YA Highway

THE BIG NEWS THIS WEEK

Depends on who you ask. Techies would say Apple's "mind-bogglingly greedy and evil licensing agreement" deserves the nod (over 600,000 copies of iBooks Author were downloaded in one week). Folks who studied Latin American lit and care about censorship (oh hai) would vote for Debbie Reese's continued coverage of Tucson Unified School District's closing of Mexican-American Studies programs. Twitter would say Steven Colbert's interview with Maurice Sendak; Tumblr might say The Boston Phoenix's evaluation of gender bias in NPR book coverage.

But hey, you wouldn't know the biggest awards in children's literature were handed out this week, because The Today Show decided not to cover it again this year.


THIS WEEK IN WRITING

- What Project Runway taught Veronica Roth about explanations.

- Another great post in Nova Ren Suma's "Turning Points" series: Saundra Mitchell reminds us that you can always walk away.

- Author Lenore Appelhans describes how book blogger have benefited her writing.

- Writer's Relief lists ten common myths about writing for children.

- Mitali Perkins has a great list of question to ask about telling the story of a "less-powerful" child.

- Is Jodi Meadows insane for deleting her 75K book draft? Not really.

- Lesbian books, or books about lesbians? Author Malinda Lo looks at categorization and labels.

- Maggie Stiefvater presents "Rough to Final" posts from ten author friends.

- Libba Bray on industry awards, gratitude, and never really knowing anything about writing.

- Do your characters have Disappearing Wound Syndrome? Kieryn Nicolas at the YA Lit Six says people don't miraculously heal in two pages.

- Why Megan Whaley Turner isn't telling you anything.

- Erin Bowman has a great tutorial about outlining in Scrivener.

- Nick Mamatas has ten pieces of advice that writers should stop giving (via Cleolinda Jones).


THIS WEEK IN READING

- If you follow us on Tumblr *cough*, you may have seen this link to Capitol Couture, a pretty amazing Hunger Games fashion site.

- Publishers Weekly takes one for the team, tallying up the 5 books that inspire the most tattoos.  (You can safely peruse that link without fear of coming across any scary Edwards.)

- Fourth-graders in Massachusetts are asking Universal to please, please not lose the message of Dr. Seuss's The Lorax on screen.

- Flavorwire picks ten legendary bad girls of literature and ten cult literary traditions for die-hard fans.

- Stacia Ward Kehoe notices a correlation between awards and covers that aren't photo-illustrated (via Kelly Jensen).

- Check out this crazy enormous Lord of the Rings family tree (via Bookish).

- Want to share your YA love on Facebook? Epic Reads has some cool banner images for you to use.

- Margaret Atwood talks to The Guardian about the making of, and reaction to, The Handmaid's Tale.

- More fun recognition for YA Highway contributor Veronica Roth: Divergent made the 2012 Amelia Bloomer list for feminist literature, and a quote from her book was the second-most shared on Goodreads in 2011!

- Nominees for the NAACP Image Awards in Literature were announced-- scroll down to find their children and YA categories-- and the Rainbow Project named their 2012 Rainbow List for GLBTQ books for teens.

- Important post from Kelly Jensen at Stacked: Some of her favorite books of the year weren't in the running for ALA recognition this year, and it's because she, and we, failed to nominate them. Did you know you can nominate books for the Printz? I didn't. But I won't forget next year.

- Nominated but still didn't make the cut? Lisa Schroeder says lists are nice, but...



THIS WEEK IN PUBLISHING

- Do you need a social media intervention? Angela Ackerman has a therapy session broken down by problem platform.


- The HuffPo picks 7 of the best author websites, including Rick Riordan, Amy Krouse Rosenthal, and Jay Asher.

- Want to be an editor? Find out how Martha Mihalick got her spot at Greenwillow Books.

- General PSA: If your book is on Goodreads and its data comes from Amazon, you need to get that fixed asap. (via Cleolinda Jones)

- How do bestseller lists work? The Sacramento Bee explains.

- Agent Jennifer Laughran on the fine art of zipping it (aka the tone of your social media should match the tone of your work).

