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In Defense of Love Triangles

7/31/2013

I posted this literary rant on Facebook back in January, before this blog was up and running. I think it’s about time to bring it up again.

I’m hearing this lot in the bookworm community lately:

“Love triangles are the lowest form of storytelling!”

“If I find out a book contains a love triangle, I’ll automatically put it down!”

“If I run into one more love triangle, I plan to projectile vomit the essence of my distaste out onto the street until it floods the planet and drowns the author, at which point I will do battle with Cerberus and dogpaddle across the Styx in order to punch said author in the face!”

Needless to say, I feel differently. It’s not hard to see where some of the vitriol is coming from. Sure, we’ve had a bit of an overload lately of the girl/good boy/bad boy arrangement. Sometimes it does feel like every storyteller feels the need to include that exact setup, assuming the story will thrive by sheer virtue of its presence. The result often looks something like the angsty dumbassery of the plot of Phantom of the Opera, minus the gorgeous Webber soundtrack and the good-guy-with-balls aura of awesomeness surrounding Patrick Wilson.

But just because something can be done badly and excessively doesn’t mean it can’t be done well. All good stories come from the same few basic roots, and the beauty of storytelling comes from finding new ways to express fundamental human constants. Love triangles are definitely a prominent entry on that short list of basic stories. Maybe this comes from having lived a love triangle once (or twice) as a teenager, but I’d say it’s one of the most basic of all.

Finding love is rarely tidy or simple or convenient. Choices are made, people get hurt, and like all universal emotional complications, art reflects this. And in the psychologically symbolic world of fiction (and often in reality), a choice between two lovers is more than that; it’s a choice between two potential selves, a development of one’s own blend of priorities and values.

Of course, two dimensional characters who act only as crude, symbolic archetypes instead of as people, characters who go through their motions and exhibit unwarranted, inexplicable feelings for each other simply because that is what the plot requires of them will ruin any story, however classic.

Saying “no more love triangles” is as silly as saying “no more small, spirited bands of unlikely friends overcoming insurmountable odds.” Like everything else that storytellers draw from humanity’s emotional commons, it’s all in the execution.

That’s not to say I’m not up for a bit more variety in my love triangles too. I love a well-executed girl/good boy/bad boy story, but I could also go for some more love interests who are antithetical in a less standard way, a triangle where I can’t tell who the good boy/bad boy/boring boy is. Or even (*gasp*) possibly a love story with more than one female who’s cool, interesting, and significant at all?

In any case, I plan to settle in to continue enjoying the classic stories that continue to be retold, with and without love triangles, and I’m confident that, in the fullness of time, the rest of the readers and viewers of the world will join me.

So why am I reposting this sentiment today? Because I plan to do more than settle in and wait, of course! I’m going to be devoting the month of August to a countdown of my five favorite fictional love triangles. Check back soon for triangle #5!

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or join me on Facebook or Twitter for more fictional musings!

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Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #1: Towelie, Larry, Poochie, and Roy (South Park, Pinky and The Brain, and The Simpsons)

7/30/2013

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I’m cheating and condensing three episodes from three different TV shows into the top spot for making exactly the same joke and doing it so well that I couldn’t pick just one.

In all three of these cases, the writers found themselves under pressure from their networks (Comedy Central, WB, and Fox respectively) to add more characters to their core casts for viewership demographic expansion and/or merchandising purposes. Being comedians, the most principled and fearless advocates of artistic integrity you’re likely to find, with the power of producing essential cornerstone programs of their networks at the time, all three teams responded with pretty much identical middle fingers.

First, Towelie.

He’s not the most sophisticated mascot of artistic rebellion, practically an afterthought cameo interrupting a regular episode, but true to Stone and Parker’s style, he’s the most cuttingly direct of the three, which is saying something.

"You're the worst character ever, Towelie."

Can’t get much more direct than that, can you? And that’s his purpose, to be the worst character ever. He’s a perpetually stoned spokesperson for proper towel usage with no other distinguishing qualities, and just in case we couldn’t tell what they were trying to say with him, the Towelie episode has fake commercials at the end of its real commercial breaks for Towelie towels, “I Love Towelie” T-shirts, and since it’s all about the money rather than the quality, “I Hate Towelie” T-shirts for the rest of the crowd.

The Pinky and The Brain and Larry episode is almost as quick a bit, one segment of a multi-skit episode.

