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[lls_mutant]

bsg_remix has started posting!!! whoohoo!!! (All of you with extensions- get your fics in soon!)

I finally finished my own remix. I'm happy with most of it. :) I'm pretty sure it will be obvious it's me, but hey. I can't wait to see what my remixer did, though. ::squee!:: It drives me crazy to have mine on my hard drive and not be able to post it, though! :)

Need to get moving on my lgbtfest fic, and my multifandom remix fic, and I'd better keep an eye out for other fics that need a pinch hitter. Crazy crazy crazy!

I also should review Moon for MRFH. We watched it last night, and yeah, it was really good. I'm liking this little trend of awesome low-budget sci-fi movies. More please!

Writing questions!

13. What's your favorite culture to write, fictional or not?

Hmmm. It's a toss-up here. I'm still worldbuilding for Adamaey Rising, but I'm really looking forward to writing that one. I love writing Colonial culture, and I've really been having fun writing Sagittaron stuff. And I really enjoyed writing Pern. Harry Potter was a little harder for me at times, because J.K. Rowling just had such creativity coming up with magical items, and there was a certain humor to the way she didn't that I couldn't always capture. (Her culture building was amazing. But I guess the winner is Colonial New Caprica. I LOVE writing New Caprica, and yes, that is a culture of its' own.

14. How do you map out locations, if needed? Do you have any to show us? I

I don't, and I should. This is part of why my scene setting/action scenes need serious work.

15. Midway question! Tell us about a writer you admire, whether professional or not!

There are lots of writers I admire- professional and fanfic. (And it's bullshit that fanfic writers are automatically crappy writers, because some of you guys write better than some of the published books I've read- The Luxe, I'm looking at you as an example of something published that's pretty bad.)

Anyway, the author I am choosing to highlight today is Meg Cabot, author of the wonderful Princess Diaries books. The Princess Diaries (which bear very little resemblance to the movie of the same name) are YA fiction books where Mia, a normal girl attending a private school in New York City, finds out that she's a princess. It's a series of ten books, taking Mia from her freshman year all the way to her high school graduation. It's chick lit, and it's YA, but it is some of the most satisfying stuff I've ever read, and if I had a daughter, I'd be desperately wanting her to read these books. (I'd actually love for my boys to read them, too, because they're an excellent insight to the workings of a teenaged girl's mind, but we'll see about that.)

Anyway, Ten reasons why I love The Princess Diaries:

1.) Mia. Mia Thermopolis is an awesome main character. She's a very principled young woman, with strong convictions. Some of her convictions change over time (she waivers over eating meat, for example), but there are some that never change, such as friends, family, and human rights. She's politically active, a sci-fi geek at times, she speaks her mind, and she writes BSG fic (Kara/Lee). She's intelligent, pretty attractive, and fairly well-liked, but she definitely makes mistakes and has her flaws. She's an awesome heroine.

2.) Strong female-female friendships. Mia has several friends- Lilly Moscovitz, Tina Hakim-Baba, Shameeka Taylor, Ling-Su Wong, and Perin Thomas, and eventually a few more (also, note the variation in the names?)- that she treasures deeply. Lilly and Tina, particularly, are the two biggies, and their friendships with Mia are completely different but equally strong. Also, all of these girls are bright in their own ways- Ling-Su is an artist, Lilly is a genius, Tina is academically brilliant but quite fluffy, Shameeka is athletic, and unfortunately we don't get much of Perin, but yeah.

3.) Strong female-male friendships. Mia's got some guy friends too, particularly Boris, who is a brother type, that are fantastic and she has some guys that eventually become more than friends, or become less more than friends.

4.) Humor. Meg Cabot writes with a great sense of humor, and Mia is funny. As are many of the other characters, especially Lars (Mia's bodyguard, who seems to make the best of his assignment to guard a teenaged girl) and Grandmere. BTW- Grandmere is NOTHING like Julie Andrews. Thing more Yzma from The Emperor's New Groove, crossed with Kronk. Also? The way Meg Cabot addresses the movies is hysterical.

5.) The characters aren't static. Mia herself really develops and grows up throughout the ten books, but she's not the only one. Her relationships change, her friends change, and even her parents change.

6.) How Meg Cabot addresses sex. Let's face it- teens have sex in high school. But how to deal with that when teens are reading? I mean, you don't necessarily want to promote super young sex, but at the same time, you want to be realistic. I really like how well she walked the line, and in the end, when Mia did have sex, it was handled just right. (Also, kudos to Meg for having a lesbian couple.)

7.) The feminist viewpoint. The Princess Diaries is a fantastic book for female empowerment. The adult female characters all hold jobs and are strong women: Mia's mother is an artist and a political activist, her best friend Lilly's mother is a renowned psychologist, Tina's mother is a former model, Lana's mother is president of an organization of high-profile business women who do charitable works, and even the principal is a woman. But they're also very independent in their relationships. Helen raises Mia as a single mother, but when she does decide to get married (to the father of her second child), she proposes to him.) All of the women take initiative.

8.) Mia worries about a lot more than her love life. Okay, so she does totally worry about her love life- she's a teenaged girl. But she worries about her grades, her throne, and the problems of her country. Speaking of which…

9.) Being a princess isn't all dresses. Meg Cabot does go through the obligatory dresses and makeover stuff, but Mia really is much more interested in the political aspects of her position. And in one book, she ends up getting involved in a huge political debate over installing parking meters in order to help protect the environment by promoting public transportation and to raise additional monies for other works. Seriously- parking meters. It's really pretty funny.

10.) It's just a fun read. Between compelling characters, great humor, and some funny situations, it's a very enjoyable series.



