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anilEhilated posted:Yeah, I was wondering about that, not being much of a YA reader myself - do (actual) writers really keep doing this? I can think of precisely one example where having a smartass narrator doesn't result in utter hatred for the character and that's Bartimaeus. All that wannabe sarcasm really smells more like fanfiction than YA to me - but I still figure even YA writers don't want to alienate their readers right away. You can loosely group YA into three traditions. Regular adult genre fiction but for kids/teens, Brit-lit, and Holden Caufield's many children. Pretty much all standard fiction in YA is the last one (though post Hunger Games the regular genre fiction is starting to merge in.) Some authors can write from the perspective of your average self-involved teen and still show their flaws and limitations in a way that lets you have empathy and affection for them. Some authors can write lovable assholes that are just fun to be with even as they're jerks. A lot of YA authors don't know the difference and you end up with a girl needlessly yelling at her mom for ruining her life by not wanting her to go to Vegas to do real magic which she hasn't put a single thought into how to cover up or explain.
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Aug 26, 2017 01:18
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tasukiscool posted:This is exactly as bad as I predicted (hoped?) it would be when I saw the investigation go down on twitter. Good luck reading through this, OP! I can't read that word any other way now.
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Aug 26, 2017 03:47
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tasukiscool posted:This is exactly as bad as I predicted (hoped?) it would be when I saw the investigation go down on twitter. Good luck reading through this, OP! Yeah, the F-Plus will always have a place in my heart for introducing me to that pronunciation. Completely punctures the pretentiousness of that spelling. Also, the negative reviews are piling up on Amazon. Most are just reactions to the controversy, but some at least attempt to address the content. There's one review, which does appear to actually address the content, has a throwaway line at the end quote:Separate from the book review, I think it's important to point out that stealing artwork for your cover is even more inexcusable than writing so poorly. Unless this cover was licensed from Gill Del Mace, which is doubtful. It seems to have baited a response from an "Amazon Customer" that I hope is the author herself (but I don't think so, since it admits that the book buying is sketchy) quote:Your indignation smells to high heaven. I am EAGERLY awaiting Ms. Sarem to start engaging the negative reviews and go into full meltdown mode.
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Aug 26, 2017 04:13
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Eh, better than Major/Minor.
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Aug 26, 2017 04:20
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Proteus Jones posted:Yeah, the F-Plus will always have a place in my heart for introducing me to that pronunciation. Completely punctures the pretentiousness of that spelling. If you Google her official response, you'll find her blithely handwaving away any suggestions that her removal from the bestsellers list was anything more than the New York Times being intimidated by negative press into stopping her totally legitimate success.
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Aug 26, 2017 04:22
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chitoryu12 posted:If you Google her official response, you'll find her blithely handwaving away any suggestions that her removal from the bestsellers list was anything more than the New York Times being intimidated by negative press into stopping her totally legitimate success. The New York Times bowing to intimidation. Really. 
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Aug 26, 2017 04:25
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loving hell but do I love a wild story. No, not the book.
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Aug 26, 2017 04:44
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I hate that you paid for this and love that you're "sporking" it. Sarem seems like a particular type of person who is self-important in a manner removed from reality: oh, so-and-so's her cousin, and she managed BAND on a whole TOUR, and she's at WIZARD WORLD CONS on PANELS. PANELS! Maybe there are a lot more rubes in the world starstuck by such a resume than I imagine, but there's a deep gulf between pride at your accomplishments and delusional entitlement, even if the expanse is narrow.
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Aug 26, 2017 04:44
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SUPERMAN'S GAL PAL posted:I hate that you paid for this and love that you're "sporking" it. Sarem seems like a particular type of person who is self-important in a manner removed from reality: oh, so-and-so's her cousin, and she managed BAND on a whole TOUR, and she's at WIZARD WORLD CONS on PANELS. PANELS! Maybe there are a lot more rubes in the world starstuck by such a resume than I imagine, but there's a deep gulf between pride at your accomplishments and delusional entitlement, even if the expanse is narrow. Blues Traveler deleted the tweet, but they attested that she was fired from managing them due to having a strong sense of denial and pulling crazy schemes like this all the time. The best I can figure so far is that she has both an incredibly overstated sense of her own talent and an utter lack of morals or connection to reality. The exact quote was “yes this is weird but not surprising…We fired her for these kind of stunts. Her sense of denial is staggering!”
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Aug 26, 2017 05:01
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Are we sure Lani Sarem really wrote this book? The prose seems awfully familiar...
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Aug 26, 2017 06:00
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I'm excited about this lets read!
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Aug 26, 2017 06:39
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I for one welcome this insanity into my life as I hunker down to wait out Hurricane Harvey. 
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Aug 26, 2017 06:51
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Your doing good work here op though I do also have my regrets that you paid for the book.
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Aug 26, 2017 07:00
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:*Zade immolates the first 3 rows of the crowd in a blast of chaos magick, Hell beckons close as barely constrained Princes of Hades wail at the mortal realm* "Yipes! Uh-oh! Whoops!! I hadn't anticipated literally anyone at a magic show being curious about how the tricks are performed!!!"
