Reading Rituals

London is having one of those days that make you wonder whether the sun ever bothered to come above the horizon at all--the clouds have been so dense and the rain so constant that the entire day has looked like early evening. I am having one of those days when I wonder whether it's worth it even to try writing, since clearly what is called for is for me to curl up in front of the fireplace, put on some Christmas music, and get started on one of the books I re-read every year at this time.

I started my holiday reading last week, with Terry Pratchett's Hogfather last week. Hogswatch is the Discworld take on Christmas, but the baby-in-a-manger part is left out: this is the solstice holiday of holly and evergreens and burning logs and the why you don't want to be the peasant who finds the bean and gets to be king for a day. I've been in a very Hogwatchly mood of late. I've always appreciated the pagan side of Christmas intellectually--for years now, my answer to "Jesus is the Reason for the Season" has been, "learn your history"--but living in Northern Europe has given me a whole new understanding of the need for a midwinter holiday built around music and games and feasting and, above all, artificial light.

Of course, in amongst all of this revelry we have a season for taking care of people who are not so lucky as to have warm firesides and feasts. I read Little Women when I was about eight, then forgot about it until grad school. Now I re-read it every fall. I know all the usual charges about it--"those girls are so saintly it makes me sick!" "How could Jo give up her career for a man!"--and I will fight you to the death on any of them. But I have to admit, I had that same "saintliness" reaction when I started reading it as an adult. I had to take a deep breath and pay attention to the fact that the girls were very rarely cheerful givers. Each girl ends up happy at having done the right thing, but that comes later. What won me over to the book, and keeps me coming back to it, is the grumbling the girls do before they accept that their world will be a better place if they do the hard--but right--thing.

I should have figured out by now that it's not long enough, but every year I bring my teeny-tiny copy of Dickens' A Christmas Carol on the plane or car to my parents' or in-laws' house. Until a couple of years ago, this was the only Dickens I had ever read. Every time I crack open the actual book I appreciate all over again Dickens' skill at choosing exactly the right words to tell his story. Just the fact that he starts his story by wondering aloud why a doornail should be considered more dead than a coffin-nail--when he goes on to say, later, "I am standing in the spirit at your elbow," how can you not believe him?

This, believe it or not, is the short list. (I read really, really fast.) The last couple of years I have also made it a point to read Lisa Graff's The Thing About Georgie, in which Lisa captures all of my favorite things about Christmas Eve by taking them away from her main character, and the Christmas Dance scene of Caroline's Isabelle’s Boyfriend has definitely earned a spot in the rotation. Also, this year a random connection on Amazon brought a special treat: Let It Snow, a collection of holiday romances by John Green, Lauren Myracle, and Maureen Johnson. That one has been sitting on my shelf since October, letting me bask in anticipation until I can't take it anymore.

I am a word person, and the older I get the more I recognize how deeply I have woven other people's words and stories into my own life. Even better, unlike the circumstances of my own life, the words in these stories don't change: I might be living in London, my parents might have left the Midwest, I might not be the star soprano at Christmas Eve anymore, but Marley will always be dead as a doornail and Jo will always cut off her hair, and that is good to know.

--Kathryne

Trivia Answers

It seems I managed to stump everyone with number 4... and reader Sarah is the only one who correctly answered 1! I thought that one was a gimme. Here are the answers:

1. "Love and other indoor sports" STARRING SALLY J FREEDMAN AS HERSELF

2. Sir Puss FIFTEEN

3. The Bobwhites TRIXIE BELDEN

4. "...knowing there will be a hickey there tomorrow to remember him by..." THIS PLACE HAS NO ATMOSPHERE

5. astral projection STRANGER WITH MY FACE

Number 4 is a Paula Danziger book that I was in looooove with when I was about 10 or 11. It's good. Read it.

Thanks for playing!!!

*caroline hickey

Kidlit Trivia!

Just for fun because it's Thanksgiving week, can any of our readers identify which popular children's books the following quotes/characters/themes come from? (Hint: These are books from our generation!)

1. "Love and other indoor sports"

2. Sir Puss

3. The Bobwhites

4. "...knowing there will be a hickey there tomorrow to remember him by..."

5. astral projection

No Googling! You have to recognize these by sight. Post your answers in the comments, and if you have some trivia questions of your own, please feel free to include them!

*caroline hickey

Yikesies!

According to this article in PW, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt has temporarily told all its editors to stop acquiring books, due to the sluggish economy.

