How Pirates Introduced Me to Some of My Favorite People

Let me start this off with a little music, feel free to watch or let it run in the background.

And now that my heart has swelled with love for the movies of my adolescence… Happy International Talk Like a Pirate Day!

Now, Pirates of the Caribbean, I would argue, is one of the best Disney movies. The first one. It’s a freaking classic already. The story is fantastic—a hoarde of skeletal pirates looking for the sole child whose blood will reverse their fate, while one of the crew, previously left to die on a rock, stumbles drunkenly into them in the middle of all this mess. I personally really enjoy 2 as well, and 3 has its good parts but it was horrifically confusing at the time.

When Curse of the Black Pearl came out in 2003, I was 12 and fresh off of watching Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. (Again, Lord of the Rings was one of those things that I refused to watch because I thought it was either too scary, too old-timey, or something, but then fell in love with.) For me, the preteen, the selling point of this movie was, without a freaking doubt, Orlando Bloom. Of course at the time I still preferred his long, blonde tresses to the mess of hair he sported and the silly English outfit, but still. Orlando Bloom, people. But even before Curse of the Black Pearl hit theaters, I remember very, very clearly seeing a teaser trailer for it and turning over to my friend and saying, “That looks scary.” I’d made up my mind I wasn’t going to see it, and then shoved it to the back of my mind while watching whatever movie came on.

I am so glad I changed my mind.

I went into the films with a crush on Orlando Bloom and thoroughly enjoyed the first in the summer of 2003. I came out of it just so thoroughly impressed with Captain Jack Sparrow’s character…perhaps impressed isn’t the right word…perhaps infatuated would be a better choice. (Regardless, by the time the second one came around, I was so ridiculously envious of Kiera Knightly’s role.)

Curse of the Black Pearl also marks the first time I actually saw Johnny Depp perform. I vaguely knew his name but couldn’t really put a face to it when the previews were circulating, but boy howdy did I learn who he was. Capable of playing characters on one extreme end of the spectrum to the other, I have always been impressed with Depp’s ability to take on such massive characters. And though Jack Sparrow may be a drunk, he’s still nice to look at and laugh at. With. …mostly at. It’s hard not to like Sparrow. He commands the screen and the character constantly demands attention, even in situations when it would be better for him to keep his trap shut. It's like Depp made pirates sexy. Look at who he’s surrounded by—a bunch of really not all that attractive shipmates: Barbossa, Gibbs, etc.

So there was Depp, and then there was this producer—Jerry Bruckheimer. Now, to be honest, I’m still a little fuzzy on what all producers do. They cover a lot in the filming process and evidently have the power to fire the director if they so choose. They are usually the ones putting their own money on the line to get the movie up and running and can choose to end it if they wish. So really, by that definition, the Pirates trilogy belongs to Bruckheimer. One thing I’ve noticed with producers is that they tend to carry a certain style or feel with them from one movie to the next, like Pirates and Prince of Persia, both are overseen by Bruckheimer and both have that action/adventure with a wily character and a damsel-thing going on. Also, both films have a vague Indiana Jones feel to them in my opinion. I love it. I’ve thought on it more and more as time’s gone on, and its almost like Bruckheimer is the new version of Spielberg or George Lucas, and I’m more than happy to watch any films with his name attached.

CASE IN POINT!

There's others I've come to love through Pirates, too, like Geoffrey Rush, who plays Barbossa. His character is just killer! I absolutely love Barbossa in At World's End, his relationship with Jack Sparrow akin to brotherhood and everything. It's always nice to see a villain go good, too. Jack Davenport (Norrington) grew on me in the last two films as well, and I enjoy watching his British comedies.

