Where There's Smoke by Jodi Picoult

When I saw that there was a new Jodi Picoult book out, I had to pick it up to read. Even better, it was free to download from Barnes & Noble onto my nook. The only downside is that it was a short story meant to introduce readers to the main character of her soon-to-be released book. Despite this, I wanted to give Where There’s Smoke a try.

The story starts out with a little background on the main character, Serenity, and how she found out that she is a psychic. Flash forward to the future, and she’s a celebrity with her own television show, on which she does psychic readings for guests. Her guest for this show is Betsy, a recently widowed young woman whose military husband was killed during his tour in Iraq. While Betsy had been told that Jason, her husband, had been killed protecting the rest of his platoon, Serenity finds out that this was not the case at all. Jason shows her that he was killed by friendly fire that came from the captain of his platoon. When Betsy does not believe this, Jason sets the studio lights on fire in retaliation. That’s where the show ends, but that isn’t the end of Jason. He keeps haunting Serenity, setting things around her on fire in his anger.

Because of the fire in the studio, Serenity’s producer is mad at her. They then see a politician and his wife on television talking about how their son was kidnapped a week ago and the police have yet to find out anything. Serenity decides that she is going to find the politician’s son, and record the whole process live. She finds the son shut up in a locker at the train station, and unfortunately he is dead. When she gets home, Serenity’s house is surrounded by firefighters, who have just put out another fire caused by Jason. The captain of the fire squad happens to have the same name as the captain who killed Jason, and Serenity takes this as a sign that Jason might leave her alone now. That’s where the story ends.

Where There’s Smoke tackled a controversial topic, as per Picoult’s usual style. She touched on psychics and child kidnapping, but the main focus (to me at least) was that Jason was killed by friendly fire and the military covered it up to protect the honor of the captain. Every book that Picoult has written deals with some type of controversial topic, and this was no exception. She made you feel bad for both Betsy and Serenity, which was a great way to introduce the main character of her next novel. Picoult also handled and entire criminal case from start to finish in less than 30 pages, which was a pretty amazing feat.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book. It made me want to read the novel is prefaces so that I can learn more about Serenity and how she deals with being a psychic. I would recommend Where There’s Smoke to anyone who loves Picoult’s work, or is just looking for a quick but excellent read.


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Outlander (Outlander Series #1) by Diana Gabaldon

Romance. Historical fiction. Time travel. A psychotic villain. These are just some of the things you can expect to find if you read this book. Honestly, any one of those things would get me to read a book, but when you put them all together… it’s just perfection.

The story starts out with our hero, Claire, on a second “honeymoon” with her husband after World War II. Claire is investigating a stone circle on a hill in the Scottish Highlands when she is sucked through the stones to the year 1743. While she is in the same place, she’s gone back in time almost 200 years, and ends up in the middle of a fight between the Scottish and the English. Claire is captured by the English captain, who just happens to be the six-times great grandfather of her husband. Before she can puzzle through all of that, she’s rescued by the Scottish and taken to their hideout. Claire proves her worth by healing one of the injured Scots men, surprising them all with her medical history from her time serving as an army nurse. She’s then brought to the Scots stronghold, all the while planning her escape so she can return to the stones and go back to her own time.

Eventually Claire gets the chance she was hoping for, but before she can escape, the English captain comes back to haunt her. In order to evade him, Claire is forced to marry Jaime, the Scot whom she fixed her first night and became good friends with. Through a series of adventures and misfortunes, Claire and Jamie save each other numerous times. When the time comes to go back to 1946, she decides against it and stays with Jamie. Eventually the two defeat the English captain and are together at last.

As soon as I finished reading Outlander, I wanted to start the next book in the series. It combined everything that I love in a book, and it didn’t disappoint. There was so much happening throughout the story that I never wanted to put it down. What really amazed me was the amount of research Gabaldon did to make sure that her story was accurate. She researched the environment, the Jacobite movement, the speech, culture, and medical things (of both 1743 and 1946). All of these things were flawless, and they came together seamlessly.

While the research made the story historically accurate, the characterizations are what really sold the story for me. Claire is never a helpless heroine, even right after her world has been turned around and she has no idea where, or when, she is. The Scottish men all have so many layers to each individual that it’s amazing Gabaldon was able to come up with so many different personalities in one clan. Jaime is the hero every girl dreams of: funny, loyal, brave, fiercely passionate and protective. However, the shining star among the characters is ironically the villain, Captain Randall. Everything about him is ridiculously evil. He’s a psychopath who’s a closet gay guy (which was not something you admitted to in 1743), and he delights in torturing his enemies. I needed more than one hand to count the number of horrible things he did to Jaime throughout the story. I would never want to meet anyone like him.

