A Review of Flash Burnout by L. K. Madigan

Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

L. K. Madigan has created a character in Blake who is a tribute to adolescence.  He is genuine.  With all the intense emotions, the strong desires, the confusion, self-doubt, need to be an individual and yet to be accepted by the crowd, Blake is a wise-cracking encyclopedia of pop-culture (he had me at Doctor Who) with a lotta heart.

Without missing a beat, Madigan constructs a story in which the reader can immediately settle in and feel like a part of the family.  The author plays hostess as beautifully as Blake's chaplain mother.  Whether it's a simple description of a homework assignment, an important father-son talk about birth-control, a lesson on the effects of meth, or an exploration of the fragile boundaries of friendships and romances, Madigan treats each character, each scene with special attention.  And, let's face it, everything deserves that kind of tender consideration in its own season.

Filled with common teenage vernacular and speech-patterns, Blake's voice is authentic and he is likable.  The "'rents", the "olds", the brother, peers, friends, teachers, and acquaintances are all extraordinarily real.  So, while Flash Burnout may not be the happiest of books, it is certainly satisfying.


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Tired, but Inspired

My time at Missouri Association of School Librarians Spring Conference was inspiring on several levels.  Professionally, I got to hear about the latest great things going on in school libraries across our state and, more importantly, had time to brainstorm with my colleague who shares charge of our school's LMC with me.  I got that little extra jolt of excitement one needs to carry through the end of the school year and the inspiration to begin planning for the next.

Personally, I have to say that being present for the awarding of the Show-Me, Mark Twain, Truman and Gateway awards to the authors of the winning titles was a mixed bag for me.  I admit it.  I was jealous.  I've had success of a kind with my books (how many people who want to write novels actually do write them, let alone see them published by a commercial publisher?) and am very proud of them.  But, I have to wonder what it would be like to have children and young adults reading my books because they were written, as Jay Asher put it in his acceptance speech, with them in mind?  Teenagers figure into my stories as secondary, albeit well-drawn secondary, characters.  I'm so used to having teenagers in my life, I can't imagine writing a story without a few hanging around the pages making life more colorful for my heroines and heroes.  But maybe, just maybe, I should consider (seriously consider) writing for them rather than around them?  I am proud of the work I do every day with young adults.  I love them!  I love their energy, their zeal, their curiosity, even their innocent brand of cynicism.  Could I people the pages of a novel with them?  Could I write them genuinely with the affection I feel for them without imposing my own adult frame of reference on them or judging theirs?  Am I willing to venture out of my version of reality and validate theirs?  Can I treat a single teen aged character as an individual rather than a type?

Let's just say, the challenge has been issued and I'm considering whether or not I am called to meet it.

How Do You Spell Relief?

Do you remember the old Rolaids commercials?  "How do you spell relief?  R-o-l-a-i-d-s." 

I'm facing my 42nd birthday this Tuesday.  No biggie.  Mostly right now I'm jazzed about the beautiful spring we're having wondering how you spell the name of that gorgeous flowering shrub that's just started blooming all over town.  Rhodedendron?  Maybe.  Anyway, they are brilliant and all over the place!  In fact, all the flowering trees and shrubs have put on the most wonderful show this spring.  After a long, cold winter, that's how I spell relief:  s-p-r-i-n-g.  Whew.

Also, I'm really jazzed about young adults.  As I'm sure I've mentioned in the blog before (because I'm mentioning it every time I turn around and see someone standing there lately and because I'm signing off on so many emails these days with "Go Falcons!") I'm going back to high school next year.  So, I've started reading the 2010-2011 Gateway Nominees and I'm having a blast!  Also, I've begun writing a new novel (at last!) and have a writer at the New York Times to thank for the inspiration. 

Reading so much YA (not to mention reading a not so nice blog review of No Penalty in which I was the writer of something like "boring and oh, so chaste dating descriptions") kind of got me thinking that I might like to try my hand at the YA myself.  After all, in writing No Penalty I had a lot of fun creating Able and was particularly proud of that character.  So, why not write more like him?  Turns out it was, if it turns out to be nothing else, a great jolt to the creativity, because I've been finding myself thinking about my characters and my story more than any other project I've started and subsequently quit on in recent months.  Yippee! 

Between reading Gateway Nominees, joining YALSA, ordering The Big Pink Bible of Teen Services, and thinking and thinking and thinking about the high school scene where I'll be next year I'm feeling vibrant and alive again.  Say what you will, but teenagers, while sometimes surly and sometimes downright rude, are full of life and it's refreshing to be around that.  So, yeah, Go Falcons!