New Book Alert: Truly, Madly, Deadly

Every Wednesday (or most Wednesdays, or some Wednesdays) will bring you book reviews. Of a special variety. Yes, I am telling you which books are awesome and totally worth reading. But the point of my reviews is to hopefully make you conscious of the market and why this particular book was published: quality of writing, character and plot development, unique quirks of writing, characters, and plot that make it stand out. Take my tips to your own reading and writing, and through Constant Vigilance, will you succeed as a writer.
 
Today is an extra special Wednesday. "Why?" you might ask.

Please excuse the caps...

TRULY, MADLY, DEADLY  by HANNAH JAYNE IS OUT!

I'm a bit excited on two counts: 1. It's an awesome book that joins the ranks of awesome books and should be read by all awesome readers. This is in no way biased by the fact that 2. I was the agent on this book. (If you still think I'm biased, see #1)

Let's do the normal Wednesday Reads stuff now.

Synopsis: From the synopsis of any book you read, you can teach yourself how to write a query letter. This section will both tell you about the book, and what you should learn from the back cover blurb.

Sawyer Dodd has it all. She's a star track athlete, choir soloist, and A-student. And her boyfriend is the handsome all-star Kevin Anderson. But behind the medals, prom pictures, and perfect smiles, Sawyer finds herself trapped in a controlling, abusive relationship with Kevin. When he dies in a drunk-driving accident, Sawyer is secretly relieved. She's free. Until she opens her locker and finds a mysterious letter signed by "an admirer" and printed with two simple words: "You're welcome."  

Think an updated I Know What You Did Last Summer for the new generation. For all you querying thriller writers out there, take a good look at this blurb. It's short, it's concise, and it still conveys all the important information (who, what, why we should care, etc).

Opening Page: No agent, editor, or even reader will read past the first sentences or pages if it isn't grabs your attention and is well written.

 The novel opens on a funeral, but what I love about the opening scene is that you don't immediately know what the situation is. You know Sawyer is thinking inappropriate thoughts (she can't stop staring at fuzz on a guy's ear), and slowly the situation (a funeral) is revealed. You connect with Sawyer immediately because we have all been there (hopefully not where she is, of course), distracted and unable to connect to those around her.

Brownie Points: I am one of those people that knows the ending to everything ten minutes in. For some reason, no one likes to watch movies with me.

I could not guess the Who Dunnit reveal of this the first time I read it. Hooked, you guys, hooked. The whole book is a Brownie Point because I got to read it several times and loved it more each time. But, for the sake of education, let's say the best part is the thriller reveal, the pacing, the ending, and especially the creep-factor of the new housing development Sawyer lives in.

Who Should Read It: Everyone.

 Of course I would answer it like that! You guys should know me by now! Anyway, anyone who loves YA or thrillers, and especially anyone writing in those genres. This is Hannah's debut YA, so if you're looking to break out in the genre, pay close attention.

Oh, by the way, look for the sequel, See Jane Run, out early next year. Hannah also writes awesome Adult Urban Fantasy too (you know how much I love my UF!) with characters to laugh and die for.

Happy reading!

Wednesday Reads: Nobody But Us

Every Wednesday (or most Wednesdays, or some Wednesdays) will bring you book reviews. Of a special variety. Yes, I am telling you which books are awesome and totally worth reading. But the point of my reviews is to hopefully make you conscious of the market and why this particular book was published: quality of writing, character and plot development, unique quirks of writing, characters, and plot that make it stand out. Take my tips to your own reading and writing, and through Constant Vigilance, will you succeed as a writer.

Nobody But Us is Kristin Halbrook's debut YA novel (by the way, Kristin is a pretty darn cool lady).

Synopsis: From the synopsis of any book you read, you can teach yourself how to write a query letter. This section will both tell you about the book, and what you should learn from the back cover blurb.

Most back cover blurbs and queries tell you just enough about the main characters to get you to connect with them right off the bat, and enough of the plot to get you imagining those characters in the conflict. While this blurb doesn't give you much of either of those, it really doesn't matter. Why? The hook, that's why. Now, I'm not a huge fan of "hook them right away" (don't put us to sleep either, just don't rely on the hook to carry you), but to me it's the whole blurb that should hook you, not just the first sentence. Here? I don't care about anything else. It's the hook. Actually, it's the first three words: "Bonnie and Clyde"

Bonnie and Clyde meets IF I STAY in this addictively heart-wrenching story of two desperate teenagers on the run from their pasts.