- 25 things writers should know about agents, from the terrible mind of Chuck Wendig.

- The Passive Voice reports some problematic terms in the Amazon/Penguin Breakthrough Novel Contest.

- Author Media lists 44 helpful Twitter hashtags for writers.

- Author Lauren DeStefano fights back against the idea that weight is tied to success.

- Lots of discussion this week about piracy, as the failure of SOPA/PIPA didn't stop the government from shutting down Megaupload and striking fear into similar services. Meanwhile Fast Company goes behind the scenes to "unmask" a digital pirate on Amazon (via Victoria Strauss).

- Celebrate your friends' successes as your own, because their new contacts are now yours too! Lisa Iriarte on the green-eyed jealousy monster (via Amy Boggs). On a related note, Rachelle Gardner shares that agents are also not immune to a little jealousy; Jodi Nelson Call laments eviscerating internet culture in "We Hate When Our Friends Become Successful" (via Myra McEntire, who I do not hate for becoming successful).

- NPR reports that publishers and booksellers see a "predatory" Amazon; Josie Leavitt hears the news about Amazon's deal with Houghton Mifflin Harcourt and asks, "What fresh hell is this?"




THIS WEEK IN OTHER STUFF

This is a real thing! That apparently happens! Near me!

- Not gonna lie: It was pretty fun watching the New Yorkers on my Twitter feed complain that they are ranked number 22.5-- tied with Austin, Texas-- on this list of most literate cities. (What's that? Tulsa was number 21? *slow smile* must. control. self.)

 - Still missing Hedwig? Snowy owls are all over the US this winter, so you have a decent chance of spotting one!

- Faber has set up "The Spark," a YA online community that will offer fans a chance to star in book trailers, compose music, create artwork, and write themed short stories all relating to YA books.

- We all love our iThings, but is our love for all things Apple worth exploding Chinese factories and fatal job conditions?

- Fantastic story about one teacher's extraordinary and successful effort to reach a problem student (via Mike Mullin).

- Monty Python! Together again! Sort of! (via @NYDNBooks)

- I love, love, love this post from Karen Rivers: "How To Forgive Yourself."

It is the moment when, instead of writing it down, or talking to your reflection, you allow yourself to let go.  No, that's wrong.  That makes it seem like the things themselves want to be released, but you are holding them back.   They are stuck to you with barnacle-like tenacity.   It's not that you have to let them go.  It's that you have to make them leave, pry them off one by one.

THIS WEEK IN CONTESTS

- Win an Apocolypsies starter pack that includes Born Wicked, The Miseducation of Cameron Post, Reunited, and Starters, plus lots of great swag!

- You can win a query critique from Jodi Meadows at YAtopia!

- Win a copy of Kody's next release, A Midsummer's Nightmare!

- Bridge the Gap is offering a "scholarship" for LGBT/Allies-- you are encouraged both to apply and to bid on their auction items.


THIS WEEK IN THE RANDOM



Have a great weekend!
~ Kate Hart

 

Field Trip Friday: January 26, 2012

The following are excerpts from reviews of the most Awesomely Unpredictable (Imaginary) Book Ever:

"This book had me on the edge of my seat. It was so unpredictable…"
"I never knew what was going to happen next! I kept reading to find out…"
"First I was like, whoa! And then I was like, WHOA! And then it was like, WAIT I CAN'T BELIEVE THAT JUST HAPPENED THAT'S AWESOME."

Don't those sound great? I want to read that book. (If only we all had membership cards to the Imaginary Library…)

So how do you make YOUR book unpredictable?

There's anticipation (building things up so the reader actually cares about what happens). There's presentation (putting events or developments out there in a way that makes them irresistible and intriguing). There's freshness (thinking up elements of plot that haven't been done over and over - tricky!). Another key aspect of writing an unpredictable book, one that I think deserves a little more attention, is sense-making-ization (writers can make up words, right?).

It's not enough to throw any exciting event out there in the hopes that it will surprise the reader. Heck, it's really easy to do that.

Look! A cat with a gun! EVERYBODY RUN.

Central to book unpredictability is the anticipation and presentation of events that are surprising, but that make perfect sense and fit with the rest of the book. Otherwise, the reader is just like, "Huh? Okay, I guess."

