4 & 5 STAR Reviews!

Thanks to everyone who has let me know how much they are enjoying The Lens and the Looker.  I was really pleased to see those stars on Amazon and at Barnes and Noble.  After years of working on this idea, it was scary waiting to see what people would think. If you want to read the reviews, here are some links:

Barnes & Noble – 5 Stars

Amazon – 4 Stars

It’s great to get feedback from readers.  Please, let me know what you think about the book, our website, everything.  I’d love to hear from  you.

Cheers,

Lory

Post-dystopian Vs. Dystopian Fiction

(After you’ve read this blog, you might want to read a great review from a teen blogger: That Teen Can Blog .  Here’s my first blog . . . )

I’m a huge fan of dystopian fiction.  In fact, over the ten years and more that I was developing these first History Camp stories, I thought I was writing dystopian fiction.  However, as the final drafts began to take shape, under the watchful eye of my editor and publisher, Lou Aronica, it soon became apparent to me that my work didn’t quite exactly fit the genre.

“It doesn’t matter,” Lou told me. “It’s an exciting, futuristic adventure that young and old readers will enjoy, and it’s a series that can go on and on. Relax.”

But I’m not the relaxing type, as you will find out.

‘What the heck am I writing?’ I kept asking myself. While working out on the treadmill, at my local “Y”, I occupied my mind by listing the comparative aspects of my work to that of the different dystopian stories I admired. There were the original ones I grew up with; 1984,  Brave New World, The Chrysalids, and my fave number one oldie, Lord of the Flies.  Then there’s recent dystopian writing; The Hunger Games trilogy, Unwind, The Giver, Feed, Uglies and The Adoration of Jeanna Fox, to name but a few. The big difference between those stories and my work my characters grow up in a world which rose afterthe fall that made up those other dystopian fictions.

My writing recognizes the fall and the agony humankind could go through, but my work presupposes that humans will endure and learn how not to repeat the mistakes of the past.

“It’s what happens after,” I mumbled to myself as I treadled along on the machine. “It’s what happens after the dystopia. Is it Utopian? Nah. I don’t believe in that. People will still struggle. They’ll have doubts and insecurities, jealousies and disappointment. But it’s what happens after the dystopian time. What’s a prefix or suffix to denote after?” I stopped dead on the treadmill, just stood there, staring out the window at The Kingston Center. “Post!  I’m writing post-dystopian literature!”

I jumped off the machine and started running toward the locker room. I needed to write this thing down. My memories good, but I forget sometimes!

“Hey, wipe down your machine,” I heard a voice call.

“Post, post-dystopian literature, post-dystopian, post-dystopian, post-dystopian,” I kept repeating as I wiped the disinfectant on the grips of the treadmill.

There’s a couple of public computers in the lobby of my “Y”, so I ran out and sent myself an email. Then I went onto Google and did a search for “post-dystopian”.  The phrase has been used a few times, but not in a way that my usage would contradict.

When I got home I started writing definitions and statements of how the phrase could be used in a quote.  My favorite one, which got used in my author’s bio at the end of The Lens and the Looker, is;

“I write Post-Dystopian fiction. After society’s collapse, which is imagined in so many great dystopian stories, humans will either fade into history, with the dinosaurs, or, if it learns the right lessons, society will go on to construct a civilization to last tens of thousands of years. History Camp stories are the exciting adventures of young people doing the latter.”

So, thanks for dropping by.  Let me know what you think.

Cheers,

Lory Kaufman

FOR SPECIFIC DESCRIPTIONS OF THE BOOKS,EXCERPTS AND EVEN READINGS,

CLICK ON THE “BOOKS” LINK