dragonimp

A year ago I posted about a YA manuscript that was getting a certain kind of negative response from agents - basically, some said they would be interested IF a certain (gay) character's POV and references to his sexuality were removed.

But this saga has a happy ending: the manuscript has been picked up by Viking press, gay characters intact!

Details and a description of the book are in that post, but I wanted to highlight this part:

Sherwood and I wanted to write something fun and exciting, with adventure and romance and mutant powers and martial arts and a vivid sense of place. And we wanted it to be about the people who are so often left out of those sorts of books: Latinos and African-Americans, Jews and Asian-Americans, gay boys and lesbian girls, multiracial teenagers and teenagers with physical and mental disabilities. We didn't do this to fulfill some imaginary quota, but because we wanted to write about teenagers like the real ones we know, the real ones in Los Angeles, the real ones we were.

...

Stranger is a post-apocalyptic adventure, not an issue novel. But all stories have their genesis somewhere, and for me, it was my wish to say, "It's okay. You're okay. You'll get better. You'll make friends. You'll fall in love. You can be a hero." I hope it finds its way to the people to whom it will speak.

A scifi/fantasy story... with a cast that looks a lot like everyday life. A story with gay main characters that's not "about" being gay, but instead says this is normal, too.

I finished Twilight this morning. It's ... cute. And yeah, I can see why it's so popular with teenage girls. But I kept finding myself reading like a writer. I'm not sure exactly why. But if the story can't grab me and keep me reading like a reader, then the book's not doing its job.

It really does read like Mary-Sue fanfiction. Which I think is part of its appeal. What teenage girl doesn't want to be Bella, the awkward nobody who suddenly becomes OMGPOPULAR and has Mr. Gorgeous Vampire falling all over her? I felt like I was reading one of my teenage fantasies (except for the popularity part; that sounds more like a nightmare). Problem is, most of the fantasies I had as a teenager wouldn't make for good writing. The book was a little too heavy on the wish fulfillment for my tastes.

And, I'm sorry, but I can't take the sparkling thing seriously. I like for there to be logic behind my fantasy, and that smacks of nothing more than "Oooh, wouldn't that be cool??" Why the hell would they sparkle?

Will I read the rest of the series? Eh... my reading list is already a mile long.

My mom was actually caught by surprise by the events toward the end of Half-Blood Prince. Usually I'm the clueless one, and I thought the foreshadowing there was really bloody obvious. Or maybe I've just gotten more jaded and cynical when it comes to the Harry Potter books; she seems to be getting more out of the last 3 books than I did.