5 Days Until Book Launch & Giveaway!

Hello Bloggers, Hunger Games enthusiasts, and fellow tributes!

I have been hard at work these past couple of weeks, working alongside the publishers, planning the Book Launch, and working on Giveaways. So here’s what I got:

On February 23rd, I will be hosting my in-person Book Launch Party! There will be a costume contest, games, book signing, movie viewing and so much more. However, please do not think that I have forgotten about this wonderful blogging community!

On February 23rd, please join me for my online Book Launch Party on Instagram @KaylaAnnAuthor.

Through my Instagram page, I will be hosting an additional costume contest (send in your best picture of you favorite character to be featured in my story), trivia questions, and going LIVE with the winner of the online Book Giveaway (click here for more info on how you can win a free copy of “Agency in the Hunger Games)!

A special thank you and shout out to @Fictionista for being the first person to read and review my book on Amazon!

The countdown begins today! So practice your Mockingjay whistle, assemble your best costume, and brush up on your Hunger Games trivia knowledge!

Only five more days until the Book Launch! I hope to see you all there!

 

Agency in the Hunger Games BOOK GIVEAWAY! ($40 Value)

Have you read Suzanne Collins famous trilogy The Hunger Games? Have you perhaps only seen the movies? Have you rooted for Katniss, argued over Peeta vs. Gales, fallen in love with Finnick? Have you often drawn parallels between the society of Panem and our own in which you feel unable to exercise your own sense of agency?

If you answered, “yes!” to any of the above questions, then you will enjoy reading my newly released book, Agency in The Hunger Games: Desire, Intent, and Action in the Novels.

You can win your very own free copy by participating today in my Book Giveaway!

Read the rules below:

1. First, like this blog post and leave a comment telling me your favorite Hunger Games character and why!

2. Second, reblog and share this Giveaway opportunity with your own readers. Maybe they like The Hunger Games too!

3. You can share this post on various social medias (WordPress, Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat, etc.) to earn more entries!

4. That’s it, so simple! May the odds be ever in your favor!

WINNER will be announced on a LIVE Feed the day of my Book Release Party (February 23rd)

For 21st-century young adults struggling for personal autonomy in a society that often demands compliance, the bestselling trilogy, The Hunger Games remains palpably relevant despite its futuristic setting. For Suzanne Collins’ characters, personal agency involves not only the physical battle of controlling one’s body but also one’s response to such influences as morality, trauma, power and hope.
The author explores personal agency through in-depth examinations of the lives of Katniss, Peeta, Gale, Haymitch, Cinna, Primrose, and others, and through an analysis of themes like the overabundance of bodily imagery, social expectations in the Capitol, and problem parental figures.
Readers will discover their own “dandelion of hope” through the examples set out by Collins’ characters, who prove over and over that human agency is always attainable.

 

 

The Curiously Short Life & Death of Primrose Everdeen

Primrose Everdeen (Prim) is the younger sister to Katniss Everdeen and the youngest daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Everdeen. She is only twelve years old when the series begins and she is only fourteen when she is killed in a bombing.

Because of her youth and her feminine appearance of a young, naive, helpful, little girl, many scholars skirt over her importance to The Hunger Games trilogy. However, Prim is the key element to the entire series. If Prim had never been reaped, Katniss would never have volunteered. If Katniss had not gone into the Games with Peeta and defied the Capitol, the revolution would never have ignited. If the revolution had never begun, the Games would continue on with President Snow in charge of Panem. In one of my last chapters, I discuss how every action that Katniss takes is in protection of her sister Prim, primarily because Prim represents hope.

Read more about Prim and Katniss, and the rest of the amazing characters from The Hunger Games in my upcoming book The Agency Games! If you are interested in receiving updates when the book is released, please leave a comment on the post: “The Agency Games — Sign Up!”

©KaylaAnnAuthor

© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

Gale: Powerless or Powerful

Gale Hawthorne – a Seam-born resident of the poorest district and also a famous and brutal soldier for District 13 during the Mockingjay Rebellion.

Gale Hawthorne, from Suzanne Collins’s Hunger Games trilogy, is one of those characters that readers cannot help but to love. Even after Gale’s actions become questionable, readers still defend him. Gale’s physical and mental capabilities are often unmatched. He is brave enough to hunt in the woods, strong enough to endure work in the mines, and  smart enough to design and create snares and traps. Gale is powerful in many ways and yet, in others he is extremely powerless. He cannot stop Katniss from volunteering, he cannot provide for his family without his brother taking out tesserae, he cannot even start a revolution until Katniss clears the way.

In an Instagram survey with 23 participants, 15 said that Gale was Powerless as opposed to Powerful by the end of the trilogy.

Throughout The Hunger Games, Gale struggles between enacting power and having power exercised over him. While he starts as a strong protagonist, he eventually fades away at the end of the trilogy, working in District 2.

