In Order to Write

reprint :: Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie - review

May 14th, 2008

–This is a reprint from www.sw-c.com, originally published on March 3, 2005–

To begin, I have now read the book that J.M. Barrie based off of his famous play of the same name. You know the one. A forever boy, Peter, flies into the Darling children’s window, looking for his lost shadow, finds it, tries to put it back on, wakes up Wendy, who then takes up John and Michael, and they all fly off (with Tinkerbell) to Neverland where they have adventures, begin to forget about their families, Wendy plays mother, and they defeat Captain James Hook-n-crew before Wendy, John, Michael, and the Lost Boys all decide they want a real mother and convince Peter to take them back to the Darling’s home. (Taking a big breath here.) It’s an adventure book for children - or so I’ve been led to believe throughout my life.

What I liked about the book was that there was a book about Peter Pan. For some reason there seems to be a Peter Pan revival going on. The reason for the revival might be that the rights to Peter Pan, held by the Ormond Street Hospital for Sick Children, are about to expire, or have recently expired, launching Peter Pan into the public domain. There have also been a series of movies, “Finding Neverland” and “Peter Pan” which have gone back to the source material for the creation of this play for children and re-imagined how J.M. Barrie might’ve created such a wonderful world.

Regardless of the play or other adaptations (Disney) what caught my attention in the book, spread about randomly, were little phrases here and there that really caught my eye and made me wonder about J.M. Barrie. For example, at one point, once the children have reached Neverland, Peter orders the Lost Boys (and John and Michael) to build their new mother (Wendy) a home. After the home is completed, complete with a chimney (that had been John’s hat), Peter guards the house, with Wendy inside, from any animal, Indian, or pirate that might decide to attack. Eventually, as boys are wont to do, he fell asleep and then along come some fairies who were returning from an orgy. Don’t know about you, but I would’ve been scrambling for a dictionary were I young enough to be reading this without knowing what an orgy is; and then I might’ve started pleading for an orgy of my own - you know, just for the experience.

The other scene that really jumped out at me was much later in the book. Peter has become depressed with the game of “Mother and Father” he and Wendy have been playing with the Lost Boys and asks Wendy if the boys think he really is their father. She says, “No,” and that game ends. However, during the interchange she begins to ask Peter if he feels alright. The author has her place her hand below his chest and then implies that it is not his belly she is touching, but lower.

As I read through the book and started to think about the subject, Peter Pan, it occurred to me that the Pan character is out of mythology. Was half man, half goat (the upper half was man) and carried around a set of reed pipes - as does Peter. This creature was also well known for his sexual exploits.

Regardless of what J.M. Barrie added to the story, the plot, of Peter Pan that underscores what Peter is supposed to be, and the relationship he had with Wendy, the book was good. The story isn’t great and in the reading group guide for the book it describes Peter Pan as that generations “Alice in Wonderland.” Neither work is great, but both works have withstood the test of time and reader scrutiny. Like Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland has been receiving a revival of sorts. It seems that ten years can’t go by without someone trying to adapt Alice in Wonderland to the big screen in a way that is fluid and doesn’t detract from the original story. Hollywood is trying their hand at it again with a release sometime this year or early next year. Both authors loved little children and based their principle characters off of the children they adopted as their own when they couldn’t, or wouldn’t, have children of their own. In J.M. Barrie’s case, he adopted six boys after their parents died (and his wife asked for a divorce).

In all, I would say that Peter Pan is worth reading, it’s about 156 pages long, isn’t hard to read, and throws out a word: embonpoint, which had to be looked up and reminded me, just a little, why it is I write.

Reprinted from:  http://www.sw-c.com/2005/03/peter_pan_by_jm_barrie_review.html

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On the Heals of Greatness

May 10th, 2008

I am of the opinion that most people get into writing because they were inspired by something that could be considered great. For me, the impetus where I realized I wanted to write was when I could sit down and read, by myself, Green Eggs and Ham by Dr. Seuss. I didn’t know, at that time, that people spend their entire lives pursuing singular dreams, as that; nor did I realize that the competition is pretty fierce for shelf space, publishing schedules, agents, and readers.

And yet, I pursue the singular goal of writing.

I discovered an internal change the other day. You see, once upon a time I thought, “Any writing job I have will make me happy.” Not true. Several years ago I took my first full-time writing job with a company I was working for. I produced a lot of material in a short period of time. After fifteen months I realized I didn’t want to do that kind of work anymore, and not for that company so I requested that I be laid off when the company did another round… this would be the third.

