Today’s guest post is by Angela Morrison. You can visit her on the web at www.angela-morrison.com
Listen to your inner creep vibe
I grew up in Tekoa, Washington--the tiny farm town where my debut novel, Taken by Storm, is set. My freshman year started off with a class that had a bunch of sophomores in it. The guy that sat behind me had a thing for Tootsie Pops. His pockets bulged with them. He always made a big deal about sharing with me. Yeah, it was flirty, and I knew that, and I didn't really like him--okay, he creeped me out. But hey, it was just a Tootsie Pop. Way rude to refuse. In a small town, where everybody knows everything, openly offending that guy could have been bad news for me. So I played nice.
His attentions increased, and I was freaking out. I didn't want to be mean, but the creepy vibe was getting worse and worse. (Girls, always listen to your inner creep vibe. It will never let you down.) A couple of cheerleaders noticed one of their darling boys had a thing for totally unworthy me and sprang into action. They made sure I overheard that they'd fixed him up with a way-hot cheerleader from an even tinier town nearby.
Phew! I wanted to jump up and hug them, but I kept my gigantic sigh of relief silent. I still, to do this day, avoid Tootsie Pops.
Love finds you in physics class - or does it?
When I foisted this experience on Leesie, my unsuspecting heroine in Taken by Storm, I made the guy way hotter--way creepier. It's fiction. You gotta hype it. Tootsie Pops just weren't going to be dramatic enough. (Yes, authors obsess over the strangest things.) So I filled his pockets with Hot Tamales--that stained his tongue red, scented his breath cinnamon, and made Leesie's temperature rise. And she doesn't get rescued like I did. Leesie refuses the guy over and over, and he tortures her all through high school.
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| A cute, nice guy who took me to prom at his school. Guess the year! |
That's the state of Leesie's senior year when Michael, devastated and devastating, walks into her physics class, and she can't take her eyes off him.
She stares at him for two weeks before she gets the nerve to break the ice. As Michael gets more interested in her, Leesie, a faithful Mormon, starts fudging on the rules that have always guided her life. Michael suffers from an immense loss. He needs her. Her warm heart can't resist. It starts small. She drives him up to the lake, alone. She sneaks out to see him without telling her parents. Soon they are making out all the time and Michael wants a lot more. Leesie discovers she's in danger of losing everything she's planned her life to be.
Could love be staring you in the face?
Michael is pure fantasy. He's nothing like anyone I ever dated. Like Leesie, I spent plenty of time in my younger days dreaming of the one guy who would make everything different. Can you relate? I found mine in college, and our lifetime together makes me believe in love even more now than I did in high school. I guess that's why I write books about teens struggling to figure out what love is and recognize it when it's staring them in the face!
Thanks, Contemps, for letting me stop by. I'm excited to follow this week's hot topic discussion.
If you liked Taken by Storm: Check out Angela's newest releases - Unbroken Connection (the sequel to Taken by Storm) and Sign me to Sleep - as well as Shattered by Kathi Baron and You, Maybe by Rachel Vail.
Hot topic question
What do you think of a girl who gets so hung up on a guy that she will stop at nothing to get him to like her? If she does snag his attention, do you think the relationship has a chance of lasting?
14 comments:
Yay! Thank you for featuring one of my favourite authors.
This is such an interesting post. I know a couple of girls who would do anything to get a guy. There's one particularly, who wouldn't just do it all for one guy, but almost any guy who comes her way. I think she's emotional boy-dependent and can't do without one. Ever. As soon as she breaks up with one boy, she has to move on to another..and of course, do anything for him.
No wonder we never stayed friends.
But I think such kind of girls are quite common, especially since certain books do promote the idea of a girl giving up her identity for a guy. It's appalling.
And I have yet to find that one guy Angela talks about, who would make a difference. Lol.
Xx
When I was really feeling bad about myself, I would twist myself in knots to make a guy like me. I would be almost frantic to get the guy to like me, and ignore all the warning signs that he was the wrong guy - at least for me.
