On Breaking Bad's Series Finale and Loose Ends Endings

I hope you enjoyed Easter weekend. And no, I'm not doing the Blogging from A to Z Challenge this year. But for those of you who are doing it, I hope you're having fun. 

Last month, I finished watching the entire five seasons of the Breaking Bad series. Great show, really excellent writing. Once I got started on the last eight episodes of Season 5, there was no turning back.  The talented writers of the show tied many loose ends together in the series finale.  At the same time, there were some loose ends that weren't tied up, and these open endings were left up to viewer interpretation or musing. I don't believe loose ends always need to be tied up. But there were some loose ends in Breaking Bad that kept me thinking after I finished the show. And that's what I want to talk about today.

  

Readers, before you continue, I just want to warn you THERE WILL BE SPOILERS AHEAD. If you don't want to know what happens during the fifth and last season of Breaking Bad and the season finale, you can stop reading HERE.

...Okay, so here I go...

...again...SPOILERS AHEAD...

...So one of the things that popped out at me while watching the series is that it's not a good place for a child to be associated, even indirectly and/or unintentionally, with the meth producing and drug dealing underworld of Breaking Bad. As a kidlit writer, I'm invested in experiences of children, and so after watching the series finale, I was left wondering what happened to the surviving children on the show. 

What happened to that peek-a-boo kid Jesse rescued from that house in season 2? For a minute, I thought that peek-a-boo kid was the same kid that Todd killed in Season 5 by the train tracks, and that when the kid waved to the men after the train passed, it was because he recognized Jesse. But I was wrong, and the peek-a-boo kid is still out there somewhere. As is Brock, now without his mother Andrea, who was killed by the neo-Nazis in another grim moment of the series.  And what happens to Lydia's daughter, Kiira, who might've fulfilled Lydia's worst nightmare by finding her dead in their home? What happens to Mike's granddaughter, Kaylee, who only knows that her doting grandfather disappeared without a trace? What will Walter Jr. do with all that money the Schwartzes hand over when he turns 18? How will Holly handle the stigma of who her father was while growing up? 

And what happens to Jesse? He might be a man but I found him as vulnerable and impressionable as a child for most of the series. I can only hope that during the time he was incarcerated by the neo-Nazis, he thought hard about what he would do if he found freedom again, and now that he's out, he would stick to his escape plan....even though his taped confession is in the neo-Nazi's possession, which law enforcement is sure to find after they recover Walter's body at the hideout.

In addition to thinking about these loose ends after seeing the Breaking Bad finale, my kidlit writing brain also explored how a story about Grown-ups Behaving Really Badly would play out if it was told from the perspective of the children in the story, if each chapter bounced from character to character in a risky third-person omniscient narrative. While the children might not be able to fully explain or understand what's going on, the reader can absorb the clues offered by the green and honest voices of children, and put the pieces of the puzzle together. 

What did you think of the series finale of Breaking Bad, if you've seen it? Were there any loose ends you wanted to see get tied up?

Do you consider the third-person omniscient narrative a less desirable approach to storytelling over the first-person or third-person narrative?

Image from: http://breakingbad.wikia.com

Author Interview with Mike Jung

For my first author interview of this year, I bring to you Mike Jung, who wrote GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES (Arthur A. Levine). Illustrations were by Mike Maihack. This MG book is a science-fiction and superhero story with a superhero fan club, robots, and a middle school crush. The story is told from the perspective of Vincent Wu, the president of the Official Captain Stupendous Fan Club. Vincent and his friends live for sightings of their local superhero. My page turning sped up when Vincent learns the identity of his beloved superhero and when someone close to him is threatened by the evil Professor Mayhem. The book had the right amount of heart and humor, as well as action and suspense.

I recently interviewed Mike. He currently lives in Oakland, CA and works as a library professional for a liberal arts college in the East Bay.  

What did you study at U.C. Irvine?

