(no subject)

On recommendation from jenlyn_b, I picked up I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You by Ally Carter. This is like the teen-spy-girl-school version of Harry Potter, if that makes any sense. At its core, it's a prep school book, which I figure is about as close as we can get in America to a British school book. It's also a teen love story, a story about relationships with parents and friends, and a book with so many gadgets it puts Batman to shame. (Who'd have thought that Nicotine Patches could inspire sticky tranquilizers called Napotine Patches? Brilliant!)

But here's the thing I noticed most in this book, and to some degree in jenlyn_b's work as well: many of us young writers in our twenties have had our language shaped by Joss Whedon and his writing staff. I knew jenlyn_b was a Buffy fan before I read her first novel, so the quirky whedonesque language use didn't surprise me. It was pretty clear early on that Carter was a fan, too, but I didn't actually stop in my tracks and notice the language until the narrator is agonizing over what candies/snacks are safe to eat at a movie on her first date.

"Junior Mints--of course! Minty chocolate fun with none of the dangerous side effects."

This makes me wonder if those of us who are devotees of Whedon's works purposefully emulate the writing style on his shows (I know I did in one of the manners of speaking I use in Into the Reach). Or has the quirky language has become so ingrained in our minds that we use it without even realizing it? We loved the way it sounded when it wasn't ours, and love it just as much when it is.

At any rate, kudos to Carter for a great, fun novel, and kudos to Whedon and his writers for shaping American dialogue. :)

Fan Fiction

Not long ago, an author on fangs_fur_fey posted asking how people felt about fan fiction. blackholly posted about the contest she'd just sponsored on her live journal with a prompt that asked her readers to create a little bit of fan fiction.

Barry Lyga, author of The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl is also encouraging fan fic with a contest. Fanboy states in the novel that there are three things he wants more than anything, but only names two of them. He asks his readers to name the third. Even better, the prize (an ipod) depends on how many entries he receives--so if he only gets fifty entries, it will be a slim end ipod, but if he gets hundreds... there will be an upgrade.

I've been meaning to check out the novel and may just mosey over to the YA section of the library and pick it up. I'd like to see if leaving out the third thing feels, in the novel, like a tremendous oversight, or if it was a planned thing on Lyga's part. (If so, that's pretty nifty marketing right there.)