The Fourteenery is circulating ARCs and look what I just got:
Why yes, those are copies of Katie Cotugno’s How to Love and Lindsay Smith’s Sekret. Can’t wait to start reading!
Tag: young adult literature
Links Galore
Lots of good links for today:
- Your work is not a horcrux, and other lessons learned from art school.
- Love these artistic takes on Roald Dahl covers.
- Gotta admit–the Atticus Finch lawyer business card got me kind of teary.
- Might have to copy these book-inspired outfits. (For more book fashion, check out Looks and Books!)
- Obviously I dig YA books that deal with mental health.
- If YA were real, we’d all have cooler first date experiences and be responsible for saving the world in a post-apocalypse landscape.
- Excellent post on what separates the pretty good writing from the great writing.
- This YA collection of humorous stories about cultural identity sounds awesome.
- It’s WriteOnCon! If you can tear yourself away from the forum action, check out awesome posts like diversity in writing,what writers can learn from contemporary YA, and writing sibling relationships.
- Friend and fellow 2014 debut YA author, Christa Desir, is trying to give a voice to survivors of sexual violence. You can help!
I’d Like to Pass Your First Pages
My first pass pages! Love the “Author Set” note at the top.
Another milestone complete in The Chance You Won’t Return‘s journey to publication–first pass pages!
First pass pages are another round in the editorial process. This time, edits are really minor–removing an extra comma here, changing a word or phrase slightly there. By this point, the book should read almost exactly like it will come publication. Reading through, I marked any pages with edits with blue sticky notes, because otherwise it would have been so easy to miss changes when I sent them along to Candlewick.
At this point the manuscript is still unbound, but its pages are printed to look like they will in book layout. After seeing the manuscript as a Word document for the last few years, seeing it looking almost like a real book is pretty exciting.
I’m also a big editorial nerd, so I had fun reading through the manuscript and catching any stray errors. It’s like Where’s Waldo? but with fewer striped shirts and more em dashes.
First pass pages also means that we’re one step closer to ARCs and seeing The Chance You Won’t Return as a real-life book with a cover and bound pages and a spine so it can sit on a shelf. I’m going to have to break out all the happy gifs when that happens. In the meantime, here’s my post-first pass pages happy dance:
Onward and upward!
Friday Fifteen
Happy Friday, everyone! Let’s kick the weekend off with a few book reviews in fifteen words or fewer.
1. Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Lemony Snicket
A fun addition to the series; can’t remember if it illuminated any of the mysteries.
2. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak
The art is gorgeous, but I always thought Max was kind of a dick.
3. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater
I avoided this one for a while because I eye-rolled a werewolf romance. What was I thinking?!
4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn
Maybe my expectations were too high, but I thought the “twist” was a given.
5. The Snapper by Roddy Doyle
Love the Rabbitte family. Sharon shines here, and Doyle doesn’t shy away from hard issues.
Links Galore
Lots of good links for today:
- Just try not to get all the feels reading through this list of things that happened after Harry Potter. Also, lots of awesome fan art!
- And speaking of Harry Potter, here’s an interview with the artist behind the new covers. I’ve loved seeing the new releases.
- Challenge yourself to read all the of the NPR top 100 sci-fi and fantasy books. (Confession: I saw Watership Down on this list and thought “Wait, why is this listed? That’s not fantasy.” Rabbit society is totally real, guys.)
- And speaking of NPR, check out their top 100 books for kids 9-14. Try not to read through and say “I loved that one! And that one! Aw, and that one!”
- Fighting librarian stereotypes with Legos.
- We totally need more YA womances.
- You don’t have to be “the next JK Rowling” to have a seriously awesome debut novel.
- Love the simplicity of this poem.
- I want to read/reread all of these great kid lit end-of-summer reading suggestions.
- When TV and books intersect, it’s cool to read.
- Such an interesting look at the design of Lolita covers and what that means for readers/our society. Might have to make this my next “major literary works” read.
- The Scholastic Book Club revamped as the Scholastic Reading Club, brings back flood of elementary school fangirl memories.
- Great guide to YA novels with LGBTQ characters, including my current read, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.