Why make such a fuss over people? Well, I am only trying to get a film degree. These are the kinds of films I want to be involved with—those adventures where things can go horribly wrong, things happen that make the audience laugh until they cry, romance is right around the corner and things have a happy (or at least acceptable) ending. Dramas are great and everything, but I enjoy telling stories and I think in this day and age escapist films are pretty important. Everyone needs something fantastic in their lives, and the movies can fill the void. I love it when I walk out of a film and feel the need to sword fight or stunt drive. It’s amazing what a good movie (and good casts and crews) can do to their audiences.

The Emmys and Other Outstanding Awards

I love watching things like the Emmys and the Oscars. Watching the Emmys with Jimmy Fallon, who I love for his not always funny jokes but for the way he can always manage to laugh at himself, in the year that Lost ended, I feel like it’s a bit closer to my heart this year than usual.

But aside from the shows and movies that we love, we get to see actors, writers, producers and directors being rewarded for what they do best. The most deserving (arguably, in some cases) are called forth and pitted against one and other for the coveted awards. In a battle of the arts the victors rise and spill their hearts and souls on stage upon the acceptance of said awards. I think I enjoy these specials so much because these people that we put above all others—celebrities---are brought back down to earth for a few seconds.

The acceptance speeches are often personal, “thanks mom!” and usually obligatory, “I have to thank Twentieth Century Fox…” But just watching these people up on stage exasperated, out of breath and trembling, you have to just smile and be proud. These people have worked hard and all through the Emmys so far, everyone has stated they’re grateful for their jobs and they love the people they work with. Everyone wants to have a job that they’re happy to go to and is filled with people we love.

I bitch about the quality of programming all the time, but watching these award shows, I’m left biting my lip. I don’t agree that Modern Family is deserving of such great attention, but when Jim Parsons of The Big Bang Theory won his Emmy, I was overjoyed. You want people you like and appreciate to do well and be happy in life. I could go on for half a day about how The Big Bang Theory relates so much to my life and my nerdiness and all of my engineer/doctorial friends. I, a film major, miss science so much that I’ve decided I want to double major in science.

But right, when we watch the people climb up on stage and fight back tears, we smile. I’m happy for the people and shows that get the awards they deserve and whine when House and Lost have missed the mark. But it really just gets me when people don’t thank a mile-long list of people and they share a piece of themselves instead.

This speech from the 82^nd Academy Awards is one of the most memorable, inspiring things to me.

"Thank you, guys. When I was... I was nine and I asked my dad, "Can I have your movie camera? That old, wind-up 8mm camera that was in your drawer?" And he goes, "Sure, take it." And I took it and I started making movies with it and I started being as creative as I could, and never once in my life did my parents ever say, "What you're doing is a waste of time." Never. And I grew up, I had teachers, I had colleagues, I had people that I worked with all through my life who always told me what you're doing is not a waste of time. So that was normal to me that it was okay to do that. I know there are kids out there that don't have that support system, so if you're out there and you're listening, listen to me: If you want to be creative, get out there and do it; it's not a waste of time. Do it. Okay? Thank you. Thank you." – Michael Giacchino

I firmly believe that anyone and everyone who wants to work in entertainment should, in this day and age, be allowed to do so. If someone seriously wants a career acting and is willing to do the work, they should have someone rooting for them. If not their parents, then this guy.

What we’re aspiring to, writers, actors, aspiring authors and directors; it’s not a waste of time. Even writing here is bettering your communication skills with others and your writing ability. I wish any and all of you reading the best of luck in your endeavors.

Yes, I Will Judge Them By Their Covers

The other day, the last day of summer I’d spend at home before really moving into my college apartment, I was incredibly bored. Most of the day was spent worthlessly lazing around the house, and even though I think I’m rather mellow, spending a whole day in pajamas is no bueno.

So I up and went to a few bookstores once night started to settle in. I wasn’t really looking for anything in particular, there’s 10+ things on my shelf I’d like to read but I know I won’t have time to when classes start up again (tomorrow). They include Dean Koontz’s Frankenstein books, 1984, Ender’s Game, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, Dorian Gray, Harry Potter 7 (which really is just there so I can reread it again before the movie comes out), City of Ashes, The Hunter’s Moon, and Wicked Lovely.