Eek!

(On a slightly cheerier note, this quote from HMH VP of Communications is so darn silly it just makes me giggle: “We have turned off the spigot, but we have a very robust pipeline.” But that's about all I've got in the way of joy from this announcement.)

~lisa graff~

I'll cover you

Like a lot of people, I like things how I like them. Just so. I like my cupcake with not too much frosting, I like my ankle socks nice and snug around my ankle. So when it comes to my cover, I'm pretty picky there too. For The Summer I Turned Pretty, I had an idea of what I wanted, what kind of mood I wanted to convey. When I met the designer Lucy, I knew right away we were a perfect match. She totally gets it. And the cover I ended up with... well, I love it. I hope you guys love it as much as I do.



love and stuff,
Jenny

Wheeee-Reader

A few weeks ago, everyone at my work was given a Sony e-Reader. In case you haven't heard of the Sony e-Reader, it's one of those newfangled e-book contraptions, sort of like an i-Pod for books, and it looks a little something like this:

(Side note: This is not a photo of my personal e-Reader. I found this image on the internets. And also, what the heck book is this person reading??)

Anyhoo, we mostly got them to save money on paper and not kill the planet and all that good stuff. Because I guess we finally realized that making Xerox copies of a 400-page manuscript for all the editors, marketing people, and design team kills approximately half the rain forest. And to that end, they're really awesome. Now I can take 20 manuscripts home with me on the subway and not dislocate my arm! Amazing! I even tried it out at the gym last week and it was FANTASTIC. It fits in that stupid tiny magazine rack just perfectly! And I didn't even have to turn any pages!

(Side note #2: I don't know about everyone else's gyms, but at MY gym they seem to think that people who exercise read only magazines, and therefore they only provide us with about 3cm of space on the little stand thing that props up books while you run/cycle/whatever. This perturbs me no end. What about us folks who like to read big fatty novels at the gym, huh??? Are we not allowed to work out both our muscles AND our minds???? And don't even get me started on the horror that is attempting to read a manuscript on one of those machines. I only tried that once, and it wasn't pretty.)

My new e-book has also been quite a talking point on the subway, making me quite a few new friends, although sadly none of these new friends have been cute dudes. But in any case, the Sony e-Reader is pretty much my new best friend.

Still, I do have some issues with it. For one thing, the resolution is awful and you can't change it, so I just may go blind before I hit thirty. And the buttons to "turn the page" (i.e., go to the next screen) are seriously in the most moronic places ever. But those are minor things, I suppose. The main thing that stinks about it is that I can now take home 20 manuscripts on the subway. Because now my old argument of "it won't fit in my purse so I guess I'll have to read a non-work-related book this weekend" is pretty much null and void. Sigh. 

But while the thing is a life-saver for manuscripts (although perhaps not my social life), I honestly can't imagine reading a "real" book on this thing--I mean, a book that I was reading purely for pleasure, and not with my editor brain. Because the e-Reader doesn't feel like a book. And I like books. Maybe I'm just an old-fashioned gal, but there's something really special about being able to feel the weight of a book, and physically turn the pages, and smell it and dog-ear it and even write in it if you're one of those sorts of people. An e-book takes all that away, and in my opinion, a lot of the magic too.

So I think I'm going to stay a book girl for a while yet. Except at the gym, obviously.

Has anyone else used one of these things? Thoughts??

~lisa graff~

P.S. In my search for e-Reader images, I found this one:

Um, awesome?? I think MTV should make a show called "Pimp My E-Book."

And the crowd went wild

Friday afternoon, I took about 35 kids to see TWILIGHT on opening day. After school, we had a Twilight party in the library--lots of red candy and popcorn, and we passed out TEAM EDWARD and TEAM JACOB stickers. (After a minute hesitation, I put on a Team Edward.) We took the subway down to the Lincoln Center Loews, and seeing as how we were 30 minutes early, with tickets, we thought we'd have no problem getting seats. But no. It was PACKED. This is one of the biggest theaters I've ever been in, with an upstairs balcony and a screen that stretches far and wide. There were like a million kids inside. They were so excited, the theater was practically vibrating with sugar high and hormones. Anticipation was mounting... If Twilight didn't come on LIKE, NOW, there was gonna be hell to pay. Kids are wild, you know. Feral.

