Category: Writng

Reading YA: An Interview with Stacey Lee

11/24/2015

Stacey Lee is the author of UNDER A PAINTED SKY and OUTRUN THE MOON (May, 2016). She is a fourth generation Chinese-American whose people came to California during the heydays of the cowboys. She believes she still has a bit of cowboy dust in her soul.

Why do you read young adult fiction?

I've read that that writers write from the age they feel stuck in or that they still have unfinished business in. Which means, I probably have a lot of issues that need working out leftover from my teens! Also, I really love reading YA as it's so full of awkward and yet character-defining moments.

What YA books are you reading now?

Matt de la Peña's MEXICAN WHITEBOY. It's so full of heart and is teaching me a lot about baseball. I also loved Isabel Quintero's GABI, A GIRL IN PIECES. That one made me laugh and cry.

When and where do you read?

I do mostly audiobooks nowadays, which means I read in the car or while I take a walk.

What draws you to a book?

I'm always looking for diverse fiction. I also love a good sea-faring book, and a little bit of magic.

Do you ever reread books?

Yes! I think we reread books because of the way they make us feel. When a reader tells me they want to reread my book, I feel like I've succeeding in creating a world in which they want to be a part.

Which YA books have had the most impact on your writing?

LA Meyer's BLOODY JACK series -- Meyer was a master of voice. I love anything by Markus Zusak.

Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again?

I've been recommending Robin LaFevers' GRAVE MERCY a lot lately; I also loved Yangsze Choo's THE GHOST BRIDE. I love historical and historical fantasy.

Stacey Lee is a native of southern California. She graduated from UCLA then got her law degree at UC Davis King Hall. After practicing law in the Silicon Valley for several years, she finally took up the pen because she wanted the perks of being able to nap during the day, and it was easier than moving to Spain. She plays classical piano, raises children, and writes YA fiction. For more information, please visit: staceylee.com

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Reading YA With Helene Dunbar

4/30/2015

Why do you read young adult fiction?
In a way, YA “saved me” as a reader. I grew up reading everything I could get my hands on, but at the time there was little that would classify as “YA”. Then I hit college and as an English/Theater major, all of my reading was for class and I just couldn’t get invested in any fiction.

Fast forward many years and, after reading Harry Potter (mostly while sitting in Irish pubs) too many times, I tripped across Melissa Marr’s Wicked Lovely series and it blew my mind that young adult books were pushing the envelope of sexuality and gender roles and sheer depth of character. I was absolutely hooked and never looked back.

What YA book are you reading now?
I’m currently reading a non-YA autobiography (Stephen Fry), but here are the books I have lined up waiting for me:
·      Simon and the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli
·      The Start of Me and You by Emery Lord
·      A Darker Shade of Magic by Victoria Schwab

When and where do you read?
I work two part time jobs and have a husband and a daughter so what little free time I have, I try to use for writing. That being said, I always read before bed. It both quiets my brain and helps me to brainstorm my own work. Other than that, it’s really stolen moments. I always have my kindle with me just in case.

What draws you to a book?
If I’m in a bookstore, I definitely am drawn in by covers and then give the blurb a try. If that works, I’ll read the first couple of pages. Otherwise, I’m forever downloading free samples onto my kindle and sorting them into “buy/borrow” categories. I have a lot of books that I’ve been carting around through two international moves, so I’m very selective about what I acquire as a physical book as opposed to electronic.

Do you ever reread books?
All the time! When I truly love a book, I find that on my first read I’m racing through it find out what happens. Then, I read again to study the actual words. Sometimes, I also reread a book immediately because I don’t want to leave the world and can’t imagine reading anything else.

Which YA books has had the most impact on your writing?
This is such a difficult question for me. Obviously, as I mentioned, Melissa Marr’s Ink Exchange really opened my eyes to what was possible. Maggie Steifvater’s Shiver really nailed home that it was possible to be poetic while telling a good story. There are many books that I’ve actually studied just to see how authors I love handled certain conflicts or emotion or scenes. I don’t have a very visual view of the world overall, so that’s something I’ve really had to try to learn (and continue to try to learn).

Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again?
Favorite lists are so difficult. But books that I fell in love with immediately and still bash people over the head with, include: TEETH by Hannah Moskowitz, BOY TOY by Barry Lyga, THE DREAM THEIVES by Maggie Steifvater, DON’T LET ME GO by J.H. Trumble, THE MARBURY LENS by Andrew Smith, and EVERY YOU, EVERY ME by David Levithan, which I think is the most underrated of his books.

Helene Dunbar is the author of THESE GENTLE WOUNDS (Flux, 2014) and WHAT REMAINS (Flux, 2015). Over the years, she's worked as a drama critic, journalist, and marketing manager, and has written on topics as diverse as Irish music, court cases, theater, and Native American Indian tribes. She lives in Nashville with her husband and daughter, and exists on a steady diet of readers' tears.

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For more information, visit Helene at: helendunbar.com

Enter HERE for a chance to win one of two signed copies of WHAT REMAINS! The giveaway is open internationally thru May 22, 2015.

Reading YA with Kirstin Cronn-Mills

3/17/2015

Why do you read young adult fiction?
Why not? : ) Young adults are interesting, funny, funky people, and I like learning what makes them tick. They're some of my favorite people to talk to. I love learning about their identity negotiations.

What YA book are you reading now?
I don't get to read much during the school year, because I'm a college teacher--I read what I'm going to teach, and not much else for pleasure. The last YA I read was Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix, because I'm teaching a Harry Potter class this semester (how lucky am I, to read Harry Potter for my homework??!!). I always have lots of contemporary YA on my TBR pile, most specifically GLORY O'BRIEN'S HISTORY OF THE FUTURE (A.S. King--though she's contemporary YA with a twist) and GUY IN REAL LIFE (S. Brezenoff), as well as I'LL GIVE YOU THE SUN (J. Nelson).

When and where do you read?
I read whenever and wherever I can. Any time, any place! I prefer a paper book to a Kindle, but Kindles are great for traveling. I also love audiobooks, so that can up my reading quotient.

What draws you to a book?
I tend to listen to recommendations from friends--then I move to blurbs and reviews. Covers are always important, but I'm not turned off if the cover isn't shrieking "Read me!"

Do you ever reread books?
I do! It's a comfort thing (confession: they're not YA books). I've reread (or re-listened) to lots of books. Sometimes, if I'm trying to figure out how a book makes its magic, I'll reread very slowly and take notes. Or listen over and over again.

Which YA books has had the most impact on your writing?
Hard to say. I didn't start writing YA because I loved reading YA--I started writing YA because the characters/story that came to me were in the YA world. I'm always drawn to contemporary YA that yanks me into a characters mind and holds me there. Some examples might be STUPID FAST, Geoff Herbach, BROOKLYN BURNING, Steve Brezenoff, and PLEASE IGNORE VERA DIETZ, A.S. King--also books by Courtney Summers.

Which books do you find yourself recommending over and over again?
Oh gosh--see above, I guess!

Kirstin Cronn-Mills is a self-proclaimed word nerd. According to her mother, she learned to read when she was three–and she hasn’t stopped since. In 1992 Kirstin moved from Nebraska to southern Minnesota, where she lives now. She writes a lot, reads as much as she can, teaches at a two-year college (she won the Minnesota State College Student Association 2009 Instructor of the Year award), and goofs around with her son, Shae, and her husband, Dan. Her first young adult novel, The Sky Always Hears Me and the Hills Don’t Mind (Flux, 2009), was a 2010 finalist for the Minnesota Book Award for Young People’s Literature. Her second novel, Beautiful Music For Ugly Children (Flux/Llewellyn, 2012), won ALA’s Stonewall Award in 2014 as well as an IPPY silver medal for Gay/Lesbian/Bi/Trans Fiction.

