Welcome to Smugglivus 2009 – Day 21!

Throughout this month, we will have daily guests – authors and bloggers alike – looking back at their favorite reads of 2009, and looking forward to events and upcoming books in 2010.

Today’s Guest: Danielle, of the YA/Horror/Speculative Fiction/etc blog Opinionated, Me? Danielle is a dedicated blogger and straight-shooting reviewer with a ton of posts to her credit – and she’s only a high school freshman, which makes all her accomplishments even more impressive.

Please give it up, folks, for the awesome Danielle!

When Ana and Thea asked me to be part of Smugglivus, I was more then a little daunted. I’d only been blogging for a short time, and I wasn’t sure I could write a coherent post about what I loved/didn’t love about the publishing world in 2009 (y’know, without rambling). There were so many high points in YA and horror this year, I’m struggling to pin-point the excellent from the enjoyable. So, while extending my deepest thanks to Ana and Thea for putting up with me, here is my bloated Best of list for 2009.

Break by Hannah Moskowitz:

About a boy on a mission to break every bone in his body, Moskowitz’s novel is heartbreaking in a strangely approachable way. It explores beautifully the relationship between brothers and, to a lesser extent, the effects of a loveless marriage. I was sobbing by the end of this baby and, while definitely not for everyone, is something everyone can relate to.

Furnace Lockdown by Alexander Gordon-Smith:

Jesus, this ones scary. About literally the world’s worst prison, a young boy finds himself framed for a murder he did not commit and trapped thousands of feet under ground with no way of escape. Warning: do not read while eating–your food WILL get cold.

The Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey

One of the most frightening novels I’ve read in a long time, and a YA at that. Kind of pseudo-gothic and tragically over looked due to, I’m assuming, the lack of mopey teenage vampires.

Slights by Kaaron Warren

Actually thanks to Thea’s review, Angry Robot is quickly becoming one of my favorite publications with deliciously disturbing releases such as this…I mean, look at the cover.

Dexter by Design by Jeff Lindsey

Ah, Dexter. Do you ever disappoint?

For those who don’t know, Dexter is the serial-killer-with-a-heart-of-gold who currently has his own show on Showtime. He is also a book series that makes my heart cry tears of joy. By now, the books have obviously deterred from the TV series, but they are both nonetheless made of win and should therefore be picked up for some good macabre fun. I was actually going to have a Dexter week on my blog in celebration of Design’s release, but then life happened and I had to push it back so far I forgot where I put it. Maybe one day…

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Book Two in the Chaos Walking series, anything I can tell you about it would be a major spoiler. Basically, it’s post-apocalyptic and awesome. Patrick Ness has a true gift for storytelling that only comes along once in a while…definitely a must-read and one of the best of the year.

The Forest of Hands and Teeth by Carrie Ryan

It’s zombies. Next.

Night Angel Trilogy by Brent Weeks

Not new, but new to me. Addicting in that very odd way where you don’t realize it’s addicting until you put it down and feel the emptiness of where it was nudged in your hand. The conversational tone and cynical protagonist is just so much fun to follow.

Along for the Ride by Sarah Desson

I feel dirty putting this on the list. I am so not a teen romance type of person, but for some reason someone in The Family thought it appropriate to buy me an entire prize pack of Desson novels for my birthday. After several hours of negotiating with a sales clerk to exchange it for a magazine or something, I relented. I am so glad I did. Possibly one of the sweetest, most touching YA I’ve ever read, my faith has been restored in the Cheesy Cover. Perfect for everyone, YA or not.

The Virgin Suicides by Jeffrey Eugenides

New-to-me and about five sisters who all off themselves within the course of a year, The Virgin Suicides follows the quest several unnamed protagonist take to discover the cause of one of their most alluring childhood mysteries. While I’m not usually a literary kind of reader, I was undeniably attracted to the dark subject matter (emo? Perhaps) and The Virgin Suicides did not disappoint. I’m even considering lifting my Kirsten Dunst ban to watch the movie.

Ballads of Suburbia by Stephanie Kuehnert

“If you made a book of what really happened, it’d be a really upsetting book”

–Angela Chase, My So-Called Life

As a teenager, I am obligated to my occasional “nobody understands” temper tantrums. The beauty of Ballads is that Kuehnert puts down into legible print every feeling of frustration and isolation I’ve ever had, put to the best soundtrack I’ve ever heard. One of the few authors I would say “gets” it, and I definitely look forward to anything she has in store.