I was one of the more dysfunctional students in the UCI Department of Fine Arts. My specialty was ceramic sculpture - earthenware, to be more specific. I conducted one incredibly brief experiment with throwing vessels on a wheel, but the other 99.9% of my time there was spent making handbuilt forms. People described my work (such as it was) with terms like biomorphic abstraction, but I'm afraid I was not the most scholarly art student in the world, so that was more credit than I truly deserved. Despite my unhappiness during those years, however, I did genuinely love working in clay, and I miss it - it's much easier to work in clay when you have free rein in a university's ceramics lab than when you're trying to make space in your kitchen. 

GEEKS, GIRLS, AND SECRET IDENTITIES is refreshingly funny. How do you weave humor into fiction writing?

I wouldn't say that I deliberately try to weave humor into my writing, at least not anymore - it's more that over time I've developed a voice that naturally skews toward irreverence. I've always been more comfortable and effective with written communication than verbal communication, but high school and college were the years when I made more conscious efforts to write fiction - I took a bunch of fiction and playwriting classes at UC Irvine, for example - and those were probably the years when I was most deliberate about TRYING to write in a way that I thought was funny. That very self-aware effort to be humorous became more organic and internalized with practice, however, and eventually became an integrated part of my writing sensibility.

What books/authors did you like to read as a child?

I was (and remain) a devoted fan of fantasy and science fiction, so authors like Tolkien, Anne McCaffrey, Piers Anthony, Madeleine L'Engle, T.H. White, Larry Niven, Arthur C. Clarke, and Orson Scott Card were very important to me. I'm so sad and horrified by what I've learned about Orson Scott Card's beliefs in recent years - I couldn't disagree with him more strongly than I do - but ENDER'S GAME hit me with the force of a hurricane. In middle school and high school, I became a fanatical reader of Stephen King - this was back in what I consider his true heyday, when I was able to procure books like CUJO, FIRESTARTER, and PET SEMATARY at their original publication dates. I sometimes feel surprised by the fact that I haven't tried to write a horror novel yet, but I suspect that day will eventually arrive.

Thanks!

You’re welcome, Mike!

Auctions for ABFFE and KidLit for the Philippines

I hope you all enjoyed your Thanksgiving. Although I stayed local this year, I still had a pleasant and event-packed long weekend with my family. Hoping to avoid the company of stampeding shoppers, I steered clear of malls and mass market retailer stores on Black Friday. But on Friday evening, we headed to our local Barnes & Noble where I did some holiday shopping while my dear husband watched our kids as they played with the building toys in the kids section...

...Some news:

Last month, I was troubled to hear about the horrible typhoon in the Philippines and the thousands who have died, and the many more people living in this Pacific island country who are still affected by the damages from the disaster. Author Michelle Cusolito stepped up and organized KidLit for the Philippines, an online auction intended to assist typhoon survivors. If you head over, you can bid on a number of items donated by members of the kidlit community, including books, critiques, art work, and school visits. The event ends on December 8, and auctions are closing daily this week.  

American Booksellers Foundation for Free Expression (ABFFE) advocates on the bookseller's behalf to battle censorship. The organization is hosting the Holiday Children's Book Art Auction, where you can bid on art work by a number of artists, such as Eric Carle. The auction will end tomorrow morning. 

How was your Thanksgiving weekend?

Do you know of other kidlit (or lit) themed fundraisers going on right now?

Author Interview with Chris Tebbetts

For this month’s interview, I bring to you Chris Tebbetts, author of a number of books, including the popular MIDDLE SCHOOL series that he co-authors with James Patterson.  In MIDDLE SCHOOL, THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE (Little, Brown and Company), readers meet Rafe, a lonely student who amuses himself by breaking school rules. MIDDLE SCHOOL, GET ME OUT OF HERE features Rafe struggling to fit in at a new school. In the most recent book of the series, MIDDLE SCHOOL, HOW I SURVIVED BULLIES, BROCCOLI, AND SNAKE HILL, Rafe toughs it out through summer camp.

Bullying is demonstrated with blunt honesty in the MIDDLE SCHOOL series. In these books, I see bullies who get away with their behavior. I see frenemies. I see oblivious adults, and I even see adults who bully children. While these stories acknowledge that the world does not always play fair, they also show how one can persevere through rough times.

It’s my pleasure to bring to you Chris Tebbetts.

