Disappointment

I finished Suzanne Collins' Hunger Games Trilogy last night. And yes, I know that makes me pretty much the last person to read the series. I read The Hunger Games and Catching Fire when they were released, but didn't read Mockingjay until this week.

And I was disappointed. Bet you couldn't guess that from the title of this post. It's hard to discuss my frustrations without spoilers, but I'll try just in case there's someone out there who is behind me in their reading.

The whole book was a buildup to a final battle. And when it arrived, it was a huge letdown. I get that Collins was trying to make the point that war is bad and ugly and the consequences are terrible, but in literature there are certain expectations. Frodo destroys the ring in Mount Doom. Harry defeats Voldemort. We read series with an expectation about how it ends. How we get there is up to the author and how it plays out is up to the author. Of course, the books belong to them and they aren't obligated to adhere to readers' preconceived notions about what and how things should transpire. But that doesn't stop me from feeling let down.

Plus, there's a twist at the end that's so obvious I was begging for it not to happen, simply because it was set up, blatantly, throughout the book. The twist was so obvious, it wasn't a twist if that makes any sense.

Looking at what I've written so far, it looks like I don't like Mockingjay. That's not right. I do. I like it a lot, despite the shortcomings I think the end has. I think one of the problems for the series is that the best book is first. The Hunger Games was fantastic. I read it after hearing about all the hype. Too many accolades heaped on a book can ruin it for me because my expectations are raised too high, but in my mind the reviews I'd read didn't do it justice. The book was fantastic. Catching Fire was good too. I liked it better the second time I read it, but to me it wasn't as good as the Hunger Games.

And Mockingjay was my least favorite. Still good. Still enjoyable, but not as good as the first two. Maybe I'll enjoy it more the second time around like I did Catching Fire, but I can't imagine enjoying the end.

Still, a great series that I will read again. And I can't wait to see the movies.

Epic Follower Blogfest / Contest

Shelley Watters at Is It Hot In Here Or Is It This Book? is hosting an Epic Follower Blogfest / Contest. The prize is a full manuscript request from agent Suzie Townsend. On April 1 and 2, pitches are posted for crituque by other participants. On April 3, the polished pitches are entered in the comment section of Shelley's contest post

Without further ado, here's my 140 character pitch.  Please bash away - I've really had to hack away at it to get it this short.

Title: One Last Time
Genre: Contemporary YA
Word Count: 50,000

Certain death awaits disease-ravaged Bailey if she leaves the hospital, but that’s a consequence she accepts if it means she can enjoy one last day with her friends.

That was hard.  Thanks for critiquing!

Show Me the Voice Entry

I'm participating in the Show Me the Voice contest Brenda Drake is hosting. More information is available at http://brenleedrake.blogspot.com/2011/03/its-on-show-me-voice-blogfestcontest.html.

My thanks to everyone who stops by and critiques!

NAME: Dustin
TITLE: ONE LAST TIME
GENRE: Contemporary YA

Three pairs of hands fumble at the cords and tubes connecting me to the machines around my bed. The first one they remove is the tube down my throat, the one helping me breathe. If this one goes badly, the whole plan gets scrapped. The hands pause while I take a shallow, ragged breath. It's not pretty, the first time my lungs work on their own in two weeks, but I'm okay.

"Hurry," I say, but my voice is so raspy the word is impossible to make out.

They understand what I'm trying to say, though. The hands go to work again, disconnecting more of the imprisoning machines. The equipment beeps and complains as it separates from me.

"Hurry," I say again and this time the word comes out stronger.

The last thing they remove is the heart rate monitor. As soon I'm free from it, an ear-pounding blare erupts, announcing it can no longer detect my heartbeat. Outside my room, a matching blast sounds from the nurses' station. Any second now, they'll pour into my room and wreck my plans.

A pair of hands lifts me and tosses me over a shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

"Be gentle," Chelsea, my best friend, admonishes her boyfriend.

