NaNoWriMo Prep: The Third and Final Chapter

Only one day left before NaNoWriMo! That one day happens to be Halloween! Whoo! So for the last time, here are some rather random (but surprisingly relevant) bits’o’knowledge about my characters:

Autumn Kavanaugh

1. Can they navigate their own local area without getting lost? To what degree? Yes. She has lived in Ashby her whole life and can get pretty much anywhere in town (and Horton) without consulting Google Maps. She has a solid intuitive grasp of the cardinal directions, enough that if you told her “the river is on the north side of town” she could find her way there in a reasonable amount of time.
   
2. Do they know who the top politician or monarch is where they live? What about elsewhere? Yes, for her locality. Probably not anywhere else. Damn those ignorant Americans!
3. Do they know if/where there are any major conflicts going on right now? Yes, in a general way. Such things only touch her life in an abstract way, being from an agricultural community in CA. She probably knows some hometown boys who’ve joined the armed forces.
4. Do they know the composition of water? Yes.
5. Do they know how to eat a pomegranate? Yes.
   
6. Are they good with the technology available to them? Average? Completely hopeless? Autumn is competent with technology She could install a program and perform a virus scan, run a cash register, but she won’t be hacking any databases or building a computer out of coconuts. Her aptitude is more for mechanical/construction concerns. 
7. Could they paint a house? Without making a mess of it? Actually, yes!
8. Could they bake a cake? Would you eat it if they did? She can and does during the course of Grove. It is delicious. She also bakes cookies and a pie. 
9. Do they know how to perform basic maintenance on the common mode of transportation? She can change a tire and put fresh water in a radiator. She can change the oil, replace brake pads and spark plugs, replace head/taillights (and their fuses), and install new wiper blades. If she were stronger she could also replace shocks alone, but as it is she needs her dad’s help on that one.
   
10. Do they know the price of a loaf of bread? Yes. She also knows how to bake one.

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Emily Kavanaugh

1. Can they navigate their own local area without getting lost? To what degree? She is familiar with places in town, having grown up there. Beyond that she has very few navigation skills…but she knows how to use Google Maps!
   
2. Do they know who the top politician or monarch is where they live? What about elsewhere? Yes for the U.S. and Spain (she studies Spanish in high school), no for elsewhere. 
3. Do they know if/where there are any major conflicts going on right now? In the same vague way as Autumn. 
4. Do they know the composition of water? Yes.
5. Do they know how to eat a pomegranate? Yes, and it plagues her. Pomegranates are her favorite fruit, but it’s so hard to eat them without making a mess. 
   
6. Are they good with the technology available to them? Average? Completely hopeless? Emily is average with technology. She knows how to use the things she likes, and when something goes wrong she gets Autumn or her dad to fix it. 
7. Could they paint a house? Without making a mess of it? Yes, due to her meticulous nature, but she would never undertake such an arduous task. 
8. Could they bake a cake? Would you eat it if they did? Given a very clear set of instructions, yes, and it would most likely be good…but she wouldn’t do that much work without a very good reason. 
9. Do they know how to perform basic maintenance on the common mode of transportation? No. She can gas up her car and tell her dad when the check engine light is on, he takes care of the maintenance. 
   
10. Do they know the price of a loaf of bread? No. 

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Silas 

1. Can they navigate their own local area without getting lost? To what degree? He knows how to get anywhere on foot. He has an instinctive feeling for direction. He is less certain in his car. 
   
2. Do they know who the top politician or monarch is where they live? What about elsewhere? For the U.S. and countries with whom it is in conflict. 
3. Do they know if/where there are any major conflicts going on right now? Yes. He has an interest in government.
4. Do they know the composition of water? Not the chemical composition. 
5. Do they know how to eat a pomegranate? Without a doubt, and he devours them with pleasure. 
   
6. Are they good with the technology available to them? Average? Completely hopeless? He is impatient with technology, and not particularly good at using it. He can operate a cell phone well enough to call people, and can post to Facebook.
7. Could they paint a house? Without making a mess of it? No. He would do a good job for a quarter of the house, if properly motivated, an acceptable job for half, and then abandon the project for something more interesting. 
8. Could they bake a cake? Would you eat it if they did? Doubtful on both counts. 
9. Do they know how to perform basic maintenance on the common mode of transportation? Not really. Duan handles the maintenance on the Volkswagen. 
   
10. Do they know the price of a loaf of bread? No. 

Top Ten Tuesdays: Badass Babes in Literature

Same bat time, same bat place, same meme courtesy of The Broke and The Bookish. Hit it, ladies!

1. Katniss Everdeen, The Hunger Games
Because duh. Whatever her failings as a well-rounded individual, the girl’s a survivor with tremendous focus and skill. I’d pick her first for my dodgeball team.

2. Kino Makoto/Lita Kino/Sailor Jupiter, Sailor Moon

Manga may be pushing the limits of what is considered “literature”, but hey. Graphic novel. There is a reason every one of my avatars between the ages of eleven and thirteen featured this badass babe. She was funny, a great cook, a loyal friend, and she could call upon the powers of thunder and oak trees to kick monster ass.

3. Moreta, Moreta: Dragonlady of Pern

Most of Pern’s Weyrwomen were pretty badass, but Moreta outshone them all. She was a crazy-good dancer and racing enthusiast who flew her dragon through time and all over the world to save the planet of Pern from a flu epidemic. Top that.

