Living the Fictional Dream

Howdy out there. Just a quick shout out to my friend Meng (also known as my sister’s boyfriend) — the episode of Jeopardy! that he taped this summer is airing today. Much excitement around our house today!

I tell you, I always wondered if I had the skills to be on a game show like that. I’ve always been somewhat of a game show junkie — at least when I’m home in the middle of the day. But, after helping Meng practice for his appearance (OK, well, my “help” basically consisted of letting him DVR episodes at my house and watching them with him), I figured out that I don’t have the trivia chops for it. At least not for Jeopardy! If they still made Win Ben Stein’s Money, I might have a chance there! But, yeah, my obscure trivia factoids are nowhere in his league.

Because of this Jeopardy! madness, I did have the chance to read Ken Jennings’ book, Brainiac. I really enjoyed it. If you like trivia and you like memoir, you’ll enjoy it, too.

So, yes, this post was mostly a break from or regularly scheduled content, but I thought the event was worth the topic shift. And I kinda saved it by talking about a book, right? **grins**

All Things Girl’s fall issue is out, and I loved this article about being a “book aunt” by our own Miss Meliss.

I never thought about it in quite these terms, but when I read the article, I realized that I totally am a book aunt, too. When my best friend had her daughter, I got into the habit of always buying her a book at the holidays (her birthday and Christmas are so close together, so, from me, she always gets one book and one toy). I carried on the tradition with my other friends’ twins (well, they’ve only had the one Christmas and birthday so far, but I intend to continue).

Currently, due to the young ages of the kids, we’re still into board books, but I find myself really looking forward to the days when I can buy them some of my favorites… especially the girls, as that is the type of children’s literature I was into as a kid. I would love it if I were able to give them their first copies of Little Women, A Little Princess, and all those other great books I talked about in my recent childhood reading post.

Reading can be a very subjective thing, but it can be something that’s really awesome to share, as well. My mom brought me up on reading. I never had a book aunt in the way Melissa talks about in her article, but I didn’t miss it because my mom always made reading as something special between the two of us. She read with my sister, too, but we each always got our own story every night — private time, just me and Mom. Those are memories I cherish.

Did you know that Bambi was a novel with some rather existentialist leanings before it became a cute Disney flick? Mom and I read it together. She read me Tarzan books, too. I also remember Tom Swift, Andre Norton’s Witchworld, classics like Charlotte’s Web, and more. I even remember reading Star Wars books about Han Solo and a great short story called “The Love Letter” (not that movie with Sandra Bullock, but a cool story about a man who bought an antique desk and exchanged love letters through time with a woman a century before).

There was the A Tree Growns in Brooklyn period (recommended to my mom by one of her friends) — that one was a bit of a mistake, as neither of us enjoyed it, but no matter what the book was, I loved the time we spent reading together. I was probably the oldest kid I knew still getting a “bedtime story,” but it was a tradition I wasn’t willing to let go of for a long time.

All this time spent reading was time that helped mold me into the book lover and voracious reader today. I also credit her with making me into a sci-fi/fantasy fan (how many other kids’ moms read them Andre Norton?), and I wouldn’t have it any other way. (The Y/A literature obsession, though, is totally my own thing!)

So, anyway, I’m going to take a minute now to say thank you to my mom for instilling in me such a love of reading and for spending all those nights putting up with my pleas for “just one more chapter.” Those are some of my favorite childhood memories, and I hope you know how much it meant to me.

I hope that a love of reading is something I can instill in the kids in my life, whether they be one of my honorary nieces or nephews or a blood relation. I’m proud to be a book aunt!

I think that the reading you do when you’re young has a bigger affect on you that any other reading you do in your life. I’m sure there are exceptions to that, but reading you do when you’re a child is really powerful. It shapes you as a future reader, and possibly as a writer, too. I know it did for me.

When I was a child, my favorite books were the old fashioned ones where kids met obstacles with cheerfulness and perserverence, and were rewarded in the end. I also loved books where family was important, and if a character was a story-teller, it was a plus.