How did you get set up to co-write the MIDDLE SCHOOL series with James Patterson? What kind of a system do you and James have for collaboration?

Jim found me through Alloy Entertainment. I’d written a middle grade series for them several years ago, and when he approached Alloy looking for potential co-authors, mine was one of the names they gave him.  After seeing some sample work from me, and an interview in New York, he invited me to work with him on MIDDLE SCHOOL, THE WORST YEARS OF MY LIFE.  

As for our process, Jim will come up with a detailed, chapter-by-chapter outline of the story first.  From there, I'll work on a draft, about ten to fifteen chapters at a time. Once a month, I send him those pages and we'll talk about how the story is coming along, as well as any adjustments or changes he wants to make.  Once we get to a finished first draft, I might do some rewriting, but Jim eventually takes on the whole thing and rewrites it to completion.  

And then on top of that, we have a third collaborator in Laura Park, our illustrator.  She works from the final manuscript and illustration notes to add all of the art you see in the finished books. The conceit of drawings is that they’re created by our main character, Rafe Khatchadorian, an aspiring artist. That means Laura needs to inhabit the character with her drawings much like we do with the writing, and I think she does it amazingly well.  It’s been a blast to see our ideas come to life that way, and to see the humor, details, and spin that Laura brings to the process.

Did Lisa Papademetriou consult with you when she was working on MIDDLE SCHOOL: MY BROTHER IS A BIG FAT LIAR?

Lisa Papademetriou and I didn’t consult with each other on MY BROTHER IS A BIG FAT LIAR.  All of that direct collaboration happened between her and Jim.  However—funnily enough—Lisa and I did co-author a YA novel several years ago (M OR F?, Razorbill, 2005).  The fact that we’re now both working on the MIDDLE SCHOOL series is just a really fun coincidence—and maybe also a statement about the small world-ness of the publishing industry.

What tips do you have for authors who want to plan and write a successful kidlit series like MIDDLE SCHOOL?

I’m a big fan of humor—not just as entertainment, but as a way of carrying a story (and its meaning) to the reader.  Humor is something I use for communication in my life as much as in my writing.  Everyone loves to laugh, so you can’t go wrong there.

A more elemental aspect of successful middle grade fiction (and fiction in general) is great characters.  That’s the core everything else is built around. I think it’s well worth taking the time to figure out who your characters are, and then being extremely picky in the writing process about what feels true for each one of them.  This is as applicable for fantasy as it is for realistic drama, and everything in between.  You have to be willing to grit your teeth, discard the not-quite-right ideas, and take the time to come up with something that works better.

Other tips: Don’t write to the market!  By the time you finish a novel based on today’s trend, it will be yesterday’s trend.  Write a story that appeals to you, one that you feel, and one that you can be excited about going back to over and over and over again.  This is especially true for series work, where you might be spending years with the same characters. Also, don’t save your ideas!  There will always be more.  It can be tempting to stash away great lines, scenes, or plot twists for later, especially when you have a whole series to write (and even more especially an open-ended series).  But I’ve never found that kind of scrimping to be worth it.  

The middle grade voice and character can be tough to nail, and you and James captured the candid voice and misunderstood character of Rafe Khatchadorian very well. How did you develop this character?

Rafe came to me from Jim, who conceived of him and wrote the first, very detailed outline of the first book (and each subsequent book).  A lot of the sense of humor was in that outline, and I think I lucked out in terms of responding immediately to what I found there. 

For my own part, I did a good amount of visiting middle schools, interviewing teachers, and most of all, talking to middle schoolers.  One thing that came clear to me through that process is the way in which the middle school experience has—and more importantly, hasn’t—changed since I was in sixth, seventh, and eighth grade.  In terms of social and developmental issues, I really heard back my own experience in those conversations, over and over.  That gave me a sense of permission to draw unreservedly on my own memories, which I think helped me write more freely than I might have otherwise.

How do you think reading about Rafe and Georgia’s experiences with bullying can empower young readers who are bullied?

I like the quote, “We read to know we’re not alone,” usually attributed to C.S. Lewis. 

