Flashback Friday: Romeo and Juliet Recap with the Fabulous Claudia Gabel and Romeo and Juliet and Vampires

Welcome to Week Twenty-Four of Flashback Fridays where the old and new collide on everything from books to movies to first loves to favorite vacations. This week we're taking a look at Romeo and Juliet adaptations along with an author interview with Claudia Gabel.

Over the years, there have been many adaptations of Romeo and Juliet. Franco Zefferelli's 1968 version was the first to feature actual teenagers playing the roles of Romeo and Juliet. Baz Lurhman's Romeo + Juliet took a nontraditional view by setting the story in modern day Verona Beach California while keeping the traditional text. And who can forget the Jets and Sharks of West Side Story? Or the spin on how Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Juliet in Shakespeare in Love?

My first experience with Romeo and Juliet came when I read it 9th grade. I didn't quite have the best teacher that year, and she really didn't bring the text alive for me. The next time I came in contact with R & J was when my HS did the musical West Side Story, which I love until this day! Then R & J came calling again in college when I took a Shakespeare class for my undergrad. This time there was a greater appreciation for the story, the characters, and the figurative language. I also went to see Shakespeare in Love when it first came out. Fast forward about eight years later when I first began teaching 9th grade, and I got the opportunity to teach it.

Speaking of adaptations, did you know about the book Romeo and Juliet and Vampires? If you don't, then you totally need to pick up a copy. I would highly, highly recommend it to anyone who loves the R & J story or would maybe like to have a greater appreciation. And I'd totally recommend it to vampire story lovers!

Today to reflect on Romeo and Juliet adaptations, we have the lovely Claudia Gabel, Senior Editor of Katherine Tegan Books and author of Romeo and Juliet and Vampires, which is a Junior Libary Guild fall book pick!

*What would HS Claudia think of grown up Claudia?

I think HS Claudia would be pretty proud of GU Claudia. I wound up working in a field that pays me to read books and write stories about teen love—a dream come true for the girl often times preferred hanging out with fictional characters than making friends. HS Claudia would also be impressed with some of my celebrity encounters—Harry Connick Jr. once told me I was pretty! (A long but awesome story.) However, Middle School Claudia would probably be very disappointed. My ideal M.A.S.H. fantasy was living in a mansion with Johnny Depp and our four kids and driving a DeLorean (I really loved Back to the Future—and still do!)

*What led you to become a book editor?

I’ve been obsessed with books my entire life. I was an English major in college and got my Master’s degree in American and English Literature. Actually, I’d thought about pursuing a PhD and becoming a college professor, but I realized that although I loved school and books, I wasn’t a true academic at heart. Not too long after I came to this conclusion, I found out a friend of a friend worked in publishing and needed an editorial assistant. It seemed like the best path for me, especially because I loved to write and hoped that being in that environment would not only give me great contacts, but help me strengthen my craft.

*HOW do you manage to find time to write with your day job? (I'm amazed by this one!)

Well, it’s a sacrifice for sure. There was a period where I was working at an office until 5, grabbed something to eat, watched repeats of Scrubs on Comedy Central, and then wrote until almost midnight. It was a sad little life, but I don’t regret it at all because at the end of the day, I was so happy to have the opportunity to cultivate my own writing and other authors at the same time. Right now, I’m just writing on the weekends as much as possible, and on the subway, too, since I have a long commute from Washington Heights to…pretty much anywhere.

*How do you decide which "classics" deserve a good vampire spin?

Good question! I think it you just have to look at core of the story and see if it lends itself to the vampire conundrum, which is—how to I act on my insatiable desire? Honestly, that moral question is at the heart of a lot of classic literature, and that’s probably why these novels are ripe for supernatural reinterpretation.

*Tell us about the In or Out series.

The In or Out books tell the story of Nola and Marnie, two BFFS whose relationship takes a drastic turn when they enter high school. While there are mean girls and impossible crushes threaded throughout the series, the narrative is really about friendship and what it’s like to lose a friend for the first time. It’s such a painful experience and every one of us has gone through it, so I felt that it was important to address the subject and show young girls that you can recover when you lose your best friend. And that sometimes second chances are possible.

