Tag: readers

Links Galore

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Lots of mid-week link goodness:

New Title Reveal!

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One of the first things I learned about being a debut author was “Don’t get attached to your title.” Even if it sounds perfect to you, it’s still part of the book’s editorial journey and, just like particular scenes or characters, is very likely to change*.

That change was part of my book’s journey. I’m happy to announce my brand new title…

…

…dramatic pause…

…

…suspense…

…drum roll…

THE CHANCE YOU WON’T RETURN

Tada!

I’m feeling really good about the new title, and I think it suggests a lot of the themes/emotions from the book–loss and hope and grief and uncertainty and searching. I really liked Queen of the Air, but ultimately I think The Chance You Won’t Return hits the vibe of the book way more, and feels more like YA.

With any luck, that means lots more reveals to come. (Covers! Blurbs! More kittens!) Major thanks to my wonderful editor and agent for working through the new title process with me; you guys are the best!

*Check out where some classic titles came from; one famous book was originally called Something That Happened.

Poetry for Office Survival

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It’s mid-July. A lot of people are on vacation. Going to work can feel like you’re in a barren wasteland of tumbleweeds. But this Wednesday, you don’t have to battle it out alone with the freezing office AC–it’s Take Your Poet to Work Day! Cut out a picture of your favorite poet, decorate him/her, attach it to a popsicle stick, and take your poet-puppet to work.

My work poet has to be T.S. Eliot:

Whenever I’m shuffling on public transportation with a lot of other commuters, I think about The Waste Land. Particularly:

Unreal City,
Under the brown fog of a winter dawn,
A crowd flowed over London Bridge, so many,
I had not thought death had undone so many.
Sighs, short and infrequent, were exhaled,
And each man fixed his eyes before his feet.
Flowed up the hill and down King William Street,
To where Saint Mary Woolnoth kept the hours
With a dead sound on the final stroke of nine.

If anyone understands how necessary that extra cup of coffee is, it’s Eliot. My suggestions for Take Your Poet to Work Day activities:

  • Write haiku about your favorite office supplies.
  • Print out sonnets and put them in random mailboxes.
  • Instead of listening to streaming radio, crank up your favorite poetry reading recordings.
  • Take meeting notes in iambic pentameter.
  • Have fun with your punctuation, ala e.e. cummings.

Share your ideas for Take Your Poet to Work Day in the comments.

(H/T bookshelves of doom)

Links Galore

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Some great links for your afternoon:

You’ve Got Questions, I’ve Got Answers

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One reason I like blogging is that it’s an easy way to share all the awesome things you find online. Stumble across a cool article? Blog about it! Interesting infographic? Blog about it! Adorable hedgehog video? Oh you better blog about it!

But that means I don’t tend to post a lot about myself, and when I do it’s usually in relation to whatever article/infographic/video I’m posting about. I’ve also been wanting to get in on the world of vlogging, so I figured I’d combine the two issues into a first-ever, brand-new Q&A vlog post!

Which means I need your questions! Specifically, your questions that I might be able to answer. They can be writing-related, reading-related, life-related; they can be serious or silly; they can be easy or hard. A few examples to get you started:

  • What’s your favorite kind of cookie?
  • What’s on your summer reading list?
  • If you could have a superpower, which would it be?
  • What’s your writing process like?

Feel free to post your questions in the comments and I’ll answer as many as possible–which could really vary, depending on how the first video-creation experience goes. And if you don’t have any questions, I’ll have to talk about my favorite kind of cookie. (Who am I kidding? I’m just going to make a video about cookies.)

Don’t Hate Boo Radley, Hate the Game

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In college, my friend a professor whom we all described as the filmmaker version of Shaft. He was a dedicated teacher, a bold and thoughtful filmmaker, and his syllabus included the phrase “Get ya asses to class.” Needless to say, his students loved him.

Thug Notes has a similar approach to the canon of English literature. Sparky Sweets, PhD recaps the plot of classic novels and dives into the major themes of the books. For example, his take on To Kill a Mockingbird:

Even cooler? In the Youtube comments, people are clamoring for Sweets to tackle other works of English literature. Most badass way to get people involved in literature ever.

(via Book Riot)

Friday Fifteen

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Happy Friday, guys! Let’s get this holiday weekend kicked off with some fifteen-word (or fewer) book reviews:

1. How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr
Unsure about the dual narrators initially, but both Jill and Mandy were real and distinct.

2. Blue Ginger: East Meets West Cooking with Ming Tsai by Ming Tsai, Arthur Boehm
Interesting recipes with well-balanced flavors. Probably not for a beginner cook.

3. Enna Burning by Shannon Hale
With great (fire) power comes great responsibility. Nice look at the costs of war.

4. The Lovely Bones by Alice Sebold
First chapter is arresting. Wish I’d been as captivated by the rest.

5. Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle’s Magic by Betty MacDonald
The “Thought-You-Saiders” cracked me up. First memory of a book making me laugh like that.

Revolutionary Reading for the Fourth of July

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Happy Fourth of July, everyone! One reason I like living in New England is that Revolutionary War history is all around. From the Old North Bridge in Concord, to the Granary Burying Ground on Tremont Street, to the Bunker Hill Monument, the American revolution still feels very much like a part of the area.

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Me at the Old North Bridge.

Also, one of my favorite things is to see historical re-enactors/tour leaders shopping for groceries or riding the T in colonial garb. History lives!

