YA LitStop

Chasing AllieCat and Girl Meets Boy

2010-12-10T16:00:00.000-08:00

We have given up on the blog, I think. Each of us keeps her own blog, and it's too much to try to do more than one.
So I'm posting my last news, and maybe we'll retire this blog from the blogophere.

Chasing AllieCat did get named a Junior Library Guild Selection:
http://www.juniorlibraryguild.com/books/view.dT?isbn=9780738721309

Also, Jill Corcoran sold an anthology which contains one of my stories! Kelly Milner Halls is the editor (and one of the authors). Chris Crutcher, Terry Davis, and Terry Trueman are in there, too. I'm so stoked.
http://www.jillcorcoran.com/Jill_Corcoran_Books/Recent_Deals.html

CHASING ALLIECAT!!!

2010-07-23T06:32:00.000-07:00

Chasing AllieCat is available for preorder at both Barnes and Noble.com and Amazon.

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=BOOK&WRD=chasing+alliecat

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=chasing+alliecat&ih=7_7_1_1_0_0_0_0_0_1.46_73&fsc=12

I just found out that Chasing AllieCat is being considered as a Junior Library Guild selection for 2011.

CHASING ALLIECAT!!!

2010-07-23T06:25:00.000-07:00

I found out yesterday that Chasing AllieCat is being considered as a Junior Library Guild selection for 2011. That would be very, very cool. I better publicize that fact now; I can't get any mileage out of it if she's not picked!

You can preorder Chasing AllieCat at

http://productsearch.barnesandnoble.com/search/results.aspx?store=BOOK&WRD=chasing+alliecat

Rejections considered

2010-01-07T19:12:00.000-08:00

Very interesting reflection on rejections--from an editor's point of view.

http://www.suvudu.com/2010/01/what-i-learned-this-week-why-i-say-no.html

Guess we've been more than a little lax...

2010-01-05T05:34:00.001-08:00

Each of us has her our own blog, so we haven't been too active on this one, I guess. Kirstin's book The Sky Always Hears Me has been out for months and is doing well. YAH!

I finished editing Chasing AllieCat according to the comments by my editor at FLUX, and it's a better book. I was frustrated with some of the comments when I first read his letter, but after I've done them, I know he was right. Damn. : ) A few things I disagreed with strongly, and we struck a compromise on the phone. I hope he likes it now.

Going to go through one more time with a fine tooth comb, and send it off.

Kirstin's book up and coming...

2009-08-17T17:14:00.000-07:00

Kirstin Cronn-Mills' debut novel will be out in Sept.
Check out the trailer on the FLUX Books website!!!

http://www.fluxnow.com/

It's awesome.

New book from FLUX!

2009-07-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

Get Your Exclusive First Look at Black is For Beginnings NOW on Laurie Stolarz's Website: www.lauriestolarz.com!

FLUX is publishing Kirstin's book in Sept.--The Sky Always Hears Me

And FLUX is publishing my Chasing AllieCat in 2011.

Le Tour, continued

2009-07-10T12:33:00.000-07:00

I am fascintated with the team dynamics in this Tour de France. I want to see more of what happens with Team Astana!

The Tour de France and Chasing AllieCat

2009-07-08T13:37:00.000-07:00

Okay, so the Tour makes me all the more excited that I'm actually getting a book published about a competitive female cyclist. Can't wait to start getting to talk about the book in public.

A dream: write a book with a pro cyclist as protagonist--somehow--so I can go WATCH THE TOUR DE FRANCE!!!!!

Chasing AllieCat

2009-06-23T09:59:00.001-07:00

Okay, it's REAL. FLUX Books is going to publish Chasing AllieCat. Finally, finally, finally. Winter 2011, but I suppose it'll be here before I know it.

Velo Press

2008-09-27T13:34:00.001-07:00

Velo Press
The new editor at VP, the big cycling press in the country doesn't want to do Chasing AllieCat. They didn't even read a sample chapter! I'm not sure whether to bug them more or let it drop...or simmer....
Rejections are so much fun.

Once again...

2008-09-05T08:59:00.000-07:00

Remember how my life was imitating my fiction? Well, if you read Jake Riley, you may remember Lainey got a "boxer's fracture" when she punched Jake in the nose? Well guess what and who? And who'd a thunk you could get a boxer's fracture on a road bike? And who'd a thunk it would be this hard to type left-handed?

So last night I went down (I'm not even going to try to tell this story left-handed) and broke 2 bones in my right hand. Cannot hold a pen in any way that it reaches a paper unless my elbow is above my head. Maybe the real cast will be better than the way they have me splinted, but this will be challenging.

Am going to go buy a digital voice recorder so I can work. I think it took me ten minutes to type this, or nearly so. I'm fine. It could have been so much worse. And I am officially the poster child for bike helmets now.

live imitating fiction...

2008-09-01T19:12:00.001-07:00

Okay, this summer my life has seemed to follow my writing life.
I revised Sadie's crash scene in Chasing AllieCat, and crashed that afternoon. I wrote the scene where Allie's dog dies and soon after, had to put my dear old SnickersBar to sleep.

Woof and Wag, my Picture Window book about getting a dog came out, and now I'm committed to the idea of getting a baby Newfoundland.....
Should I stop writing? This is getting scary.

2008-08-24T21:05:00.000-07:00

Hey! We've been awfully quiet on here. What news?

"Woof and Wag," my young-readers' book from Picture Window just came out. It's adorable.
Check it out.
http://www.picturewindowbooks.com/aspx/pDetail.aspx?EntityGUID=11393f09-72bb-454e-b382-4fd795f6dfdc

or rebeccafjellanddavis.com

TRAM

2008-07-16T08:27:00.000-07:00

I'm doin' TRAM. I don't have time. I need to write all next week, but I'm doing it anyway. It's summer. I want to ride my bike. And I hate MS and Parkinson's and all that those diseases do. So I'll take my notebook and notes and maybe get a little bit done while I'm gone.

http://main.nationalmssociety.org/site/TR?px=5294415&pg=personal&fr_id=7550

Junior Library Guild

2008-07-09T07:52:00.003-07:00

I recently received word that my book for Capstone Press, MEXICAN IMMIGRANTS IN AMERICA, will be a Junior Library Guild Premier Selection for the fall.

I got the email when I was busy and just glanced at it. As I'm pretty new to the children's nonfiction world, I didn't really know what the Junior Library Guild was. This morning, I had a little more time to investigate, and I think it's kind of a big deal! A selection committee reviews more than 3,000 books, and 336 make the final cut.

You can find more information about the JLG here.

new project, North Dakota

2008-07-04T07:16:00.000-07:00

I'm working on the Grassy's Son book, set in North Dakota. I have to rethink the timeframe within the settting and I'm really struggling. I could set it in the 30s in the depression and while prohibition was in full-swing (and by the way, I found out that when North Dakota was granted statehood, the first constitution prohibited alcohol, so it was a dry state until 1936...no wonder there was so much bootlegging!). OR--I could set it in the 40s when the story I'm chasing really happened. It's a different deal: electric lights vs. kerosene. Cars and trucks vs. more sleighs and horse-drawn wagons. Jobs and money vs. depression and no money. It's a tough issue. So I thought I'd rant about it a bit.

Indiana comes to its senses

2008-07-03T08:19:00.000-07:00

In a May 2 post, I wrote about the law in Indiana that would require booksellers to register "sexually explicit" material with the state. The definition of sexually explicit was likely to cover not only things such as Hustler books, but also YA fare a la Judy Blume.

Thank goodness a judge this week struck down the law. The attorney general apparently will not appeal the decision, but there's still a chance that lawmakers could reword the law's language and bring it to the table in the future.

Next stop: Ancient Rome

2008-07-01T07:51:00.001-07:00

My next assignment for Capstone is a "You Choose" book on ancient Rome. If you were a kid, what would you want to know about ancient Rome? What would make the book interesting to you?

Judy Blume

2008-06-13T10:14:00.000-07:00

Last night, Kirstin and I went with our friend Angie to hear Judy Blume at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul. I was glad I went, but I was disappointed in some things.

My disappointments:

1. Judy Blume is 70, which is AWESOME. She's had a facelift, which is not. I mean, from our spot in the audience, she looked really good, and I mean REALLY good, but I thought, I THOUGHT everything she stood for in her stories and in her fight against censorship and in life was HONESTY. I think maybe I have a prudish side or something, but jeezuz, isn't a facelift sort of NOT HONEST? It's like cheating in my book. But I guess that makes me a huge hypocrite, because then I shouldn't color my hair. Same thing, right?So I guess I have to think about that some more. I was just disappointed, wanting to see this face that was a map of all the stories she'd thought out and all the characters' traumas that she had weathered. A face can be a beautiful signature of where we've been. I was sad that hers wasn't. On the other hand, she looks great and is taking tap-dancing lessons, so more power to her.

