RTW – November Reads

For this week’s Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking

What’s the best book you read in November?

This month I read eleven books, and they were all very good. I read

The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater

Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by Ransom Riggs

The Handmaid’s Tale by Margaret Atwood

The Ask and the Answer by Patrick Ness

Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and Sweet by Jamie Ford

Need by Carrie Jones

How to Save a Life by Sara Zarr

The Future of Us by Jay Asher and Carolyn Mackler

All These Things I’ve Done by Gabrielle Zevin

and The Alchemist’s Daughter by Katharine McMahon

While all of these books were wonderful in their own way, if I have to pick just one book I’m going to go with Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. I gave a longer review about why this book was so wonderful here.

What about you? What’s the best book you read in November?

How To Save A Life

For this week’s book recommendation, I have to go with Sara Zarr’s latest masterpiece, How to Save a Life. It is a wonderful book about what it means to be a daughter, a sister, and a mother. I would recommend it to woman of every age.

The story is written in duel narration from the points of view of Jill MacSweeney and Mandy Kalinowski. These two characters are very different and the sharp difference in their narrative voices is more striking than any other book written in duel narration than I’ve ever read. My ability to fall in love with both girls and truly believe the honesty of the story is entirely the fault of Zarr’s amazing writing ability.

In the story, Jill’s mother is planning to adopt Mandy’s yet to be born child. At its surface, it is a book about an open adoption and what it means to be a family. At its heart it is a beautiful love story, not about a boy and a girl but about a mother and a child and a mother and a child.

Yesterday, I reviewed The Scorpio Races, which is a book primarily about sibling relationships. I am finding myself more and more drawn to these types of familial narratives. There is plenty to be said about hormones, and classic romances are often very fun to read. Still I can’t think of any love more powerful and unconditional than the love between a mother and child. And so I found this to be a far more compelling love story than any book ever written about a swoon worthy boy.

How to Save a Life is a love story filled with honesty and compassion and a serious lack of swoon worthy male characters.

If you want to know more about this great book, here is what goodreads has to say.

Jill MacSweeney just wants everything to go back to normal. But ever since her dad died, she's been isolating herself from her boyfriend, her best friends--everyone who wants to support her. You can't lose one family member and simply replace him with a new one, and when her mom decides to adopt a baby, that's exactly what it feels like she's trying to do. And that's decidedly not normal. With her world crumbling around her, can Jill come to embrace a new member of the family?

Mandy Kalinowski knows what it's like to grow up unwanted--to be raised by a mother who never intended to have a child. So when Mandy becomes pregnant, she knows she wants a better life for her baby. But can giving up a child be as easy as it seems? And will she ever be able to find someone to care for her, too?

Critically acclaimed author and National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr delivers a heart-wrenching story, told from dual perspectives, about what it means to be a family and the many roads we can take to become one.

Fall Book Club: The Scorpio Races

For this month’s Fall Book Club we are discussing The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater. If you’ve read this book and want to join the conversation, pop over to Tracey’s blog and find links to all the other book club members’ impressions of this wonderful read. Please note, that while I’m going to try not to give away any spoilers, the intended audience of this post is people who have already finished the book. So if you haven’t read The Scorpio Races yet, maybe you should stop reading this post and just go read Maggie’s amazing book instead.

I’m a big Maggie Stiefvater fan, and I’ve heard her say both in person and on her blog that of all the books she’s written, this one is her favorite. So I read this book with very high expectations. I was not disappointed. This truly is a great read.

The thing that I appreciate about Maggie’s writing is that she deals with real life problems in a supernatural way. The Shiver series isn’t really about werewolves, it’s about teenagers losing their identity to the will of the pack. So I didn’t really expect a book about man eating water horses when I picked up The Scorpio Races. I didn’t know what to expect, except for it to be something good.

There is a romantic element in this story, sorry if that is kind of a spoiler. But it’s lite. Not only is the romance quite chased, it is also a very minor subplot. Puck and Sean are both interesting and complex characters and the relationship that grows between them is also interesting and complex. But it isn’t what this book is about.

The most important relationship in Pucks life is her relationship with her brothers, which is then followed by her relationship with her horse. Sean is tertiary at best. That doesn’t mean Sean isn’t a great character, it just means that Pucks feelings for Finn and Gabe and Dove are that much more interesting.

In contrast to Pucks connection to family and need to race in order to protect her family, Sean is an isolated orphan. He has very few human relationships, the most significant being a violent feud with Mutt. The only creature Sean has any real familiarity with is Corr, his pet sea monster.

