Annalise Green

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Sunday Link Love

18 September 2011 - by Annalise Green

If you’ve been alive in the writer’s blogging world, then you’ve probably heard about the huge circus around some literary agents saying it’s not okay to be gay after the apocalypse. Original article here. Except that the agents in question (who chose to out themselves) say that they never said that. I’m confused, and concerned, since my current WIP has gay characters after the sort-of apocalypse. But at least this whole debacle inspired Amanda Rudd to put up a great list of YA gay fiction, which I’m now determined to check out.
EDIT: Lena Corazon gave me some great links in the comments: First up, a great overview on the YA gay debacle, and also a wonderful list of 10 fantasy novels that just so happen to have gay characters. Thanks Lena!

Somewhat relatedly, this sparked an interesting conversation on Michael Offutt’s blog about the YA formula. While I’m not sure I agree on the specifics of the formula, I agree that there’s a formula – but is that necessarily a bad thing? Viewers, you decide!

Tumbling around Tumblr, I found out about this interesting new feature on the Kindle “that will enable readers to highlight a particular passage of an e-book in order to ask its author a question about it”.

Check out this list of 10 badass women from fantasy literature.

If you ever watch a video on my blog, make it this one:

Sorry that the short list for this week was…well, short. Here’s an adorable monkey to make it up to you.

No, not THIS monkey

THIS monkey

Related posts:

Tags: adorable monkeys, Annalise Green, books, buddy christ, dystopian, evil monkeys, monkeys, post-apocalyptic, Sunday Link Love, Writing About Writing, YA, yip yips, young adult, zombies
In: Randomness, Sunday Link Love, Writing About Writing | 6 comments »

6 Comments »

Great link up, Annalise! I thought I’d pass on this great article from Cleolinda over on Livejournal, who provides an excellent overview of the back and forth over the #YesGayYA issue. http://cleolinda.livejournal.com/993710.html

Also, to augment Amanda’s list of LGBT YA lit is an excellent list of the top 10 fantasy novels “that just happen to have gay people in them”: http://www.autostraddle.com/top-ten-fantasy-novels-that-happen-to-have-gay-people-in-them-authors-110616/

[Reply]
Annalise Green Reply:
September 18th, 2011 at 4:15 pm
Oh my God these links are awesome! Thank you. Adding to the round-up now.

[Reply]

Lena Corazon on September 18th, 2011 at 3:57 pm

Yiiiip yip-yip-yip uh-huh-uh-huh… Teee hee hee hee heee! Oh, how I loved those guys.

Ugh, I cannot believe that this whole not-allowing-writers-to-write-gay-character debacle. As the article you linked to pointed out, they’re just perpetuating the idea that it’s not okay to be different. ARGH! That makes me stabby!!!

Also? LOVE the badass women in literature list – I was SO happy to see Hermione on there!!

[Reply]

Crystal on September 18th, 2011 at 4:34 pm

I think every genre has a formula — romance must have two people falling in love and having a happy ending, fantasy must have people triumphing over evil, etc. You can break the formula but that requires a higher degree of skill and execution because those readers expect a particular type of story and if you go against their expectations, you have to work to keep their goodwill, if that makes sense?

I do think there’s always room for creativity within any given genre. There are no new stories. It’s just the execution that varies from one to the next.

I think when there’s a spectacular hit, as in the case for YA, the formula becomes more stringent and tighter than usual because people are so desperate for that next hit. I know YA’s in that place right now. I expect it’ll calm down within a couple years but the market’s so uneven and volatile, plus the down economy.

So, obviously, I don’t necessarily think it’s a bad thing. My favorite stories are the ones that work within the confines of their chosen genres and subvert. That’s my most favorite thing to read — stuff that subvert the cliche genre tropes.

[Reply]

Vernieda on September 18th, 2011 at 10:28 pm

Thanks for including me! I really appreciate it.

[Reply]

Amanda Rudd on September 19th, 2011 at 1:04 am

Omgomgomgomg what am I watching?

Monkeys holding monkeys, muppets gaping at a neon-haloed Jesus, and a link to a post about whitewashing for the formula – I LOVE THIS POST!

Thanks for checking out my interview!

[Reply]

Sophia Chang on September 20th, 2011 at 1:23 am

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