2. Kerri Miller was not at her best. I felt like she completely dropped the ball on some wonderful, funny things that Judy Blume said. I felt as if she had an agenda of questions and was afraid to deviate from them.

3. Kerri Miller seemed as if she didn't "get" so much of what Judy Blume said. For instance, JB said that a seven-yr-old could read Hello God, It's Me, Margaret, but wouldn't get it all emotionally because she wouldn't be "in that place" yet. Kerri said, "What place is that?" Duh! Wanting a training bra, wondering about God, starting to think about boys and wondering if she'd ever menstruate! I could have answered that and it's been a few decades since I read the damn book! I would venture a gues that Kerri has not read ANY of Judy Blume's books. I couldn't tell any familiarity with the stories from the conversation. (With Sherman Alexie, she had specific, funny, poignant bits of the story to refer to. With Judy Blume, she had NONE).

4. My take on the lack of energy between the two women is perhaps overreaction, but there was a time I was sitting there thinking, "there is absolutely no connection between these two. There is NO electric thought or feeling between them whatsoever." That was disappointing. With Sherman Alexie, it was fairly crackling. So My take is that Kerri Miller is a big flirt and when she can't flirt, and isn't attracted or even envious of a 70-yr. old woman, she has no energy to invest, and that pissed me off.

So, I needed to vent.

Most important, far more important than these shallow reactions: Judy Blume is no less amazing than I expected, and no matter what her face looks like (who should be so cruel as to be disappointed that their idol looks great? What's wrong with me!?), she's still a genius and one of the most honest, amazing writers of all times. I'll read her forever, and I'm going to get "Summer Sisters" asap. She read an exerpt and wrote twenty drafts of it, so I'm all the more eager to read it!

Write what you know!

2008-06-05T17:06:00.000-07:00

Write what you know! Right? I seem to be taking this idea to the extreme. I just edited a scene in AllieCat where Sadie crashes during her first mountain bike race. Then about four hours later, look at me! Not that I really needed to crash again to understand how it feels. The thing that hits me everytime I crash (I've lost count--but broken bones twice and stitches twice), once you've lost control, the ground rushes at you really fast!

Not broken bones this time. Just some missing skin on face, both elbows, my kneee, and my shoulder.

I feel very well qualified to write about crashes!

What are you reading?

2008-06-02T15:42:00.000-07:00

We've been pretty quiet on here. What are you reading? I just finished Sue Monk Kidd's Secret Life of Bees and I loved it! Now I'm reading The Time Traveler's Wife, and it's good, too. Next, Cavalier in Clay, and then The Jungle Books or at least one of them by Rudyard Kipling. Just because I've never read them. I also, since I'm back from Italy, really, really want to read Agony and Ecstacy by Irving Stone about Michelangelo, and also Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling.

So...what is anybody else reading?
(Check out shelfari.com if you want to talk books and recommendations...I've been trying to update my shelfari page a little bit).

Slightly disturbing

2008-05-08T11:49:00.000-07:00

A law is set to go into effect in Indiana that would require all booksellers to register with the state if they sell "sexually explicit" material. The age-old question arises: What is sexually explicit? Chances are good some young adult books will fall into this category.

Anytime you try to do enact a law like this, someone has to make the call on what is sexually explicit. In this case, it's Indiana's secretary of state, Todd Rokita (pictured above). So is Mr. Rokita going to spend the bulk of his days going through books with a fine-toothed comb pronouncing judgment on what he deems appropriate? Is this just a way for him to get his jollies? Just what we need -- another conservative white guy telling us what's acceptable content. Like we haven't had enough of that the past 300 years of U.S. history.

Good thing that organizations such as Media Coalition and others are challenging the law in court.

The short article is here.

Look out world, here comes Morgan!!!

2008-05-04T08:13:00.000-07:00

Well, folks, stay tuned!! Kirstin's novel Contents May Explode Under Pressure has been ACCEPTED FOR PUBLICATION by Flux.
(Is that still the title, KC-M?)
More exciting news about this book coming soon!!!!!!!

An ad campaign that's gone too far, or very creative?

2008-04-28T13:01:00.001-07:00

The new ad campaign for the CW series "Gossip Girls" (based on the books) contains the acronym "OMFG" splashed everywhere, amid the backdrop of what appears to be two young people having sex.

My first reaction is "Whoa, this seems to be a little too much." Of course being the First Amendment advocate that I am, it's not like I would want it pulled or anything. But if I had a young kid, I'm not sure I'd be too thrilled.

irritation

2008-04-25T11:40:00.000-07:00

Hi. What the hell! I set up a new blog to attach to my own website...at Steve's suggestion. I put a picture on there, and now every damn time I post here, the same picture shows up. I tried to delete it and it deletes my comment. Rachael, any suggestions? What the blankety-blank am I doing!?

What's happening?

2008-04-21T19:16:00.000-07:00

So what's new?

I'm working at redoing my website. My friend Steve is helping--or rather, doing most of the work, and I'm trying to add what I can to update it. I can't wait for school to get out and get crackin' on my real work. First order of business: finish editing AllieCat.

what is YA?

2008-03-12T17:31:00.000-07:00

First, Becky's point is well taken, and I will hope to heck Shae is a writer. I will not give up hope until he looks at me and says "No. Mom. Quit it." Then I will quit trying to get him to like it. Maybe he'll begin to think differently if/when he realizes that the stories he loves came from somewhere . . . like writing.

OK, back on topic: this guy is a Flux author (got the link from the Flux blog) and, it seems, a very smart guy. Skate on over to his blog for an interesting discussion about what YA is, and what it's not:

http://mandabach.com/2008/01/15/what-is-young-adult-whats-not-why-and-other-questions/

YA is a point of view. Am I too old to remember that POV? I hope not.

I'm sorry that link's not hot--every time I use the link tool in the nav bar, it never works, and I can't remember the actual HTML code!

readers and writers

2008-03-08T13:50:00.001-08:00

I'm posting here instead of responding to Kirstin's post--we aren't that busy on here lately, so I'm taking the liberty.

Kistin, you never know.
My son wouldn't even read in grade school. It was like pulling teeth to get him to read enough to turn in required (and absolutely minimum) book reports. He was a tall-tale teller in his primary grades, and my biggest challenge, I thought, was to make sure he could separate truth from fantasy (from lying to get out of trouble!!?).

Then in sixth grade, he magically stumbled upon Alex Haley's Malcolm X. That's one big-ass book, but Josh sat down and read the thing cover-to-cover in sixth grade. And from then on, he read voraciously. And now he writes. Of course, he's an English teacher, and who the blankety-blank has time to write when they teach English? But he's garnering stories, and has a quirky, tongue-in-cheek voice when he does write, so who knows. I only tell this story to say, "who knows?" and don't set anybody in stone...it's not over 'til we're dead. How many more cliches can I pack in there? We do...just never know.

readers and writers

2008-03-02T12:49:00.001-08:00

I've been thinking about Richard Peck's quotation (posted below in Becky's notes re. SCBWI and NYC), and it makes me wonder about my child. He's a reader, which is amazing, since he's constantly on the move and plays a million different sports (simultaneously, it seems). But he loves it--especially if they're sports books.

In some ways, I wish Peck's statement was the opposite: readers are always writers. Will he be a writer? Not at all. He hates to write--he likes to tell stories, but writing them down is TORTURE. I think he'll be better off when he can type. He's also a horrid speller, and that contributes to his crabbiness about writing.

I'll settle for the fact that he's a reader, even if he won't be a writer. It's no little thing--reading now will give him a leg up in the world. He also, much to his dismay, gets a dose of NPR every day. In fact, the other day in the car I had on some music he didn't like, and his quip was "geez, I'd rather listen to NPR than this!"

Ah, literacy. He'll be the best-read, most liberal cornerback in the NFL.

New York City

2008-02-19T13:03:00.000-08:00

I have been trying to get my notes together so I could post something worthy of the conference on here, but I'm about to give up. So I'll throw out a couple nuggets from Richard Peck, Newbery winner, writer extraordinaire, who we decided may possibly be one of the best public speakers any of us have ever heard.

"I marched into kindergarden on the same day Hitler marched into Poland. Only I was better prepared. My mother read to me."

"People always ask, 'Where do you get your ideas?' as it is widely assumed we can't think of them!"

