Uncreated Conscience

In previous posts about New Adult, I realized that I tried to articulate the category with broad generalizations (target audience, voice, etc.), but never got down to the specifics of personal taste. Personal taste is pretty important in this industry; it’s important to read broadly, but to also have opinions about what you read.

White-Harp acts as a neck pillow while I work. She's not exactly pleased by this arrangement.

Bear once asked me if I would ever turn down something I knew would sell and I said, “Yes, if I didn’t like it,” to which he just shook his head and said it was a stupid business practice. I couldn’t come up with a rational argument at the time, but the honest truth is, publishing isn’t a rational business–it’s a business of taste.

I put it this way: I can’t sell something I don’t like. Meaning, if I don’t like something, I can’t bring it to an editorial meeting and say, “Let’s buy this book! I hate it!” It’s the same when you recommend books to friends; it’s hard to walk up to a friend with a book you didn’t like and say, “Read this! I hated it!” So today I will enlighten you all to Cap’n Sweet Valley and my personal tastes (noting that, of course, this falls under the general umbrella of “fiction and nonfiction for twentysomethings”).

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Whose brilliant idea was it to give me license to record myself playing instruments and singing badly online? Gaah.

Anyway, in a fit of Libertines-related nostalgia (as it appears that a long-hoped-for reunion is in the works?), I decided to record a cover of “Music When the Lights Go Out”. I use the term “record” loosely. This is about as “produced” a sound as I’ll ever get: vocals, guitar, and piano all recorded separately and then mixed together with sub-par equipment, yay!

James Joyce intended many things when he wrote ULYSSES. That's why we usually study this text with an enormous honking book of annotations. (And I LOVE JOYCE.)

I want to this put this out there and I sincerely hope I don’t offend anyone when I say The road to hell is paved with good intentions.

This is a common problem I see with many novice writers (and some experienced ones as well), especially those of a literary bent. Now please, please, please don’t take this the wrong way, but your intentions don’t matter. As an English literature major, this was something that was drilled into our heads while we struggled to keep our eyes open during 8am lectures: it is a huge mistake to examine a work of literature through the lens of authorial intent. Because you will never know what the authorial intent is.

Appropriate for students of 19th century fiction (such as myself) because the majority of the writers I loved and studied are dead, but I believe this holds true for all fiction. Writers, you cannot say to everyone person who has read your book, “Well, I meant X, Y, and Z.” You how know in everyday conversation, you can say something but your words can be misconstrued despite your intent?

That’s exactly what can happen in books too.

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The Ur-Chick Lit Novel

A while back, I mentioned on Twitter that I did not like chick lit. This is causing me a wee bit of stress as a large portion of the submissions we receive can fall into the realm of “chick lit”, meaning I am more reluctant to read them in favor of other submissions.

One of the great things about Cap’n Sweet Valley and me as a team is that we tend to balance each other out in terms of taste. Cap’n Sweet Valley tends to like more pop and/or commercial fiction where I like more “upmarket” literary-ish, quirky things, as well as genre and historical. (I am a big advocate of genre, especially fantasy and science fiction.)

Where we cannot see eye-to-eye, however, is this niche of fiction called “chick lit”. I try to be open-minded, I really do, and I especially try not to be pejorative or contemptuous of those who like it because I know what it’s like to wholeheartedly love a genre (fantasy) that literary snobs tend to look down on. Also, as Emily Giffin (a St. Martin’s Press author) and Sophie Kinsella would attest, it sells pretty well, and we’re in the business of selling a lot of books.

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You're the director.

Today I guest-blogged over at WeBook about how making movies and publishing books might be more similar than you might think. If the publisher is the producer, and the editor is the well, editor, then what role does the writer play?

The director. Or at least, that’s my idea. As usual, I could be completely wrong.

Pop on over there and let me know what your opinions! Am I stretching the metaphor too far? Not far enough? Do you think books and movies are completely unrelated?

All I can say is I have no explanation. It started with me complaining on Twitter that I couldn’t figure out what the last chord of the pre-chorus to Lady Gaga’s “Speechless” is. (For the record, I have no idea what its name is, but I play it #F-C-E as the last piece of a pseudo-chromatic downward progression–if that makes no sense, then that’s okay, it doesn’t make sense to me either. I never took music theory and quite literally play everything by ear, so I lack the skills to articulate what I’m talking about.)

