Thursday, November 7, 2013

Writer + Flavor Lab Tech ≠ Spy

I love spy stories.

I think it all started with Alias. Remember that? The one with Jennifer Garner and Michael Vaughn (who’s both really hot and French, which just makes him hotter)? Sydney Bristow’s life, while dangerous, was EXCITING. I was in college while Sydney was out saving the world. I went to college in the middle-of-nowhere Indiana.  I was doing impossible chemistry problems and struggling to write my next paper on a classic book I didn’t really like. With all of this tedious schoolwork, Alias, like any good story, was an escape for me. Plus, again, hot guy. What girl doesn’t like a story that includes a hot guy?

Speaking of hot guys, my newest spy obsession is the Gallagher Girls books by Ally Carter. I LOVE THEM. The day after I started the first book, I stopped at a bookstore to buy the rest. Between her writing style, her plots, and the characters (four best friends and one hot guy), no wonder her books are so popular. I started the fifth book today, the one in which Cammie goes after the Circle but somehow loses her memory, her best friend, and her not-so-much boyfriend. Nothing is better than a mysterious boy to drive the main girl—and all us readers—crazy. I feel like I need to take the time to analyze these books and figure out exactly why they work and what makes them so DAMN GOOD. It can’t be just the hot boy and spy stuff, right?

The Gallagher Girls books make me wonder what it would be like to be an actual spy. I want to BE a Gallagher girl. Or a spy. Or—since I’m dreaming anyway—both! The closest I can get? Well, that would be working for a flavor company. I’m just a lab tech, so I don’t know much, but you’d think I know everything. When I started at my company, I had to sign forms that I wouldn’t tell anyone anything about the flavors I make. I can’t tell anyone what market products have my company’s flavors in them. Hell, I don’t even know if it’s okay to tell you the name of my company. After all, when you see the words made with natural and artificial flavors on a package, you don’t see my company’s name. It all feels so very top secret. Plus, I get to wear a really cool lab coat, along with some tinted safety glasses. EXCITING, right? Well, sure.

Still, it’s not the same as being a spy or Gallagher girl. So I keep reading instead. And when I’m not reading, when I’m not watching some spy show on TV (my current favorite is Blacklist), I’m writing. If I can’t live in the worlds I want, then I came create those worlds and, someday, share them with others.

Not that either of the novels I’m throwing out there (FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE and WORLD’S EDGE, in case you’re wondering) have anything to do with spies. FOR PARIS, FOR LOVE is—hot boy obsession driven—about a girl and a boy…with some Paris, Rome, and Dublin thrown in for fun. And WORLD’S EDGE? It’s about parallel worlds, genetics, and (you guessed it) a hot boy. Actually, there are at least two hot boys. Because one is never enough. That’s why Cammie has Josh and Zach, right?

Speaking of…if you don’t mind…I’m going to get Ally Carter’s Out of Sight, Out of Time. Because addicted.

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