"We have to be all of our characters, but none of our characters better be us!"

"Nobody but a reader ever became a writer."

He was amazing...

And '07 Newbery winner Susan Patron who wrote The Higher Power of Lucky, said (among many other wonderful things) that to write means you "scrape the inside of your heart with some kitchen tool like a lemon zester."

There. A few gems to mull over.

New York City?

2008-02-14T13:02:00.001-08:00

OK, those of you who went to NYC (which is everyone on this blog EXCEPT me) -- do tell! What major YA literature tidbits did you pick up?

the book . . . or me?

2008-01-19T11:41:00.000-08:00

I've just read a popular YA novel in preparation for a conference I'm going to--the author is one of the keynote speakers. And, truth be told, I don't think the novel's all that good. It's got some EXCELLENT characters, with really funny and touching things to say, and it's got some great plot points. However, the timing seems messed up, there are dropped/truncated story lines all over the place. The whole things feels jumbled to me. Plus, some of the main character's reactions seem . . . false, or wimpy, or . . . something. Disproportionate to what's going on, in any case.

When I encounter a book that seems less polished than it should be, in my opinion, I wonder if it's me or the book.

Am I being overly critical--is the narrative better than I think it is? What if, since I'm not a teenager, I'm the one missing the boat, and she's doing something I haven't understood?

And then I wonder: if her book is so popular, can mine be the same, especially if it's written at or above the level hers is? I think my book hangs together (to use a scientific phrase) better than hers. In a comparison, I think my work would be judged more tightly scripted with fewer loose ends.

And then I scold myself, because she's got a book published, and I don't, so who am I to say anything at all?

I don't think there's a way to discern the "winning" side of this argument. The facts remain that her book is popular, and I don't have a book in print. Quality of the writing, timing, fate, whimsy, whatever factors caused it--she's still ahead of me. And I'm a little crabby about it right now, because hers is a good book, but it's not a GREAT book. Maybe a book doesn't have to be great--maybe good is good enough.

But if that's the case, why am I busting my ass to make my book great?

Dogs and stuff

2007-12-28T13:53:00.001-08:00

This is Franklin the puppy harrassing Snickers, my geriatric dog. She tolerated him, but snapped at him when she got tired of his antics. He was visiting for Christmas. The house seems very quiet now that the little bugger is gone. Snickers seems rather relieved to have the house and floor to herself once again. I'm thinking dogs today. I am hoping there will be movement in the New York scene with my dog book, Norton. And I am writing a scene with Peapod the yellow lab in my YA book AllieCat. Peapod just ruined a croquet game by retrieving the balls.
Happy Snow day, one and all!

My writing is stunted at a fourth-grade level

2007-12-13T09:04:00.000-08:00

I'm finishing up the first drafts of these state books I've been writing for Creative Company -- Nebraska, Nevada, West Virginia, and Wyoming. They've been really fun to research and write. I love digging into subject matter like this. Maybe I should give up teaching in favor of writing more of these books. After five years of teaching, I must say I'm a little burned out by the constant demands of needy students. I enjoy the solitary pursuit of research and writing.

I learned so much about these states! I keep saying to David, "Did you know that Mother's Day started in West Virginia? Did you know that Arbor Day started in Nebraska?" along with other assorted random facts.

I don't know if I hit the fourth-grade reading level mark that was required. We'll see. All I know is that I used hardly any compound sentences. Subject, verb. Subject, verb. Subject, verb. I hope it won't be too hard to get back into creative-writing mode.

I wonder how many times these books will end up being plagiarized for school papers? I'm thinking a lot!

Did I miss anything?

2007-12-11T21:57:00.000-08:00

Have I ever mentioned how much I sometimes HATE the internet? Or, more precisely, email?
I love the ease of research, and believe me, I love this fast communication, don't get me wrong. What I hate is being a teacher with email.
It is, after all, finals week, and I wrote a lengthy rant on my pet email peeves. I erased it. Here's the crux of the matter.

Students email me:

"My car won't start. (or my grandma died. or broke her hip. or I've been throwing up. Or my roommate is in the hospital).
I missed class. Did I miss anything??" Behold my new answer to this question:

Tom Wayman

Did I Miss Anything

Question frequently asked by students after missing a class

Nothing.

When we realized you weren't here

we sat with our hands folded on our desks

in silence, for the full two hours

Everything. I gave an exam worth

40 per cent of the grade for this term

and assigned some reading due today

on which I'm about to hand out a quiz

worth 50 per cent

Nothing. None of the content of this course

has value or meaning

Take as many days off as you like:

any activities we undertake as a class

I assure you will not matter either to you or me

and are without purpose

Everything. A few minutes after we began last time

a shaft of light descended and an angel

or other heavenly being appeared

and revealed to us what each woman or man must do

to attain divine wisdom in this life and

the hereafter

This is the last time the class will meet

before we disperse to bring this good news to all people on earth

Nothing. When you are not present

how could something significant occur?

Everything. Contained in this classroom

is a microcosm of human existence

assembled for you to query and examine and ponder

This is not the only place such an opportunity has been gathered

but it was one place

And you weren't here

Originally from: The Astonishing Weight of the Dead, Vancouver: Polestar, 1994.

Pictures of Hollis Woods, I promise, last post on this subject

2007-12-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

Hi. I promise I'll get off my Patricia Reilly Giff rant after this. Or maybe after tomorrow.
Her Newbery Honor book, Pictures of Hollis Woods, has been made into a Hallmark-made-for-TV movie, which airs on CBS tomorrow (Dec.2) night. It's a great story. Check it out. (Or get the book and read it before tomorrow night!).

Patricia Reilly Giff, encore

2007-11-26T21:08:00.000-08:00

Hey, remember Patricia Reilly Giff, the gracious Newbery Honor writer who so kindly read my Norton MS?? She sold rights to one of her Newbery Honor books, Pictures of Hollis Woods, to ??? Hallmark, and it's been produced and will air on some major network in December.
I, who never sees TV, actually saw an ad for it. How exciting would that be--to be Patricia--and see your story on a Hallmark Special? She was excited when she told me about it. So check it out if you can!

I'm not worthy!

2007-11-26T19:41:00.001-08:00

I'm getting ready to teach HP #7, and am re-reading and taking notes (I figure 3 times through it should be thorough enough--for now--and I took 11 pages of notes). JKR is a complete and astounding genius. I know there are detractors, and I know book 5 needs editing, but she is brilliant. If I could be a tenth as brilliant in my work, I'd be happy. Teaching my HP class is a labor of love, more so than any other literature class I teach. Her Latin spells, the evolution of the texts from middle grade to YA . . . I could rave for a long time.

This quotation is for all of us, readers and writers, from Dumbledore & Harry's conversation at King's Cross:

"Tell me one last thing," said Harry. "Is this real? Or has this been happening inside my head?"

Dumbledore beamed at him . . . "Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real?" (723).

Amen, sister.

Book Vacuum

2007-11-19T08:17:00.000-08:00

In the past few months, my books have been disappearing without a trace.

Books I have lost before cracking the cover: Looking for Alaska, Gardenias.

Books I started to read, then lost: Kyte Runner, Reading Lolita in Tehran, Middlesex (only 20 pages left!), Secret Society Girl.

Books I love to read over and over, if only they weren't LOST: Godless, Mrs. Mike.

Perhaps they're stuck in the Stray Socks Vacuum. But this is going to force me to the bookstore for some new reads. Your best YA suggestions, please.

Sherman Alexie & the National Book Award

2007-11-18T17:30:00.000-08:00

I just got the news that Sherman Alexie's THE ABSOLUTELY TRUE DIARY OF A PART-TIME INDIAN won the 2007 National Book Award for "young people's literature," as they call it. I finished this book about 96 hours ago.

Is it National Book Award material?

Not in my opinion.

But who am I to say? I haven't published brilliant books like Alexie has, and THE most brilliant short story ever, "What You Pawn I Will Redeem". People don't teach with my stuff (I teach Alexie's short stories and one of his poems). Who am I to say whether or not this book is good enough?

If I write it, I figure I can critique it. No disrespect intended, please know.

The book is a great read, no question--Arnold Spirit is a sad guy, a divided guy, and your heart breaks for him. The story is intense (so much death!). All the characters are rich and round, and the illustrations add bounteously to the text (why didn't the illustrator win, too?). But there are spots where I was left saying "What?" That was random." There were moments when I thought "wow, my writing group wouldn't let me leave things that undone." The text wasn't perfect. Shouldn't it be, to win such a big award? Maybe not. Is there such a "perfect" book? Maybe not.