It ended with someone convincing me they wanted to hear what I sounded like. So there it is. That’s what I sound like when I’m singing in a key that’s lower than comfortable (too guttural) and playing a non-USB digital piano with the world’s clickiest sustain pedal. Digital pianos make really loud sounds! (Meaning this was recorded using my MacBook’s less-than-ideal built-in-microphone and run through Garageband’s “Live Performance” filter. Ha!)

Anyone else out there have Garageband? Did you know you can turn a woman’s voice into a man’s? BECAUSE YOU CAN AND IT’S THE AWESOMEST THING EVER. I recorded myself singing “Das Licht Des Himmels” a cappella (excuse the bad German and the mistakes).

Now I’m a girl…
…now I’m kind of a sexy man.

It may only work because I’m singing the original in a very high key (but this is where I’m the most comfortable singing–head voice) because I tried to turn my cover of “Speechless” into that of a man but it didn’t sound as good.

But it’s totally uncanny, no?

NAAMAH'S CURSE by Jacqueline Carey

I make it no secret how much I adore Jacqueline Carey and her Kushiel books. I have read every novel set in that universe. There have been 7 books to date.

Carey writes with lush, descriptive (but not overwrought) prose, develops a killer fantasy world that is both heartbreakingly realistic and a place to which I want to escape, portrays wonderfully nuanced and sexy relationships between all her characters, and has created my favourite feminist heroine of all time: Phèdre nò Delaunay, a kinky, bisexual, sexually masochistic courtesan-cum-spy.

Yep.

NAAMAH’S CURSE is her latest book (available for pre-order), the second in Moirin’s trilogy, the first being NAAMAH’S KISS. And right on the heels of my race-in-fiction week: LOOK AT THE COVER.

I might love her even more now.

Apologies for not blogging yesterday–I had a horrible, horrible migraine and went home early to sleep for 14 hours. Sleep, best cure for a migraine!

Anyway, this is the last day of JJ-Blog-About-Race Week! Previous posts include:

Race in Fiction Week

• I’m Korean and I’m Okay: A little background information on me.
• Representing Race in Fiction: I’m not very good at titling things.
• Coffee, Chocolate, and Cream: Describing race.
• What’s The Story?: Please no more “problem novels”.

I’ve left covers for last because 1) I’ve already blogged somewhat about it, 2) it’s something the editorial department has less control over, and 3) because it takes the discussion away from words into pictures and that’s something else again.

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And we come to day 3 of JJ-Blogs-About-Race-And-Then-Ducks-The-Rotten-Tomatoes! To recap:

Race in Fiction Week

• I’m Korean and I’m Okay: Some background information on me.
• Representing Race in Fiction: What it says on the tin.
• Coffee, Chocolate, and Cream: How to describe characters of a different race.

Before we continue, I would just like to say that I don’t want to come across as though I am against explorations of racial tension in fiction. I’m not, especially with regards to historical and even some fantasy and science fiction. In fact, my preferred mode of seeing these issues discussed is through the medium of more figurative genres. To bring up HARRY POTTER again, the pureblood vs. Muggleborn prejudice that runs through the series is a wonderful metaphor for racism and class conflict.

I will explain why: because racism, prejudice, and classist issues still exist in today’s society and most likely always will. If it’s not race, then it’s money, or it’s ability, or it’s where your native planet is located, or it’s so on and so forth. I think it’s in human nature to be drawn to those “like you” and mistrust those who are “different”. The feelings are consistent, even if the values in the equation change over time.

As I said, if we lived in a perfect utopian society where everyone was equal and the same, we’d probably have no more stories left to tell.

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Welcome to day 2 of JJ Will Probably Alienate A Lot of People By Blogging About Race! In case you missed the previous posts:

Race in Fiction Week

• I’m Korean and I’m Okay
• Representing Race in Fiction

Today I want to tackle how to describe race in fiction. There are many schools of thought about this and I don’t think my opinion is the only “right” way to go about it. But my thoughts come a personal place: as someone of a “minority” race in the US who reads a lot of books.

There are (more or less) two schools of thought with regards to describing characters of a different race. The first is DO EVERYTHING BUT MENTION THEIR RACE DIRECTLY. The second is a much more forthright approach.

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