An American novelist from Burbank, California, Allie Burke writes books she can’t find in the bookstore. Having been recognized as writing a “kickass book that defies the genre it’s in”, Allie writes with a prose that has been labeled poetic and ethereal. Her life is a beautiful disaster, flowered with the harrowing existence of inherited eccentricity, a murderous family history, a faithful literature addiction, and the intricate darkness of true love. These are the enchanting experiences that inspire Allie’s fairytales. From some coffee shop in Los Angeles, she is working on her next novel. Book 2 and 3 of the Enchanters series will be published by Booktrope Editions Spring/Summer 2014.
Saving
Thyself from Literary Arrogance
Due to human nature, I think it’s very easy in any situation
where we are knowledgeable about one particular subject to boast said knowledge
to the point of disparagement. Where I live, in a place that is less than 20
minutes from the Forbes-deemed hippest place on earth, this feat is made even
easier for us.
I’ve never written a YA novel, but my shelves are overrun by
them (and I have a lot of bookshelves). Even in a genre as mainstream as YA,
literary criticism tends to go beyond just reviewing a book and travels into
the territory of insulting people, more accurately, readers. I have “good”
books too: Hemingway can be found on my shelves, Dickens, Jack Kerouac, Jane
Austen, even Bukowski (though I’ve always had my reservations about him and the
message he sends), but I was a Twilight fan, when it was big. There’s no reason
to lie about it. I read the books over and over again, took my friends to see
the midnight showings; obsession after obsession until it was over. Is it a
good book? Absolutely not. It sends a bad message to young girls and it’s
written badly and vampires don’t sparkle, what the, etcetera etcetera. But what
other subject of popular culture connects so many people from so many corners
of the world? Does such a book have the capability to make you feel something
positive that you didn’t feel before? It could, yeah. That’s the thing about
art. It is supposed to make you feel something. That’s not to say that Twilight
should be considered art, because I don’t think it should, but in an era wherein
extreme intelligence is beautiful and idiocy is the most unattractive thing in
the world, I think we may lose sight of what art really is. Art’s main function
is supposed to make you feel something. So yes, I do think that it is easy to
write someone off as the antithesis of someone who is well read because what?
Because they are a Twilight fan or because they don’t read literary fiction
every day?
Tiffany King recently said at RT14 that New Adult Fiction
was not erotica. Based on my reservations with the genre and what it has
represented, I couldn’t have been happier that one of the biggest names in New
Adult Fiction felt it important to make readers aware of this fact. Her
admission may very well label her as an author who cares about real, good books
in literature—which I think would be a fair statement—but a fact that some
readers might know when reading of a comment such as this one is that Tiffany
King is one of the biggest Twilight fans there is.
I think, as big readers of a community which is one of the
biggest supporters of human connection, it is our responsibility to stop
allowing people, teens especially, to be put down just because they don’t read
Neil Gaiman (who is awesome, obviously). That the big men of the horror genre
(one especially arrogant soul that will not be named—his name rhymes with Wing
or Sing or Bing, ah-hem, King) and who write literary fiction, should stop
insulting humanity by making themselves out to be better than someone who reads
paranormal romance. There is great beauty and darkness in telling a story,
regardless of the context.
Read whatever you want to read, whatever it is that makes
you happy, because if you don’t have that in life—happiness—you don’t have
anything.
Look into the world of the Enchanters, where water has a sense of humor, trees scare people, and love… is destiny. Beautiful Jane is hovering at the edge of content in her life of solitude in the quiet town of Jasmyn Lake, but when her energy sends her on a journey to meet the man she has been dreaming about for months, she cannot resist. Meet sexy artist Elias, who moved to Hazel Grove, California to get away from the rain, his parents, and everything that was taken from him in Hayward, Washington. But he thinks he may be losing his mind when he starts seeing purple glitter in the air, the scent of rosemary is everywhere, and he is hearing a beautiful voice. But all is not flowers and ease for the newly joined couple. With a woman who prefers night to day and a man with heartache from his past, they must learn how to create their own world with grace and the occasional water feature. Written with humor and intensity, book one of the three part trilogy will leave you yearning for more and daydreaming shades of purple.
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