Whoo. What a list. I’ve got a stack of Marvel comics I’ve got to read as well.

But let me get back to the point. Though we are told to not judge a book by a cover, I can’t help it when I walk into a bookstore with nothing on my list of books to buy. I went into Half Price Books at dusk the other day and barely remembered while I was in there that I read a positive summary on a book called Wicked Lovely—it’s about faeries and such, which I can’t really say I’ve read anything focused solely on faeries. Let me just say, if I hadn’t read the summary, based on the cover alone, I would not have even touched this book.

It looks like one of the million of teen/supposedly YA books on the shelves of any given store. I used to be in love with YA books, but now that I’m fast approaching 20 I’m teetering between the more mature YA and “adult” books now. I like fantasy and science fiction and all of that, but when every book focuses on some girl finding this fantastic boy she thinks she’ll spend forever with…and they’re both 16, I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes with every page turn. For all of these stories to end like this…there’s a huge imbalance between reality and fiction. It’s not that I’m against what the stories are saying, it must just be that I’m growing cynical in my old age. Haha.

Although, you can tell from my list that I’ve not outgrown the YA books. Some people never do.

But moving away from YA, I wanted to share a couple covers I saw on new releases that I found intriguing. I didn’t even pick up these books and read their summaries (because we were at Barnes and Noble at this point, and I really dislike buying books at full price), but the covers spoke a thousand words on their own. Often times I feel like covers do that, and that the whole cover game is really hit or miss. I don’t know if the authors get a say on what their covers look like, especially if they’re new authors. If they do, then they know what to put on the book to symbolize the story within in. If not, then the artists chosen to do so have a heckuvalot riding on their shoulders. Because whether or not we want to admit it, we do judge books by their covers.

This one, I will say I gravitated to because of the cat. I love cats. Then I like the look of it—the text more compact and not spread across the cover in boring, proper fashion. Looking at the cover, it makes me wonder if this is a novel about some old lady’s disappearance and whether or not she’s left her twelve cats all alone at her little cottage at the end of the block… Those poor kitties… Never mind what it’s about, this book will stand out against another with a simple background picture and words in a straight line across the center.

Here’s what The Vanishing of Katharina Linden is about:

“Ten-year-old Pia, who lives in the quaint German village of Bad Münstereifel, is having an especially difficult year in school. Ever since the gruesomely freakish accident that claimed her grandmother's life, she has been unmercifully teased by her classmates. Forced to socialize with the other school outcast, StinkStefan, Pia is only able to forget her troubles when their kindly neighbor, Herr Schiller, invites them over for hot chocolate and beguiles them with ghost stories. When young girls start disappearing from their small town, many parents become hysterical, but Pia and Stefan decide to find out who has taken them.”

With this one, the letters being dark and light, all on needle-thin stands, it made me feel like something eery was waiting to creep out of its pages. The letters remind me of Coraline and how I just thought the tale was particularly creepy. Then of course the word “dead” on the cover just solidifies the uneasy feeling. From first glance I would think it was a horror or suspense story, and a lot of people actually enjoy things like that. I love films but very rarely will I agree to a horror flick. So the cover isn’t there to scare people off, but to rather tickle their senses and draw them in with assurance that something will go wrong.

Here’s the summary for Procession of the Dead:

“Moving into the city to work with his small-time gangster uncle, Capac soon finds himself at the service of the Cardinal, the leader of all the criminal gangs and the ruler of the city. Capac enjoys his new life except for a few small details, including the enigmatic blind and mute monks who have a way of appearing at significant moments in Capac's life, and the fact that he can't really remember any of his life before he came to the City. Then he meets and immediately falls in love with a young woman who is determined to dig out the Cardinal's secrets.”