It was a blast. The first time Edward comes on screen, the crowd (um, including me) went wild. Feral. Screaming, swooning, hissing. Spontaneous applause throughout. Jacob got some love too, be not mistaken. But Edward. OMG. Robert Pattinson is like, SWOOOOON. At the end credits, applause for all the actors. Even like, Billy Black, and the biology teacher got big applause.

I'm not spoiling anything when I say that the ending? Beautiful. Magic. Loved it. Watching it again tomorrow night. Already downloaded the soundtrack. Stephenie Meyer is a goddess. And Robert Pattinson? A godling.

MWAH!
Jenny

and even more good news!!!

From today's Publishers Marketplace:

Shug author Jenny Han's CLARA LEE, DREAM GENIUS IN TRAINING, a young chapter book starring a spunky, "All-American Korean-American" girl, to Alvina Ling at Little, Brown Children's, by Emily van Beek of Pippin Properties (NA).

Congratulations, Jenny!!! This is sooo exciting!

Woo-hoo!!!
:-)
~Coe~

It's funny because it's true

If any of you aren't reading Justine Larbalestier's blog on a regular basis: well, why aren't you? Last week she came up with this post, which I totally wish I'd written.

I'm still chuckling over a conversation I had with the guy cutting my hair last week.

Him: "So, what are you doing after this?"
Me: "Well, I'm a writer, so it's back to my computer as usual."
Him: "A writer! That sounds so glamorous."
Me: "Yeah, it's really not."

He honestly didn't believe me. I told him about the superhuman act of will required to make sure each day involves getting into clothes that are not my pj's, and I think he thought I was just trying to hide the champagne and caviar.

--Kathryne

High fives for Siobhan Vivian!

I love reading PW Children's Bookshelf. I get so excited when it pops up in my email every Thursday. But I get even more excited when it contains something like this:

David Levithan at Scholastic has bought Past Perfect from YA author Siobhan Vivian (A Little Friendly Advice), in a two-book deal. In the novel, 17-year old Natalie tries to "rehabilitate" a pack of hyper-sexualized freshman girls (while keeping her own first sexual relationship a secret). Pub date is spring 2010. Rosemary Stimola of Stimola Literary Studio was the agent.

Yay, Siobhan!

xoxo
Lisa GW

spoooky

Look, yall! The new CORALINE movie trailer!

Let's Hear from the Readers

Very often the popularity and sales of a children's book is determined by adults -- librarians, reviewers, marketing teams, salespeople, etc. So I really love reading reviews of kids' books that are actually written by kids. There are a few sites that I check out regularly for kids' book reviews, such as Kidsreads.com, Teenreads.com, and Spaghetti Book Club, and I just found this new one from National Geographic Kids.

Reading these reviews remind me of the mindset of my audience, and that very often adult reviewers are just trying to sound important. Here's a line from this new site about a pretty fabulous book called Shug by our own Jenny Han:
The author described things very well so I could see how everything looked.

Sounds trivial, but I remember feeling exactly the same way when I was 10 or 11. I didn't want to have to guess how characters and places and whatnot looked, I wanted to be told!

So the next time you read an adult review that talks about pacing, or secondary characters or this or that, think about what your intended readers think of the book. Because that's what matters.

*caroline hickey

EXTRA, EXTRA!

AND THE WINNER IS... JUDY BLUNDELL for WHAT I SAW AND HOW I LIED!!
Pop the Veuve, y'all! I love this book so, so much. It is beautifully written, gripping, and poetic. A taste of first love, 1940's style. Add a little intrigue into the mix, and you've got an award winner! It was a thrill to hear Judy read this incredible piece of work, and I am so happy I got to meet her and tell her how much I loved her book. Every other book nominated was worthy, and I am happy for all of the nominees. In this case, it really is an honor just to be nominated.

If you haven't read this book yet, you must. Here is a review I wrote of Judy's book for my school library website:

This National Book Award Nominee (WINNER!) will transport you to a different time. World War II has just ended, and fifteen year old Evie Spooner is ready for life to be like the movies. More than anything she wants excitement and romance, for boys to look at her the way they do at her beautiful mother. When her stepdad Joe comes back from the war and moves the whole family down to Palm Springs, life changes faster than Evie realizes. In Palm Springs, there are hotel pools and glamorous women who wear all white and dashing young men who drive convertibles—and one dashing young man in particular. But is he interested in Evie, or her beautiful mother? This book is about the secrets we keep and the truths we don’t want to believe.

