This week, I’ve been reading and finally understanding what exactly went on at the Hugos this year — and if you want to exactly what the Sad Puppies are, check out the link below. Rekha a fellow blogger hit all my buttons with her post about what annoys her in YA books. And, there’s an article from a Scandinavian author about how different their writing is — about how upfront the content they deal with is. There’s also a round-up of different reactions and reviews of Go Set a Watchmen, which is handy if you’re still on the fence about reading it. And finally: fanfiction helped the sexual awakening of many, many teens. This is not a bad thing. IMO.
Rant alert, but it’s so good. I read this blog post from Rekha over at My Little Corner for Books. Here, Rekha hits all my UGH-button alerts for books — YA or otherwise. What it boils down to is this: don’t pretend your book is a different genre when 95% of it is romance. Be a romance writer, revel in it because you will have a TON of wonderful readers waiting to read, including me. It’s the pretending that there’s something else going on that drives me and others crazy!
The Hugos were finally awarded and I finally realised just how massive and notable this year’s was: diversity won if only because there were ‘no awards’ in 5 categories. Which basically means fans who are desperate for more diversity in sci-fi made sure the Sad Puppies (ie, straight, white male writers) and their choices didn’t win. This article does a wonderful explanation of the whole sorry state of affairs. Here’s GRRM on this whole thing too.
Not your Grandmother’s children’s books. An eye-opening and enlightening article about how upfront Scandinavian kid’s books are — YA or otherwise. Or rather, how there are no taboos in the lit — be it about sexuality or anything else. Differences are embraced… whereas today in Australia, a documentary following kids with parents of the same sex was banned. I guess though, if you have a homophobic education minister, things like this happen
A selection of — varied — book reviews of Go Set a Watchmen: If you aren’t sure whether you want to read it, take a look here.
Fanfiction is the sexual education I gave myself: Wendy Syfret goes into fanfiction, its popularity and how it allows teens to be curious and learn about sexuality. It’s more than 50 Shades of Mommy Porn and more than that, it lets you be curious with other people who are in the same boat as you — they’re still learning and they’ve probably already asked the questions at one point. Having been immersed in fanfiction and fandom and found the best friends I’ve ever had as a result, I wish more people understood this about fanfiction.
This is what had me going this week! What about you? Have you ever had a go at reading fanfic? Or Go Set a Watchmen? What did you think?