Maybe I have it all wrong. Alexie's fiction is always full of passion and craziness. Other adjectives: heartbreaking, hilarious, spontaneous, joyous, angry, and relatively uncalculated (this weekend I also read short stories by an Iowa MFA grad, and they felt way too practiced and fancy). Maybe this award proves that you don't have to write a perfect book to win the National Book Award. I don't know.

But I disagree with the judges on this one.

happy news: teens are reading!

2007-11-01T07:36:00.001-07:00

I belong to an academic organization that follows teen reading trends, and they posted this article in their most recent e-newsletter:

http://www.roanoke.com/extra/wb/136866

(why can't I get that little link symbol to work?)

According to the Roanoke (VA) Times, "millennials" (ages 10-22) are reading, and the book scene is taking note of it.

Good deal! Maybe there's more room for us to get our novels out there . . .

Star Tribune books Oct. 28

2007-10-28T14:12:00.000-07:00

If you haven't seen the StarTribune books section today, it reviews several new young adult books. Seems the theme going on lately is death. Young adults are at that time in their lives when it's likely that someone they care about has become seriously ill or has died.

http://www.startribune.com/books/story/1508798.html

Think about it: Who has experienced the death of someone they knew while a teenager? My hand is raised. Others?

Fiction vs. nonfiction

2007-10-22T10:30:00.001-07:00

I came across this blog today, asking whether kids tend to gravitate more toward fiction or nonfiction when browsing library or store shelves:

http://www.publishersweekly.com/blog/660000266/post/390013239.html

Of course, it depends where you go and who you ask. What would you all say? Not that we have little ones to ask. Kirstin, maybe you can ask Shea what he observes when it's library time.

I was a nonfiction gal all the way -- could you have ever guessed? Ha ha. I was one of those kids referred to in the link that had to be commanded to pick something from the fiction side of the library. I vividly remember my third grade teacher instructing me to do so.

Shelley, since you ended up in journalism, did you gravitate to nonfiction in grade school? I just feel my journalistic tendencies were always there and manifested themselves in nonfiction reads.

An opinion from Chuck Klostermann

2007-10-22T04:53:00.001-07:00

Check out the November Esquire. Read Chuck Klostermann's column. It's all about how he's not read a Harry Potter book or has not seen any of the movies. He says he's sure they're fine, but he's just not interested. The piece is really about if you purposely keep yourself out of touch regarding a worldwide cultural phenomenon, are you kicking yourself in the shins in the long run? Twenty years down the road, when everyone is referencing Harry Potter on TV, films, music, etc., will Klostermann know what the heck is going on? He compares it to the person who has never seen Star Wars (yes, that's me) and consequently doesn't get the references to the movies that pop up everywhere.

I may not partake in pop culture, but I feel pretty well-informed because I read a lot. So I've never seen an entire Star Wars movie. I still know all the characters and the basic plot. If someone made a joke using Star Wars characters, I would probably get it. Even before I read HP, I felt I had a good handle on who everyone is and what they were doing.

It kind of makes me sad that I caved and read the first HP. I love Chuck Klostermann and really want to have something in common with him.

Art vs. Entertainment

2007-10-21T08:39:00.000-07:00

Kirstin and I had a short conversation on Friday about art vs. entertainment. I'd be interested in other people's thoughts on this. I sort of look at the difference as a continuum. Kirstin says she looks at it as being more circular.

I think it's interesting to ponder.

Here's what I'm thinking: on a continuum, at one end would be To Kill a Mockingbird and Hamlet and Return of the Native and Great Expectations and Last Report of Miracles at Little No Horse, and Poisonwood Bible and Holes and The Chocolate War. At the other end would be paperback romance where characters never change from beginning to end.

However, I can't even think of an action movie where a character doesn't grow or have some sort of awakening. That's why it's a continuum, because to make anybody care about a story at all, somebody has to be identifiable enough to grow, change, or see the world differently. But there are stories where folks don't change.

Okay, the whole reason I'm thinking about this is because within five days, I spent $140 on entertainment: I saw Ian McClelland play King Lear at the Guthrie and I saw the Blue Man Group at the Civic Center in Mankato.

I loved the Blue Man Group, laughed a lot, and was entranced by the quirky creative way they presented visual and auditory engagement from which I could not peel my eyes or ears. It was FUN and ENGAGING. However, it didn't touch my heart. It was amazing and showed talent that blew me away, but my heart and life outlook wasn't touched.

King Lear ripped my heart out. I started crying when the mad King (Ian McClellan) held his dead daughter. I wept as he died. I couldn't stop tears from literally flowing...sopping my face, not dabbing at tears...when he died. When the stage went black, the entire, hundreds-of0people, not-an-empty-seat audience rose to their feet as one. When the lights came up for curtain call, the place erupted in a roar, screaming, whistling, thunderous applause. I couldn't stop weeping. And here was the wilted, defeated, dying king, so believable that it made me weep all the more to see how full of life the man himself was. It was acting, entirely acting. The story, his performance has lodged in my heart, what tragedy is possible, what deceit and mistrust, distrust that humanity is capable of.

So my opinion for the week was this: the difference between purest art and purest entertainment is that which touches our hearts the most versus that which holds our attention but doesn't affect our view of life.

I'm very interested in what people think about this.

will this hurt book sales?

2007-10-20T09:30:00.000-07:00

So the big news this morning, and I am so not the only one blogging about it . . . last night at Carnegie Hall, JKR told her audience that Dumbledore is GAY. Hear that? GAY. He was in love with Grindelwald.

Wow. Brave and fantastic, in my opinion. The series really is about tolerance, and this is another angle on that theme. The pedophilia implications the haters will raise are dangerous, IMHO, but not everyone will go there. It makes Dumbledore's battle with Grindelwald even more interesting. And it makes room for plenty of puns about "wand duels".

I've been reading Mugglenet this morning, and that group of fans are divided. Some say it doesn't matter. Some say they like it. Some say they knew (mostly the fanfic people). Some say it wrecked the series for them because someone that great couldn't possibly be gay. My favorite comment so far: "wow, I wonder how hard it was to be gay in the 1860s!" True dat--Dumbledore was over 150 when he died. Good question. Some fans are saying that sexuality doesn't belong in children's lit. But JKR moved OUT of children's lit into YA with Book 4--she shifts ground with Cedric's murder. And sexuality is often part of YA novels, so big deal if she has a gay character.

But here's what I'm curious about: what does SCHOLASTIC have to say? Have they known all along, too? Do they care? Do they think this move will hurt book sales?

Publishing is a business, and what hurts the bottom line is a bad idea. If Scholastic would refuse to sell any more books, it wouldn't hurt her. But Scholastic's reaction could change the children's book world forever. I don't want to assume their reaction will be negative, but the possibility exists. Will they take the books out of school book sales? Will they put them in a restricted section of the Barnes & Noble's kids area?

Her stories are so fantastic I can't believe people will abandon them--the homophobes will, but most people won't. But it will wreck my faith in the publishing industry if Scholastic abandons her.

John Green and audience

2007-10-11T14:13:00.000-07:00

A while back, I took time to read John Green's novels LOOKING FOR ALASKA and AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES. Both are critically acclaimed, and ALASKA won the Printz award (KATHERINES was a Printz honor book). Good stuff, right? I should hang on for a great literary ride?

I did, and both lived up to their honors. Both books are action-packed, and both books have great, funny, real characters. Both books would appeal to teens, boys and girls.

But here's my question: why do the books appeal to grown-ups? I get it for teens--but why adults? And it's adults that make or break a book, IMHO.

YA lit has a unique audience because it must serve three distinct constituencies: young adults, their librarians, and their family/friends/parents who want to buy them books. The needs/wishes/desires/goals may be very, very different for those three groups! So I'm wondering why his audience likes him. I shall proceed to guess. Please yell if you think I'm wrong.

Young adults: swearing, sex, drinking, drugs, humor, tampon strings (I kid you not), real kids doing real things, and honest voices for characters

Librarians: I'm not sure. My guess is stories in which kids can see themselves, decent writing, and knowing the books will move off shelves

Parents/other grown-ups: this one stumps me. Maybe they've looked past all the sex/drugs/rock & roll to see the quality of the stories and the endearing features of his characters. Maybe they recognize their own kids. Maybe they know kids will like the books because the characters mirror today's kids. I don't know. Maybe they don't read the book before they buy it. Maybe they see the award sticker and think "good enough for me."

It's an interesting mystery, isn't it, how to appeal to each group? It's exhausting, too.