It’s played as a full Pinky and The Brain adventure though, following the idea of adding more recurring characters to the very tight Pinky and The Brain premise to its logical and disastrous conclusion, including taking over the opening theme song.

There’s no simpler way to make the point that the show is about the titular Pinky and The Brain than by awkwardly cramming an extra name into every line.

After the opening, Pinky and Brain launch into their usual banter, setting up the evening’s scheme, begrudgingly adding “and Larry” every time they say each other’s names. Larry smiles, nods, regularly points out that his name is Larry, and occasionally agrees with one of the other two without adding anything.

Then there’s a Three Stooges bit with the three of them as wallpaper hangers, to give Brain an excuse (not that he’d need one) to slap Larry around for a while.

When they get back to the cage after their latest failed plot, Brain concludes that “There was something wrong tonight.”

Something was wrong in their give and take, he explains, their usual yin and yang balance.

"Am I the yin or the yang?"

"I don't know, Pinky. But he is definitely the Larry."

Burn.

The Simpsons devoted an entire twenty-two minute episode to making their point and definitely dug into it the deepest with a double layer of meta.

They were also the first, in case you’re wondering, beating Pinky and The Brain (and Larry) by a few months.

In this episode, there’s inexplicably a guy named Roy crashing at the Simpsons’ house. Everybody loves him and calls him by name a lot. He adds nothing, except for being what might be called “cool” by a network executive whose concept of the word has been cobbled together from half-watched reruns of Happy Days.

With a little embellishment, that plotline alone would put the episode on par with the Towelie and Larry episodes, but The Simpsons didn’t go that route.

In the same episode, Homer gets cast as a voice actor on Bart and Lisa’s favorite show, Itchy and Scratchy, as Poochie, a new character that’s being added to boost falling ratings.

A character who looks suspiciously like Roy.

Instead of the characters simply poking fun at their own producers, we get to watch the fictional producers of Itchy and Scratchy carry out their terrible idea from start to finish in full detail.

There’s a meeting where the producers try to explain to the wary writers what they want, fire one of them for pointing out that none of the words they’re saying actually mean anything, and then start working on designing the character themselves, ending up with a godawful amalgam of a dozen-odd different flavors of manufactured cool that should never, ever mix.

His introduction on the show says it all.

“The name's Poochie T
And I rock the telly.
I'm half-Joe Camel
And a third Fonzarelli.
I'm the kung fu hippie
From Gangsta City.
I'm a rappin' surfer,
You the fool I pity.”

*Shudder*

Just...

*Shudder*

The Itchy and Scratchy episode bombs spectacularly, all the good parts of the show having been pushed aside to make room for more Poochie. The producers realize they have to get rid of Poochie, fast. They kill him off in the most shoddy, last-minute manner possible, and a legal contract is presented to the audience promising, in spite of typical cartoon conventions, that he will never, ever be brought back.

In an effort to console Homer, Lisa cuts to the point. “It’s not your fault, Dad. It’s just that Poochie was a soulless byproduct of committee thinking.”

So what’s Roy for? To make it clear, in case it wasn’t already, that this idea for an episode was not random inspiration, that what happened in the Simpsons’ universe could also happen to it.

Roy leaves the house at the end of the episode, and all three shows successfully made their stands. None of them had awkward, unwelcome characters forced into them permanently….

Well, not for a while, anyway.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or join me on Facebook or Twitter for more fictional musings!

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Book Review: Beta

7/27/2013

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Book Review:

Beta

By Rachel Cohn

Hyperion, 2012

B-

****Minor Spoilers****

The Basics:

Elysia is a clone, awakened fully formed at the physical age of sixteen, one of the first in an experimental new line of teen assistants and companions for the ultra-rich inhabitants of the exclusive tropical paradise, Demesne. Like the rest of the clones who provide the necessary labor on Demesne, Elysia is implanted with the necessary information to do her job and imitate humans enough to make them feel comfortable. She’s not supposed to be capable of genuine emotion. But something has gone wrong.

The Downside:

If you’re on the market for your next book boyfriend, or if you’re a guy who’s willing to give YA literature a sporting chance to provide male characters worth identifying with (in which case I’d like to shake your hand), for the love of god, look elsewhere. All the male characters in Beta are absolutely reprehensible.

