Megan Frazer

So last night I chaperoned my school’s Junior Prom and it was so much fun.

First of all, dresses this season are so pretty. Almost all the girls had long, flowing dresses that brushed the floor. They were in bright colors, too, lots of pinks and yellows and patterns. One of my favorites was a girl in a yellow dress with pink accessories.

So now let’s talk about the dancing, because this is where I felt a bit like an Old Person. When I was in high school, this is how we danced:

So, you know, admittedly things have changed quite a bit. The last time I chaperoned a prom, there was lots of grinding and such, and so that’s what I was expecting. What I was not expecting was one big amorphous blob of grinding. One of the other chaperone’s and I felt like we’d feel very claustrophobic in such a mob. Has anyone ever danced like that? What’s it like?

The joy of line dances remains, though! I missed the Electric Slide because I was counting votes for the prom court, but I got to learn how to do the Cotton Eye Joe dance, which is hard in heels, which I guess is why most of the girls took their’s off.

And of course there was also the CIRCLE into which those with dance talent go in and show their stuff. I stood on a chair and still couldn’t see, but people seemed impressed with the guys in there.

All in all it was a great time, and I hope the students had as much fun as the chaperones did. Congratulations to the class of 2011!

I recently blogged about what I see as the importance of LGBTQ books at my agent’s group blog, A Crowe’s Nest.

And over at the YALSA blog, I have a reaction to the New York Times column by Cathleen Schine, “I Was A Teenage Illiterate.” This one’s from a librarian’s perspective, but I think other writers would be interested in the original piece.

Go on over and take a read — I’d love to hear what you think!

I’ve been thinking about eBooks lately. It started with John Green’s article in School Library Journal: “The Future of Reading: Don’t Worry. It Might be Better than you Think.” As a librarian, I really like the donut analogy. Man I have some great crullers in my library. You should go and read the article because John Green is way smart and eloquent, and my summary will not in anyway capture it all. For the purposes of what I’m going to talk about here, the thing you need to know besides the crullers (oh go and read the article if you want to know), is ThisIsNotTom.com. Originally it was a site with complex riddles to solve. Then Green got involved and the riddles became keys to unlock the next part of a novella of his.

Okay, so now the iPad is here. iBook already exists. I hear an iBookstore is in the works. I thought the Kindle was interesting, the nook looked neat, but I love me some Apple products, so now I am suddenly and keenly interested in e-readers. Because the iPad integrates other applications that users want perhaps more than an e-reader (web access, music, etc.), this could be a real boost in the spread of e-reading.

There is a theory (I think it is Dr. Ruben Puetedura’s) about the use of technology in education that I believe also applies here. Basically tech can take one of four roles:

1. Substitution: the computer substitutes for another technological tool, without a significant change in the tool’s function.
2. Augmentation: the computer replaces another technological tool, with significant functionality increase.
3. Modification: the computer allows for the redesign of significant portions of a task to be executed.
4. Redefinition: the computer allows for the creation of new tasks, inconceivable without the computer.

None of these is any better than the other. They just are.

So an e-reader that just presents the text is substitution. This is, I think, what most people think of when they think of an eBook. Some people are like, “Ick, I want to hold the book.” Others are like, “Wow, shiny, new, and just think how many books I can carry with me on vacation.” And then most of us fall in between.

Augmentation would be like if you had an eBook of say Shrinking Violet by Danielle Joseph: you could hear the bands that Teresa plays when she DJs. Or during Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games your screen would show the seal of the capital, you’d hear the anthem, and see images of the fallen. That would be pretty neat. Or it could be distracting.

I would argue that ThisIsNotTom.com is modification. How you get to the text is the part that is significantly redesigned. But you are still getting to text and reading it. Here’s where I think some real growth could be fascinating. Choose Your Own Adventure online? Mysteries you actually have to solve (sort of like the 39 Clues, but more so). Audio mixed with video mixed with text mixed with images?

I’m even more flummoxed about what Redefinition will bring. Group reading and creating experiences of some sort seem likely as we are moving through and beyond web 2.0.

I’d be curious to hear what people think the advent of more advanced and integrated e-readers. Will it change the way we read and write? What are some examples of things that are already going on that I’m missing?

I recently finished listening to the audio of Suzanne Collins’ The Hunger Games, and I’m halfway through the sequel, Catching Fire. It’s this little-known series about a girl, a dystopian society, and a twisted battle-to-the-death-as-entertainment scenario. Maybe you’ve heard of it?

