dear...

Dear BBC's Sherlock fans,

Monday, January 14, 2013

This feature is one of the new ones I have going around on The Bucket List.  Dear... is a feature where I write a letter that is not going to be sent, but may have a slim chance of being seen by a specific person or group.  These letters are not meant to be offensive, but meant to spark discussion.  Today, I am writing a letter to BBC's Sherlock fans who refuse to watch CBS's Elementary. 


Dear BBC’s Sherlock fans who refuse to watch Elementary,         

There are a lot of you out there.  As soon as CBS’s announced a new series based off of The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes (not the TV show, rather the book series), BBC’s Sherlock fans were in an outrage.  I was not particularly happy with CBS at the time of the announcement either, knowing that they are only riding off BBC’s Sherlock’s popularity. 

I wasn’t planning on watching the TV show.  I was convinced that there are way too many crime shows out there.  Personally, it took me (for that exact same reason) a while to start watching BBC’s Sherlock.  A friend recommended it to me but told me that it was on hiatus and that there were only three episodes per season. I hate waiting and so I refused to watch Sherlock until I saw it in the library DVD section and thought I might as well try it out.  It was genius. 
When the pilot of Elementary released, I told myself I would try the first episode and if I didn’t like it, I would not continue.  However, the first episode caught my interest and when the second episode came out, I had to watch it.  CBS’s Elementary is fantastic! 

Now I am not here to rant to you about how great the show is (even though it is and all should check it out), this is a message to you, BBC’s Sherlock fans, refusing to watch Elementary: if you are not going to watch CBS’s Elementary (for whatever reason) than stop bashing a TV series that you don’t watch and haven’t even given a try.

For those of you who don’t know, Sherlock is actually a book series by Arthur Conan Doyle.  I haven’t read the books but I plan to.  BBC’s Sherlock is, of course, not the first to take on the series.  America has actually a few ongoing TV shows which are based on either the books or just the character, Sherlock, himself.  House is a popular crime show where the character, House, is based on Sherlock Holmes.  More recent is The Mentalist (which I watch sometimes), where Patrick Jane is a consulting detective for the police who seeks revenge on Red John for murdering his wife and daughter.  These are popular TV shows.  I think Elementary should get the popularity it deserves and BBC’s Sherlock fans, who do not watch, should stop putting down those who do.

Disclaimer: If this letter was offensive to you, it was unintentionally done.  Remember I am a BBC’s Sherlock fan as well but I actually gave Elementary a chance. 

At least watch the pilot and give it a chance.  If you won’t even give it a try then don’t say anything about it at all.

Sincerely,

Gina
What is your favorite TV show?

dear...

Dear Barry Lyga,

Wednesday, July 25, 2012

This feature is one of the new ones I have going around on The Bucket List.  Dear... is a feature where I write a letter that is not going to be sent, but may have a slim chance of being seen by a specific person or group.  These letters are not meant to be offensive, but meant to spark discussion.  Today, I am writing a letter to Barry Lyga, one of my favorite authors of all time.


Dear Barry Lyga,

You probably don’t remember me, but (aren’t those the generic words you are supposed to say to a celebrity you have met before?) I was at the Teen Author Carnival on June 5th, 2012.

The Teen Author Carnival was nothing like I have ever been to before and you were the highlight of the night.  I was extremely late to the event because I walked right past the New York Public Library mistaking the place for a church (it really does look like a church).  I ran upstairs and had to stand the rest of my way through one of the panels, which were fantastic!

There was a signing afterwards and coming from BEA, I didn’t bring a lot of books with me to the city in the first place.  I decided to bring my two favorites, Boy Toy by Barry Lyga (you, of course) and The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer by Michelle Hodkin (who is incredibly sweet).

Barry Lyga, you have been my FAVORITE author since seventh grade.  I told you this while you signed my book and while I was fan-girling inside.  Personally, I think you might get that a lot so I just wanted to write a letter to tell you how much you have changed me as a reader.  I promise not to get all Hero Type on you; I have never been, nor ever will be, a stalker.  A stalker would have sent you this letter and put something like the “craziest fan mail you have ever received” had in her letter.  My letter is nowhere near as creepy and I am not sending this to you.  I am merely putting this up on my site, The Bucket List, where you may or may not read it.