"They’re young. They’re in love. They’re on the run.

Zoe wants to save Will as much as Will wants to save Zoe. When Will turns eighteen, they decide to run away together. But they never expected their escape to be so fraught with danger....

When the whole world is after you, sometimes it seems like you can’t run fast enough."

Brownie Points: Gah! The end! It's so beautifully awesome! Okay, besides that (because obviously I'm not going to spoil it). The dual narrative was executed to perfection. There is no way you can possibly mix up Zoe and Will's POVs. They speak differently, they think differently, they act differently, they are, in every possible way, different from each other. And you never forget that either. Every decision they make, they are figuring each other out. It's far from a perfect relationship, which is what you love about them, because they try to work through everything.

Which leads me to Brownie Point Number Two. Their relationship. It isn't perfect. Hell, at the end, they know something is very fundamentally wrong. They aren't blind to their problems, they make many mistakes, and keep blundering through like the teenagers they are. Beautifully. Awesome.

Beefs: Once again, I can't think of any. I don't want to. I loved reading this book. It sucked me in and didn't let go until the last page. Then I flipped back twenty pages and re-read the ending. I am not a re-reader, but this is on my "to read again" list. That's successful story telling, no matter which way you look at it.

Who should read it: Anyone who loves a good YA, contemporary, thriller without the serial killers, dysfunctional relationships, etc, etc, etc. I always recommend unpublished writers read debut novels, and really concentrate on why the book, by an untried writer, was published by a big publisher. And the why of Kristin's? It's thrilling, it's real, and it's marketable. What do you mean "marketable"? Those three words again: "Bonnie and Clyde". I'm not saying go out and rewrite classic movies or books, I'm saying find something the market is missing, something only you can deliver.

And if you're in the Seattle area, Kristin's book launch is at the University Bookstore in Mill Creek this weekend (more on her blog).

Happy reading!

The Agent Answers: Paranormal

You have questions? Do you constantly miss #askagent sessions on Twitter? Is it impossible, despite a hundred Google searches, to find an answer to your question? Then you've come to the right place. Ask a question either on any "Agent Answers" post or on Twitter, and I'll answer as many as I can. My answers will be subjective and should not be considered applicable to every agent (though I do like to assume my opinions are the majority).

Question: We always hear that paranormal romance in YA is dead, no one is buying it. Do you think it'd be wiser for paranormal authors to hold back querying a paranormal project?

Answer: No way! Go ahead and query. Sure, I'll probably reject it. But there's a chance an agent will fall in love with it and ask to see something else, or keep you in the back of their mind for when editors are suddenly hungry for paranormal again (back off, a girl can dream, right?). Besides, some editors are still buying paranormal and some agents are still having luck with it. As I like to tell writers, "Good writing will "always" sell." (You may ask why I put bunny ears around the always. Good question. It means, nothing in this business is absolute. Good writing can get passed over on occasion.)

That said, if you don't feel your project can stand on its own, either because of the writing or content, you have bigger problems than the market. Like, are you actually ready to be querying?

Happy writing!

Wednesday Reads: My Life Next Door

My Life Next Door by Huntley Fitzpatrick, contemporary YA. A beautiful, stunning debut about love, family, betrayal, and staying true to yourself.

Synopsis:

“One thing my mother never knew, and would disapprove of most of all, was that I watched the Garretts. All the time.”

The Garretts are everything the Reeds are not. Loud, numerous, messy, affectionate. And every day from her balcony perch, seventeen-year-old Samantha Reed wishes she was one of them . . . until one summer evening, Jase Garrett climbs her terrace and changes everything. As the two fall fiercely in love, Jase's family makes Samantha one of their own. Then in an instant, the bottom drops out of her world and she is suddenly faced with an impossible decision. Which perfect family will save her? Or is it time she saved herself? 

First Line: "The Garretts were forbidden from the start." Gets straight to the point and intrigues the reader. But what I really love is the whole first page. Because the first page is actually a flashback of sorts, some backstory. And what do we tell writers to never do? LOL But this works. And if you're contemplating breaking the rules, know what you're doing, do it well, and don't linger too long on it. The thing that really clinches this scene for me is Samantha's mother. She's kind of a bitch, and very judgmental. Everyone knows someone like that.