Some of my absolute favorites from childhood were Little Women, A Little Princess, Anne of Green Gables, and The Five Little Peppers series. I read them over and over again. I adored the imaginations all these kids had. Anne Shirley, of course, had more imagination than anyone I’ve ever known, and always pulled it off with such drama and style. Jo March’s scribblings and the antics that the March girls got up to fascinated me. I wanted to write, I wanted to have my own Pickwick club, and I wanted to perform plays in my bedroom. I also wanted to be part of the incorrigible Pepper clan, who made figuring out a way to have Christmas with no money an exciting adventure. I wanted to adopt a lonely boy (like Laurie and Jappy) into my family (why were all the lonely boys filthy rich?). And I wanted to be able to tell stories like Sarah Crewe.

As an adult, I can see the didactic moments in these stories, and some of the morals of the day seem absurd now (the author of the Peppers was obsessed with the idea that it was bad for children to get upset and cry — woe behold the Pepper child who had a temper tantrum!), but as a kid, these were my imaginary friends, family, and siblings.

In the modern world, you never get to float down a river pretending to be a heroine from ancient literature, you never write on slates, and you seldom ramble through the woods. Texas isn’t much for snow, so I never went sledding or ice skating on a pond. It was a whole different world — a world where everyone always got their just desserts and virtures like patience and kindness were always rewarded.

Pie in the sky ideals, yes, but even today I think those are ideals to shoot for. If we all treated each other with that kind of respect and love, the world would be a different place. However, at this point, I don’t think I’m ever going to be adopted by a millionaire, so I’ve had to give up that dream!

When I got a little older, I discovered The Song of the Lioness quartet written by Tamora Pierce. This series probably affected my writing more than any other books I’ve ever read. The heroine, Alanna (a girl in disguise trying to earn her place as a knight), was fiesty and brave, but flawed. The supporting cast was well-drawn and fascinating. The world had its own quirks and laws, but had familiar aspects, too. If I ever succeed as a young adult author, I would love to see my books next to hers at the bookstore (though, I suppose I’d have to write under a pseudonym, wouldn’t I?).

So, what about you guys? What books did you read when you were young that really meant something to you? Did they affect your outlook on life? If you’re a writer, did they affect that aspect of your life at all?

“Be my girlfriend for five minutes?”

That’s the catalyst to Nick and Norah’s whirlwind night in the Y/A novel Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Nick is recovering from a brutal breakup and doesn’t want his ex to know how much he’s hurting, and Norah wants to avoid the same girl for reasons of her own. She responds to his question with a kiss, and the night begins.

I don’t want to give away too much of the plot, because it’s a fairly short book. In some ways, not much happens, but in other ways, they live a lifetime in one night. Nick and Norah have to figure out what they want, how to get over their exes, and how to let someone new into their lives.

My favorite thing about this book is the structure and points of view. The book is co-written by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan. They tell Nick and Norah’s story in alternating chapters. Because each character is written by a different author, the characters each have a truly unique voice. It really allows you to get into their heads and get to know them as characters.

Some of the most heard writing advice is to show, not tell, but in NaNIP, this rule is broken, and it’s done with abandon. Sure, there are a lot of scenes and plenty of things are shown, but there are also long passages where scenes are summarized in narration. We move through them quickly as events are filtered through Nick and Norah’s perspectives.

Normally, this telling style would drive me up the wall, but in this book, it works. The narration is so personal and dense, it’s almost like being in their heads and seeing how they see the world. The reader feels and experiences along with the characters. Cohn and Leviathan pull off what could be a really intrusive style, and make it work until I couldn’t imagine the story told in any other way.

As you can probably tell by the title, music also plays a big role in this story. It’s practically a character in and of itself, which is really interesting. Nick is part of a band and writes his own songs, and Norah’s dad is an executive at a record company, so they both live and breathe music. I don’t want to give too much away, but one of my favorite moments is Nick’s epiphany about life in relation to life being a song. I won’t tell you what that epiphany is, but you’ll know it when you get to it in the story.

Cohn and Levithan have come out with another book, as well. It’s written in the same universe as NaNIP, but none of the characters overlap. Only one setting overlaps, basically, but you feel like you’re in the same world again.

The new book is called Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List. I’ll admit, the title threw me off a bit at first, but I decided to give it a try because I’d enjoyed NaNIP so much.

The plot of NaEDKL, in a nutshell, is that Naomi and Ely have been best friends forever. They planned their wedding when they were in grade school, before Ely realized he was gay. In order to maintain their friendship after an incident in which they both had a crush on the same guy, they instituted their “No Kiss List” — a list of people who are off limits romantically for both of them. But a rule is broken, and suddenly Naomi and Ely’s friendship is blown completely apart, so they have to figure out what it is they really want.