Congratulations, JUDY!

NBA Finalist Readings: A Photo Essay

Wow! What an amazing night! The Longstocking's alma mater, THE NEW SCHOOL UNIVERSITY, hosted the National Book Award readings, which occur the night before awards are presented. And Coe, Jenny and I were lucky enough to score tickets!

When Jenny and I first arrived, we had a feeling the night would be HOT. Possibly because there were fire trucks lined up around the block!

It took a few long, cold minutes for the firefighters to allow everyone back into the building. But then...it was on! And the Longstockings circled the room to congraulate all the nominees, while wine and snacks were served.

jenny with the lovely Laurie Halse Anderson

squee! me and E!

After a few cocktails, the medals and award certificates were presented. I snapped this photo of Laurie as she walked away from the podium. Doesn't she look RADIANT?!

seeing this photo makes me feel all swoony. can you imagine how this honor must feel?!

team scholastic: publicist becky amsel, editor david levithan, and judy blundell

Then, everyone moved downstairs to the big theater to hear five minute readings from all the nomiees. There were a lot of YA industry peeps in the crowd, like agent Barry Goldblatt, editor Susan van Metre, and author Leslie Margolis...who sat next to Coe.

The readings were absolutely captivating.

big props to Kathi Appelt, who actually SANG the blues song of the dog in The Underneath.

and tim tharp completely brought his book to life with a spirited, voicey reading. i can't wait to read The Spectacular Now!

Congrats to all the nomiees! And remember, if you haven't yet voted in our unofficial NBA poll, please do! Right now, E. Lockhart and Laurie Halse Anderson are neck and neck!

-=siobhan=-

Who Gets Your Vote?

An informal poll in advance of Wednesday's National Book Award...



A few of the Longstockings will be attending tonight's NBA reception and reading. I'm bringing my camera, of course, and will post pics like crazy!

-=siobhan=-

Story and Cliche

I first learned about Robert McKee’s STORY seminar back in grad school. A couple of authors referred to having done it and recommended it highly. I was intrigued by what they had to say about it, how it helped them structure their books and think about plot in a whole new way. I went out and bought the book and loved it. LOVED IT. It is the only book on writing I’ve ever read cover to cover, sucking up every bit of info in there. I’m honestly not sure I would’ve sold my first book if I hadn’t read it and applied it as best I could to my writing. I promised myself that one day I would do the seminar and three years later, after I sold my second book, I signed up for the October 2008 NY seminar.

It was a totally amazing experience but also totally tiring. We sat for 11 hours each day just listening as McKee did his thing. How he does it I have no idea- I found it hard to sit that long so I can only imagine how hard it was to talk and be the focus of attention that long. But it was worth it! He has an amazing sense of his audience, knowing when to give a lot of info, when to repeat things in new ways and when to tell a funny story so people can have a mental break for a minute. He’s one of the best presenters I’ve ever seen.

The content was everything I’d hoped it would be, and after waiting three years to see him, my expectations were sky high so that is saying a lot! His take on plotting absolutely revolutionized my WIP. I wish I’d done it earlier because certain things he said I’d already learned through a whole lot of struggle. Most of what he says is in the book but for me there was something about hearing it all live that took his ideas to a whole new level. I don’t think I got things in the same way til I heard him go through it, explaining it through to that eureka moment. I felt like I had about a thousand epiphanies about my writing over the three days. He also threw out pieces of wisdom, some of which didn’t resonate for me but others of which I am still thinking about and I thought I’d post some of them here to see what other people think. I’ll do some of the longer ones another day but here is a short one for today:

The source of cliché is a writer not fully knowing the world of his/her story.

What do you think?

#daphne

A Tribute to Harry Potter?

Or is it just that college students have way too much free time on their hands these days?

Click here to see video highlights from the Intercollegiate Quidditch World Cup.

Yes, quidditch!

~Coe~

Secret Reads

There's a great post over on Shannon Hale's blog comparing fine works of literature with mass market paperbacks. Can one call the former "good books," and the latter "bad books"? Do both have a place on our night stand? Is reading meant to be for enlightenment only, or for pleasure as well? And if so, why are we occasionally embarrassed to be seen reading some of our favorite things?