Brownie Points: Samantha. I love her. She's an interesting character with a lot of things going on in her life--she has multiple jobs (overachiever much?) and each job has its own hideous uniform. She's able to balance everything though, which we love her for. Until the point she can no longer balance the jobs, the family, the boyfriend, etc. And we love her even more for it!

Recommendation: Obviously, I'm going to recommend that everyone read it. But especially if you love a character-rich contemporary YA ala Sarah Dessen or Stephanie Perkins.

Would I represent it? I'm drooling with the idea of working with something so immensely awesome.

Happy reading!

Wednesday Reads: Bright Young Things

Bright Young Things by Anna Godbersen. So my December blog hiatus got an unexpected goal--read all of Godberson's available novels. I've finished the Luxe series (loved, loved, loved), and I've already read both available BYT novels (can't wait for the next!). Gobserson does history right. Her characters are so true to their time period (biggest pet peeve while reading historical novels is when a character is ahead of her time--unrealistically feminist or willful). Astrid is my favorite--she's one of those girls that, if she had existed now, you probably would have hated her guts in high school. She's selfish, naive, beautiful, out for a good time, horrible with relationships even though she's in love--yet you can't help but like her, root for her, eager to see what happens to her next, or see what she will do or say next.

Synopsis:

The year is 1929. New York is ruled by the Bright Young Things: flappers and socialites seeking thrills and chasing dreams in the anything-goes era of the Roaring Twenties.

Letty Larkspur and Cordelia Grey escaped their small Midwestern town for New York's glittering metropolis. All Letty wants is to see her name in lights, but she quickly discovers Manhattan is filled with pretty girls who will do anything to be a star. . . .
Cordelia is searching for the father she's never known, a man as infamous for his wild parties as he is for his shadowy schemes. Overnight, she enters a world more thrilling and glamorous than she ever could have imagined—and more dangerous. It's a life anyone would kill for . . . and someone will.
The only person Cordelia can trust is ­Astrid Donal, a flapper who seems to have it all: money, looks, and the love of Cordelia's brother, Charlie. But Astrid's perfect veneer hides a score of family secrets.
Across the vast lawns of Long Island, in the ­illicit speakeasies of Manhattan, and on the blindingly lit stages of Broadway, the three girls' fortunes will rise and fall—together and apart. From the New York Times bestselling author of The Luxe comes an epic new series set in the dizzying last summer of the Jazz Age.

First Line From Prologue: "It is easy to forget now, how effervescent and free we all felt that summer." Another reason I love Godberson's novels--her narrative voice is at the same time whimsy and straightforward, easy to connect with despite the 3rd person narrative, very indicative of a gossip column of the time. And each prologue of each book gives you a taste of what to expect--which makes you want to read even though you don't really know what is going to actually happen. 

First Line From first chapter: "The handful of wedding guests were already assembled in the clapboard Lutheran church on Main Street, and though they had been waiting for a quarter hour, any stray passerby might have noticed a lone girl still loitering outside." Like, whoa. I'm not giving anything away here. Cordelia is such a rich character, and Godberson such a clever writer. Most writers, I'm sure, when in a situation with a character who does not wish to be married, would have them leave before the wedding. Ah, no, not Cordelia. She's selfish, but you feel her pain and desires so acutely.

Brownie Points: The characters. I've already gushed. But they're so rich, so complex. Products of their time, written in a way we all can relate to them.

Recommendation: Everyone should read it. Historical at its best.

Would I represent it? Yes!

Happy reading!

Language

Language has a lot to do with voice. What is it about your characters (in whatever world they are in --this world, a Dystopian world, another world, etc), and how they talk that make them unique?

What do I mean? Look at Maze Runner, a fantastic example. These boys are in a maze with no memories, so they start making up their own names for things and using their own terms in place of "stupid," "lame," and the F-bomb. They have developed their own language, but one any reader can easily understand and believe.

Across the Universe also achieves the same, though not to quite the extent. They say "brilly" instead of "brilliant" and "frex" in place of many swears.

And, though I hated the book (respected yes, but it's one of those things that creep the heck out of me, like Chuck Palahniuk or Thomas Pynchon), Feed by MT Anderson also has great language. So much so that if I read too many chapters at once, my internal thoughts starting sounding like the narrator. Talk about effective.

Once again, all my examples are dystopian or futuristic or sci-fy. On the contemporary side, John Green is a master with language. Specifically, An Abundance of Katherines, in which their F-bomb substitute has a nerdy explanation. Not only is the language amazing, but it plays directly into VOICE.