This story is told in the same complex style as NaNIP, but the cast of characters is much wider. Naomi and Ely’s POVs are the most important, but we get many more — some for multiple chapters, and some for just one. I love multi-POV stories, because it is so fascinating to see the same scene from many different viewpoints. There is a scene during an intense game of bingo that we get from both Naomi’s POV and that of a girl named Kelly, and they each remember the events in a totally different fashion. It’s great.

My favorite chapters in the book are the ones written from the POV of the latest entry on the No Kiss List, the doorman of Naomi and Ely’s building, who is completely mad for Naomi. In one chapter, he makes her a mix tape, and each song on it has a specific meaning for him about either him or her and about the relationship they could have. The character won my heart forever when one of the songs on the playlist was “Walk Through the Fire” from “Once More With Feeling,” the musical episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

One of the other things I liked in this book was the Bruce club — a group of insomniacs that meet in the lobby at night and (many of whom) are named Bruce.

Oh, and one minor spoiler (nothing too big). In Naomi’s chapters, her narration is punctuated by little symbols throughout. I couldn’t figure out what in the world that was for. It drove me crazy throughout the book. Then, at the end, they finally tell us. It’s not a big shocker or really relevant to the book, so I’m just going to explain it here. Then, if you read it, you won’t be wondering what they are for. Apparently, when Naomi and Ely were young, they learned sign language so they could have a secret language all their own. Naomi got pretty good at it and the symbols were her signing. Once I knew that, it all made sense! I found it particularly interesting since I have a good friend who teaching is a deaf school that focuses on ASL (American sign language).

So, to somewhat wrap up this very long post and review of two books, I will say that I enjoyed both very much, and they were definitely both worth the read. Both books deal with some mature subject matter, so they would be better for older teens; however, they are both done well. They’re also not very long, so they are a fast read. All in all, I would definitely recommend both!

Happy reading!

I was surfing around the blog-o-sphere on this lazy Saturday, and I found some interesting links about Y/A fiction.

First, here is Y/A author Ally Carter (Gallagher Girls series) talking about the wrong questions aspiring Y/A authors ask. Then here she talks about the questions aspiring Y/A authors don’t think to ask, but should.

Then Agent Kristen talks about best-seller lists, using the Gallagher Girls as an example.

Happy reading, and I hope everyone has a relaxing Saturday.

My week has been balanced out writing-wise. I got two rejections (one from the market that had passed my story to round 2 **sighs**), but then yesterday I had a story accepted by Every Day Fiction. This will be my second with them, so I’m excited! I’ll post the link here when it comes out — I don’t know the date yet.

So, to continue on my topic from yesterday, plots or types of stories that I don’t like, I thought I would put together a few thoughts about plots that I do like. Everyone probably has these… those story premises that suck you in every time. Sometimes, I think of these as guilty pleasure stories, because I usually enjoy them even if the writing isn’t top notch.

One of these for me is the story where two people pretend to be a couple for some at least slightly nefarious purpose and then actually fall in love during the con. One example of that is the movie Drive Me Crazy, and it’s a teen movie, too, so it has that Y/A factor that I love. But this concept has been done all over the place — in books, TV shows, etc. — and I always love it! The thing is, though it’s a simple concept, there are millions of ways it can be done. Just because, boiled down, the premise is the same, each story is totally different.

Vampire and werewolf fiction is another one for me. I love the urban fantasy/supernatural feel to these creatures. I love that they are human and “other” at the same time. I like them with the traditional tropes (silver bullets, wooden stakes, no reflection), and I love it when writers give them their own twist (like the werewolves in Kelley Armstrong’s Otherworld and the vampires in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight). I used to devour these any time I found them because they were rare. With the current urban fantasy explosion, there are a lot more to pick and choose from, which is great, because I can always find something new to read.

I also love it when two characters who seem to be diametrically opposed (by a point of view, by temperment, by class, by family, whatever) form a really strong relationship. Romantic relationships of this sort abound — think Veronica/Logan on Veronica Mars, the main couple in Pretty in Pink, or even Romeo and Juliet (though, I prefer the ones that end more happily!). But the relationship doesn’t always have to be a romance. A friendship that opposes these lines can be just as fascinating. In this story, it’s all about the depth of the relationship, the connections forged, the sacrifices made, and the ways the characters’ eyes are opened.

