Percy Jackson and the Free Essay

Until midnight on Tuesday (6/15), Smart Pop Books is offering my essay about Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series for free on their website!

From my essay "Percy, I Am Your Father" in Demigods and Monsters:

Note to self: Do not become a parent in a fantasy novel. Seriously, have you ever noticed how disturbingly often parents in fantasy novels are dead, kidnapped, missing, clueless, distant, or unknown? Kind of makes me want to round up all the authors, sit them on those pleather psychiatrist couches, and say, "Now, tell me about your mother..."

On the other hand, it works very nicely as a storytelling device: Get the parents out of the way and then something interesting can happen. I think of it as the Home Alone technique. You see it in books by C. S. Lewis, Lemony Snicket, J. K. Rowling... and you definitely see it in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson and the Olympians series. All the kids at Camp Half-Blood, including the protagonist Percy, are separated from their parents.

But are the parents really gone from the story?

Click here to read more

Mind-Rain

Team David or Team Zane?

There's a new essay anthology out from Smart Pop Books about the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. It's called Mind-Rain: Your Favorite Authors on Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies Series, and I have an essay in it! My essay, called Two Princes, is a lighthearted look at whether David or Zane is a better boyfriend for Tally.

It was a fun essay to write since it meant I had to read and reread all the scenes in the series with the cute boys. :)

The anthology is edited by Scott himself, and it includes essays by Jennifer Lynn Barnes, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Sarah Beth Durst (hey, that's me!), Linda Gerber, J. Fitzgerald McCurdy, Diana Peterfreund, Janette Rallison, Delia Sherman, Will Shetterly, Gail Sidonie Sobat, Robin Wasserman, and Lili Wilkinson, as well as short stories by Charles Beaumont and Ted Chiang.

You can read more about it here, as well as on the Teen Libris website.

If you haven't read the Uglies books yet, I highly recommend them. In addition to presenting a thoughtful discussion of important social issues, they also have hoverboards! And chases! And chases with hoverboards! And Tally, jumping off cliffs and falling off hoverboards! And did I mention the cute boys?

And More!

Locus Magazine, the trade magazine for SF/fantasy publishing, has a special issue out this month about young adult fiction. As you can see on the cover, it features essays by Neil Gaiman, Holly Black, Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld, Graham Joyce, and more! A closer look reveals the secret identity of "and more!" to be uber-editors Sharyn November and Ruth Katcher, National Book Award finalist Kathleen Duey, and MEEEEEEEEE!!! Hee hee! How cool is that?!

I am beyond excited that they published my essay along with essays from all these giants of YA SF/fantasy, though keeping myself from singing a certain classic Sesame Street song has been a struggle. One of these things is not like the others...

Nevertheless... SNOOPY DANCE OF JOY!!!

Ooh, and I just noticed, there's also a nice review of Out of the Wild in the very same issue of Locus. Too cool!

I wish I could give you a link to my essay, but it's not available online, only in print. My title is "Why YA?" to which my answer is pretty much, because it's awesome!

Through the Wardrobe

I love, love, love the Narnia books. I love Faun Tumnus and the Beavers and Reepicheep (the brave warrior mouse) and the lone lamppost and the stone statues in the witch's castle and the dawn run with Aslan... One of my most treasured books is a copy of The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe with beautiful illustrations by Michael Hague. Inside it says, "To Sarah, Merry Christmas 1983! Love, Mom and Dad." It makes me think of Christmas mornings, when my brother and I would wait in my room until it was late enough to drag my parents downstairs to see first the stockings then the tree (always in that order -- I was a tad bit obsessive compulsive about family traditions). And Uncle Bill and Aunt Julie, our close-enough-to-be-family neighbors, would come over for bacon and eggs in a breakfast feast worthy of the Beavers. And I'd help my mom set the dining room table with the china for Christmas dinner. And I'd sneak-read bits of whatever books I'd received whenever I thought no one was looking... Anyway, The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe is one of those books that makes me smile inside when I see it. I think I've read it at least several dozen times.

So this fall, when an editor from BenBella Books contacted my agent and asked if she had any authors who would like to write an essay for an anthology about the Narnia books, I jumped at the chance. (Or more accurately, I channeled my inner teacher's pet, stretched my hand in the air, and shouted: "Ooh, ooh, me, me, me!")

But what to write about? When adults talk about the Narnia books, there's often much discussion of religious allegory and such. And, of course, the books are clearly religious allegories. But when I was a kid, in all the times I read The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe, I never once had the slightest clue that there was even the tiniest bit of symbolism in there. Some kind soul finally pulled me aside (much in the way that parents through the ages have sat down with their kids to give them "The Talk") and repeated the word "Allegory, allegory, allegory!" in increasingly frustrated tones until I finally said, "Oooh, so the whole Stone Table scene..." And then they said "Yes!" and went away muttering under their breath and rolling their eyes.

So when I sat down to write my essay for the BenBella anthology, I decided to embrace my obliviousness. My essay is called "Missing the Point", and in short, it's about why it's okay to be completely clueless.

The essay anthology is called Through the Wardrobe: Your Favorite Authors on C. S. Lewis's Chronicles of Narnia. It was edited by Herbie Brennan, and includes essays from the following writers:

Deb Caletti
Diane Duane
Sarah Beth Durst (me!!!)
Brent Hartinger
Susan Juby
Sophie Masson
Kelly McClymer
O.R. Melling
Lisa Papademetriou
Diana Peterfreund
Susan Vaught
Zu Vincent and Kiara Koenig
Ned Vizzini
Elizabeth Wein

And check out the awesome cover:


It comes out this month (March) exclusively at Borders stores, and despite the fact that my essay includes several embarrassing personal anecdotes, I'm really excited about it. Narnia! Aslan! Faun Tumnus! YAY! Seriously, I feel honored to be included.

The very nice folks at BenBella have offered to give me a couple extra copies of Through the Wardrobe to give away on my blog. So in a week or two (once my copies arrive), I'll be hosting a contest here. I hope you'll drop by and enter!