At least most of them are obviously supposed to be, being part of the clone-oppressing status-quo, but even the main love interest is just… just awful, even when not afflicted by the in-universe condition of the same name. Oh, he’s supposed to be a “scoundrel,” we know this because we’re told so on multiple occasions, but he’s a scoundrel who (spoiler-light version) is suffering from brain damage, which has sapped all the personality out of him, so any appealing characteristics that can be associated with the word are absent, and whenever he can even work up enough energy to properly be a dick, it’s framed as a wonderful sign of recovery.

Elysia falls instantly in love with him on appearance and reputation alone (his reputation for being a scoundrel), decides she will be the one to change him (seriously), and remains convinced of this after even she has to admit that he’s not only emotionally unavailable but boring and thoroughly lacking in charisma. They have a very brief courtship, which he more or less admits to faking, but by the end she’s still determined to be with him and save him from all the bad things in the world. There’s no satisfactory resolution, no adequate demonstration of why he’s worth her time, or confirmation that he isn’t and that her infatuation with him is some tragic result of clone naiveté.

Then there are details of the world that severely strain suspension of disbelief. Specially programmed clones are sold to the ultra-rich and treated as property but aren’t quite as soulless as the humans want to think? Great. They have tracking chips and limited lifespans and other failsafes to keep them in line? Of course. But there are a few of those extra failsafes which (restraining spoilers here), while creepy and horrible from the clones’ perspective, make a brain-meltingly nonexistent amount of business sense. Not even evil business sense.

It should be noted that there are more books to come in the series, which may or may not clear up some of the more confusing issues, but as the book stands, most of its essential parts are baffling at best.

The Upside:

The universe is beautifully and vividly described. Demesne is one of those fictional places so real and immersive you can almost smell it. Its isolation and the powerlessness of Elysia’s situation give the whole book a pervasive, sinister creepiness that keeps the pages turning in spite of the glaring problems. With the exception of her taste in men, Elysia is easy enough to feel for, and her confused, blundering, but determined progress from good clone to rebel makes a strong, if sometimes overplayed, allegory for adolescence.

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Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #2: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mechanicals Subplot)

7/23/2013

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Yay, a Shakespeare entry! And in summer too, no less. Makes me feel like packing a picnic and going out to watch one of the acting troupes in the parks. Must check their schedules this year….

Hopefully not the fictional troupe in this entry, though.

If you haven’t seen or read A Midsummer Night’s Dream, well, shame on you, this English major is first compelled to say. But then I’ll give you the rundown. Not a complete rundown, in fact, I used to challenge myself to summarize this play as fast as possible without getting any of the who-falls-in-love-with-whom-and-when details out of order whenever I got bored. It’s harder than it sounds. For the purposes of this entry, though:

1: There are people running, hiding, and meeting in the woods for their own various reasons.

2: The woods have fairies in them.

3: Some of the fairies have access to a magic drug that makes people fall in love with the next living creature they see.

4: Farcical chaos ensues.

5: One of the groups of people is a troupe of actors rehearsing a play.

Actually, you don’t really need to know any of that except the last detail. The main fairies-and-lovers plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a regular Shakespearean romantic comedy, no more meta than any other, which gets interrupted occasionally by this acting troupe subplot.

Only one of the actors gets drawn into any of the fairy magic, and then the troupe performs at the obligatory wedding at the end for all the couples. Otherwise the two plots have nothing to do with each other. It’s like Shakespeare just needed to pad the runtime to justify the ticket prices and felt like riffing on his actors and rival companies for an extra half hour.

Just look at that smirk.

As far as I know, none of the Midsummer characters have been conclusively linked to real historical figures, but as someone who spent eight years in theater, I guarantee you the Mechanicals (as the troupe is called by the fairies) are based on real people. Every actor knows them.

You’ve got the writer/director who’s holding the show together (yes, Mr. S, we appreciate how hard you must have worked), but who expects the audience to be unbelievably hostile and stupid, insists that every plot point be explained at least twice, and compulsively sanitizes the slightest hint of violence for fear of stepping on the wrong toes.

Not every playwright was suave enough to get Lizzie AND Jimmy watching his back.

Then there’s the not-too-bright guy who never learns his lines, the mousey guys who can’t project, the guy modern audiences don’t know but still find hilarious, who’s got puberty hitting him like an anvil but is still being cast in the female role… and this guy:

I'm using the Kevin Kline pics for this because I love him. So there.