4.  The witches of Hogwarts, Harry Potter

Despite the fact that that sounds like some sort of smutty calendar hanging by Crabbe and/or Goyle’s bed, there were some seriously tough broads at Hogwarts (and numbered among the alumni). Off the top of my head: Hermione Granger, Ginny Weasley, Luna Lovegood, Minerva McGonagall, Molly Weasley, Nymphadora Tonks, and Bellatrix Lestrange (crazy as a loon but undeniably tough).

5. Deryn “Dylan” Sharp, The Leviathan Trilogy

Deryn spends World War I disguised as a dude in order to pursue her most cherished dream: flying as an airman with the Royal Air Force. She not only keeps up with the boys, she blows most of them away with her superior aeronautic knowledge and tendency to engage in derring-do. She makes for such a dashing fella that she catches the eye of another of the novel’s badass babes.

6. Tris, The Divergent Trilogy

Halfway through reading Divergent, I knew that I would never be Dauntless. Tris, on the other hand, takes to the faction and its demands like a fish to water: jumping from trains, ziplining from skyscrapers, climbing carnival rides, getting the stuffing beaten out of her on a daily basis without a word of complaint. Truly Dauntless, and tough as nails.

7. Hazel Grace, The Fault in Our Stars

There are different kinds of toughness, and many ways to be a badass. Hazel’s miraculous survival is part of what makes her so tough, but the greater part is her fierce insistence on mitigating the damage done by the eventual end of her life, no matter what moments of happiness it may cost her. That is flinty determination. That is toughness.

8. Lisa, The Girl Who Owned a City

Well there is the fact that she owned a city. It might be more accurate to say she built it, and eventually has an efficiently run fortress filled with hundreds of kids. That is not an easy thing, folks, less easy still for a twelve-year-old. Lisa gathers a loyal following of kids due to her ability to solve social and survival problems with logical thought, her willingness to lead by example, and her bravery. This is not a cutesy story or an easy road for Our Heroine, she is shot and has back-room surgery performed on her by a fellow twelve-year-old before novel’s end!

9. Lola, House of Stairs
To explain why she was so tough would be to spoil the whole novel, so you will just have to take my word for it.

10. Dolores Claiborne, Dolores Claiborne

She did what needed to be done, and never expected a pat on the back or vindication. Sometimes being a bitch is all a woman’s got to hold on to.

Top Ten Tuesdays: Trending Topics

This week The Broke and the Bookish have us hopping in the wayback machine to pick a Top Ten Tuesday topic that we missed, or just want a second crack at. I’ve settled on

Top Ten Literary Trends You Want to See More/Less Of:

I’d like to see more

1. Re-imagined/updated/urbanized fairy tales and myths. I just love them, and I always have. I believe those stories have endured because they strike at certain universal hopes, fears, or experiences. I’d particularly like to see more from outside European cultures. Africa, Asia, and the Native American tribes have extensive mythologies unfamiliar to most Western audiences. I just read a fantastic YA dystopian/post-apocalyptic rooted in Pacific Northwest Native American myth and spirituality, Shadows Cast by Stars, and I would love to read more novels like it. 

2. Capable, imperfect heroines. Girls and women to root for and empathize with, like broken-souled survivor Katniss Everdeen or the prickly but determined Puck Connolly. 

3. Dystopian fiction. I have loved it since the fourth grade, when I read about the homogenous society the Murrys encounter in A Wrinkle In Time.

4. Survivalism. This crops up a lot in dystopians and post-apocalyptic novels, and between The Hunger Games and the zombie craze it has been a good few years for folks who like to think “how would I do if the world ended tomorrow?”. I am one of those folks, I have whiled away many an hour formulating survival strategies for various scenarios.

5. Awesome covers. Even though they sometimes tip me over into reading something I would not normally choose, I really appreciate the beautiful range in graphic design I’ve seen on YA covers the past few years. Even though The Selection completely sucked as a novel, I still enjoy gazing upon that pretty cover.

and fewer

1. Blandly perfect “bad boy” love interests. I’d rather have a deeply flawed, weird-looking, socially awkward love interest than Ned Nickerson dressed as James Dean. More Cricket Bell, less Edward Cullen!

2. Rapes used as shock tactic. It seems like in a lot of adult genre fiction, rape is resorted to when the author doesn’t really know where to take the story or how to add depth to a female character. A woman can be challenged, emotionally broken even, without the violation of her person. This kind of writing immediately turns me off of a story or novel (sometimes for good, as in the case of The Windup Girl). Rape happens, and I have read several very good novels that incorporate it into their plot (Speak and The Lovely Bones come to mind), but it should not be deployed as though the writer spun a big wheel o’ plot devices and they landed on the wedge between murder and drug abuse.

3. “Classic Novel and Supernatural Creature” rewrites. A really obvious and odious cash grab. I still can’t believe that a film version of Pride and Prejudice and Zombies was optioned. Write your own darn book.

4. Sequels “inspired by” Pride and Prejudice. We GET IT. You wish you could swan around the English countryside in long dresses attending balls and tossing off sassy quips like Lizzie Bennett. You have the mad hots for Fitzwilliam Darcy and his frock coats. That is no excuse to co-opt a dead author’s very concise work in order to churn out installment after installment of soapy fan-fiction. The original struck a chord because Austen was actually a part of that society, she wrote what she knew.

5. Abuse of The Hunger Games. Not every dystopian is like that series, and it ranges from irritating to downright insulting when every publisher touts their latest release as something “for fans of The Hunger Games”. If that’s the only selling point the marketing team can muster for a novel, perhaps you should have published something else.