“At some point, my writer's brain started to whisper a mantra...”

Make it a simple story about hope.

Make it a story about human resilience.

Make it a story where people still laugh, brush their teeth, still fall in love, a story where people redeem one another by small gestures, a story where people have no choice but to keep going in the face of huge tragedy and unspeakable loss.

From 'Author's Note' by Gae Polisner, in The Memory of Things 

Curiosities

'Blank? My dearest Abel, nothing could be further than the truth. You burst with stories. If your lives were painted they would fill every gallery in every city and still men would have to build more to fit you in.'

'Yet I have forgotten.'

'Forgetting you have done something is not the same as not having done it.'

The Palace of Curiosities by Rosie Garland, 2013 

Illegal bookmaking, and other seelie fortunes: Holly Black

Illegal bookmaking is currently camping in my consciousness, since it’s a tidy little earner for Cassel Sharpe, the central character in Holly Black’s excellent YA trilogy, The Curseworkers.  After devouring White Cat recently, I’m now enjoying Red Glove.  It’s a great left-of-centre story that will keep you guessing.  It involves magic but not as we know it, and is told from a unique perspective.  Holly skilfully imbues her character with a fascinating level of tension around the moral ambiguities that he lives with, along with the usual teen angst over finding his way in the world, and love (of course)!  It has piqued my interest to read more of Holly’s work, and especially her short fiction, which promises to be twisted, in every good way.  

And now for the big question. 

Readers might recognise Holly’s name from her earlier work, The Spiderwick Chronicles (with Tony DiTerlizzi), and the Modern Tale of Faerie series (beginning with Tithe).  Speaking of Holly Black’s name, isn’t that a suspiciously good moniker for someone who writes in the fantasy genre? 'Holly' evokes all the mystique of ye olde worlde when evergreens were revered for their magickal properties and bowls of cream were left out for the good folke as insurance against your children growing up a bit …funny.  'Black' hints at the spooky-wooky, the shadow element that gives fantasy its depth and psychological realism.  Surely that must be a nom de plume? 

No, it’s not (if Wikipedia can be believed).  It turns out that she was born Holly Riggenbach (a great name, but not nearly so evocative).  Then she married her high school sweetheart, Theo Black, simultaneously landing herself an accomplished illustrator for a husband AND a kick-goblin-ass publishing name. 

I’m not sure if this is fortune favouring the bold, or just evidence that granting the faerie folk their due respect can pay off.  I’m not sure you could create a better pen name than that if you tried.  Definitely some seelie fortune going on there.  I, on the other hand, also married my young sweetheart, but his surname rhymes with belch and squelch.  I’m sticking with Gascoigne.  

The Dark Path by crowolf @ Flickr 

Hunger Games

I’ve been hearing people raving about this series for a while now.  Despite my YA antenna being so underdeveloped, and the book being slower to take off in Australia, the excitement about it leaked through to me a while ago.  It has been sitting on my towering pile of books to read for ages.  It took the imminent release of the movie to fire up my hunger enough to start reading.

Glad I did.  It is addictively good, and I found myself glued to the story much like the citizens of Panem are to the Games themselves.

What I love about The Hunger Games series is its resonance on so many layers of meaning and metaphor.  I devoured all three novels in quick succession, but I think they require another reading just to appreciate the craft of the subtext.  In fact, I’m looking forward to having a look at The girl who was on fire, a collection of commentaries by other YA authors.  There is plenty for an aspiring author to glean from The Hunger Games, because Collins does much with quite simple language.  She delivers an intricate story in very clear and quick writing.  Specifically, in short sentences.  Now, there’s something I could learn.

There is some lovely work in the story that ensures it will have wide appeal.  The hair/clothes/makeup in Capitol are richly painted, and the feasts are detailed for all the foodies out there.  I especially enjoyed the subleties of the character names and the added meaning they imparted - Peetr = Peter = Rock, steady, strong, versus Gale = tempestuous, changeable.  These names are woven all through the series (Snow, Trinket), but my favorite is Rue, because of the deep sorrow and regret that Katniss experiences as a result of their interaction.  The meaning of names has always fascinated me, and I just love it as a literary device.

I haven’t read much about Suzanne Collins’ writing process for this series, but there are some interesting shifts as the novels progress.  The writing in the first book is much sparer and tighter in its sentence structure than in the next two.  It is as if she finds her stride and starts to feel more comfortable to explore the expressive space inside the storyline.  There is progression too, from the very heavily plot-driven narrative of the first novel, to the series resolution which is nearly entirely psychological in nature.  She lures the reader from the bold, apparent facts of the story and into a more interior experience of the themes that she set out to explore. 

Despite having loved all three books equally, I will admit to denouement disappointment  in Mockingjay – I felt the finale was unnecessarily convoluted, and because of that it lost the fluidity and taut pacing that typified the previous resolutions.  However, credit should be given to Collins for creating a thought-provoking resolution, instead of the formulaic version which so often typifies both YA and speculative fic.

Suzanne Collins herself adapted the book for film, which makes me even keener to see it.  Her background is in screenwriting for children, and it has obviously served her well in developing both the experience and expertise to deliver a trilogy of this calibre.