*What else do you have up your sleeve?

Right now I’m working on writing a story that hinges on things that happened during the American spiritualist movement. It’s quite a challenging project! But I’m very excited about it, because it’s something I’ve never tried before. My goal was to get a chunk to my agent by Thanksgiving, but I just looked at my manuscript reading schedule for the month and am not as confident anymore. Welcome to the life of a writer/editor!

Claudia does her own very creative Flashback Fridays over at her blog:

Thanks Claudia for stopping by and go out and get your copy of Romeo and Juliet and Vampires.

Halloween Story

In lieu of regular posts we've decided to write a Halloween story this week, but we'll need your help. Each day, with the exception of some guest posts, one of us will write around 250 words. We'll read your comments for what you think should come next and the next poster will go off of their favorite comment and continue the story. The story will end on Halloween. So bring on your witches, ghosts and werewolves. Today, I'm giving the first paragraph and will finish it tonight after your comments.


Once upon a time there was a very small girl who could see ghosts. Everywhere she went they followed, even in the bathroom. The good thing about her gift was the ghosts couldn't enter her house. The bad thing was they could surround her everywhere else.

Flashback Friday: Glee GQ Shoot: Naughty or Nice?

Welcome to Week Twenty-Four of Flashback Fridays where the old and new collide on everything from books to movies to first loves to favorite vacations. This week I'm taking a look at the Glee photo controversy.

So the entertainment industry is buzzing with news about the infamous Glee GQ photo spread. One the one side, Glee is a show beloved by teens and tweens and what kind of message does it send to them to see high schoolers so sexualized? On the other, it's the fact that all three actors are twenty-something adults posing for an adult magazine like GQ.

The Parents Television Council, in a statement from president Tim Winter, criticized the cover and spread Wednesday for hypersexualizing actresses who play high-school age students, saying the shoot with a high school backdrop "borders on pedophilia." While Dianna Argon, who plays Quinn Fabres, released a statement apologizing for the racy spread and said "the show's rooting-for-the-underdog sensibility wasn't echoed in the GQ photos and noted that although the concept of the shoot wasn't her favorite idea, she didn't walk away."

As a HS teacher, a lover of Glee, and a feminist, I thought this made a very interesting post for a YA writer.

Here's the cover. Notice how instead of showing off his pecs by going shirtless with a tie, or showing a little leg in a speedo, Cary Monteith is fully clothed--so much so compared to his cast mates he might as well be wearing a parka and scarf. Yeah, yeah, I know GQ is a men's magazine, but still.

Okay, I guess I should hold up for a second and not let my feminist ideals get the better of me. I mean, really, are the photos really that scandalous and "unrepresentative of high school". Let's take a look.


I mean, I'm not sure what the problem here is. Didn't we all pose seductively by our lockers while suggestively licking a lollipop and wearing panties?












And who didn't chillax around the locker room wearing a peek a boo bra and Christian Louboutin heels? The HS I attended was about 30 years old, and we had the nastiest locker room, and I wish our lockers had been that big. Freshman year, I ended up having my PE clothes stolen...who steals sweaty PE clothes? After I graduated, they built a new, state of the art gym.

When I was a cheerleader many years and pounds ago, our skirts were longer than our pom-poms, but this doesn't seem to be the case here. And we usually tried to throw some spirit fingers rather than angsty sex kitten poses. Yeah, and the shoes are totally not regulation, and the basketball coach would've yelled at us for messing up the floor. Plus, they're totally impractical for doing stunts.







Just an average day in class. I mean, when I was in high school, I totally ran around in bra, panties, and high heels while creating mayhem in class. And I could venture to say my classes look like this now. "Let's get CRAZY over Shakespeare!" Seriously, the only thing that resembles high school in this picture is the classroom itself.


*Once again notice how Cary looks like he's straight out of a Leave it to Beaver episode.



So, here's some food for thought. Let's Flashback to the 80's shall we with Pop Princesses Debbie Gibson and Tiffany. Man, what a difference a few decades make. They sold millions of records, sold out arenas, and gave us some pretty good tunes, right? And when I was searching for pics of them, not one appeared with cleavage, bare midriffs, jacked up skirts etc. Okay, yes, it did disappoint me greatly when I learned that both gals took it all off for Playboy in their late 20's and early 30's, but I guess I can give them props that they didn't do it in their teens.