 
I'm not expecting you to go so far as to create an entire new language. But (they'll be speaking English I hope, haha) they need their own way of speaking. If your story centers around a royal family, how is their speech different than a commoner's? If they are on a spaceship, I hope that their language (and VOICE) reflect a scientific bent. If they believe in multiple Goddesses, I don't want to see "Thank God"--use maybe "Thank the Goddesses." If it's a contemporary novel, how does the character's use of language reflect their voice?

Language/voice isn't only about replacing a few F-bombs for censorship-sake however (please don't do it for censorship-sake, do it because it fits your world and characters--if your world and characters drop the F-bomb every other word, then have at it!). It's about creating a language that's engaging but realistic, something that makes your characters/setting engaging.

So, based on language, what are your favorite novels?

Happy reading!

YA: Friends

What's more important to teens than their friends?  All their drama stems from the friends (slash family).  Being a teen is an interesting of life, and one full of pressures.  Peer pressure is the common term used.  It's not all bad peer pressure either.  In some groups, you are encouraged to be a good person, rather than a bad ass.  Then again, in other groups, you're encouraged to be a bad ass.  Greasers vs Squares.

As you're reading a YA novel, you'll notice that the main protagonist isn't the only one with a voice and problems.  Usually, there is a whole host of best friends, or friends becoming best friends, or best friends transitioning to new friends.  But rarely is the main character alone.  And, since the main character can't do everything, the best friends get to do the other stuff, and we can explore another way of life through them.  Rampant by Diana Peterfruend has a whole host of girls with different personalities, and through each of them, we get to see how being a unicorn hunter has affected them.  Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler shows how a whole family mourns the loss of a brother and son (and the effect it has on the main character's best friend).

Best friends can also provide one more crucial role (among many, including a sympathetic--or sometimes an unsympathetic--ear): comedic relief.  I'm sure we're all familiar with Harry Potter.  Take Ron, the best friend.  He is awkward, quirky, compassionate, and completely a boy.  He provides insights into the magical world Harry has never seen.  I could go into all the complexities of their relationship and how real it is, but just read the books and you'll realize what a fantastic character he is.  Without his brothers, Fred and George, in the scene, Ron provides the comedic relief everyone needs now and then.  As the books progressively gets more serious, Ron's blunders get more hilarious.  Simply with a word, look, act, he can relieve the building tension, give us a breather.  And, what I love about him, is he is actually a very complex, deep character, though on the surface he may be awkward and weird all the time.  Luna, Crookshanks, Hagrid, all the Weasleys, and Neville (among others) act in this capacity as well.

So, as you're writing your YA, don't forget the friends.  They provide subplots that give another layer to your story (like an onion) and deepen it, add another complexity.  Even Bella (though she forsook her friends) had the friend characters in Edward's family.

Based on best friends only, what are your favorite YA novels?

Happy writing!

YA: Bad Guys

I love bad guys.  I'm not saying I'd rather be the villain than the hero.  Antagonists add a deep layer to any plot.  It's what the main character is struggling against at the very core of the story (besides themselves and obstacles along the way).

One of my favorite bad guys of all time is Voldemort from the Harry Potter series.  He's so deliciously evil, straight, pure evil.  He is the constant throughout the books.  His evilness knows no bounds.  A lot of evil characters aren't pure evil like Voldemort.  By the time we meet him, he is beyond repair, with no hope of being turned to the good side.  (Since I said it, I can't not mention it...)  Darth Vader is also a great bad guy, with more dynamics to him than all the other bad guys in the series.  He is what Luke must fight against, even though, in the end, he isn't the most ultimate evil.

What is so different about YA bad guys from Adult bad guys?  You know, I really don't know.  Perhaps they can be scarier, or more evil, because it's dealing with YA topics.  While battling ultimate evil and saving the world, the main character must also fight his inner demons (as Luke Skywalker and Harry Potter do), and, since the bad guy reveals these inner demons, it makes them seem more evil.

Not every book or story has to have the ultimate evil character, some show the story of a character battling the inner demons, or killer unicorns, or something of the sort.  But make sure you can point in your manuscript to whatever it is the main character must fight.  We like conflict.  Give us conflict.

Tell me, who is your favorite bad guy?  The more evil and complex, the better.

Happy writing!

YA: Sex

To include or not to include.  Is that really the question?

