and would pretty much trade Suzanne Collins a kidney to get the last book, Mockingjay, before August because I MUST KNOW* . . . yes, besides all that, I discovered an odd little commonality. Thus, a riddle:

What do The Hunger Games, Little House on the Prairie, The Boxcar Children, and Robinson Crusoe have in common?

Are We Not Done With This BS Yet?

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From all I hear, the new Avatar: the Last Airbender movie is doing to the original series what the infamous Wizard of Earthsea movie did to the books.

In general, I’m in favor of colorblind casting, but:

  1. I’m pretty sure this wasn’t actually colorblind casting, and,
  2. I don’t believe in using colorblind casting for movies based on canon in which characters’ races (or appearances in general) are clear. Think about it – do you think the casters of the Harry Potter movies just crossed their fingers and hoped that the actor best suited to play Ron would be a redhead? Of course not.

The creators of this movie took a world with, I understand, mostly Asian characters, and cast white people for all of the heroes and a person of color ONLY FOR THE VILLAIN. (Really?) This is a shame on several levels. From the previews, the movie screams, “generic blockbuster fantasy.” I love fantasy, and I have to say that a little diversity (um, accuracy) in the casting would, even aside from being the right thing to do, have made the movie stand out. People of color as heroes in fantasy are, unfortunately, quite rare.

I don’t have a lot more to say about this – or rather, you don’t need to hear me spout off again about whitewashing – but I refer you to the comic-strip response of Gene Luen Yang, author of American Born Chinese.

At Long Last!

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After some delays, Sideshow Fables has put out its second issue, the one that includes my story, “What Broke the Line”! They sent me my copy, and it is oh so shiny and magaziney. Aaaand, YOU can get a copy of your very own from their store! All the cool kids* are doing it.

* who like circus-themed fiction

Serious News

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Passing this on from the Diana Wynne Jones lj community:

Diana Wynne Jones, after much consultation with her husband and specialists, has decided to abandon chemotherapy (which is serving only to make her feel very ill indeed) and resign herself to whatever may follow. Her senior oncologist fears she has ‘months rather than years’, but we all hope that – as once or twice before – Diana can still surprise the medical profession. May the good luck return.

– Ansible, June 2010

It was also mentioned on the DWJ mailing list.

While We’re on Safari

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I was thinking about fantasy ecology and worldbuilding the other day, and I decided to try a little experiment. I dug out the Monster Manual 3.0 for Dungeons & Dragons. This is a guide to the critters living in a world that has been used as a setting for oodles of stories, in the form of books (the Dragonlance chronicles, for example, and about eight billion others) as well as the interactive storytelling world of role-playing games. Let’s see what conclusions we can draw!

Brief, simplified survey of random selection of D&D fauna.

On the Varied Applications of Other Peoples’ Relationships

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The other day, my brother was trying to summarize for me a TV show he’d started watching. In describing characters, he noted that two of them were, “the Attractive Normal Couple.”

This got me thinking about couples in fiction. Supporting characters can fill all kinds of functions with their romantic relationships. (If the main character is in a relationship, it tends to be more complex and central to the plot, not as able to be summarized in a hopefully-snappy category label like the ones I’m about to start making up.) Like the “useful rich characters” I posted about earlier, the characters should of course be developed and interesting in their own rights, but they can also be very handy for plot and thematic purposes.

I’d like to talk about those purposes a little, but mostly I’d like to write a safari-style guide to relationships in fiction. Well, let’s see what happens.

I do love a good safari, what!

Workety Work

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Have I mentioned how awesome libraries are? And, specifically, our library? And working therein?

Well, if you haven’t got the idea yet, here is the Facebook page I’ve made for the library. It has an album designed as a photo tour of the new building. Isn’t it shiny and fantabulous?

Also, officially the most fun thing ever: turning books face-out on the shelves. At our old library, you couldn’t even think about doing this. We were so short on room that you were lucky if you didn’t have to shelve books horizontally on top of other books. Here, most of the shelves are half-empty, so I can go around picking out cool ones to turn sideways. These often go out right away – I’ve noticed this with several sections, including teen, children’s, large print, and science fiction. The fact that it apparently has an effect just makes doing it even more fun.

Possibly I am a dork.