There are things I'm not proud of in my life. One of those things is my penchant for, ah, young adult fiction...the type of fiction you're supposed to grow out of. Not me. Judy Blume is more than a phase for me. I can still get caught up in the drama high school angst. This summer, in order to "prepare" for interviews with the "Gossip Girl" cast at a Paley Center event, I purchased the first two books in the Gossip Girl series by Cecily von Ziegesar. I think I made it through half of one book prior to my interviews. After the interviews, I had no plausible justification to continue reading them. Actually, the plausible explanation would have been that I might as well read the books since I now owned them. But there was definitely no need to go on to read the next seven books in the series. But I couldn't help it.
After that, someone leant me the Vampire book "Twilight". Read it. Quickly. Then I read the following three books in the "Twilight" series, which is now a major motion picture. Again, I couldn't help it.
I have a friend with a similar addiction. She gave me four books in the "Uglies" series by Scott Westerfeld. I was really pleased with myself that I couldn't get into the first book. At first. But I would try and read it whenever I needed to procrastinate and it ultimately sucked me in sucked me in with its cool sci fi factor. I thought it was just a book about ugly people wanting plastic surgery. It's so much more! I don't know how much more, as I'm only on book two, "Pretties".
So this weekend I decide to volunteer at a writing workshop led by writer Wendy West. She's written for name-brand crime dramas on the TV and was going to teach young kids to write a detective story. And since I was curious what it took to write a good detective story, I decided to volunteer and "help the children". I actually enjoy working with kids because I haven't really grown up myself and it doesn't feel foreign. Anyway, I ended up helping young Alex create a detective character who happened to be a Vampire with marble-hard skin and who saw crimes in "visions". This was all terribly familiar to me because Alex, like me, had read all the books in the "Twilight" series.
She was probably on a vampire kick. Like me. The only difference is that her teen vampire obsession is age-appropriate.
I am coming to terms with it. I love young adult literature. It can be vampiric or wizard-y or AreyouthereGodit'smemargaret-y. I will read it and I will love it. Because, deep down, I will always be a 10-year-old girl.
5 comments:
Wow, that is probably the most personal post you've made since... well I don't even know when. I guess now that the elections are over you're going to have to dig deep for material.
Vampires are certainly not a topic reserved for children. In fact the sexual nature of the myth is what girls seem to be the most keen on. I think there are a couple of Vampire TV series on right now, plus countless books and movies. I expect most of them are rated R.
Are you thinking about writing a children's book? Just don't write a book where the protagonist is a writer or poet and is obviously a fantasy about the author. I hate that crap, with the one exception of the movie "Adaptation.".
Oh, and I'd be remiss if I left out my traditional jab. Are you writing a cookbook for children?
I don't know what came over me. I guess I was tired of harboring this secret. I don't have any serious children's book plans, but if I wrote one it would be sarcastic because sincerity is hard to maintain for me. I've considered a children's cookbook, but research has taught me it would be banned in the U.S. and Europe.
From your comment "I've considered a children's cookbook." Forget about writing a children’s chemistry book. A comment at Slashdot references an article about a book published back in the 1960’s. Banned Book - The Golden Book of Chemistry Experiments, written by Robert Brent It’s just a brief article. "Supposedly the US government had the book removed from libraries and banned for sale on the grounds that the projects were too dangerous for its intended audience."
I'd like to have the kind of liability insurance that would completely cover publishing a children’s chemistry or cookbook. I wouldn’t actually write the book. I'd just like to experience the feeling of power and wealth that amount of insurance must impart.
There are tons of people at work who read the Twilight series. It's pretty popular here in Tn and most parts of the country I'd venture to guess. I've stayed away from it because I'm not that into vampires. When I was younger I considered tyring to turn into one or get turned into one. The thought of living forever fascinates me.
I'm currently procrastinating writing a book. I had this reoccuring dream for a week straight a couple of years ago & it just seemed to keep building & building. I wnt through a whole note pad with what it was about, then I even sent it as an e-mail to myself back when I used to have Webtv. Since then my Webtv crashed & I lost the passion to rewrite all of it. It was so good & those close to me who read some of it couldn't believe it was actually my work. That fuled my fire for it & I kept on for awhile but like I said my Webtv went south & just killed that idea. ALthough I was wondering if I'm able to take it somewhere & get the harddrive looked at to see if the info is still there? I'm procrastinating in that too. It's a long term goal. Nothing pressing right now I don't guess.
I've found some playwright groups in Talkcity & some websites through google that seem to be helping me get back into the groove of things tho so I'm thankful for that.
I met a girl from Maine on set the other day and she had the "Twilight" book. She said that she has the other books as well and that they are really good reads. I trust her since she was really cool, funny, and she hooked me up with some free Anthony Robbins CDs (she used to work for him). Now that I know you are reading them I have to see what the craze is all about ;-)
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