Oh boy. Nick Bottom the weaver. This guy’s the primadonna, the one who wants to find a way to make Romeo and Juli- ahem, I mean, Pyramus and Thisbe, into a one man show.

"Let me play the lion too!"

He's the guy who basks endlessly in the spotlight while there’s unglamorous work to be done, the guy who thinks he’s the best thing ever to happen to the stage and refuses to perform unless everyone agrees with him.

Yes, his name is Bottom, and he’s the one who gets mixed up with the fairies and is famously transfigured to have the head of an ass.

Ha ha, get it?

We get to watch him be the worst troupe-mate possible at the first rehearsal, then end up an unwitting tool in a royal fairy marital spat. On King Oberon’s orders, Queen Titania is dosed with the love drug to make her crazy about Bottom, which would honestly be bad enough without any bestiality entering into it at all, but fairies apparently don’t half-ass their domestic squabbles.

*cymbal crash*

Forgive me. That one slipped out.

Anyway, when Oberon decides Titania’s suffered enough, he gives them both the antidote for their respective afflictions. Bottom wakes up alone in the woods with his original head and announces that he’s had a dream. He goes on for a while about how he’ll have to have Peter Quince (the writer/director) write a play about it for him to star in, and concludes that it shall be called… (a savvy actor pauses here long enough to let the first timers in the audience think he’s going to guess the name of the play he’s in)… “Bottom’s Dream!”

A swing and a miss, Bottom.

Then the troupe meets back up to perform and gets heckled by some more royalty for how much their play sucks.

Don’t tell me the bard wasn’t nursing just a teeny tiny grudge when he came up with all that.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or you can join me on Facebook or Twitter for more fictional musings!

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Book Review: The Samaritan's Pistol

7/21/2013

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(Based on advance copy provided by publisher)

Book Review:

The Samaritan’s Pistol

By Eric Bishop

Jolly Fish Press, 2013

A-

(Order your copy here!)

The Basics:

Jim Cooper is a rancher in rural Wyoming, lonely and haunted by a traumatic past in the military but generally happy with his quiet present existence, until he stumbles across a mob hit in progress in his local wilderness and, being both a noble soul and excellent shot, steps in. Now already an enemy of the mafia, Jim finds himself drawn into the would-have-been-dead-man’s plan to steal a truckload of mob money.

The Downside:

The ending is open to the point of feeling incomplete. It’s never made clear how any of the characters are going to avoid mob retribution in the long run, and some points of potential character drama are brought up and then not fully explored. Jim can also get just a little too square-jawed perfect sometimes, never for a moment losing the high ground in morality or competence.

The Upside:

Even while being pelted with maybe one too many reasons why it’s absolutely mandatory to love Jim, it’s easy to love him anyway. He is a smart, trustworthy, pure-hearted and charming cowboy hero, after all. The racial and religious tension in his predominantly Mormon rural Wyoming town is a constant theme, but characters from every group, religious and agnostic, even (gasp!) the love interest/token woman in this action-caper story, are rendered respectfully (thank you for that, Mr. Bishop; I’m hugging you with my mind!).

The action is frequent, creative, and intense; a particular scene involving a large number of bear traps comes readily and vividly to mind. Both the western and mob-thriller flavors are strong and blend together beautifully around the adventure. In the interest of returning to that unique atmosphere, if there were to be a sequel someday, taking advantage of that open ending, I’d very happily read it.

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Guest Post by Christine James, Author of Risen

7/20/2013

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Today I'd like to welcome Christine James, author of The Chosen Chronicles! The first book in the series, Risen, is available as of May 22nd.

Click here to order your copy!

Eternal horror geek that I am, no matter what I'm reading, I asked Christine what frightens her and how it influences her writing, and she has Risen to the occasion!

*Snare drum, long hook drags me offstage so Ms. James can take the spotlight*

Fear

Definition of fear: An unpleasant emotion caused by the belief that someone or something is dangerous, likely to cause pain, or a threat.

            So, how does fear influence our daily lives? It influences it in several ways. For some people fear is a huge part of their daily routine. But what happens when the daytime fear turns into a night time fear, creeping in as darkness begins to slink its way over the daylight?

            As a writer, fear influences me in different ways, as do the different degrees. There is fear for our life, fear of success, fear of death. . . I think you get the point. I can use the fear of loss to create an argument between my hero and heroine. I can use the fear of death to create a completely involved story about overcoming death, because let's face it, who really stays dead in the literary world anymore? People are coming back to life left and right. Fear is a necessary tool for writing.

