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WOOT!!!
I have a BOOK.
PUBLISHED.
Ok, so it's self-published, but still- IT'S SO PRETTY!!!!! I was squealing as I opened the packaging. Anyway, before I become too "unprofessional", here is the last officially necessary entry for this blog. See the picture at the top? That's my proof of product. Mission accomplished. And by the way, what I mean by "officially necessary" is that though this is the last entry that I'm required to post, that doesn't mean that I may not post anything else. I rather like blogging. In fact, I like writing in general. If I didn't, I wouldn't have been so stupid as to choose to write a novella for my product.
So as promised in the "Next time.." section, I shall address why I chose to write what I wrote about. To be honest, I'm a fantasy junky. I absolutely ADORE fiction. One of my pet peeves is when book critics review works of fiction as being "far-fetched"- it's fiction- who CARES if it's not realistic? That's the whole point! And even it was supposed to be realistic, it would be categorized as "realistic fiction", therefore it is ridiculous to criticize a book as "far-fetched" when it was never intended to be otherwise. Just because a book is set in our reality, doesn't automatically qualify it to be realistic fiction. Stupid left-brainers...
Ok, rant over.
Back to the point.
So yeah, I love fantasy, but I love history as well (I do intend to become a history teacher, after all). You stick those two loves together and voilà- you get my product. And although the Victorian Era is one of my most favorites to study, I actually had to do quite a bit of research for it, as anyone who's writing a work of historical fiction is required to do. Last fall, when I was thinking about what I wanted to do for my product (I had already decided on writing a novella, but I didn't yet know what it would be about), I attended the Novello book festival that's held at the Imaginon in Charlotte every year. My main objective in going was to meet Libba Bray, a favorite author of mine (her blog's in the sidebar- it's HILARIOUS).
The trilogy of books that she has written (The Gemma Doyle Trilogy- anyone heard of A Great and Terrible Beauty?) is set in Victorian England, as is my book. I was so excited when I got to meet her and have her autograph my book. What was really great, was when I told her about a book that I was planning to write (as in Licentious Child) and she was more than glad to share some research tips, as well as some great Victorian websites (she wrote them down on some sticky notes that are still attached to the inside cover of my copy of her book).
I really didn't mind the research all that much. A lot of it already knew, but there were just a few details of the time period that I needed to solidify. I'm not going to write much more on that topic, because to be honest, I could probably write TONS on the subject of the Victorian Era, but I doubt that would interest you. As to where I actually got the idea to write the whole werewolf thing, I half to delve into that particular time in history just a little farther. But first, a short popular literature interlude:
Have any of you heard of the Twilight series? Well that's a stupid question- I know for a fact that a number of you have (Olivia, you still have my book, by the way). Anyway, it's a popular series right now that has a plot centering around vampires. The vampire is a favorite mythological creature of mine (the favorite is the phoenix- GO ELON!!!), and there's actually quite a few (ok, I'll admit it- more than a few) other vampire-centric books that I've thoroughly enjoyed. I'm also a fan of Buffy the Vampire Slayer, but that doesn't really have much to do with this...
Now what's the whole point of this, you ask? Well, anyone who is knowledgeable about vampire lore should be able to tell you that the age-old rival of the vampire is the werewolf. Do you see where I'm going with this now? As I've read these many vampire books, I began to realize that there weren't many books from the werewolf point of view. That's hardly fair. Naturally, I felt the need to rectify this injustice.
Back to the whole Victorian thing, a main characteristic of that culture is the repressed-ness (is that a word?) that was encouraged. To give you some point of comparison, kissing between two unmarried people would have been totally scandalous, like if a girl came to school pregnant. It was that bad, which brings me to the definition of "licentious". I actually put a definition of the word at the front of my book to avoid any confusion:
li•cen•tious
–adjective
1. sexually unrestrained; lascivious; libertine; lewd.
2. unrestrained by law or general morality; lawless; immoral.
3. going beyond customary or proper bounds or limits; disregarding rules.
See, most people (if they're actually familiar with word) think of the first definition when they hear the word "licentious". Actually, my book mainly deals with the second and third definitions, but touches on the first as well. Not that there's anything explicit in my book- just some kissing- but you have to keep in mind Victorian ideals as you read it. Things that in today's desensitized society are perfectly acceptable would be social suicide in that day and age.
Why, you may wonder, is this relevant? Going more in depth with my plot, the main character, Dahlia, is this proper Victorian lady. She's eighteen and has her whole life ahead of her, when suddenly, she's attacked by a werewolf. This completely changes her within. She now begins to feel wild, not so much by our standards, but totally out-of-line by Victorian ones. She gets stronger and is able to beat the boys at things (scandalous!). She begins to have passionate feelings for a young man in a way that certainly wouldn't have been appropriate for woman to feel at that time.
Let me explain...
In that era, the belief was that women didn't have feelings of desire. That was the reasoning behind the whole double-standard that men could have extra-marital affairs, whereas it was unacceptable for women to do the same. This ties in to my research paper, in that women were considered to be this shining symbol of virtue. As one poet put it, they were to be an "Angel in the House". Virginia Woolf described the Angel as being "intensely sympathetic. She was immensely charming. She was utterly unselfish. She excelled in the difficult arts of family life. She sacrificed herself daily. Above all—I need not say it—–she was pure. Her purity was supposed to be her chief beauty—her blushes, her great grace.”
The fact that Dahlia was wanting to do more than just sit around the house sewing, taking care of children, and in general sacrificing her life for the benefit of others made her feel horrible. To us, wanting to not be limited to just those things is more than just acceptable, but is now the accepted norm. Women today are actually looked down upon if they wish to be no more than a housewife, so though the urges that Dahlia feels are perfectly normal to us, to her, they made her a monster. The werewolf thing is really just a metaphor for the feeling that she experiences. If you're really a history geek (or a hard-core feminist, or even if you paid attention in your U.S. history class), you might be able to link my book to The Feminine Mystique, written by Betty Friedan and is considered to be the spark of the feminist movement of the 1960s. Ms. Friedan interviewed women who had graduated from college only to become housewives (think "Happy Days" and "Leave it to Beaver") and the book discussed how they had this feeling of being unfulfilled.
Looping back to the first definition of "licentious", I mean that though her and her love interest, Thomas, don't do anything inappropriate (there's kissing, but that's it), that desire was still considered wrong. So her whole relationship with him feels tainted and sinful (despite that it would have been perfectly innocent in our present) and well...
I really can't say more or else it will give away the ending. So read it if you'd like and hopefully I haven't bored you with this obscenely long entry.
-Mary
Next Time on MPBwtUaCOLT: I have no idea. Pot luck!