Go read LOOKING FOR ALASKA and AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES and report back. Tell me/us where you see the audience appeal. For the record, I liked KATHERINES way more than ALASKA. I would've reversed the honors.

Can YOU quit?

2007-10-04T09:03:00.000-07:00

Here's the most interesting piece of writing/publishing advice I've seen lately. It's from Kate Elliot's Live Journal.

If you can quit writing, do.

I grabbed it out of context, but I take it to mean this: Writing is really hard. There's very little reward. The odds of even moderate success are low. Your time would be better spent buying lottery tickets or selling crap from your garage on eBay.

So keep writing if you can't quit. Work hard. Revise. Study. Learn. Write new material and more new material and more new material. Maybe someday, a little luck will get stirred into the mix. And then the magic happens.

But if you can't imagine all this work without any magic, quit. eBay needs that old motorcycle helmet.

2007-09-29T10:39:00.000-07:00

Okay, first of all: We need to set up an ice cream date while the days of fall are still crisp, sunny, and golden and ice cream on ColdStone's patio still sound appealing.

Second bit of news: I am going to Greece and Italy in May. Taking students. Philosophy instructor Kurt Dershem and I are joint-teaching a humanities (lit., mythology, architecture, art, philosophy) course at SCC and taking students for ten days. I am so excited I can hardly believe it.
I hope I get a great brainstorm for a future book while there. I can't imagine a better setting for a great story. Has anybody read The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke? It's spectacular, and it's set in Venice. I feel as if I've been to Venice by having read it. So maybe I'll get a brainstorm and I'll need a grant to travel back to set a book in Rome, Florence, Pompeii, Sorrento, Athens, or Delphi. Ya think?

Last thought: I'm so tired of being a teacher right now. I want to work on AllieCat, get her polished and back out in circulation for editors to consider. And Norton. He needs to get his final shots in and get back in his travel kennel in NYC, too. And I can't wait to start working on my Coal trains story about Grassy's Son....I'm whining, but here I go, back to grading papers.

the Oprah effect

2007-09-25T14:59:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm going to out myself: I wrote a book about a controversial subject. Two books, actually, with controversial subjects, but the second one is more controversial than the first. The book I'm currently shopping around has a transsexual narrator, Gabe.

Is this a good thing? So far the verdict is mixed. Some agents & editors think it's salable. Some don't. Only time will tell. But guess what Oprah's doing on Friday (9/28)? A show about trans teens. The hook was something like "What do you do when your seven-year-old daughter says 'Mom, I should have been a boy'?" I can tell you . . . I spent 3 years studying such situations, and I have a killer novel with a female-to-male character who says a very similar thing. : )

Will the Oprah effect make a difference to my manuscript? I don't know. But I sure hope so. I hope that those agents and editors who are hesitant will decide to take the plunge. I hope that those who claim "kids aren't ready for this kind of controversy" (or honesty--my book tends not to sugar-coat or back away from anything) can see the merit in giving young adults a chance to discuss the topic.

In YA literature, two books exist with trans main characters. One agent told me that was enough. I'd respectfully beg to differ--the market is wide open. Hopefully Oprah can help me make my case. Everything else she touches turns to gold. Why not my manuscript? : )

Harry

2007-09-24T06:13:00.000-07:00

Beating a dead horse:

I started Harry Potter #4. It's a massive tome - nearly 800 pages. It goes to show once you have a best seller, you can break all the rules. YA books are supposed to be 45,000 - 60,000 words. That's about a max of 250 pages. I thought I'd slip the HP into my purse as my travel reading in Chicago. But it's too big. Seriously.

I could do with less Quidditch. Some people tell me the Quidditch practices and matches are their favorite scenes. I skim them.

Little Mommy

2007-09-15T10:00:00.000-07:00

When I was very little, my favorite book was Little Mommy, a Golden Book. I had it memorized, so nobody had to read it to me. I'd look at the pictures and imagine myself as the little girl in the book. I just found that book on eBay, and the seller scanned in a bunch of the pages.

Holy crap. It's the most gender stereotyped, appalling book I've ever seen. It's all about a little girl playing house, raising kids, doing dishes, ironing clothes, sending daddy to work in the city, taking care of sick kids, (and calling doctor Dan, not doctor Danielle) and collapsing in bed at night because mommies have "lots to do."

Bletch.

Here are the opening words: "This is my house, and I am the Mommy. My children are Annabelle, Betsy and Bonny. Billy is Daddy. He works in the city. He has a new car. Isn't it pretty?"

Anyone remember this book? By the way, bids are up to $50+. Amazing what we'll pay for nostalgia, even bad nostalgia.

RIP, beloved writer: Madeleine L'Engle, 88

2007-09-12T11:09:00.000-07:00

I'm very late in getting this posted, but I wanted to remember Madeleine L'Engle's contribution to YA and literature in general. My 3rd/4th/5th grade teacher (I went to country school) read us A WRINKLE IN TIME, and I realized I wasn't alone in the world. Meg was there, and she was smart like me. A RING OF ENDLESS LIGHT remains one of my favorites as well. When I actually got to meet a dolphin this May, I was hoping for telepathy. Seriously. Her books are so smart, and so human. I am grateful for them.

Here's a link to her obit in the New York Times:

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/08/books/07cnd-lengle.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
(I'm sorry--I can't seem to make it hot!)

Some quick stats:

--A WRINKLE IN TIME was rejected 26 times.

--The book is in its 69th printing.

Thank you, Ms. L'Engle. Your books helped me. Rest in peace.

YA Marketing on the WEB

2007-09-10T19:26:00.000-07:00

Hey, our friend Steve sent me an online Publishers Weekly (why is there no apostrophe in that title???) article about using blogs and online marketing to target young adult reader audiences.
Check this out. (copy and paste, I guess; it's not coming in as a link. Sorry). It's a good article, and could be a great resource for us.

http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6473679.html?q=teen+marketing&

How many of you use myspace?
What other ideas hit you?

Another question: anybody planning to go to the SCBWI one-day conference at William Mitchell College of Law in St. Paul on Oct. 6? Linda Sue Park, Newbery winner for A Single Shard is a keynote. I filled out the paperwork to go. I really want to hear her. I'm tired of being so busy, however...They have manuscript conferences and a "first-page" read. Anybody interested?

The Google Net

2007-09-07T14:00:00.000-07:00

Out of curiosity, I googled my name to see if our blog would pop up. No such luck. Here's what emerged:

Me as the media contact for my real job. Makes sense. I can handle this. My employer would want it no other way, right?
My name at ZoomInfo. What the hell is ZoomInfo?
The Stillwater Courier, a small newspaper that quoted me for a story about public schools. I've been quoted in much bigger papers - even the Wall Street Journal - so why the tiny paper from Stillwater?
Then I pop up in the friggin' comment sections of blogs run by other people. That's what you get for commenting under your real name. But hey, I'm trying to do online networking. That's sooo new millennium, right?
Worse: I show up in my husband's band's web site.
Worse yet: my next listing comes in my old university's annual report as a donor.
And, drum roll ... city council minutes from 1995 when I was recognized for winning a reporting award. Get this: It's my old last name: Shelley Croes. The only reason Google unveiled this recognition is because my husband, who was only a friend at the time, was recognized, too. Shelley Croes + Joe Tougas = Google's Shelley Tougas.

People, we must change this Google monster. But how?

The jerk we love

2007-09-04T08:29:00.000-07:00

My family is obsessed with House, the TV show about the drug-addicted doctor who's a total jerk. And we're obsessed mostly because he's a total jerk. House is so much fun to watch, even though I want to give him a hard kick in the ass.

Which brings me to character. It takes brilliant writing to keep readers - or, in the case of House, viewers - following a flawed character. Of course, perfect characters are boring. They have to be flawed to advance the story and keep our interest. But I'm talking extreme flaws here. Dr. House rarely has a redeeming moment.

Anne Rice does it beautifully. Vampires are pretty nasty, yet I followed her vampire series for at least four books.

Who's your favorite literary jerk?

Advice from Patricia Reilly Giff

2007-08-30T21:37:00.001-07:00

So...I have a chapter book (For readers 2nd-3rd grade) with my agent in NYC. He is sort of frustrated and perhaps baffled (at least I'd like to think so) as to why he hasn't sold this book. He asked his friend Patricia Reilly Giff to read the manuscript. Check her out. Google her. She's something. Two Newbery Honor Books and about 98 other book publications. GOOD GOD. After three months, she finally read the MS, and told George (agent) that I should call her to talk about the story.

