YA Highway Road: Trip Wednesday #18

"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." 

Today's question on the  YA  Highway Road Trip is:

What book brings back memories?

(Source)

The better question for me would be what book doesn't bring back a memory? Just like songs and smells, I associate books with the time and place in which I experienced them. Those connections accumulate with favorite books, as I form new associations every time I reread them. 

I suppose one of my favorite book memories is a little strange, because it's sad. I was about 8 or 9, and reading Little Women in our finished basement. Incidentally, it's starting to feel like I talk about Little Women every other post. Note to self: blog moratorium on Alcott.

Back to the basement. My zebra finches lived down there, and so did my plastic pony on a spring frame that almost seemed real when you rode it.  When I came to the part where Beth dies, I sobbed and sobbed. Crying over art was not a new experience, because I was a pretty weird little kid. I cried so hard at the end of E.T. that we were the last ones to leave the theater. My mom had to pry me from my seat. I also used to cry as a toddler when my parents told me sad nursery rhymes, like "Hush Little Baby." (The theme is deeply depressing, people!)

But I hadn't read a book that broke my heart until Little Women. A little bit later, Black Beauty would wreck me, but Little Women was the first book that hurt me. It was so heart-wrenching in part because Beth's death is drawn out for maximum effect. But she's also the epitome of female virtue, so it was like if Beth can die as a result of doing a good deed, the rest of us are screwed! I resolved to never do a good deed so that I would live forever. Okay, not really. But I'll never forget wiping my eyes on my sleeve, looking up from the book and feeling like the world had become a little more lonely.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #16

"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." 

Today's question on the  YA  Highway Road Trip is:

What's your favorite use for a book besides reading it? It takes about 12 hours to read a book, but the book spends a lot more time than that in the home, as a doorstop, a place to hide jewelry, even an old-fashioned petal press.  Is there anything you do with books before/after you've read them? (Pictures encouraged!)

When I'm not reading them, I pile books on the closest available surface--table, chair, floor. There's nothing productive about these stacks. I'm not pressing flowers or stopping doors, but I do get something out of my messiness. Being surrounded by books at every turn makes me happy.

My current stacking spots are my bedroom floor, at left, and my desk, at right. 

These are fairly tame stacks for me; usually they're so high that they threaten to topple over, and they've colonized every room in the house. You may note that every book pictured is borrowed. God bless the library!

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #15

"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." 

Today's question on the  YA  Highway Road Trip is:

 "It's almost prom season, and since we love to read and write about teenagers, we want to hear your prom stories!"

I have this theory that whether or not your high school cohort utilized the article in referring to this dance says a lot about the importance placed on it. If the dance we're talking about was referred to as "prom," it was a big deal. If you called it "the prom," it was not as major an event, as compared to the article-less. Anyone carry to weigh in?

As for my personal prom stories: I don't know that I have any that are fit for public consumption. My prom experiences were a mixture of illicit behavior and boredom, so they're probably best kept to myself. 

(Source)

 My high school did not have an over the top culture surrounding prom, but there was the standard dress/transportation/date/after party drama. Picking out the dress was the most complicated part of attending junior and senior prom for me.

 It was the first time I got to pick out a fairly expensive garment on my own, and it felt like a test. What I chose would mean something about who I was. I had to confront my feelings about my appearance and how weirded out I was by the stereotypical Pretty Prom Princess role that even Sassy (at right) assumed I wanted to play.

Now, I've never been accused of under-thinking things, so my reaction to picking out a dress was probably a little over the top. But if you can't be dramatic when you're a teenager, when can you be?

My senior prom picture (already shared here) is at left. If I could tell the girl in that picture one thing, it would be to go ahead and do all the things she was afraid of or thought she shouldn't. In the fifteen or so years since my first prom, the vast majority of things that I regret are the ones I didn't do.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #14

"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." Today's question on the YA Highway Road Trip is:

This Week's Topic:

What images inspire/ represent your WIP or favorite book?

Since I'm not a very visual thinker, I always have to refer to lots of images to create a mental picture of various aspects of my WIP, which I can then attempt to depict. A lot of my image research comes from books. For my current project, I've looked at a lot of collections of photographs about Vermont, and about barns. 

I've made an attempt to collect some images via Pinterest, but honestly, I find it less useful than I'd expected for image inspiration. I think it's because I have to go to the site to refer to the images, which interrupts the flow of my writing a bit (and also opens me to the temptation of goofing around on Pinterest). But when I'm sitting at my desk surrounded by books, I can jump start my writing by leafing through the pages, sans disruption. Of course, I also use Pinterest as a creative exercise to get my writing moving when I get sluggish, but that's a different post.

