Spinning Round and Round

Tip if the Day: My first booksigning for My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours is 9/11 from 2-4pm at the Borders in Bolingbrook, Illinois. Come see me!

Today's blog post might be a little swirly like this water slide:















because my head is spinning with last minute promo stuff for My Fake Boyfriend is Better Than Yours! It releases in a week in a half (YIKES!) and there are e-mails and interviews and launch stuff literally piling up around me. So what do I do?

Go on vacation of course! Me and the family just got back from Wisconsin Dells. The picture above is one of their water slides (the Tornado) that was at the huge, fun water park where we stayed. I didn't go on it (wimp!) but I did go on a lot of the water slides with my 5yr old. And I was scared each time! The kids were fearless of course. My 7yr old loved the tornado but my head is already so spinny these days I didn't want to see what happened if the rest of me spun around like that! A vacation was a nice break from everything and my phone didn't work in the lodge so no e-mailing, texting etc. Wow! Not usual for me. Of course now I have a million things to respond to but that's ok. It's back to work time! I got my first author copy of Fake Boyfriend and it's sooooo cute! I love it. Pop over here for pics. And I'm running a fun contest starting Tuesday so please stop by and enter. Here's a hint: you can win a REAL fake boyfriend of your very own!! And who doesn't want that? :-)

Kristina, Miss See Me on the Shelves

Yearbooks: Oh the Horror (or Memories for a Lifetime?)

Tip of the Day: Check out this new website that Lisa belongs to -- Contemps!

On Sunday night I was working on my wip when I hit a brain dead zone. My eyes wandered the Writer Room and hit upon my high school yearbooks, books that had been buried under my bed until I moved this past May. I thought maybe if I jumped into some Deena-As-Teen moments from the past, I'd be reinvigorated for my writing.

I randomly pulled out my junior yearbook and flipped it open to the inside cover. Various patterns of handwriting covered the page, some entries signed with just a first name from a person who I can't recall. Other entries were from girls I still am friends with now, but whose promises of "I will never forget XXXX!" made me wonder, what the heck was XXXX?

In high school, everything that happens is so important. All moments are things to be remembered, cherished, and laughed about years later. We are so sure we will "never forget."

But then we do.

When writing teen fiction, that's something for me to recall. That the little things are important. That the "me" time, the small quiet moments between friends, mean everything. That a tiny wrong can lead to a big hurt. That perspectives are smaller due to the restriction of age.

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing

Networking...can we be friends?

Tip of the Day: don’t want to pay full price for a great writing book? Check out some of these e-books by Darcy Pattison.

Networking!

Not my favorite word in the dictionary. In fact it would probably rate in the bottom five percent of my least favorite words (If I were to actually compile a list like that, which trust me despite the fact I love lists…I don’t like them that much).

But it’s something that’s important in every business.

For some people it comes naturally. They just randomly talk to strangers who happen to be neighbors to the best friend of the cousin of Suzy Q, who just happens to be a big shot in the business you work in…and magically you’ve made contacts. Bravo. Good for you. The network gods must love you.

For the rest of us, like I mentioned last week it’s hard to talk about what we do. How do you casually bring up that you brainstorm story ideas all day and constantly work with trying to figure out where commas go in sentences? Especially if you are a secret writer?

In publishing, networking might not be as important for the writer, since you can blindly submit your query letters into the slush pile of many agents and editors. And it’s like you are letter-networking, which can be just as effective. Then you can get an agent who’s done most of the networking for you and already has great contacts with lots of editors. Problem solved. And having a professional on your side seems much more appealing than having your friends and family pimp you out, which seems to be happening with me lately and everyone and their brother is trying to find me a job (love you family!)

But despite getting an agent, which is one of the best networking tools you can have, you still need to network on some level. To get publicity for your books, to meet critique partners, to get reviewers to talk about your book, etc. And also without friends in this business it can get pretty lonely.

Most of us network at writing conferences and online—on blogs, in writer forums, facebook, etc—without even realizing we are making friends that can help us with our own writing: either through critiques, making connections with other writers, or other means.

Now that I think about it, networking has never been easier than it is now through the Internet. Not only do you not have to think of a conversation starter, but you can take a few minutes to come up with a witty response to someone’s blog or forum post. So maybe networking isn’t such a bad word after all. Who knows one of those times could pay off and be just the edge to break you in! Either that or Great Aunt Cindy is going to talk to the right person one of these days!

--Emily, Miss Querylicious

Commas Intermediate

Tip of the Day: A good grammar guide is expensive! Have you priced the Little, Brown Handbook? $63 on Amazon! If you have one from college, hang on to it.

Lately fellow writers have been saying to me that punctuation is not their strength, and I've noticed a lot of comma misuse in my critiques recently. I don't notice this comma misuse in published books. I'd notice it if it were there. I'm like that. So somewhere along the line, these commas are getting fixed by someone.

(Mostly what I notice in published books are missing articles, such as "She fell off Empire State Building." Those are hard to catch on manuscript.)

Most people overcomma so it stands out. It's harder to see something that isn't there, so when in doubt, it's probably best not to use the comma. Here's what I usually see:

She went to her favorite gym so she could be seen, and to her favorite ice cream shop afterwards.