Deathwish by Rob Thurman

Cal Leandros, I lurve you. I am equally smitten with your creator for simply bringing you into existence. Continues Cal’s adventures as he battles his half-monster heritage and other assorted angsty subjects, this series continues to be one of the most well-written UF’s I’ve ever read. While it obviously has it’s flaws, Cal’s biting narrative and dare-I-say wacky friends will grab you by the throat (and not in a bad way) and never let go.

Pygmy by Chuck Palnhiuk

While he has dropped significantly in popularity since Choke, Chuck Palnihuk has once again released a gem of WTFery that only a guy who turned soap intimidating could produce.

Causes for Concern

Supernatural:

Dear Eric Kripke (creator of Supernatural),

I am done.

I am done with your ridiculous doomsday obsession. I am done with your “witty” satires on the very fans that made you half-way relevant. I am tired of your WTF plots and inability to actually seem like you give a shit. I am sick to my stomach with not your jumping of the shark, but taking a soaring leap over the shark and proceeding to punch it in the face. I am hurt, and I am saddened. This relationship has brought me nothing but grief and heart-ache. I feel like my IQ has gone down just for sticking with you as long as I have. I have given more then you have even thought of giving me. I am tired of you face-raping my beloved Jenson Ackles with Paris Hilton’s big nose and I am so goddamn done with your stupidass oneliners. You hear me? Done. Finished. Over. You can leave your keys on the counter.

Hatefully yours,
Danielle

Under the Dome by Stephen King:

Oh, I had so wanted to love this book. I had shelled out the 35 dollars out of my measly 120 dollar per-week pay check, I had lugged it with me to school and back again, I had shoved it forcefully into my backpack and sacrificed countless hours better spent on homework or socializing reading it…and I’m greeted with this mess? Really, Steve?

Really?

Please, friends, don’t be another causality of Irrational Pricing. If your so terribly obsessed with Mr. King, just go to the library. 35 dollars is not an appropriate price range for this mess.

Most anticipated:

I’m really not one to anticipate over books unless they’re actually available (less I loose my mind) but this is definitely at the fore-front of my 2010 shopping list:

Self Promotion At It’s Finest:

A friend and I started something of a project: see if we can get ONE journal to as many people, places and countries as possible. We called it the Big Fat Nerd Journal, and are looking for some more participants. You can sign up at http://bigfatnerdjournaltour.blogspot.com, or just click the button:

As far as pop-culture has gone, it’s been a pretty shiteous year. More movies have disappointed then blown minds, Jon and Kate have been considered real celebrities, people such as the guy from Renegade have been awarded television shows, and the standard for entertainment has been dropped so low it has fallen off satellite radar and scientist believe it to have melted somewhere in the Earth’s core. But at least we can say goodbye to those horrible 2000 glasses.

Happy holidays.

Happy Holidays to you too, Danielle!

Next on Smugglivus: Kristen of Fantasy Cafe

Alexander Gordon Smith is the writer of the Inventors series for children and the YA/Fantasy Furnace series. I met  Gordon  in London at a Forbidden Planet’s event (the Guillermo del Toro signing) and prompted by his passionate talk about his books, I decided to give Furnace a go and wouldn’t you know, I LOVED it.

When we decided to extend our YA Month, I thought we should invite Gordon to write a guest post and he came up with what we think is one of the bravest Inspirations post we have ever been graced with:
__________

Inspiration for Furnace

Alexander Gordon Smith

It’s often difficult to pinpoint exactly where the inspiration for any book comes from. But I guess with Furnace: Lockdown it can be boiled down to one truth:

Alex Sawyer is Alexander Gordon Smith. Or at least he’s the person I could have become.

In the first draft, Alex (the main character) didn’t have the name Sawyer, he had the name Smith. And it wasn’t just my name he shared – in many ways he was me, with the same loves, the same fears, the same insecurities. I never set out to write a book with myself as the main character, but as soon as Alex took life on the page I realised that he was one version of the teenager I had been. He was me, but a me that had never been allowed to exist. And his story, his horrific ordeal in Furnace, was a parallel version of my history that, fortunately, was never written in reality.