What I mean to say in and among all of this mess about covers is this. A picture is worth so many unspoken words and can inspire the imagination more than mere words can. I’d like to think that the words I read are things to be taken as fact (even in a work of fiction, you have to believe what the author’s telling you), where as a picture allows you to think whatever you’d like about the work. In the case of book covers, this of course may lead you to make very wrong assumptions about a book, but that’s a chance you’ll have to take. If you judge a book by the cover and read it to find that you were wrong, perhaps that’s a sign you should write your own take on it.

Secret Villains! Shhhh. Don’t tell.

Who else likes secret villains? Ones you never expected, or ones you honestly thought were gunning for the good side? They’re probably my most favorite versus the all-out evil dudes because they really punch the audience and the heroes in the gut. A couple nights back I was really stressing over…really everything, as this is what neurotic college students do when they start thinking of their futures. So in an attempt to think of something, anything else, I was left channel surfing and this is what I settled on.

I saw this movie I believe on opening day, since my birthday is on the 4^th, several friends and some family went to the theater to see this as my “birthday party.” I thought it was great. Those of them who hadn’t read the comic or were expecting a regular action flick might have thought otherwise. But let me clarify “I thought it was great.” I don’t think that this is a favorite film of mine, despite the fact that I love the stylistic elements, the costumes done just right, the effects…etc, etc. (I love sci-fi insanity and GOOD special effects. My appreciation of these elements is why I think I am a bad film student. The rest of them tend to look down on these things that I hold so near and dear. I think film should be more of an escape, something in which you tell a fantasy story rather than focus on the seriousness of life, which is something you have to deal with in real life as it is.)

I love the story behind Watchmen. When reading the comic, you have the ability to skip over the bits you don’t want to read, or rather skip over the images you don’t want to see. Watchmen both the book and movie, are horrifically graphic. At least the book allows you some methods of escape, you can skip the page, skip the image, or put the book down and walk away, taking your mind off of whatever atrocity. The movie, any movie for that matter, does not allow the same escape. Most violence does not bother me, although the film Watchmen had me squirming a bit.

Story. Right. (There will be some spoilers if you’ve not seen/read it, beware.)

Humanity as a collective force that’s being shoved towards something beyond their control and almost inevitable. “Superheroes” turning their backs on us: ‘They will look up and shout "Save us!"... and I'll whisper "no.”’ The fate of many being determined by a few. Huge moral consequences to face left and right in this story. Is what they’re doing right? Is he truly evil? Whose side are we really supposed to stand on?

Watchmen is in a lot of ways a medium meant to tear the superheroes from the pedestals we’ve put them on. The main focus is almost always on the six hero characters, and if not the book is showing us blips of humanity before some ultimate destruction falls on them. Humanity is always at the disadvantage, not really knowing what’s going on or what to do, just aware that times aren’t good and don’t seem to show promise of looking up. Since the readers know the book is set in an alternate world of the 1940’s-1985, as one goes through the story and sees the helplessness of humanity and the heroes struggling to straighten out their demons, the reader knows that something awful is brewing, something inevitable and irreparable, leaving us with a sour feeling in the gut and just a general feeling of “this is wrong.”

This is a common theme in many stories, humanity being left helpless or what have you, as in many alien movies, Terminator, Jurassic Park, and many others I can’t think of. I appreciate that in Watchmen it’s not about some alien race or dinosaurs taking over. The “villain” of the story is purely human. Even the superheroes in this book all started as human beings. It is humanity fighting itself, which is a delightfully tragic concept in fiction. (Just tragic and frightening in real life.) But really, Watchmen takes it a step further—one of the former heroes has taken it upon himself to actually save humanity by doing damage so horrific that in the end it will surely unite mankind to stand together against a misdirected force of evil. Hence the ‘secret villain.’ This likely would have never happened if these heroes hadn’t been worshiped by mankind. The guy wouldn’t have a hero complex if humanity hadn’t been so willing to take the Minutemen/Watchmen in to solve all of the problems humans were too lazy to face.