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Aug 26, 2017 07:24
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A HUNGRY MOUTH posted:"Yipes! Uh-oh! Whoops!! I hadn't anticipated literally anyone at a magic show being curious about how the tricks are performed!!!" A ripped stagehand watches as Zade cuts the still-beating heart from the sacrifice's chest. A burning portal opens, allowing an eldrich horror from planes unknown to drag itself forth. "How does she do it!? I didn't rig up any of that!!" he ponders to himself
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Aug 26, 2017 10:18
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:A ripped stagehand But not too ripped.
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Aug 26, 2017 13:28
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In case you don't read the schadenfreude thread:Phanatic posted:
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Aug 26, 2017 15:31
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chitoryu12 posted:But not too ripped. Of course not, otherwise it wouldn't be realistic 
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Aug 26, 2017 17:02
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Prokhor Zakharov posted:Hey so there's also a really good chance that Lani is the author of the so-called Worst Fan Fiction of all Time, My Immortal (about Harry Potter). People have been comparing the writing styles and they match nearly exactly. there are simple scripts in R that will compare vocabulary and common phrasing and tell you the odds that they're by the same author. it's done all the time on e.g. the Pauline epistles. shoot an email off to your resident new testament scholar
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Aug 26, 2017 18:31
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chernobyl kinsman posted:there are simple scripts in R that will compare vocabulary and common phrasing and tell you the odds that they're by the same author. it's done all the time on e.g. the Pauline epistles. shoot an email off to your resident new testament scholar Yep, here's a tutorial even: http://fredgibbs.net/tutorials/document-similarity-with-r.html 
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Aug 26, 2017 18:57
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All fanfics tend to read alike, though, because fanfic authors tend to ape each others' lovely writing styles in an incestuous ouroboros of garbage. I was thinking Sarem was too young to write My Immortal, but according to her Model Mayhem page (lol) she's 35, so she's around the correct age that she could have written it, but I'm still skeptical. Edit: of note, this book reads like it was written by a dumb teenager (complete with obsession over teenage-brand clothing) but it was actually written by a grown woman in her mid-thirties 
Dick Burglar fucked around with this message at 20:17 on Aug 26, 2017 |
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Aug 26, 2017 20:14
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How exactly was this audition supposed to work? Spellman wants stage performers for his show, but rather than have applicants perform one of his tricks that he's actually going to have them do he just... expects them to come up with something themselves? And perform it with no assistance? And not work with the stage hands and trick engineers that set up the magic tricks in the show? Where do the props come from? When did Zade rehearse this? Why was no one from the show involved? Of course they're going to realize it's real loving magic! Even giving the character the benefit of doubt (she does, at least, appear to be quite stupid), it's hard to explain why Sarem appears to have done just enough research to understand that magicians have stage crew and prop guys and trick designers working for them and yet somehow completely failed to understand what these people actually do. The only explanation that could possibly salvage this is that Spellman is himself a Real Wizard and he's handwaved all this bullshit because he knows Zade practices Chaos Magick, but that makes him incredibly loving stupid because his crew clearly doesn't know that magic is real and letting a girl no one's ever heard of perform a completely impossible and seemingly deadly trick with no one's knowledge or approval but his own would make Spellman immediately suspicious as well. I suspect either this very predictable thing will come true, or that Sarem will just forget all about any of this by the next chapter and somehow nobody will obsessively follow up on this. Dick Burglar posted:Edit: of note, this book reads like it was written by a dumb teenager (complete with obsession over teenage-brand clothing) but it was actually written by a grown woman in her mid-thirties
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Aug 26, 2017 20:43
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WrenP-Complete posted:Yep, here's a tutorial even: that's the spirit
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Aug 26, 2017 22:06
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And so TBB discovers contrastive rhetoric
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Aug 26, 2017 23:53
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Nakar posted:But as mentioned elsewhere there's no way she wrote My Immortal because My Immortal is obviously parody/satire and Lani Sarem is clearly not smart enough to do that. It's kind of hilarious that everyone is absolutely convinced she wrote it because it matches her serious book style so completely, when it's a fanfic that's deliberately designed to be written as awfully as possible. OR... My Immortal isn't actually a parody at all and everyone just assumed it was because of how it managed to hit every single awful trope  I honestly don't know which would be funnier.
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Aug 27, 2017 07:36
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so her plan was to write a fake bestseller, hope that no one would notice the fraud and then get a movie made, where she would play a teenage girl at the age of 35+. the most surprising part is that she got as far into the plan as she did.
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Aug 27, 2017 07:46
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I heard a theory that the first few chapters of My Immortal were written by a real fan but the rest was someone pretending to be the original writer.
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Aug 27, 2017 08:22
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:so her plan was to write a fake bestseller, hope that no one would notice the fraud and then get a movie made, where she would play a teenage girl at the age of 35+. the most surprising part is that she got as far into the plan as she did. If only it hadn't been for those meddling Twitters!
