History, sexypants-style

I recently learned about the impending closure of the Broadway show Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson. The title suggests the musical is another case of vampires attacking a historical figure, but it's actually a show that attempts to make history—a subject notoriously known for its dullness to most Americans—exciting, sexy, and relatable by portraying the seventh president as a rock star.

I've never seen Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson, but I love the concept. Die-hard Jackson buffs probably cringe at the idea of the guy belting out emo rock tunes in "sexypants," but I think the modernized take is a brilliant way to lure the history-hesitant masses into a lesson about the past.

I'm all for public education, but let's face it: high school history textbooks are boring and watered down. So many bizarre and intriguing footnotes to history don't ever get mentioned, and juicy tidbits about historical leaders, rebels, and everyday folk get edited out. My love affair with the past started with novels, classic movies, biographies, historical sites, and Disneyland (yes, Disneyland), but even I HATED memorizing and spitting out dates and names for tests.

I tip my hat to anyone who can create a clever way to bring history to life. It's unfortunate Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson's Broadway run was such a short one (the economy is said to be the culprit), and I hope it finds welcoming off-Broadway homes in the future.

I'm trying my own hand at using a unique way of resurrecting a bygone era in my novel-in-progress, which is another reason why I appreciate the efforts of others. When my agent first chatted with me about Blackbirds, she told me she didn't feel like she was reading historical fiction, which she meant as a compliment. My goal all along has been to tie the story to modern events, and the time period I chose to write about is such a bizarre one that I've found it easy to portray the history as science fiction. We'll see if the final result will go anywhere, but I'm having fun in the process.

Here's to digging up the past with alternative shovels!

A holiday wish before the winter break hits. . .

(The image is a distorted photograph of San Diego's Balboa Park, one of the settings in Blackbirds. Thanks, Photoshop!)

Revising again

I chatted with my agent about Blackbirds this morning.  She loves the book and the particular way I've portrayed the past (more on that later, for those of you who haven't yet read the novel).  But, as all fantastic agents do, she offered suggestions for making the book stronger.

Some alterations in the beginning will be tricky, but I think I can work them out with some tweaking and finessing.  I have too much flashback in the opening that needs to be moved into the main meat of the story.  Not impossible, but it'll definitely keep me busy over the next month or so.  As I've mentioned before, I love looking at plots as if they were jigsaw puzzles.  Sometimes the pieces need to be altered or moved to a different position to work just right.

Thanks for your input, Barbara!!  And thanks again to everyone who gave me suggestions before she read it.  Some of the aspects she liked best were the result of other readers' input.

Smart grrrlz

My sister recently sent me a link to a Girl Scout social media fact sheet that discusses the ways girls portray themselves on sites like Facebook and Twitter. The study found that "girls downplay several positive characteristics of themselves online, most prominently their smartness, kindness, and efforts to be a good influence." Moreover, "the most frequent words girls use to describe how they come across based solely on their online profile are fun (54%), funny (52%), and social (48%)."

I'm really not surprised girls downplay their intelligence—online and offline—but it's still such a sad comment about society's expectations of what makes a cool, attractive female. When I was in middle school, someone gave me the nickname of "Brainiac," and I hated it. I started resenting my intelligence, and I even let my grades slip until I started hanging out with other advanced students and realizing how foolish it was to ruin my education over a nickname.

Thankfully, today's world is full of smart grrrl role models I never had while growing up. I'm from a time when Madonna was the woman young teens wanted to be—and that was long before anyone revealed she had a high IQ.  Here are five reasons why it's cool to be a girl with brains nowadays.

1. SMART GRRRL MOVIE STARS
Natalie Portman, who played Padme in the Star Wars prequels, graduated from Harvard and once told The New York Times, "I don't care if [college] ruins my career. I'd rather be smart than a movie star."  She's beautiful and successful—yet she values her brains.

A recent Entertainment Weekly issue spotlighted Emma Watson's quest for a college education. Not only does Emma play Hermione Granger, a character who makes intelligence look like a vital tool for undertaking an adventure, but in real life she attends Brown University. She says of her post-Potter university days, "I'm just...happy." 

2. SMART GRRRL BOOKS
I recently finished reading Jacqueline Kelly's The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate and absolutely loved it.  The heroine of the 2010 Newberry Award-winning novel is an eleven-year-old girl who develops an interest in science and finds encouragement from her eccentric naturalist grandfather.  The problem: Calpurnia lives in Texas in 1899.  She's not supposed to be interested in science; she's supposed to be preparing to become a wife.  Her struggles against resigning to a non-academic life of domesticity are both entertaining and heartbreaking—and Calpurnia is proof that a smart literary heroine doesn't have to be the nerdy sidekick in glasses.

3. SMART GRRRL MATH

Once upon a time Danica McKeller played Winnie Cooper on a 60s-set TV show called The Wonder Years.  She grew up, had a tough time transitioning from child star to young adult actor, but instead of becoming washed up and drug addicted, she graduated summa cum laude from UCLA with a degree in mathematics.  Furthermore, she authored two bestselling smart grrrl math books: Math Doesn't Suck: How to Survive Middle School Math without Losing Your Mind or Breaking a Nail and Kiss My Math: Showing Pre-Algebra Who's Boss.  My husband keeps both books in the high school math classroom where he teaches.  Girls tend to lose interest in math around the fourth grade, so it's fantastic that Danica has come along and written these books that show a hipper, non-threatening side of the subject.

4. SMART GRRRL MERCHANDISE
If literary intelligence is your strength, check out Sarah Utter's line of "Reading Is Sexy" mugs, magnets, T-shirts, etc., available from BuyOlympia.com. She also makes "Future Librarian" items, among other designs. If you think guys will laugh at you for flaunting the sexiness of reading, do you really want those particular guys? Many males are book nerds, too, so there's no need to waste one's time, smart grrrlz.

5. SMART GRRRL MOVIES

Nothing bothers me more than a movie about a bookish woman in glasses who loses her specs and intelligence to get the man in the end. My top recommendation for smart grrrl cinema is Real Women Have Curves.  Not only does the protagonist, Ana (played by Ugly Betty's America Ferrera), embrace her less-than-perfect body image, but she fights for her education in a family that's pushing her to stick to tradition and work in a sweatshop.  I plan to show this movie to my daughter in a year or two.  It's young female empowerment at its best. 

There's no shame in having brains.  I'm proud of the fact that I just turned in a manuscript with a smart grrrl heroine, and my hope for my own daughter is that she doesn't feel any embarrassment about her intelligence. Thank you, modern role models, for showing girls there's more to life than surface beauty.  Here's to the females with brain power!