My Printzesses (or Which Book Will Be Crowned?)

Tip of the Day: Check out Lisa Schroeder's blog post on how Goodreads ads worked for her!

I love meeting with the Mock Printz Club girls to discuss books (it's open to guys, but none have joined us), and always learn so much from them, too! Right now the frontrunners fr our Mock Printz award seem to be:





Some other tidbits I've garnered from our Printz meetings:

--They love J. K. Rowling. She essentially can do no wrong. And they don't mind what I called the "info dump chapters" in book #7 because they'd rather have that than stringing the reader along with tiny clues until the "big reveal." :)

--They don't like how in practically every current YA book they read with a girl MC, the girl *always* either a) ends up crushing on/hooking up with the first boy she meets in the book, or b) ends up crushing on/hooking up with her guy friend. They say it is so unrealistic and completely unnecessary.

--They don't like MCs who are seemingly invincible. While most like THE HUNGER GAMES, many don't like how Katniss, for example, is a little too unstoppable.

--They are getting tired of "the same" dystopian stories being told over and over, and find a lot of them similar to THE GIVER.

Our last Printz meeting was supposed to last 45-60 mins, and some of the girls hung around talking to the HS Librarian and I in the HS library for 90 minutes chatting about books! I love it!

What are your Printz picks so far?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Like Mother, Like Daughter

Tip of the Day: Keep yourself from letting holiday stress invade your body. Stock up on yogurt and cranberry juice. Enjoy the last great apples of the season.

So in my past novels, for various reasons, there has been a focus on the main character's relationship with his or her father. Years ago, I heard Laurie Halse Anderson speak about writing as a male character, and she recommended exploring his relationship with his father. This really strengthened my first novel. The next time I wrote from a male point of view, I also focused on Dad.

But somehow it's never gone the other way. My female main characters have had more memorable relationships with their fathers than their mothers. But that's going to change soon. For my next novel, Mom is going to be a very important player. Unfortunately, she's also going to suck.

I feel bad about that. I'd like to model a healthy mother/daughter relationship, but I think if you have a wonderful mother behind you all the way ... well, you're less likely to be in the dire straights that a novel demands.

Some authors who have done mother/daughter relationships very well in novels I have loved are Deb Caletti, E.M. Crane, Elizabeth Scott, and of course Sarah Dessen. So I have some great examples to help me.

But in the end, I think this mother is going to be a bad person. Hopefully, she'll be fun to write, in any case. What about you? When you're writing about a female main character, how much thought do you put into the mother/daughter relationship?

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Fun Friday: Black Friday

Tip of the Day: This is our 1000th post!! Wow! I feel like we should give away a car or something. But that's not happening. :-)

HAPPY BLACK FRIDAY! Are you full of turkey and dressing? Are you sitting outside of Best Buy at 3am? Tell the truth-- to Black Friday or not to Black Friday? Me? I'm a not. I don't like fighting. If you went out, what hot deal did you get?

Thanksgiving Deadline!

First, HAPPY THANKSGIVING! I hope you all have a wonderful day with your family and friends! I'm excited to spend the day with my family and I'm also excited that I met my Thanksgiving deadline! Whoo hoo! I've been revising The Paparazzi Project (I posted a teaser of it last week) and my deadline to get it back to my agent was Thanksgiving.

I've been working on it every free minute I've had, which usually is whenever my littlest is in preschool, and evenings. And last night I was determined to not miss my deadline and get it done. The only problem? All four kids are sick (UGH! This is so not fun!) and now I'm sick too (sore throat and fever- boo). But still, I really wanted to get it done so that I'd have the holiday free and I was SO close so I worked through it anyway and e-mailed it to the agent at midnight. Yay!

So yeah, I'm thankful to be done (well, at least until I get notes back from my agent) and excited for a little break before I dive back into my middle grade project.

What about you guys? Did you meet your November deadlines?

Kristina, Miss Author in Action

Trekkin' Along on Track (or Oh God I Have to Rewrite 10 Chapters in 10 Days)

Tip of the Day: I tweet about bookish and library things at @bmlkidsteens if you want to follow me!

I'm here, checking in on my November goal!

Goal recap: To revise my YA WIP and have it ready to sub by Dec. 1.

And as of today, I'm on page 165/206 and feeling totally on track!

It hasn't all been easy. During my lunch breaks at work I tried really hard to get in a solid 45 minutes of revision, but sitting at my desk in a cubicle -- even with my headphones on and personal laptop powered up -- doesn't always keep the coworkers away. I love them and all, but but but...NaNoREMo people! :)

I also got feedback from my wonderful Helper Monkeys critique group...and I learned that, uh, there were some "issues" with the chapters leading up the climax. And the climax itself. And oh yeah, the resolution chaps need some clarity. Oh boy. BUT! I was so inspired by them as well -- they helped me brainstorm "fixes" and I could feel what a better book these changes would make -- so when I sat down to write, the words came easily.

This book is different from anything else I've ever written: It has two 1st-person povs, a speculative story with a thriller feel, and a faster pace with bigger stakes. I'm really excited about this novel and hope my revisions are making it into the story I imagine.

How is everyone doing with their NaNo projects?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

It's good to have goals

Tip of the Day: hope everyone has a nice Thanksgiving! Try not to eat too much pumpkin pie (oh wait...never mind...eat all the pie you want, you totally deserve it after working so hard this year!)

My November Goal: complete edits on the current book I'm working on.

The Progress: not so great

After completely switching what the book I'm currently working on for the month, I had a bit of a slow start. The switch turned out to be wise, though, and edits with this book are going much better. I've gotten quite a bit done, though there are several chapters I need to update and about two chapters to add.

Since I haven't worked on this book in about three years, there's been much time spent getting into the heads of the characters again. But it's been fun, challenging, and progressing forward has been rewarding.

To celebrate, I'm definitely eating some pumpkin pie on Thanksgiving!


And then...it's right back to work. I still have eight days left in November to complete my goal!

Well at least right after I wipe my tears for the hundredth time today after watching X-factor tonight. Was I the only one that cried at like every story. I told my husband, I'd hate to be the singer without an inspirational story.

--Emily

The Goal Oriented Girl

Tip of the Day: Looking for a good YA read? TANGLED TIDES by Karen Amanda Hooper releases this week and is available in preorder now.

At the beginning of November, my Rochester face-to-face critique group and I set goals for the month. It's an annual tradition. My goal was to finish writing the ending of my YA novel work in progress. Those last few chapters are hanging over my head like a dead weight. So how did I do?

Terrible! I don't think I've written a word!

It's not true that I haven't written a word of anything, of course. But these past few weeks have been life changing for me. I lost my office job in June and my other, more long-term goal for the year has been to work as a freelance writer and editor. This has taken off tremendously all of a sudden. Every project I work on is a learning experience, and every client brings me a new set of skills. I can't wait to tell you all about it as I move forward. For now, though, my routine of looking for work most of the day and then doing some of my own writing is completely broken.

I did manage to rewrite my first scene after attending the Highlights Mastering Setting conference with Kim Griswell and K.L. Going. That was a hard-working conference, by the way. I like my new beginning a lot better. Naturally, now that I know what my ending is going to be, I have more of that tone infused into the beginning.

So I'm definitely making progress over here, but I am disappointed that I haven't been able to type THE END. In fact, not working on my fiction is making me very snippy. For Thanksgiving, I hope I have the chance to curl up with the next chapter. Too bad the school system lets the kids take off time for the holiday! (Just kidding. Sort of.)

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages