Check out this NPR transcript on the character Long Duk Dong. I was reading Eric Nakamura’s blog over at Giant Robot and just had to post a link to it.
Gosh, I can’t believe Gedde shops at Wal-Mart!
Besides the fact that it is seriously funny, one of the things I like best about Cherry Cheva’s She’s So Money is that it’s about a girl who just happens to be Asian-American. Maya is a high school senior, a waitress at her family’s restaurant, a tutor, the co-mastermind of a cheating ring, and, oh yeah, Thai-American. It’s part of Maya’s identity, not the defining characteristic of her or the story. Race and ethnicity are almost never mentioned specifically (the only time I recall it discussed explicitly is the brief cell phone conversation between Maya and her mother after Maya lies about being in the library after school—”She says there are no Asians in the library right now.” “There are always Asians in a school library; that’s where most of us live.”) and racism is not an issue. I was curious as to how this came about, so thanks to Cherry Cheva for guest blogging and answering my question.
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WHAT’S UP PARTY PEOPLE!!!!!!!
I had no idea how to start this off so I just randomly decided to do it that way. Thanks to Trisha and The YA YA YAs for inviting me to guest blog! They wanted to know how and why, in my recently-released novel “She’s So Money,” I wrote about an Asian character without making a big deal about ethnicity. And the answer is: uh, it just happened.
Okay, that’s a little glib, but seriously, that’s pretty much the best way to describe how I went about tackling (or not tackling) the race issue: it never occurred to me to make a big deal of the main character being Thai, because the book wasn’t about that—it wasn’t a race story, it was an opposites-attract story, an “I love you/I hate you” story, a story about two people bitching at each other all the time even though you just know they totally want to make out. Basically, you could’ve taken the story and switched the races all around, and it would’ve shaken out almost exactly the same way. Do I think racism and racial stereotypes are important topics worthy of being written about? Absolutely. Was “She’s So Money” the place to do it? Not so much. Maya’s race, in the context of the story, is a small thing next to the very huge fact that she’s got to make a whole bunch of money fast. That’s her pressing problem, not the fact that she’s Asian. Hell, I’m the only Asian chick in the writers’ room at “Family Guy” but that’s not the problem there, either—the problem is trying to come up with new jokes every day, or a story that hasn’t already been done to death, or a less offensive but equally funny alternative when the Fox standards department inevitably shoots something down. “She’s So Money” just wasn’t meant to be about problems stemming from ethnicity, just like it wasn’t about Cheez Whiz or carnivorous plants or aliens who really like hats, so none of those topics got hit up very hard (or at all, in the case of the last three, if I’m remembering correctly).
Now, I guess I could have written a book with a huge emphasis on race and addressed the topic in a serious manner instead of the throwaway jokey manner that I did it in, but first of all, yeesh, what a downer (there’s a reason I’m a comedy writer) and more importantly, I think it’s possible to use humor to acknowledge that racial differences and stereotypes exist, while at the same time not necessarily hitting anybody over the head with it. We do this all the time on “Family Guy.” Likewise, “She’s So Money” was never meant to be a super-serious textbook read, so if important issues were addressed, they got churned through the joke filter first.
You know what, though? This is pretty much the first time I’ve even thought about all this stuff. Ultimately, I wrote what I wrote because that’s what I felt like writing-there’s no real backstory, it wasn’t brain surgery or rocket science, I was just doing what I felt like doing, in the way that came most naturally to me. So I guess yeah, it really did just happen.
THANKS, PARTY PEOPLE! Can you tell I couldn’t figure out a way to end this either? 
Remember last year, when there weren’t enough entries for a YA category in the RITA awards? (Wow, according to Rosemary Clement-Moore, it’s actually been eleven years since.) Well, there’s a YA category this year, and congratulations to all the finalists:
Girl at Sea by Maureen Johnson
Leaving Paradise by Simone Elkeles*
Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr
Grafitti Girl by Kelly Parra
Grafitti Girl is also a finalist in the Best First Book category, along with Rosemary Clement-Moore’s Prom Dates from Hell.
