Blinded By The Light (and fluffy)

And the winner is--unseelieme Congrats! email me at Dakota@dakotacassidy.com so I can ship you yer bootay! Thanks again, everyone, for playing :) Come back and see me next month!

Hellloooooo, fellow reluctant adults, and welcome to my blog day here on the League! Stick around and read this so you can enter to win some books at the end of my rambling.

Which means you’re now my hostages until you finish reading. And don’t scroll to the end just to get to the giveaway because I’ll know. And you’ll be toast. :)

I was pretty fekkin’ stumped about what to blog about. I suck at coming up with creative blog s and themes. I also suck at adding pretty pictures to my posts—so I hope you aren’t in this for the shiny. :)

Anyway, let’s talk about something other than my lack of technical abilities—like when a writer goes from a lighthearted series to a darker, more intense one.

This scares me much like the notion of Victoria’s Secret filing for bankruptcy and going out of business. I’d be dead in the water without a steady replenishment of the Wonder Bra. So, I write what some call funny (not all—just some. A very little some, but there it is), and regardless of the label you give it, what I write isn’t plot heavy. I write light, littered with bad language, bickering, antagonistic, plot-light FLUFF. We all know humor is subjective and mine is undoubtedly subjective times ten. Some people eat it like it’s a bowl of ice cream. Others call it over the top crap.

Being the kind of girl I am, supportive of all opinions, I just serve double scoops to those who like my brand of ice cream and ship the others off to authors who don’t abuse the English language the way I do. :)

But lately, with all the awesomely dark, complex titles coming out, I wondered if I shouldn’t give darker fare a shot. I tried. Jesus, I tried hard. Like I expended every last hope of ever creating more brain cells doing it, too. And then my kid looked over my shoulder while I sweating blood writing this dark sure to be an NYT bestseller and said, “Hah. Funny, Ma.”

And there you have it. I can’t do it. I don’t mean for what I write to be lighter fare—it just is, and I’ve just recently made my peace with it. I knew going in I wasn’t smart enough to have an evolved, complex plot, but I was really giving myself credit when I thought I could overshadow that with my deep dialogue and eerie settings. It all just blew greasy chunks and has now become one with my trash on my computer.

However, there are those who’ve successfully made the transition from light to dark and have done it so well, they left me balled up in the corner of my office whimpering. There are also those who have a good balance of a snark here and there, and a solid, layered plot of darkly goodness.

And that’s whose book’s you’re going to win today if you leave me a comment below! Yep. I’ll personally send you the League's most recent releases from Michele Bardsley, Jaye Wells, and Anton Strout—right to your door. So that’s--Never Again, Green-Eyed Demon and Dead Waters—all yours--all on me!

So all ya gotta do is comment and tell me one of your favorite darker reads to be entered to win a random drawing. I’ll announce the winner of the blog within this very post. Now, be sure to check back tomorrow afternoon to see if you’re a winner-winner-chicken dinner or I’ll have to give the shiz to someone else. I HATE doing that because it makes me sad. So check. Early. Often. TOMORROW!

Dakota :)