Luckily, Thomas was able to wrangle the gun from the cat, and it soon returned to its cuddly, catnip-loving self.

The best way to unpredicta-fy the reader is to leave them thinking, "I can't believe it! But wait… OF COURSE. How come I didn't realize this was going to happen?" In this case, the reader never could have predicted it. Unless they were reeeeally paying attention. In which case, they'll feel smart and awesome for figuring stuff out… instead of bored, like they do when they read predictable books.

Speaking of predictable books, is predictability really such a bad thing? Not always, particularly when you're using ancient, well-loved tropes (if the good guy didn't prevail at least a little bit in the end, it would kind of suck). But surprising the reader, giving them something fresh and exciting and mind-bending, can never be a bad thing.

So go forth and write with surprise! Remember, only YOU can prevent forest fires... I mean, prediction.

What are some other ways to make a book unpredictable?

1 Key to Writing Unpredictabl-Whoa, I Can't Believe That Just Happened!

Welcome to our 114th Road Trip Wednesday!

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

We'd love for you to participate! Just answer the prompt on your own blog and leave a link - or, if you prefer, you can include your answer in the comments.

This Week's Topic:  Write a dialogue between two of your favorite YA characters  Road Trip Song of the Week: “What Would You Say?" by Dave Matthews Band   Next week’s topic: TBD

Road Trip Wednesday #114: Sayin' It

We're excited to reveal the cover for our Kody Keplinger's third YA novel, A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE! It'll be published by Little, Brown/Poppy on June 5th, 2012.

Whitley Johnson's dream summer with her divorce dad has turned into a nightmare. She's just met his new fiancee and her kids. The fiancee's son? Whitley's one-night stand from graduation night. Just freakin' great.

Worse, she totally doesn't fit in with her dad's perfect new country-club family. So Whitley acts out. She parties. Hard. So hard she doesn't even notice the good things right under her nose: a sweet little future stepsister who is just about the only person she's ever liked, a best friend (even though Whitley swears she doesn't "do" friends), and a smoking-hot guy who isn't her stepbrother... at least, not yet. It will take all three of them to help Whitley get through her anger and begin to put the pieces of her family together. 

Cover Reveal: Kody Keplinger's A MIDSUMMER'S NIGHTMARE!

In On Writing, Stephen King talks about making the leap to being a professional author by buying himself a big 'ol honking desk, "the sort of massive oak slab that would dominate a room ... a T. Rex desk."

I imagine it looked something like this.

Problem was, putting that much emphasis on his writing upset the balance of his life (at the time King was in the midst of a six-year bender, so he wasn't able to appreciate the desk, or much else). Once he cleaned up, King swapped the T. Rex desk for something smaller that he put in the corner of the room.

Put your desk in the corner, and every time you sit down to write, remind yourself why it isn't in the middle of the room. Life isn't a support-system for art. It's the other way around.

Stephen King, On Writing (p.94)

Not many writers can afford to go the T. Rex desk route, or claim much dedicated work space in their homes at all. But here are a few ideas for non-traditional desks that don't take up a lot of room, and will keep your inspiration going along with (not in spite of) your busy life.

Alternative Desk Ideas

When I asked the YAH ladies whether I should write about something meaningful, or whether I should write about cats, the near-unanimous decision was, "CATS. I LIKE CATS."

So. About cats.

I have two of them. They are brothers, and they are pretty much the most adorable critters ever.



They are called Zuko and Caspian. Because I am a nerd.

They are extremely mischievous.


And if they weren't so adorable, they would probably drive me completely bonkers.


As it is, they already spend quite a lot of time driving me bonkers. They rip up my homework, and they eat things that cats have no business eating, and they've given me ringworm twice in six months.

But I love them anyway.

I never intended to be a cat-owner. I'm more of a dog person. But when I saw these little boys at the shelter, they wiggled their way into my heart and settled there until I took them home.

And that's kind of what happens with books.

(See what I did there? I made this post about writing, despite gratuitous pictures of kittens. BOOYAH.)