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Aug 27, 2017 08:52
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:so her plan was to write a fake bestseller, hope that no one would notice the fraud and then get a movie made, where she would play a teenage girl at the age of 35+. the most surprising part is that she got as far into the plan as she did. I mean it's nothing if not ambitious.
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Aug 27, 2017 10:45
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:so her plan was to write a fake bestseller, hope that no one would notice the fraud and then get a movie made, where she would play a teenage girl at the age of 35+. the most surprising part is that she got as far into the plan as she did. It genuinely feels like something that would happen in a Leverage episode where the team is trying to take down a crooked vanity press.
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Aug 27, 2017 11:17
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Rough Lobster posted:I mean it's nothing if not ambitious. yeah lots of people have crackpot schemes that will launch them into the greatness they so richly deserve. it's just that not many of them get anyone to put it into action.
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Aug 27, 2017 12:09
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gimme the GOD drat candy posted:so her plan was to write a fake bestseller, hope that no one would notice the fraud and then get a movie made, where she would play a teenage girl at the age of 35+. the most surprising part is that she got as far into the plan as she did. I'm not even sure how old Zade is meant to be. Mac is explicitly 29, which would be a bit weird if Zade was meant to be a teenager but sounds completely normal to a 35-year-old.
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Aug 27, 2017 12:43
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docbeard posted:It genuinely feels like something that would happen in a Leverage episode where the team is trying to take down a crooked vanity press. Holy poo poo you're right.
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Aug 27, 2017 13:08
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Samizdata posted:If only it hadn't been for those meddling Twitters!
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Aug 27, 2017 16:52
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Mel Mudkiper posted:And so TBB discovers contrastive rhetoric You do know that Guam is a US territory, right? And that English is the primary language in Guam? Not all Guamanians even speak Chamorro--most cannot. chitoryu12 posted:I'm not even sure how old Zade is meant to be. Mac is explicitly 29, which would be a bit weird if Zade was meant to be a teenager but sounds completely normal to a 35-year-old. I'm pretty sure it's intentionally ambiguous, so she can be exactly as old as the reader wants her to be for maximum self-insert. Dick Burglar fucked around with this message at 17:30 on Aug 27, 2017 |
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Aug 27, 2017 17:20
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Dick Burglar posted:I'm pretty sure it's intentionally ambiguous, so she can be exactly as old as the reader wants her to be for maximum self-insert. It's a maximum self-insert for the author. Since this whole book was a plot to trick studios into accepting her idea for a blockbuster film adaption with herself in the lead, Zade is written to be a complete self-insert of Lani Sarem right down to identical appearance. By keeping her age ambiguous, the mid-30s author can justify putting herself in the role. This is how you can also identify that the book is basically just an elaborate screenplay for the movie. At no point do we learn about Zade's past or why she's able to do the things she does except when she deigns to explain it, and only things that are immediately relevant to her fantasy film are described (Cam doesn't even get his eye or hair color, just a generic description that he looks like whatever super hot Hollywood actor you want to put in the role, and Zade goes into paragraphs about her hair and clothes but doesn't even say what car she drives). Talking to some people about this book, I've realized that Lani Sarem reminds me a lot of someone I know from the Orlando theatre community. She and her dad (they're still living together as she nears 40) wanted to put together an elaborate interactive theatre performance in a large warehouse space, an expensive period piece with sweeping sets and multiple factions vying for control of 1840s New Orleans. My fiancee and I were involved in it at the beginning of this year, when they decided to do an Orlando Fringe performance to get more attention for the show. As in Lani's case, she talked a big talk but was utterly incompetent at anything else. The Fringe show was never meant to be anything but a cheap preview of their big dramatic piece, and the producers' horrible attitudes and complete divorcement from reality led to a large number of their cast quitting or being fired and every technical or artistic person quitting after only one or two meetings. I ended up fired (in the sense that I was just silently removed from all the online development groups) after I tried to continue with a canceled photoshoot for free and was accused of "trying to start a coup" and take over the production, which in turn led to my fiancee quitting. The Fringe show got middling to poor reviews (especially as they didn't prepare properly and didn't decide to do Fringe until after the venue lottery had passed, forcing them to use a sweltering tent on the lawn of another venue), and the father/daughter team declared everything a huge success and announced to everyone that the big warehouse show would be coming later this year. Evidently the reality of money hit them, as they're now just repeating the exact same show at a gay bar for a few months.
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Aug 27, 2017 18:19
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Dick Burglar posted:You do know that Guam is a US territory, right? And that English is the primary language in Guam? Not all Guamanians even speak Chamorro--most cannot. What does that have to do with anything?
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Aug 27, 2017 19:00
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For the record, Lani is from the Las Vegas area. She was just vacationing in Guam.
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Aug 27, 2017 19:04
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Mel Mudkiper posted:What does that have to do with anything? What did that snarky comment about "contrastive rhetoric" have to do with anything?
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Aug 27, 2017 19:17
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Vincent Van Goatse posted:What did that snarky comment about "contrastive rhetoric" have to do with anything? I was pointing out a bunch of people discovered corpus analysis software what was snarky about it
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Aug 27, 2017 19:25
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