I confess that I love People magazine. And Us Weekly. I don't subscribe, or buy them regularly, but if I'm laying on the beach or getting a pedicure or just need a break from life, I buy a copy and spend a delightful half hour reading drivel. Occasionally someone will see me with a copy and ask why I don't read more highbrow mags, since I'm a writer and all that. Like I should only read The New Yorker and Atlantic Monthly.

I think it's a big wide world and there's room for all kinds of writing, all kinds of books, and all kinds of magazines. Shannon's post reminds me a lot of that interview on WBUR that Siobhan posted where the interviewer attacks Gossip Girls having never read it or bothering to think that while it may not be Newbery or Printz material, it sells hundreds of thousands of copies, which means it has hundreds of thousands of readers.

Read what you want, I say. Potato, Pa-tah-toe.

*caroline hickey

I present to you . . .

my brand new website!

I highly recommend Denise Biondo. She did a great job!

Happy Friday,
Lisa GW

I Can't Tell You How Awesome It Is...

...to have something you've written read back to you...



hee!

-=siobhan=-

Nothing is certain, except that nothing is certain

Today's post comes with required reading: Caroline’s post last week about writing after maternity leave. The original generated a really great discussion, in which a LOT of people talked about taking breaks from writing, life circumstances that make it hard to write (even if it's not about time), etc. Go on, read the post (and the comments) and then come back here, and let's get the discussion going again.

Done? Great!

As an example of how my writing has changed since teaching: my first novel took two years from first page to first draft, which clocked in at 100,000 words. (I eventually got it down to 88,600.) My current WIP is on track to take about six months for a first draft, and I'll be surprised if it breaks 50,000 words.

My priorities--and my patience--changed pretty drastically as a result of spending a year reading and writing with a gross of middle-schoolers. With my first novel, I wanted the story to unfold as organically as possible, and the world to be as fully-developed as possible. I had a cast of thousands, with subplots and back-stories for pretty much every character.

My current WIP is much more straightforward: I have a protagonist, and I care about her. I have mental backstories for other characters, but I'm not the least concerned about getting them into the novel unless they directly impact what my main character wants to do. I have very few descriptions, and as little explaining as I can get away with. If there's information I need to get across that I don't think needs its own scene, I have no problem just telling the reader what I need them to know, instead of coming up with some elaborate means of showing them.

And the reason that's freaking me out, is that I liked my first novel. I had a blast writing it, arranging it just-so, teasing out all the little bits and trying to make them fit together. When I step back and look at what I've done so far on my current book, it seems very thin and bare, and I start wanting to clutter it up a lot more. Doesn't the dad need a girlfriend? Should my main character get a crush on a boy? Wait, what if the best friend has some sort of secret disease that sheds light on my protagonist's problems? How does all of this affect the main character's relationship with her grandmother?

Whatever. That mental editor gets totally drowned out by the voices of my students. "There's so much going on I can't even tell what this book is about!" "How'm I supposed to keep track of who all these people are?" "If she wanted me to know that, why didn't she just say it?"

No one's read the new book yet, so I have no idea whether it's any good or not. I'm just trying to trust my instincts and keep believing that I know more now than I did when I was writing my last book. And reminding myself, over and over again, that if the first draft stinks I can fix it later.

So, that's my testimony. What do the rest of you think? How have the circumstances of your life changed what you write: not just processes and habits, but "topics and perspective and I-don't-know-what," as JenFW put it?

--Kathryne

Toe to Toe with Matt Phelan

Thanks to reader Brenda Ferber our monthly interview feature is officially named! Yay Brenda! (Besides lots of cheering Brenda also gets a copy of Marie Rutkoski’s book THE CABINET OF WONDERS.)

Today we go Toe to Toe with the marvelous Matt Phelan, illustrator of a number of awesome books including WHERE I LIVE, Newbery winner THE HIGHER POWER OF LUCKY and most recently ALWAYS. He has a comic in the anthology OUR WHITEHOUSE: LOOKING IN, LOOKING OUT and a graphic novel, THE STORM IN THE BARN coming out in 2009. Matt is a Philly native and lives there now with his wife and cutie pie baby daughter ( I saw pictures and she is truly a darling!)

So without further ado, here’s Matt:

What’s the worst job you've ever had?

Selling dismemberment insurance over the phone. On my first day, a customer asked me if I would buy dismemberment insurance over the phone. I had to admit that I wouldn't. I hung up the phone and quit.

What is your favorite ice cream flavor?

Mint Chocolate Chip. Green or white, I'm not particular.