Sometimes a story worms its way inside you, despite everything. It doesn't listen to your insistence that I do not write fantasy or Sci-fi just isn't my thing or Eww, contemporary, NO... Sometimes, the story will claim you. You may think you are adopting a shiny new idea, but in reality, the story adopts you. And even when it drives you bonkers - even when you are slogging through that difficult middle section and you want to trunk it forever - it will not let you go. And you can't help but love it, despite all its problems. Despite the ringworm.

CATS

THE BIG NEWS THIS WEEK

You'll never guess what happened this week: People continued to argue on the internet! I know, right? Are you totally blown away by this completely unexpected development?

Yeah, me neither. So here. Guardian. PW. Stiefvater. St. Crow. Spotswood. Jones. Um... hilarious. Draw your own conclusions. And unless President Obama, Tina Fey, or God comments on reviewer/author relationships in the near future, we're done here, because in the meantime, Arizona school districts are closing Mexican-American Studies programs.

That means they're boxing up books by Sherman Alexie, Isabel Allende, N. Scott Momaday, Sandra Cisneros, Matt de la Peña, Jane Yolen, Howard Zinn, and even some guy named William Shakespeare. Oh wait, no, you can still teach The Tempest-- you just can't mention race, oppression, or "Natives."

Thank goodness for Debbie Reese, who has followed this issue closely; Elizabeth Burns at SLJ also has more links, Stacy Whitman has an honorary book list, and Democracy Now has a debate on the subject.

Meanwhile, Toni Morrison was pulled from an AP Literature class, and of course there were massive online protests against ill-advised censorship legislation. The NYT and CDT both have more; you can also get the simpler version at The Oatmeal, see whether your representatives support the bill, look at copyright violations committed by the bills' supporters, and check out Herpderpedia.



THIS WEEK IN WRITING

credit here and here

- First, do no harm: Rebecca Behrens writes a Hippocratic oath for revisions and rewrites.

- Author Janice Hardy explains how to use query writing as a plotting tool.

- Adam Heine looks at the difference between not screwing up a query and it being awesome (via Jodi Meadows).

- On the writing journey: Stephanie Sinkhorn gives you permission to feel your feelings, Sean Ferrell talks about the writer who never shows up, Harvard Business Review says to find happiness, forget about passion; Lindsey Roth Culli suggests you get out yer yardstick, and Delilah Dawson says the creative cycle will kill you-- but only if you let it.

- Francisco X. Stork wrote a moving "letter to a young author."

- Get a look at Saundra Mitchell's first draft and final pages from The Vespertine.

- "I identify with all of my characters. A writer has to do so if she wants her readers to identify with them as well." Judy Blume in Smithsonian magazine

- Has Word affected the way we work? Interesting article at the Guardian.

- Melissa Marr on "shelf hopping" between adult and YA.

- What's the first thing you should do when you open your computer? Advice from Seth Godin (via Livia Blackburne, whose name I'm pretty sure I've misspelled for about a year-- sorry, Livia!).


THIS WEEK IN READING 

- Does writing your name in your books count as a prenup? "How to Say 'I Do' to Shared Bookshelves," at BookRiot.

- "I suspect that people who can't respect young adult lit also don't respect young adults. I suspect that people who belittle children's literature don't think much of children." Shannon Hale sticks her tongue out at last week's YA link bait article.

- Should publishers build apps for cars? If it works for NPR...

- Author Jennifer Weiner finds the gender balance in NYT reviews still leaves much to be desired. There was a response article at Salon, and rather than link it, I will send you to John Scalzi's assessment.

- Interesting conversation in this YA Speculative Fiction panel.

- "Some people sneer at me for reading so much YA, and I sneer right back at them, because they are caught in the artificial divide between 'children’s' and 'adult' literature." Why S.E. Smith loves YA, at xoJane.

- It's almost Printz time! SLJ has their mock competition up for votes.

- Congratulations to this year's Edgar Award nominees!

- YALSA launched "YALSA Academy" this week, a channel for librarians and library staff that focuses on teen services issues.