It feels applicable here. Everyone who reads these MIDDLE SCHOOL stories is going to relate to the bullying aspect in one capacity or another—either as someone who has been bullied, witnessed bullying, perpetrated it, or all of the above.  That kind of mirror can be a powerful thing.  It shows readers a reflection of their own experience without directly implicating them.  That, in turn, can make it all easier to digest and process.  From perspective comes understanding, and from understanding comes positive change.

Let me also say, I don’t want to over-simplify the issue.  For the kids who suffer most from bullying, it can be overwhelming.  It can also feel convincingly futile—as though there’s nothing to be done for it, and that things will never change.

But a story that shows a character coping with his or her own version of those same problems and then coming out the other side with a sense of hope, accomplishment, or optimism—that’s a great thing to be able to offer a kid.  It’s not a full solution to a problem as pervasive as this one, but I think it’s an essential part of the solution.

When you look back on your own middle school years, what comes to mind? Have you ever been to a summer camp like Camp Wannamorra?

Okay, here’s where I part ways with Rafe Khatchadorian.  I was a happy kid who mostly played by the rules, had a lot of friends, and actually liked middle school.  I really lucked out in that regard.

Summer camp, on the other hand, was another question.  I had plenty of bad experiences there, both as a camper and as a counselor.  I just don’t think summer camp and I were a good match.  It always gave me that alienated feeling, the kind I know is so common for kids in middle school, where it seemed as though everyone was having a good time but me.

One exception: The summer after sixth grade, I went to something called night camp, which was great.  We slept during the day and went out at night, scouting nocturnal critters, working with the raptor center, feeding wounded and recuperating owls, and learning all about life in the night woods.  I loved it.  One of these days, I’m going to write a night camp story.

Do you have any upcoming projects you’d like to share about? Will there be any more MIDDLE SCHOOL books? (Please say yes!)

Yes, and yes!  Jim and I are finishing up work on the next MIDDLE SCHOOL book right now.  It’s called SAVE RAFE! and it will be out June 23, 2014.

I also have another middle grade series out this year, called STRANDED (Puffin), which I co-authored with Jeff Probst, the host of Survivor.  It’s a trilogy about four siblings who find themselves as castaways on a deserted island in the middle of the South Pacific.  It has lots of adventure, and lots of nonstop action, which I like to write just as much as humor. 

That series was inspired by the fact that so many young Survivor fans have asked Jeff the same question over the years: “When are you going to do Survivor for kids?”  And because that’s not a practical idea from a t.v. production standpoint, Jeff figured this story would be a great way to respond to all that interest.  The first two STRANDED books are already out, and Book 3 comes out this week on November 19^th.  

Audience Expectations of Leading Ladies

I wonder if THE CATCHER IN THE RYE would be as famous for its iconic main protagonist if Holden Caulfield had actually been Helen Caulfield, a moody teenage girl who measures everyone by her self-appointed phoniness meter. Or if the genders were reversed between the male and female protagonists in classics like JANE EYRE and PRIDE AND PREJUDICE....Let's have Rochester be the hired butler or live-in tutor who falls in love with Jane Eyre, the lady of the manor. Would readers be as sympathetic to Jane when they find out she was preparing to tie the knot with Rochester, all the while having a secret husband with a mental illness locked up in the red room? Let's have Darcy be female. After we watch her rudely diss a man named Bennett by berating him within his earshot that he wasn't good looking or rich enough, would most readers continue to root for such a woman to find love?

I feel that mainstream readers can more easily forgive male protagonists who err, judge others, or are not so charming than leading ladies with these same issues. For example, a male who is aloof can be excused as being the brooding type while there is another b-word reserved for females who behave this way.

I can read about a female protagonist with an unlikable characteristic or two. Ideally, she would have some redeeming qualities to complement her unlikable ones. But you know what, I've actually finished books featuring unlikable female protagonists without any strong redeeming qualities (though rather infrequently). Such a book might feature a leading lady who exists mainly to shock readers by her outrageous behavior, and if there's a really captivating setting or plot to compensate, I can sometimes stick it out.

