Authors and Novels That Influenced My Style

A lot of people probably read my stories and wonder "where the fuck did she get this idea from?" I will admit, the majority of my stories have crazy plots and themes, themes that are usually only seen on an awesome episode of Law and Order: Special Victims Unit.

Every time I begin to feel guilty about the plots, the antagonists that I create, the things that I put my main characters through, I think about the books that I've read, and how they've shaped the writer that I am today. These are the first major authors that I was exposed to at a young age that helped shape themes that still carry over to my writing today.

When I was a little thing, in elementary school, I devoured children's books. I was really annoyed when I went in to kindergarten, and I found books with thick cardboard pages, and one sentence per page. Hell, I was more than annoyed, I was insulted. I was already basically able to read Clifford the Big Red Dog books. But Clifford had nothing to do with my reading choices: my young adult older sister did.

I remember sneaking through our bedroom, looking for things, reading books that were big and "big kid books". There were three books in the bottom of our entertainment system: Flowers in the Attic by V.C. Andrews, Forever by Judy Blume, and Paradise by Toni Morrison. The lattermost book, that was waaay too difficult, at least until I was in middle school. But the first two... those were the first chapter books I read with full comprehension.

Immediately, I remember sinking to the tragic world of the Dollenganger clan, in to their pain, and heartache, and life in the attic whilst being ridiculously beautiful. They were my first literary loves. From horrific parents and grandparents, to incest and coming-of-age under fucked up circumstances, all of it entranced my young, gelatinous brain. I knew that there were other books in the series, and I couldn't wait to devour them.

After Flowers in the Attic, I was exposed to Forever. Now, Forever is and isn't in the same category as V.C. Andrews; they're about teenage life, but where everything tragically beautiful goes wrong with my pre-pre-pre- Med Christopher, and my beautiful ballerina doll Catherine. Forever is more of a truer-to-life coming of age story of a young woman and her first love. It had descriptions of sex, not graphic, but detailed. I learned rather quickly what happened during the act itself, and I also learned that when the book was written, or its time frame was before the HIV epidemic, hence the lack of protection being used. Even years later, I remembered the book, and I remembered Ralph. No, that's not the name of the main love interest, it's the name of his penis. I guess that's what really stuck in my mind, out of it all: the penis.

By the time I was in fifth grade (I'm really bad with age associations to years in school, and time in general), I had already read a few different V.C. Andrews series (yes, entire series), and I had a short encounter with Caligula (I didn't read the whole thing, I got caught, and it was taken away... I still have yet to actually read it all the way through). Up until then, most of the horrific things I had read were fiction, until I came across When Rabbit Howls. To be honest, I didn't come across it, my Mom was reading it for a psychiatry class, and she allowed me to read it. If people have come across this book, they know what it's about, if you haven't, I'll give it in a nutshell: sexual and physical abuse cause a woman's psyche to break into 97 different personalities. Not only was this book something that was true, it was written by the woman's "troops". I think her books are the only ones about Dissociative Identity Disorder by the actual individual(s).

I've also read multiple books by Toni Morrison, who I consider a fantastic writer that i will never be mentioned in the same sentence is. Her books are... amazing, they're so different, and they're writing style... her style is so incredibly unique, and I adore it. Her style is so next level, I can't even begin to describe it. She's one to study, like the other greats, but I don't know if I will have the literary prowess at this point in my life to actually give her the deepness of thought she so deserves. I know I'm sounding like a kiss-ass, but I don't care, she is the bomb.

If there's any author whose works I've read in a volume similar to V.C. Andrews, it would be Stephen King. I love reading his work, I don't know why all of his work isn't already made into movies, it's that good. From Nightmares and Dreamscapes to The Stand Unabridged. There are some books I haven't read yet, but even if I'm not in the mood to read, I can still read his books and then realize "shit... I'm 200 pages in".