So last week, I got to talk Patricia Reilly Giff on the phone for well over half an hour. She's a wonderful, delightful, kind, incisively intelligent woman and writer. I won't bore you with all she said about my manuscript, but her formula for a successful story for a young reader is simple and is as follows.

A PERSON
in a PLACE
with a PROBLEM.
Problem gets worse and worse.
Character uses qualities we know to SOLVE PROBLEM.

Simple enough, right? It should be obvious but isn't always. This is specific for YOUNG readers, but do you think it may not be true for most good stories? For any age? Think about movies...What do you think?

Ants in my coffee!

2007-08-27T15:55:00.001-07:00

Too funny! This is a machine in a hallway at MSU. I almost peed my pants laughing!

Literary crushes continued

2007-08-27T13:56:00.000-07:00

How about falling for a character? As in,"If this person ever came to life and jumped off the page, I'd want to spend every waking hour with him/her."

For me, it was Mike from Mrs. Mike, my favorite nostalgia novel. He was big and woodsy and funny ... a Canadian Mountie who was part firefighter, part doctor, part cop and, in my mind, a total babe.

Or maybe Jane Austin's Mr. Darcy?

Literary crushes

2007-08-22T08:55:00.000-07:00

A friend and I were talking the other day about our "literary crushes." These are people to whom we are attracted solely because of their writing. We desire nothing more than to be in his/her presence, drink coffee and talk writing. That's it, end of date. It goes no further than the coffeeshop. But yet we swoon with pleasure. Our heart skips a beat when we see them. And oh, if they actually talk to us, how magnificent! We want them to take us under their wings, to whisper sweet nothings about how we're the best, most talented writer they've ever discovered. They will show us the way. They will show us the light. They will make us see stars between the covers. Between book covers, that is.

I can't reveal my literary crush on this forum because what if he would see this!? But I can give a hint: He's a man, and he's in Blueroad.

Can anyone reveal theirs?

Harry Potter #3

2007-08-20T07:58:00.000-07:00

I hate to write a Harry Potter post as if this is a new phenomenon, but I can't help myself. I finished book 3, and I'm amazed by the ending. Now that's plotting. It takes remarkable skill to write an ending with twists that isn't ridiculous. Rowling nails it. My favorite book in the series so far.

I've been talking to a friend - and hopefully he'll chime in - about Star Wars parallels. The three heroes are similar to Luke, Leia and Han. Dumbledore has a bit of Ben Kenobi. There's the dark lord, and people who are blessed with special gifts (the Force/wizarding). What others do you see?

That's the great thing about being a young reader. There's so much to discover. You find a book you love and after a few years of reading, you find an earlier novel that covered some of the same territory. And so it goes.

On to book 4 ...

R.I.P.

2007-08-16T05:18:00.000-07:00

more publicity

2007-08-14T12:42:00.000-07:00

Today on my bike, I was on Co. Rd. 2--north of the Mankato airport, near Duck Lake (I think that's the lake), and I saw a huge hand-made billboard that read
Hey by George--the book. Order on amazon.com."

Along that road, there has always been hay for sale with the sign "Hay by George." So now I gotta check this out. Publicity everywhere! We're gonna have to be really creative.

Speaking of Jake Riley ...

2007-08-13T12:57:00.000-07:00

I read Jake Riley before it was published. Becky gave it to my teenage stepdaughter to read for her feedback. Well, I got to it first and devoured it in a day. Here's why I love, love, love that book:

- I was transported immediately to my 15-year-old self. The insecurities; the craziness; the weirdness of a boy who is kinda sorta maybe a friend, but who kinda sorta maybe wants more; the parents who didn't get it ...
- Jake dredged up so many emotions. He was sweet, funny, sad, and very, very creepy. Not a one-note character. He's complex.
- The sense of being in the country, on a farm. The setting is so real, you can almost smell the oats.

Thanks for giving the world such an amazing story, Becky. BTW, my stepdaughter loved it, too.

Demo Encore: Any Publicity at all!

2007-08-10T12:06:00.000-07:00

The other car that advertized Jake Riley last summer was this one, driven by Eric Braun. Note the theme of skulls and death. If you click on the picture, you can see Jake Riley above the right wheel.

Tonight in St. Peter, at the Nicollet County fair, Eric is actually driving another car that has my name on it. Along with skulls and images of death, are the cover pictures of my kids' picture books: Flowers and Showers and others. It's a rather hilarious collage of mixed messages. He's driving another car with Jake Riley: Irreparably Damged, too.

On any of these photos, if you click on the image, you get a full-sized picuture. An eye-full of Demolition!

Publicity of any kind...

2007-08-10T11:54:00.000-07:00

So, we all know that we need to PR our own books, right? And that means any publicity of any kind gets the name out, gets our books out in the public eye, right? Well, here's my latest ploy.
Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged was touted on my friend Ashley Mettler's demolition derby car last summer.

Stay tuned for another picture. I seem to be able to only put two in one post!

my new hero

2007-08-06T09:08:00.000-07:00

John Green, 30ish author of the 2006 Printz award novel LOOKING FOR ALASKA and Printz honor book (2007) AN ABUNDANCE OF KATHERINES has a *fantastic* interview here

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/features/article/43286/nerdfighter-lit-interview-with-john-green/

on the current state of YA and what belongs/doesn't belong there.

The Printz award is given by librarians to the best YA book of the year, for those of you who haven't heard of it.

I like him, even though I haven't read a word of his books. But they're on my ILL list!

SNL

2007-08-05T07:19:00.000-07:00

Is "Saturday Night Live" funny anymore?

Joe and I debate this, well, every Saturday night. Joe, my hubby, thinks it hasn't been funny since the John Belushi era. Back then, I was still watching Scooby Do and those meddling kids solve cartoon mysteries. But I've seen old footage of "cheeseburger cheeseburger" and some other famous old skits and I think, at most, it was sort of amusing. Sort of.

I like the current cast. Last night: hilarious skit spoofing the gunshot endings of movies and a commercial for free "moustache rides." Wonderful and nasty.

So is SNL funny and fresh? Or stinky old? Discuss!

I-35 Bridge

2007-08-02T07:22:00.000-07:00

The I-35 Bridge collapse in Minneapolis made international news. Both my kids called me from North Carolina, just to make sure I wasn't driving north on I-35 last night. Josh lived a couple blocks from that bridge for four years. It's a scary thing.

Not having TV (except for a fuzzy channel 5 and worthless channel 12 as you know), I got most of my news from MPR and NPR. BBC's lead story was our Minneapolis Bridge and the cars on it falling into the Mississippi River during rush hour.

Tom's brother drives that bridge to and from work every day. He worked overtime yesterday, or he would have been in the thick of it. It's a relief for us--but there are dozens of families who had no such luck. I've been thinking about that a lot: that relief, feeling of luck when a tragedy hit close to us but we only experienced a near miss.

It's hard to feel relief when so many people were so drastically affected. It's hard to feel too much relief when at last report, all cars (and bodies? do we know yet?) weren't even recovered from the river. And maybe that's yet another way in which literature and stories are so valuable all of our lives. It's a way we learn other perspectives, to put ourselves in other people's shoes, to absorb the idea that the world is far bigger than what we glimpse from our own view.

So that's what I'm thinkin' about this August morning.

Withdrawal

2007-08-01T08:14:00.000-07:00

We're getting rid of cable. For those of you who don't live in Southern Minnesota, that means we're getting rid of television. Period. You can't get any "free" TV around here.

Is it brilliant or crazy? Writing commercial fiction requires you to be in touch with pop culture, especially for young adult audiences. No more House, American Idol or soap operas. How will I know the cool catch phrases (yadda, yadda, yadda)? Or know what's up with Lost and how its plotlines are shaping what people like to watch and read?

But a TV-free life means more writing time, more reading time and less time with your brain turned off.

In the next couple of months, let me know if I suddenly seem like I've moved into a cave. You know, if I start wearing stirrup pants or repeating jokes from old Friends episodes. That's trouble.

Meanwhile, I'm off to Amazon for a book-buying spree ...

Cold Stone date

2007-07-31T04:41:00.000-07:00

Finished the first Harry Potter! I really did enjoy it. I enjoyed the mystery of the story—it took me back to my Nancy Drew days. In reading Harry Potter, I often found myself wondering, “What’s going to happen next? How are they going to get out of this pickle?” JKR kept stringing me along—it was hard to put down. I like how the end of this book clearly makes you want to read the second one as quickly as possible. I’m so curious as to how Harry’s summer with the Dursleys is going to proceed!