Well, it depends doesn't it?  A big reason books are banned is for sexual content.  But teens want to read about something relevant to their lives.  What is more relevant than sex?  Having it, not having it, it occupies a good space of brain time in your average teenager.  And if they aren't having it, don't want to have it, won't have it in their teen years, they are, at the very least, confronted with it every day by peers, ads, TV, magazines, etc.

Take Twilight by Stephanie Meyer (discount the fourth, though that can be a discussion all on its own), and Rampant by Diana Peterfreund.  In these books, the main character wants to have sex, and has to deal with the repercussions of having or not having sex.  In the first case, it means possibly getting attacked by her vampire lover in the moment of passion.  In the second, it means losing her powers as a unicorn slayer.

So these aren't necessarily real life situations.  If a teen has sex, she has to deal with the possibilities of STDs, pregnancy, or personal or social humiliation.  So what's the point of including sexual situations in fantasy novels?  A teen doesn't need a "How to Survive Having Sex with a Vampire" handbook.

What's the point?  It gets the teen thinking.  It gets the teen out of her own head for a moment.  It allows the teen to project.  And it allows the teen to sympathize with the main character in her own plight.  She will recognize in the main character her own emotions, confusion, and dilemmas.

Twenty Boy Summer by Sarah Ockler and Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher are two contemporary YA that both deal, at least in part, with sex and the consequences.  I won't get into them much here, but know that I loved both of these books.  They handle the dilemma of teen sex so well, both in vastly different ways, that, had they landed on my desk, I would have scooped them up (not for the sex dilemma alone, but the incorporation was very well done).

So, the question isn't really to include of not to include.  It's more about the appropriateness to your story.  Don't include sex for the sake of having it in there.  If there is no point, no lesson, no conclusion to draw from the scene, then it isn't helping.  It might be harming your novel.

The following links talk more in depth about sex and romance in YA novels--probably better than I could.

Romance from Justine Dell.
Edgy YA from Query Tracker.

And the book I'm looking forward to reading with this topic in mind is The Duff by Kody Keplinger.  (Click for a great review.)

So the questions you might want to ask yourself are:
How much is too much?  How can the author gage what will be acceptable for teens to read?  How does the author decide what the teen can identify with?  When is it worth taking the risk of adding sexual material, and just leaving it out in favor of something else?  Is it allowable to be explicit in YA, or is it common courtesy to gloss over the details?

So, dear readers, your turn.  Enlighten me to your thoughts.  Happy writing.

YA: Death

Here's a happy topic.  Death is one of the topics that I feel really separates YA from Adult genres.  Usually, from what I've read, Adult fiction that deals with death is very, well, mature.  A husband, parent, child is lost, and the adult must find ways to cope with the loss and carry on with his/her life.

YA is, essentially, the same.  But teens and young people are not equipped to deal with death the same way adults are; they haven't lived long enough, or seen enough, to be able to deal with it, or at least, not properly.  And that's why Death works so well as a theme in YA, because throwing a young character into a situation she was not prepared to handle, and watching her grow and find a way to cope with that situation, is the basis for any good story.

It may be morbid, but I love YA that deals with death.  Now, don't go killing off characters right and left to try to satisfy me.  Like everything in a novel, it must fit, it must be believable, and it must work with the story, subplots, and characters.  Hunger Games, for example, deals with a lot of death.  Okay, in that characters are dropping off left and right.  But it's the premise of the story, and, since Katniss grew up watching the Hunger Games and people dying, Death really doesn't affect Katniss until she watches a friend die (trying not to give anything away here, but I'm not, because like I said before, a lot of people die).  And the loss hits her hard, so she responds in the only way she knows how, she takes care of Rue's body and she sings--consequences come from that, both good and bad, and that makes that particular death beautiful, necessary, and helps us understand Katniss a little better.

While the Hunger Games is Dystopian and anything goes, YA contemporary fiction, or even paranormal or urban fantasy, must (mostly) operate within the confines of reality.  The government isn't going to come into a school and kill off a dozen students and just happen to also kill the main character's best friend.  Reasons we will believe?  War, car crash, cancer (and other health problems), suicide.  Happy topics right?  And of course, the main reason we read the books, is to see the aftermath, which can range from inappropriate sex to a search for answers, from withdrawing from friends and family, to going on the warpath for revenge (however the revenge might manifest itself).