            What am I scared of? Well, I have an aversions to certain things. My son and husband find it hilarious to show me pictures of clowns or make sure I walk/bump into one on Halloween or when we go to the circus. Yeah, so not amused and I'm fairly certain someone is going to get grounded for that and the other someone is likely to be sleeping on the couch for the next week.

            I don't plan on writing about killer clowns or zombified vampire clowns any time soon so that aversion doesn't really help with my writing. There are, however, a few that actually help when I am writing an intense scene. One of those being the sound of a creaking door. Holy cats, that sends shivers racing from the tips of my toes to the very end of the hair on my head. I can't really explain how or even why it bothers me, but it does. It is this aversion (I prefer calling it that because I want to sound brave lol) that allows me to describe a scene with accuracy.   I believe fe-ahem- aversions help us connect with our characters on a level that is basically indescribable. I can go to that place, and pull it out and push it onto the pages, willing my readers to feel what I feel when I hear a door swinging in the wind or what's worse, moving on its own.

            Now, that being said, I do fear being kidnapped or anything so horrible or worse. Being able to put myself in the moment, or allowing my imagination get the better of me, helps fuel my writing. Seriously now, can you tell me what would scarier than being kidnapped, tortured, injected with a drug that allows you to feel but leaves you completely immobile and fed to alligators?

            ***Holy crap a picture just fell of my wall as I was typing that and I nearly jumped off the couch! ***

            Phew. Anyhow, back to fear. I went to that place on a new project I am working on. It was a scary place to be. I am prone to having an active imagination anyhow, as do most writers.

            There was one night, a few years ago, I was working on my thriller. At the time I lived out in the country. I did have neighbors but it was generally quiet at midnight. I conserve energy when I'm at home so the only light on was my laptop. I'm getting with it, man, my fingers are typing away. . . click click click. . . only wait a minute. I stop typing but the click click clicking is still going. Ummmm, what the heck. Before I know it my chest is hurting and I finally breathe, completely unaware that I was holding my breath.

            Okay after sitting statue still for at last five minutes the clicking stopped and I resumed work but not too long after that I heard the sounds of footsteps. Holy cripes, man. Keep in mind I am writing a freaking intense murder/kidnap scene. My mind is already on overdrive.

            Being the genius that I am, I close my computer, casting everything in complete and utter darkness. I slink over to the windows, yeah I did, I tiptoed like my life depended on it and for all I knew it did. Taking a deep breath I hold it, yeah like that's really going to do any good, but heck if it's good enough for those dumb broads in the movies that run up stairs in high heels when a killer is chasing them, it's good enough for me, right?

            Carefully, I pull back one of the slats in the blinds and I promise I am not too proud to say I nearly peed down both legs. There was someone standing on the road directly in front of my house, probably fifty feet or so. He was just standing there staring (at least my mind told me he was staring) in my direction. So much for sneaking around. I sounded like an elephant stomping around on cats as I fell over the chair, stubbed my toe on the baby's playpen and about broke my neck getting to the light switch. Heck I didn't care which switch it was as long as I got to it. By golly conserving energy was the last thing on my mind. I was done with that. There wasn't a single light in my house that I didn't turn on that night. I'm pretty sure the space shuttle could have seen me for outer space.

            What happened after that? Well, of course, when I went back he was gone but I could see him walking away. His face was glowing from the use of a cell phone. I'm not sure if he had that the whole time but I didn't really care. Needless to say. I don't write thrillers with my lights completely off anymore. Call me a chicken if you will. I'll show you the yellow streak running right down the middle of my belly.

            Just like love fuels the passion in my story, fear (ok, ok I said it, fear) fuels my imagination into creating intense scenes. Fear is an intense emotion. It pushes us and takes us to places that no one wants to visit. I have an advantage over my fear though. I can write about it and make it go away, or bring it to life for readers. It is one of the best parts of my jobs, it helps me to face it head on. Even if you're not a writer, facing your fears is good therapy. If you can't physically face it, face it with a pen and a piece of paper. Embrace it, kill it, make it your slave but don't let it make you weak!

About Risen:

Witness the Beginning...

