Authors, Blogs, and Writing
I was really excited to read the Demon's Lexicon, but the more I've read of it (finished chapter 2 in the bookstore the other day, and now the library really is going to get it so I can be patient for that), the less I excited I get. Which isn't to say that it isn't a good book. It is. But the more I read it, the more I see Sarah Rees Brennan lurking in the background.
I "know" Sarah Rees Brennan (in so far as you can "know" a person over the Internet; I've always though it was interesting how the Internet stripped you of your physical appearance and left you a jumble of thoughts) from her excellent blog, and she's bubbly, crazy, and a fantastic writer. The last thing on that list got me to read her book; the earlier two is negatively affecting my ability to take her seriousness in the book serious. Does that make sense?
Or how I really liked Wicked Lovely so I hunted around on the Internet and found Melissa Marr's blog which I read for spoilers, extra tidbits, and because Melissa Marr is pretty cool. But now I know that Marr likes this, and likes this, and when they showed up in Fragile Eternity with Marr waxing poetic on it, I got thrown out of the story. It was like, ohhh, she put that in because she likes it. Which makes sense, writers should write about what they like, etc. etc. BUT IT THREW ME OUT OF THE STORY. Which I suspect writers don't want.
It's a little worrying, because I was reading Nora Jemisin's blog and now that she's being published, she's having trouble juggling Nora-the-author and Nora-the-blogger. What she revealed, and what is confirmed by Marr and Brennan and Cassandra Clare (more on Cassandra Clare later) is that author blogs are becoming marketing tools, at the same time as they are being about the author. Wait: to be more exact, the blog becomes a selling point for the author's brand.
As someone who is a serial reader, in the sense that I follow authors more than I follow books, that worries me. Because reading the blog takes away from reading the story and the puzzling out of what the author is really trying to say.
More extreme examples are finding out that Robin McKinley thinks Obama is a white person with a tan, or that Orson Scott Card is a Mormon fundamentalist. I enjoyed their books, up until I found that out. And then I have to look at them still fondly, but with a touch of the sad. :(
Well, I guess the solution made itself evident in the writing of this: stop reading the blogs and enjoy the stories. But as I said, the blogs are excellent. I'll have to think about it.
The other thing is that my friends and I are doing a prompt table this summer. XD I'm excited, I have no discipline whatsoever when it comes to writing (discipline, period, probably) so this could really help me out. But also nervous about the above, as my friends really do know me (no quotation marks needed) and I told one of them about the above and she totally knew what I was talking about.
Whatever. It'll be fun.
I also want to do the Sokkla Summer for kicks. I'll give it a try. I like Sokkla, but I just don't see them working out at all. XD More's the challenge.
Also, the extra on Cassandra Clare: No, I have not read her books. The bad rumors about plagiarism and how it's a copy of the Draco Trilogy with redheads and blondes in leather pants got to me. But I have a tendency to be fascinated by things that otherwise repulse me so I read her blog and found out about her next trilogy Infernal Devices. I got as far as the love triangle and stopped. It looks like a carbon copy of her first series, just a different time and place. And what use is that? She hit the Tamora Pierce mark pretty fast (I also gave up on Pierce because she just got repetitive. Her books are always the same hard-line feminist stuff; it was good when you're 12, but not when you're 21.) Clare is doing what she wants, but is Clare really growing?
I "know" Sarah Rees Brennan (in so far as you can "know" a person over the Internet; I've always though it was interesting how the Internet stripped you of your physical appearance and left you a jumble of thoughts) from her excellent blog, and she's bubbly, crazy, and a fantastic writer. The last thing on that list got me to read her book; the earlier two is negatively affecting my ability to take her seriousness in the book serious. Does that make sense?
Or how I really liked Wicked Lovely so I hunted around on the Internet and found Melissa Marr's blog which I read for spoilers, extra tidbits, and because Melissa Marr is pretty cool. But now I know that Marr likes this, and likes this, and when they showed up in Fragile Eternity with Marr waxing poetic on it, I got thrown out of the story. It was like, ohhh, she put that in because she likes it. Which makes sense, writers should write about what they like, etc. etc. BUT IT THREW ME OUT OF THE STORY. Which I suspect writers don't want.
It's a little worrying, because I was reading Nora Jemisin's blog and now that she's being published, she's having trouble juggling Nora-the-author and Nora-the-blogger. What she revealed, and what is confirmed by Marr and Brennan and Cassandra Clare (more on Cassandra Clare later) is that author blogs are becoming marketing tools, at the same time as they are being about the author. Wait: to be more exact, the blog becomes a selling point for the author's brand.
As someone who is a serial reader, in the sense that I follow authors more than I follow books, that worries me. Because reading the blog takes away from reading the story and the puzzling out of what the author is really trying to say.
More extreme examples are finding out that Robin McKinley thinks Obama is a white person with a tan, or that Orson Scott Card is a Mormon fundamentalist. I enjoyed their books, up until I found that out. And then I have to look at them still fondly, but with a touch of the sad. :(
Well, I guess the solution made itself evident in the writing of this: stop reading the blogs and enjoy the stories. But as I said, the blogs are excellent. I'll have to think about it.
The other thing is that my friends and I are doing a prompt table this summer. XD I'm excited, I have no discipline whatsoever when it comes to writing (discipline, period, probably) so this could really help me out. But also nervous about the above, as my friends really do know me (no quotation marks needed) and I told one of them about the above and she totally knew what I was talking about.
Whatever. It'll be fun.
I also want to do the Sokkla Summer for kicks. I'll give it a try. I like Sokkla, but I just don't see them working out at all. XD More's the challenge.
Also, the extra on Cassandra Clare: No, I have not read her books. The bad rumors about plagiarism and how it's a copy of the Draco Trilogy with redheads and blondes in leather pants got to me. But I have a tendency to be fascinated by things that otherwise repulse me so I read her blog and found out about her next trilogy Infernal Devices. I got as far as the love triangle and stopped. It looks like a carbon copy of her first series, just a different time and place. And what use is that? She hit the Tamora Pierce mark pretty fast (I also gave up on Pierce because she just got repetitive. Her books are always the same hard-line feminist stuff; it was good when you're 12, but not when you're 21.) Clare is doing what she wants, but is Clare really growing?