I found there to be some real common-sense gems sprinkled throughout as well. JKR clearly makes this story work on so many levels. There’s the surface mystery, but there are some deeper truths embedded as well. For example, I like what Dumbledore says at the end: “You know, the Stone was really not such a wonderful thing. As much money and life as you could want! The two things most human beings would choose above all—the trouble is, humans do have a knack of choosing precisely those things that are worst for them.” How true! It really does put things into perspective.

I do think that multi-faceted approach is what works for authors, not only in the young adult world but adult fiction/nonfiction as well. Seek the deeper truth and meaning of the story. I think also of Bridge to Terabithia. There’s the surface story of a friendship between a boy and a girl and the issues that “outsiders” in face, but Katherine Paterson certainly packed some of the biggest life issues into such a small book.

Now I’m excited to watch the Harry Potter movie! I’ve seen only bits and pieces of them.

Why I want to write for guys

2007-07-30T13:07:00.001-07:00

Here's a quotation from Nick Hornby's HIGH FIDELITY that sums up, more or less, why I think (as a woman) writing for and about teenage guys is a wonderful challenge. He's talking about being twelve or thirteen:

"See, what did we have that was any different from what we'd had before? Squeaky voices, but a squeaky voice doesn't do much for you, really--it makes you preposterous, not desirable. And the sprouting pubic hairs were our secret, strictly between us and our Y-fronts [American translation: tighty whiteys], and it would be years before a member of the opposite sex could verify that they were where they should be. Girls, on the other hand, quite clearly had breasts, and, to accompany them, a new way of walking: arms folded over the chest, a posture which simultaneously disguised and drew attention to what had just happened. And then there was makeup and perfume, invariably cheap, and inexpertly, sometimes even comically, applied, but still a quite terrifying sign that things had progressed without us, beyond us, behind our backs" (5).

Oh man, this gets me--who WOULDN'T want to get inside a guy's mind and figure out how he ticks? Guys think way harder than girls give them credit for. Who wouldn't want to try and bring thinking guys into their books? In my opinion, characters make or break everything. Readers latch on to characters, and if they're willing to follow the character along, they're willing to go where the book leads them. One of my writing goals is to write guy characters that other guys are willing to follow.

I can die and go to writer heaven if I ever hear these kinds of sentences from my son, when he's old enough for YA novels: "Yeah, Mom. You got it. That's a real guy in that book."

Newsflash: Barbara Kingsolver

2007-07-28T15:55:00.003-07:00

Hey! For all you Barbara Kingsolver fans: She's going to be on NPR's "Speaking of Faith" program, this Sunday, July 29.

Success...?

2007-07-28T15:43:00.000-07:00

I read a quote by Eleanor Roosevelt this week, and it has been sticking in my mind. I've been mulling it over; it's been rolling around in there...so I thought I'd share it with you.

"More people are ruined by victory, I imagine, than by defeat." --E.R.

Hmmmm. Of course, the first thing I thought of was victory/celebrity in terms of writing success. I think about authors' whose success gives them very little privacy, and sometimes lives that that they really don't want. Happens a lot with highly successful people, I suppose. However, a little bit of that wouldn't hurt now, would it?

But I think how most of us struggle so hard and get so many rejections and revise and revise and revise before we get a little bit of success. In terms of that, seems that our lives can't exactly be ruined by victory, can they? But even though I still would love for the whole world to clamor for more of my stories, it makes me glad that the process, the joy of feeling as if we've got it right--the writing, rewriting ad nauseum--is what makes this rewarding. Not the glamor of a book on the bestseller list. That said, I don't think there's anything more deeply satisfying than seeing your book on the bookshelf, or seeing somebody with his/her nose buried in your book. And hopefully, we'll all be on the bestseller list sometime...

Anyway, since I've been feeling frustrated with how long this current revision is taking me, the Eleanor Roosevelt quote made me slow down and think, hey, what I'm doing right now is the success I need right now.

Bridge to Terabithia: The Movie

2007-07-25T08:16:00.000-07:00

Continuing the book-to-movie conversation of the past week or so, I'll weigh in on Bridge to Terabithia. I consider myself an "expert" on this book, much as Kirstin is an expert on HP. Nice quotes in the Free Press by the way, Kirstin!

Here's the link to that Harry Potter Free Press story if anyone missed it:
http://www.mankatofreepress.com/archivesearch/local_story_195234720.html

Maybe some day the Free Press will do a story on Bridge and quote me! Ha ha.

Anyway, Bridge to Terabithia was absolutely the favorite book of my youth and one of my favorite books yet today. I could go on and on about why I love it so much -- maybe another day.

Because it was my favorite book, I was quite nervous when the movie came out earlier this year. Hollywood has a way of ruining good books, don't you agree?

One of the main stories within the book is about two unique 10-year-olds who, as a way to escape bullies, their families, the reality of life, etc., create an imaginary world in the forest ("Terabithia"). The book makes it very clear that this world exists in the childrens' imagination -- the author, Kathryn Paterson, doesn't go all J.K. Rowling on us. One reason why I love the book: it's grounded solidly in reality.

However, when the movie trailer came out, it looked like the entire movie was going to center around Terabithia, when actually that's a pretty small part of the book. I thought the movie was going to go crazy with special effects and ignore the rest of the story. So you can see why I was nervous. I didn't want to see a "Star Wars" version of Bridge.

But I can say I was so pleased with how the movie turned out. Just as in the book, Jess and Leslie's time in Terabithia is pretty small. And, amazingly, the movie made it clear that this world existed in their imaginations. For example, in one shot, you see a squirrel. But in the next shot, that squirrel is now a hostile fighter-type of creature. Then, in the next shot, it's a squirrel again. It's just very clear that you've taken that leap of imagination along with Jess and Leslie.

I think it turned out so well because the author's son, David Paterson, wrote the screenplay. Of course he's going to be true to his mom and not "sell out" her classic story. Thank goodness!

In short, I recommend the movie, but only after you've read the book! It's not a big book -- it probably wouldn't take you any longer to read it than it would to watch the movie. Shelley could read the book five times during the course of the movie with her lightning-speed reading skills!

back to the HP theme: Book 7

2007-07-21T22:19:00.000-07:00

It's 12:21 a.m. (according to my clock) on 7/22/07 and I am officially finished with my first read of HP: DH. For the record, I started Saturday morning about 10:30. I read off and on until 3:30. I returned to the book around 7:30 and finished at 12:01. 750+ pages in less that 14 hours, and that includes at least 4 hours of interruptions. It's why I became an English major. I read FAST. It's a really useful skill.

First verdict: wow. Great way to end the series.

Second verdict: wow. She left some threads undone!

Third verdict: how could you *ever* tie up all the loose ends? Not possible.

Fourth verdict: I am humbled in the presence of JKR's imagination. Holy smokes, what an amazing storyteller. To make up a world and merge it so well with ours . . . with characters so rich and fantastic . . . it boggles the mind. She's a true master.

Fifth verdict: there are definitely spots in the book I would've fleshed out. She drops (IMHO) two very important issues raised in the book. An editor should have picked up what she dropped and said, "Hey, Jo . . . we need more here." Maybe others will agree, maybe not.

Sixth verdict: I spotted one continuity error, way back from Book 2. Understandable, right? But it was an important connection, and one I'm sorry she forgot to check.

Seventh verdict: what a fun ride. The Harry Potter series remains, for my money, one of the best series of books in modern history. It's not perfect, but it sure in the hell is fun--and love triumphs. What's not to like?

My last two words: Albus Severus. When you get to the end, you'll know what I mean.

what the fish?

2007-07-20T12:22:00.000-07:00

OK, I'm breaking out of our HP theme to try something else.

One of my favorite things to do, as a writer, is to look at how other people are using language. Specifically, I love slang, and I love curse words (or words that people are using to curse, anyway).

Maybe that's not wise, to like curse words, but they're really USEFUL, and they can be really POWERFUL. They can also be very CONTROVERSIAL in YA lit. The controversy is something I wonder about. My students (who are about half a step removed from teenagers) use curse words all the time. Teenagers use curse words all the time. Why should we pretend they don't when we write for them? Maybe it would seem like we're condoning the curse words, if our characters use them. But curse words make our characters seem like regular teenagers--and they'd seem UN-regular if they DIDN'T use them. I don't know. It's still up for debate.

But let's go back to slang. Slang dictionaries are fun. If you're interested, try http://www.urbandictionary.com. It's a popular site (it has a lot of sexual slang, beware). I don't know if you'd find "what the fish?" (I found it in a girl's blog), but you'll find other stuff, like "pregret," which is something you regret before you even do it, but you do it anyway.