            A fun night in a small town carnival will change Erin’s life forever with a simple visit to a bizarre and mysterious fortune teller. Scared to death by what the haggard woman reveals, Erin quickly flees and quite literally collides with Angelo, a mysterious and captivating carnival worker. Later that night, he appears in her dreams but he’s not the only one visiting her slumber. Evil is lurking on the edge of the shadows and it's coming for her. Angelo is not what he seems, but then again no one ever is. Not even Erin.
            Loyalties are tested and the lines of friendship begin to blur as long hidden truths come to light and fate bears down upon them all. Everyone has secrets but when some turn out to be more than heart wrenching, Erin has to decide who she can trust.
            Can Erin deal with the harsh past that Angelo has been harboring or will it prevent her from doing what she's been chosen to do?

About Christine James:

Christine and her husband coach a little league baseball team. Loves all things baseball and enjoys the out doors; camping, swimming, fishing, the whole nine yards. While she writes a lot of romance in her books, romance movies aren't really her thing. She likes to watch the action thrillers, scary movies, and anything suspense. She loves to read a good historical romance! Also, she is completely fascinated by all things pirate.

Her husband has been her cheerleader as she strives to achieve her writing goals; he's helped pick her up and dusted her off when she went through rejections; he laughs with her, and more times than not he laughs AT her. But more importantly he's there to lend her a shoulder for her to cry on. He's her rock but more importantly she considers him her best friend. Together they have two beautiful son's ages 8 and 2. She considers them her angels and by becoming an author she wants to show them that their dreams can come true.

You can find her on her blog, Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

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Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #3: Scream

7/16/2013

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****Spoiler Alert****

No list of metafiction masterpieces could be complete without this one.

The original Scream was the first major horror movie to take place in a universe where horror movies exist and the characters are aware of them. It was the one to lay out the survival rules, including the infamous

"Sex equals death!"

Our pool of slasher suspects takes horror movie tropes into account as they analyze their predicament, except for our heroine, Sydney, whose interest in the genre is understandably ruined by the helpless female stereotypes who preceded her.

Yes, I’m reusing this pic of Barbra from Night of the Living Dead. She’s just that awful.

The group’s fascination with the slasher in their world goes beyond wanting to avoid becoming a victim, allowing for a scene in which one of the girls is cornered by what she assumes is a friend in an approximation of the slasher’s costume and plays along. Just before she realizes how bad her situation is, she offers this futile request:

“Please don’t kill me, Mr. Ghostface! I want to be in the sequel!”

It sounds like a lot of meta, and it is, but what saves it from being pure gimmick and elevates it to the level of a classic is the fact that it’s also a strong, scary horror movie in its own right. The opening kill is so drawn out and lifelike that I still find it a little difficult to watch.

Ouch.

The twist hits like a two-by-four while playing with the whodunit formula in a subtler way that the rest of the commentary. All along the audience is led to believe the mystery can be solved by accounting for all the characters’ whereabouts at times that could absolve them, until Ghostface is revealed to be… a tag team of two.

And these two are a scary team, in spite of the way they frequently appear to be humping each other. They’re horror geeks, but that only helps them tailor their theatrics. They’re serious psychos all the way through, with or without the theme.

“Movies don’t create psychos; movies make psychos more creative!”

Side note: Yes, Billy Loomis is dreamy. And yes, his resemblance to Nightmare on Elm Street-era Johnny Depp is too striking to be unintentional. Two things that must be mentioned whenever his picture appears.

Just one more of these.

I’ve heard people complain that Scream broke the genre, and like any extremely popular work that did something remotely new, it was followed by a rash of imitators of varying quality, but I’d argue that the permanent effect it had on horror was the necessary kind of breaking, the essential artistic evolutionary function the best metafiction serves. By spelling out the rules, it dared people to break them.

Moviemakers rose to that challenge so spectacularly that in Scream 4, a new generation of geeks discusses strategy for surviving a horror movie and concludes (more or less) that there no longer is one.

I can’t think of a prouder moment for metafiction as a device than this callback, nearly fifteen years later.

Agree? Disagree? Comments are always welcome! Or join me on Facebook or Twitter for more fictional musings!

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Guest Post by Ann Marie Meyers + Amazon Giftcard Giveaway!

7/13/2013

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With me today, I've got Ann Marie Meyers, author of Up in the Air, which is available as of July 6th!

You can read my review here,

And order your copy here!

