WordVixen.com

I have been a Clueless geek since I made a bargain with my not-boyfriend that I’d watch his horror flick if he watched Clueless with me. How was I to know that I was actually displaying culture and taste instead of insipid stupidity every time I watched Cher make a fool of herself in front of the hot gay guy?

You see, Sunday afternoon I watched the Gwyneth Paltrow version of Emma, based on the Jane Austen novel, and BOOM, it hit me. Clueless is a remake of Emma of the same awesome caliber as 10 Things I Hate About you being a remake of Taming of the Shrew.

OK, I’ll grant you that a simple movie can never be as good as a classic novel such as any of Jane Austen’s. And I know that A&E and the BBC have their own versions which are probably much better. However, Gwyneth was available on the free movies on On Demand, so there. Free trumps good any old day.

And I’ll be honest with you. I’ve never been a fan of Gwyneth Paltrow, often choosing to skip movies entirely just because she headlined in them. But the woman held her own! Usually American actors and actresses show up as the gaudy, incapable things that they really are when held up against the acting of the British. Keanu Reeves in Much Ado About Nothing, anyone? The man nearly ruined the whole flick despite the awesome acting by the others. But Gwyneth Paltrow? I may have to rethink my opinion of her. She really performed well. Plus, I think she should always wear her hair up from now on. It looks good on her.

The thing is, I’ve always known that 10 Things I Hate About You. I mean, they kept the same names and attended Padua High. The cheesiness is part of what I loved! But in Clueless, yes, SOME of the names were the same, but Cher vs Emma? Not obvious (I’ll have to watch it again to see if Emma is her middle name or a silent first name or something). But still, as I watched Emma (obviously I haven’t read the book yet, though it is in my TBR pile), I kept noting the similarities and at times was able to predict what would happen next based on my knowledge of Clueless.

But while I loved the cheesy obviousness of 10 Things, Clueless shows me something different. How you can take a classic story, boil it down, and turn it into something different. While the best parts of Emma were modernized, I saw where the cast was narrowed down to make individual characters stronger. While Emma’s governess became Cher’s best friend, certain personality traits were greatly exaggerated or removed. Where Mr. Knightly was like a brother to Emma, he actually became a brother to Cher through several remarriages.

It all began sliding into place how these people had done it. Me? If I were to try to remake something, I would have immediately gotten stuck trying to find the modern equivalent. But that’s now how it was done. It was taking the basic parts of the original, and re-spinning it.

For example: Harriet got sick before the party and couldn’t go. So Mr. Elton felt free to press his affections on Emma on the drive home. Later, Emma gets stuck while crossing a stream and is rescued by Frank Churchill.

Ty gets hit on the head at the party. Later, Elton drives Cher home and tries to press his affections on her. He drops her off in the middle of nowhere, and is rescued by her “brother”.

In fact, there was even a mugging in both, but totally different circumstances and results.

But I see now how it’s done. It’s like making an outline of a story, and then writing a story based on THAT outline.  And if you get stuck, you can always go back for more details! I’ve always wanted to write my own 10 Things, and now I think I know how.

Also, I have a new review of Wild at Heart up at the site I review for.

Or really, fiction writers of all sorts, but mostly for novelists.

I’m not sure what’s been going on for the past few days, but lately I’ve been meeting more and more publishing industry pros and aspiring novelists on Twitter. And along with that comes the influx of linkage.

Ok, so the single most important website for an aspiring novelist is Miss Snark. That’s a given. If you’ve never read this viciously wonderful agent, you need to. Go back to the very first post and read all the way up to her last (she’s hung up her stilettos for good) post. Take notes. Bookmark the Crapometer for when you’re getting ready to query. Read through it again. Take more notes. Follow all instructions and consider all advice. Just do it. Besides, it’s fun!

Now, Miss Snark I’ve known about for years, and have read almost every post on her site. However, #QueryFail is brand new. And it’s not a site; it’s a hashtag. In other words, it’s a stream of tweets from Twitter that are all on one subject, specially marked out using a hashtag. You don’t need to be a member of Twitter to read #QueryFail, but you do need an account if you want to respond to any of them.

