Field Trip Friday: June 11

Field Trip Friday

Our weekly trip around the field of YA with stops at the most helpful, interesting or otherwise entertaining news.

This Week In Writing 

 - Author Merrilee Faber has an extensive guide to beating writer's block.

- Author Libby Koponen rejects the idea that children's books are the training wheels of writing 

- Author Malinda Lo presents a five part series on avoiding LGBTQ stereotypes in fiction.

- Agent Kate Testerman suggests making your main character the chosen one isn't a great choice.

- Agent Mandy Hubbard on effective opening pages

- Why You Suck and I Don't: How to use fundamental attribution error, at Plot to Punctuation

- Agent Jessica Faust suggests you create a style sheet now to avoid issues later.

- Basic advice on choosing a book title, from Pimp My Novel

- Author Vee Roth has an amazing post about shame and genre.

This Week In Reading

- Looking for something new to read? See what other authors have on their TBR list at School Library Journal.  
 

- The New Yorker looks at the recent rise in YA dystopians.

- Stephenie Meyer's new novella, The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner, sold 79 copies PER MINUTE  the day of its release. Good news for the Red Cross, which will receive a portion of the profits

- If you've ever seen my personal blog, you know I'm a Twihard with a sense of humor. These women, however, are taking the series pretty darn seriously.

- And for those of you who suspect Bella suffers from a mental disorder, psychiatrists at the University of South Carolina agree. Also, Piglet clearly suffers from generalized anxiety disorder, and there are some phallic issues in Harry Potter. (via Bookninja)

This Week In Getting Published

- Agent Rachelle Gardner has quick tips to improve your pitch.

- Author Maureen Johnson's manifesto on social media and branding... or not

- The Query Tracker blog has tips for providing better critiques, including my favorite: the stream of consciousness method.

- Really interesting look at the change from pre-to post-publishing culling, by agent Nathan Bransford. (Pimp My Novel will have a rebuttal next week and the pre-game trash talk on Twitter has been entertaining.)

- Agent Mary Kole on agents' editorial suggestions

- @EgmontGal (Elizabeth Law) hosted an #AskYAEditor chat last weekend, and will do another this Saturday if she reaches 3000 followers! You can find an overview here.

- It wouldn't be Field Trip Friday without a little @kortizzle. She has a good post about why agents are finicky about submission requirements, and why it would behoove you to, you know, FOLLOW them.

This Week In Contests

- Literary Assistant Judith Engracia is giving away a copy of DUST. All you have to do is tell her what you'd do if your significant other turned into a zombie. Extra points for "LOLLERcoaster" entries.

- Check out Adventures in Children's Publishing: Our girl Kirsten Hubbard, along with our friends Tahereh Mafi, Cole Gibsen and Michelle Hodkins, will critique the finalists in their Line-by-line Novel Opening Contest.

This Week In Other Stuff

- Behind the scenes look at YA in the US vs the UK, from intern Jennifer Ung

- I sent author Heather Trese's post "You Might Be Married To A Writer If..." to my husband, who read it and immediately asked, "Do you know this girl? You guys should meet." (Sadly, I don't know Heather, but I assured him the points listed were not limited just to her and me.)

- The Intern wonders what an author's responsibility is to publishing as a whole. (My favorite part: "...the market is prone to the doing of thangs.")

- High school senior Jamie Keiles has an amazing experiment going on: The Seventeen Magazine Project. To critics who think we should write girls in YA as some  kind of vapid brainless morons: GO READ THIS.

This Week In The Random 
 

- "Oh hai. In teh beginnin Ceiling Cat maded teh skiez An da Urfs, but he did not eated dem." That's right. The Bible translated into LOL cat. "An so teh threeth day jazzhands... An so teh furth day w00t."

HARRY POTTER TRAILER ZOMG.

and in preparation for Eclipse:

(click the Eclipse link to see jorts in action.)

~ Kate Hart

field trip friday Friday, June 11, 2010