And Watchmen just has this moral ambiguity that leaves its audience on edge. Anyone with any sense of a moral compass would say that Ozymandias’ actions were wrong. He sets off multiple nuclear explosions that the world believes are Dr. Manhattan’s doing. Instead of going to war with Russia, all of mankind is united against the superhero that they believe did them wrong. WWIII is avoided, but at the cost of millions of lives, as Ozymandias puts it, “A world united in peace, there had to be sacrifice.” The man who betrayed his own teammates and then put the blame on another essentially gets away with it all, because exposing the truth behind the explosions would mean all was for naught and WWIII would still be upon them. Is this right? The death of so many people at the hands of one man, a former hero at that, is not. It’s not. Murder is wrong according to our laws. But think about it—15 million lives versus the whole world at war again, 15 million would be a fraction of the costs of a third world war. But we still say that this is wrong. We want to hang on to that glimmer of hope that says ‘but what if the world came to its senses and didn’t go to war at all?’

Oy, this is heavy stuff. It gives me chills when I think on it. Just thinking about someone with so much power bestowed upon him, so loved and worshipped whom then turns around and decides that this is best for the world.

“I did the right thing, didn’t I? It all worked out in the end.”

“’In the end?’ Nothing ends, Adrian. Nothing ever ends.”

Another thing I find very interesting in the world of comics is the idea of humanity abandoning their superheroes or making efforts to stop their escapades. Since it has been ingrained in our minds for years that “superheroes” are forces of good (Superman’s been in print since 1938) that always fight for the right thing and that they are supposed to stand as role models for all ages, the concept of finding fault with superheroes seems just…inherently wrong. I love these stories though. When mankind rages against their former heroes in these stories, it is we, the readers, who really know the truth. Our heroes are still our heroes, it’s just usually that they were forced into a bad situation, tricked, or lied to. Marvel’s Civil War arc I think does a good job of this when heroes are pitted against each other over the morality of whether or not to make “superhero registration” mandatory, and consequently the losers are sneered at and are kicked down to the same level as criminals. Similar stuff goes down in the animated movie Superman/Batman: Public Enemies, in which they are accused of crimes they did not commit. How easily humanity can be swayed…although the fictional humans are right to question superheroes, for once suspicion is thrown out there, it would be hard to look at someone with arms the size of tree trunks and laser vision in the same way. Now let’s tie this back to Watchmen…if I could take you back to the beginning…Rorschach believes that the Comedian is offed by some government-backed program to eliminate all costumed heroes. Once again, the minds behind Watchmen are trying to irk us. It’s not as if these government officials would know how these people carry themselves on a day to day basis (the Comedian was a pretty awful guy and that makes it seem like he deserved his death)…or would they? Regardless, Watchmen opens with this theme of ‘don’t trust these people, despite all the good they’ve done for us while wearing masks,’ which just completely contrasts with everything we’ve come to expect out of comic books.

It’s all about making the heroes more human… They’ve got problems just like us, between holding down a job, dealing with what may very well be mental illness, infidelity, backstabbing former coworkers, what have you. I love this about Watchmen, the fact that it’s main focus really is on the lives of the heroes, versus their actual…heroics. I love it when comics do an about face and show their heroes at their high points, where the characters think they’re gods, and then let them fall—its usually only when the heroes crash and burn that we see they are just human after all. That, dear goodness, is one of my favorite things because it proves that these people have feeeelings and you feel for them too.

Cowboys and Alchemists

Unrelated you say? I think not. Two animes I set my sights on this summer were Cowboy Bebop and Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood. Both of them are fantastic and really have failed to disappoint. FMA ended here in the States on July 23^rd, and Cowboy Bebop reruns should end in the next couple weeks. Both of them had good pacing and provided lots of laughs and fantastic characters. My new favorite anime character (and one of my new favorite characters period) is Spike off Cowboy Bebop.

If you haven't seen/heard of these series, never fear, I don't intend to post huge spoilers.

