Oops! I Did it Again! (On Writing "Edgy" Books)
So I have this new book out called Dreamquest, a fantasy that's the story of a girl plagued by nightmares, who one night wakes up in a "dream studio" in "Slumberia," the place inside her own head where they film her dreams.

I'm really pleased with the reaction to the book so far: ten or so great reviews, and one bad one (in a minor publication, by a critic who completely missed the point, IMHO!). 

Anyway, something keeps coming up again and again in these reviews, which is that the book is "dark" and "edgy," for "sophisticated readers." I keep reading that and thinking, "No! It's not dark and edgy! It's a middle grade book, not like my young adult stuff. It's just a nice little fantasy."

But then I think about these critics' point, about how there are some somewhat disturbing nightmares at the beginning of the book (which, obviously, set the story in motion). And there's some unsettling imagery in the land of Slumberia itself (including a showdown with the folks behind the nightmares--creatures that I am admittedly pretty proud of; I totally hope they make a movie out of this book, if only because I can wait to see how these folks look on film!).

The point is, while I hope the book is funny and heartwarming and exciting and all the other things I intended it to be, I have to admit it's also kinda, well, dark and edgy.

But again, this isn't the way it seemed to me at all. At least not while I was writing it, editing it, and thinking about it in the year before it got released. While we were in copy-editing, my editor compared it to Neil Gaiman's Coraline, and I thought to myself, "What? No! That's a scary book! My book isn't like that at all. My book is a comedy!"

It turns out, she was right, and I was wrong. I guess I just have something of an "edgy" sensibility.

For the record, we authors spend a lot of time bitching about how publishers did this or that thing "wrong" with the release of our books (thereby completely avoiding all blame, at least in our own minds, if the book turns out to not sell as well as everyone hoped!).

But I guess we authors aren't quite as objective as we think. In short, maybe we're even crappy judges of our own work. In fact, the more I think about it, the more I think we are. We're too close to it. We can't see the big picture.

The point is, I like the book, a lot of other people do too. But I guess it's somewhat dark and edgy. That's not a bad thing (I loved Coraline, after all). But it is what it is.


It's all cool,

Brent Hartinger

My Books:

* Dreamquest 
* Split Screen: Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies/Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies 
* Grand & Humble 
* The Order of the Poison Oak
* The Last Chance Texaco
* Geography Club

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