YA...A Break Sounds Good Right Now

I just had an amazing weekend with a very good friend of mine and we were talking about countless poems and books. Most of the books were classic books and we talked about some that I've read, many that I haven't. For example, we talked about The Fountainhead by Ayn Rand (which I've read) and talked about how much we hated Peter Keating and Howard Roarke.

And then we started talking about Hamlet (which I've never read) and his face was an expression of shock. You haven't read Hamlet? I told him that I never did. I never read any of Shakespeare's stuff except for some of his sonnets. What I know about Shakespeare's stuff (and I know a lot) was from Academic Bowl.
That kind of made me sad. I've been reading books about vampires, lovestruck teenagers, and children that kill each other for the past four years. I don't really regret my choice in reading material, but still...I never thought to pick up the actual Pride and Predjudice instead of the one with zombies in it. It's time for a change.

This may seem random and rather out of the blue, but the change has been gradual. I haven't been reading very much since I'm kind of getting tired of reading about teens so now I'm reading the top 500 poems on poetry.com along with Jane Eyre.

Jane Eyre is still sort of a YA novel...Just more sophiticated, thoughtful, and...old. It's still good and I find myself laughing at it since Charlotte Bronte actually had a good sense of humor.

However, just because I won't be reading a lot of YA doesn't mean I won't still be writing YA and MG. I love writing YA and MG and I don't plan on stopping anytime soon.

But for reading...I think it's time for a change in the scenery. Have your reading tastes ever changed all of a sudden or even gradually? If so, did it effect your writing?

Dangerous to Know

I named this post after a song by my favorite singer when I was younger: Hilary Duff. Now, she writes YA, retired as a singer and actress. However, this isn't about Hilary Duff, it's about dangerous people in life and writing.

I'm usually a pretty good judge of character. I can tell who's a good or kind of shady person within five minutes or so, sometimes faster. It's just acting on those instincts that I'm really bad at. Once, I met these two boys that were older friends of my brothers that I would play baseball with everyday. Immediately, I knew these two weren't any good, but I never acted on those instincts. Something happened one day and my dad banned them from ever seeing my brother and I again.

I don't want to make that mistake again. Next time, I could end up being raped or dead in a gutter.

In fiction, it's usually pretty easy to spot the bad guy even if the MC doesn't know if he's bad since you have time to analyze the characters' behavior from the safety of your own home. A good example of this is "Do You Want to Go Private?" by Sarah Blahblahblah. The bad guy's behavior was authentic and we could tell he was up to no-good even when the MC didn't.

Now, I just met somebody who will be going to school with me at Gallaudet this fall (and he's in the Honors Program as well). I only know him through Facebook and the online discussion board for Honors students. When I first saw the way he acted on the Gallaudet Class of 2016 group we're both in on Facebook, alarm bells went off right away.

I've read some of the "Gift of Fear" by Gavin de Becker and I learned a lot about how to recognize potential stalkers, murderers, and rapists. I learned how a man might manipulate a woman into staying in an abusive relationship. Although this book is factual, it reads like fiction a lot of the time. It is an interesting book and who knows? Someday it might save your life. I know it's probably saved me some trouble several times.

So this character, who is in the frigging Honors Program (ugg!) has zeroed in on me and I am scared. Everything Gavin de Becker taught me bubbles to the surface...

And I'm not exactly sure what to do. O.o

So how do you handle potentially dangerous people in writing and life?