So, I wanna hear what you think. Is it much ado about nothing? Is it a growing trend that is sexualizing young women too much, too soon? Is it a woman's body and her prerogative? Or is it teaching young women that the most important thing are looks and sex appeal rather than brains and ambition?

I haz a character type

I have a confession: I'm addicted to blonds in fiction. But I didn't really know how big of a fancy I had for them until I thought about some of the favorite characters I've read in books or seen in their TV shows or movies.

I have a character type-- an almost-without-fail love of blond characters (mainly male). Not just blonds, but shaggy blonds.

Also, they're usually asshats.

Like Draco Malfoy for example.

Since the day I picked up Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone nearly twelve years ago, I had a fascination with the character of Draco Malfoy. Maybe it's the badboy in him, maybe it's the mystery. But whatever the case, he got me started on my closet fanfiction real fast.

His thousands of screaming fangirls prove that I'm not alone in that.

And speaking of fangirls, how about that Eric Northman.

For anyone who has read the books or watched the show, it's not hard to see why he also has a mass of followers, including me.

More mystery, more tragic backstory, more bad boy appeal. These character traits tend to suck people in like a blackhole. One of the many unanswered questions of the universe.

However, not every blond I like is a bad boy. Quite the opposite. My favorite character in any book I've ever read happens to be one of the sweetest ones.

No surprise that boy is Peeta Mellark.

And Peter from The Chronicles of Narnia. Both show endearing sides with emotions and devotion.

Not only do I tend to favor guys with certain styles, but some of my favorite female characters tend to fall into similar categories. Smart, outgoing, and loyal brunettes.

Like Hermione Granger and Katniss Everdeen.

So here's the thinking part. Do you guys tend to favor certain physical aspects of characters? Does it make you biased? Or is your taste in characters completely random?

Can't wait to read everyone's polls. :)

Monday Guest Blogging: Writing Meets Field Hockey

Today on our Monday Guest Blogging segment we have the lovely, Sarah Enni.

This is my second year umpiring high school women's field hockey, and my second year seriously pursuing writing. The two activities don't have the most obvious connection but I've found that a surprising amount of principles apply to both.

Do it for the right reasons. For some people, being an umpire is just one big power trip. These umpires are territorial, abrasive, and unbearably self-important. Needless to say, no one likes to work with them. Some writers are only in it to create the next Twilight (should be easy, right?) and rake in the dough. Odds are, their motivation (greed) will shine through, and no one will want to represent them or their work - or talk to them at dinner parties.

Be confident. When you're refereeing, you're the one making the call. It's intimidating, because you WILL make mistakes, but you have to call what you see and stand behind it (even when coaches and players enthusiastically disagree). As a writer, you have to stand behind what you create. It may not be perfect, but it's yours. Own it.

But don't be overconfident. Sometimes you make the wrong call. If you recognize it in time, fix it. Be mature enough to admit when you make a mistake. Writers have to be able to take critique. Though you may feel that Alpha readers, Beta readers, agents and editors are ripping the still-beating heart out of your manuscript, understand that they are trying to help you. Take their advice seriously -- don't blow it off! In the end it will be your name on the book, but those acknowledgment pages are long for a reason.

Every game is different. A huge number of factors -- grass or turf; private school or public; nice weather or bad -- will influence each game. You should never go into a game with any expectations based on prior experience, or else you may inadvertently affect the outcome. Each time you sit down with a new manuscript, it's a blank slate/notebook paper/computer screen. The variables -- genre; setting; point of view; gender of main character; amount of chocolate you've just eaten -- are likely to be completely different. Each new project will present its own set of challenges.

You can always, ALWAYS, get better. Umpires always have the opportunity to improve their skills and move up, from apprentice to veteran, high school to college, U.S. to international hockey. It takes dedication and the willingness to learn from your mistakes. Each time you finish a manuscript you've grown and become a better writer, with new and different skills. Every aspiring writer could get published if they worked hard enough and long enough. I truly believe that.