Below are a list of my favorite books dealing with Death.  Follow the links to see my reviews.  I haven't reviewed Zusak and Green because I read them before I started to blog, but they've stuck with me that long; they are definitely worth a read (full box of tissues for the first, half a box for the second).  Zusak's quite literally deals with Death; it is narrated by Death.  And Green's is a part funny, part seeking-for-answers coming of age story.

Twenty Boy Summer - Sarah Ockler
Past Midnight - Mara Purnhagen
Thirteen Reasons Why - Jay Asher
The Body Finder - Kimberely Derting
The Book Thief - Markus Zusak
Looking For Alaska - John Green

And I'd like to know your favorite books dealing with Death, no limits on the genre.  But I am always looking for more morbid YA to add to my lists, so please, dig deep.

So, despite the topic...

Happy reading!

YA: Voice

Plot's all well, but probably the biggest reason I reject manuscripts is for the voice.  And I'm not just talking first person past tense (or third person limited past tense--it seems that the majority of recent novels are written in one of the two).  I'm talking getting in the character's head.  We are them for 200-400 pages.  Their thoughts become our thoughts.  We witness events through their eyes.  Their first kiss is our first kiss.

So, what does this entail?  You have probably all heard "show don't tell," well that comes into play with the voice.  Want to listen to a monotone robot reading you the news?  No?  Didn't think so.  It's quick and efficient and doesn't waste your time, but then you can't make fun of the newscaster's new haircut.  We want to be shown the news, through emotions and pictures and overly contrived one liners.

See what I did there?  I made fun of newscasters, because that's part of my humor.  I could have told you "Show don't tell" but I felt that the situation warranted an example, and you never would have known my opinion of newscasters.  Does that matter in the overall scheme of things?  Probably not.  But I'm more likable now, right?

Using first or third person limited allows the narrator to get inside the main character's head and reveal the inner workings: emotions, logic, thoughts.  Thoughts, actions, and reactions are all different.  Your character can witness the death of her cat, can react by running in and grabbing her automatic rifle to kill the coyote, but what is she actually thinking?  What are her emotions?  We can assume she was out for revenge, but was she thinking "I'm out for revenge, where's my rifle?"  Or was she thinking, "Thank God I started keeping my rifle cleaned, loaded, and by the backdoor to ward off my creepy stalker ex-boyfriend otherwise I never would have been quick enough to avenge my cat.  That dog's pelt is mine, may he forever adorn my mantelpiece."  Wordy?  Perhaps, but I think you get the picture.  (This also goes hand in hand with "The Beat.")

Most of my favorite books won me over by the voice.  Yes they had great plot and development and everything else vital to a good read, but the voice managed to keep me engaged and invested.  If someone rewrote Moby Dick with an updated 21st century voice, I might actually succeed in reading it all the way through.

Invested...  That's what it's all about, right?  Get us invested in your character.  Make us care whether or not she gets the boy or survives the flood or solves the missing computer mouse mystery.  And get us invested early.  Unlike plot, voice isn't really something that unveils as the novel progresses.  Page one, line one, I want voice.

Favorite authors based on voice alone:  Diana Peterfreund, John Green, Jay Asher.

Happy writing!

YA: Beginning the Conversation

Since plunging into YA head first, about a year ago, I have greatly changed my definition of YA.  I used to think it was a fun story about kids on an adventure, ie Boxcar Children, Harry Potter, A Wrinkle in Time.  YA is so much more than that.  It's about the true emotions, problems, situations, and conflicts that teens face everyday: school, relationships, death.  Whether through humor, fantasy, paranormal, history, or contemporary, a YA novel is going to touch some cord of a teen's life.

I'm hardly a teen anymore, but that doesn't mean I don't enjoy reading YA (I'm representing it, aren't I?).  A lot of adults love reading YA. Does it make them feel younger?  Is it akin to an old man sitting on his porch drinking lemonade and reminiscing about the good old days in which he had to walk five miles to school up hill both ways?  Or is it just another way for adults to reflect on society?  Another perspective, if you will.

A year ago, I took a YA lit class, thinking it would be an easy A, easy reading.  I had taking a American Children's lit course the year before, so I thought I knew what I was getting into.  After we read Catcher in the Rye (shoot me please), The Outsiders (outdated, let's move on), Chocolate War (interesting, but not my type), we moved into the YA that made me sit up and pay attention.   