I’m also a sucker for a story about a scoundrel/rebel. A character who lives his/her life in shades of gray is inherently more interesting than a black-and-white hero. Give me the Han Solos (Star Wars), the Mals (Firefly), the Deans (Supernatural), the Sawyers (Lost), the Faiths (Buffy the Vampire Slayer), the Jos (Little Women), and the Dr. Horribles (Dr. Horrible, of course) any day! I like to see the struggle between right and wrong, and when they choose the right thing over the selfish thing, the reward is so much sweeter. These characters might think they have it easy, but in reality they struggle more than any of the more black-and-white versions.

If I thought for a while, I’m sure I’d come up with more tropes/stories/plots that I have a weakness for, but that’s probably a long enough list for now. What about y’all? What concepts have you buying the book/turning on the TV without knowing anything else about the end product?

The Summoning is a new young adult novel by one of my favorite adult urban fantasy authors, Kelley Armstrong. There are mild spoilers in this review, so if you’d rather stay pure you might wait until later to read this, but I’m not going too deep. The spoilers are more about the premise and set-up, not about the ending.

The Summoning takes place in Armstrong’s Otherworld universe, which includes witches, warlocks, werewolves, vampires, shamans, half-demons, and necromancer. In fact, I reviewed the most recent paperback in her adult Otherworld series, No Humans Allowed, earlier this summer. The Summoning, however, takes a different approach, asking what would happen if someone had one of these powers and had never heard of the supernatural world.

Chloe sees a dead janitor walking the halls at school one day, freaks out (who wouldn’t?!), and manages to get herself sent to a groups home for emotionally troubled teens, earning herself a diagnosis of schizophrenia. But, while she’s at this home, she discovers that she’s not the only one with strange talents, and that’s when things start to get interesting.

Overall, I enjoyed this book very much. The characters are great, especially Chloe and Derek, and the premise is interesting. I also love how Armstrong takes her Otherworld universe and goes somewhere completely new with it. She could have made a Y/A series based on Savannah — a teen character in her adult series — but, instead, she breaks new ground and gives us a whole new mystery to chew on.

I also like the dynamics between the characters. Angst and drama is part and parcel of merely being a teenager. Add to that supernatural problems and the possibility of more going on than meets the eye with the adults in your life, and things get interesting really quickly.

But, I was very disappointed in one element of The Summoning, the ending. I have the same complaint about this novel as I mentioned when talking about Meg Cabot’s Airhead in this post: there’s no ending, the book just stops. And that really drives me nuts!

The worst part was, I totally wasn’t expecting it from Armstrong. The beauty of the adult books in the Otherworld series is that they are complete. There are overarching character struggles that carry over, but each novel has its own mystery that is solved by the end. You have closure. But The Summoning does not.

According to Armstrong’s website, Chloe’s story will be a trilogy. I’m glad to know that, because now I know that I will get the closure eventually; however, if I’d known this up front, I would have waited to read the novels until all three had been released. I hate going into a book thinking one thing, and then, surprise, having to wait until a later book release (months or years away) for any closure. There should be warning labels right up front! I’m even OK with elements that carry over, but I just want some closure on some of the levels, and The Summoning does not deliver on that regard. We end with Chloe… well, I guess I won’t give that away, but suffice to say that all is not well for her at the end of the novel.

However, if that’s not the kind of thing that bothers you, then I would definitely recommend this book, both for Y/A readers and for people who’ve enjoyed Armstrong’s other books. It’s really well written and an enjoyable read. But if you have issues with lack of closure, you should wait to dive in until the trilogy is complete.

I finished Breaking Dawn, the fourth book in the Twilight series last Monday night, but it’s taken me a while to articulate my thoughts on the subject. Then, today, I was flabbergasted to realize how much controversy there’s been over it in fandom. I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised. It’s the last book in a series… a series that’s very important to a lot of people. It would be hard for any one book to meet everyone’s expectations.

So… what do I say about this book. Well, first of all, I’ll start by saying that this entry will include spoilers, so read on at your own risk.

Spoilers. Got it?

Sure you want to continue.

OK then, but don’t say I didn’t warn you!

