Breaking Dawn

Eight days to go. God help me, I feel like i'm going to combust!

A Great and Terrible Beauty

So i'm reading a Great and Terrible Beauty by Libba Bray at the moment for my thesis. It's about this girl called Gemma Doyle, who seems to have some kind of magical powers from the 'Rhelm' (the place between all the worlds). The reason i'm reading it is because of two of it's secondary characters, Pippa and Fee, who - at the end of the third novel - unveil that they're in a lesbian relationship. Apparently Fee also gets some kind of powers from the Rhelm, so she may qualify as a queer hero for my thesis. But that's not really wanted to I wanted to talk about right now... What i've noticed with this series is that there is a huge following of young adults out there that really love this series. But there is just as many that don't too. I haven't read the second book yet (I anticipate that i'll finish reading the first one today) so I can't speak for any of the others in the series, but the first book contains very little romance. I can't help but wonder if that is the reason that so many don't like it. With all the really hugely popular young adult novels around at the moment (Twilight, City of Bones, Blue Bloods etc) they're all driven forward by passionate and forbidden romances. A friend of mine asked me the other day whether or not I get tired of the romance aspect of young adult books and I was surprised to find that I don't. Without the romance aspect, I find young adult novels relatively boring. All of my favourites are centred around a romance in some way or another.

A Great and Terrible Beauty has been a massive effort for me to read. I've found it dry, uninteresting and incredibly slow. I have to wonder, is it because it lacks a romantic aspect? I've done a bit of web browsing about the series and it seems that Gemma and Kartik (a gypsy boy) do enter some kind of romance in the next novel and I can't help but wonder if that will make the story a little more interesting?

So i'm posing the question - why do young adult novels need a romantic element to be interesting?

Queer Theory

So I've decided that in addition to blogging about my novel writing expeditions, i'm also going to use this space to blog about my thesis which I am currently working on. I'm still in the preliminary stages (which means lots of planning and lots of reading), but it looks like my paper will be centred around queer 'heroes' in contemporary young adult literature. As far as I can gather, my supervisor seems pretty happy for me to come up with my own definition of the word hero, which really, is fabulous because it means that I can bend the meaning to include whichever characters I want - to an extend. So it seems pretty certain that i'll be using Perry Moore's Hero, and most likely the City of Bones series by Cassandra Clare, but other than that, i'm not too sure yet.

I had been spending my time thus far researching comic book characters that are gay heroes but after meeting with my supervisor today, she thinks that we should focus more on novels. Which I'm both happy and unhappy about. Happy because I know nothing about comics, and quite frankly I was feeling rather daunted by the whole thing. But unhappy because there do seem to be a lot of gay comic superheroes around. So but excluding them for primary analysis, i've totally limited myself for my overall paper. So i'm on the hunt for any super natural or superhuman characters in books that might be gay (even if they're not totally overtly gay, I reckon I could probably bend the theory to include them as well).

Did I mention that my thesis is actually 20 000 words, not the initial 10 000 that I thought it was? I'm pretty sure that the look on my face when I was told that today was a total Kodak Moment. I think it's pretty safe to say that this will be my hugest academic effort to date. Maybe ever....

We All Fall Down - Kirra Stuart

This is a photo of Australian actress/singer Stephanie McIntosh. This is how I pictured my Kirra (we'd need to dye her hair brown of course). She's curvaceous, womanly and so totally not part of the size zero epidemic, which suits Kirra perfectly. This is her profile...

Name: Kirra Anne Stuart

Age: 17

Height 5 ft 6

Likes: Music of all kinds. Favourites include Linkin Park, Paramore, The Gossip, Muse and Tori Amos. Loves photography and graphic manipulation. Loves watching animated films and chowing down a McDonald's Quarter Pounder meal. One of her favourite indulgences is eating oreo cookies and cookies and cream icecream together.

Dislikes: Liars and cheaters, sports, rudeness, broccoli, humidity and the colour brown.

- Is one of four children. Has a brother and twin sisters
- Moved to Brisbane from Lorne in Victoria just before We All Fall Down starts
- Is very mature for her age, possibly too mature
- Wants to be a graphic designer
- Is a closet Home and Away fan. Also, loves crappy American Soap Opera's.

We All Fall Down - Matthew (Matt) Brewster

This is a picture of the actor Steven Strait. This is pretty much how I've always pictured my Matt in We All Fall Down. Only, in my fictional world, he has slightly lighter hair (without the red flicks) and it's also slightly shorter than shown in the picture here. Oh, and he doesnt wear a leather jacket. Here is his profile...

Name: Matt Brewster

Age: 17

Height: 6ft (though its really not important for the story)

Likes: Grunge and Heavy music. Fave bands include Korn, Linkin Park, Slipknot and Metallica. Loves photography, meat pies and Kit Kat Chunky fingers.

Dislikes: Cats, pop music, school, homework, lemon juice, gherkins, the colour pink.

- wears baggy shorts and skate shoes. Can often be seen wearing logo's like DC, Etnies, Globe.
- is the oldest of three kids, has two younger sisters.
- has attended Cable Street Grammar for all his high school life. Is considered one of the most popular guys on campus until Kirra comes to town.

18 days to go

We're on the countdown of the year, with only 18 days to go! Stephenie Meyer's fourth novel in the Twilight series - Breaking Dawn - is almost here. And I have to say, if this isn't the most anticipated young adult fiction release this year, then I don't know what is.

Stephenie Meyer has started posting "quotes of the day" again, like she did last year when Eclipse was released. Today's quote was something like: Tanya: "Oh how i've missed you Edward"

It's one of my biggest theories that the trouble in Breaking Dawn is going to come from the Denali Clan, so when I saw that quote I did a little dance for joy. I'd love to see Bella have some kind of competition (even if it's only in her mind) and it if comes in the form of Tanya from the Denali clan then i'm happy.

God, how does one wait another 18 days? It's so close I can almost taste it on the tip of my tongue, smell the newness of its pages in my nostrils, feel the glossy cover on my fingertips... This is going to be one hellava wait!