What solidified, in my mind, that I could write compellingly enough for the outside world* was that another, larger, international software company almost immediately hired me up and I went back to work. I ended up writing one magazine article that may, or may not, have been published and then was, again, laid off due to the hiring practices of that company.

Since that time I have worked in various capacities as a writer from freelance to creative to poetry and have remained focused on my singular goal: writing fiction.

About eight years ago, I sat down and wrote a couple (okay, three) books. Two were submitted to a couple of local publishers and both were rejection. The rejection on the first book said, “We cannot accept for publication this book, but if you have other projects, we would like to consider something else by you.” The outcome was a first draft for a book I titled, Big Jim, Little Jim. Honestly, I never expect to see that story revisited.

What I did learn in the process was that I have a compelling writing style, though (back when) that writing style needed (and still needs, this is an ongoing process) more polishing. Though my goal was to write and be published in fiction, and though I thought I was pursuing that goal, I had not yet gotten to a point where I was telling a) a compelling story in b) a compelling way.

One outcome to this was that I pulled back. I took, on occasion, writing jobs and did them, but I discovered that a job where I am paid to write is not the same thing as writing what I want to be paid for. What I want to be paid for is fiction and the fiction I want to write is fantasy and YA.

So, writing for a living is a good thing. If nothing else were to come out of my life than that I was able to write, somewhere, somehow, I think I could find myself happy. Teaching writing for a living is another way for me to pursue a passion and desire that I have. Again, I think I could be happy. However, neither of these areas are what I want to be doing.

Time and experience has taught me that if I am patient, I work hard, and I learn all that I can and how to apply that education, I will find success in the areas I pursue. And to that end, I continue to write and work on fiction so that I can be successful where I want to find success.

–

*outside world is everyone outside of my own mind

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What NOT to do to get an Agent

May 8th, 2008

http://theswivet.blogspot.com/2008/05/lessons-in-how-to-never-get-agent-part.htm

I discovered the previous link about a week ago… at least it’s felt like a week since I saved the link.

For those who are interested it is a (slightly edited) letter to an agent that goes into a great deal of detail about why the prospective author is right about his/her works of fiction and the agent was wrong to pass on reading sample pages based off of a one-page query letter.

I can imagine, from reading the parts of the letter that are available, that the prospective author was/is frustrated at receiving a lot of passes on queries. I can also imagine that he/she wanted to take it out on someone and chose to send a very terse and vulgar letter to someone he/she doesn’t know.

The outcome, without knowing the agent, is that the prospective author, regardless of how much he/she thinks of himself, will probably find it even more difficult to get representation. I don’t think there is an active list of people for agents to avoid; I do think that this person hit the unofficial, only between agents when they talk, list of people to politely refuse and then delete any emails and burn any mail that is sent to an agent from said individual.

Seriously folks, it doesn’t take someone with a PhD and MD in psychology to realize that you get farther with people by being polite and carefully stating your case, asking for clarification or reasons, and seeking feedback on how to improve than you will ever gain by going off the handle and ranting at someone you don’t even know.

When you are looking for an agent you are asking someone to help you succeed. Yelling at someone, no matter who, is not a way to influence people to want to help you. An agents greatest successes don’t come from people who think they are great, it comes from people who they can work with and who write well.

If you want help writing query letters, Kristin Nelson has a blog (Nelson Literary Agency) that offers a lot of usefully good advice on that process and she just finished with a whole series of entries on how to write that pitch paragraph to quickly entice prospective agents/editors by getting to the heart of the project.

nuff said.

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reprint: Bras and Broomsticks by Sarah Mlynowski — book review

May 8th, 2008

Okay, so, it’s Friday and I am sitting in front of my computer having just gotten home from work where, at Borders ALL OVER the country they are honoring teachers by giving them an across the board (less for DVD’s) 25% off on purchases made today, tomorrow, and Sunday. This is the second one I’ve worked, this is not one of those days I want to work, and still, at the end of the day, I came away about 15 cents an hour richer.

Still, work is work is work is work. That is a long run on sentence that doesn’t really qualify as such; but then, I am recovering from having to deal with teachers all day. Teachers are inconsiderate and rude and they don’t give a golly-gosh-damn that people know it. On top of that our Borders had a couple of folk musicians playing in the café, they were loud, I wasn’t impressed, and I was happy to see the couple go.