Looking for Alaska was my first brush with contemporary YA that didn't make me want to tear my hair out.  It was relevant, poignant, silly, serious and full of geeks, hot girls, bitches, and cliques.  So beautiful I don't even want to get into it here (read it, it's so good).  Learning more about John Green was when I first realized that not all great authors have to be dead, old, or boring.  His Vlogs with his brother were funny and educational.  Really, he's just a geek himself.

Next, I read The Book Thief.  Now, I don't cry at novels or movies (I'm a girl, but I'm broken apparently).  The closest I get to tears is throwing down the book and pacing to get rid of the built up emotions, maybe gaping at the wall, or talking out loud to myself (usually along the lines of ohmygodohmygodohmygod--eloquent, I know).  And I was definitely doing a lot of my not-crying-antics.  Beautiful novel.  Ok, I thought, historical YA, I can dig that.

What sealed the deal?  Dystopian YA.  Yup, you guessed it, I'm a die hard Hunger Games fan.  It had fantasy, technology, screwed up government, screwed up society, danger, adventure, family, love, tension, confusion, death... I can go on and on.  That's what I loved about the book: it had everything.

I've read a butt load of YA since (been reading my Wednesday Reads, haven't you?), and my favorites  have a mix of the above qualities.  Some are heavy in conflicted romance, some in death, others in humor.  It has to strike some sort of cord.  Teens are bombarded with an overload of information every day at school, on ads, on TV, from friends.  They have to sift through all of that information (ADD much?) to get to the stuff that they actually want to know about.  I'm much the same way.  I only left my teen years behind three years ago; I want to get the meat quickly.  Why should I care?  My favorite books make me care.

Ok, so the discussion has begun.  Over the next few weeks I'll take the above list and write a blog post on certain items.  Please chime in with your thoughts.  Want to argue with me?  Please do.  Conflict is how I learn (I do not want scars though please).

Happy writing... or reading... whichever you feel like doing.  In any case, Happy Living!

Publishing cramps my (reading) style

My goal this past weekend was to read as much as possible to make a dent in that pile of library books on my bedside table.  One good thing about being around other people who love books all the time is that you get great suggestions of books to read.  I had a rather long list from the PNWA conference after attending a few classes on YA lit and simply talking to other YA lovers.  So I put them on hold at the library (I'm poor so I refrain from buying books).  My library list has also expanded from list of comparables I request of my writers.  If I haven't read a book on their list (more times than not I haven't even heard of them), I put it on hold and read it first chance I get.

I began six books in the last week.  During the week and early on Saturday I managed to finish two: Tiger by Jeff Stone (children's), and Magic Bites by Ilona Andrews (urban fantasy).  Both I highly recommend.  Then I began two YA: Deerskin by Robin McKinely, and Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan.  Both novels are written in a style I do not normally pursue.  The stories are lovely however, and the writing beautiful and heart wrenching.  Apparently I'm less prose and more contemporary (take that Herman Melville--I have a love/hate relationship with Herman leaning heavily in the influence of hate).  I began as well a book on tape to listen to while I drive, a romance, which I probably will continue listening to.  And, because I needed something raw, I began Dead until Dark by Charlaine Harris (True Blood), which I plan to finish reading.

Total: two completed, two abandoned, two in process.

My friends have always labeled me as bitter and cynical (I'm a realist), but I'm afraid working in publishing, in which we read dozens of queries, partials, and manuscripts every week (most of them very very very bad) has made me intolerant of even published works.  I used to be the perfect reader.  I was kind, patient, understanding, loving.  If a book didn't catch me in the first fifty, hundred, two hundred pages, I continued reading, making allowances for why it was slow, picking up on the beauty of the words and the intent of the author.  Alas, the world of publishing has destroyed the person I used to be.  No longer will I sit patiently with a book.  I have cast two aside this weekend (I haven't counted the books I have cast aside this summer), I've become extremely critical of the romance genre, and I laugh if the first fifty isn't the best thing I've ever seen.

As to whether my new reading style is a good thing, I'm still in debate over.  I'd love some input on this topic from my lovely readers.  If you are an author, how do you read books?  With an eye in mind for your own style and development?  Do you read at all (you should, for comparables)?  Agents, how do you chose what to read and how often do you find a published novel unsatisfactory?  Others, are you the kind and patient reader we all wish all readers could be?

Hopefully my discriminating eye will help me in the long run find that next best seller.  And hopefully you careful readers will love it.  Happy writing (and reading)!