I found the flesh eating water horses part of the book really weird, and the idea that an entire island economy could be built out of worship for these sea monsters a bit horrifying. Apparently, this isn’t a new legend. Maggie Stiefvater found a fairy tale about man eating water horses as a little kid and has been dreaming about them for decades. As disturbing as that may be, it doesn’t even matter.

While this book is clearly paranormal, or is it urban fantasy, I can never keep those genres straight. The presence of non-human characters doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters in this book are the characters and the things they are willing to do to protect their idea of family. I was glad that the family relationships (or lack thereof) were more important than the romantic elements.

There are some people who meet their spouse in high school and there are other people who never have healthy relationships with their parents. But for most teenagers, all the love they know is given to them by their relatives. Families are important. Because families are important, this is a beautiful love story. About a girl who risks her live to try and save her brothers.

I loved reading this book and can’t wait to see what Maggie Stiefvater comes up with next. What about you? What did you think of The Scorpio Races?

Giving Thanks

I have 18 relatives invating my house this afternoon. So I'm going to be spending the day cooking two turkey's, a ham, and all the fun side dishes that go with a celebration of gluttany. But I wanted to pause quickly this morning to wish you all a Happy Thanksgiving.

Your holiday may be spent watching football, or the parade, or stuffing your face until you pop a button on your pants, or what ever tradition your family enjoys. Regardless of how you celebrate today, I hope that you have something to be thankful for and some you love to share the day with.

Happy Thanksgiving. Okay, now back to the cooking.

RTW - Feeling Thankful

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.


This week's topic:


What writing or publishing-related thing(s) are you most thankful for?

I think I’m most thankful that writing is something I enjoy. I’ve begun writing more seriously in the past year. I signed with my agent a few months ago, and am now learning the true meaning of the word patience as I wait to hear back from publishers. But honestly, none of that stuff really matters all that much to me.

I’ve always thought of writing as a hobby. It is the thing that I want to do whenever I have free minutes to fill. I love to write. It’s my favorite pastime. And that is what I’m thankful for. Of course I’m excited that maybe at some point in the future I’ll actually make money writing and be able to reprioritize my schedule enough to give myself more writing time. But that isn’t what I’m thankful for. I’m thankful that I want to fill my time with writing. I’m thankful that I’ve found something that I love.

What about you? What are you thankful for?

Lola and the Boy Next Door

For this week’s book recommendation, I have to go with Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins. This book has to be the cutest YA romance in the history of cute YA romance. Perkin’s debut, Anna and The French Kiss was a very cute YA romance, but somehow I managed to like Lola even more.

Lola is such a fun quirky character. She is entirely impossible not to love. And her parents are perfect contemporary YA parents. And her best friend is the greatest fictional best friend ever. And then there is the boy next door. Don’t even get me started. Just read this book. Seriously, if you even kind of sort of like YA romance, you need to read this book. It is the cutest story about young love ever written, ever.

Oh, if you want to know about silly little things like plot, here is what goodreads has to say about Lola.

Budding designer Lola Nolan doesn’t believe in fashion . . . she believes in costume. The more expressive the outfit -- more sparkly, more fun, more wild -- the better. But even though Lola’s style is outrageous, she’s a devoted daughter and friend with some big plans for the future. And everything is pretty perfect (right down to her hot rocker boyfriend) until the dreaded Bell twins, Calliope and Cricket, return to the neighborhood.

When Cricket -- a gifted inventor -- steps out from his twin sister’s shadow and back into Lola’s life, she must finally reconcile a lifetime of feelings for the boy next door.

Awkward ARC Giveaway

I just wanted to remind you that I am giving away a signed ARC of AWKWARD by Marni Bates tomorrow. If you haven't entered this contest yet, you can do so here.

Free Books in the Digital Era

I’m guessing that most people are tired of hearing about nothing but nano, so today I decided to change topics and instead give my opinion on a subject for which I have no real knowledge. I’m going to talk about ebooks and pirates and all things scary and sinister.

Personally, I have never pirated anything, not music or books or movies or anything. I’m sure it’s easy if you know how, but I don’t know how, so I don’t do it. If I wanted to, I wouldn’t even know where to start. But I do have a kindle and I do consume most of my media in a digital format, and I don’t always pay for it.

I’m not a pirate, and I’m not trying to steel things from authors and publishers. I just use the library. There has been a lot of talk lately about ebook piracy. As ebooks take a larger and larger share of the total book market, more and more authors and publishers are scared of massive online theft. It’s napster all over again, but this time it’s being done by the literate.