Cowboy Bebop I think I like because it’s just a good ol’ classic anime. It was new in 1998 and just looks older, which is nice in a quaint way. I’ve been meaning to watch it for years, but whenever I caught it on TV it was already mid way through the season. It’s also got a great soundtrack, my favorite song off of it is Rain by Steve Conte. The rest of the soundtrack sounds nothing like it, but is great regardless, blending country sounds with jazzy music.

The basic story is about a group of bounty hunters running through space trying to make a buck. I like that it’s something of a futuristic western…IN SPACE, and it’s not idiotic. It does have more than a few episodes that are essentially filler, however the episodes that focus on the specific characters and provide us with some back story are really good. The characters seem real. Not only are they funny, quirky, mellow, etc. for the majority of the time, but they can also kick it into high gear in the blink of an eye when faced with each of their pasts. And the English voices don’t bother me! They’re fantastic, actually, except for those episodes where we meet Spike’s old nemesis where I swear half the characters are voiced by the same guy. I’m looking forward to the end to see what happens with all of the character development.

A good example of the scenery: a spaceship paired with a desert railroad. Old and new technology collide!

Generally, after half the episodes I run off to go write afterwards because I love the characters and want to fashion some of my own as unique and as annoyingly, perhaps stubbornly loveable. The world built for the show is pretty neat too, set in the 2070’s where we’ve colonized the entire solar system and each planet has its own people and so on and so forth. It’s familiar enough but also delightfully futuristic and plays to our fantasies of what the world(s) might come to look like. It’s likely due to the far off future aspect and the fact that so many people like it that it’s stood the test of time. Adult Swim plays the whole thing (all 26 episodes) at least once or twice a year.

Psst. Also this movie based on the series was not bad either. You really don’t need much knowledge on the series to enjoy it.

Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood…my first real exposure to FMA at all. I realize now it was a good place to start. Following much closer to the manga than the first anime series, Brotherhood…in one word was epic. I said so on many the occasion and was often left screaming at my computer when the episodes cut off after 24 minutes. Not enough, Funimation, not enough!

Emotionally charged but not over the top nor uncomfortably dramatic, Brotherhood is in essence the story of two brothers who are budding alchemists (more or less magicians who rely on science to back their skills. Yay science!) who suffer a great loss early on which sets them on a quest to get their “bodies” back when they don’t obey the laws of alchemy. The plot gets much more complicated from there when Philospher’s stones and demons called homunculi come into play. The brothers’ journey gets tangled with the very fate of the state and it results in…epicness.

The story examines the value of friends and family, allies and enemies, and I’m certain there’s not an episode that fails to remind us of the value and preciousness of life itself. It does reference religion a few times and refers to God quite a bit, but not in a manner that is preachy per say, but to reference power over man and the potential terror a god-like being on earth could instill in humans. (Because if there’s one thing that will really irk me, it’s religion in my entertainment. I have nothing against religion, I have my own beliefs and anyone else is free to have theirs, but I’d rather not have them thrown in my face as the key to the plot while I’m trying to enjoy a film/etc.)

This one has a great array of characters as well, each with their own temperaments, desires, and weaknesses. By far my utmost favorites are (predictably) Mustang and Edward. This of course is due to my love of people with power who have a lot to lose. Can we tell I enjoy tragedy? But really, the rest of the main cast is only a half step away from favoritism. I think TV Tropes explains just why the best with the term ‘iron woobie.’

“A Woobie is a character who you like to feel sorry for. … An Iron Woobie is a character who has something noble about his Woobie nature. Maybe they became a Woobie of their own free will from a Heroic Sacrifice for the sake of The Power of Friendship. Maybe just their passive powers of endurance show a Heroic Spirit. …”

It’s like they all friggin’ fall under it, though the term still sounds silly.