What is the book that made you fall in love with reading or illustrating?
The first book that I bought with my own money (I was 5 or 6) was A Great Big Ugly Man Came Up and Tied His Horse to Me by Wallace Tripp. I still love it.

What’s your most unusual fear?

Raccoons. Specifically, a gang of raccoons with firearms (they have itchy trigger fingers).

Tell us where you went for your first date ever.

To see Back to the Future. I can still remember the movie, but everything else is sort of hazy.

What is the first thing you would buy if your next advance was a million dollars?

An island off the coast of Maine. Wait, better make that two million.

Tell us about the very first story that you remember writing/illustrating when you were younger.

I drew an action comic strip called Bill Forrest, FBI. He was sort of a Sam Spade type private detective (I didn't really understand the difference between FBI and PI). I remember that he always seemed to enter a room by crashing through the window.

Matt, thanks for going Toe to Toe with us! Visit Matt here to see more of his gorgeous art and learn more about him.

#daphne

OMG-- broken noses? A mini-riot?

I'm not talking about a Guns and Roses concert. I am referring to a Twilight appearance in San Francisco. Apparently, 3000 girls showed up to see Robert Pattinson, aka Edward Cullen, sign posters at a Hot Topic. It gets more tragic. Things got a little crazy, I guess there was some pushing and shoving and hissing going on, because someone ended up with a broken nose and someone else ended up trampled on! The event was cancelled, and girls who came as far as Hawaii had to turn back. Wow. Just, wow. People, please, calm down. (I mean, I am excited too, I'm hosting a Twilight party at my library, after all. But I wouldn't break somebody's nose for it!)

A firsthand account: "i WAS there and it wasnt as bad as what this says… IT WAS WORSE. i talked to security after and found out it was horrible. first we had the people who tried to stay in a RV from texas….did they not see that edward was going to be in texas tomorrow? then there was the people forming so early a mom took in to herself to start a list of names and numbering people, which was thorwn out the door since she was not athorized to do so. and then the screaming and running started. people started running towards the front of the mall while a man from hot topic was on a mega phone telling everyone to form A LINE, and then thats when people were screaming and yelling. then two lines were formed which then the police got involved. the two lines were formed into one….then we had to turn into a long double up line so we had to push back the line yet the mob didnt want to move from the front, thats when we found out a purse was stolen, a visa card was stolen,
shoes were being thorwn, parents were yelling, kids were screaming, then the girl got her nose broken. AND THEN thats when we heard there was a little girl stuck in the mob who couldnt breathe and passed out and the mob wasnt letting the ambulance or ANYONE get to her …NO ONE HELPED HER!"

xoxo Jenny

Confession and Question

I'll admit something here: before Saturday I had never read Bridge to Terabithia. Crazy, I know. My husband was most upset by this as it's one of his favorite books, so I had to read it.

I read it on Saturday and I loved it. It was perfect. Every word was spot-on, every scene was beautifully crafted. With books like that out in the marketplace, it makes me feel skeptical about books being published these days. Will there ever be books as good? Yes, there will be, of course, but it still makes you stop and think for a second about what you're writing and why you're writing.

When I finished reading this beautiful, touching, perfect story, I had a question lingering. If there are people out there who haven't read the book and aren't familiar with it, maybe you should stop reading because what follows may be a spoiler, though I'm sure 99.9% of you are familiar with the story. Anyway, here's my lingering question: would the story have been as wonderful if Leslie didn't die? Did she need to die? What does her death bring to the story that wouldn't be there otherwise?

Ms. Patterson, if you're reading this blog, I am not criticizing your story. I am simply questioning. Clearly you had a reason for Leslie's death. Your book is a classic, a Newbery winner, a gem. I'm just thinking out loud here. And as my Earth Science teacher always told us, "thinking people ask questions." I like to think of myself as a thinking person and I'm asking a question.

I don't see Bridge to Terabithia as a "child death" book. I really don't. There's so much more to the story. But what do you guys think? What does Leslie's death "do" to the story?


Lisa GW

hey you guys!

I just wanted to alert everybody to this. Siobhan answered YPulse's One Simple Question. In case you're wondering, the question is, "As an artist what inspires you most in your role as a writer for Young Adults?" If you want to know the answer, you're gonna have to click on the link and find out! Come on. You know you want to.

xoxo
Jenny

Getting Snarky with Gawker

This weekend, I stumbled upon an interesting piece at everyone's favorite place for snark, GAWKER. In the post, a writer pokes fun at some of the reviews featured in this week's Children's Book insert within the New York Times Book Review.