I don’t get it. Books have always been free. Not free to keep forever, but free to borrow and read and then pass along to somebody else. American’s have had easy access to all the free books they want ever since 1876 when the American Library Association was formed. And the first record of a European public library dates back to 1589.

I read a lot and don’t buy most of what I read. I only buy paper books when I have the opportunity to meet the author and want them to sign it. And I only buy ebooks when they aren’t available at my library or the wait list is too long and I’m feeling impatient. Everything else, I borrow. And like I said before, I never feel guilty about it.

My library has a wonderful online system where you can check out digital copies of audio and ebooks (up to six at a time). At the end of the check-out period, the books are automatically deleted from my computer so another patron can check them out. The libraries pay the publishers for these books, and I get to enjoy them for the low fee of paying my property taxes.

There are movies and cds available at the library too, so I guess would be pirates could get those products for free that way. But movies have never been the primary function of libraries and they usually have a limited selection. Books though, libraries have books. And now most libraries have ebooks. Lots of ebooks. And they are free, because they’re at the library and libraries are always free.

As an avid reader, I love the fact that libraries are overflowing with free books. But as a writer, I’m equally happy. Not everyone can afford to pay $27 for a brand new hardback. Given the crappy state of the economy right now, there are a lot of people who could benefit from escaping into fiction that can’t even afford paperback prices. So I’m glad libraries are available to those people. I want dreaming and imagining to be free activities, and since reading often inspires dreaming and imagining, I want reading to be accessible to everyone.

Maybe there are new sites popping up on the internet offering pirated ebooks, and maybe criminals are busy downloading books and thus steeling from publishers and authors. But in my Pollyanna version of reality, I want to believe readers are smarter than that. If you want a free book, you don’t have to break the law to get it. Just go to the library. And if you’re too lazy to do that, just go to your libraries webpage.

RTW - Required Reading

For this week's Road Trip Wednesday, the good people at YA Highway are asking the question

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?


There are a few classics that I’m glad I was taught in HS and I would definitely want to keep on the curriculum. Huckleberry Finn and To Kill a Mockingbird are still two of my all-time favorites, and I read them both for the first time in my HS English class. But if I was able to set the curriculum, I would add a few new books the required reading list.

The Book Thief by Markus Zusak
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian by Sherman Alexie
The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson
Laviathan by Scott Westerfeld
Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson
Whale Talk by Chris Crutcher
The list is endless, but those are a few modern books that I hope become classics. And they all have the makings for a great discussion in English class, maybe even a good term paper or two.

The Scorpio Races

Tracey over at Words on Paper has organized an on-line book club, where each month a bunch of bloggers read and then write about the same books. We voted last week on our November read, and it was decided that we’d all be blogging about The Scorpio Races by Maggie Stiefvater on November 28th.

I read The Scorpio Races earlier this month and loved it, so I was planning to recommend it today anyway. Now I’m going to take it one step farther and not only recommend that you read this great book now, but that you also come back on November 28th and tell me and all the other fall book clubers what you thought about it.

If you need more a teaser than just me telling you it’s fabulous, here is what goodreads has to say about The Scorpio Races.

It happens at the start of every November: the Scorpio Races. Riders attempt to keep hold of their water horses long enough to make it to the finish line. Some riders live. Others die.

At age nineteen, Sean Kendrick is the returning champion. He is a young man of few words, and if he has any fears, he keeps them buried deep, where no one else can see them.


Puck Connolly is different. She never meant to ride in the Scorpio Races. But fate hasn’t given her much of a chance. So she enters the competition — the first girl ever to do so. She is in no way prepared for what is going to happen.

An Interview with Marni Bates

I’m giving away an autographed ARC of AWKWARD by Marni Bates. If you haven’t entered this contest yet, there is still time, so don’t delay. AWKWARD is a hilarious YA novel about a girl who’s most embarrassing moment is caught on camera and then uploaded to youtube. Before she can say “oops” the video has gone viral and Justin Timberlake is making fun of her on twitter. Obviously, this book is awesome. But Marni Bates, the author of AWKWARD is awesome too. So I was thrilled when Marni not only gave me a copy of her ARC to give away to one of my lucky readers, but also to agree to an interview. So without further ado, here’s my interview with Marni.

Kate: So who are you anyway?

