In which Amanda Hocking is awesomely hilarious

If you are one of the two writer/bloggers NOT following Amanda Hocking, you are missing out. Outside of the tips and advice from an incredibly successful author, there are the frequent bust-a-gut witty humor moments. Like yesterday. She wrote a post highlighting some great stuff from past blogs, and I don't know about you, but when I read her blog I often find myself shouting "YES!" and thinking 'I wish I had written that.' For example:

"Here's the thing: CGI is just like Keanu Reeves: it looks good, it's useful in moderation in action movies, but there's no substance. And puppetry is like Meryl Streep: no matter how you use it, or how small the part, it always carries the film."

This took the words out of my mouth so hard I didn't know what to say. I'm such a Streep fan she's in my About Me section, and in high school drama we had green hoodies with circle slash Keanu signs. And I love extending the thought based on what I've read from Amanda before. By that I mean, I can imagine that she was thinking of The Matrix when she wrote the part about Keanu, because thats one of only two decent Keanu movies out there (the other being Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure). Meryl Streep is awesome in everything she does, which was the point, but as far as the puppetry thing goes, based on previous posts and the mention of Jim Hensen in this same post, I can imagine Amanda was thinking of Labyrinth when she wrote this, which I adore, and by which I mostly mean David Bowie, and I'm wondering if my attempt at reading Amanda's mind is anywhere close to accurate. Maybe not, but its still AWESOME when someone says EXACTLY what you think better than you could ever say it.

This is one of those fantastic connection moments that readers can get when authors are open and honest and genuine. When they let themselves be themselves and find out that they have a lot of kindred spirits, at least in some aspects. Great lesson-by-example here from Ms. Hocking. Be kind, honest and sincere and people will feel drawn to you, like they know you. To me thats sort of the whole point of being a writer.

Sarah Allen

Meeting with Gail Carson Levine

Gail Carson Levine is fantastic, to begin with. She is such a little pixie herself, and looks as much the children's fantasy author as Stephen King looks like a horror writer and Orson Scott Card looks like sci-fi. She is so sweet to everyone, very kind and supportive. She is hilarious and gives awesome recommendations and writing advice. She makes even the stupidest questions sound important and the awkwardest fans feel welcome.

There are some writers who are known for being kind and pleasant with their fans, and I think Gail Carson Levine is one of them. Another is Connie Willis. Others are known for being stuck-up and rude. I'd want to be the first kind, wouldn't you? Have any of you had the experience of doing a reading or signing? It seems like it would take a lot of energy and effort, but that it would still be worth it to at least attempt to be one of those authors people leave thinking, wow, they are so awesome, rather then, gee, that was sort of a let down. Being genuine and thoughtful can make you one of those writers I think, and Gail Carson Levine is certainly one to learn from.

I'm going to leave you with the broadcast of a Brigham Young University reading series given by Brian Doyle. Any of you lucky enough to have met Brian Doyle or gone to one of his readings, you know what I mean when I say this is how its done:


Happy writing!
Sarah Allen