Who Is That Masked Man? (or What Movies Do for Book Characters)

Tip of the Day: The Greater Rochester Teen Read during Teen Read Week with A. S. King was amazing! Thanks to all the teachers, librarians, teens, and Amy(!) for making it a success! You can also check out a new interview with me in the YALSA blog for winning the YALSA/Dollar General TRW grant.

Some might say that movies/TV shows based on books are not as good as the written versions. In many cases I agree with that.

However, as Halloween approaches and costumed enthusiasts make their party appearances, it is clear that without Hollywood making our book characters visually concrete in our heads, many a costume would go unrecognized -- or unimagined.

Can you tell who this character is?

 

How many people dressed as Katniss before THE HUNGER GAMES became a movie? How about Legalos? Or Deanerys Targaryen? :)

 

How often do you think a movie that flops hurts the book it was based on? If potential readers see the movie first and then don't even try the book?

 

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing



Give the Muse Fairy a Vacation!

Tip of the Day: Looking for cover art? My friend Traci directed me to morguefile.com - it's an incredible database of stock photos!

I'm a frantic writer. Once I get a golden idea, I write constantly. Evenings, weekends, in the car, in bed, in the bathtub - doesn't matter where or when, I must write until the book is done.

It's not an easy way to live.

Give the Muse Fairy a Vacation!
courtesy of Microsoft Clipart

And once I've vomited out the first draft of a book, the last thing I want to do is write. In fact, every time I finish a book I quit. I tell my husband I'm done. I look for jobs online. I consider other careers. I dream about going back to school and getting my MA in Museum Studies (my BA is in medieval history with a minor in evolutionary anthropology).

So how do I get the writing mojo back again? I do something new or something that makes me happy - and here's the key - it has nothing to do with writing. Writing prompts annoy me. Begging the muse to come back is futile (even muse fairies need a vacation once in a while).

Here's how I recharge:

1 - I read - but only books outside of the genres I write. This means no YA and no epic fantasy. I love drowning in thrillers (James Rollins), detective novels (Joe Konrath), romance (Tracy Garvis Graves), scifi (Ernest Cline), classics (Chaucer), nonfiction (Dian Fossey), and mystery (Elizabeth Peters).

2 - Day trip - I visit museums, zoos, and aquariums. These are some of my favorite brain vacations.

3 - Volunteer - I help out at my kids' school or with my local Friends of the Library.

4 - Catch up on TV shows - Right now I'm loving Vikings. I've also got Game of Thrones, Season 1 on Blu-ray waiting for me.

5 - Clean my house - Okay, so I'm not a clean freak. I don't clean anything but the bathrooms on a regular basis. So when I finish a book, I tend to look away from my computer for the first time in weeks and see that the house really needs a good scrubbing. I organize, donate, and toss.

By the time I've worked my way through a combination of these stress busters, I always think, "OMG, I really miss writing! Why have I been wasting my time with all of this other crap when there's a novel waiting to be written?"

You may have already guessed by now...I'm not the writer who says you must write 1,000 per day every day of the year. When I'm in the writing groove, I frequently pump out 3,000 to 4,000 words a day. It works for me. The books get written - and that's the most important part of being a novelist.

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber

Bad Boys, Bad Boys, Whatcha Gonna Do?

Tip of the Day: I have a tumblr now, full of funny pictures. It's called YA from New New York.

I've gotten some feedback that the Bad Boy in my manuscript just isn't bad enough. He's too nice, not rough enough around the edges. So I spent some time thinking about my favorite bad boys and why I love them so.

1. Daryl Dixon/The Walking Dead
What's awesome about Daryl: Cool competency with a crossbow and sculpted arm muscles to match.
Weakness: Kids. He's got a soft spot for them.
What makes him a bad boy: Talk about rough. Daryl loses his temper, calls it like he sees them, resorts to violence and isolation as his fallback positions, and suffered from his alcoholic, neglectful parents.
How he sees himself: low self-esteem, a  loner, has trouble living up to his brother's expectations, thinks others see him as a no-account redneck.