Marni: I had my whole life mapped out in middle school with an end goal of becoming just like one of the characters on The West Wing. It was a foolproof plan: Valedictorian. Ivy League education. Law school. What could possibly go wrong? Well, then I hit high school and realized that I didn't actually want to be a valedictorian if it meant setting aside a romance novel for a math textbook. I didn't want to live in Aaron Sorkin's world: I wanted to create a world of my own. Writing allows me to be hundreds of different people and an excuse to ask questions like, how would you go about stealing from this museum? My career began unconventionally when I was hired to write my autobiography (Marni) my freshman year at Lewis & Clark College. That's when I allowed myself to believe that I could really make a living doing what I love. I've been writing ever since and now I have a four book deal with KTeen! I am going to be a college graduate soon and then...well, more writing! The basic info of most bios (where you live, what you do, etc.) are hard to answer because I don't have the answers yet!

Kate: You are crazy young, and have a very authentic teen voice. As you get older, do you think you'll cross over into the writing women's fiction and old adult, or are you going to be writing YA forever?

Marni: I have no idea which genre I'll try next! I have a soft spot for romance novels so I am definitely interested in trying to write one. I'm working on a screenplay right now, so who knows? I might end up writing primarily for film and TV. That said, I absolutely love writing YA fiction! In college (and beyond, sadly) there is a lot of snobbery when it comes to YA fiction, as if happy endings are intended as insults to the legacy of Hemingway or something. There is also an underlying assumption that YA is only for teens and more mature authors write serious novels. This kind of pretentious crap never fails to irritate me. The one thing I have absolutely no intention of writing is the next Great American Novel--it would bore me. My selection of genre won't be based on someone with a PhD's views on what qualifies as "great" literature. Erm, so I guess that makes me firmly undecided.

Kate: Awkward is coming out a few short weeks after you graduate from college (January 1, 2012). What do you think your life will look like after those two things happen?

Marni: I spend a lot of nights trying to picture this. Honestly, I don't know. I'm going to be writing, but I have almost no idea what project I'll be working on. Actually, that's not entirely true. I know that I have a boatload of editing ahead for my upcoming novels with KTeen! I am definitely intrigued by the idea of getting a career going in the screenwriting world, so it's entirely possible that I'll be living in L.A.

Kate: At the end of the ARC there are included experts from your next two books in the Awkward series. How many more books are you planning to write in this series and how long am I going to have to wait to read them?

Marni: This is surprisingly tricky to answer. I have signed on for a four book deal. That said, I have several novel ideas for my other characters beyond those initial four. I have a feeling that whether or not I write them will be directly related to how well these four are received. The next book to be released is DECKED WITH HOLLY (title subject to change) which will be released December 2012.

Kate: When did you first know that you wanted to be a writer? And if you weren't writing, what else would you want to try?

Marni: I wrote my first good short stories in fifth grade and my teacher said with absolute confidence that I was going to be an author. I laughed it off. I remember thinking that I'd never be able to finish a whole novel. It seemed like the most daunting task imaginable. It wasn't until my senior year of high school that I realized elementary school Marni was absolutely right: writing a novel is freaking hard work! But when I typed "The End" that first time I knew this was something I wanted to do for the rest of my life. Still, if I had to do something else professionally . . . I would pick acting. I caught the theater bug in middle school when I played Amaryllis in our production of The Music Man. I think I got the part because neither of us could carry a tune even if our lives depended on it. I absolutely loved it though.

Kate: What advice do you have for other young writers hoping to break into the writing world?


Marni: Write what you love to read. I think it's really easy to get too hung up on what other people think when you are first starting out, so I recommend trusting your gut instinct above everyone and everything else. That way even if it doesn't appeal to others you will have created something that you can be proud of as your original work.

Kate: Okay, Marni, be honest. What embarrassing event from high school are you glad never got caught of film and posted to youtube?

Marni: All of them! My entire high school existence! But specifically, the time I tried to flirt with a guy and accidentally spit in his face. Yeah, I'm glad that never hit youtube. Or maybe the time I showed up to my high school prom in a hot pink floor length dress (with sparkles!) only to discover that 95% of the girls were wearing dressed that were black and slinky. And then there was the time . . . erm, next question!

Kate: Kate Scott is another up and coming YA writer. How thrilled are you that you've had the chance to befriend her? Feel free to lay on as much praise as you want, Kate really is awesome.

Marni: Kate Scott is destined for superstardom. You can quote me on that ;) I feel incredibly lucky that my writing career has brought so many amazing people into my life. Spending time with other writers (like Kate) makes the solitary nature of writing a lot more fun!

Kate: Well, I think that last question really says it all. I’m awesome. No further questions.