I would recommend this book to anyone looking for a historical fiction romance with a bit of time travel thrown in. If you enjoy medieval Scotland, then this is the book (and series) for you!


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A Discussion of the Different Forms of Fan Fiction

In my post “An Introduction to Fan Fiction,” I defined fan fiction, or fanfic, as “fiction that is written by fans of a particular book, movie, or television series that utilizes characters and settings from that book, movie, or television series.” However, the term encompasses more than just fiction. It also includes plays, music, art, and film. Yes, each form is unique, but they are all fundamentally the same: the creators love whatever book, movie, or television series they’re dealing with, and what they do is out of love of the characters and settings.

Of the different forms, written fanfic is probably the most diverse. You can find stories on sites like FanFiction.net, or you can fully immerse yourself in an author’s world with something like Hogwarts is Here (HiH). Then there are the stories that are actually published, since they are based on characters and settings that are in the public domain and therefore free to use.

FanFiction.net (FFN) is the largest fanfic archive on the Internet. It hosts over 2 million pieces of fanfic, ranging from short-short stories to full-length novels. People from all over the world write and post fanfic here, as it is free for anyone to use. They even have a ratings system in place so that readers know what they should expect before they start reading a story. One of the best parts about the site is the beta function. This gives all writers access to a beta reader, which is someone who reads what you write before you publish it and comments on it, making suggestions to help improve your writing. This is especially beneficial for people who want to write a story, but aren’t confident enough in their skills to write their own story. The FFN experience helps them to gain confidence and experience before creating their own worlds. You can also use a pen name, so no one has to know who you really are. (For example, my name on the site is Katybenben.)

One of my favorite FFN stories is A Study in Magic, written by Books of Change. The story is a crossover between Harry Potter and Sherlock Holmes (more specifically, the BBC show Sherlock). Without giving too much away, Sherlock and John Watson have adopted Harry after Moriarty killed the Dursleys. From there, the story pretty much follows the Harry Potter canon storyline, with some additions from Sherlock in the way of characters and settings. It was this story that inspired me to attempt to write my own Harry Potter/Sherlock crossover. Unlike Books of Change, I haven’t gotten very far into my story yet. She has over 80 chapters written, and had to create a spinoff of her original story because it was getting too long.

Hogwarts is Here (HiH) is another form of fanfic. This is their mission statement: “Hogwarts is Here is a website created by the fandom. Our goal is to create the magical experience that we as fans have all been looking for since we finished the last book. It's Real for Us.” This magical experience involves registering (it’s free!), getting sorted into your Hogwarts house, and then attending classes (online, of course). Currently, there are over 20,000 students from all over the world who attend Hogwarts through HiH. It’s run completely by volunteers, so no one is looking to make any money from it. They’re just looking to fulfill all Harry Potter fans dreams of going to Hogwarts and celebrate the world that JK Rowling created.

The last type of written fanfic is the spinoffs of works in the public domain. These include things like Georgiana Darcy’s Diary (continuation of Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice) and Death Comes to Pemberly (a different continuation of Pride and Prejudice). The authors of these works are not legally prosecuted because the original has fallen into the public domain, meaning that the copyright has expired and is no longer protected by the copyright law. People can write whatever fanfic they want about these works and publish it without any legal concern, yet I would still consider them fan fiction.

While most people only consider written works as fan fiction, I think the term encompasses more forms. In my opinion, any plays, music, art, or film that utilizes the characters and settings of another’s book, movie, or television show falls under the category of fan fiction. While it might not be fiction in the strict sense of the word, it still deals with the same type of thing and could be pursued by the same copyright infringement. Fan fiction comes in all different formats, and it’s a great way for fans to express their love of something in a unique and creative way.

Examples of fanfic for each type I’ve identified:

Written:

A Study in Magic

If Lord of the Rings Had Facebook

Plays:

A Very Potter Musical

A Very Potter Sequel

A Very Potter Senior Year

Music:

All of the songs from the above plays, as created by Team Starkid

Art:

All fan-made pictures found on Pinterest (search term Harry Potter)

Film:

Bamf Girls Club by Comediva

Lego Stop-Motion videos by Brotherhood Workshop (Harry Potter; Lord of the Rings)

An Introduction to Fan Fiction

Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about fan fiction. People all over the world delight in writing and reading stories about characters and worlds they know and love. They spend so much of their time with these stories, and all they get out of it is a sense of satisfaction that their most beloved characters and worlds are expanding. While some authors don’t approve of fan fiction based on their works, others are completely fine with it and on occasion even read and praise it. It becomes bigger and bigger every day, with more and more fans interacting with each other through it. Just don’t forget that some fan fiction creators can get in trouble for it.