Now for the fun of what I am doing: Another book review. I borrowed, yesterday, a copy of “Bras and Broomsticks” by Sarah Mlynowski. This is yet another young adult novel, though this time I was not attracted to two pumpkins being held in front of a balerina’s chest whilst she danced across egg shells (don’t think I added that last part in that review). Instead, I was drawn to the book by the name and the dust jacket which outlined a book about Rachel who has a sister named Miri, 14 and 12 respectively. They live with their divorced mother, dislike their divorced father’s fiancé, oh and Miri has recently discovered that she’s inherited the witch gene from her mother and now has the ability to cast spells.

The book was pretty good. Not too long. Like I said, I borrowed it last night and returned it today. However, regardless of the overall length the story was actually well done. Apparently Sarah Mlynowski has been writing professionally for several years now and has done a few books in the chick-lit category. This is her first foray into teen lit and covers several months in the life of Rachel, Miri, their mom, the STB, (Jennifer the soon to be step mother) and others.

Almost immediately the reader is dropped into the realm of magic as Rachel discovers that she is wearing a pair of green tennis shoes her mother told her she couldn’t buy. Thinking that her mother was making amends for… something, she borrows her friends, Tammy, cell phone and calls her mother who immediately interrupts Rachels plans to go hang with the “A-list” crowd at some pizza place. Rachel is a typical teenage girl who wants to be popular and feels that she isn’t for all the wrong reasons (like she has a flat chest, is a whiz at math, and her old best friend Jewel got into the A-crowd and forgot all about her). Upon hearing about the shoes Rachel’s mom tells her to come home so they can talk and she begins to imagine the worst.

As a counterpoint to Rachel is Miri. Miri is twelve, not in high school yet, doesn’t like the same things as Rachel, and doesn’t think the same way about popularity. She is outlined as taller with a better body, bigger breasts (that Rachel want), and now the responsibility of magic. Magic that is passed from mother to daughter but occasionally misses a child or a generation here and there (the mother is also a witch and chooses to live the life of an ordinary human because… well, the author really doesn’t tell us why). In short Miri is now being trained in magic by her mother and is instructed not to use magic for any reason until after the period of training is over.

Throw in some good Star Wars references, add a dash of 12 and 14 and puberty, a guy, a dance group with tryouts, and absolutely hating the STB and you have the mixture for magic, wish granting, and eventually disaster. Without giving away too much, the girls eventually cause their father to call of the wedding, Rachel gets on the team and then totally destroys the dance routine she was so wonderful at, and Miri is reminded of the adage, “With great power comes great responsibility.” (That’s from Spiderman in case anyone is interested and I am formulating in my mind a piece on the problems with comic books that I plan to write.)

Anyway, this was a really good book. I was impressed with the way it was written, all first person and all from the perspective of Rachel - and when the author decides she needs to add in the STB’s thoughts or Miri’s then it’s a spell gone horribly wrong that tells us what they are really thinking. The book is, at the same time, funny and interesting and worth picking up if you have about 16 extra dollors… or waiting for if you don’t want to spend that much to get the hardcover.

reprinted from sw-c.com

Posted in Book Reviews, Sarah Mlynowski, reprint | 1 Comment »

Spells and Sleepingbags by Sarah Mlynowski — review

May 6th, 2008

I like to read YA novels. They are often good, with amazing writing, well-structured stories, and characters that are recognizable and well developed. With that in mind, about once a year, I’ve read another installment of Sarah Mlynowski’s series of books Magic in Manhattan series. Previous books in the series are: Bras and Broomsticks and Frogs and French Kisses.

Essentially, this is a series of books about a teen girl, Rachel, her younger sister, and their mother and life after divorce with a little bit of magic thrown in, just for good measure. Before reading the series, or even the first book (Bras and Broomsticks) you should know that Rachel is shallow, self-centered, egocentric, complains about her lot(s) in life, and wants to see her parents back together. On top of that, her younger sister, by two years, develops magical abilities in the first book, leaving Rachel as a normal human being; and Rachel uses Miri (her sister) to get what she wants.

The first two books (Bras and Broomsticks and Frogs and French Kisses) cover Miri’s growth in magic and Rachel trying, very hard, to spell, trick, of flirt her way into her main crush’s heart, aka Raf. On top of Miri casting a spell (difficulty determined by number of brooms 1 broom is easy, 5 brooms is extremely difficult) that allows Rachel to dance (she can’t normally) causes Raf’s brother Wil to fall in love with her, and pretty much messes up everything – because magic has its costs.