Once in a while, I come across an image online that is so perfect that I  have to print it out and stick it up on my wall (the bulletin board's too full). My emotional reaction to the boy in the picture at right is exactly how I imagine my protagonist's would be. He doesn't resemble the written description of the character I'd produced before I came across the image. It's more about his expression than his features. 

I'm also inspired by other people's WIP Pinterest boards. Kate Hart's reflects how I view the town that surrounds the commune in my WIP, while Jen Greenleaf's conjures up part of what I'm going for in terms of the tone of my WIP, although the subject matter is different. I suspect that as I read other YA Highwayer's responses, I'm going to find lots more inspirational Pinterest boards!

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #13

"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." Today's question on the YA Highway Road Trip is:

This Week's Topic:

What was the best book you read in March? 

(source)

I am completely in love with my favorite book read for March. Anna Sheehan's A LONG, LONG SLEEP was so amazing. It got mixed reviews, which really surprised me, because I think it transcends the dystopian genre to powerfully examine issues of identity and abuse. The dystopian setting was just that--a setting.

The device of Anna being placed in stasis was used not as an example of how the entire world was screwed up, but how technology can be used in the service of child abuse. Anna's experiences are timeless, and Sheehan effectively uses the idea of stasis to retell the Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Just when I was getting sick of reading dystopian novels about fighting factions, A LONG, LONG SLEEP reminded me that there are incredible novels out there that while dystopian, focus more intimately on their characters.

P.S. Which cover do you prefer? I like the one on the left best, but I think that's because I usually prefer covers which aren't "portraits." For a portrait, the one on the right is quite pretty!

YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday #12

"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." Today's question on the YA Highway Road Trip is:  

NAME THIS LIFE: What would your memoir be called?

Can I just say, this question is hard? Really. Coming up with titles for your fiction is hard enough. Encapsulating the essence of your life in a title is daunting! I decided to brush up on recent memoir and biography titles for inspiration. Here are some of the best and worst:
 

Best

 
1. LIVES LIKE LOADED GUNS: EMILY DICKINSON AND HER FAMILY'S FEUDS by Lyndall Gordon
     This biography of Emily Dickinson and her family uses a line of her poetry for the title. Of  course, when you're working with Dickinson, you have a wealth of possibilities for a title. This title is both lyrical and a representation of the content of the biography.
 

2. BATTLE HYMN OF THE TIGER MOTHER by Amy Chua.
     Philosophy aside, this title is really catchy.

3. SAVAGE BEAUTY: THE LIFE OF EDNA ST. VINCENT MILLAY by Nancy Milford.  
     This title is a little florid, just like Millay's life and work.

Worst

1. LIFE by Keith Richards. 
     I mean, come on. The man has probably forgotten more outrageous anecdotes than a dozen of us put together will experience in a lifetime. There was nothing more specific they could come up with than LIFE? 

2. JUST KIDS by Patti Smith.
     What is it with musicians and flat titles?

3. SOULA COASTER: THE DIARY OF ME  by R.Kelly.
     Can you see my eyes rolling so hard I'm afraid they might get stuck? I have faith you can. I assume "SOULA COASTER" is supposed be a play on "rollercoaster?" Yeah. Not working for me.

I would probably go with a phrase of poetry or a lyric. Maybe TANGLED UP IN BLUE after the Dylan song? It implies that the memoir will be tragic, which isn't really what I'm going for, but it sounds good. Like what would your pseudonym be, this is another YA Highway question I'm glad I don't have to answer in real life!

YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday #11: Leap Day Edition!

"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." Today's question on the YA Highway Road Trip is: 

What was the best book you read in February?

I feel like I'm under a self-inflicted burden to give a really good answer, because Leap Day won't occur on a Wednesday again until 2040! This means the odds are fairly good that I will never answer another Road Trip Wednesday question on Leap Day. (I'm thinking this will be an excellent Question for the Future). Well, I'm going to try not to buckle under the pressure of this once in a lifetime opportunity.

My favorite book of February is one of the two Gillian Flynn novels I read, Dark Places or Sharp Objects. They're similar, but not because they echo the same themes or characters, except perhaps in the broadest way. It's difficult to pick one over the other because they're just both really great. I read each in one sitting, staying up way past my bedtime. 