I shake my head. Gentle can wait. Right now, I need to escape. I'm tired of the hospital, tired of the doctors and their tests, and tired of being sick. So I'm leaving, even though I know what that means.

Today I'm going to die.

Goodbye Productivity

As much as I love March Madness, it's putting a serious dent in my daily word count. Instead of concentrating on my new WIP, I'm watching games. Having every game available on TV makes it too easy to flip from one to another to follow the action. Plus, during the day, the games are available on the internet so when I have downtime at work, I'm not writing, I'm checking out what's going on in basketball.

Luckily, the games are only on Thursdays and Fridays. I'll have three distraction-free days at the beginning of the week to write. And then my writing will go on another hiatus.

Not to mention, I filled out a couple brackets and most of them are already shot. But, that's what makes the tournament so much fun to watch. If everything went according to plan, the games wouldn't be nearly as interesting.

Happy March Madness

March Madness is now underway. Hooray! It’s my favorite sporting event. I’ve always been a huge basketball fan and I think this tournament is the perfect way for a season to end. I grew up in North Carolina before the state had a professional football team or professional hockey. College basketball ruled the state and we always had multiple teams involved in March Madness.

One of the best aspects is the amount of unpredictability in the tournament, especially the first two rounds. (And, despite what CBS and the NCAA says, I’m not counting the games from tonight and last night as the first round. The first round starts Thursday.) I love watching little-known teams upset powerhouses – as long as they aren’t beating one of the teams I’m rooting for.

While I was thinking about that, I realize many of my favorite books incorporate a lot of the same unpredictability. The Harry Potter books in particular have endings I never saw coming, even after I began looking for clues in the later books after I was so amazed by how the climaxes unfolded in the early books.

I like being caught by surprise when I’m reading, but only if it makes sense. Basketball doesn’t have to worry about that – the team that scores more wins. You can watch the game and see it happen. But books require a logical progression and when authors do that well, the payoff is fantastic.

That’s one of the things I’m working on in my own writing – creating endings that are surprising, but that readers can see why events unfolded the way they do when they think back on the story. Basically, I want to write the books I’d enjoy reading, but it’s harder than I expected. The challenge makes it more fun, though. When I struggle with a scene or chapter, I take a step back and examine the book as if I were reading it instead of writing it. Where would I want the book to go if I was reading it? What would I expect? What wouldn’t I expect that would make this a better book?

As I watch basketball the next few weeks, I’ll be hoping for upsets, for the unexpected to happen. Well, as long as my favorites keep winning. I do want a happy ending.

Genre Jumping

In a very small sample size, my recent manuscript is doing well so far with agents. Much better than I expected. The genre for this MS is YA Contemporary. Prior to this, I’d only written some sort of fantasy – YA Fantasy, MG Urban Fantasy, and Paranormal. There was always some element of not-normalness in my writing. But those rarely did well with the agents I submitted them to.

Now though, I’m beginning to question my genre choice. Have I been a YA Contemporary writer masquerading as a fantasy writer? Or, have I developed my writing skills to the point where I am a good enough writer that agents like my work now?

I’d like to think it’s the latter. Writing is certainly easier now than when I started and I’m more conscientious of what to do and what not to do. My first MS was an epic failure and I’ve progressed significantly, not that it was hard to get better than that. My characters no longer change personalities three times in a chapter. There’s a coherent tone from beginning to end. Half a dozen adverbs don’t litter every sentence.

So would I have been doing as well if I’d decided to write Fantasy again instead of venturing into new territory? I hope so. But doubt nags at the back of my mind.

The question is important because I’m trying to figure out what to write next. I’m bouncing around ideas from a couple genres. Would Contemporary YA be a smart choice because I’m playing to my strengths? Or will my next MS be more successful because of my growth as a writer?

I have some time while I tweak my query and take a brief break from writing and editing. Next week, though, I’ll be back at it and starting work on a new WIP. And before then I need to decide what genre I’ll be doing when I open my word processer to type that first sentence.

Has anyone else had a similar circumstance where they switched genres and discovered new success? Any advice?