One of the conceits that Mlynowski uses, in these books, for magic is that a request for something through magic takes that thing (say a pretty dress) from somewhere, taking something you have (say, the clothes you are wearing right now). Your item is deposited wherever the object you wanted it taken from and people are confused.

At the end of the previous book, Rachel discovers that she has the magical gift-slash-talent as well when she stops it from raining on a moved Senior Prom which leaves the reader dangling as they wait for the next book to come out.

In Spells and Sleepingbags, Rachel and Miri continue on with their lives. It is the summer after Rachel’s Freshman year of high school, and they have been sent to spend their summer at a sleep away camp called Camp Wood Lake. This is where Wil, Raf, and their older brother all go for the summer, with Wil and the oldest brother working as camp counselors. The outcome, Rachel has determined to fix her mistakes in the last book and finally hook up with Raf.

The problem in the book, though, is that Mlynowski spends an inordinate amount of time reinforcing that Rachel is very shallow and self-centered with her looking, immediately, for a new BFF (best friend forever, note, BFF’s are best friends forever) and finding one, immediately, on the bus to Camp Wood Lake. What she does not do is set up the story she is trying to tell. Instead, she sets up the story that she never bothers to tell. As a result, reading the first eighth to a quarter of the book ended up being a bit tiresome. The same was true in her second book as well (I recall really enjoying the setup in the first book).

As a reader you have to get almost to the end of the book before you actually get to the plot of the book. Sure, there are elements and hints toward where Mlynowski is attempting to take the story; but she never actually sets it up. Instead, we deal with Rachel and her vacuous nature while she attempts to get a new boyfriend and not be the girl all the other girls pick on.

Enter the dragon, very quickly, Mlynowski hints at Liana, the proposed antagonist to the story. The problem with Liana is that she has such a small role in the book until (nearly) the very end, and Mlynowski gets rid of Rachel’s new BFF in a bass-akward way that it felt rushed and forced. Like the three Star Wars prequel movies. George Lucas, in all his wisdom, introduced the world to a kid named Anni. This, by the by, was the proto-Darth Vadar. The problem with the Prequel movies is that Lucas waited until the third movie to tell all three movies he wanted to tell. No one really cares about Anni. People did care about Anakin Skywalker and how he was already a good pilot when Obi Wan Kenobi first met him and how, at that stage in life, he rose to prominence and then fell from grace. Episode 3 should’ve been broken into three parts and told as three different movies.

Like Star Wars, Mlynowski waits until the end of the story to introduce what she is trying to accomplish. Liana wants to be Rachel. Therefore, Liana has to make Rachel’s life so hideous that Rachel doesn’t want it anymore. However, this is done, rather poorly, by keeping Rachel from kissing Raf and in the end having Miri choose Liana over Rachel. Had Mlynowski provided the proper clues in the beginning of the book, Alison is potentially the bad guy or Liana is on the bus already when Rachel gets on; Liana introduces herself as Rachel and Miri’s cousin early on; events are made to look like coincidences rather than deliberate attacks on Rachel; Rachel and Miri’s relationship begins to deteriorate slowly; and Rachel has to deal with her new powers all the time knowing who Liana really is makes a more compelling story.

OR, Mlynowski was pretty desperate to get Liana and Rachel to trade bodies and as a result, having Rachel accept that in response to the rebuff she feels from Raf as a result of her dating Wil (previous book) and then spending the book in Liana’s body with Miri not noticing and, as a subplot, trying to figure out what is going on with Liana and Rachel, everyone already knowing that Liana is their cousin, would’ve also been a more compelling story and more to the point of what Mlynowski may have been trying to accomplish.

The book took me about a quarter to get into and start enjoying what I was reading. I picked Liana out of the crowd as the bad egg from the beginning and as a witch and as a cousin. The book was not groundbreaking, it was interesting, but it didn’t do enough in the beginning to cause me to really get a grasp on where the author was taking the reader; and it felt like Mlynowski was trying very hard to use her setup from book one all the way through book three… and her dialogue felt more kitschy than catchy and more adult than teenager. Plus, honestly, with all the people I talk to and all the people I associate with of all age levels, I don’t think (outside of a cellphone commercial) I’ve ever actually heard any girl refer to another girl as a BFF or multiple girls all referring to their group as BFF’s.

Guess we’ll have to wait and see what happens with the next book… through, there is a teaser for it at the end of the Spells and Sleepingbags and I am a little worried it will ultimately end up more of the same.

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