That comma should not be there. She went ... to her favorite ice cream shop. No comma! I guess you could stick a comma after gym to set off the clause "so she could be seen." But why? I mean, if you're sticking commas in, you should know why. You know why you stick every word in. You agonize over "just," admit it. You search for "just" when your manuscript is done and go through the "No, I really need this just. OK, can I get rid of the next one?" dance. Alright, it would be crazy to do that for commas, but you should still have an underlying reason for using them. They aren't used for pauses in conversation.

Every once in a while, I critique someone who hardly uses commas at all:

She went to the ice cream shop and her best friend ordered chocolate ice cream which was her absolute favorite even though it was boring compared to their mocha marshmallow.

Once the subject changes, use a comma. She did something, and then her best friend did something. That sentence could use another comma before which, but I don't really care. The missing comma when the subject of the sentence changes bothers me much more.

If the person performing two actions is the same and her name isn't repeated (She worked out and then ate) don't comma. If the person is different (She worked out, and her friend ate) comma.

I never know if I should mark this stuff on critiques. Do people care? Do they want me to critique their grammar or is that distracting from the critique of the story? I don't want to let anyone down by refusing to point out a comma they might have missed before they send something out, and I don't want to insult anyone by marking their manuscript as if I were their sixth grade English teacher. Mostly, I don't mark it unless someone tells me they're sending the piece to an editor or agent this week.

The thing is, if I have a question about whether a comma should be there at work, I have resources to look it up. Most people don't have those resources at home. Here's my question: if you had something like the Little, Brown Handbook available free online or cheap in hard copy, would you use it?

I would. It would be a great distraction from more writing!

-- Kate, Miss Perfecting the Pages

Thinking about third person POV

Tip of the day: A new and exciting blog is coming next week! Follow @YAContemps on twitter and all will be revealed SOON!

I can't believe it's the middle of August. How did this happen?

I haven't been writing lately. Just enjoying summertime, hanging out with my kids, working on a group project that's been taking lots of time, etc. But all the while, I've been trying to decide what my next project will be, so come September, when the kids are back in school, I can dive in.

I think I've finally found the next idea. That is no small feat. Ideas are hard for me! Of course, we'll see, because there are those things called false starts where I go 10-20 pages and decide the story isn't for me after all.

Anyway, at this point I know the story is YA. I know the basic premise. I know the title. I think I even know the first line.

What I don't know for sure is how I'm going to tell it. When you have a story idea, how do YOU decide how you're going to tell it? Is is the way the voice comes to you in your head? Or is it more than that? Something tells me it may be best to tell this new story in third person. Maybe even third person omniscient. What does that mean?

It means the narrator knows the thoughts and feelings of all of the characters in the story, as opposed to third person limited, which is just one character's perspective.

It scares me to try writing a book this way, because I think you have to be a beautiful story teller. Or at the very least, an interesting one. Probably two of the most famous books told in this manner are THE BOOK THIEF by Markus Zusak and THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LANDAU-BANKS by E. Lockhart.

I put them on hold at the library so over the next month I can reread them and study how these authors wrote these amazing stories using an omniscient point of view.

I'm curious - how do you feel about third person in general, and if you've read the above books, what do you think of third person omniscient? Most YA today is written in first person. And yes, so far, all of my YA novels are written in first person. But I like stretching myself, trying new things. It keeps things interesting!

~Lisa, Miss Crafting a Career

BRB

This is me:






















At least it's a visual representation of how I'm feeling this week. I have an end of the week deadline on Pumpkin Princess line edits so I'll be back next week!

Kristina, Miss See Me on the Shelves

To Write or To Retreat? (or Enjoy the Silence*)

With apologies to Depeche Mode (XOXO)*

Tip of the day: There are four days left to register for this SCBWI novel-writing retreat in the Adirondaks!

The Falling Leaves Masterclass Retreat at the Silver Bay YMCA in the Adirondaks of New York looks lovely. (See link above.) Beautiful setting in fall, driveable location from home, five editors to chat with, one of whom will crit 20 pages of your novel....ahhhh! Bliss! I am SO CLOSE to just sending in my registration to hope I make it in. In fact, my fingers are twitching now as I resist printing out the registration form.

The reasons I'm hesitatnt to reply? Here's my thoughts:

1. The weekend before I will be in Albuquerque for the YALSA Symposium, so how many YA writerly/readerly/librariany indulgences do I need and/or want to travel to? Will things at work get crazy if I take off that much time when I know the end of the huge art contest is around then?

2. Will I be satisfied with just a 25-minute critique from an editor who may not even be interested in my type of writing (from the luck of the pairing draw)? Will it feel worth it when I have an agent who might be able to give me similar feedback?

3. Do I need to spend $350 or so to be surrounded by YA writerly folks and to actually get some writing done?

4. Would it be more useful to just block off that weekend at home for my own writing time, tell the manpanion to stay out of the Writer Room, or would I lose my drive and wish I was at the retreat?

OH MAN I WANT TO GO TO THE RETREAT!!!!

Readers, what helps you decide what events like this to attend?

Deena, Miss Subbing for Pubbing