Just because a character has unlikable characteristics, it doesn't mean they should automatically be labeled an unlikable character. Sometimes one whom critics refer to as an unlikable female character, by my interpretation, is just a real person with flaws. An example of that would be the character of Lee Fiora in Curtis Sittenfeld's PREP. A number of online reviewers find Lee unlikable, and I disagree with that assessment. Curtis Sittenfeld addresses her "unlikable" characters in an interview with The Guardian. Here, Curtis acknowledges the faulty notion about an unlikable quality given to a female character being perceived as a mistake.

Female characters audiences disapprove of aren't only found in books. Anna Gunn, the actress who played Skyler White in Breaking Bad, wrote an editorial piece in The New York Times where she shares that her character is despised among some fans of the show.  Anna hypothesizes that those who hate on Skyler might be threatened by seeing a woman who won't "suffer silently." (I'm in Season 2 of Breaking Bad, so please NO SPOILERS in the comments section!)

Girls and women, real or fictional, shouldn't have to be adorable and agreeable 24/7, especially when they're encountering something or someone difficult. And yet, I don't find it easy to write a female protagonist with distinct unlikable qualities, and still have readers root for her. But I'd like to nail this someday. 

Do you think audiences set higher standards for leading ladies than leading men?

Can you think of any unlikable female protagonists in books, TV, or movies who you rooted for or let grow on you?

Image source: www.amctv.com

Recent Picture Book Reads

Back in July, I promised I'd post a list of books I'd been reading to my children this summer. Here is a partial list of some of those books. 

1. LEONARDO THE TERRIBLE MONSTER by Mo Willems (Hyperion- Picture Book) A monster aspires to be frightening enough "to scare the tuna salad out of someone," but learns that being a friend is better than being scary.

2. CHOPSTICKS by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Illust. by Scott Magoon (Hyperion-Picture Book) A pair of joined-at-the-hip chopsticks learn they they can be okay when they separate. 

3. BEDTIME FOR MOMMY by Amy Krouse Rosenthal, Illust. by LeUyen Pham (Bloomsbury-Picture Book)  Roles are reversed when a little girl puts her mom to bed. 

4. THIS IS NOT MY HAT by Jon Klassen (Candlewick- Picture Book) A little fish brags about stealing a big fish's hat.

5. I WANT MY HAT BACK by Jon Klassen (Candlewick- Picture Book) A bear looks for his stolen hat. 

6. I MUST HAVE BOBO! by Eileen Rosenthal, Illlust. by Marc Rosenthal  (Atheneum- Picture Book) A boy becomes distraught when his monkey doll is missing. 

7. DOWN AT THE DINO WASH DELUXE by Tim Myers, Illust. by Macky Pamintuan (Sterling- Picture Book) A boy dreads the arrival of the T-Rex at the dino wash where dinosaurs are cleaned. 

8. THE THREE NINJA PIGS by Corey Rosen Schwartz, Illust. by Dan Santat (Putnam- Picture Book) This rhyming book spins the tale of the three little pigs into one about standing up to bullying, perseverance, and martial arts. 

9. JAMBERRY by Bruce Degen, Illust. by Macky Pamintuan (HarperFestival- Picture Book) This is a rhyming book about the adventures between animals, berries, and jams. FUN FACT: While I attended the SCBWI conference this summer, Laurie Halse Anderson gave a fantastic keynote speech in which she credited this book for helping her child develop a love for reading. 

10. DRAGONS LOVE TACOS by Adam Rubin, Illust. by Daniel Salmieri (Dial- Picture Book) Dragons love tacos but they can't have salsa, so things really heat up when they ingest the forbidden ingredient. 

11. MAMA LOVES YOU by Caroline Stutson, Illust. by John Segal (Cartwheel- Picture Book) This rhyming book shows the affection between mothers and children in the animal kingdom. 

12. OH NO, LITTLE DRAGON! by Jim Averbeck (Atheneum- Picture Book) In a book about the impact of a parent's love, a little dragon who loses his spark tries to get it back.

...And that's it for now. Read any good picture books lately?

Author Interview with Stephanie Kuehn

Recently, I read CHARM & STRANGE (St. Martin's Griffin), Stephanie Kuehn’s debut YA novel. From the beginning, I was sucked into the world of Win, a troubled student at a boarding school, and Drew, his alternate identity who exists in fragmented memories of his childhood. The complexity of the main protagonist, both as a child and as a teen, kept me very intrigued. The question of why Win doesn’t go by his birth name contributed to the suspense. The conclusion made me gasp, and it answered all my questions.

I had the pleasure of interviewing Stephanie. She has her own author page here, and she also blogs at YA Highway.

It says on your web site that you grew up in Berkeley. Were you born there too? Where did you go to school?

I was not born in Berkeley. However, I was adopted when I was very young and my parents still live in the same Berkeley house I grew up in. My father was a journalist and editor for the San Francisco Chronicle, so I was around writers and books and passionate people who love words my entire childhood. That was very special and inspiring. For my undergrad degree, I went to UC Santa Cruz, where I studied linguistics.

Tell me about your road to publication.

I think my path to publication was fairly standard and unremarkable. CHARM & STRANGE wasn't the first novel I'd written or queried, and I came up with the concept for it over a snowy spring break in Tahoe. I wrote a very short first draft, then revised it before querying agents. I connected with my agent (the awesome Michael Bourret) through a regular query letter/sample pages and it has been wonderful working with him. One thing to mention about the querying process: if you've read CHARM & STRANGE, you probably know that it's a book that seems to be about one thing, when it's really about something else. When I wrote the query letter for the book, I absolutely spoiled the whole thing in a very upfront way. I was not coy at all about the plot.

CHARM & STRANGE came with a twist, and the story effectively built me up to that twist with the right amount of pacing and suspense to keep me hooked.  What advice do you have for writers working on a story with a twist?

It's interesting, I watch a lot of psychological thriller films, and in some ways I think there is no such thing as a twist ending. For people to buy what's going on, the truth has to have been there all along and it's a matter of when/how that individual reader/viewer puts the pieces together. I also believe there has to be meaning to the twist that goes beyond the element of surprise, which is why The Sixth Sense worked for me, but The Village less so. In order to tell a compelling twisty sort of story, I guess my advice is not to hide things. Instead, just keep telling the truth, page by page, bit by bit. All that being said, however, I never set out to write CHARM & STRANGE as a mystery. I simply wanted readers to go on Win's journey with him, and to experience the world the way that he does, because that is how I believe empathy is created. 

I found the main protagonist’s first person perspective, as both the troubled young Drew and the hard-to-reach adolescent Win, very honest and raw. What tips do you have for nailing a distinctive first person voice?  

In my mind, a distinctive voice is a confident voice. In real life people don't qualify their points of view and I don't think they need to in literature either. If a character doesn't like eggs, there doesn't need to be a long internal monologue about why they don't like eggs or what the backstory behind their distaste is (unless it's plot relevant). They would just think: "Eggs are gross." 

I also think, especially in the first-person present-tense point of view, that self awareness can sometimes detract from authenticity. While insight and observation can define a voice, characters who are able to consistently and astutely reflect on their own in-the-moment experiences don't always ring true to me.

As writers, we can often get sucked into our own stories. Because of the dark subject matter of CHARM & STRANGE, did you ever feel overwhelmed while you were working on this? If so, how did you overcome this?

I was very often overwhelmed by it. It still overwhelms me every time I read it and I don't think you can overcome being upset by something like that. However, I definitely found personal meaning in sharing Win's story because I think it's one that is easy to overlook or dismiss. The topic of the book is not something people want to talk or think about, but it's real and it's painful, and I believe that without compassion or conversation or awareness, people will continue to suffer in silence and people will continue to feel alone.

What books/authors did you enjoy reading from as a child?

I read a lot of animal stories as a child. As a teenager, I loved Robert Cormier, Joyce Sweeney, Gordon Korman, and Peter Straub.

                  

Would you like to discuss any upcoming projects?

My second young adult novel will be out next year. It's called COMPLICIT and it's about a teenage boy whose life gets turned upside down when his estranged older sister comes back to town.

Thank you so much!

You're welcome, Stephanie!