Kirstin has also published nonfiction books for middle and high school libraries: Collapse! The Science of Structural Engineering Failures (Compass Point Books, 2009) and Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices (Twenty-First Century Books/Lerner, 2014). For more information, please visit: kirstincronn-mills.com

How I Got My Agent

4/23/2014

I’m not usually a goal setter but early in 2013, I found myself sitting on a newly rewritten (and mercilessly polished) novel and a fairly decent query letter. And what was I doing with my #amwriting time?

Rewriting yet another novel.

Why?

Because I like to rewrite—it’s comfortable and familiar. In my writing world, I AM IN CONTROL.

And because querying is very scary.

After some serious internal and external debate, I decided it was time to get serious about getting published. My plan for accomplishing this goal was:

1.     Attend some of the events hosted by the writing organizations, of which I was already a member.

2.     Connect with and support other writers/authors.

3.     Attend a conference.

4.     Get back in the query trenches.

There’s a wonderful writing organization right here in Richmond called James River Writers. I registered for their Fall Conference as soon as registration opened and signed up for an appointment to meet with one of the literary agents on the list. Then I started reading everything I could about pitching to an agent at a conference and I wrote a really horrible elevator pitch.

Then my dear friend, Deb Dudley, encouraged me (like the two-handed shove kind of encouragement) to enter Brenda Drake’s #PitchMadness Contest. So with Deb’s help, along with my CP and some friends at YAwriters, I wrote a better one-line pitch and I entered. I received several agent requests as a result of this contest but what’s important to my agent story is that I gained CONFIDENCE.

This newfound confidence did not stop me from checking my inbox every three seconds, however. Nor did it calm my elevator-pitch anxiety because now the conference (and my agent appointment) was only a couple of weeks away. And the stakes were higher—because there had been a change in the agent lineup.

Now I had an appointment with an agent who had recently joined my DREAM AGENCY, and who was actively acquiring YA clients!

When I sat down in front of Beth Phelan, I was a nervous wreck. But I remembered to say my name (yay!) and I remembered to congratulate her on her new position at The Bent Agency (double yay!). Then I told her the title of my book.

And that’s where she stopped me.

She said that SOMEONE had already told her about my project and she was hoping that the Elle Blair on her appointment list was the Elle who’d written the novel.

Whaaat???

How freaking awesome is that, right?

So I was stunned, but maybe a little more relaxed and I blabbered some more and Beth asked questions (which I managed to answer) and then our time was up and she handed me her business card and asked for the FULL.

I sent it, she read it and then I got THE CALL!!!

After I hung up, I took a picture of my phone and texted it to a few of my writing friends. And then I galloped up and down the hallway like a circus pony until my throat was raw from screaming.

I’m telling you people: It. Was. AWESOME!!!

Now, is anyone curious about the mysterious SOMEONE who told Beth about my manuscript before I did?

Good because this is my favorite part of the story.

About a week before the conference, I attended a book-signing event in Richmond called Teen’13. I bought a contemporary YA book by an author I’d never heard of—simply because the cover was beautiful and when I read the blurb, it sounded like my kind of story. While The Author signed her book for me, we talked about writing. She asked about my project and I rambled on about my experience with #PitchMadness and my upcoming agent appointment at the JRW Conference. And when I asked if she would allow me to practice my elevator pitch on her, she said yes.

At the time, I didn’t know that Erica Orloff was a multi-published author and a JRW Board Member, folks. I didn’t know she would be having dinner with the conference faculty the night before the event. And never in a million years could I have guessed that she would be so impressed by my premise and my enthusiasm for my project that she would tell Beth about me!

All I knew was that she was gracious and lovely and so very easy to talk to.

So remember to CONNECT WITH AND SUPPORT OTHER WRITERS/AUTHORS my friends. Because you never know!