And another congratulations to Melissa Marr, for Wicked Lovely making it to the DA BWAHA Sweet 16.
* I hope this doesn’t come across as disrespectful towards Elkeles or her accomplishment, but I’m having a hard time with Leaving Paradise as a finalist. (Shocking, I know.) The RITAs are a romance award, after all, and the category is described as “Novels with a strong romantic theme geared toward young adult readers. Judging guidelines: In this category, the love story is an important element of the novel, and the end of the book is emotionally satisfying and optimistic.” And while I agree that the love story is an important part of the book, frankly, I didn’t find the ending emotionally satisfying or optimistic. But that’s just me.
After a friend dedicated a Tears for Fears music video on my blog, I began to wonder what music videos have libraries or librarians in them? I could only come up with two. (They’re both from the 80s and pictured below.) However, I could of sworn I saw a snippet of a Vampire Weekend video with a library backdrop.
*Tears for Fears Head Over Heels video. A little stalkerish, but still a nice song. (Although in my mind I’ve replaced Roland Orzabal with Gerard Butler.)
*Ray Parker Jr. Ghostbusters video. A stereotypical idea of the librarian in a haunted library. (I’m wondering if the haunted library stereotype came from this movie.)
Books featured relate to the environment, money, luck, veggies, and other things associated with the color green.
Due to the over-saturation of MySpace I decided to join Facebook and see what all the fuss was about. And after reading this article I began to see differences between the two social networks. (In fact it was like comparing a PC to a MAC. ) The main appeal for me on Facebook is it’s applications. You can own a virtual pet, have a booklist like Shelfari, become a vampire, and send flirt notifcations to numerous hotties all on one site! In addition, Facebook has less advertisers and pop-ups. So if you want to idle your time away I say join Facebook! And if you’re already on Facebook here’s a link to my profile!
(One of the many applications on Facebook is Haiku Zoo. Pictured here is my pet Davey Sprinkles! You can gain points and interact with other friend’s pets by feeding, poking, petting, and cuddling. Also you can use points to add accessories, backgrounds, and feed pets.)
New website alert!
From the press release:
This year’s Asian Pacific American Heritage Month begins May 1, 2008, and ten authors are banding together to offer Fusion Stories (www.fusionstories.com), a menu of delectable next-gen hot-off-the-press novels for middle readers and young adults. FUSION STORIES’ critically acclaimed authors so far include Cherry Cheva (Los Angeles, CA), Justina Chen Headley (Seattle, WA), Grace Lin (Boston, MA), An Na (Montpelier, VT), Mitali Perkins (Boston, MA), Janet Wong (Princeton, NJ), Joyce Lee Wong (Los Angeles, CA), Lisa Yee (South Pasadena, CA), David Yoo (Boston, MA), and Paula Yoo (Los Angeles, CA).
In addition to info about the above authors and their current releases, there are also interviews with librarians about Asian-American fiction. So go take a look at Fusion Stories.
Lorenza, or Flora, as everyone calls her, has a very privileged life. Her parents generally neglect her, except when they’re planning her future, which Flora wants no part of. But she doesn’t have to worry about food or shelter or money, and she spends her days with her grandmother, a healer, and Emilio, a young guardsman. But Flora is also the youngest child of the Pazzi family. The Pazzis had been a powerful and influential family in Florence until the rise of the Medici, and Flora’s parents want their old status back. Her mother is determined to marry off Flora’s sister Domenica to Giuliano de Medici, while her father conspires with Girolamo Riorio to assassinate both Guiliano and his brother, Lorenzo. Either way, they figure, the Pazzis will come out ahead and will reclaim their old status.