Contrasted by: Big brother Merle, who raised Daryl. Merle has no redeeming characteristics but the same incredible competency at survival. Merle is BAD. He cut his own hand off, cauterized it, and replaced it with a bayonet. Merle's only saving grace is that he's on a search to find his little bro. But you know it will be showdown time when Merle and Daryl meet. Because there's only one person who can stop Merle from his sadism ... his brother. Dum dum dum! And so the fandom waits with eager anticipation for the Daryl/Merle meetup.
Daryl is the only one who can save: Glenn and Maggie, everybody's favorite characters, from Merle.

2. Sandor "The Hound" Clegane/Game of Thrones
What's awesome about Sandor: He's never a hypocrite and you can't intimidate him. Cool competency with a sword and sculpted arm muscles to match.
Weakness: Fire. Sansa Stark.
What makes him a bad boy: The first significant thing he does in the books is kill an innocent boy at his Prince's command. He's rude, he curses, he drinks, and his childhood makes Daryl's look like a picnic in the playground.
How he sees himself: Horribly scarred by a fire caused by his brother, he thinks other people see him as a scary freak only good for fighting, and he's internalized that.
Contrasted by: His older brother! Well, there's a pattern. But while Daryl has some good memories of Merle and was at least able to depend on him when they were kids, Gregor Clegane has always been an abusive ass. When Gregor came of age, their parents died in "mysterious circumstances." Gregor ruled the Clegane household with fear and fire, just as he now rampages the countryside. Only Sandor can match Gregor's strength; only the Hound can stop his brother. Cue inevitable showdown music please.
The Hound is the only one who can save: Oh, I can't give you spoilers on this one. But it will be characters we care about.

So what do I need in my book? An older brother? I don't have room for another character. But I need my bad boy to be outspoken (can work on more), have a contrast with someone less likeable (needed), be the only one to save  my main character (check), be competent at fighting (check), have self-esteem issues (hmmm), and be disliked by my other characters (hmmm some more).

Anything else to add to the Bad Boy checklist?

 -- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Love & Romance....le sigh....

Tip of the Day: There is still time to enter our Valentine Makeover contest. There are lots of cool prizes so check it out.

 I haven't read a romance novel in years - at least not one that didn't contain some sort of paranormal or fantasy element to it. I'm your not-so-typical girl who loves movies where things blow up, zombies eat people, and love only happens because people are thrust together in insurmountable circumstances that get those hormones surging and the adrenaline racing.

When I met my husband, we bonded over my love of the 80s movie Masters of the Universe (yes, the He-Man movie) and Babylon 5 (yes, I have an undying crush on Bruce Boxleitner, the captain of Babylon 5 and the star of Tron). To me, there's nothing hotter than a guy in uniform - one for space travel. My hubby couldn't believe it. He'd hit gold. Not only did I love typical guy movies (Die Hard happens to be one of my favorite Christmas flicks), but I was also an avid gamer (the video game variety, I've never played D&D).

Some girls might roll their eyes at me. That's okay. I was never one to fit in and gave up trying years ago. But here's the thing - I'm not alone in this world. There are dozens, thousands, possibly millions of girls out there like me who swoon over the fast, dangerous romance. In the medieval-based fantasy worlds I write, characters are often trapped in wars (magical or military). They fight hard. They love hard. There isn't time for a slow buildup because they just might get burned alive (read The Initiate) or magically pushed off a platform, sending them to a quick death by broken neck (read Sleepers).

When the bigger concerns of the world come knocking, it's usually love fast or die frustrated. lol

This was one of the reasons I decided to epub. Many of the agents I spoke with bemoaned my character's ability to fall in love (or in like, or in lust) so quickly. Instead of arguing about genre conventions (wouldn't you fall in love fast if you knew you could die at any moment?), I moved on. If I argued with every person who insisted I'd never be popular, I'd still be standing on the football field in high school, clutching my flag while wearing a marching band uniform, insisting that someday I'd make something of myself while my tormentors would still be, well, mean (thank you Taylor Swift!!!!). Maybe my books aren't typical YA fare. I admit it, they're a weird combination of Twilight and Game of Thrones. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with that.

Love hard. Die hard.

Megg, Miss Enchanted ePubber