What do you think about Gale’s character?

Love him? Hate him? Let me know your thoughts! Is he powerful or powerless? Why?

Read more about Gale, and the rest of the amazing characters from The Hunger Games in my upcoming book The Agency Games! If you are interested in receiving updates when the book is released, please leave a comment on the post: “The Agency Games — Sign Up!”

©KaylaAnnAuthor

© KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com, 2018. Unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without express and written permission from this site’s author and/or owner is strictly prohibited. Excerpts and links may be used, provided that full and clear credit is given to KaylaAnn and KaylaAnnAuthor.wordpress.com with appropriate and specific direction to the original content.

The Agency Games: An Update (3)

Well it’s that time of the month again, time for my monthly update on my work in progress:

The Agency Games

(a working title)

The Agency Games is a nonfiction book which analyzes human agency within the popular Hunger Games trilogy. I will be doing in-depth character analyses of individuals such as: Katniss Everdeen, Peeta Mellark, Gale Hawthorne, Haymitch Abernathy, Cinna, Primrose Everdeen, and more in trying to understand how human agency is discovered, maintained, tested, lost, and regained in a dystopian society and how that relates to us as readers.

The goal is to write approximately 500 words per day so that I can meet my goal of 75,000 words by May 31st to send to the publishers.

• On January 22nd, 2018, I posted by first update. I was at a total of 22,000 words.
• On February 22nd (after a VERY productive month having written 19,000 words), I was at a total of 41,000 words having written 3,500 words more than my original goal.

There were 28 days between February 22nd and March 22nd, and at 500 words per day, my goal was to write 14,000 words. Meaning, that I should be at 55,000 words.

Let’s see how I did . . .

(Drum roll Please)

55,200 words!

Okay, I won’t lie, I am totally surprised by that number! There have been some days this past month where I have been unable to write at all because I was so busy with work and wedding planning.

I knew that I was behind so these past few days I have been cranking out 1,000 words a day in an effort to catch up and man, am I happy to know that I was able to catch up!

While my most productive month was the time between January 22nd and February 22nd, I am pretty dang happy that I was able to meet my quota for this month!

The closer I get to the end, the harder it gets. I can feel myself burning out just a bit, but I will continue pushing forward. I am really hoping to finish all 75,000 words by April 22nd so that I can spend a couple weeks looking it over one last time before I send it out.

That means that I need to write approximately 20,000 words in 31 days which is approximately 665 words a day. It might not happen but I sure am going to push myself as hard as I can!

Thank you again to everyone who is offering their support and encouragement! I appreciate you guys more than you know!

 

 

 

 

 

Cinna: Friend or Foe?

Sweet Cinna, beloved by so many…

“I’m sorry that this happened to you but I’m here to help you in any way that I can.”

But are you really sorry, Cinna? Do you really want to help Katniss? Or are you simply using her to form a figurehead for the rebellion?

Did you know that several scholars claim that Cinna manipulates Katniss for the rebellion just as much as other stylist manipulate their tributes for the Capitol?

After all, he constantly pushes the Mockingjay aspect of her wardrobe, he creates the rebel image.

And yet . . .

He seems so supportive of Katniss! And Katniss truly loves him and sees him as one of her only true friends. He protects her and strengthens her with his design choices.

In my book, The Agency Games (working title), I will explore the relationship between Cinna and Katniss and decide once and for all if Cinna is friend or foe!

What do you think about Cinna? Was he helping Katniss or was he simply using her as the face of the rebellion? Leave your comments below!

The Hunger Games: Movie Adaptation

The Hunger Games: Movie Compared to the Book

The first movie adaptation of the popular Hunger Games series premiered on March 23, 2012. Within three days the movie had hit record-breaking sales of over $155 million in North America alone and only continued to grow in popularity. While I will assume that most of you are already familiar with the book series and the movies, here is a brief set-up or reminder for those unaware.

The nation of Panem is what remains of North America after war, famine, floods, and other catastrophes. Nearly 80 years before our story begins, there was a war between two parties. The winners, known as The Capitol, punish the losers of the rebellion, the twelve districts through the spectacle the “Hunger Games”. Every year, each of the twelve districts must offer up one boy and one girl tribute between the ages of 12 and 18 to enter into a televised arena and fight to the death. When this novel/movie opens up, it is the 74th Hunger Games and Katniss Everdeen volunteers as tribute to save her sister.

Now, let’s dive into our movie analysis!

Awesome New Additions – movies and books are inevitably different from one another, it cannot be helped. Sometimes directors add in scenes that make no sense or divert from the book’s essence. However, when it’s well done, additional scenes can truly help emphasize moments that were unavailable to the reader in the book.