I love Angela Morrison. :) Very fun post to read.
I know a few people like that - who would probably take anyone that comes their way, and look for them if they don't get any offers themselves. While they are friends and I love them, I think the behavior is ridiculous. When I see it in books I always think the heroine is being way over-dramatic unless something else manages to convince me otherwise. When it gets to the point that the GIRL is like major-creeper-Hot-Tamale-Dude, I just get a tad disturbed.
However, I would like to see more YA with the girl giving Slightly-Creepy-Tootsie-Pop-Dude a chance. Mostly because you don't see that a lot. YA has a lot of proactive characters, but not every girl is going to turn down Tootsie-Pop-Dude because she has a bigger plan involving another guy.
I think you're on to something there, John. Almost every group of teens I've brainstormed with--well over a hundred, now--want a book where the guy shapeshifts from villain (creepy-lollipop-dude) to the hero by the end of the novel. I've got one I want to write, but it's kind of down the list. Maybe I should bump it up.
I'm working on (actually revising) a book where the main character's love interest starts off kind of creepy and gross but grows on her until she feels bad she didn't give him a chance earlier. Now that I know someone's interested in that kind of book, I'll have to work harder to finish up!
I have to say, when I was a teen I was waaay to shy to even relly talk to guys, let alone try to make them like me, but I can understand why girls would do so. Yet it's just so sad. Seeing girls so insecure in who they are, and trying to he tchange to be the type of girl a guy wants... it's heartbreaking. It might not feel great at the time, but I think being yourself is just the best way to be, and if the guy isn't happy with that, then they're not worth it. It's better to wait until someone is likes you for you, and that you don't try to be something you're not.
I was That Girl once. The one who would do anything to be with A Certain Guy.
It didn't last long, though. After three weeks, I was really uncomfortable, always trying to go along with what he wanted. And when I stopped trying so hard, he felt all betrayed and decided that I wasn't the girl for him after all.
Ugh! But, really, it worked out for both of us. We never would have been happy together.
The post is amazing like everything Angela Morrison write.
There's a difference between "will stop at nothing" and "WILL STOP AT NOTHING!!!!"
For example: I want to be a writer, and I'm going to keep writing till I turn out a gem worthy of querying with, and I will work that until I get it published. I will stop at nothing.
BUT
There are some others. Who are determined to be writers and will turn up at the doorstep of the agency with scented roses and chocolate. They WILL STOP AT NOTHING!!!
That second relationship will not work. Sad to say, I've been that girl. Maybe most females have at some point. Or at least we've thought it. "I would sell my right kidney, if [insert name here] would just notice me.
Great point, Claire. I think you're right. Maybe it's an X chromosome thing.
I love the tootsie pop story. I had a guy who sharpened his pencil twenty times a day because I sat right by the sharpener. He would lean over and ask if I wanted my pencil sharpened. He said it really perverse, like it meant something gross, but I was always clueless on gross jokes. I cringe now when I hear that electrical whirring. Yuck.
I didn't do anything for guys, but I would watch movies or listen to music that I thought would make me more likeable. I have seen DUMB AND DUMBER too many times to count.
The inner creep vibe is such an important signal. It's guided me for years!
I wouldn't say I would have ever done ANYTHING for a guy, but I definitely put my self-esteem on the back burner a few times. My major, definitive high school crush was a guy who gave me just enough rope to hang myself - would totally play hot and cold until I was totally confused. And I kept him around for WAY longer than I should have.
Claire Dawn hahahah your comment made me laugh xD. This is a cute post. I know one girl in particular who just really really really wants a boyfriend more than she wants to like him. As in, as long as she possesses a boyfriend the world will be right, even if they can't stand each other. That's crazy but I think that there really is a part of most teenage girls that secretly cares way more about external appearances than anything, whether they show it or not. >.<
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