In college for papers I’d often use compendiums, especially for Shakespeare. So, for example, I once wrote a paper on the use of the word “strange” in The Tempest, so I went to the compendium and found a listing of every single time the word was used. If ever a compendium is made for The Hunger Games, I’d love to see how many times food is mentioned. It makes sense that Katniss, who has had to struggle for every bit of food that passes her lips, would wax ecstatic over the bountiful food of the capital.

I was most interested in the bread.

I had a professor in college who was fixated on the use of bread in literature, specifically whole grain versus white. White is of course refined, while whole grain is more natural. He argued that you could tell the whole outlook of society by how they described the bread. If white bread was a luxury, then refinement, manners, and social class were highly valued. If instead it was disdained, and whole grain got the nod, then this was a time in society that valued the working class, was back to nature, and avoided pretense. So I loved that each district had its own style of bread.

Yes, it’s a New York Times bestselling sensation, and I’m focused on the bread.

I’ve heard that there’s some Team Peeta vs. Team Gale style rumblings (incidentally, listening to the audio, I thought the reader was just mis-pronouncing Peter for most of the first book). I’m Team Gale for what it’s worth, though that probably has more to do with his having less screen time. He’s capable, moody, and doesn’t have a chance to utter the cheesey lines that Peeta often does. But really, I’m Team Katniss. Witty, resourceful, stubborn, kind, and skilled, she’s a perfect heroine.

I love James Franco. I love everybody associated with Freaks & Geeks.

I also have been a longtime fan of General Hospital. I don’t watch it much anymore, but it used to be an after school ritual, and I can tell you the back story of just about every character. A friend and I were once in Balthazar in NYC (back when it was super trendy, and we thought we were so hip for going there even though all we could afford was a drink), and we saw an actor from the show, and we both got all giddy, and then laughed because if either of us had been with another friend, they wouldn’t have known what we were so excited about.

Anyway, James Franco and General Hospital have come together: he’s doing a guest star run on the show. Which, even as a fan, kind of blew my mind. Turns out, he’s calling it performance art. He says he’s blurring the line between high brow and low brow. The article definitely shows that he’s a smarty, which makes me love him even more, but I’m not sure I buy the whole performance art angle. I mean, he’s an actor. He’s acting. Just because it’s a soap, and he doesn’t normally do soaps, doesn’t mean it’s art. Even if it’s all meta and he’s playing an artist with the one-name moniker of Franco.

Coincidentally, the idea of what art is has been on my mind lately since it’s a key piece in my WIP. In the current draft, one character asks, “If you say you’re an artist, does that make you one?” If James Franco calls his work on GH performance art, is it? Does intention create art? Maybe. It doesn’t mean it creates good art, though.

I understand there’s more to this project. He’s already done a piece with single-named artist Carter called Erased James Franco, and apparently they are working together again. There will also be a guest spot on 30 Rock as himself. And all of this ties into a film they are doing together. I think I’ll reserve judgment until then. In the meantime, I’m going to go watch Franco on GH on hulu.

I dropped in over at Books by Their Cover to talk about food! Pop over yourself and tell us all what your favorite summer meal is.

In other news, it’s just over a week until book launch! If you’re in New Hampshire, come visit me at my book launch party.

Oh, and getting back to food, later in the week I’ll let you know about my trip to a literary destination in Maine where I had great blueberry pancakes. Any guesses where it was?

Okay, it’s possible that I am the last person to see Juno, but I still want to write about it.

In my opinion, Juno isn’t really about Juno; it’s about Jennifer Garner and Jason Bateman’s characters, the adoptive parents. Juno herself doesn’t have much of an arc: she makes her big decision at the beginning of the movie, and her character doesn’t change too much through out the film. What changes, really is her, and our perspective of Mark (Bateman). ***Spoiler alert if you actually haven’t seen it.*** Mark starts off seeming very cool, but by the end you realize he’s just afraid to grow up.

At least that’s how I see it. Conservatives have embraced it as a pro-life film. While others argued that it glorified teen pregnancy (the so-called “Juno Effect”).

And that’s what set the light bulb off for me: when you create a piece of art, you can’t control how others are going to interpret it. Yes this is lit-, film-, art-studies 101, and I knew it intellectually. But the timing of seeing this movie and having my book come out in a few short weeks made it clear to me on a personal level.

My book is out there, and now it’s not just mine anymore.