Don’t forget to mark your calendar for Jan 1st, 2012 when AWKWARD will hit a bookstore near you. And in the meantime, enter my contest to win a free autographed advance reader copy.

More than a Label

I am dyslexic. And I am a writer. And I am a lot of other things too. I’ve never blatantly lied about my dyslexia, but I haven’t always talked about it. I haven’t even always thought about it. For the first year and a half that I had this blog, I never even brought it up. Not because I was trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes, just because being dyslexic isn’t something that I think about all that often. It’s just a part of who I am. I’ve never once blogged about having brown hair or being 5’-9”, but those are both parts of who I am too.

Then I wrote a book with a dyslexic main character and I realized it was time to come out of the closet. So I started trying to blog about dyslexia every Friday. Tuesdays I give a book recommendation, Wednesdays I do Road Trip Wednesday, Mondays and Thursdays I write about whatever I feel like, and Fridays are dyslexia day. Friday’s are by far the hardest blogging day of the week. What am I supposed to say? It was really hard for me to learn how to read as a kid, but I decided to grow up to write novels anyway. Okay, I’ve said it. Now what?

Earlier this week an author whose work I enjoy came out of the disability closet to admit that she is legally blind. I’m not going to say what writer this is, because in her admission to her disability she said that she’d kept it a secret because she wants people to appreciate and recognize the things she can do, not the things she can’t. She wants to be seen as a writer, not as a blind person who also happens to write.

I get where she’s coming from, and I think my own failure to maintain this dyslexia Friday thing for more than a couple months stems from a similar place. I don’t want to hide the fact that I have a learning disability, because I think it is important for other people with learning disabilities to know that it is possible to move beyond them. But that’s the whole point. I need to move beyond mine too. I am a writer. I am a dyslexic. And I am a lot of other things too. Having dyslexia doesn’t define my life, it is only one small part of who I am and how I think. So it’s unfair to myself to try and make it define this blog.

I did write a book with a dyslexic main character, and I do think it is important to strive to present and honest portrayal of learning disabilities and the way they affect people. When I have things about dyslexia or other learning disabilities that I feel compelled to say, I will. But I don’t want to turn this into a dyslexia blog. I want to keep it a writing blog. Because even if my spelling sucks, I’m still a writer and that is the thing I want to be recognized for.

Oh, and in case you didn’t figure it out from reading this post. I’m probably not going to be blogging every Friday now. Only on Friday’s when I have something I want to say, that may or may not be about dyslexia.

My Friend Marni

On Tuesday, I announced that I was giving away a signed ARC of AWKWARD by Marni Bates. AWKWARD is a really fun book about a spastic chick who’s most embarrassing moment is posted on youtube. Before she can say “oops” the video has gone viral and Justin Timberlake is making fun of her on twitter. The book is hilarious, so you definitely want to enter my contest for a chance to win this ARC.

But today I’m not going to talk about Mackenzie Wellesley (the main character in AWKWARD), I’m going to talk about Marni Bates. Marni is awesome, and kind of goofy, and definitely spastic. As far as I know, AWKWARD is entirely fiction, but that doesn’t mean she hasn’t done lots of embarrassing things in her own life that didn’t end up on youtube.

I first met Marni a little over three years ago at the Willamette Writers Conference. At the time I was in my late twenties pretending to be a serious writer, but basically acting like a total hack, and Marni had just graduated from high school but was somehow already a serious writer. We connected quickly, because she is young and I am immature so nothing but good things can come out of us being friends.

As the years went by, Marni got a little older and I got a little more mature, and we both transitioned from conference newbies to conference superstars. Marni met her now agent at the 2010 conference and I squealed along with her as she later went on to sign a four book deal (AWKWARD is the first in a series, cause she’s that great of a writer). Then at the 2011 conference I signed with my agent and Marni was right there to do the happy dance beside me.

I now think of Marni as more than just a teenager to act immature with at writing conferences. I now think of her as both a great writer and a great friend. I was super excited when Marni gave me her ARC to read. And now I’m even more excited to give it away to somebody else, because it really is a great book. So please pop over to my Tuesday post and enter the contest to win this ARC. And if you don’t win, make sure to mark your calendar for January 1, 2012 so you can buy a copy of AWKWARD for yourself.

Everything about Marni is fun and funny and exciting. I am nothing but thrilled to be able to call her a friend. And even if you aren’t lucky enough to know her personally, you can still read and love her great book, AWKWARD.

RTW – Call Me Superwriter

For this week’s Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What are your writing/publishing superpowers (drafting? plotting? writing queries?) – and what’s your kryptonite?