Maybe you don’t live in a city featuring tour guides in historical garb. Fear not! In case you’re looking to add a little Revolutionary War-era historical children’s/YA literature to your Independence Day, I’ve got a few suggestions:

The Midnight Ride of Paul Revere by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
My mom read this poem aloud to my brother and me when I was around seven or eight. It’s not exactly historically accurate (sorry, William Dawes!), but it’s a fun way to introduce kids to an exciting night in American history.

Felicity: An American Girl by Valerie Tripp
Before we started really learning about the American Revolution at school, I read about it in the Felicity books. Again, maybe not the most historically accurate books, but the series is a great way to start kids thinking about what the American Revolution meant for kids living in the colonies at that point.

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume I: The Pox Party and Volume II: The Kingdom on the Waves by M.T. Anderson
The Octavian Nothing series is one I recommend to people who assume that YA is all about vampires and fluffy crushes. Anderson’s writing is stunning, and his story about a slave boy/social experiment who gets caught up in the Revolutionary War is brilliant. Not your typical look at the American Revolution, obviously, but an essential one.

Others to check out:

  • Chains by Laurie Halse Anderson
  • Johnny Tremain by Esther Forbes
  • My Brother Sam Is Dead by James Lincoln Collier
  • The Notorious Benedict Arnold: A True Story of Adventure, Heroism & Treachery by Steve Sheinkin

Hope you all have a happy Fourth of July!

Tanzania, Children’s Lit, and Book Cake: the GOLDEN BOY launch party

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photo 7It’s not every Thursday night you get to wear an awesome t-shirt, see pictures of African wildlife, learn about Albinism activism, eat cake, and hear a reading of a debut novelist’s awesome book. Fortunately, last Thursday was that kind of night, thanks to the Golden Boy launch party at Porter Square Books.

Tara’s in my critique group, so I was really looking forward to this event. Plus, this was the first official launch party I ever attended. As a ’14 author, I made sure to make major mental notes. Tara did a fantastic job, so I definitely have a lot to add to my “to do” list. A few things from Tara’s launch I particularly liked:

  • IMG_3099Hearing Tara talk about her own childhood growing up all over the world and dealing with the accompanying social and medical issues (like almost losing her sight from the UV rays while living in Bolivia). I love hearing about author’s backgrounds and connecting their experiences to their work.
  • Seeing photos from Tara’s Golden Boy research trip to Tanzania. She showed us what would have been the map of Habo’s group and photos of the real life places that inspired his journey.
  • Tara reading aloud from Golden Boy and hearing the crowd react to the lovely writing. So excited for people to read this one!
  • The swag table, complete with bookmarks, info on how to help people with albinism, a Golden Boy guest book, and real African carvings like the ones Kweli makes in the book.
  • A delicious cake, complete with the Golden Boy cover. (Seriously, guys, what event isn’t made better by the addition of cake?)

So many people came out for the launch and were so enthusiastic. In case you couldn’t make it , here are a few more pictures from the launch party (photos either by me or–if they’re good photos–by Julia’s husband):

Swag table

Swag table

Fellow critique-ers and Golden Boy enthusiasts Lisa and Katie

Fellow critique-ers and Golden Boy enthusiasts Lisa and Katie

Walt and me, getting psyched with funny faces

Walt and me, getting psyched with funny faces

The beautiful cover cake

The beautiful cover cake

Tara signs books (eeee, author signings!)

Tara signs books (eeee, author signings!)

I had a blast and am psyched for lots of friends’ future launch parties. Now go read Golden Boy!

Read Outside Your Genre, Eat Chocolate, and Other Writing Advice from Joss Whedon

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Frequent readers of this blog will know that I’m a big Joss Whedon fan. Buffy started during my formative years and it definitely helped me figure out how to grow up and face the weirdness of middle and high school. What better person to get writing advice from than the man who makes TV shows/movies/videos that give me all the feelings?

My Whedon feelings.

This interview with Whedon has lots of fantastic advice about the writing and creating process. Even though Whedon mostly speaks to screenwriting and movie-making, I think it all still applies to writing fiction. We always hear “read a lot” as writerly advice, but I particularly like Whedon’s take on making sure to expose yourself to a lot of books/movies:

“Constantly watch things and things you don’t [normally watch]. Step outside your viewing zone, your reading zone. It’s all fodder but if you only take from one thing then it’ll show…I read The Killer Angels. It’s a very detailed, extraordinarily compelling account of the Battle of Gettysburg from the point of view of various people in it and it’s historical. It’s historically completely accurate, and the moment I put it down I created Firefly, because I was like, ‘I need to tell this story. I need to feel this immediacy. I so connect with that era, the Western and how tactile everything is and how every decision is life or death, and how hard it is and how just rich it is, and how all the characters are just so fascinating.’ But so I should be on the Millennium Falcon. Now, if I only watched sci-fi I would have just had the Millennium Falcon part, which has already been done, but finding that historical texture, it literally, I put the book down and started writing Firefly.”

How cool is that? And it makes so much sense–if you only read things within your category or genre, you’re not expanding your potential inspiration to anything that hasn’t already been written for your readers. Not that you should skip reading within your genre–I hope that if you write YA, you also enjoy YA–but it’s a great reminder to look outside of that sphere of influence. So often I feel like I have so many awesome YA titles on my to-read list that I don’t tend to as much adult fiction or non-fiction or poetry as I’d like. This seems like an excellent reason to dive into a few non-YA titles I always have on the back burner.

Make sure to click through for the rest of this excellent interview–if only because Joss also advocates the use of chocolate as writing fuel. Yeah. Dude’s a genius.