Up in the Air takes place in the magical world of Chimeroan, where dreams come true, but keeping the hopeful dreams alive requires confronting and dealing with the fearful ones. I asked Ms. Meyers to share what her own experience on Chimeroan would be like, what dream she would chase and what fears and challenges she'd be likely to face on the way, and she was brave enough to oblige me!

My Personal Experience on Chimeroan

Let me close my eyes and picture what this could be like…

My lifelong dream fulfilled: I’m a bestselling author. Everyone loves my books. Everyone loves me too! I’m famous! I’m rich! I’m popular! Life is perfect!

Now I can only imagine that this is the dream of dreams for many writers. However, if every author on Earth were to go to Chimeroan and become bestsellers, we’d all have different experiences. And our experiences would, in large part, be a result of the multiple factors that have shaped our lives so far, including, in large part, our fears, which tend to shape our thoughts and actions on both a conscious and deeply subconscious level.

On Chimeroan, I would be the famous, popular bestselling author of my desires and my goals. However, before I can even guess at what I would encounter there, I’d first have to have some idea of my fears. So, here goes:

1)     No one will like my book(s)

2)     I’ll get awful reviews

3)     People will laugh at me behind my back

4)     I’ll never get an agent or publisher

5)     I’ll mess up speaking in front of people, especially kids.

6)     Kids can see right though me and they’ll know I’m insecure.

7)     Who am I kidding!!????!!!!

You see, until I can come face to face with my fears, no matter if I achieve my ‘dream’ on Chimeroan or on Earth, these fears will rise up to bite me in the back, face, neck and every which way. They will pull me down and sabotage the very thing I believe, or say, I want.

It’s kind of like a ‘fear of success’ / ‘fear of failure’ scenario.

I fear that which I want.

The situations I run into on Chimeroan could take many forms, such as situations that realize my fears literally [me being in front of a large audience and everyone laughing at me, or asking questions I can’t answer, or me stuttering my way through an hour of torture].

Or, events might manifest as something else; something I am not consciously aware of but which might be at the root of my fears.

So, hypothetically, let’s say that when I was a child people kept teasing me because of the way I spoke. Then on Chimeroan I might be confronted with an incident or incidents embodying this, but which in the end will help me see the root of the problem, and thus set me free to enjoy my dream.

Overall though, by the time I left Chimeroan, I would have the confidence, greater maturity and tools to deal with the challenges, and yes, even the ups and downs, that will await me as a writer on Earth.

About Ann Marie Meyers:

Ann Marie Meyers grew up in Trinidad and Tobago in the West Indies. She has a degree in languages and translates legal and technical documents from French and Spanish into English. She lives in Toronto, Ontario, with her husband and energetic daughter. Meyers is an active member of SCBWI and facilitates a children's writing group twice a month.

About Up in the Air:

Ever since she can remember, ten-year-old Melody has always wanted to fly.

And when she leaps off a swing in the park one day and lands in the mystical realm of Chimeroan, her dream finally comes true. She is given a pair of wings. She can fly! Life cannot be any better.

Yet, dreams do come with a price. Even with wings, Melody realizes she cannot outfly the memories of her past. The car accident that has left her father paralyzed, and her unscarred, still plagues her with guilt — she believes that it was entirely her fault.

In Chimeroan, Melody is forced to come to terms with her part in her father's accident. She must choose between the two things that have become the world to her: keeping her wings or healing her father.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #4: Into the Woods

7/10/2013

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****Spoiler Alert****

Time for another musical! And look, it’s another Sondheim one at that!

Into the Woods is a fairytale retelling. That is, it’s a retelling of all the big fairytales, woven together around a new fairytale-style story about a baker and his wife, who have to gather a list of magical items in order to lift an infertility curse placed on them by the witch from Rapunzel. Their resulting misadventures involve swapping shoes with Cinderella, buying Jack’s cow for magic beans, and rescuing Little Red Riding hood from the stomach of the wolf.

So where does the metafiction come in? Not through a series of winks at the audience about the silly fairytale conventions, if that’s what you’re thinking.

It was my name first, by the way.

Into the Woods is one of those very rare works that starts as one thing, finishes as something else, and manages to pull off both.

The fairytales are played almost completely straight, with strictly in-universe jokes, right up until they all neatly tie themselves together... just in time for intermission, when the narrator announces, “To be continued!”

I tried to find a picture of this, I swear. Here’s Eric Cartman narrating a Christmas story instead.