16. Do you write romantic relationships? How do you do with those, and how “far” are you willing to go in your writing? ;)

Um, yes? :)

I think I do fine with romantic relationships, although sometimes I have to watch the expressiveness.

As to how explicit I get, usually the answer is "not very", compared to a lot of what I've seen. I generally find that with my writing, being explicit is usually a determent. I'm not terribly good at it (I have my moments, but as a rule…) and my writing style lends itself better to plot. When I DO write sex, it tends to either be silly or depressing. But if you look at my novel-length works, people do have sex, but it just doesn't get described much. It’s usually not the point.

17. Favorite protagonist and why!

My favorite protagonist to write these days is Gaeta, which I've talked about before. And Hoshi, which I've actually also talked about before.




Anyway, guess I'd better get dressed. I was going to run today, but the sky is looking sort of gray, and the lawn needed cutting. So Howard's mowing, and I'm putting off my run for a bit. If we get showers, it's no big deal for my run, but it's a much bigger deal for him cutting the grass since it will get wet and seriously clump. But after I get dressed, I should take the kids to the park or something.

Have a wedding to go to tonight, too. My main observation so far? There is underwear that makes you look sexy out of your clothes, and underwear that makes you look sexy in your clothes. Judging by the garment I bought to wear under my dress, they are NOT the same thing.

With that thought, have a good Saturday!

Comments

[ivanolix.livejournal.com]

I think I must be one of maybe 2 people who thoroughly disliked "Moon".

You actually made me want to read chick lit...wow. :-D

people do have sex, but it just doesn't get described much. It’s usually not the point

This is true for my longer fics as well. Sex is always there, but the scenes themselves aren't as important to the characters/plots as what's going on around the scenes. I see sex as the behind-the-scenes of the story—fun to add as "extras", if you're into that sort of thing, but not necessary and potentially dragging if kept in the main piece.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I normally am not a big chick lit reader, but every now and then....

Yeah. Every now and then sex scenes make it into my stuff, but something important generally happens during them. But even then, I usually just fade to black, or come out of it when they're done.

Even my explicit stuff isn't that explicit, compared to some of what I've read.

[safenthecity.livejournal.com]

Ahahah, Mia writes fanfic? Or Meg does? Either way, effing hilarious. xD

I read the first Princess Diaries book all in one go and really liked it. I didn't realize it was a ten book series. I may have to look into that. I laughed a lot as I read it.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

Mia writes fanfic! It's only a mention in one of the later books, where she mentions she wrote a fic about "Starbuck and Apollo finally doing it" (I think it was pretty clear that it was the new BSG, but I'm not positive), but still- it cracked me up.

The series really is worth it. If you liked the first one, you'll like the series. There are some moments I want to smack each of the characters, but you're also supposed to want to smack them (including Mia). It's really well done :)

[scifiaddict86.livejournal.com]

I love your icon Dark Angel Rocked!!

[safenthecity.livejournal.com]

Thanks! I rather loved Dark Angel. And it's super fun in retrospect, to rewatch and go "HEY LOOK, it's GAETA. And DEE. And TORY. It's a BSG cast party!"

[kappamaki33.livejournal.com]

It drives me crazy to have mine on my hard drive and not be able to post it, though! :)

Me, too! :)

Gosh, now it looks like I have another book series to add to my to-read list. The fanfic thing alone instantly endears Mia to me.

On a semi-related note, I've been meaning to ask you, have you ever read The Sparrow by Mary Doria Russell? I can't rec it yet, because I just started it, but it sounds like something you might have run across. It's space exploration/first contact with alien race goes horribly wrong + sole survivor of mission struggling with faith and belief in God + sole survivor is a priest.

[lls-mutant.livejournal.com]

I know! These are killing me. I'm even being good and not begging Rose to tell me what story my remixer chose, even though I'm dying to know.

The fanfic thing cracked me up. It only comes up once, like in the seventh book or something, but I laughed like crazy.

And gee. Why would you EVER think of me for that book????? It sounds like something I should read- thanks for the heads up! :)

[aome.livejournal.com]

I somehow stumbled onto the Princess Diaries books; I started with #2 (I have a terrible history of reading series out of order) and still have not read a few of the ones in the middle, but I really love the funny, thoughtful fluff when I'm in that mood. :) She's a strong environmentalist and animal-rights activist, too!

(Btw, have you ever read the historical romance novel Mia "wrote"? That was kind of fun, too, to read a book by a fictional author.)

[scifiaddict86.livejournal.com]

Okay hopefully this will be the end of my technical dificulties *crosses fingers*

13. Firefly cuz its so much closer to how I speak and yet there still a lot of room to play with language. I also love that I can pretty much do what I want since canon is scant and there aren't a lot of limits set. Plus if you really don't like what Joss says you don't really have to listen to what Joss says.
14. I always do it in my head and sometimes that's very detailed. Actually sometimes I run into trouble cuz I put way to much of these details in my fic.
15. Okay I think one that really influenced how I developed as a writer was Laura Ingalls Wilder I have always loved her description and how she could paint the scene and I think a lot of my early writing has a lot of that influence in it. I also think my writing greatly improved when I stopped trying to emulate this style and found my own but that's one of the interesting things about writing is sometimes it about getting there. (or maybe I'm just really tired)
16 Yes almost exclusively, I don't do love scenes though I just think unless its necessary to the story it just pointless. (Plus I suck at description) Although I don't like to write anything that doesn't tell us something about the character, and porn doesn't really lend itself to that.
17. Kara is probably my favourite right now with Sam a close second. I just love how complex she is and how much fun.