For the things that I've read, those were the ones that helped me choose the other books that I desired. Granted, I've read lots of fantasy (Harry Potter head here), and things that aren't full of deception rape and incest, but these things... they're fascinating, and they're something that is highly under researched. The reasoning behind things like that... hell, you can take it any way that you want; there are people that are perverse and consider those things their sexualities or paraphilias, then there are those that are confused as to their place in the world, and there are others still who only engage in such behavior because the opportunity arises.

I could probably do a separate article on the different types of TV shows that shaped my writing style, or helped influence my writing, but it's basically two: Oz (which I watched while it was on television), and Law and Order: Special Victims Unit. There are a lot of movies, IFC and Sundance movies that are also really amazing, and show to me that I can write such things. I can get published, I don't have to worry about being burned at a cross, although I will get limited airing, or audiences, but I know if the audience is anything like me, they will be loyal, and they will enjoy my work and share it with their friends.


There are other authors that I've read since those ages, authors and styles that I love, and can't get enough of. I will list them below, because I might review some of their writing, and gush about them:

• Laurie Halse Anderson
• Francesca Lia Block
• Ellen Hopkins
• Mary Roach

Are there any authors that you love, that have inspired your writing style? Let me know!

Equestria Girls: The More I Know, the Less I Like

Okay, in the last few months, more and more has been leaked about the FiM spin-off Equestria Girls. We've now been told that it's not a spin-off series, but a spin-off MOVIE. Yes, they're making a movie of humanized ponies.

There are some people that are inherently against it, as much as the people who hate My Little Ponies. There are reasonable people that will give a chance to it, and go see it. Then there are people who politely refuse to watch it for reasons that they don't go fanatical about.

I fall into the lattermost category.

I have quite a few reasons why I don't like this movie, therefore I will state them as respectfully as possible, although I've already stated some reasons in my previous blog post. I will now elaborate, especially since I've seen the trailer for the movie.

A basic synposis: there's a magic mirror that Twilight goes through and she ends up in a high school, doing other high school things, beating a mean-girl in some stupid popularity contest.

*sigh*

A lot of people think that folks are mad because Hasbro has made a humanization of ponies. Well, that's partially the truth. The problem that I have with the humanizations is that they are the same cookie-cutter characters that are everywhere in toys for young girls: tall, thin, the same facial features, huge shoes, and they're all wearing skirts, which is how they're showing the cutie marks.

Beautiful Diverse Mane Six courtesy of BleachedKitten

When people see beautiful fan art on websites like DeviantArt, the reason we usually like it is because they make the characters look beautiful and unique. They're made to be individual body types: musculature on Applejack and Rainbow Dash, a super sinewy Pinkie Pie (she seems to be a high metabolism and ADHD), a regular bodied (not thin OR fat) Twilight and an incredibly curvaceous (plus size model type) for Rarity. They look beautiful, they're individuals, not the same person in different situations. This is more rushed than the season finale that made Twilight an Alicorn princess.

Now, I have a HUGE problem with tomboys like Apple Jack and Rainbow Dash being put in skirts. I mean c'mon, Applejack is a farm girl, hard working, and Rainbow Dash would be a track star. Rarity in a skirt, would be something haute couture; Fluttershy in a skirt would probably be a long peasant dress, and Twilight, I think she would wear pants because she would be busy researching and climbing to the top of the library stools, and wouldn't want some jerk-off looking at her plot.


Then, it's the plot. Why high school? Why such a stereotypical plot. Why couldn't they have something more original, something where the Mane Six have to save Equestria, or we see more of the unicorn magic, or hell, have the Cutie Mark Crusaders find their true selves?

Stupid High School Shenanigans With Typical Cut-Out Body Type Courtesy of Derpibooru 

Once again, Hasbro is rushing ponies, as if it is a fad that will grow out soon. It's not a fad that will grow out soon, it's spawned such amazing things thus far: art, mentalities, even an informal religion.


Hasbro is once again spitting in the face of their demographic, when they have a niche group that they will have for... ever really. It's things like this that make me, as a writer annoyed, and me as a fan, disappointed with the portrayals.