Sarah Enni
www.sarahenni.com

Thank you so much Sarah for guest blogging with us!

Flashback Friday: Great 80's Sitcoms

Welcome to Week Twenty-Four of Flashback Fridays where the old and new collide on everything from books to movies to first loves to favorite vacations. This week I've succumbed to 80's sitcom nostalgia.

As the Chilean miners were being brought to the surface, someone on twitter mentioned how it reminded them of Baby Jessica. If you lived during the 80's, you remember when eighteen month old Jessica McClure fell into an abandoned well in her backyard in Midland Texas, and her rescue captured the nation's attention. I was just a kid and out camping, against my will, with my parents. Since I was missing my favorite show at the time, Rags to Riches, one of my dad's friends had taken pity on me and used his generator to rig up a tv. Just as I settled back in my lawn chair ready to watch my show, NBC broke in to show live footage of the rescue. Yeah, I was totally pissed that I had to miss my show....I was eight, you know!

So all of that got me thinking of Rags to Riches, which I like to think of as a Glee before its time since each episode was like a mini-musical of revamped 50's and 60's songs. The show isn't on DVD, but through the wonder that is the internet, I found where I could buy DVD's of someone's transferred VHS's. I was stoked! Then I started thinking about some of the other favorites from my childhood.

First up, is the aforementioned Rags to Riches. Ah, the innocence of the 80's....a rich CEO adopts 5 orphans to improve his corporate image. Even though the show took place in the early 60's, it wouldn't happen today because of all the pedofile implications of a bachelor raising teenage girls. It had great musical numbers, and it took on serious issues like sex, discrimination, and racism. I remember my mom and dad even watched the Sweet Sixteen episode with me because it dealt with Diane turning 16 at the time of the Cuban Missile Crisis. My cousin, who was like my sister, and I would tape the episodes on our cassette players and then reenact the musical numbers with cosumes and lip synching....ah, good times!



FAMILY TIES
Can we just say how much I loved this show growing up? Not to mention the megasized crush I had on Michael J. Fox. I loved when they introduced Nick as Mallory's love interest. They were hilarious together!




GIMME A BREAK
Loved me some big and beautiful, Nell Carter! I also can remember NBC's Thursday night line up in the early 80's because it had something for both me and my parents. I also remember when tragedy struck the line-up and every show lost a cast member. The dad off Gimme a Break died of a heart attack, Selma died on Night Court, Coach on Cheers, and one of the detectives on Hill Street Blues, my parents all time favorite.


FACTS OF LIFE
My cousin and I loved this show growing up. I guess that Jo was my favorite. I also loved in the later shows when George Clooney worked at the store Mrs. B owned.





MY TWO DADS
Such a clever and cute show. I remember crushing on a Paul Reiser while my cousin crushed on Greg Evigan. As I've gotten older, I wonder what was I thinking? Greg was way hotter!

And how could I forget two greats from Nickelodeon? You Can't Do That On Television & Hey Dude. My cousin and I used to totally reenact the locker scene with YCDTOT with the linen closet door at my grandparents house! And we may have used a tea pitcher to do the "water" scenes over our heads!

So, did you love some of these shows? Or what are your favorites from the early, mid, or late 80's?

The bumpy road of Writerland

Have you ever felt like you were driving down the smooth highway of Writerland when the road suddenly became rocky? Or maybe a roadblock came up?




When I hit a rough spot in my writing, I procrastinate. I do everything I can to avoid writing, and lately I've been reading suspenseful romance novels. Why romance novels? They are simple to follow and an easy read, the plot is typically not too in depth, plus it takes very few brain cells to be entertained. Added to that, emotions usually don't get involved.



But I don't stop brainstorming in those procrastination moments. My mind works through what is to come in my plot. I'll even make notes about scenes I want to write or nice dialogue that my characters spew into my brain. My characters usually don't shut up and that's perfectly fine with me. But sometimes I feel like this adorable puppy:



I know the non-writing moments will pass very soon and the road will once again be smooth. What about you? What do you do when your writing car hits a rut?