Here's how the article gets started...

The annual feature is one way to find a choice picture book to give to a young person, and it also gives us the gift of the insane seriousness with which the Times reviewers treat the subject.

Ouchy.

And then the author goes on to pull some wincing quotes to illustrate his point, like this one...

"The story is told in a fluid, seemingly effort less manner. Neither showy nor dull, the text has that feeling of giving you the right words in the right order with the right pacing," says Amy Krouse Rosenthal about Jon Agee's The Retired Kid. Chills, Amy.

Ugh. And even worse, were all the comments posted, making fun of our genre, of any serious conversation about children's books in general. I mean, they even snark on Leonard S. Marcus!

Part of me gets it. The top five quotes that Gawker pulls are a bit ridiculous, overwritten, and just laughable. But I hate how children's lit is the easy target.

I can remember when we were all in grad school together at The New School, and how we'd have to fight with our program advisor to try and get more than ONE children's lit critisicm class on the schedule. His response was that one was enough...and that we should go outside our discipline to become more well-read and to strengthen our abilities to critically discuss texts. Meanwhile, you don't think for a second that anyone in the Poetry classes, or the Fiction majors had to hear that kind of dribble.

No other genre (expect for maybe adult sci-fi/fantasy) has to continuously prove itself as valuable, as literary as books for adults. It brings me back around to the Margo Rabb essay froma few months back, I'm YA and I'm OK! It wasn't that I had such a problem with the essay itself...it's just that I HATE THAT WE HAVE TO CONSTANTLY DEFEND OURSELVES AS WORTHY! AS ACTUAL LITERATURE! GRRRRRR.

In a way, it makes me resent the fact that The Times ever distinguished and sub-catagorized all the best-sellers lists, because you know we'd get way more respecct if the public at large knew how Diary of a Wimpy Kid outsells whatever literary novels are on the adult list.

Or maybe not. Maybe everyone would just snark on us more.

sigh

-=siobhan=-

School Visits Galore!!!

I had a very exciting time last week. I went to San Francisco, Berkeley, and Fresno for a whole week of school visits!

Since TYRELL was chosen for ALA's Great Stories Club (a program that was funded by Oprah's Angel Network!), a lot of schools in lower-income neighborhoods were given free copies of the book (as well as HOLE IN MY LIFE by Jack Gantos and SOLD by Patricia McCormick!)

If all that wasn't exciting enough, a lot of these schools (and juvenile detention centers) invited me to come and talk to their students. And after reading articles like this, I was more than happy to go!



The whole week was great! I held very informal discussions about TYRELL and the writing/publishing process. The teens were so passionate about the book, so enthusiastic, and they had such interesting questions. One girl asked me how it feels to have achieved the goals I set for myself as a teenager. I had never really thought about it before, but I told her that when I set the goal of writing books and getting published I had no idea that I would get to travel and talk to teenagers and hopefully inspire them to achieve their own goals. But seriously, that has really been the icing on the cake!

A great week! Thanks to all the schools that inviting me!
:-)

In other news, I will be in Nashville this weekend at the YA Lit Symposium! If you're attending, please come to my panel. Here are the details:

Title: Hit List or Hot List: How Teens Read Now
Date: Sunday, November 9th
Time: 8:30-10:00am
Authors: Barry Lyga, Julie Ann Peters, and moi!
Place: Millennium Maxwell House Hotel

I hope to see you there!

~Coe~

Hello, I'm Debbie Downer

There's a great quote by Katharine Hepburn that really sums up how I'm feeling about my writing right now:

I think most of the people involved in any art always secretly wonder whether they are really there because they're good or there because they're lucky.

I've been doing a decent job of finding an hour each day to work on my manuscript. The problem is, I just can't settle on the right direction to take it. I've been brainstorming ideas, doing little experimental outlines, and typing notes to remind my fingers how to work. But nothing interesting is coming out. I don't know if the problem is that I'm just too tired at the moment to be creative, or if the manuscript is so flawed I need to put it away for awhile, or if I'm psyching myself out because I'm not ready to start writing again.

If you've read Anne Lamott's Bird by Bird, you'll know what I mean when I say the radio station KFKD is playing in my head.

