Picture drawn by Maggie Stiefvater, 2009. Header made by S.F. Robertson, 2010.

Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Ask Book Chic (5)

Travis asks "Is there a certain genre that you don't particularly like?

What book has been the biggest surprise for you (i.e. one that didn't sound like something you'd enjoy, but you ended up loving)?"


1) I'm pretty open to everything and will read all different genres. If it's YA and sounds interesting, I'll probably read and enjoy it.

2) There was a book that I wasn't expecting to like as much as I did, but I can't remember it right now. I know that I put off reading Sarah Dessen for a while because all I'd heard of her was that she wrote sad books. At the time, I was all about the comedy and happy books. But finally, I was persuaded to read one of her books, so I picked up Just Listen, breezed through it and absolutely loved it. Now I'm a huge Sarah Dessen fan.


Mariah asks "What is your favorite part about blogging?"

I won't lie, getting the ARCs is a HUGE perk and one that I'm grateful for. But honestly, it's mainly the community that keeps me happy. I love all the friends I've made online, whether they be a fellow blogger, an author, or a reader of my blog. I love sharing my thoughts on various books and getting comments that extend the discussion and also get my readers thinking more about whatever book I'm reviewing. It makes me happy to see comments where someone says "Your review has made me put the book on hold at the library/move it up on my TBR pile/go buy it." It's an amazing feeling and I so hope it never fades.

Another aspect of that includes meeting up with others for book events. Like Susan wrote last week for my blogoversary, being in central VA does not lend itself to too many book bloggers nearby. But through her, I've found a few more (Meaghan and Monica- looking at you!) and it's so much fun to hang out with them at events like BEA and ALA and just regular book signings.


Rebecca asks "What would you like to see more of in YA fiction? What trend are you sick of and you wish it would go away?"

I'd love to see more mainstream GLBT fiction. I go to Lee Wind's blog every so often and notice that a lot of books mentioned there are from smaller presses or even self-pubbed. It's heartening to see GLBT characters more and more in YA books as supporting characters, but I want to see them take the spotlight more. Maybe I'm just not looking as hard or something but it seems like GLBT main characters are fading away. Gay YA authors like Brent Hartinger, Alex Sanchez, and David Levithan haven't published much in the way of GLBT literature in the past few years (aside from Levithan's collaboration with John Green on Will Grayson, Will Grayson, which was amazing and I was happy to see it made the NYTimes Bestsellers list, apparently a first for a gay YA book). I was happy to see in the Little, Brown YA bag a book called I Am J by Cris Beam, which features a transgender protagonist and looks really interesting.

I recently started on my own gay YA story (what I dub my "Funny Gay Paranormal") and am loving writing it. My goal, of course, is to get it published, but I also hope to write gay romances published by a mainstream publisher. I'd love to write Simon Pulse Rom-Coms; recently, they published the first African American rom-com in that series of books, and I'd love to be the author of the first gay rom-com for them. But I'd be happy anywhere. What I just want to do is give hope to GLBT teens that they can find love just like everyone else. It's hard to realize that with little representation.

OK, I think I've rambled enough. I didn't think it would be this huge, lol. As for the second question, I honestly don't mind any trends going on, so I'm not like "WHY WON'T VAMPIRES GO AWAY?!" or whatever. I read such a variety of books that it doesn't seem like that many books following a particular trend.

6 comments:

  1. REMEMBER LIKE FOREVER AGO HOW I SAID ID START SOON? I WILL THIS WEEKEND PROMISE.

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  2. YES! WRITE mainstream LGBT lit!

    Oh, and I love Lee Wind and all he does!

    Xoxo

    Brent

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  3. What a great goal to aspire to!=) I do hope your work makes the shelves one day!=) Great post! I love when I read a book- not knowing what will come of it and then be BLOWN away. Perfect Chemistry was like that for me- I finally read it after all the rave reviews!=) Loved it- now I've read 2 others by the author and loved those as well!=)

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  4. Khy- LOL I was wondering what happened to you. You do realize that a published author with deadlines (Amanda Ashby) got to it before you did? :P I hope you like it!

    Brent- I am doing my best, lol! Are you writing some too, or are you not a writer? Lee is very awesome. I featured him when I did my GLBT month in May 2009. He's a great guy.

    Chas- Thanks so much! And I need to get to Perfect Chemistry. I got a copy of that and Rules of Attraction at BEA but haven't gotten to them yet.

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  5. Your book sounds great, good luck with it!

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  6. I agree with you on the LGBT! I so wish there was more out there in the lit world! I myself am not gay but I support people being gay. Why not be who you want to be?! I personally think if there was more LGBT lit in the world maybe the world wouldn't be so freakin rude and harsh on those they are gay or transgender. I used to work for a womens clothing store and my all time favorite customer, Mark, was a straight drag queen! I hated the way people would talk to him. The man woud give you the shirt off of his back even when he didn't know you!

    I hope your book gets published and I'll be the first in line to buy it! Also Simon Pulse Rom-Coms would be stupid not to publish you!

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