THIS WEEK IN PUBLISHING

- To survive publishing (or life), you need a Tina Fey to your Amy Poehler. (via Rachel Hawkins)

- Don't waste precious space telling me you're a mammal, says agent Janet Reid.

- Jessica Faust says yes, do mention if you've been previously agented.

- Sex and the Magic Secrets to Getting Published, from Torre DeRoche (via Jess Regel). 

- Agent Victoria Marini has a helpful post: "All About Revision Requests."

- PW profiles self-published author Brittany Geragoteli's road to success, which started at Wattpad.

- Author A. C. Gaughen offers a debut checklist for new authors.

- Amazon's huge plagiarism problem

- Very interesting legal questions being raised by the success of Fifty Shades of Grey, an erotica series that began as a Twilight fanfiction called "Master of the Universe."  (also, relevant comic is relevant.) (also also, you guys totally owe me for not posting the gif I found on image search for this one.) (I know you're totally searching for it now.)

- Speaking of fanfic, Nicole Cliffe at The Awl just read Clan of the Cave Bear for the first time and calls it "totally totally a legitimate description of a bangin' Cro-Magnon blonde successfully infiltrating a group of fugly Neanderthals and being all Katniss Everdeen." (See how we totally brought that back to YA? RELEVANT.)

- This week's requisite "Amazon will kill us all" article is at Pandodaily.

- Did you know Tumblr has an official book envoy? Okay, I made up her title. But Rachel Fershleiser is available to help authors, publishers, and other literary-type people.

- Your career's not over until you say it's over, at EvilReads.

- Jacket Copy reports Apple will announce a "Garage Band for ebooks."

- "Write faster" is just the tip of the iceberg: Veronica Roth gives you a glimpse into the reality of a publishing timeline.

- Are you going to ALA Midwinter this weekend? (The jealousy. It burnnns.) Samantha Mabry has your guide to downtown Dallas, and the lovely ladies at Stacked are hosting another ALA blogger meetup-- don't miss it!

- YA Fusion interviews Dandy Conway, a district sales manager for Random House Children's Books.

- Writer Unboxed has three ways to use Pinterest for book publicity (although I would check their TOS first).

- New blog alert: Let the Words Flow has transformed into the shiny new site Pub(lishing) Crawl; indie MG/YA authors band together over at The Indelibles. 

- The trick to success, even in publishing, is developing relationships (at Forbes, via Jane Friedman).


THIS WEEK IN OTHER STUFF

- Lionsgate is acquiring Summit Entertainment, which means double the massive YA franchises for them. (Speaking of, Broadway World has exclusive photos from Twilight the Musical, there are rumors that the Twilight franchise will continue beyond the films, and a still of Katniss and Peeta before the Opening Ceremonies was released this week!)

- Daniel Radcliffe hosted SNL last weekend, including a skit revealing Hogwarts, ten years later.

- 20 heroic librarians who save the world, at io9 (via Alison Weiss).

- How sharing passwords is sort of like second-and-a-half base for teens, at the NYT.

- Latoya Peterson at Racelicious digs deeper into the social significance of the "Sh*t People Say" memes.

- "The Netherlands has done everything humanly possible to make teen sex and drugs seem dull." Why American teens should go Dutch, at FT Magazine.

- On America, Islam, and the Signing Line, from John Green.


THIS WEEK IN CONTESTS

- The YAmazing Race with MGnificient prizes, from The Apocalypsies!

- Win a spot on the Something Strange and Deadly blog tour!

- Win a copy of Caged Moon!

- The Write Dreams auction is raising money to help Donna's Dream House, a holiday home for children and teenagers with life-threatening or terminal illnesses that was recently burned by arsonists. Stop by and check out how you can help.


THIS WEEK IN THE RANDOM

Want more YA-related random? YA Highway is now on Tumblr!
I'm hoping to share links throughout the week to keep these posts more manageable, because they have gotten crazy long.

It's crazy how many of these are right: Predictions about 2011 from a 1911 newspaper.

Ever wonder what Lincoln looked like in color? Find out at Flavorwire.

via Neatorama (via Kaitlin Ward): Fotoshop by Adobé








Have a good weekend!
~ Kate Hart

Field Trip Friday: January 20, 2012