Amanda Hocking

Amanda's Blog

shame on you, America
November 23rd, 2009 by
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I recently wrote an excellent blog about how we should all overthrow the government.
Then something happened and I realized that I had much more pressing soapbox to get on.
Adam Lambert kissed a dude on the American Music Awards last night. He did other things, which I’m not going to comment on because I don’t want to spend three hours writing a point by point of his performance compared to his female peers, and it’s also not entirely relevant to the point I am going to make.
ABC chose not to reair the kiss (and I am only speaking of the kiss itself, not any other part of his act) because it was inappropriate. On the West Coast, his performance was censored. The blogosphere is all atwitter with disgusting and rude and disgraceful, etc this act was.
I am not even going to defend the kiss here. I am not going to make parallals between similar girl on girl kisses I’ve seen, or the amount of hetrosexual kissing/sex that I see on television, including ABC.
I was disturbed by how outraged the American public seemed to be, although this shouldn’t be any surprise to me since; A) same-sex marriage is illegal in 45 states, and B) everything under the sun offends teh American public. You are finnicky, finnicky bastards.
So, as per usual, I went to my twitter to express my feelings, and said “You know what was offensive about Adam Lambert kissing a dude? Your reaction to it, America.”
Notice I only mention the kiss. Not his entire performance.
Suddenly, for the first time ever, I was flooded with responses. Most of them were positive, but some of them were not. I didn’t realize that this was such an important statement to make. I barely put any thought into it when I typed it. I am pro-gay rights, and I’m just generally offended by homophobia. 
Once people started freaking out, I wanted to delete the tweet. Because I’m not a huge Adam Lambert fan. I liked him on Idol, and I like his 2012 song, but I had no plans to buy his album. I didn’t really feel the need to defend him, and I could just not talk about it if I wanted to. 
Then, for the first time, I think I really realized how hard it must be to be gay. I take it for granted that I’m straight, and as a fag hag, I always support and love gay people. It doesn’t occur to me not to, and it doesn’t usually occur to me that other people will. I have created for myself a very safe gay loving bubble. 
I had somehow managed to delude myself into believing that because everyone that really matters to me supports gay rights or is gay themselves that everyone on the planet was like that. 
This whole Adam Lambert thing makes me want to cry. I didn’t realize how hard it still was to be gay. When I see people out, like Neil Patrick Harris and Rosie O’Donnell, and they seem so happy, I don’t understand why anyone struggles with the decision to come out. I honestly didn’t think that many people still cared.
I am disillusioned by the lack of progress I thought we had made. (I saw “we” in reference to the gay rights movement, which I consider myself to be a part of.)  When people refer to gay people as being brave, I usually scoff. Because I think, “They’re just people. Like me.” But it does take courage to be open, and I didn’t realize how much.
Today, because a few people on twitter on were offended by a supportive statement I made about someone else, I wanted to go back in the fag hag closet. But its because of that urge to do that, that urge I had for the first time to want to hide my love of all things homosexual (except for women, cause unfortunately, I’m not a lesbian) that makes me realize I need to redouble my efforts. That we all need to.
This should NOT be an issue. An adult male kissing another consenting adult male is no more offensive than any other adult kissing another consenting adult. The facts that matter aren’t gender but age and consent. 
In a time when the world and economy are falling to shambles, we shouldn’t even be discussing this. It should simply accepted.
One day, we will look back on the way American treated gays with the same shame and regret that we look at how treated (treat) blacks.  

dusting off the keyboard
November 17th, 2009 by
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So I spent the last month or maybe two feeling a little rough about the whole thing. Rejection hurts worse the closer you get. But now I’ve redoubled my efforts.
I started a week ago, and I’m about 35k words in, and I’m hoping to be done writing the first draft by Thanksgiving. It’s a post-apocalyptic young adult with zombies, bad ass female leads, rock stars, road trips, and even a little love story. Yes, it truly has it all.
I am writing this for a few reasons:
1. Zombies are awesome.
2. Thanks to the 2012 crazies, end of the world literature/movies/etc. is more popular.
3. I need to stop writing such misogynistic books.
4. Ellen Ripley (a.k.a. Sigourney Weaver of Aliens fame) is bad ass
5. This is exactly what my future agent Ginger Clark is looking for.
So, without further ado, here is the first line of my new soon to be agented manuscript:
“This is the way the world ends; not with a bang or a whimper, but with zombies scratching at the back door.”

I want an agent
October 19th, 2009 by
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This me trying to do The Secret, so my plan to do that is to let the universe know what I really want. So here it is: I want a literary agent.

Specifically, I’d really like Ginger Clark. After following her tweets, I’ve come to believe that she would appreciate my writing probably more than any other agent I’ve read up on. I’m afraid that the query letter I recently emailed her wasn’t enticing enough, so I’m enlisting the universe to try and help me.

She seems like a fun gal that has a chinchillas, which is always a plus. She loves Jack Donaghey, although I can’t imagine how anyone wouldn’t. (I frequently laugh over his mention of “Rainstorm Katrina.”) She seems fun, enjoyable, and dedicated, and she seems to take risks on new writers.

But what’s in it for her, you ask? I have written a young adult/uban fantasy, which she is interested in, but she wants a twist on something, i. e. not Twilight 2.0. When reading urban fantasy, you will find stories that are perdominately about vampires, werewolves, fae, and to lesser extenet witches and ghosts. But not mine. I have expounded on the story of Vitterfolk, and written a novel with sexy trolls as the protoganists. You don’t see any of that out there. Or at least I haven’t.