Inspired by historical events, Mary Jane Beaufrand’s Primavera has just about everything I could ask for in a book, except for a historical note or further information about what actually happened. There’s intrigue, heartbreak, romance, a strong setting, and fantastic writing. Unlike other historical novels that are dense or difficult to read, there is an ease and effortlessness to Beaufrand’s writing that makes Primavera accessible even to readers who normally dislike historical fiction while bringing the setting to life vividly enough to satisfy fans of historical fiction. As others have mentioned, there are some rather violent and bloody scenes in the second half of the book, but it certainly fits with the story, not to mention history.
Also reviewed by:
A Page Turner Book Reviews
Cana Rensberger
Practically Paradise
Sarah Rettger
I like to make lists. In my life I have many lists that I won’t go into on this blog, but you can see my ideal non-fiction list.
Ideal Non-Fiction:
1) Easy to read-clear with few questionable sentences. When I finish a paragraph I don’t want to wonder what the author meant.
2) Well organized. Organization lends itself to readability.
3) Includes diagrams and pictures to help illustrate concepts and ideas. Illustrations are sometimes key to explaining hard to understand concepts.
4) Well indexed. Sometimes the indexing of a book will determine whether or not a student doing a report will borrow it or not. People, places, times, events are key to a good index.
5) Accurate. Misinformation is worse than no information.
6) Entertaining but not confusing. Humor in non-fiction is great as long as it isn’t confusing. Humor in writing takes great skill. Very few writers are able to pull it off.
Common Pitfalls:
1) Tries to cover too much and oversimplifies leaving out important facts and information.
2) Series books sometimes gloss over research with broad statements and use a cookie cutter formula to crank out titles. (Writing a book is not like taking a written test in school, you don’t get partial points for semi-accurate information. If you are an author, you should be professional about it and thoroughly research your facts.)
3) Don’t editorialize. Non-fiction should stay factual. There are exceptions to this of course but for the most part, it’s hard enough for young readers to distinguish between objectiveness and subjectiveness.
4) References are necessary. If students have to put in all their reference sources so should authors.
Penelope is based on a screenplay by veteran tv playwright Leslie Caveny, and has a book by Marilyn Kaye based on this screenplay. (Book pictured left.) This urban fairytale could best be described as a reversed Beauty and the Beast chick-flick. A curse is placed on the rich aristocratic Wilhem family, after their son slights the local witches daughter. The curse entails that the next born Wilhem girl will have a face like a pig. Fast forward to present day and Penelope Wilhem (Christina Ricci) is born, the first girl heir to the Wilhem family in decades. She is told the only way to break the curse is to find “one of her own kind” to love her. In an attempt to break the curse her parents (Catherine O’Hara and Richard E. Grant) subject her to a plethora of blue-blooded suitors. However, the suitors often run for their lives after seeing Penelope’s snouted face. In an attempt to get Penelope’s picture a nosey reporter (Peter Dinklage) hires a destitute gambler (James McAvoy) to act as a pseudo suitor. Even though he never sees Penelope, the destitute gambler begins to gain a connection with her. However, when Penelope proposes marriage the destitute gambler turns her down. Broken hearted, Penelope runs away from home to the see the world and finds more than she ever expected.
Christina Ricci does a great job playing an innocent doe eyed oddity, who likes herself just
the way she is no matter what obstacles she faces. Thus, because her character is so endearing one forgets the snout and begins to really see how beautiful Ricci is. Also, can I just say James McAvoy is pure hotness in this movie! (BTW can’t wait to see him in Wanted with Angelina Jolie.) His blue eyes literally pierce your soul. In addition, the costuming and settings in the movie were equally beautiful, and had a lighter Tim Burton feel. (I’d compare it to Big Fish) However, I did get a little confused over the location settings. It looked like they shot some scenes in New York and others in London. This is definitely not a dude movie, but will appeal to teenage girls and women who love magical romantic fairy-tales with fabulous outfits. See the trailer below!