My kryptonite is definately setting, it's so bad I don't even want to talk about it. But if I had a writer superhero name you could call me The Flash, because I do tend to write fast. I’m doing nano for the first time this year. I haven’t won yet, but I’m currently at about 45k words, so if you check back tomorrow my status may have changed.

Lately quite a few people have been asking me how I manage to write so fast. The basic answer is that I don’t think, I just write. Actually I do think, quite a lot. But that always comes before. I think while I’m lying in bed at night. I think while I’m brushing my teeth and taking a shower. I think while I’m driving. I think while I’m vacuuming (or I would if I ever vacuumed). And when I’m done thinking, I trust that I actually know what I’m doing and then I just do it.

I write very fast. Typically about 1500 words per hour. I type 60 words per minute and I talk 200 words per minute. So 1500 words per hour feels slow for me. I do pause between words and think about what comes next. I just don’t pause for very long. I trust my instincts and never let myself get hung up on one word when the idea for the next paragraph has already popped into my head.

Next, I’m never afraid to revise. I don’t labor over individual words for hours at a time, that just sounds painful. So changing words, adding backstory, fleshing out characters, and modifying subplots is never an assault on my creativity. “Kill your darlings” is a common writer’s catch phrase. I like to take it one step farther and just not have darlings. I’m not afraid to revise, and even though I revise a lot, I also revise pretty fast.

In my preferred writing world, I edit as I go (and then I edit some more when after that too). I like to write in a circular motion so I reread (and rewrite as needed) three or four chapters before whatever I write new. If I write one new chapter a day, by the time I get to the end I’m essential on my third draft.

So maybe my writing superpower isn't really speed, it's that when I’m writing something new, I know it isn’t going to be perfect. I don’t want it to be perfect. All I want to do is write down that scene that I was thinking about this morning in the shower, so by the time I go to eat lunch I’ll have it out of my system and I can start thinking about the scene that comes after it. I can clean it up later. And if the next scene doesn’t jell in my mind while I’m eating lunch, maybe I’ll clean it up sooner and think about the next scene while I’m eating dinner too.

So what about you? What's your writing superpower? Are you willing to admit your kryptonite?

Awkward by Marni Bates ARC giveaway

Instead of simply recommending a good book this week, I’m giving one away. Awkward by Marni Bates is a very fun read that is laugh out loud hilarious. It’s also written by my good friend Marni, which means I have an autographed ARC waiting for a new reader. I wish that I could give this book away to everyone I know, but I only have one copy. So the rest of you will need to mark your calendars for January 1st, 2012 when Awkward hits a bookstore near you.

Here is goodreads description of Awkward:

Mackenzie Wellesley has spent her life avoiding the spotlight. At Smith High, she's the awkward junior people only notice when they need help with homework. Until she sends a burly football player flying with her massive backpack and makes a disastrous - not to mention unwelcome - attempt at CPR. Before the day is out, the whole fiasco explodes on YouTube. And then the strangest thing happens. Suddenly, Mackenzie is an Internet sensation, with four million hits and counting. Sucked into a whirlwind of rock stars, paparazzi, and free designer clothes, she even catches the eye of the most popular guy at school. And that's when life gets really interesting...

Mackenzie’s character is great, and even the unbelievable world she’s tossed into is somehow believable. Reading this book definitely made me glad youtube wasn’t around to capture all of my awkward moments as a teen. Reading about someone else’s discomfort is a lot more fun.

But this isn’t just a recommendation, it’s a contest, so I should probably get to the rules. I’m going to do the whole varying points thing for this contest. Each point will count as one entry into the contest. I’ll randomly select a winner in two weeks, on November 22nd.

Leave a comment on this blog post, including your email address so I can contact you if you win (+1)
Follow this blog (+1)
Follow Marni’s blog (http://marnibates.com/) or twitter (@marnibates) (+1)
Mark this book as “to-read” on goodreads (+1)
Tweet, Blog, Facebook, or Google+ about this contest, or this book in general (+1 each)
Preorder this book on amazon (+10)
After you win and read this book, recommend it to at least five other people (just a given, cuz I know you’re going to love it)

Once you’ve added up all your points, post them in the comments section. You don’t need to include links, I’ll trust you to be honest.

This contest will remain open until November 22nd. Good luck.