I think I’ve written something smart, funny, engaging, and intriguing. I write lots of books, and I’ll continuing writing lots of books. Someday, I am going to be a successful author because I’m not going to give up until I am, and every day, I learn more about the process and that business of publishing.

I don’t have much of platform to speak of, but that’s mostly because I’m poor and live in a small town. However, I’ll work my ass for this book. The one thing I learned from Kathy Griffin is that nothing is too small, and you take whatever work is handed your way. To sell my book, I’d blog/tweet/talk/sign/speak/dance wherever, whenver, constantly until… well there is no “until.” I’d never stop.

On that note, I also think that Ginger Clark should represent me because of her recent expression of fondness for Kathy Griffin. And the one celebrity I am like most in the world is Kathy Griffin. (We’re not identical. She has much less shame than I do. In a good way.) So…

The Secret thing worked for Oprah and Ellen. I hope it works for me…

my life for the next 2.5 months
October 14th, 2009 by
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The Limosuines song “Very Busy People” keeps making me want to watch Donnie Darko. Oh well.

So, it’s mid-October. I have completed 4 books since January (with breaks in between.) I have started another three (Wisdom, the fourth in My Blood Approves series; Proxy, the second in the Switched series; and Honalee, the first in a witch series.) Plus I just completed the outline for a new as-of-yet-untitled book.

This one isn’t urban fantasy, just straight young adult, and it deals with a group of friends, who are gay. You don’t see enough of that right now. Gay guys are usually regulated to a shopping partner, the fashionable best friend to the protagnist, and lesbians only seem to exist as hot girls in fantasies or bitter ex-wives on sitcoms. So I want to write one that’s more realistic. One that is aimed at gay young adults and/or their hags.

But I have three books I need to finish (Wisdom really won’t take that long. Proxy wouldn’t either, but I’m currently mad at the characters for getting rejected so I’m putting that on the back burner for a little bit.) At any rate, my goal is to finish all three of the books I’ve started by the end of year.

Can I do? Yes. I can. If I crack down. I haven’t written much of anything lately. But I figure that if I’m really serious, I can easily have them all done by Christmas.

Then I can start the new year fresh. The only problem is that I really wanna start the gay book. But I think I should clear this off, start clean.

Well, Proxy can probably hold off. My “fans” would really like me to finish Wisdom, and I could probably do that in like a week if I tried. I should finish Honalee cause it’s a different book for me to try getting agented, and Eric claimed that witches were the new big trend. And the gay book is taking a different avenue, and that’s something I see a market for, and I think I’d be really godo at it.

So I think I’ll finish Wisdom first, since it won’t take me long, so there’s no sense in putting it off. Then Honalee, and then the gay book. If I have time, I’ll finish Proxy too. Otherwise, that’s what I’ll start the new year with. I think.

So yep. I’m gonna be pretty antisocial for the next two and half months. Which is just as well, since I’m broke and don’t have any money to spend on doing things.

Except for the really fun Where the Wild Things Are outing with Eric, Petey, and Matty Tall. And Halloween. I’ll do those things. But otherwise, I think I’ll mostly be writing, working, and sleeping.

by now you should’ve somehow realized what you’ve gotta do
October 9th, 2009 by
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Man, I love Oasis.

I’m trying to figure out how to incorporate a unicorn in a story without it being totally lame. It’s hard. Unicorns come off cheesy and lame pretty easily. But I sure do love the cult classic Legend cause of how awesome the unicorns are. So, I’m trying.

Maybe in book two or three of Switched. I know I’ve got a lot more magic going on the second one, so a unicorn might work. Or I might end up scrapping that whole idea out of fear of cheesing it up. But I really want it, so I’ll think about it and try to find a way to make it awesome.

Today wasn’t a great day, but I’m working on preservering and not wallowing. Things are always changing, and sometimes they change for the better. Sometimes not, but the only way things’ll ever get better is if they change.

Currently reading: Kathy Griffen “Official Book Club Selection” and “Glamorama” by Bret Easton Ellis, which is making me question my sanity because of how much I love it. Why oh why did I put off reading it for so long?!

The next House of Night books comes out in a few weeks, and I just read the first chapter online. I’ll prolly read it, but I don’t know why. They’re not that good, but since I’ve know read five of the books, I feel obligated to keep reading to see how this thing ends.

The new Richelle Meade doesn’t come out for awhile and that bums me out. At any rate, I think I’m gonna get a new library card and start reading more. I’ve been writing pretty much not stop since January, and although I’m pretty thrilled that I’ve been able to finish 4 books and start 2 others, maybe I should take some time to read for awhile and kick back.

It’s hard, tho. Especially with Wisdom, the fourth in My Blood Approves Series. I love that series, and I’m excited to write how it all turns out. A lot of exciting stuff happens in this book. I sure wish I hadn’t decided to write about vampires. When I started writing it, I had no idea how over saturated the vampire market was. If I did, I wouldn’t have. I still think it’s the best thing I’ve written, but I don’t think anyone would take a second look at it cause of the vampires. Not that I blame them.

Oh well. Maybe in a year or two, if I haven’t gotten anything going with Switched or Honalee or whatever else I write in the future, then maybe I can go back to trying to get My Blood Approves out there. Maybe the vampires will have died down enough where its cool to write about them again. Or maybe not.

Who knows.

2009 is supposed to be my year, tho. I gotta believe that something’s gonna happen.

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