Brotherhood is inspiring in like X-ty trillion ways. It’s been a massive inspiration on my latest work because I love the relationships between these people who have been brought together to fight the big bad evil thing at the end of the road. Brotherhood was the right blend of magicky stuff and science and big arching questions that just did the trick for my little geeky mind. Its characters really inspired me, each of them having a back story worth hearing and each of them turning out to be people you really cared about, likely because they were all put down so bad that come the end you want them to not only win but kick ass (of course that’s how it goes, stupid. It sounded better in my head)! Overall it was like an epic, but not so totally spread out as a Lord of the Rings-esque epic. It doesn’t mean to tire the viewer out. I will admit that some of the explanations were so…six feet over my head that I kind of just went with it, and I’m not sure if it’s because the logic was just utter bullshit that it sounded like it would work or if it was because I didn’t pay close enough attention or what. I like the show enough that I don’t want to tear it down. One real qualm? There was so much bloody violence in this! I mean, even when they’re being humorous…

(It's not that it offends me, but there is a ton of blood shed in this series.)

Oh, and let’s not forget about the music! Brotherhood had so many beautiful openers and closing credit sequences. My favorites were the final opener, “Rain”, because it really gets me every time, the desperateness of the situation and the tears and the…yes. You get it. And then the “Shunkan Sentimental” closer, because this was when the characters still had hope that things were going to be okay and the song just fit the feeling so well. But dear God, I cannot stand the English voices after I started watching this in Japanese. They are all wrong in my honest opinion.

Heyy…so I talked about FMA more because it’s done. And Cowboy Bebop’s (reruns are) not. And because there was, like, three times as much material for Brotherhood. …I love them both. So. Much.

On a side note: fuuuuuuu… I really want to do a post about Inception but it’s been a while since I’ve seen it and I’d really like to see it again before doing an analysis or review or whatever the heck you want to call it. Blargg.

New Books!

As my mom aaand thousands of other people say so frequently: I like new books.

So, with no plans for this particular Friday, I set out with a small list of books and the hunt was afoot. Alas, though I went to four bookstores, it wasn’t until I broke down and went to Half Price Books that I actually found any of the books I was looking for (at a price I was willing to pay, at least). College students don’t have money. I’m allowed to be nitpicky about cost.

Out of four books, I got two. One, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, was a suggestion of a friend. Its also some critically acclaimed piece of literature that I’ve yet to read. The other was City of Ashes, the second book of the Mortal Instruments series. It’s got potential, although I didn’t like how the first ended, I liked the mythology enough to give it another shot. (The illusive, need be fair priced Will Grayson, Will Grayson and Hunger Games remain on the list.)

In addition to getting new books, I found that paroosing around bookstores and reading the back cover synopses offered lots of inspiration. After coming across stacks upon stacks of Twilight books, I kept thinking, I can do this. I can write, hell I can write better than a lot of the people published. I also find it said that about half of the YA fiction is flooded with vampire novels. It’s sad that vampires are now overrated. It makes me want to write something that throws back to how they used to be or how they should be (monsters, truly dead beings with rotting flesh, etc), but at the same time the new vampires do have a certain amount of charm. But the nice gentlemanly vampire has been done and its time to move beyond it.

So yes, reading the synopses of non-vampire books, I was constantly drawn to a number of books… The cliffhangers and mysteries the synopses provide really do get you/me/audiences. I truly appreciate those authors who are striving to be different. Though not so different as to be unfamiliar, Maggie Stiefvater (Shiver) is one of my new favorites because she does turn the werewolf lore into something her very own. I think this is really necessary for the paranormal stories today. It’s not enough to have a brooding vampire or a hunk of a werewolf hanging around. They need to be really, completely different from anything we’ve ever seen! We need wonder and mystery—vampires and werewolves were thought up because we used to be afraid of the unknown and to create said myths were ways of coping with the unknown.

In short, book synopses often inspire me, especially if they’re from an author I’ve never heard of. Makes me think I’m perfectly capable of doing the same and inspiring someone else.