Amanda Hocking

You guys, I need your help with something. I can’t tell you why yet. But I’m having trouble picking a name. I’ve narrowed the list down to the names I like best, and I’d like it if you could pick what names you like the most. So… yep. Please vote and let me know what you think!

UPDATE: To help you all make your decision, I’m just going to clarify that the name is NOT for a leading man. So it need not be the “sexiest” choice.

It’s been quite awhile since I last posted a blog, but for good reason. My good friend Pete got married last Sunday, and I was in the wedding. I also had friends staying with me throughout the week, and it was a very busy, very fun time.

You may remember my friend Pete from the cover of a book I wrote.

This is her on her loveliest of lovely days (She’s the one in the wedding dress):

Here are all my friends, some visiting from out of state, some from out of town, and even some from out of country, together again, celebrating our togetherness:

And here are some shoes I bought:

All the proceeds go to Michael J. Fox’s foundation, so it’s okay that I spent too much money on the Nike MAG. Because I’m also saving Michael J. Fox’s life. And whenever I think about him being sick, I cry.

In the meantime, I’m writing things and editing things. So all around it’s been a very busy time in my household. Busy, but good.

OH! And I got my Halloween costume. Me and Eric doing a theme. This year it’s Disney villains. I’m the Queen of Hearts, he’s the Cheshire Cat (who according to the Monopoly Disney Villains Edition is technically a villain), my dog is being Captain Hook, and my cat Squeak, who is my dog’s best friend, is been Captian Hook’s sidekick, Smee. So it’s going to be loads of fun for Halloween at my house.

But that’s a really long time away. Which is good, because I have a ton of things to do before then.

Here’s a guest post from Daniel Arenson, author of the Song of Dragons series. The first two books – Blood of Requiem and Tears of Requiem – are available now for ereaders or in paperback. For more info, please check out his website – www.danielarenson.com

Song of Dragons is a fantasy series about one of the toughest creatures around. But besides dragons, what are the other toughest creatures out there?

10. Fireys (Labyrinth)

The Fireys are creatures from the fantasy film Labyrinth. Lanky beasts with flaming red pelts, they enjoy removing their limbs and heads and tossing them around. The Fireys enjoy pulling off humans’ heads too, not understanding that our heads don’t detach and reattach like theirs.

9. R.O.U.S.s (The Princess Bride)

Rodents Of Unusual Size from the 80s film The Princess Bride. They’re nasty creatures who live in fire swamps. One savaged and nearly killed Westly while Princess Buttercup wrung her hands.

8. Skeksis (The Dark Crystal)

Mmmmm MMMMmmmm. The Skeksis are villanious creatures who killed most of the Gelflings. They’re not quite birds. They’re not quite reptiles. They’re definitely some of the ugliest Muppets around.

7. Dementors (Harry Potter)

They dress in black. They suck all joy and hope from everyone around them. If you misbehave, they’ll drag you off to prison. No, they’re not IRS agents — they’re Dementors. These are possibly the foulest creatures in the world of Harry Potter. They’d rank higher on the list, were it not for their Achilles’ heel; a simple Patronus Charm sends them fleeing.

6. Formics AKA The Buggers (Ender’s Game)

Huge, alien insects are hardly original in science fiction. They exist everywhere, from Heinlein’s Starship Troppers to Futurama. But they’re rarely as effective as in Ender’s Game. They almost destroyed the Earth, and they inspired a string of sequels.

5. Beholders (Dungeons and Dragons)

A Beholder resembles a floating orb of flesh with a large mouth, a single central eye, and lots of smaller eyestalks on top. Most D&D creatures — goblins, dragons, elves, orcs, and the like — are based on folklore or literature. The Beholder is an original D&D invention, and one of the meanest creatures in the game.

4. The Others AKA White walkers (A Song of Ice and Fire)

They’re the reason for the Wall. These undead creatures from the north live in snow and ice. If they kill you, you become one of them. After five books in A Song of Ice and Fire, we still haven’t seen too much of them… but when they do appear, they’re creepy.

3. Aliens (Alien series)

Game over, man. Arguably the toughest, ugliest, creepiest creatures in science fiction.

2. Ringwraiths (Lord of the Rings)

Even Led Zeppelin sang about them. The Ringwraiths are among the most dangerous creatures in Middle Earth, and in all of fantasy literature.

1. The Gorgs (Fraggle Rock)

These huge, shaggy creatures are the rulers of the universe. They are the terror of Fraggles and defendors of raddishes. We bet they can defeat any other creature on this list. The Gorgs top the list for toughest creature.

Excellent list, Daniel – with one notable exception. Where’s the thing with the hands?

We have become a society of bullies.

The magazines, the television shows, the twitter, the youtube – so much of it is about making fun of somebody else. Most of the time, it’s celebrities, and we all seem to think that’s okay because celebrities aren’t people. If you’re famous, it’s automatically assumed that you’re made out of the same material as Barbie, so no matter what is said about you, it can’t hurt.

I am so sick of making people famous just so we can hate them. This whole thing with the Jersey Shore and the Kardishians. People never say anything nice about them, bitch about them being famous, and then keep watching the shows to keep them famous. It’s like we’ve been addicted to looking down on people.

