Updates, Winners, and the Perfect Guy

So this is weird: the winners of the CYCLER Giveaway are the first and last comment: Elizabeth M and Jen. Drop me an email with your address to receive your prize.

Thanks for participating in the giveaways, guys! I hope I’ve introduced you to some great new books. There will be more coming up in the next month. That’s why my TBR pile is the mess it is.

In other news, I’ll be speaking to the Washington Romance Writers at the Centreville, Virginia Library next month on incorporating folktales and mythology into your writing. Details here.

I’ve had some questions recently about the release dates for my next two books: Tap & Gown, and Rampant. They are both out next summer. When I have firm release dates, I’ll announce them, but these things change, so I don’t want to confuse anyone. (My first book, the release date was pushed back almost a month only a few months before the planned release, so trust me, these things happen!) However, both books are “in production” as they say, and I’ve seen some really great flap copy and an early cover for one of them, so that’s very exciting! I can’t wait for next summer: to introduce you all to Astrid and to reveal the conclusion of Amy’s story. It’s been hitting me very hard recently that this is the end of the Secret Society Girl series, and it’s the end of Amy. Well, “the end” metaphorically. I’m not killing her off or anything.

Probably. 😉

The other thing I’ve been thinking about a lot is guys, and the role of the romantic interest in my books (and in other people’s books — like one of my CPs who I really can’t discuss because huge spoilers but WHOA, NELLY!). I think it started after I read this post by Reviewer X. Now, as many of you know, I have long been a member of RWA and in the romance tradition, there’s a long-standing maxim that “the heroines be relatable, the heroes be larger-than-life.” When I talk to readers about why they like romances, this is often the reason they give. When I speak to teenagers about why they like TWILIGHT, this is almost *always* the reason they give.

“Bella is so normal, and yet Edward [read: beautiful, brilliant, gorgeous perfect, dangerous, exquisite, powerful, larger-than-life Edward] loves her more than anything.”

Not going to deny it: that’s a powerful meme. A huge fantasy for a lot of young women who live in a world where “he’s just not that into you.” But I don’t think it’s only a female fantasy. The other day, I was watching Superbad, in which three normal-to-extremely-dorky guys manage to attract/make out with/have sex with three beautiful, popular, extremely cool, with-it  girls. In fact, one could argue that the popularity of these guy-focused romantic comedies sweeping Hollywood (Knocked Up, Forgetting Sarah Marshall*, etc.) are entirely predicated on the fantasy of this “normal” guy landing the beautiful goddess.

And they call them chick flicks.

So the fantasy works both ways. And I’ve even written that fantasy. Amy is bowled over when the gorgeous, perfect, unattainable George Harrison Prescott shows an interest in her. But Amy is also a bit on the cynical side when it comes to relationships. She doesn’t know if George thinks she’s special, or if she’s just a new challenge. And then of course there’s the whole question of what happens when you are with perfection. What happens to you, by reflection, and also what happens to your sense of self. (There’s a very good exploration of that in Holly Black’s new graphic novel The Good Neighbors — check it out!)

I’ve been talking a lot with one of my CPs about the “reason” that one person falls for another. I’m a big believer that there has to be a reason. I’m not entirely sure yet whether  the reason needs to be something that is understood by which combination of the reader, the character, and the author.

What do you think? And what do you think about the “perfect guy?”
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* Of course, I think Jason Segal is cute as a button and have even gotten into arguments with my sister-in-law about whether or not she and my brother or SB and me are more like Marshall and Lily on HIMYM. However, he was really pushing his “normal schlub” qualities in Sarah Marshall. He even says about his famous, pathetic nude scene: “When a woman does nudity in a movie, men immediately switch into a sexual mode. For women, from what I understand, it’s not like that. They see a naked, out-of-shape man crying and it’s funny — something weird, disturbing and disgusting we can all laugh at.”