Weight in YA and Book Deal Breakers
At Stacked, Kelly talks about how fat stereotypes are her book deal breaker. I freaking love this post. You should read through the whole thing, but some parts I particularly liked:
“It makes me feel ashamed that the message of most YA books featuring fat characters is that your body is wrong, it’s going to kill you, it’s going to hold you back, and it’s not worth the space it takes up on this planet. Because this is a message we already send teenagers…
What I want is for a teen to pick up a book that features a fat character who isn’t a silly sidekick or a laughing stock. Who isn’t seeking a way to better herself by losing weight.”
A-freakin’-men. As an overweight kid, I was particularly sensitive to these kinds of portrayals in children’s books. I remember reading some of the Sweet Valley Twins books, which featured Lois Waller, who was defined by how much she weighed and what food she ate. (Also, in a universe of Jessicas and Elizabeths and Lilas, of course the fat girl has a dowdy name like Lois.) Granted, it’s not like the Sweet Valley books were written to push literary boundaries and create compelling characters, but it reinforced the idea that only the perfect-size-6 Jessicas and Elizabeths can have interests and personalities and hobbies, whereas the we Loises were only defined by our size.
I don’t think YA authors try to only write about thin characters or to depict overweight characters with that being their only characteristic. But I think we, as writers, need to think more carefully about how these characters are represented and how our stories deal with characters of all sizes. So often I roll my eyes at depictions of characters who, when stressed or upset, suddenly lose their appetite. This is a totally realistic reaction to stress, but so is having a cupcake, and not many novels I can think of mention having a cupcake as a reaction to feeling stressed. Things like this may seem minor, but they can have a big impact on readers.
Like Kelly, I’d love to see stories about “fat” characters that don’t have anything to do with their sizes. About heavier girls fighting dragons, about overweight guys engaged in student council political drama, about any topic YA usually covers. In high school, I had a lot of friends of various sizes, and we all went to prom, had fights with our parents, dealt with grief, went driving with the windows down and great music playing. YA should reflect that.
Make sure to read Kelly’s post. And while I’m reminded of it, I’ll leave off with a great quote by JK Rowling about how we use “fat” to describe people in a negative light:
“Fat’ is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her…[Is] ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’?”
Let’s stop looking at fat as the worst thing a person can be, and the only thing that can define someone. It’s certainly one of my book deal breakers, too.
Links Galore
A few more links for your afternoon:
- Nova Ren Suma talks about author events and overcoming shyness. (As someone who gets way stressed before public speaking, I was so happy to read this post.)
- Flying can be stressful; libraries are here to help with that.
- Chocolate + books = bliss (at least until all my money is gone).
- The etymology of “please” and “thank you.”
- GUYS THERE COULD BE A JELLICOE ROAD MOVIE, I WILL HAVE ALL THE FEELS.
- The Luckys share their submission stats.
- Writing is like playing video games because it’s hard to level up.
- Exposition rooster and other literary techniques via Disney movies.
- Happy Harry Potter’s Birthday! Celebrate with a little movie trivia.
Friday Fifteen
It’s the end of July and a surprisingly chilly Friday here. (And by chilly, I mean not 93 degrees and 100% humidity.) Let’s get cozy with this week’s fifteen-word (or fewer) book reviews:
1. Belles on Their Toes by Frank B. Gilbreth, Ernestine Gilbreth Carey
More about the Gilbreth family, minus Dad. Same big family/turn-of-the-century fun.
2. The Ocean World of Jacques Costeau: Oasis in Space (Vol. 1) by Jacques Costeau
The first of Costeau’s classic series. Probably the reason I love giant sea creatures.
3. Guarding the Moon: A Mother’s First Year by Francesca Lia Block
First time I learned about things like how physically rough breast feeding can be. Yay?
4. Clifford’s Family by Norman Bridwell
Clifford knows what it’s like to be the “weird” one in your family.
5. The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr
I love stories about prodigies, and Zarr’s look at what’s beautiful is fantastic.
Links Galore
A few links to round out the week:
- In case you’re still looking to flesh out your summer reading list.
- Jane Austen is so money.
- Love the Books on the Underground project. (via Book Riot)
- Rapunzel Syndrome sounds way less creepy than it actually is.
- I bet the letters of Roald Dahl are fascinating.
- Lots of useful online resources for writers.