Fighting the Internal Editor

It’s November, which means it’s National Novel Writing Month. Lately, I’ve been joking that I’m participating in National Novel Writing Week, because my word count is crazy huge. So I’m going to stop bragging about writing 15k words in one day and talk a little about my done by November 30th goal. Because it’s a big goal, even if I do like to write fast, and I expect many of the fears and doubts I have are also being faced by other writers.

The book I’m writing now has a lot of potential. Based only on the idea, I feel like it could be a huge best seller. I’m far enough along in my career that I always write with the assumption of publication. But this book in particular tends to elicit fantasies of block buster sales and six figure advances. But right now, it’s still at the potential stage. It isn’t perfect yet.

I tend to edit while I go, and by the time I get to “the end” I’m usually on what is essentially my third or fourth draft. That’s the real reason behind my insane daily word counts. A lot of what I’ve written this month has been rewriting, and in a few cases more like revising. I got the idea for this book back in September and have been playing with it on and off for a couple of months now.

I am now at the point where I know the entire book. I’ve written a draft form of about two thirds of it, and I have a detailed outline for the rest. Most of the unwritten scenes have played in my head multiple times, so when I sit down to write all I have to do is type up a story I already know. Still typing up the new stuff and pushing forward to “the end” is hard for me. Because there is another voice in my head that keeps saying the beginning is still a little sloppy.

This book has so much potential. I will be seriously pissed at myself if I fail to do this story justice. My writing for this book needs to be great. I can’t settle for pretty good anymore. I can’t settle for anything less than perfect. And my November 30th goal isn’t a goal for a completed crappy first draft. It’s a goal of a story so good it will blow my agents mind when she reads it. I want it to blow the minds of everyone that reads it, and I’m afraid it’s not going to be good enough.

I’m really trying to make myself finish this rough draft before I go back and revise more. Like I said before, I know the entire story at this point, so all I have to do to finish a crappy first draft is type. I’m hoping that I’ll finish pretty early and have several weeks left in November to work on polishing and revising so my November 30th end product won’t totally suck. But pushing through and getting all the words down on paper is still a challenge.

So if you are doing nano this year, and you don’t have quite as much experience as I do. Please know you aren’t alone. Putting those words on paper is always hard. And fear that the words you chose won’t do the story you’ve imagined justice don’t go away. I just need to remind myself that I LOVE this story, and hope I’ll find the words to make other people love it when I get to the editing stage. If you love the story you’re writing this month, try not to let fear and doubt get you down, just enjoy the time you get to spend with your characters.

A Note to the NaNoWriMoers of This World

We are now four days into November, so it's time to check in and see how all you WriMoers are doing. This is my first year doing NaNo, and I did cheat and start writing in October. So my current word count of 35k words is serious false advertising. But I am definately hoping to finish my rough draft by November 30th. And I wanted to give a little encouragement to all the other writers out there trying to complete a draft this month.

Technically, this is my first time doing NaNo, but last winter I wrote a book in seven weeks. I didn’t outline. I didn’t strategize for months. I just wrote it. And I revised as I was going. That book earned me an agent in less than 24 hours, and is now out on sub, so I guess that means it's pretty good. I wrote it in Jan/Feb/Mar not in November, but I sort of felt like it was NaNo as I was writing it. So for all of you WriMoers I’m going to tell you what I did.

I got the idea for the story on Jan 20th. The idea was pretty coherent when it formed in my mind. I didn’t know all the details, but I understood the main character and I had a very general sense of the beginning middle and end. When I was hit with the idea, I wrote down a short story summary to cement my idea (about two pages). Then I just started typing.

January 20th was a Thursday. And I didn’t do anything but write that entire next weekend. By the following Monday, January 24th, I had 30k words. Then my life crept back up on me and I slowed down a bit. I was still writing every minute I could, but I was also spending more time thinking about what I was writing. I hadn’t done any planning, so I had to stop and figure out what the book I was writing was really going to be about. I wrote another 4k words during the next week and then on Jan 29th I began revising the 34k words I had.

After cutting a few characters, reworking some scenes, and doing a bit more outlining to plan what I was writing towards, I dove in and finished the book. I hit the 50k word mark on February 13th (three and a half weeks after I started writing). So by NaNo rules, I totally won. But the story wasn’t done yet. It took me another full month to complete my 64k word first draft. This is because I didn’t just sit down and write the last 15k words and call it good. I re-wrote a lot of those first 30k words that I banged out in 4 days. I did what it took to make my beginning middle and end all jell together into a coherent story.

Seven weeks to write a clean first draft is still pretty fabulous. And I hope I’ll be able to repeat that magic again this month. Because writing like that really is magic. It's the most amazing feeling in the world. And I'm so excited for all of the people who are trying to create their own magic this month. If I could do it, there is no reason why you can't do it too.