• For instance, the novel is narrated by Katniss Everdeen which means we only see the action from her perspective. However, in the movie we are granted additional view points:
• Opening Scene between Caesar Flickerman and Seneca Crane: While the book opens up with Katniss waking up in District 12, the movie begins with a conversation between Seneca and Caesar. The two are on the Capitol’s favorite talk-show and they’re quite obviously excited for the reaping day. This is highly contrasted when Prim’s screams usher in the next scene starkly displaying the difference between those in the Capitol and those in the district.

• Insights into the Capitol: Other additional scenes help to display this contrast and really give the viewers more insight into the Capitol than the books can. For instance, we see more of the Capitol citizens’s inhumanity. In one scene, there is a betting board, and in another scene two parents gift their male child a sword with which he chases his sister and then stabs his mother. These scenes focus on how natural these forms of entertainment have become to the Capitol citizens, and because we see these scenes through Haymtich’s eyes, we can see how despicable their ignorance truly is.

 

• Haymitch Abernathy: Speaking of our favorite knife-wielding alcoholic . . . Although we may all come to know and love Haymitch eventually, we are given the opportunity to understand him far earlier within the movies. As soon as we arrive into the Capitol we see Haymitch’s disgust at the Capitol citizens, his pain at having to watch another two tributes die, and his desire to save at least one. Props to the director for giving us more Haymitch!

• Conversations between Seneca Crane and President Snow: “Why do we have a winner? . . . Hope. It is the only thing stronger than fear. . . A spark is fine . . . Contain it.” Now yes, this scene was probably put in to foreshadow the future events, to play more with the image of fire, and give us earlier access to President Snow’s character. However, the themes within this scene are *extremely* important in my discussion of agency and power which I discuss in chapter three of my book.

• Insights into the Districts: We have a few different moments in which we see those in District 12 watching Katniss on the screen or District 11 reacting to the screen in rebellion. These scenes greatly enhance our understanding of how Katniss’s actions are affecting others long before she understands it herself.

 

Annoying Changes: I loved the movie, but I had my own irritations.

• No Madge: Seriously, how hard would it have been to add in a five second clip for devoted fans to meet Madge? Just a little cameo for our sakes??? Plus, as much as Greasy Sae liked Katniss, people in the Hob did not give things away for free. It was a fair bartering system and free, string-less gifts did not exist.

• Cato and Glimmer are a thing?? : The first time I watched this, I didn’t catch it (I wasn’t as well-versed as I am now). Glimmer is the tribute from District 1 and while she was in the Career pack, Cato did not have a “thing” for her (although the movie portrays them very couple-y). In fact, Cato’s district partner was CLOVE and while Cato shows no romantic interest early on, he begs Clove to stay with him as she dies. Somewhere inside of Cato, he cared for another human being, he cared for Clove, not Glimmer! There was already a ‘love interest’ for Cato, so why change it to Glimmer? This is one of those changes that makes absolutely no positive difference.

• “Wolf” Muttations: I use the term wolf because that is what they were supposed to be, however in the movie, these mutts look more like some weird bear-dog hybrid. In the books, Collins clearly depicts these wolf muttations as being clear representatives of the dead tributes (their fur matched their hair color and they wore colors inlaid with this district numbers); however, in the movie that is completely overlooked. The importance of these wolf/tribute muttations is more thoroughly examined in chapter three of my book, which makes me even more sad that they ignored this opportunity in the movie. They already had to use CGI, so why not use it correctly?

 

Scenes Worth Special Mention

• Peeta and Ceaser “shower” scene – their banter was wonderful
• Initial Bloodbath at the Cornucopia – they did it so well without having to up the rating on the movie
• The house being blown apart just as the father was blown apart – representative of trauma in the home

 

So what did you think of the movie adaptation? Do you share my opinions? Do you disagree? Let’s chat in the comments below!

Investigating The Hunger Games

“Welcome, welcome, welcome! Happy Hunger Games and . . .

Words cannot begin to express the love I have for this series. Reading them in High School, I originally took the books at face value, but as I grew older and more scholarly, I realized the magnitude of the series itself. Desiring to learn more and investigate this series more thoroughly I wrote my Master’s Thesis on Human Agency within the series. However, this was not enough for me. I researched a combination of over one hundred books, articles, essays, and online forums. I discovered a lack in the scholarship. While many scholars analyzed Katniss Everdeen, Collins’s protagonist, few to none examined other characters such as Prim, Peeta, Gale, Haymtich, Cinna, Rue, or Finnick.

Noting this gap, I wrote a query letter and proposed a book idea to investigate agency throughout this multitude of characters. I am pleased to share that I signed with McFarland & Company Publishing to publish this book in late 2018. While it is still considered a “working-title” with the publishers, I hope to title my scholarly book The Agency Games: A Character Analysis of Human Agency.

Therefore, over the next year, I plan to regularly share Hunger Games themed posts. I hope you enjoy them!

My first Hunger Games themed post will be published tomorrow and will discuss the differences between the first novel and movie!

Let me know, what do you think of The Hunger Games?

Team Peeta or Team Gale?