Now that we’re actually talking about the book, I’m going to come right out with it. I enjoyed it. Perhaps I’m in the minority, but like it, I did. Stephanie Meyer has this way about her writing and her characters. Her books suck me in and refuse to let me go. She is a master at creating the vivid, continuous fictional dream, and that is the mark of a good writer in my mind.

That said, the previous books in the series I read in about 24 hours. This one took me much longer. Though, that had something to do with the fact that I had to help my sister move, so I was separated from the book for most of the Saturday following the book release party.

After having a little time to reflect on it, I will say that this is not my favorite of Meyer’s work. It is possibly the weakest book in the Twilight series. It’s definitely not as good as The Host, my favorite of Meyer’s books to date. But, I think that Meyer did some things right, too.

So, I’ll start off with the things I liked:

• The wedding — Bella and Edward’s wedding was the culmination of several books’ worth of expectations. Very sweet.
• Jacob’s pack — I loved the Jacob/Seth/Leah pack. Very cool. Jacob learning how to ascend into his own. I hope we get a book all about the La Push werewolves. That would be awesome. Leah would be a really interesting main character, I think!
• Bella’s transformation into a vampire — I had some problems with this, too, but, as a whole, I liked that she was good at the whole vampire thing. It made sense to me. She was so clumsy as a human, and she struggled for so long and was never able to find her place. Maybe this was what she had been born for all along. A dramatic illustration of coming of age.

  All along in this series, people have criticized Meyer for being so hard on Bella, and Meyer said that it wasn’t that she was anti-woman, she was anti-human, meaning that of course a human would be weak and pitiful next to the incredibly powerful vampires that inhabit her world. In some ways, this proved her point. Bella ascended into that pantheon, and now she is as amazing and wonderful as all the rest of them. It fit to me that she was good at immortality. Bella came into her own.

  I also liked the writing from the Bella-vamp’s POV. We’ve watched the vamps through Bella’s human eyes for so long. Getting their POV was very cool, and Meyer explained the way the world is to them very well.

• Renesme — Like with the previous subject, there were things I didn’t like about this, but it was definitely an unexpected plot twist. Once they were on their honeymoon and Bella started having those dreams, I figured out what was going on, but it definitely wasn’t something I ever saw coming before that. Though, perhaps I should have figured it out from that immortal child thing discussed early on…

  I read some comments where people thought Bella’s devotion to her unborn child was uncharacteristic, given her fear of marriage and commitment and stuff she said in previous books about not liking kids. I’ve also read people who thought it was Meyer putting a didactic pro-life message into her books. Honestly, I don’t think either of those are true. Well, maybe the latter, but it didn’t feel that way to me. I totally believe that you might think you don’t want kids, but then get pregnant and change your mind. Motherhood is a powerful thing. No one knows what they are going to do or feel about it until it actually happens to them.

  I actually liked the character of Nessie fairly well. There was a bit of the saccharine to her, but the sweetness wasn’t all bad. And I really liked the whole nonverbal communication thing. There was stuff I didn’t like, too, but I think when the character grows up, she might actually be interesting.

• The expansion of the world — I loved meeting all the different vampires in this ‘verse. I wish we’d gotten more time with them. Despite the length of the book, the sheer number of characters brought in during the last segment limited how much we could know about each of them. We couldn’t get very much depth. But I thought the additional knowledge about the rest of the vampire world was quite interesting. There were more characters I would like to know more about in future stories.
• The happy ending — OK, there are problems with this, as well, but considering this was the last new Bella/Edward story (Midnight Sun doesn’t count since it’s an old story from a different POV) I was glad that it ended happily ever after for them. This is not great literature — it’s fun, escapist fiction. I deserved a happily ever after for Bella and Edward, damn it!

Now for some things I didn’t like:

• The happy ending — The problem with the happy ending is that it was too happy for too many characters. We should have had something bad happen in the end, possibly the death of a more minor character (but more major than Irina… I had totally forgotten about her until they talked about her in the book). I wanted Edward and Bella to end up together and happy, but a note of bittersweetness to the story would have made that happiness more poignant.
• Nessie and Jacob — I’m not sure about this imprinting thing. At first, I thought it was a good thing, because it was the lynchpin that allowed so much of the rest of the happiness to fall into place. I read someone being creeped out because of their age difference. That didn’t bother me. Quinn imprinted on a child, too. I guess I don’t see imprinting as a sexual kind of love. Maybe eventually it could turn into that, but I just see it as love. I actually think of it more as the love a dog has for its human (which makes me sad, because poor Jacob!). It’s pure and unconditional, not pervy or weird. I actually think that if Nessie ends up choosing someone else, while Jacob would be hurt, he would probably do whatever he could to make her happy anyway — it’s that kind of love.

