What's Apparently Hot

So I'm here to talk about trends right now, and how they're affecting me.

Retellings are apparently hot right now (although "Cinderella" is being done a lot - case en point, the sci-fi novel Cinder and the ABC Family film, A Cinderella Story: Once Upon a Song or something like that; a good one, however, is April Lindner's Jane, a modern adaptation of Jane Eyre). So is steampunk. Steampunk is supposedly on the rise (and with it comes clockpunk). Although dystopias are kind of waning, truly original ones are still being gobbled. Also, to quote literary agent Mandy Hubbard, "Edgar Allen Poe is the new black." Can we say Nevermore/Enshadowed? Awesome sauce right there.

Paranormal romance is crowded, unfortunately, and so has to be something super amazing. Hopefully Bones is that. I don't think anyone has done a book about the supernatural creature that Violet is. And it's rare to see the kind of gender reversal I'm using in the story as well.

Ghost stories are big, too. Apparently not necessarily romance ghost stories, where someone falls in love with a ghost (although there's a interesting-looking one I wanna check out from the library, about the ghost of a cheerleader and this goth boy that can see her), although those might have more of a chance than the standard shifter/vamp/demon/angel/warlock romance. Also, scary creepy ghost stories are big. To that end, I'm reserving Anna Dressed in Blood from the library to see if that's what that's about. It might be the first kind of ghost story, though. And I've started reading the Name of the Star, which is about the ghost of Jack the Ripper (I think; I'm only on the second chapter). Hopefully Destiny falls into this category. There's ghosts in it, and the ghost is not the love interest or the MC, so... yeah. Here's hoping.

There's room for the standard horror novel - more psychological thriller, not slasher scary, but both are under-represented. I'm wondering if Bones works for that, as well. Especially because of the prologue. But we'll see.

Fantasy (not paranormal, but fantasy) is still of interest apparently. That's good for The Shepherd's Daughter.

Apparently, though, sci-fi is the next big thing, probably because there's not much of it (and most of it is dystopic). Do I do sci-fi? Well, "Switchblade and the Burn Man" was science fiction, but that was bad, so... yeah. Not badly written. It was epically written, to quote one of my readers. It's just that I wrote it when I was like... 15, back when I was okay with having my MC be a sociopath. I'm not okay with that anymore. So I don't know how I feel about the science fiction thing. I like Star Wars (although that's not sci-fi, it's space opera) and I was raised on Anne McCaffrey and Star Trek, so... we'll see.

And realistic/contemporary is a tough sell, but apparently a lot of editors want it to come back in a big way. Unfortunately, it's hard to compete in that area, I feel. Either the girls are bimbos, which drives me nuts, or they're obnoxious evil little twits (a la Mean Girls and Pretty Little Liars). And that seems to be what most people want, which disturbs me, honestly.

The only realistic contemporary YA I've read recently that wasn't horrendously gross, didn't emphasize physical attraction without substance, or didn't have bimbos/twits, were the first four retold faerie tales by Catholic writer Regina Doman. Her realistic adaptations of "Snow White & Rose Red," "Snow White and the Seven Dwarves," "Sleeping Beauty," and "the Twelve Dancing Princesses" are amazing (the titles are The Shadow of the Bear, Black as Night, Waking Rose, and the Midnight Dancers). Everyone should read them.

I'm tempted to read the novel Perfect Chemistry by Simone Elkeles because it, too, is supposed to be an epic example of r/c fiction, but I reserve judgment because I'm concerned by the title and the implications it has on the storyline. They say you shouldn't judge a book by it's cover. I can't really agree. If I see a book with a gratuitously naked chick on the cover and the word "slut" is in the title, I'm probably not going to read it. Just as an example.

Apparently historical fiction is hard, but if there's a hook, that will help you out a lot. Apparently, though, according to one literary agent, "editors are definitely looking for the modern, scandalous, steamy kind of historical...." This disturbs me as well. This was in reference to books written in the style of Luxe. I'm just worried in general about the publishing industry's focus on the sexy scandalous novel and the seductive power of evil (books like Sweet Evil, Another Faust, Jekkyl Loves Hyde). I realize Latter-Day Saints are a minority, technically - there's only 14.5 million of us scattered across the world - but still. It can't just be the Mormons who are sick of reading about bad girls with their bad boys (or worse, their clueless good boys).

So it looks like I've got my work cut out for me. If I want Glass to be published, I need a following first. And the way to do that is to hit up some trends. Is that selling out? Nah. I like these things, these trends. Well, most of them. As for the rest, I'll just have to break them to little pieces, is all. Start my own trends. Be a trendsetter.

Look at Dystopics (that's what I like to call them; I don't actually know if that's a word). I'm currently reading Matched by Ally Condie, for example. The book that I thought would totally suck, not because I dislike the genre, but because I thought the plot was just really weak and flimsy. Turns out I was wrong. I started it this morning and I'm almost half-way through it. I also just finished Wither by Lauren Destefano. I'm putting this book called Delirium on reserve at the library, and books like Blood Red Roads. I've also checked out books like Eve and Enclave. I've read the Hunger Games, the book that started the craze, as well as some old-school works, like Aldous Huxley's Brave New World and Ayn Rand's Anthem.

Now what does that mean for me? I have no idea. I don't have any dystopian concepts floating around in my brain. I've got, like, post-apocalyptic dystopia, I guess, maybe. But I'm not entirely sure. I don't know if zombie apocalypse novels count as dystopics. Do they? If so, Dear Laura is my dystopic. Now I just have to finish it. I think out of all my books, that one will be the easiest to finish because of the format. Hopefully. I can't spend too much time working on it or I'll freak myself out. Zombies scare the heck out of me.

And there will be more to this, but I'm running a bit late with everything, so I really must dash. Ta-ta!