2 problems with slang: 1) it can make you sound like you're trying too hard, and 2) it can date you. First point: my husband says "don't be a hater." He is not a slang king of guy, so it sounds goofy coming out of his mouth. Second point: the only word that hasn't gone out of style (for almost 60 years, probably) is "cool." If you say "rad" to someone who didn't grow up in the 80s, you will look hopelessly lame (another 80s reference, though that one floats through a lot of decades).

Who's got an opinion, yo?

Word.

Harry Potter Challenge ... Drum Roll

2007-07-19T10:37:00.000-07:00

Did Harry Potter cast a spell on me?

Yes.

I enjoyed book one despite my anti-fantasy stance. Why? I've been thinking about it, and here's my theory.

1. Like one of this blog's commenters noted, HP isn't PURE fantasy. It's set in our world and our time, and all this magic stuff is going on without our awareness. So I was able to keep one foot on Earth, and that's important to me (Miss Linear) as a reader.

2. Humor. The book is LOL funny.

3. Character. Harry's sympathetic but not pitiful. He's smart and funny, but his insecurities make us root for him in that Rocky kind of way.

BUT ... Becky and Kirstin, don't plan that Cold Stone trip yet. Rachael still has to weigh in, and I'm betting she's going to have to split the ice cream bill with me.

Harry Potter and marketing/selling question

2007-07-18T11:18:00.000-07:00

I cannot wait to hear the outcome of this read! Rachael, what have you to say for yourself at this point?

I also want to bring up a publishing dilemma.

I recently finished a chapter book for young readers--2nd-3rd-grade-ish, entitled Norton, the Puppy Who Kept Coming Home. It's based on a real-life dog I had, but the story is fiction. My agent gave the manuscript to a well-known, well-respected author, Patricia Reilly Giff, who is also an expert in reading. My agent's assistant told me today that they are still waiting to hear Giff's reaction to the manuscript.
Sooo...
Today, I see on School Library Journal webnewsletter that the author of adult memoir Marley and Me has written an adaptation of the same book for middle grade readers. The new book is entitled, Bad Dog, Marley! My next move is to run to Barnes and Noble and buy both adult and kids' versions of the book. But my question for you and for anybody who wants to chime in, is this:
Does a best-seller/popular book make another book that's similar in subject more likely to sell? Or unsellable because it's overkill?? What do you think?

Kirstin, you are dealing with the same issue with one of your novels. I would love to hear what readers think about this--when they go book-shopping.

And to bring this discussion back to where I started: Hasn't Harrry Potter split wide open the door for books about magic and wizards and dragons???

Harry Potter Challenge: Update

2007-07-18T05:53:00.000-07:00

Thirty pages left in the book. I should finish it tonight. Do I like it? My lips are sealed until tomorrow.

HP: fantasy v. magic realism

2007-07-17T07:06:00.000-07:00

This is the literature teacher talking, just be aware.

For me, Harry Potter and his cohorts aren't strictly fantasy characters. IMHO, the series falls somewhere between fantasy and magic realism.

Some definitions: a piece of fantasy literature, generally speaking, has its own world. Often the conventions of that world are different than the "real world." Fantasy worlds usually have magic and monsters, though they often retain stuff from the "regular world" like love, hate, and human relationships. Obviously, Hogwarts is its own world, and people do things there that they don't do anywhere else. In fact, we have different kinds of people--witches and wizards, plus Dumbledore and Voldemort (uber-wizards), house elves, giants, werewolves, possible vampires (the Snape theory, though Slughorn invites Sanguini to a party in 6), animagi, and even a metamorphmagus. Plus, we have blast-ended skrewts and the Monster Book of Monsters (my all-time favorite creature, especially from the film--LMAO).

Magic realism is different. It tends to blur the line between fantasy and reality. Often, in magic realism, the magic that happens seems natural or commonplace. In HP, we're introduced to Harry's magical tendencies when he frees the boa constrictor at the zoo. At that point, he's just a kid, not a wizard, but he takes out a glass wall. He does it in the regular confines of the London Zoo--a perfectly regular setting. Is that a normal thing, to take out a glass wall? No. But we kind of like him at this point in the book, so we're willing to go with it, weird magic or not. We're willing to see what happens next.

I know that most people would argue that HP is strictly fantasy. I'd say the line is a little blurrier. But all of this, of course, has to do with whether or not you're ready and willing to suspend your disbelief. Some readers are willing to go farther into uncharted worlds than others are.

SO . . . all of this is to say: Shelley and Rachael, your suspension of disbelief might be easier than you think. HP's world might be more normal than you assume. Becky, do you have anything to add to the fantasy v. magic realism thoughts (Becky's a literature teacher, too)?

The challenge is ON! And how do you know, Shelley, that regular cats *don't* talk??? : )

Harry Potter Challenge ... GO!

2007-07-17T05:39:00.000-07:00

Let's summarize:

Rachael and I have never read Harry Potter. We don't do warlocks and wizards. We're linear thinkers, realists.

So Becky and Kirstin, HP fanatics, have issued a challenge: Read the first HP. If we don't like the book, the HP fans buy at Cold Stone Creamery. If we like it, we have to buy.

I bought the book last night. Enjoyed the first 30 pages. But remember - there's no wizardy yet (except for the talking cat). Just a funny kid and some rotten relatives.

Rachael?

A Harry Potter Challenge II, plus movies

2007-07-16T10:55:00.000-07:00

I second that challenge, Becky. I don't think we'll have to buy the ice cream, but I'm there if we have to.

I also want to mention the whole HP book/movie controversy. The movies aren't my favorites--they're good, but they're not the books. That's always where I come down. As S. King says (in another context, but it works here): the book is the boss. Those movies wouldn't exist without JKR's magnificent stor(ies). I'm a purist in that respect.

At the same time, the movies are a separate art form, and that difference in art form can account for the differences between the movies & books. Movies have particular time constraints to follow, for instance. How do you shrink an 800+ page book into 135 minutes? Not very easily. So you have to know what you're getting into--there's no way on God's green earth it could be the same. The best idea is not to expect it to be.

I haven't seen the latest installment, and my 9-year-old is dying to go. I'm relatively excited myself. : ) We'll probably see it this weekend. And speaking of cuts, I was reading in this week's ENTERTAINMENT WEEKLY that JKR made sure they kept Kreacher in HP: OOP, because otherwise they'd have trouble with films 6 & 7. Good call! And a clue for HP: DH? Looks like it to me!

And speaking of HP: DH . . . yes, I'm sad the series is coming to an end. Do I think Harry will die? No.

Did you know JKR is the first person on the planet to make over a billion dollars from writing books? Granted, the movies help, but it goes back to what I said before: the movies couldn't happen without the books. That statistic comes from the June issue (I think) of WIRED.

A billion dollars from BOOKS? How cool is that?

A Harry Potter Challenge

2007-07-16T08:40:00.000-07:00

Okay, Shelley. Rachael, too.

I refused to read Harry Potter when he became a craze. REFUSED. I hated witches, warlocks, wizards...why waste my time? Then my friend Julie stuffed Book I into my hands. She said, "Stephen King says Everybody who wants to be a writer has to read Harry Potter because nobody has a sense of story like JK Rowling. So I sighed. I took the book. A week later, I started reading. And I didn't quit 'til I'd finished Book 3, which was all that was published at the time.

So yeah, I'm challenging you two to get through Book I--remember, this wasn't my idea, it was YOURS--you brought it up--and if you love it, you buy at Cold Stone. If you hate it, Kirstin and I will buy.

I Haven't seen the Book V movie yet! Has anybody? I'm dyin' to get to it, but haven't had a chance yet. Talk to me...

Confession

2007-07-16T07:02:00.001-07:00

I haven't read Harry Potter.

There. I've said it. I feel cleansed of my sin just for admitting it.

I've never been a goblins-and-warlock fan. Couldn't stand Alice in Wonderland. Narnia and its ilk? No way. I didn't even like Wizard of Oz. (Monkeys! Can't! Fly!)

I like stories set in my world: work, school, family, friends. The plots can be outrageous, but they need to be firmly rooted in Earth. Supernatural is fun, too, because I like to be creeped out. Stephen King is like ice cream - who doesn't love it?

How about you? Are you a fan of fantasy? Why?

Welcome to YA LitStop!

2007-07-15T08:55:00.001-07:00

Thanks for checking out our blog. We're authors of young adult fiction and nonfiction books, and we've created this blog to talk about books, pop culture, writing and whatever strikes us. We'll post regularly, so bookmark us!