Both novels deal with female protagonists in their twenties who are coming to terms with horrible events from their childhoods that have bled into the present. They're classified as "adult" mysteries, but they have total crossover appeal for an older YA audience. If you like "tough" heroines like Katniss (who live in the world of the here and now) you'll love Flynn's novels.

Flynn has a new novel, Gone Girl, coming out in June, so I have to wait a while before I get my next Flynn fix. Sad face. As a side note, Flynn will be attending the Horror Writers' Stoker Weekend from June 16-19, which hosted by Bram Stoker's great-grandnephew. Sounds kind of awesome!

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #10

"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." Today's question on the YA Highway road trip is:

February is Black History Month and it's also the month of Valentine's Day. So let's show some writerly love by answering the following question: Who is your favorite African American author or fictional character?

Choosing one favorite African American author is a challenge. As you can see from this post in which I link to the Pinterest board I created in honor of Black History Month, there are so many African American writers whose work I love. Incidentally, I've heard that Pinterest may have a wait list, so if anyone would like an invite, let me know in the comments. I'm not positive, but I think getting invited can expedite the process.

Okay, now that I've fully digressed, I'm going to split hairs and choose a favorite poet and a favorite prose writer.

Prose: Zadie Smith. Her "answer" to Howard's End, On Beauty, is a perfect novel. It's the kind of book that if she were to only have written one in her life, that book would secure her place in history. But she's a relentless machine of perfection, having also written White Teeth, The Autograph Man, and a number of short stories.

Poetry: Lucille Clifton. Though I love every poem of hers that I've read, this is one of my favorites:

wishes for sons

i wish them cramps.
i wish them a strange town
and the last tampon.
i wish them no 7-11.

(Read the rest of the poem here at the Poetry Foundation.)

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #9

"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." Today's question on the YA Highway road trip is: 

What SNI were you psyched to work on, but discovered it was too close to something already done?

I had an idea for a dystopian love story in which the characters learned on their 16th birthdays when they were going to die.  Yes, this idea came to me after the spat of dystopians in which significant life-altering choices occurred on the 16th birthday of the protagonists.  What can I say? It's a solid story frame! I still want to write this story, for myself, at some point. I've been saying I want to to serialize a story on my blog for a while, so maybe that will be the serial. But I've got my hands full with my WIP, so it keeps getting pushed back. I'm glad I only had a vague idea and had the sense to quash it, because it would be truly horrible to have come up sparkly vampires at the same time--or before--Stephenie Meyer, for example. Although I suppose L.J. Smith is doing all right these days, if "L.J. Smith" actually sold the rights to the T.V. shows and wasn't just a ghostwriter, or ghostwriters plural, for all those novels.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #8

"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." Today's question on the YA Highway road trip is: 

This Week's Topic:  What was the best book you read in January? 

No doubt this is totally cliched, but I can't believe January is over! Now that I've got that out of the way, I read a number of good books in January.

Among the top contenders are THE HAUNTING OF HILL HOUSE by Shirley Jackson, and WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN by Lionel Shriver. But I'm going to assume there's an implicit "YA" in the question, seeing as it the YA Highway and all. 

The best YA book I've read is actually the first two books of a series. Because I finished the first one and dove right into the second, it feels like more of one book than two. THE GODDESS TEST and GODDESS INTERRUPTED (courtesy of NetGalley) by Aimee Carter are amazing! I'm sure many people who were interested have already ready THE GODDESS TEST. 

I've seen the cover many times and thought it looked interesting, but something in the book blurb didn't hold my attention. Now that I've read it, I've jumped on the fan band wagon. I loved it! I've only just started reading GODDESS INTERRUPTED, but it's just as strong as the first book so far. I'm excited to finish it and share my review!

Anyone else have a book they didn't think they'd like bowl them over? 

YA Highway #7

 "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." Today's question on the YA Highway road trip is: 

If you couldn't use your own name, what would your pseudonym or pen name be?

This seems like a question that would be fun if I were answering it for some one else.  But since I'm working towards publishing a book under my own name, I think pen name? Forget it! However. If I had to write under a pen name, my first name would probably be Claire.  In my misspent youth, my friend and I would give boys we met at a bar (trust me, the word boys applies here) another name if we thought they were creepy, or if we were just being brats. The name I used is Claire. I can't remember what my friend used.


As for a last name, I've never particularly liked mine. I would want to choose something cool. At the moment, I'm obsessed with Scandinavian procedurals, so something like "Sigurdadottir" or "Larsson" sounds cool. The coolest sounding Scandinavian last name coming to mind is also a line of clothing, but I'm going to go with it anyway.