First off, let’s look at what fan fiction really is. Most people understand it as fiction that is written by fans of a particular book, movie, or television series that utilizes characters and settings from that book, movie, or television series. In his article “What is Fan Fiction – and why is it making people nervous?” Stephen Downes very succinctly defines fan fiction as “any work which embellishes, alters, or rewrites the work of another (usually a published author) with new storylines, characters, alternative endings, beginnings, and substitute sets of morals, ideals, or sexual politics.”

Sounds like a bit of harmless fun for fans, right? Well, many authors don’t think so, and aren’t afraid to sue fan fiction writers based on the fair use clause of the copyright law. The law contains a list of purposes for which the reproduction of a work may be considered fair. These include criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, and research. There are four factors that a court will use to decide whether something falls under the protection of fair use:

1. The purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is for commercial or nonprofit educational purposes;
2. The nature of the copyrighted work;
3. The amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole; and
4. The effect of the use upon the potential market for, or value of, the copyrighted work

Authors seem to be divided on the issue of fan fiction. Should they be honored that fans love the characters and worlds so much that they write their own stories about them, or should they be appalled that other writers, usually amateurs, are writing about their characters? Many famous authors, such as George R.R. Martin and Diana Gabaldon, are strongly against fan fiction while others like J.K. Rowling and Charlie Stross are fine with it. I asked three other authors where they stand on the issue, and got a somewhat less mixed response. One had never read fan fiction, and therefore did not have an opinion on it. The other two, KateDevlin and Kendare Blake, were both for it. Devlin said,

“Fan fiction is a wonderful outlet. There is no bad outlet for writing. And people read it! Look as 50 Shades of Grey and what a little fan fiction can become. I’m not against any form of written or musical expression (as long as no one got killed in the process.)”

Blake’s opinion was very similar to Devlin’s:

“I think it's cool. It's great that someone is so inspired by someone else's world and characters. I haven't read any of the Anna fanfics, but it's nice to know they're out there. However, I do think if an author is not cool with fan fiction, well, that's just how they feel and no one should yell at them about it.”

From my experience with fan fiction, it sounds like many people who enjoy fan fiction do it to express their love for the world the author created. What’s so bad about that? I understand that authors think it is a violation of their rights and characters when someone writes fan fiction based on their works. However, the authors don’t have to read the fan fiction. In fact, they don’t even have to acknowledge it. Fans write these stories knowing that most authors would not approve of it and will most likely never see it, but they write the stories anyway. Authors should just leave fan fiction alone and let the fans express themselves. That way, authors and fans alike will be happy doing what they love.

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies by Jane Austen and Seth Grahame-Smith

Let me first start off by saying that Pride and Prejudice is quite possibly my favorite book. I can read it over and over again, and never be bored. I own both the 2005 movie version starring Keira Knightley and the 1995 TV mini series starring Jennifer Ehle and Colin Firth, and I have seen both versions more times than I would care to admit.

When my brother first showed me Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, I didn’t know what to think. Should I be horrified that someone perverted the story, or should I be excited to read a new take on the classic? I am very glad that I decided to try reading it, because this unique take on the story may be even better than the original (sorry Jane Austen!).

Pride and Prejudice and Zombies stays fairly true to the original Austen tale. It deals with the same characters in the same situation with the same outcome, which made me happy. Unlike many fellow reviewers, I thought that the addition of the zombies was well done and did not take away from the story. The two authors flowed into and out of each other perfectly, and the illustrations accompanying the zombie sections were great. Many people have not been able to read the original version, as they get bored with it. Introducing zombies into the equation makes the story that much more enjoyable to fans, but also to those who have not read the original.

The only thing that didn’t fully fit into this story was the few modern jokes Grahame-Smith threw into his parts. They didn’t really take away from the story, but they did feel a little out of place. However, I enjoyed the jokes because they were my (somewhat dirty) sense of humor. Diehard Jane Austen fans probably wouldn’t enjoy them, as they are not period jokes, and certainly not ones Elizabeth would make.

Overall, I really enjoyed Pride and Prejudice and Zombies. The addition of zombies to Austen’s original text gave the story a new level of awesomeness. The only thing I didn’t like was that Elizabeth’s best friend, Charlotte, was turned into a zombie. She is my favorite supporting character, and it made me sad, and slightly mad, to see her degraded like that. Despite this, I would definitely read this version again and again, just as I have with the original.


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