Characters Who Watch TV

Source: Sedentary TV Time May Cut Life Short

I think it's universally accepted that a character who sits around and watches TV in his spare time doesn't make a good protagonist... except maybe if he's watching mandatory TV in The Hunger Games. But even then, that's a supporting character. The main character is ON the mandatory TV.

So I'm not suggesting we all make our characters TV junkies.

What I do want to suggest is that real people watch TV - sometimes a lot of it. We watch Oscar ceremonies and MTV awards, Olympics events and sports games, sit coms and soap operas and dramas and space cowboy steampunk and pyschological thrillers... and commercials.

And then we talk about it to anyone else who watches the same stuff we do.

It never occurred to me to make my characters real in this way until I read Paranormalcy by Kiersten White. Her main character, Evie, is a pink-loving, sparkly-taser-toting, Buffy-esque paranormal huntress whose biggest desire is to be normal. And she is obsessed with a teen drama called Easton Heights... so obsessed that she compares things she is experiencing to specific episodes from the fictional show. It works because most of us have seen these teen shows and understand the cliches she's embracing as her ideal of "normal."

Of course, throughout the three-book story she comes to find out that normal is not really a real thing, and if it were, it would be overrated. Her awesome message-made-for-teens aside, giving Evie a favorite TV show was brilliant. Here's why:

• we all watch TV and can relate (well, most of us)
• the stories we take in on TV inform and affect our perceptions of our own lives
• we share TV stories as part of our popular culture; it can even bond two strangers in an elevator
• our TV tastes are a reflection of our personalities

So if you have a scene where your main character walks into the house to find her little brother watching TV, go the extra mile and tell the reader what he's watching and what your MC thinks about it. It only takes a few extra words and it helps to characterize both people in the scene. Even if you aren't going to mention it in the story, give your MC a favorite TV show. See if it informs any of her dearly-held stereotypes, friendships, or choices.

If your protagonist were living in today's world, what would his or her favorite TV show be? What movie did he just watch in the theater (and with whom). What old show did she rent or watch from Netflix?

Happy Friday!

Winner of Paranormalcy by Kiersten White!!

And the winner of the random commenter giveaway is... Nata ArtistaDonna

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I've contacted our winner via email for her shipping info.


THANK YOU to everyone who entered and shared the booklove! I'm happy to see so many who are already Kiersten White fans, and hope to see many more of you join the fun. Buy it here.

TGIF!

Hooked on The Paranormalcy Trilogy

This is why you should read Kiersten White's trilogy...

I've Always Been Ridiculous 

Once, when I was probably too old for this story to be cute (ten or eleven), my parents were away in the middle of the afternoon. I was in charge of the three siblings younger than myself. I took that responsibility very seriously. I also took all of my Stranger Danger training very much to heart. So when someone called for our mother and my little sister TOLD THE STRANGER ON THE PHONE THAT OUR PARENTS WERE NOT HOME, I was pretty sure we were all going to be murdered. 

Thus it was our parents returned home to find us huddling in a fort made of couch cushions, out of view of all the windows, clutching knives. 

But were any of my siblings murdered by roving strangers cold-calling houses to find out which ones had no parents at home? No they were not. If that wasn't successful babysitting, I don't know what was.

That's a true life tale from authoress extraordinaire Kiersten White's youth, and it's a prime example of why I LOVE reading her work. That VOICE! It's witty and relatable with just a touch of the snarkiness we all love. Most of all, when I'm reading Paranormalcy or Supernaturally (Endlessly comes out July 24th! Squee!), something about Kiersten's voice shining through her character Evie just makes me feel normal. Like all the weird stuff that makes me me is par for the course. I can only imagine that the millions of teenagers buying her books feel the same way, and if there's ever a time you need to feel normal for being weird, it's when you're a teenager!

I'm doomed forever to read whatever Kiersten White puts out there in the marketplace because I love her voice that much. But it's even worse than that. I want you to be doomed with me.

Check out these beauties:

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Free copy of Paranormalcy (in U.S.) for a random commenter. Oh yeah, the first one is always free. :)

3 Days 11 Hours 59 Minutes until SUPERNATURALLY!!

I'm a bit of a fangirl when it comes to Kiersten White and her debut novel, PARANORMALCY.

Contest Pic of another fan playing cards with Evie, from the author's blog

So naturally, I was overwhelmed with joy when I found out (a long time ago) it was to be a trilogy. Now that all the books are written, it's a waiting game for fans. (Just like knowing all the Harry Potter or Twilight movies were made and you just. had. to. wait.) But for Book 2 in the trilogy, SUPERNATURALLY...

...the time is almost here!

If you haven't read PARANORMALCY yet, it's a good time to pick up the series. It's YA that's also appropriate for MG-ers, with a hilarious teenage voice that's both vulnerable and wry. And it has one of the best developed, most healthy examples of a teen romance I've ever read. Anywhere. As such, it's one of those few books which I loved both as a teen-at-heart and as a mom scouting books for her someday teens.

Here's the catchy blurb:

Weird as it is working for the International Paranormal Containment Agency, Evie’s always thought of herself as normal. Sure, her best friend is mermaid, her ex-boyfriend is a faerie, she's falling for a shape-shifter, and she's the only person who can see through paranormals' glamours, but still. Normal. 

Only now paranormals are dying, and Evie's dreams are filled with haunting voices and mysterious prophecies. She soon realizes that there may be a link between her abilities and the sudden rash of deaths. Not only that, but she may very well be at the center of a dark faerie prophecy promising destruction to all paranormal creatures.  

So much for normal.

I don't want to spoil the first book for you if you haven't read it, so I'll just link to the sequel on goodreads for the initiated among you to read the blurb. :)

And two fabulous free online gifts from the publishers:

First seventy pages of PARANORMALCY

First seventy pages of SUPERNATURALLY

Enjoy! I hope you love Evie, Lend, and Reth as much as I do.

P.S. Please keep the comments spoiler free, but tell me: Reth or Lend?