Top Ten Tuesday #3

This week was a freebie!

I went with Top Ten YA feminist friendly novels.

Disclaimer: These are only ones I have read and make my inner feminist squeal with delight, where as a lot of books makes my inner feminist squirm or yell obscenities. I have plenty more that are recommended to me by feminist friends and bloggers, but alas I have not read them therefore I cannot attest to their strength to be on this list.

My criteria was pretty simple. The female characters are the focus of the story. The MC is proactive in her life and decision making. She is full of action and established personality not in relation to male characters. Gender norms are broken or challenged. They are not Mary Sues.   

1. The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins
2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart
3. A Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray
4. Graceling by Kristin Cashore
5. Girl Goddess #9 by Francesca Lia Block
6. Persepolis by Marjane Satrapi
7. The Book Theif by Makus Zusak
8. The Golden Compass by Philip Pullman
9. The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan 
10. The Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants by Ann Brashares

"When your only female character exists to be bartered and abused, that is lazy writing. When you raise the stakes by threatening a woman with rape, that is lazy writing. When you demonstrate the “seriousness” of a situation by describing a brutal rape, that is lazy writing. When you inject emotion into a flagging scene by making the man throw the woman against the wall, that is lazy writing. Not only is it lazy writing, but when rape is used lightly and cheaply as a convenient narrative device, it hurts people.
Try harder." - Monica Byrne

Inspiration...where are you?

I blame the holidays.

I have had absolutely no inspiration to write. It was perhaps the drone of Christmas carols piped through my work speakers or the crazed look on people's faces as they demanded some product I have never heard of, but I just could not write a thing.

I *have* been reading though. Dystopian December is going great. I just started Across the Universe by Beth Revis.I hesitate to call this a dystopia. It's labeled dystopia, especially all over at Goodreads, but I would personally say this is sci-fi with elements of dystopia. But isn't lots of sci-fi have elements of secrets of the ship and leader lies and secrets? Isn't there always some element of mystery? So, then I ask this: are we improperly labeling books because of the trend or is it a result of cross genres? (Btw, I hate labels!! Ha)

This morning when I was laying under my new faux fur blanket I received for Christmas, one of my characters started chattering away to me. I slowed down my thoughts and really listened to him so I can record it all down later. He would not shut up. Usually this characters doesn't do much talking. It was a sign. I must write on!

What I'm listening to:

Amy Lee is the best. I can surely find inspiration in this song.

Critiques and Workshops

Tonight is my last workshop class. Over the course of this semester I have learned a lot. Though, most importantly it really inspired me to write. It continues to inspire me. The general (I use that term very loosely) is that everyone likes my initial premise of my WIP. I wish I could form some super-group of people who are passionate about YA lit and sci-fi themed books to help me along my journey. I think I really need to get more involved online with the writers communities. But, it's not like I have a full manuscript or anything yet. It will come.


Anyway, after my last group critique of another new 3,000 words a woman gave me her written critique late. She handed the critique to me and I read it on out class break. And guess what? It ripped me to shreds. Within two pages she told me I shouldn;t continue on, nothing makes sense, and my characters are horrible, stale, an one dimensional. Okay, I'm paraphrasing here and this is mostly subtext. But I was shocked! It didn't help that I had been in class with this woman for 13 weeks.

Listen, I KNOW not everyone will like my story. I'm actually more surprised that I don't get terrible critiques. I really write a story that I personally would love to read, and the characters are scratching at my insides to be heard. It is a deeply personal experience, the whole writing and crafting a story. I might as well dip a quill into my vein and write in blood.  So, how can I not be bothered by her overt expression of disapproval? I am going to a be a dissenter here, when everyone else says don;t take it personally, I say it's OKAY to lick your wounds. Be sulky for a day about it. That's what I did. No regrets.

Then I found humor in it. I let my close friends read it. I put it all into perspective. I got over it. I put it into my fire of inspiration, and there it burns.


P.S.- This lady literally said she wouldn't recognize my characters if they walked into a coffee shop.  My characters are filthy smart-ass kids in a post-apocalyptic world I think you'd pay attention to them if they walked into your local Starbucks. Just sayin'.

Writing on Writing

I've been thinking a while about making a blog dedicated to the craft. Well, here I am! Today Melissa and I went on a road trip to Hudson, Ohio. We stopped in a tiny independent bookshop called "The Learned Owl". It was so cute. We each bought respective Cinda Williams Chima signed novel. I bought The Demon King, having read the Warrior Heir before. And Melissa bought The Warrior Heir having read TDK. Ha.

Also, I have declared this month "Dystopian December"!! Epic. I know. HAHA. I will only be reading dystopias for this month. With my first semester of being a college senior behind me I didn't get much reading done. I sort of fell behind on the YA scene. So, this month I will catching up. First up is : Matched by Ally Condie.


Because I was shopping all day I didn't write anything in my WIP. My next thing I have to get, hopefully within the week, is a MAJOR event. I guess I'm kind of putting it off because it will be rather traumatic for my MC. So, I will need to be in the zone emotionally...fully committed to the scene. It will probably take a lot out of me. But it has to be done.

This is what I am listening to:





For all of the bad asses I'm writing about.