  However, because Jacob imprinted on Nessie, it solved things too easily. Suddenly, the whole Cullen/werewolf fued is over — poof. Everything’s great. Between Jacob and Edward, too. There was a realism about the sacrifice and the choices in Eclipse and New Moon. The pain was real, gritty, and hard. This fixed it almost too pat. And while the Jacob fangirl in me was really glad that he doesn’t have to go through that pain any more, I kind of feel cheated about getting to read about him going through that pain. I love Jacob, and I loved the POV bits we’ve had from him. I was really hoping that he would get his own book after this — a book where he (and whoever else was in his pack, perhaps) went on their own adventure, and Jacob would have his own coming of age. Now that’s mostly moot. The rest of his life will be about Nessie, and that’s the end of it. There are still seeds for a future book about Jacob and Nessie, but I think it would have to be told from Nessie’s POV. Jacob’s POV probably will be boring because it will be Nessie time 24-7.

  Also, I just gotta say… Renesme is the stupidest name in the whole world. Yikes! (Though, since I’ve read Anne McCaffery’s Pern series, name smooshing does have other origins for me. It’s not all Bennifer and TomKat. So perhaps I wasn’t quite as horrified as some people were.

• The other characters — There was so much going on in this book that a lot of the regular characters got the short shrift. Pretty much all of the Cullens, most notably. I kinda think we should have had an Alice book, even if it were just a short one, shorter than the Jacob book. I love her and Jasper, and it killed me that they were gone. I have to say, it was almost more interesting, though, that they’d run off to save themselves. Though them showing up to save the day was interesting. I wish we’d had more Rosie time. I actually started to like her in the last book — I would have liked to see more of her in this book than the snarling beast who only cares about the baby and not Bella.
• The climax — There was so much build up, and then… nothing. That was a let down. Pages and pages of build up for absolutely nothing. No fight at all. There should have been a fight. Even if they won in the end, there should have been a fight. Or, alternatively, we shouldn’t have had that much build up for it. With less build up, there would have been a lot lower expectations for the encounter.
• Super Bella — The super shield thing and the extreme ease with the blood lust was a bit much. It bordered on Mary Sue, or how I felt about Anita Blake after she became the most uber-powerful person in that ‘verse. I stand by my opinion on liking the idea that she’d been made for immortality. However, if that was going to happen, then she shouldn’t have had the uber-powerful shield, too. It was just ridiculous at the battle. She’d worked so hard with no results and then, poof, she could shield not only herself but every other person on their team?! That was just dumb. Too much perfection is just wish fulfillment, not a story.

Overall, though, I enjoyed the series. It was enjoyable to read. It swept me up and wouldn’t let me down. Meyer is a talented writer, and I would read more of her stories.

I word of warning though (for anyone who’s actually read this far). If you have younger kids, I would recommend reading the series, and especially Breaking Dawn before you let them read it. This book veered more into adult territory than any of the others. I’m not going to say don’t let them read it. I would just say, you read it, too, so you can talk about it with them.

It is 12:26 a.m., and I’m home from the midnight madness party for the Breaking Dawn book release. I actually have my as-yet-uncracked copy. Compared to a Harry Potter midnight party, this was fairly tame. My companion and I were numbers 26 and 27 (just one wristband away from being in the top 25!), and we were out of there by approximately 12:07. Pretty amazing!

The fans, though, are very enthusiastic. We enjoyed all the girls who are so excited about this book coming out. Excited enough that they dressed in costume and homemade T-shirts with novel quotes on them. The winners of the costume contest got their books for free, and their costumes were excellent. One dressed up as Forks (the rainy town where Bella and Edward live), one dressed as La Push (the reservation where Jacob lives), and the third dressed up as Bella’s 1960s, red Chevy truck, with a tailgate and everything. They totally deserved to win free books for that effort! But all the red and black evening gowns/prom dresses were great, too.