This makes more sense when you know what kind of character Alex is. He’s no hero, not the conventional kind anyway. He’s the bad guy, a school bully who robs kids of cash so he can buy himself new trainers, new bikes, new computers. He’s a burglar too, the kind of person who would steal a wedding ring from a lonely old woman so he can play the latest computer games. He knows he’s in the wrong, but this only makes his behaviour worse: there’s nothing innocent about Alex’s criminality, he does it because he consciously buries those bad feelings so deep that they can never rear their ugly heads.

Now, I was never as bad as Alex when I was a kid, but for a while I could have been. I remember all too well that lure of easy money – the desire to control at least one thing at a time when it feels as though your life is spiralling into chaos around you. I never robbed a house, but I was a thief: I stole money from my Mum and Dad, never more than ten or twenty quid at a time, but I stole other stuff too, things I could sell. Sentimental things. Things I knew I could never get back. Those same horrible feelings clawed their way through my gut every time I betrayed someone I loved, but like Alex I knew how to force them down, so deep inside me I could pretend they weren’t there at all.

And it got worse, too. I began hanging out at a biker bar, drinking lots, absorbing hours of heavy metal then letting it all out of my system in drunken scraps. I wasn’t a bully like Alex – I never picked a fight with anyone – but I was just as lost as him. And with each bloody nose and lost tooth I found my grasp on life, on myself, slipping away a little bit more. I hated it, but it was fast becoming who I was – without it, I faced the far greater fear of being nothing at all. And when you’re that age, absence is so much worse than substance, even when that substance has begun to rot.

I don’t know how bad it could have become. I’m guessing it never would have gone too far – I had the best family in the world, a safety net that was always there for me no matter how bad my behaviour became. Maybe that’s why I felt I could get away with it – I knew I could never lose myself completely. After I’d failed my A-Levels (not just because of my behaviour, I should say, I’d also written my first novel and assumed I wouldn’t need qualifications as a famous writer) I calmed down. I started to uncover some of those buried emotions – the guilt, the loathing, the shame – and only by confronting them and coming to terms with what I could have become did I truly realise what I wanted to be.

The Alex in Furnace has the same realisation, but in his version of history there is no escape. In his version of history there is the Furnace Penitentiary. Alex Sawyer is punished for the crimes that I committed, he suffers the worst fate that I could have imagined for myself when I was a teenager. This is why the events that take place in Furnace feel so real. When I was writing the book, Alex wasn’t just a character – he was me and I was him. I had to do everything in my power to try and find a way out, because if he couldn’t escape, then neither could I. Our lives may have taken different paths, but for as long as Alex was buried alive in the guts of the world we were one and the same again. His actions were mine, his terror was mine, the friends he made were my friends, the pain he felt was pain I felt too. And, most importantly, we were making a break for freedom together.

Being a writer sometimes means you have all the power in the world – in the world of your story, that is. But with Furnace I felt just as powerless as Alex. I didn’t plot the books, the story just unfolded, sometimes in a way that I never could have predicted. And there were many times when I had no idea how a scene would turn out, whether or not Alex would even survive. During these periods I felt that the pages of the manuscript were a mirror backed up against some impossible inter-dimensional void; the words on the page bars, through which I saw myself fighting tooth and nail just to stay alive. It was the same feeling I had when I was a teenager, wanting to be free but unable to control the chaotic world around me, unable to find a way out of the depths to the light and air on the surface.

I don’t know what will happen to Alex over the course of the series, but I know one thing: I’ll be there with him until the end. There’s no way I could abandon him in the pit of Furnace Penitentiary. Everything he goes through, I go through too, and when he changes – and he does change, so much, over the course of each book – so do I. His life is mine, and mine is his. And if I ever need a reminder of that I only have to read back over this piece of writing and notice how similar it is to Alex’s. That was unintentional, but I guess it was also inevitable when you not only become close to your character, but have always been him.

********
A HUGE thank you to Gordon for this incredible piece.
Find out more about his Furnace books here . If you already read Furnace: Lockdown and wants a sneak peek for the first chapters of book 2, Solitary, check this out. Warning: contains spoilers for book 1!

Now for the giveaway: Gordon is generously offering copies of Furnace books 1 AND 2 plus assorted goodies to 4 lucky winners! All you have to do is to leave a comment here. The contest is open to all and runs till Saturday 22 August 11:59PM Pacific Time. Good luck!