This is Awesome

As the high of the World Cup wears off I had to do one last blog post on soccer. There's been so much discussion over the years as to the place of sport in our public consciousness, our understanding of the world, and even the way we communicate with one another.

Many articles since Spain's win have examined whether a sport can unite a country.

My friend Katie is working on her dissertation focusing on how, as a culture, we've adopted the language of sport. In fact, today the discourse of sport has seeped into everything from health care issues to politics. Even globalization isn't left untouched as evidenced in the book, How Soccer Explains the World.

NPR took another direction and examined the relationship of sport and literature in an story last month. This proposed the idea of sport as a muse in and of itself. Graceful, fluid motions of sheer athleticism have been called poetry and, in fact, NPR claims as much.

In the new film Pelada, two soccer players embark on a journey to 25 countries to see what place soccer has in connecting people. Over the course of the World Cup the attention has been on communicating about soccer but watching this trailer I would argue that soccer is also a way of communicating...even among people who have little else in common. The release of this movie--and the purpose--seems poignant especially since this film isn't about the competitive, professional world but the pickup soccer found in school yards and back allies, in prisons and farm fields. It's not about the consumption of sport as spectator but, rather, as active participant and once you watch this trailer I'm sure you'll agree it's beautifully done. Variety, Sports Illustrated, and the New York Times all agree.

My favorite line is "When the ball is kicked towards me, I consider it the game beckoning me." Enjoy:

NEW Pelada Trailer from Rebekah Fergusson on Vimeo.

To learn more or to purchase tickets, click here.

Carrie Diaries Contest

Okay, so here’s another reminder of what I’m giving away...
The Carrie Diaries is the coming-of-age story of one of the most iconic characters of our generation. Before Sex and the City, Carrie Bradshaw was a small-town girl who knew she wanted more. She's ready for real life to start, but first she must navigate her senior year of high school. Up until now, Carrie and her friends have been inseparable. Then Sebastian Kydd comes into the picture, and a friend's betrayal makes her question everything.

With an unforgettable cast of characters, The Carrie Diaries is the story of how a regular girl learns to think for herself and evolves into a sharp, insightful writer. Readers will learn about her family background, how she found her writing voice, and the indelible impression her early friendships and relationships left on her. Through adventures both audacious and poignant, we'll see what brings Carrie to her beloved New York City, where her new life begins.

Booklist had this to say about the novel:

Before Manhattan and Manolos, who was Carrie Bradshaw? In her first novel for teens, Bushnell fills in her Sex and the City star's growing-up years with this chronicle of Carrie's senior year of high school in a small New England town. Bushnell maintains believable continuity of character in this teen version of her cultural icon, and fans will enjoy watching Carrie develop her familiar adult traits: her love of fashion, her wit, her writing ambitions, and her own brand of feminism. Once again, Carrie has three best friends, the alcohol flows freely, and sex is always on the conversation agenda, but here there’s a lot more talk than action (Carrie is a virgin). There are love interests, of course: a gorgeous heartbreaker and a clean-cut college guy who kisses like a man who thinks in straight lines. As with the TV show, though, it's the book's friendships that teens may relate to most. Fans will love this (and only insiders will get the ending), but smart, vulnerable, questioning Carrie emerges as a likable, stand-alone character. Expect plenty of adult interest, too.

Here are the official rules.

1. Be a follower of my blog.

2. To enter, click on my photo in the follower list and send me an email. Write “contest entry” in the subject line.

3. To increase your chances of winning, refer a friend. Each friend that joins as a follower and includes your name in the body of their email entry counts as an additional entry for you.

4. Contest ends on Thursday, July 22 at 5 pm. The winner will be announced on the Friday, July 23 blog.

Good luck!

What I've Learned This Week

1. Doing a synopsis is the easiest and hardest thing I'll ever write. Synopses are tricky little biotches. I know what happens in my story (I wrote it!) but somehow a 500-word summary of a 75,000 word novel feels cheap, which brings me to my next lesson learned.


2. Publishing and pimping have a lot in common. I'm all over "town" pimping out my story to see if there are any takers. I'm willing to make modifications, negotiations, you name it. So...how do we become better pimps? Let's turn to the source itself, Hung:


3. Just because someone wants to take your picture doesn't mean it's a good idea. Last week Kate brought us the cautionary tale of Botox gone bad but now a fashion show for the paparazzi?! This is just "tacktastic."


4. Emma is awesome. I'm devouring Deception right now with female protagonist and ghostkeeper Emma Vaile and can't wait to do a review of it on my blog and, you guessed it, do another free giveaway!!! Be sure to check that out next week!

5. A puma isn't just a cat anymore. A puma is a woman in her late 20s or early 30s who dates younger men. It's when you're too young to be a cougar but still older than your prey. So if you're reading this and you're in your 20s or 30s and you think Liam Hemsworth, Taylor Lautner, Zac Efron, and any of the classmates from Glee are hot then the verdict is...you're a certified puma.

So what have you learned this week?

Guidelines for Writing

The blogosphere and writing chat rooms are bursting with questions about genre, manuscript length, and audience. Instead of reinventing the wheel I thought I'd link to some helpful articles that help break down these confusing issues.

From MiG Writers, here we have a comparison of MG versus YA.

From Suzie Townsend's Confessions of a Wandering Heart, here's some background on YA (and after what age you're technically reaching into the adult lit market).

Michelle McLean helps explain here the difference between paranormal, fantasy, and urban fantasy.

Guide to Literary Agents details what, exactly, is steampunk.

And on Query Tracker, agent Colleen Lindsay breaks down average word counts by genre.

I hope this helps!

ECLIPSE

Will this blog post be about this...



or this...


???????????????????????

If you guessed number two you would be correct. I saw Eclipse this weekend...in an IMAX...and *crazy fangirl squee* I really liked it.

Let me begin by saying that I'm always skeptical of movies based on books. Don't get me wrong, there have been some truly great adaptations: Harry Potter, The Notebook, and Lord of the Rings just to name a few. Let's also not forget how many awards Precious picked up at the Oscars this year. A great book, however, is hard to live up to and the cast list in my head is not always the cast of actors on the screen.

Even if an actor fits my expections, the true test is not in their looks but their ability at capturing the balanced emotion of a scene. In short, can the actor's performance live up to the prose?

I have to say, I'm more apt to watch a movie based on a book I read than read a book based on a movie I watched. Perhaps I'm impartial. Regardless of the genre or the medium, however, I just love a great story.

But what about you? What movies do you think have been great adaptations of books or what books have you read after watching an interesting movie?

Character Development

When we create characters we need to consider who they are in their entirety. What do they look like; how do they dress; what are their relationships with other people; and what do they want? Every decision we make is calculated.

The same might be said about individuals with a public persona. I mean publicists, PR specialists, and campaign managers all carefully craft the information flow and the appearance of those in the limelight.

That's why we're always shocked when a person behaves "out of character" (e.g. Tiger Woods, John Mayer). In writing, inauthentic dialogue and actions by a character can be downright devastating; it can make someone stop reading altogether. We know these people, don't we?

That's what's so interesting about multiple points of view: We get to know what characters are thinking and what others think about them. We understand them more fully... but what if characters just came out and said everything they were thinking? What if they explained all of their motivations? Would it be refreshing or frustrating, intimate or intimidating? I suppose it depends on who's talking.

In the case of this spoof video (once you get past the 30 second intro), it's just funny as hell: