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Blog Archive
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2017
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February
(12)
- "Wires and Nerve: Wires and Nerve Vol 1" by Mariss...
- GIVEAWAY: Win a Copy of The Skill of Our Hands by ...
- GUEST BLOG: Steven Brust and Skyler White of The S...
- SNEAK PEEK: Excerpt of Chapter 2 (Merit) from Sole...
- Harmony Black by Craig Schaefer (Reviewed by Mihir...
- GUEST BLOG: The Author's Crystal Ball by Elizabeth...
- GUEST BLOG: When Fantasy Meets Reality: Looking at...
- "The Hundred Lies of Lizzie Lovett" by Chelsea Sed...
- GIVEAWAY: Win a Prize Pack for Frostblood by Elly ...
- The Killing Floor Blues by Craig Schaefer (Reviewe...
- A Plain-Dealing Villain by Craig Schaefer (Reviewe...
- GUEST BLOG: Shades of Grey - Developing Unique Cha...
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▼
February
(12)

Thursday, February 2, 2017
GUEST BLOG: Shades of Grey - Developing Unique Characters That are a Blend of Evil and Good by Fonda Lee (Author of EXO)
Fantasy Book Critic is honored to take part in the blog tour
(arranged by Rockstar Book Tours) for the recently released YA novel EXO by
Fonda Lee. EXO was published by Scholastic and it was released January 31,
2017. It is available as hardcover, paperback, and ebook at these fine
retailers Amazon, Barnes & Noble, iBooks, Goodreads.
Today as part of the blog tour, we have the honor of having
Fonda Lee join us for a guest blog post. We asked her to talk about creating
what we call 'shades of grey' characters. Shades of grey characters are those
that aren't 100% good or 100% evil.
Join us in welcoming Fonda Lee and learning more about her
book EXO! There is even a giveaway for the book blog tour available to enter –
entry can be done by filling in the form at the bottom of the post.
If you wish to see other guest blog posts, reviews, and more about EXO visit some of the other blog tour stops!
Week One:
1/23/2017- Tales of the Ravenous Reader- Interview
1/24/2017- Bibliobibuli YA- Review
1/25/2017- Two Chicks on Books- Excerpt
1/26/2017- The Forest of Words and Pages- Review
1/27/2017- Novel Novice- Excerpt
Week Two:
1/30/2017- Omg Books and More Books- Review
1/31/2017- Rich in Color- Interview
2/1/2017- Nerdophiles- Review
2/2/2017-Fantasy Book Critic- Guest Post
2/3/2017- Such a Novel Idea- Review
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Shades of Grey - Developing Unique Characters That are a Blend of Evil and Good
One of the early trade reviews that I received for
my new young adult science fiction novel, Exo,
made mention of the fact that the characters don’t always behave in ways that
are admirable or easy to read, but they are reacting logically within the
setting and the rules of the world.
I consider this to be a major compliment. I’ve never
been inclined to write wholly good heroes or wholly evil villains. There’s no shortage
of stories about good guys vs. bad guys, especially in YA fiction, which is
packed full of courageous rebels and foul tyrants. Personally, I’m far more
interested in writing stories that reflect truths about our own world…and those
truths are rarely so simple.
I was a nerd in high school. In fact, I was the
captain of the debate team. I would spend months preparing for a tournament on
some topic such as, “Be it resolved that marijuana be legalized.” I’d sit for
hours in the library with my equally nerdy debate team members, researching
until our eyes ached, and then writing index card after index card of arguments
both for and against contentious topics. The truth is, I loved that process. I
loved digging into a complex issue and understanding all the sides of it until
I could argue equally convincingly for or against it. By the end, I often
didn’t know what the “right” answer was… and more importantly, I understood
that there was rarely a “right” answer.
So I write books for those teens: the ones that
question the world, the ones that suspect that so much of what adults tell you
is a matter of perspective, that sometimes the more you know, the less certain
you become, and that the uncertainty is a good thing, a way to be certain that
your mind is still open.
In Exo, I
wanted to get past the usual tropes of invasion and war and explore Earth long
after the extraterrestrials have settled alongside us, when alien presence and
influence are the norm and human society has been reshaped along new lines of
class and privilege. It would be easy to write the expected story: the one
about a brave teenage freedom fighter who fights against the alien overlords. Or
the one about someone on the “wrong side” who meets the rebels and then
switches over and turns “good.”
This is not that story. There are no “good guys” and
“bad guys” to be found here—only people, all of them doing what they believe is the right thing, based
on their worldview and the circumstances of their lives and experiences. And
that means they hold certain opinions, they say and do things that some readers
will not agree with, they make decisions that are well intentioned but still questionable.
In short, they’re like real people. And no matter
how fantastical or futuristic the world, no matter the presence of magic or
starships, people being people is what makes a story ring true.
About Fonda:

Fonda wrote her first novel, about a dragon on a quest for a magic pendant, in fifth grade during the long bus ride to and from school each day. Many years later, she cast her high school classmates as characters in her second novel, a pulpy superhero saga co-written with a friend by passing a graphing calculator back and forth during biology class. Fortunately, both of these experiments are lost to the world forever.
Fonda is a former corporate strategist who has worked for or advised a number of Fortune 500 companies. She holds black belts in karate and kung fu, goes mad for smart action movies (think The Matrix, Inception, and Minority Report) and is an Eggs Benedict enthusiast. Born and raised in Calgary, Canada, she currently resides in Portland, Oregon.
****************************************************************************
About EXO
It’s been a century of peace since Earth became a colony of an alien race with far reaches into the galaxy. Some die-hard extremists still oppose alien rule on Earth, but Donovan Reyes isn’t one of them. His dad holds the prestigious position of Prime Liaison in the collaborationist government, and Donovan’s high social standing along with his exocel (a remarkable alien technology fused to his body) guarantee him a bright future in the security forces. That is, until a routine patrol goes awry and Donovan’s abducted by the human revolutionary group Sapience, determined to end alien control.
When Sapience realizes whose son Donovan is, they think they’ve found the ultimate bargaining chip. But the Prime Liaison doesn’t negotiate with terrorists, not even for his own son. Left in the hands of terrorists who have more uses for him dead than alive, the fate of Earth rests on Donovan’s survival. Because if Sapience kills him, it could spark another intergalactic war. And Earth didn’t win the last one . . .
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1 comments:
I really like what you say about "shades of grey" characters. I too like and try to create complex characters.