My pen name will be Claire Leifsdottir. I think I'll have to dye my hair blonde. And figure out how exactly my last name is pronounced. The sacrifices you make to resemble your pen name. . .

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #6

  It is Wednesday, and I am along for the ride on YA Highway's Road Trip. Today's question:

 

Describe your dream writing retreat. Where would you go? Who and what would you bring?

I love this kind of question, where you can spin out an ideal fantasy. I'm reminded of the TV show "House Hunters," where the potential buyers have to choose between three houses which each have pluses and negatives. I have two dream writing retreats, but I'm not going to take the easy way out and choose both.  They're going head to head, with only one victor. Here goes:

(Image via text link)

1). I'm in a Miso Barrel treehouse, somewhere in the wilderness. The treehouse is surrounded by deep snow, and the only way to reach it is by ATV. There's no electricity, but there is a dishwasher and refrigerator. They run on batteries or solar energy or something. (It's a dream scenario, okay?) There's a huge bathtub, a fireplace and a wood stove. I've left my cell phone at home, and there's no internet. I've got my dog with me. But since I'm a scaredy-cat when I'm in isolated places at night, I've also got another dog, a big protective German Shepherd who looks like a wolf and will scare the shit out of any possible intruder. I've got TV and movies on my computer to watch at night, as well as a billion Kindle books. I'm making my word goal ever day; going to bed and waking up early. I'm totally alone.

(Image via text link)

2.) It's summer someplace humid, where the temperature is always 80 degrees.  The site of the retreat is right on the beach. We sleep in overwater huts that are reached by boardwalks, the kind that you see in resorts in Bora Bora and Tahiti. There's an outdoor cooking area, and a great dive bar within biking distance. All of my friends who write are there. We work productively all day, and at night we have bonfires. The water's always warm, and there are no mosquitoes.

Decision Time

Both of these scenarios sound amazing. But the winner is #2, for the simple fact that it's really cold today, and I want to be warm.  If I was asked this question in the summer, no doubt I'd choose #1. Being contrary can be very helpful when choosing between competing dream scenarios.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #5

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.

This Week's Topic

We're combining today's RTW with Highwayer Sarah Enni's End-of-the-Year blog carnival, and asking:
What were your top five favorite books of 2011?

I'm lucky if I remember my top five favorite things in a given week, so a year's time span is a little tough for me. Luckily, I can aid my memory by looking back at my orders on Amazon, and at my reading history on my library account. Side note--I've only been a member of this particular library for a few months, and it's the first I've ever used that had the feature of recording your reading. I know there are privacy concerns about libraries recording the reading habits of patrons. But having the ability to do so for myself rocks. 

(Off to consult the record).

Having refreshed my memory, here goes:

1. White Cat & Red Glove, by Holly Black. I'm torn about whether or not I should give each title its own spot, but really, as a part of the same series, they feel like part of the same reading experience. But they are awesome enough to each deserve their own spot! Just had to put that out there. 

 2. Lives Like Loaded Guns: Emily Dickinson and Her Family Feuds, by Lyndall Gordon. This biography nicely straddles the line between an academic and a popular work. I learned so much about the craziness of Dickinson's family life. Apparently her brother was having an affair for decades with a woman who was friends with the whole family. The whole family was aware of the affair, and it had huge ramifications for them personally, and for the publication of Dickinson's work posthumously. Truly wild.

3. The Absolutely True Diary of a Part Time Indian, by Sherman Alexie. I know, I'm years late to the party on this one. But I loved it, of course, and it's definitely one of the top 5 of my year. 

4. Extras (Uglies Series) by Scott Westerfeld. Again, I'm like 4 years behind the curve on this one. But I just love the series, and somehow hadn't read Extras. The reputation economy idea hits that elusive sweet spot between imagining tech-related concepts that feel relevant today, and concepts that won't be dated almost immediately. 

5. Mortal Instruments Series, by Cassandra Clare. I'm cheating again by lumping together books from a series.  What I love about Mortal Instruments is that it's fun and engrossing. It's not high art, but so what?

I'm going to take a little detour of my own and make a list of the 5 worst books I read in 2011.

1. The Unauthorized Biography of Angelina Jolie, by Andrew Morton. I love trashy celebrity websites/magazines/books, but this one was a total disappointment. I learned nothing new, and half of what was supposed to be new seemed fishy. Bah. 