(Side note: I do watch the Jersey Shore. But I watch it because I like Jenni, Snooki, Pauly, and Vinny. I think they seem like nice people, and Pauly is really funny).

Making fun of people has become a part of our culture, and I’m not expecting to change that. But I am sincerely asking that everybody stop with the kids – and I mean all kids, from Justin Bieber to Rebecca Black.

I just this really inspired post by Jensen Karp, who is a generally very funny person which is what made this piece so moving. I urge you all to check it out: Why My Daughter Will Never Have a Webcam: The Jessi Slaughter Story. (You should also follow him on the Twitter, because he really is hilarious).

But this is something that’s been on my mind for awhile. I actually wasn’t familiar with the whole Jessi Slaughter debacle until I read that post by Jensen, but I’m getting so sick of the way people talk about kids.

Take Rebecca Black. She’s thirteen years old. I want you to remember your thirteen-year-old self and how most of you would be thrilled to have a recording contract and also probably not be world weary enough to realize how terrible the song was that you were recording. You didn’t write it or produce it, and you don’t know enough about the music industry or even music in general to know that this wasn’t going to make you the next Miley Cyrus.

She was vilified in a way that is totally inappropriate and completely unjustifiable. She is a kid who dreamed of being a singer and sang a crappy song. She did not kill a million Jews. She is not responsible for the recession. She didn’t step on a puppy. She sang a song.

I haven’t gotten 1/1000th of hate mail she’s gotten, and I’m an adult, and I find it rough sometimes. I cannot imagine what that must be like for a child.

Really, honestly, Jensen said everything better than I did. So read his article.

But I beg of you, when it comes to kids, enough already. I don’t care if they’re in the public eye or not – most of them don’t even realize what that means. They’re just kids doing stupid stuff. And nobody deserves to be ridiculed, humiliated, and judged like that just for being an awkward adolescent. 

I read this blog the other day: The Problem Isn’t the Books

I really think you should read it, mostly because it’s interesting, but also because I don’t want to rehash it. The main bullet points are this:

A NY Times article came out basically saying that teenage boys aren’t reading books anymore, and they (the author of said article) think it’s because of how few books are marketed toward teenage boys.

The blog I linked to is a rebuttle to that, but what they’re really rebutting is this quote:

“We need more good works of realistic fiction, nonfiction, graphic novels, on- or ­offline, that invite boys to reflect on what kinds of men they want to become.”

The blog author is Sandra Mitchell, an author of several YA novels. (Full disclosure: I was not familiar with her or her work before reading this blog, which I discovered via a tweet).

Sandra makes the counterpoint that these books already exist – they simply have a female protagonist.

Look, you really need to go read the whole article, so I don’t have to copy and paste the whole thing. Go read the blog. Hurry. Go.

Before I go any further, I want to clarify a point:

“News flash: the only markets in which women dominate literature are romance and YA. All the rest of it is predominately male and male-oriented. Somehow, though, James Patterson and John Grisham still manage to be bestsellers– because women are reading their novels.”

She’s referring to women characters. Women read far more books than men, in all markets. According to my brief internet research, in fiction books, men are 20% of the reading population. So the fact that boys are reading less isn’t just a teenage problem – males in general don’t read as much.

I find this blog and this whole idea really interesting. I don’t want to turn this into a marketing debate, though – where it becomes “market books to boys and they will read them” vs “we don’t market books to boys because they won’t read them either way so we market to the readers we have – girls.”

What I find interesting is the valid points that Sandra made. Here are some of my favorite things: Batman. Fight Club. Star Wars. Bret Easton Ellis. Stephen King. Zombies. American Psycho. Goodfellas. Documentaries about WWII. Pulp Fiction.

I genuinely enjoy all of those things, and not one of them is marketed towards ladies. In fact, some of them – like Fight Club and American Psycho – I would say were marketed specifically against ladies. But I managed to find them and enjoy them just the same. And I got absolutely no flack from my lady friends for liking them.

In turn, I love When Harry Met Sally, the Vampire Academy series, Sex and the City, Gossip Girl, Jane Austen, Lifetime movies, and musicals. And I think that boys do like those things, but most of them aren’t comfortable with admitting it, especially if they’re straight. Because they would get flack for it.

That’s the point that I really find interesting. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for awhile but hadn’t found the right words for, but Sandra said it perfectly: “Male is neutral, female is specific.”

Anyone can like Batman. Girls and gay guys can like Sex and the City.

I don’t know what this means, exactly, or what the answer to the problem is. Why teenage boys aren’t reading is actually a multifacted problem, and this answer isn’t as simple as changing the cover of a book. But Jo Rowling had to go by J. K. Rowling because the publisher didn’t think boys would read a book written by a girl.

What does this say about society? I don’t know. I am not a feminist. I find the term annoying. To me, saying I’m a feminist sounds like I’m saying I’m pro-female, which is essentially anti-male, and I’m not. Some of my favorite people are boys.

But I am for equality, and I do think it’s a shame that predominantly male interests are held in higher regard than predominately female interests.

Is there a solution to any of this? I don’t know. I’m just saying that I find the conversation interesting. And some of it disheartening. And whether we come up with an answer or not, its a good conversation to be having.