Hasbro is ruining MLP, and that makes me sad. I don't even know what will happen to the show at the rate it's going, I'm not sure I'll want to watch it anymore; I might have to just stick to the fan world.

The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Disney's Biggest Classic to Movie Failure

I have finally finished reading The Hunchback of Notre Dame!

WARNING: No one makes it to the end of the book happy, except one character.

Yes, it is officially done, and it was an amazing experience, in a good and bad way.

The first copy of Hunchback that I had was a PDF, and that was the worst thing I could possibly do to help with reading it. This book not only has difficult regular vocabulary, but it also has many phrases in Latin, and in (what I'm guessing is) archaic French. Then I finally stopped being a cheap ass and bought a copy for my kindle.

The first thing that I must say is that this book is not a book that you should go into lightly, unless you're like a super genius or something, and you're well-versed in ancient writing. If you are, you're probably not even reading a review from a plebian such as myself.

Now, the book should not have had the title The Hunchback of Notre Dame, because the book isn't about Quasimodo, although he is one of the main characters. That would be like me calling a book The Black Girl of Greenwich Village, when the book is about the entire neighborhood.

If I really had to choose a main character of the book, I would choose the cathedral itself. I don't know how many pages are spent describing it, and describing all the historical people that helped create it. There are times, when you get these really magnificent images that are built upon for pages and pages. That's nice, but then you forget that there is something else going on that you lost track a while ago. Besides the crazy historical things that he goes in to. Only a fraction of the people he mentioned actually had an entry in my Kindle's dictionary.

Victor Hugo is an amazing author, and he has a real talent of weaving together ten different character's stories, and ending them seamlessly. There were a few characters that I was like "dafuq do I care about this dude?", and later on, I was like "ooooooh, wooooow". I have to admit, you probably will have a problem in the first few books keeping the names and character's straight, except Claude Frollo and Quasimodo, and of course Esmerelda. After a while, you begin to associate the name with the actions, and you really get the drift of them, not to mention, the characters have distinct speaking styles, at least, a lot of them do.

This book is not for children, even if the language was simplified. People talk about his Quasimodo being a demon that should be burnt or drowned. Not only that, there's also some Antisemitism.

A lot of people of my generation might come to the table with their prescribed idea of the characters from what Disney told up in their movie. Some might come to it after watching Lon Chaney Sr.'s brilliant (and I do mean brilliant) performance, or a host of other cinematic depictions of the book.

Rather than starting on my basic breakdown of characters (the ones that are in both the book and the movie, because a lot were omitted), considering how people are familiar with the "gist" or what they think if the gist.

Quasimodo:

In the Disney movie, he's a kind of squat, red-headed dude with a hunched back, wart-hooded eye, kind of piggy nose, uneven (but adorable) front toothed misshapen loner. He sings, he dances, he talks to gargoyles and generally has a sweet demeanor.Disney was able to take a character that didn't have many lines in the novel, was deaf and half blind, and make him something cuddily. 

The real Quasimodo was hunchbacked, bandy legged,with teeth that stuck out like tusks, a ridiculous amount of strength, and an inner pain that made him cruel to most people, since they were cruel to him. Hugo says "One would have pronounced him a giant who had been broken and badly put together again."  There was no singing on his part, except an incredibly sad song he sung near the last part of the book. He didn't have gargoyles talking back to them, but he did have a connection with the cathedral and one gargoyle that he felt kindred to. He did talk to the bells however, and he had their names, and referred to them as his loves. Quasimodo didn't do much wrong in his life, and unlike the movie, he is incredibly stoic, to the point where being shot with an arrow doesn't even make him blink. He's honestly the character that I have the most pity for in the entire book, because his whole world crumbles around him. He's honestly the most pitiful character I've read, in a dead heat with Victor Frankenstein's Creation. If there was anything that I can say he had, was unwavering faithfulness, which made him so much more tragic.

Dom Frollo:

He seems made to be evil. Tall, long and gaunt, with bags under his eyes as if he's one thousand years old. He is an asshole of the highest category, from the way that he talks to Quasimodo and puts him down, to the general fuckery and judgmental manners.