2. Introduction to Cataloging and Classification (Library and Information Science Text Series) by Arlene Taylor. I can't place all the blame on the author, but after reading this textbook for a course on cataloging and classification, I still have only the most basic grasp of these concepts.  I now view catalogers as the high priests of library science. Their mysterious rites are beyond me.

3.  The Wind Up Girl, by Paolo Bacigalupi. I liked the concept, and I really wanted to like the book. I couldn't get past the first forty or so pages. We just weren't a match.

4. The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles, by Steven Pressfield. This book creeped me out. I liked the idea of inner inertia trying to win, but I felt like the book was trying to brainwash me somehow. I would be scared to meet the author, and tossed the book across the room after a few pseudo-chapters (seriously, the chapters are like a paragraph long).

5. Many Lives, Many Masters: The True Story of a Prominent Psychiatrist, His Young Patient, and the Past-Life Therapy That Changed Both Their Lives, by Brian L.Weiss. I only got a few sentences in before I pitched it aside. You can practically feel the author's narcissistic personality disorder oozing from the pages.  Seriously, if you have any interest in reincarnation, this is one book to avoid. It has killed many trees and given nothing in return.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #4

 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.

This Week's Topic:
Where do you buy most of your books? No one is judging!

The "A" Word

Independent bookstores are an endangered species.  Even mega-chains like Borders are closing down. But I have to confess: when I buy a book, I don’t do the responsible thing and support my local independent bookstore. I go to Amazon, and I judge myself for it.

Amazon first hooked me when they offered me free Prime shipping for a year. You can get anything delivered to you, within two days, with no charge. Instant gratification junkie that I am, I started buying everything from juice boxes to vinyl records.  But most of all, I bought books.

That isn’t to say that my main source for books is Amazon. I’d say about ¾ of the books I read come from my public library, often through inter-library loan from another library in our consortium. If I bought every book that was read in my household, I’d go bankrupt.

I’m a fan of used bookstores and library book sales, and try to hit them up when I can. But when I want something specific, it’s just so easy to head to Amazon and know that it will be on my doorstep in two days.

Lately, I’ve been buying books via Kindle for PC. I thought I’d never get into reading books that weren’t on paper, but the instant gratification lured me in.  I’m buying more books than ever before.

It goes against my principles, but I’m hooked on Amazon. It’s like smoking or fast food: I know it’s bad for me and the world at large, but I enjoy it too much to quit.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #3

Today's YA Highway Road Trip question is a good one! I think this one's bound to be controversial. 
 

This Week's Topic:

How far would you go to get published? We writers can form quite an attachment to our characters and stories. But we also know publishing is a business, and sometimes to make it in said business--to really build a career from it--we have to bend a bit. How far would you go to break into the publishing world?

(Image via YA Highway)

I would go as far as the casting couch. What's the literary equivalent of the casting couch? The query queue?  Kidding, kidding. But seriously, I would happily go as far as a "home run." I think the realities of the publishing world are such that a debut author (or any author who's not a blockbuster NYT bestseller list behemoth) doesn't have the luxury of writing a book and expecting it to be published without a single revision suggested.  

Being willing to work with an agent on revisions seems like a no-brainer. If you belong to a writing group, if you have beta readers, if you solicit feedback on your novel from ANYONE, then it only makes sense to be willing to take feedback from the person who's going to try to help turn your manuscript into a real live book.

But beyond that, it seems that it can be so challenging to get a novel past the editor's gates that one must be open to their revisions. The following chart and blog post shared with me by Phoebe North opened my eyes regarding how the process of getting a manuscript accepted by an editor works. (WARNING: Do not follow the links if you are having an especially discouraging writing day).

Nobody can expect to be a special snowflake and write in a bubble of purity that rejects any input from an agent or editor. If you want to be an independent agent, then the route of e-publishing is open.  For some, like Elle Lothlorien, this route is working really well. But if you want to go the conventional route, then you have to be flexible. 

Of course, there are situations where an author might be asked to make revisions that fundamentally alter something about the book that's truly important to him or her. If you're in that situation, I suppose you have to weigh how important it is to you to publish the manuscript in any form, versus sticking to your vision.  I may be a potential artistic sell-out, but I know that if I were in that position, I would make the fundamental alterations. 

You know the cliche about your book being like your baby? I think that being unwilling to alter your book is like having a child and confining him to the house for his entire life, so that he won't be contaminated by outside influences. At a certain point, a book becomes a joint endeavor, much like raising a child. If everything goes well, the kid goes off to kindergarten. Of course, you're not going to let your child go to a kindergarten where the teachers abuse him. If the manuscript changes suggested feel completely wrong, then I suppose you might have to withdraw it.  But if it's a normal kindergarten, and a normal revision situation, then you have to let them go out into the world without controlling every step.