What QueryFail is, is a day set aside by agent Colleen Lindsay for all Twitter savvy agents and editors to vent their query frustrations in the form of a 140 character tweet. Many of the tweets are actual lines from queries that the agent/editor rejected such as “Like my protagonist, I definitely could be described as overachiever, and I naturally have hair like Lady Godiva.”, “My book is about a friendship based upon mutual vomiting practices in high school.”, and my favorite- “This book is The Notebook meets The Lord of the Rings.”

You’ll need to scroll through several days of tweets about #queryfail if you choose to follow the above link to access it, but there’s a downloadable file of the actual QueryFail tweets from the actual day at that link.  The agents are planning to make this a regular thing, but no schedule has been set. And by the way? #QueryFail even got attention from The Guardian. No joke! There’s also a #novelfail, but I haven’t had much time to check into that.

And the third page that you may want to consider, is a 25 point list of why your fiction is being passed over, courtesy of Andromeda Spaceways. It’s funny, but not hilarious. Dirty, but not filthy. But all in all, a pretty good list.

It’s been a while since I’ve done a Writer’s Review post. Eek. I don’t even want to think how long!

Thing is, I received a review copy of Sushi for One by Camy Tang for review on my sushi stuff blog. That blog has received some decent traffic in the past week thanks to one or more Stumbles, but they’re mostly going to one post and then leaving. So because the author was gracious enough to not only send me a free copy for review, but signed it and everything- I wanted to give her more exposure than she would get on just my little niche blog. After all, this is fiction, and no one loves fiction more than another writer!

Lex Sakai is a devoted Christian who is seeking her soul mate with the help of a list from the book of Ephesians. The problem is, the guy who fits the list best isn’t Christian, and the Christians don’t fit the list!

That’s difficult enough, but when her Grandmother threatens to pull funding of her beloved junior girl’s volleyball team if Lex doesn’t have a “real” boyfriend in time for her cousin’s wedding in four months… Well, the pressure’s on! Mix in a new job that makes the immature boys drool, and Lex has a harder time fending off the Mr. Wrong’s than in finding Mr. Right!

To be honest, I wasn’t so sure of this novel at the start. For the first 1/4 of the book, the “hints” that Lex was recovering from rape were, um, constant.  This is thoroughly excusable to me since the beginning of a novel can be so difficult. You’re trying to get a handle on the character and story yourself, and still trying to get across to the reader what you want them to know. But like I said, it was a little off putting.

What I did like was how realistic most of the book was. Things that really could, and probably do happen. The friendships between Lex and her cousins were totally believable, and I’ve heard stories of psychotic grandmothers who would actually make threats like that to get what they want.

The pace wasn’t ramped up unnaturally. This might be a negative point to some, but honestly? When I choose a book that’s based in a culture that’s not my own- it’s because I want to immerse myself in the culture, and learn about it. It’s why I love fantasy- the cultures in them are so detailed! Now, I wouldn’t say that Sushi for One is as detailed as a good fantasy novel, but believe me, I’ve read some chick-lit that was supposed to be based in various cultures that turned out to be nothing unique aside from maybe an outfit here and there or a statue placed somewhere (or worse, a Coke drinking guru- OK, the Coke drinking guru was funny).

Sushi for One is set in/near/around San Jose (can’t remember the exact location, but I remember that Lex attends a church in Santa Clara), and unlike most chick-lit- I actually feel like I got to know something about the area! Not geography, mind, but about the area. Ya ken?

So what would I recommend this book for? If you want to learn steady pacing, if you want to learn how to write about a culture without being heavy handed or slip-shod, and if you want to learn how to write about difficult subjects like rape without making the reader geek out. She really handled that well, introducing the horror of it, and the nasty aftermath WITHOUT making you go “Ew, I don’t want to read about this anymore!”. She didn’t just magically recover in time to kiss the hero- it was a path that had to be worked through just as with everything else.

So, Sushi for One is the first of the series. Will I be reading Only Uni and Single Sashimi as well? Yup. Sushi for One was a strong first novel, and quite frankly, the cousin in Single Sashimi interested me a lot! Will I review them? I dunno. Cuz I’m putting my own money out there to order them. And sometimes I just like to read a book for fun!

For more normal reviews, read the Sushi for One review on TitleTrakk, or click the ad above for Amazon reviews.