- What to say when people tell you YA is automatically less thoughtful or well-written than adult literature.
- Surprised not to see The Fault in Our Stars on this list of book titles taken from Shakespeare.
- You’re never too old for fairy tales and their adaptations.
ARCs, Spanish Moss, and Read Aloud Circles: What I Learned from the Fourteenery Retreat
13/14ths of the Fourteenery
Thirteen* writers. One house. Five days. Infinite awesomeness.
The first ever Fourteenery retreat was a huge success. I have to admit, I was a little nervous. We’d all been emailing for the last year and everyone seemed so cool–how could this hold up in real life? Fortunately, the minute I saw everyone at the airport, it was like the internet come to life in the best way possible. (Major thanks to Natalie for all her organizing!)
So in case you weren’t following us on Twitter/Instagram/Tumblr over the last few days, here are fourteen things I learned from the Fourteenery retreat:
14. The Fourteenery can cook
Homemade cinnamon buns, peach-raspberry crumble, and guacamole? Let’s say we didn’t exactly go hungry on this retreat. I’m glad to know that the Fourteenery can eventually open up its own cafe. My contributions were panzanella and chicken shawarma.
Spanish moss, guys,
13. Savannah is really pretty
I’d never been to Savannah before and I was struck by how gorgeous it was–lots of beautiful homes and parks, all surrounded by trees draped in Spanish moss.
12. I’m kind of obsessed with my Fourteenery t-shirt
Can I wear this everyday until the next retreat?
11. If you think you’re the only one, you’re probably not
As a group, we’ve been through a lot, both personally and professionally. I really appreciated everyone’s openness and kindness about all sorts of issues, and I think this feeling will translate into everyone’s books and help connect with readers. (This also makes a game of Never Have I Ever particularly fun.)
10. Never trust the wi-fi
We had wi-fi for about twelve hours before it just gave up completely. Maybe it was the house’s way of encouraging me to get work done and not just blog about all the work I was totally going to get done. Thanks to the Sentient Bean for their iced tea and internet access!
9. Cooking shows provide hours of entertainment (and judgment)
Carrots do not count as French fries, guys.
8. Everyone has different ideas about success and career paths and what it means to be a writer
Every night we talked about some aspect of what we wanted from our writing and our careers, and even though there was a lot of crossover between what people said, no two people had the exact same answer. I’m excited to see everyone’s careers develop in various ways and I know we’ll all support each other in that journey, no matter what challenges come along.
7. Seeing ARCs is mega exciting
We got to see and hold copies of Sekret, How to Love, Side Effects May Vary, and Fault Line. It’s so exciting that these books are all bound and ready to connect with their readers.
Coffee and water, my morning writing time fuel
6. You’re more likely to be productive when you’re around productive writers
I got so much work done, and I think part of that was because everyone was writing and going over edits. On my own, I’d be way more inclined to get to a tough section and go do laundry/take a nap/dance around the room for a while.
5. When in doubt, refer to Christa’s rules
Christa knows best.
4. I need to get a porch
Morning writing time on the back porch? Hand me my laptop and a cup of coffee, please. (Just watch out for the mosquitoes.)
3. The Banana Candle exists
DO NOT WANT. Thank you, Jenny, for bringing this hilarity/horror into our lives.
2. The Fourteenery bookshelf is going to be so freaking amazing
We read aloud from our respective projects and, holy cow guys, I was blown away. Everyone’s writing is stellar and all the stories were so engaging. We cover a wide variety of topics too–from desegregation in Virginia to creepy Southern gothic swamp tales to assassins and thieves to dragon slaying, there’s a lot of goodness coming.
Throwin’ Ovs
1. I love the Fourteenery
Okay, technically I already knew this, but the retreat underscored what an awesome group this is. Everyone is so generous and thoughtful and encouraging. These women inspire me as a writer and as a person, and I’m beyond honored to be part of this group. I can’t wait for you guys to get to know all of them, too, as our books are published over the next year or two.
Make sure to check out all the Fourteenery authors and get to love them, too.
*We were missing one particularly awesome member, Corinne Duyvis, who lives in Europe. Next Fourteenery retreat in Amsterdam?
(Thanks to Julie for 3/4 of the above images!)