All that being said, I think some of the "bases" presented here might not be helpful in getting you published.  In terms of jumping on a trend bandwagon, it's not going to work if it doesn't result in a good book. If you told me that the next big YA thing was Harlequin-style romances, I doubt I could write one, because I'm not really interested in that genre.  I've read a few, and enjoyed them for what they are, but I don't have any stories that I want to tell in that vein. It's hard enough to get a novel published that you've invested your heart and soul into. If you can't put that kind of passion into a manuscript, I doubt that it would be successful, even it's the hot new genre or trend.

One of the hardest things for me to accept as I've been querying my first novel and learning more about the publishing world is how subjective and market driven it is. It's a bitter pill, but pretending it's not there won't make it go away.

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #2

This week's YA Highway road trip question is: What's the best book you read in November?

I had to choose two, because one was the best book I read as a reader, and one the best I read as a writer.

(Image courtesy of TamaraWarren)

I read Ira Levin’s Rosemary’s Baby because my work in progress is a YA thriller/horror novel, and I wanted to check out one of the classics to see how it’s done best. My favorite scary movies are from the 60s and 70s—The Omen, Rosemary’s Baby, Jaws, Alien, The Exorcist, and The Stepford Wives (another Levin book, incidentally).  Having loved the movie, I figured it’d be helpful to check out the book. The most useful thing I took away from the novel was how subtle the disturbing parts are.  The evil in the plot is established early on, and the bad stuff that happens is foreshadowed, but Levin surrounds the supernatural with so much normalcy. Of course, that’s the point—the contrast between the two heightens the impact of the horror.  I don’t think I can wholly apply this idea to my WIP, because the commune setting is inherently a couple clicks away from normal for most readers.  But I’m really trying to create a contrast, a sense of the everyday life, normal to most of the characters, that gets shattered. 

(Image courtesy of Amazon.com)

As a reader, my favorite was Holly Black’s Red Glove. I love the Curse Workers series so much. I think there’s only going to be one more, but I wish it could be like the Sookie Stackhouse series—an endless flood of books that lets you continually live with your favorite characters.  The world is so well established, all of the characters (even the minor ones) are interesting, and the inner struggle between the flaws and of the main character, Cassell Sharpe, is fascinating.  If I ruled the world, I would decree that Curse Workers immediately become a TV series (with the creator’s blessing, natch). Wouldn’t Patricia Clarkson be perfect as the mom? If you haven’t read Red Glove, or the previous book, White Cat, I highly recommend them.                        

YA Highway: Road Trip Wednesday #1

The YA Highway does a group blogger activity on Wednesdays. But before I can talk about the activity, I have to talk about the name of the blog.  Am I the only who reads it and thinks of a road occupied only by teenagers? 

(Image courtesy of Library of Congress)

Maybe they’re walking or driving, maybe they’re on bikes or skateboards or pogo sticks, but it’s a mass army of adolescents sweeping up and down an eight lane highway.  You can hear it from four states away. Right. Okay. The YA Highway does this thing called Road Trip Wednesdays, in which they post a question and bloggers across the YA galaxy respond on their own blogs.

Today’s topic/question is: 

“In high school, teens are made to read the classics - Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Bronte, Dickens - but there are a lot of books out there never taught in schools. So if you had the power to change school curriculums, which books would you be sure high school students were required to read?”

Hand wringing over being “made” to read the classics in high school has never really resonated for me. I was the kind of nerdy child who loved and read so much of the British classics that I still spell certain words with the British preferred spelling (grey, jewellery, etc.). 

Let’s consider the authors presented. Sure, we could probably knock Dickens off that list without losing much.  Shakespeare, while not a personal favorite, is pretty foundational.  Hawthorne and Bronte and are just awesome. But this is where the problem arises.  Taste is extremely subjective, and for “reluctant readers,” or those high schoolers who just can’t get into the diction of another time, the classics seem boring, or outdated.

To which my response is—so? Since when is what we learn in school supposed to be a non-stop carnival ride of thrills? Would history teachers present the events of World War II in a catchier, “sexier” way? Or skip the war entirely, since it’s old and boring and new stuff has happened that students would rather learn about? But I’m getting cranky, and the Cranky Divorcee is only allowed to come out to play on Mondays.

Next: A Solution