In the book he was the only person that wanted to take Quasimodo in, and he NEVER mentioned to Quasi how disfigured. Frollo also had a younger brother that he loved and cared for (I can't remember if he was in the Disney one), and he was only 30 years old. Granted he was prematurely aged, and he was bald atop, and his hair was gray, but that was because he was so studious, and passionate about everything that he studied. If someone says that I have a thirst for knowledge, Frollo had an entirely unquenchable thirst, something that made him pretty crazy. If there's anything I can say about Frollo, he drove himself crazy.

Phoebus:

In the movie, he is a typical Disney hot dude that saves the day type. He is caring and "falls in love" with Esmerelda. He is injured and all, and they live happily ever after. -_-

I wish they had kept him true to character, because I think the Phoebus in the book is so much more realistic as to how those hot dudes are. To put it shortly, is an asshole playah. He has no real feeling for Esmerelda, he can't even say her name right, and he only wants the pussy. He is the unequivocal love interest, but he doesn't deserve to be the love interest. I can't think of an asshole that I dislike more than this fuckwad, as far as characters. Hell, "The Grandmother" from Flowers in the Attic is a more decent character than this scumwad.

Esmerelda:

Beautiful, dark-skinned, with eyes that glimmered like the emerald she is "named" after. She is intelligent, caring, sees past Quasimodo's outside, and falls in love with a handsome man and lives happily ever after. And she has Djali, her beautiful little goat.

A sixteen-year old, tanned (not nearly as dark as the character in the movie), ridiculously beautiful, dark eyed, naive girl. She does have a moment when she has sympathy and shows kindness to Quasimodo, something he never forgets. But more than anything... she is a stupid character. She is one of the most ridiculously stupid little girls (for she is more girl than woman) in my literature history. I was sick of her after half the book, because she was just so stupid and naive. I'd have imagined, living with a band of thieves her entire life, she'd have learned more than how to work a dagger, and teach her little goat. She becomes absolutely smitten with Phoebus, and that's all she cares about. Quite literally. She never takes the time to find the inner beauty of Quasimodo, although she understands that he's kind, and always brings her  vittles, and she knows he is utterly devoted. She never gets comfortable enough to look at him for long, and doesn't seem to understand anything other than what her heart becomes fixated on.

The Outcasts:

In the movie, they are Travelers that are outcasts because they aren't like the others. These are people God probably should help.

The Outcasts are a group of thieves, con artists, prostitutes, and vagabonds of all natures. They're not people that are outcast because society is full of douche bags, these are people outcast mostly by their own choice, because they don't want to live under the constraints of French society. These are not people God will help, because they (for the most part) don't want to be helped. They enjoy their place on the fringe of society.

If I am to end this review of the novel with anything, it would be that people should give it a chance. If you get really confused, take some time away from it, or skip over the extra wordy sections, because Hugo does have ways of letting you know important things are about to start back up. This is an amazing book, and a classic for a reason. I will say that if you're a sap, this will be a hard read. I was PMSing when I was finishing th estory, and I was crying almost constantly the last six or seven pages.

Were I to be a teacher, I would definitely want to teach this book to my students, whilst first watching the movie. It's wordy, and hard and difficult, but I think I could teach people to fall in love with it. I mean, c'mon, it has attempted rape, murder, attempted murder, sexual assualt, and lots of death and gore. If I jazz up those parts, I'll get even the most non literature liking person to enjoy it, especially if I find some graphic pictures to go with the teaching.

Money Making Writing

When you're a broke writer, and you don't have a steady form of income, the ability to make some rubles off your words is a godsend.

Except when you're writing something you're technically not supposed to write, and it's really fucking difficult.

Right now I'm doing one of those such papers, and it's annoying the shit out of me. I will probably not be updating this, not that I've updated it any time soon, since the only book I've been reading has been difficult as shit.

After I'm done, and I've done this, I'll write a full paper about it, because thiis is worth the writing.