One month from today, Secrets of Truth & Beauty will be released. It hit me in the car the other day while I was driving. No, not when I got word of the sale, not when I got my ARCs, not when I started seeing some reviews online, or even when I got my advanced copies of the actual book. I was just driving along, and got this giggly smile.

I have wanted to be a writer since at least sixth grade, and probably would have before that if I had believed that writers were real people and not magical beings. And I was thinking about that as I drove to work. Most writers will tell you that they can’t not write, and that if you are an inspiring author you should be willing to just write for yourself because the odds against publication are high. And yet, we all go out and keep trying to get published. Because part of writing, for me anyway, is wanting to be heard. This is odd because I really don’t like attention being focused on me. Public speaking makes me quake. Or maybe that does make sense — writing gives me a chance to have a voice but stay out of the spotlight.

Anyway, I was thinking about what it takes to surpass those publication odds. Not necessarily in my own case, but in general. I do believe it is a combination of talent, persistence, and luck. As I was trying to figure out just how much of the pie chart each would take up, it just kind of settled on me: “I wrote a book and people are going to read it.” Cue giggly smile.

The lovely L.K. Madigan is running a contesty-eventy thing called Blogging Alternatives in May. For all the details, visit the post.

Now from the very fist posting I thought this was a wonderful idea. And I did get out and about in May. For example, I:

• went on the trapeze for the first time in almost two years (that’s right, I was trapezing before Maureen Johnson made it cool).
• went to visit my new itsy-bitsy nephew
• made this cake from Gourmet magazine (I made it with blueberries — highly recommended!)
• hiked in our town forest

I just, um, never did the whole posting about it thing. In part because I never thought to bring my camera. And now here it is the last day of May and I am trying to sneak in a blog about BAMing. I am going to pick just one thing I did, although I don’t have any pictures, which was one of the stipulations.

So the one thing I am going to talk about is the Oyster River Festival. This was held in my hometown to raise money for local youth, and in honor of the two brothers of my friend Ben. It was kind of like a reunion, seeing a bunch of people I grew up with. But what was really neat for me was seeing all of these people who were so active in the arts. A number of people I went to school with are making a go of it in music, film, and more, and that was quite inspirational to me.

Sadly, I missed Groovechild. When I was in middle school, these guys were in high school. Sometimes they would come and play our dances. Swoon.

That guy playing the banjo is my friend Mike — not an original member of the band — he’s played solo, in the band The Mammals, and is now touring with his wife as Mike and Ruthy.

Thanks for inspiring us all to get out of our houses, L.K.!

I’ve read two YA books lately which I can best describe as message-y. One in particular felt like the characters opened their mouths and out came the author’s opinions on the subject. With facts to back it up. And citations. It was like reading an essay, only I think I would have enjoyed the essay more. It’s not that I didn’t want to hear the author’s opinions, or that I disagreed with them (I was in whole-hearted agreement), but it all felt a little forced.

I tried to think of a message-book where the message didn’t get in the way of the story, and at first could not think of one. There are issues books (“problem novels” in the old parlance), where the issue is front and center, but I think an issue-book is different than a message-book. True, image-books can also be done badly. They can also be done really, really well, like Laurie Halse Anderson’s Speak.

As I kept trying to think of message-books that worked, my mind went to the classics: The Great Gatsby (the dangers of excess), The Lord of the Flies (why order is important in society), To Kill a Mockingbird (the importance of justice). I’m still struggling to think of modern, YA books that have a message — a definite point of view — without feeling like the message was all that was there. Part of the problem, of course, is that you can never really know, without asking, what the intended message was.

I have struggled with this in my own work. I am a feminist. One of the few things that makes me sad about “kids today” is that so few identify themselves as feminists. So, in an effort to show why feminism is important, and my views on what it means to be a feminist, I inserted a scene into Secrets of Truth & Beauty in which a teacher questions Dara’s participations in pageants. Dara responds that people do pageants for all sorts of reasons, and if it’s a choice you aren’t being objectified (yes, I know what else that is used to defend, and yes I felt it was a specious argument even as I wrote it). Dara’s big point in the scene was my central belief which is that feminism does not mean exchanging one set of rules for another. It means that there is enough freedom in our society that both women and men can make choices without limitations. A good point, I think, but the scene fell flat. It was too message-y, and I cut it.

Then I read E. Lockhart’s The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks and realized she had captured the sentiment so much more naturally. And yet I am hesitant to label it a message-book because it is so much more than that. Maybe the message is something that just seeps in, as you are writing, and the more you try to force it, the worse the situation becomes.