Amanda Hocking

I make my living on writing books, so it’s funny how much time has been spent not writing. I plan to get back to my roots this weekend and really dig in and get some writing done. That means I’ll be unplugging myself from the internet. Probably not completely, because I don’t know if I could survive a full 72 hours without tweeting about something.

But I won’t be answering emails, checking my Facebook, or blogging. I will be avoiding the internet as much as possible. Starting today, at 5 pm central time, I will be off those things until Monday. I will instead be writing a lot and relaxing a little. And not worrying about anything else.

Everything else can wait until Monday.

I am a fangirl. Mostly of cult classics, 80s films, superheroes, obscure actors, one-hit-wonders, and bands popular in Australia. But I’m a fangirl about pretty much anything that catches my fancy.

Here’s a struggle I’ve had my whole life, and maybe it is just a “me” thing, but I feel like it’s something I’m seeing in the real world. All the stereotypical “dude” geeky things I like are socially acceptable, and all the stereotypical “lady” geeky things I like are frowned upon.

Even as a kid, I was treated cooler when I brought my Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles to school for show and tell than when I brought my Barbie.

And stuff I classify as “dude” doesn’t mean that ladies can’t or don’t like it. It’s just the sci-fi/fantasy stuff that seems to be more populated by male geeks than lady geeks.

You may ask yourself, what is lady geek stuff? Well, I didn’t even realize that’s what it was until a blogpost I read from Shane Nickerson eons ago in which he talked about going to see a movie the same night that Sex and the City 2 opened. The ladies at the movie were all dressed up as their favorite characters and drinking the drinks from the movie, and Shane Nickerson was somewhat annoyed and put off by it until he realized that they were no different than the Star Wars fans who dressed up as Boba Fett to see to see that movie or as people who dressed up as Dr. Frankenfurter to see Rocky Horror Picture Show.

It was at the moment when he realized that the Sex and the City fans were geeking out in the same fashion that he geeked out about Star Wars, which gave me the same epiphany. They were just lady geeks.

But what I don’t understand – and I may be wrong – is that lady geeks are not looked at as the same way dude geeks are. Joss Whedon geeks are not treated the same way as Twilight geeks. (I’m sure there are crossover fans, but for the sake of this discussion, it’s easier if it’s more black and white.)

The argument for this is going to be it’s the quality of the work. Firefly is a better quality of work than Twilight. To which I say – as a fan of both – that’s that is debatable. And any geek can argue that the thing they’re geekiest about is of a higher quality than the thing you’re geekiest about (such as me arguing with Eric about Batman villians.)

I think if were to get a room of geeks together and have them make a food chain of what geeks would be on top and what would be on the bottom, there would be much arguing, but there would be almost a unanimous vote to put Twihards and Sex and the City fans on the bottom.

Why is this? Why is it so much more respectable to geek out over spaceships and a made up religion than vampires with undertones of a real religion? Is it because of the romance? Is romance inherently uncool?

Is that really it? Because The Lost Boys is cool, and that’s a different modern take on vampires. But I think that’s still a respectable thing to geek out about, even though there is some romance and two Corey’s. But the romance isn’t the main plot.

Is that what separates respect?

I’d really like to see people’s thoughts on this, but please don’t say stuff like “Because Twilight sucks” because that’s not the point. Lots of people could argue Star Wars sucks, and then it would just became a debate about what’s good and what’s not good, and that’s not what I’m talking about.

I am asking why is it cool and respectable to geek out over sci fi and JJ Abrams, but it’s not cool to geek out over romance and Stephanie Meyer.

Or maybe it’s all in my head, and it’s not cool to geek out over anything.

Something I just wanted to clear up – a lot of people seemed to think that m last post “Some Things That Need to Be Said” was directed at people sayid negative things about me. It wasn’t. I actually wrote it for all the people telling me that I’m an inspiration & that they were completely sold on the self publishing idea.

I don’t mind so much if people read something about & decide I suck. It bothers me more if somebody reads something about & gets the wrong idea & makes a major life decision based on that. I want people to research & be careful. That’s all I’m really saying.

Tonight was the season finale of SouthLAnd. I haven’t it yet because I’m tired & in bed, but everybody should watch it & do everything they can to keep it on the air because I love SouthLAnd lots. And since NBC took Law & Order away from me, I needs crime drama that I enjoy. And no, Law & Order: LA does NOT count.

At any rate, I wrote this blog on my iPhone, so I’m sorry if it ends up weird.

And I’ll be in the Wednesday issue of the St. Paul Pioneer Press, if you want to check that out.

And don’t do drugs. RIP Mike Starr.

I feel like I should update my blog, but I don’t want to talk about me. I’ve talked about me a lot and everybody else has talked about me and it’s just enough of me.

Let’s talk about William Fichtner. You may say to yourself, “I don’t know who that it is,” and you’d probably be right, but then you’d look at a picture of him and go, “Oh yeah! He’s that guy from the thing!” Yep. That’s William Fichtner.

He’s been in a number of television shows and movies over the past twenty years, including The Dark Knight, Prison Break, Armageddon, Mr & Mrs Smith, and Crash. And I’ve always enjoyed him. But on Friday I saw on Drive Angry, and it officially won me over as a hardcore fan.

Okay. So I know what you’re thinking. “Drive Angry 3D? Really?” Yes. I expected it to be horrible. But it wasn’t. I seriously loved it. And I would say at least 90% of that love came from William Fichtner’s protrayal of the Accountant.

I will say that by the end of the film, I still didn’t completely understand what he was “accounting.” And some of the film didn’t completely “make sense.” But the explosions were fun. The cars were awesome (it was mostly a 69 Charger). And William Fichtner was incredibly badass.

So I would recommend going seeing it. I honestly gave it to a 9 out of 10. My viewing companions didn’t enjoy it as much as I did. But I’ve figured out that if at least one thing blows up and at least one person is super awesome and kickass, then I will enjoy the movie. Especially when I see it in theaters.

At any rate, William Fichtner is somebody who deserves more buzz this week than me. So go watch Drive Angry  or Albino Alligator or The Dark Knight. But really, you should watch The Dark Knight every day anyway.

Hollowland is getting revamped in preparation for my work on the sequel, Hollowmen. I’ve already began drafting the outline, and I’ll hopefully be able to start writing the book in earnest sometime next month.

Hollowland got a new cover today, courtesy of phatpuppart.com (who also did the covers for Lost Without You and Honalee). I’m thrilled with the new cover.

Meanwhile, I’ve got a small stack of paperbacks with the old cover of the bleeding heart on it. So I’m going to sign them and sell them off. I don’t have the paperbacks up with the new cover yet (I’m hoping to work on that later today or tomorrow). But if you want to get your hands on the cover with the heart – now is the time to get it.

UPDATE: I’ve sold out of the heart paperbacks of Hollowland. Thanks to everybody for bought a copy!