(See? I'm a real Debbie Downer today. Maybe it's the weather. Or that I've been up since 5:30am. In any case, I wouldn't blame you if you wanted to throw a tomato at me.)

*caroline hickey

Some days are bigger than fiction

On the whole, my new writing fitness regime is going pretty well. I still spend too much time surfing the Internet, but I have kept my five-pages-per-day goal past my previous record of one week, in some cases stretching to six or seven.

Except for yesterday and today, and I'm okay with that.

I have a terrible head cold and am completely doped up right now (not to mention having stayed up until 5 to watch the results), so it's even odds whether I would have managed to write the last two days anyway. But to be honest, I really didn't want to. Writing involves such total immersion in an imaginary world, even if your imaginary world is supposed to resemble the real one as much as possible. I don't want to be in my imaginary world right now. I want to be in this one.

It's not just the election of Barack Obama that has me feeling this giddy, though I'm happy about that. (Okay, "happy" may be putting it mildly--I've been humming "Lift Every Voice" since yesterday afternoon, and weeping with joy off and on since 4 a.m.) It's that my father, who volunteered at the polls in a DC district with a historically low voter turnout, saw lines around the block an hour before the polls opened, with 20% of that district voting before 1 p.m.--and I think close to 2/3 by the time the polls closed. Reports are saying that 64% of eligible voters nationwide lined up to participate in this election.

This is the world I want to revel in right now: a world where a firm supermajority of citizens feel that what they have to say is important, that showing up matters, that they can make a difference even if they have to wait in line for hours to do it. This is the world I'm excited to pass on to my students, my nieces and nephews, and my readers.

--Kathryne

Friendly reminder, etc.

Just a reminder that Amy Poehler's new show is starting this week! I already miss her on SNL. And I have to say that I just love the title of the series - Smart Girls at the Party. How awesome is that?

Here's a bit from today's Cynthia Turner's Cynopsis Kids: ON Networks (ON) launches the first episode of comedienne Amy Poehler's new the new girl-targeted digital on-demand series, Smart Girls at the Party, this week. The program is designed to celebrate girls for being themselves and encourage them to use their talents to follow their dreams and make an impact on the world. ON also announced that the first season of the series is being sponsored by Mattel's Barbie. Smart Girls at the Party was created by Poehler along with her partners producer Meredith Walker and performer Amy Miles. The episodes are available exclusively through ON at www.smartgirlsattheparty.com and its syndication partners, including iTunes, Adobe Media Player, and a set of targeted Web, digital TV and mobile providers.

And here's a nice little bit and video about The National Book Awards from Gawker. Good times for "struggling New York writers."

Stay warm,
Lisa GW

I just have to share this

Please read.


Love, Lisa GW

Election Day!

This morning as I stood on line to vote I was thinking about election stories and for some reason I couldn't come up with that many (possibly because I was there with my two four year olds!). There's DUCK FOR PRESIDENT and KRISTY FOR PRESIDENT. And it was easy to think of my all time favorite election series which is by Ellen Emerson White and starts with THE PRESIDENT'S DAUGHTER, one of the best books ever. Can you guys think of any more? And if you haven't yet, be sure to vote!

#daphne

What A Long, Strange Trip It's Been...

I found this interview in Publisher's Weekly with the five National Book Award YA nominees to be such an inspirational read. I love learning about authors' different paths to success. But I particularly enjoy reading about the bumps in the road, because...well...it's comforting to know that the writers I look up to sometimes struggle just like I do.

I remember a particular passage in Bird By Bird, mocking the idea that a writer can sit down at the computer and type out a perfect manuscript without breaking a sweat. And while I of course know that's true...it's also hard not to think sometimes that you are the worst writer in the world, because you can't know everything about your book before you finish the first chapter.

Soooooo, I was particularity excited to read about Judy Blundell's long, loooooong journey to completing her novel What I Saw and How I Lied. Having written a TON of novelizations under a pen name, she finally set out to write the book that she really cared about. And it took her, from the first nugget of an idea to the finished draft...upwards of FIVE YEARS.

Or Kathie Applet, who had only ever written picture books, and wanted to sink her chops into something bigger but was scared to death about it.

Or the amazing Miss E. Lockhart, who talks about a mega panic attack when Disreputable History (one of my absolute favorite reads this year) seemed to be "not a book, it's just ideas."

So best of luck to this year's nominees. And thanks so much, from one writer to another, for sharing the real path to your successes, bumps and all.

-=siobhan=-