Seventh grade was a huge year for me.  As an upcoming sophomore in college, I can truthfully say that seventh grade wasn’t one of my favorite years.  Seventh grade was the year I became an avid reader and that year began shaping me into what you see of me on my website.  I wouldn’t have become a reader without your help and I give you a HUGE thank you for that.  The first book I was genuinely interested in since Magic Tree House books was Isolde, Queen of the Western Isle by Rosalind Miles (which, looking back, is definitely out of my previous self’s age range).  After reading the series, I couldn’t find anything else interesting.  No other book dealt (that I could discover as a seventh grader) with such a taboo subject as forbidden love, awesome battles, and murdering characters.  Then I came across the first book I have ever read from you, The Astonishing Adventures of Fan Boy and Goth Girl.  The book had it all.  Her rebellious personality mixed with his nerdiness of obsessive comic book reading was what I needed to tell me I needed to read more books, not just by you but by everyone. 

The next book I read from you was Hero Type, finishing the book while vacationing at Disney World (yes, I did bring your book in the park with me).  As a reader, your books took me by storm and blew me away.  Thank you again for being such a HUGE component in my reading career.  I read Boy Toy right after I received my driver’s license (no, I did not read while driving) and that one shook me.  I feel that a lot of your books dealt with teens in trouble, in tough situations and when I read about them, I felt their pain too.  Your books were the key to my maturity.  They taught me not only what not to do (do NOT flash famous people), but what could happen (really, mother, do you know where your child is), and what the emotion would feel like if it were to happen.  Every book I have read from you is filled with raw emotion that has kept me up late at night.  I keep thinking what I would do if I met you.  How I would approach you and what I would say.  Being shy isn’t all that it is cracked up to be because I wanted to say all this and all I ended up telling you when we met was “Barry Lyga, you have been my FAVORITE author since seventh grade.” And how I won that Archvillain contest on your website once.  Loved Archvillain too, by the way.

I guess to sum up what I have been trying to spit out the entire letter is: Barry Lyga, you are awesome; please, continue creating works of art that will blow me away.  I look forward to your next work!

Sincerely,

Gina

Who is your favorite author?  And if you had a chance to meet him/her what would you say? 

dear...

Dear...

Saturday, July 07, 2012

I've wanted to start this feature for a while now.  I have always wished to write letters to random people or even specific people.  It seems like a cool idea: writing a letter in a slim chance that the specific person will read it.  This feature should be a fun series of posts that bring about discussions in the comments.  Today, I wrote a letter about something that bothers me in the book industry.


Dear Authors Who Have Their Faces Enlarged On The Back Covers Of Their Work (No Offense, James Patterson),

There is not much that turns me off about a book.  I’ll read almost everything, but mostly YA is the genre I prefer.  Why?  I don’t know why I like YA so much.  Maybe because the YA genre sounds so much more interesting than the adult genre.  Maybe it is because I am on the edge of the YA age group (even though YA is read by mostly all ages, especially 12 and up).  YA rocks.  Maybe I like YA more because the book covers are not nearly as boring or obnoxious.

Really, do you have to have a picture of your face on your book?  When I want to look for a summary of the book, I look at the back cover.  I don’t like to see a big huge face staring at me.  It is scary, especially if you have an author picture that looks like a mug shot. 

So be more like YA and have your picture in a small icon on the back flap or don’t have your picture at all.  I think it would increase your sales a huge deal.  Yes, I know you may be famous (yes, Stephen King and James Patterson), but most of your readers can do without seeing a huge picture of your face on the back cover of the book.  I mean, what are the odds that we would recognize you anyway?  Now we can, which is one of the advantages to having this done to your books.

Just please take my advice, don’t do this.  Don’t put your face on the back cover.  I might even buy your book then… if what it says on the back cover (because that is where the summary usually goes if one does not have a huge picture of themselves) sounds interesting to me.  I’m just saying (and I didn’t mean to offend anyone in the making of this letter).

Sincerely,

Gina

Does this bother you, as well?  What do you think about those pictures on the back of book covers?