In Act II, all the characters have already reached their fairytale endings, but they’re not lucky enough to stop there. The giantess from Jack and the Beanstalk shows up to avenge her dead husband and proceeds to terrorize the quaint fairytale village and demand that the inhabitants surrender Jack to her.

In their very first act of metafictional self-awareness, the characters turn on their narrator and give him to the giantess in Jack’s place. She catches on and continues to demand Jack, but not without killing the narrator anyway. Without someone to guide their story, the characters guess and blunder their way along in a manner wonderfully and uncomfortably reminiscent of real life.

Instead of constant jokes about the abundance of princes and the bizarre logic of dark magic, Into the Woods comments on its fairytales by pushing them far past their usual conclusion, until half the cast is dead (including the baker’s wife and now mother of his baby), Cinderella’s prince has run off after harder-to-catch peasant women, Rapunzel succumbs to irreparable psychological damage from her years of isolation, and the survivors resolve to struggle on and do their best together in a reprise of the opening musical number, ending with the same words that opened the show, “I wish!”

Forgive the quality. Pics of Broadway are really hard to come by.

Because there is no simple happily-ever-after, just more wishes to chase.

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New Release Spotlight: Dark Hearts by T.R. Stoddard

7/7/2013

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This was originally going to be a Cover Reveal, but since it's going up after the release date, Spotlight seemed the appropriate term.

I just love the look of this NA thriller all around. Glad to be on the blog tour, and looking forward to digging in!

About Dark Hearts:

In the Dark Hearts chat room, a predator lurks amid damaged souls looking for someone to relate with. Fifteen year old Kara is certain she's found Mr. Right and vows to meet him after one month of online chatting. Can you really know someone connected only by an internet connection? Or is love universal?

After losing the love of his life to suicide, a man becomes a twisted vigilante against suicidal young women. A fixed game of chance delivers his justice. Can true love break his cycle of death, or will a twist of fate let his crimes catch up with him?

Click here to order your copy.

Early Reviews:

“This is a must read ! The plot keeps you guessing, the characters make you care, and the message hits home. I could not put this book down it made me go through an entire range of emotions. Where it may seem dark it really gives you an insight of what can/does go on. I have to give this 5 stars and a round of applause for T.R. Stoddard !! Loved it”
-Keona El

“I had the honor of beta reading this book and it left me with chills. Being a teenager can suck, even more so when you are mentally unstable and obsessed with death. This is a story of one disturbed young man and the gruesome affect that he has had on the lives of young, desperate girls who are only looking for someone to love.

"Dark Hearts takes you on a terrible tour of the internet and a bloody cross country ride. T.R. Stoddard has out done herself. Guaranteed to make you feel a little more uncomfortable the next time you get a message from a stranger.”
- Catherine Stovall

“I was provided with an ARC of this novel in return for an honest review, so here goes:

"Yet another dark, thrilling read from Ms. Stoddard, the story revolves around the predator/prey use of the internet and what might happen when you put your trust in the anonymity of someone you meet in a chat room.

"This is the reason for meeting people in public places. Things can go terribly wrong, and boy, they do in this story.

"And yet, as with all of her stories, Stoddard makes you feel sympathy for the bad guys. Bravo.” -Jason Maurer

About T.R. Stoddard

T.R. Stoddard is the author of her own wild imagination. Psychological thrillers and unique young adult fiction are her forte, but she hopes to one day make a contribution to each major genre. Stoddard has two novels and one short story currently in circulation, and spends her free time creating more. She lives in Orlando, Fl with her boyfriend and their rescue dog Harry PAWter.

You can find her on her blog, and on Facebook.

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In Defense of Love Triangles

Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #1: Towelie, Larry, Poochie, and Roy (South Park, Pinky and The Brain, and The Simpsons)

Book Review: Beta

Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #2: A Midsummer Night's Dream (Mechanicals Subplot)

Book Review: The Samaritan's Pistol

Guest Post by Christine James, Author of Risen

Fear

About Risen:

About Christine James:

Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #3: Scream

Guest Post by Ann Marie Meyers + Amazon Giftcard Giveaway!

My Personal Experience on Chimeroan

About Ann Marie Meyers:

About Up in the Air:

Fi's Five Favorite Works of Metafiction #4: Into the Woods

New Release Spotlight: Dark Hearts by T.R. Stoddard

About Dark Hearts:

Early Reviews:

About T.R. Stoddard

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