And, lest you all think that Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series is only for girls, let me say that I did see one boy at the event. OK, I saw a few more boys than that, but most were there unwillingly because of their sisters. But there was one boy, somewhere between 12 and 14, there to buy a copy of the book for himself. And he had “Bella” written on his cheek (a counterpoint to all the girls who had “Edward” written on their cheeks… though, sadly, I saw no one with “Jacob” emblazoned anywhere…).

Well, now it is 12:32, and I must decide whether to read a bit or go to sleep. I think I’m getting old, because sleep does sound appealing. Then again… maybe just one chapter…

I love it when people get excited about reading stories! For the most part, it really doesn’t matter what novel, short story, etc., that they are excited about. Just the fact that people are so excited about fiction that they have to talk about it and share it with their friends is great. It helps balance out all the depressing stuff you read all the time about the horrible state of publishing today and how TV and video games have totally replaced reading in the lives of most people.

My first “midnight madness” party for a book release was for Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix. I read the first three HP novels in a row. A lot of the kids that I worked with at church were talking about it, and I wanted to see what the big deal was. I loved it, and, luckily, Goblet of Fire came out fairly soon after I was introduced to the series, so I didn’t have to wait that long for it. OotP, however, was a long, long wait.

When the big day finally approached, it seemed that all the local bookstores were trying to out-do each other by putting on the best release party for it. Even better, the release parties took place at midnight, so it felt like you were getting your copy early (a few hours early, but still… I was one of the first to have a copy in my hands!). My local Borders is my store of choice, so I signed up for an advance copy (which, of course, helps them know how many copies to order) and headed over to the party that night with such excitement that I didn’t even notice that my husband (who’d been so dead asleep on the couch when I told him I was leaving that he didn’t even respond) running out of the house and yelling for me to wait. To this day, he still talks about how I love HP more than I love him (of course, since he’d been so dead asleep, I didn’t even think to look for him in my rearview mirror and I had the radio cranked up so I didn’t hear him if he yelled, but that is apparently beside the point!).

The party was fun! People (not me, but some people) went in costume. There were exhibits of animals found in the HP books (owls, snakes, etc.). There was fortune telling, tarot card reading, and free samples of bookmarks, stickers, chapters of other new releases, and more. I had such a good time, that I went again for both Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince and Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows.

The best part of these midnight madness parties, though, is the vibe of excitement in the air. Excitement about a book! Previously, I’d only seen such excitement on opening day movie releases (like when my friends and I sat in long lines to go to the first showing of the re-release of Star Wars: a New Hope when it came out during my college days).

At the midnight parties, I got to talk to other HP fans, theorize about what might happen in the next book, relive favorite parts of the past book, debate relevant HP issues, such as who is the best Quidditch player and whether Hermione was destined to be with Harry or Ron. That was the very best part of the whole thing!

Of course, now that the HP series has come to its grand conclusion, I wondered if that was it for the midnight madness parties at Borders. It made me a little sad, honestly, but what book could fill that void enough to warrent such a shindig? If they had midnight release parties before HP, I never heard about them (though, if they had done that for a book I liked as a kid, I bet my mom would have taken me to the party — too bad we didn’t have Borders and B&N in Waco when I was young!).

The other day, I found out what series has replaced HP in the midnight madness release party queue — Breaking Dawn, the newest book in Stephanie Meyer’s Twilight series. My friend Sandra and I are going to go to the party this Friday night, and I’m looking forward to it quite a bit. I really enjoy Meyer’s novels. Are they as good as HP? I don’t know… I find it hard to think the crowd will be as big as it was for HP, if only because the book series is really more girl-oriented. I don’t know that the series has quite the broad appeal to male readers as HP did.

But, you know, I don’t care. A midnight madness party is people who are excited about reading. They are so excited about a new book, that they will forgo sleep and stand in line for a few hours just to get their hands on a new, hardback book. They defy all those people who think that reading is going out of style. So, I say yay to Borders and yay to Meyer — thanks for bringing us all together.

Let’s get excited about reading. And, you know, even if the book you are excited about reading isn’t big enough for Borders to give it a midnight madness party, that’s OK. Be excited anyway. Blog about it. Talk about it. Tell other people that they need to read it to (and buy their own copy if they like it). Let’s all be excited about reading fiction! C’mon… it’s fun!