March 2017 #InkRipples ~ ~ ~ Hall Ways Talks Tropes!

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand posting on the first Monday of every month. To participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, and link back to the three host blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

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What's all the fuss about? HALL WAYS TALKS TROPES.

When the word "trope" started showing up in all kinds of book reviews, I was initially confused. Grammar geek that I am, I couldn't understand why people were complaining about tropes being used. After all, in my learning, a trope is a literary device and with few exceptions, I think figurative language enhances writing. Why the complaints? But alas, language evolves, and there is now an additional definition where trope has a negative connotation and represents a theme that's overly common, overdone, or becoming cliche. 

As I put this newer definition in my thinking cap, I made a quick list of the tropes that I've noticed: 

• deus ex machina (fits BOTH definitions of trope)

• the special snowflake 

• opposite sexes can't have platonic relationships

• the love triangle

• the clueless, dumb, or absent adults (especially in YA)

• the just discovered royal lineage

• the forbidden love

• the quirky best friend

• the special powers/gift not realized or not triggered until age 15/16/17 (49??)

• the bookish/bookstore/book seller/library/librarian hook 

Now, I'm not saying that all of the above are deal breakers for ME. Deus en machina usually is -- come on -- but the bookish hook works on me pretty much every time. SUCKA. Author Kai Strand doesn't see the use of tropes as necessarily a bad thing, and I get that! She's right -- readers want to escape into the feel-goods of fiction. Plus, readers want to see their own situations play out differently than they might in real life: the underdog is victorious; the unpopular girl is loved by Mr. Popular; the bully gets punished. 

Here's the thing: I am not a writer, but I have the utmost respect for writers. They not only have stories to tell, but they are brave enough to put them in writing and share them with the world. How hard that must be!  No one has a patent on any one theme, so as long as a writer puts his or her own spin on it (and produces a mostly error-free, cleanly edited story -- I digress), I am good with it.  

If a reader is tired of reading about an underdog who comes out on top of the world, then that reader needs to expand his or her reading universe and find some other story line to read; there are plenty to choose from. And hey you, reader who is complaining: quityergritchin' unless you can do better. (Then prove it and send me an ARC. My review guidelines are on this blog. heh heh.)

 

February 2017 #InkRipples ~ ~ ~ Hall Ways Talks Genres!

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand posting on the first Monday of every month. To participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, and link back to the three host blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

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WHAT'S IN A NAME? HALL WAYS TALKS GENRES:
When I saw the #InkRipples topic for February, I pulled a Scarlett O'Hara and decided I'd think about that another time.  I'll be honest, talking about genres transports me back to library school -- not that THAT is a bad thing. In library school and in terms of books, there were just two genres: fiction and non-fiction. Yay! I like all (two) genres!! I highly recommend books in both genres. Read books in both genres. Post done!

Sub-genres, you say? The library school side of me will tell you that both fiction and non-fiction can be either prose or poetry.  Fiction can be further divided into the categories of realism or fantasy, and non-fiction can be sub-divided into various forms of informational writing (biographies, narrative, expository). Everything neat and clean and straight-forward. Any more questions?  

These day, writers are busting out the boundaries (hallelujah!), making labeling a book pretty challenging sometimes.  I have read fiction with fantasy AND sci-fi elements.  Historical fiction with fantasy.  Fictional biographies! Contemporary magical realism! WHAAAAT IS HAPPENING?? (whatever it is, isn't it glorious?)

So I say this: what's in a name, anyway? Don't look at the labels, don't box yourself into reading only one so-called genre of books.  Go along with the writers who are pushing the boundaries and testing the waters with new ideas and genre mash-ups!  I have been trying to take my own advice by going into blind reading some books. (Which sometimes leads me to judging a book by its cover. . . but that's another post.)

January 2017 #InkRipples ~ ~ ~ Hall Ways Talks Book Covers!

#InkRipples is a themed meme hosted by Mary Waibel, Katie L. Carroll, and Kai Strand posting on the first Monday of every month. To participate compose your own post regarding the theme of the month, and link back to the three host blogs. Feel free to post whenever you want during the month, but be sure to include #inkripples when you promote so readers can find you. The idea is that we toss a word or idea into the inkwell and each post is a new ripple. There is no wrong interpretation.

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HALL WAYS TALKS BOOK COVERS

It's no accident that I use #coverlove and #booklove a whole lot. When I was in graduate school in 2011, I went on a kick of exploring all the covers I could find for books I was about to read. I would find multiple covers of the book, along with the tag-lines, and discuss. When it suited me, I chose which cover drew me in the most beforehand and then which one most fit the book afterwards. Or, I would just write snarky commentary about the messages I thought the covers conveyed. Or I just showed multiple covers. This was loads of fun for me because, well, I'm me. 

I have been mislead by covers, and I have been mislead by cover blurbs (both of these issues are fodder for a post all their own). I have loved covers so much that I had to have a place to keep them, so I created a Pinterest "Beautiful Book Covers" board. But guess what -- there are books there that I haven't even read. And there are books there that I read and didn't really like. The point is that book covers are a source of entertainment and eye-candy for me as much as the stories themselves. I can't imagine life without book cover art -- but I sort of can.

On my recent excursion to Deep Vellum Books in Dallas, there was a set of books whose spines and covers all looked remarkably similar. There was no cover art, with the books differing only in the solid color used and of course the titles. Not sure what they were about and maybe they were all by the same author? I guess that makes my point. I wasn't interested enough to even stop and look. (side note -- this book set aside, I DIG DEEP VELLUM BOOK STORE. Go there.)

Pulitzer Prize-winning author Jhumpa Lahiri suggests in her book, The Clothing of Books, that perhaps covers should be approached like school uniforms, so that all books can be represented equally on the shelf. I haven't read her book (which is about this very topic, and just 80 pages so I may), but in an interview it seems she says this tongue in cheek . . . but hmmm.  What if? What if there were neat red covers for fiction, blue covers for non-fiction, and we readers had to be sold on the title? Or the promotional blurb alone (for surely, the pitch must be allowed in this scenario)? Can you imagine how much time it would take to choose a book? As Sweet Brown said, "Ain't nobody got time for that."

via GIPHY
 

I have always said that I cannot imagine what it must be like to not only have a story to tell, but to have the ability to write it down and the bravery to release it into the world to be poked and prodded by strangers. I hadn't really realized that covers can sometimes be just as personal to an author as the stories held within them. 

What a joy it is to be on the receiving end of the wonderfully creative gifts of words and images given by storytellers. To #booklove and #coverlove, I add #authorlove.