Thanks for stopping by!

Elle

#MyWritingProcess Blog Tour

4/7/2014

A couple of weeks ago, my lovely friend, Kristi Tuck Austin, wrote a post about her upcoming participation in The Blog Tour. When I tweeted to tell her I couldn’t wait to read her answers, she asked if I wanted to join in. Please visit Kristi’s website to read about her writing process. It’s a fascinating post with some amazing novel research video of the interiors of two big-city drain tunnels and the Paris catacombs.

And now, my turn for the Q&A:

1) What am I working on?

I am writing the first draft of my fifth novel and I’m amazed that the process hasn’t gotten any easier (more on that in question 4). The manuscript is a contemporary YA, with just a little hint of magical realism, that my agent and I refer to as the HTR (Head Trauma Romance).

2) How does my work differ from others of its genre?

I’ve been complimented on my ability to write a believable teen voice. Once, a contest judge commented that she would not be surprised to learn that I was, in fact, a teenager myself.

There’s a pretty good chance I’m old enough to be that judge’s mother.

I think (I hope) that it is my experience as the parent of teenagers that makes my work stand out. I love my relationship with my kids: the good, the bad and the dramatic. And I LOVE writing about these relationships from both sides of the proverbial fence.

3) Why do I write what I do?

My obsession with young adult fiction started about five years ago, as an effort to spark my son’s interest in reading. I challenged him to a reading race; then I devoured the entire Harry Potter series in the same amount of time it took him to read the first book.

And I was HOOKED.

The writing transition was just as easy.

4) How does my writing process work?

I’m a pantser. I get a flash of an idea: sometimes it’s an entire scene; sometimes it’s just an image of the main character. Then I sit down at my computer and write to see what’s going to happen. If all goes well, the next scene starts to form in my thoughts as I’m winding up the current one. If not, I go back and read one or two chapters to see if I took a wrong turn somewhere in the The Pantser Maze. If that doesn’t work, I get up and move around. Walking and showering are an integral part of my writing process.

My current WIP has been a bit of a struggle and just recently, I figured out why. My rewriting and polishing skills have gotten quite the workout over the last two years but I forgot how to first draft! I totally forgot that I used to start with dialogue and maybe a few notes in parenthesis to remind myself that the character needs an internal thought here or needs to move there. I forgot to take my own favorite advice (which I kind of borrowed from the movie SHREK): Novels are like onions. They’re written in layers. I write dialogue first; then I go back and answer all those questions that start with W.

Next Week on the Blog Tour:

Phil Stamper is a public relations and social media professional from Washington, DC. Growing up, Phil was an only child in a small farming village in Ohio. While it could be seen as a boring lifestyle to some, he kept himself entertained through playing the piano and writing stories that stretched his imagination. As a winner of the Project REUTSway 2013 competition, his short story PRODIGY will be published as part of REUTS Publications‘ upcoming anthology.

You can visit Phil at: philstamper.com

Trinity Doyle is a graphic designer who writes realistic young adult fiction. She grew up trapped in the suburbs with terrible phone service and could be found reading in the family car in order to avoid her crazy brothers. She is currently working on two young adult novels.

Check out Trinity’s blog at: trinitydoyle.com

Don’t forget the hashtag!

Use the #MyWritingProcess hashtag on Twitter to find other stops along the tour.

Thanks for stopping by,

Elle

The Pantser Maze

3/27/2014

One day, my awesome critique partner and I were walking (to keep our bottoms ends from spreading) and talking about writing (because, duh). I was struggling to come up with an analogy for all of my many first-draft pantser problems and my amazing CP said this:

“It’s like a maze.”

And I said, “Yes! It’s exactly like a maze.”

The Pantser Maze

#readingYA

I read YA because it brings back memories. And sometimes, it helps me to understand the teenagers who live in my house. I read YA because the authors are brilliant. They tell stories that make me laugh and break my heart. They show me the world from a different perspective.