Oh, and just to infuse a bit of reality into this post. Please note that even that “good first draft” that I wrote in seven weeks wasn’t that good. I gave my manuscript to six different beta readers and spent three more months doing a lot more revising before I had the polished manuscript that landed me my fabulous agent. So if you were thinking about querying on December 1st, think again.

But good luck. I wrote 50k words in less than 30 days last winter. Heck, I wrote 30k words in 4 days. It is possible. And it is really really fun. So enjoy yourself. And stop procrastinating by reading blogs. And go write something.

The World is Writing

This month I am attempting NaNo for the first time. I did cheat and started my book early. But I really want to finish this draft by the end of November. Not for any of the normal NaNo reasons, but mainly because I always feel super guilty when my agent calls me and asks how my next book is coming and I don’t have anything worthwhile to say. So I’m finishing this thing, this month.

Last weekend, I decided maybe I should tell my husband that I was planning to write my book this month. I didn’t tell him anything about NaNo, I just said I’d set a goal for myself to finish my rough draft by November 30th. I promised to stop writing for Thanksgiving and other social obligations, but wanted him to know I’d be spending a lot of my free time hiding in my office. This isn’t my first book, so Kate’s in hard core writing mode isn’t a new thing for him.

My husband isn’t a writer. He puts up with me, but I really didn’t think he would have heard anything about NaNoWriMo. So I was surprised when he asked if I had a team of people I was doing NaNo with. Apparently there is a group of writers in his office that are meeting together during lunch each day this month to encourage one another. My office doesn’t have a group of WriMoers, and I don’t plan/expect to go to any local write-ins this month. But it still shocked me that my husband was so in the loop.

If there is a team of WriMoers at a high tech firm that only employs geektastic engineers, the world really is writing this month. So good luck everyone. I hope I’m able to finish my current work in progress this month, and I hope you’re able to as well.

RTW – Writing Coaches

For this week’s Road Trip Wednesday, the good people over at YA Highway are asking the question

What kind of writing coach do you need? When you have to coach friends, what kind of coach are you?

This is a hard one for me, because I don’t feel like I’ve ever coached or been coached. I just write. I’ve taken four “writing classes” in my life. I took one creative writing class in college, and then I later took three writing classes from local authors through a local writing center. I have also attended four writing conferences.

I learned stuff in those classes and conferences, but I wasn’t really being coached, just taught. I was in a critique group that met locally for a couple of years, but I now know most of my critique partners online. I have definitely learned things from my critique partners too, but again I wouldn’t call it coaching.

Back when I was in college, I spent all my summers working as a camp counselor. I wasn’t coaching little league or anything, but my relationship with those kids often felt like coaching. My job was to lead them in some fun activities and to toss in enough seemingly natural yet well placed pep talks for them to leave the summer with higher self-confidence and a willingness to try new things.

I guess that is how I think about writing too. Some people are good writers, and some people are good at other things. There are “teachers” who can pass along some of the basic rules of the craft. But at the end of the day, it all comes down to the thoughts and ideas swimming around in a writers head and their own ability to transfer those ideas into words. The ability to write well can’t really be taught or coached, it’s learned internally.

The thing that I want from my writing friends, and the thing that I try to give to my writing friends is encouragement to keep going. Some writing days are harder than others. I never set word count goals for myself, I just try to enjoy all the time that I spend writing. But it is November 2nd and my nano project just crossed the 30k word mark so maybe I don’t really need word count goals (please note I cheated and started a couple of days early so I didn’t really write all that in one day, it was like four days).

I guess I’ll just end this post with some coaching advice of my own. Writing should be fun. You should love it. When good writing flows out of you, it feels like magic. So just have fun with it. Learn the rules, put in the time, and don’t give up if the first thing you write sucks. It takes years to become a great writer. But they should be really fun years. In my opinion, writing is the most enjoyable hobby in the world. If you feel the same way, stop stressing and start writing. Maybe somewhere down the line you’ll be lucky enough to have it stop being a hobby. But if you’re writing in hopes of getting rich, just give up and go to law school.

Graceling

Lately I’ve been spending more of my free time writing than reading, so I don’t have a recent read to recommend for this week’s book recommendation. Instead I’m going to recommend an old favorite that I think deserves more hype. And Graceling by Kristin Cashore definitely fits that bill.

According to goodreads:

Katsa has been able to kill a man with her bare hands since she was eight—she’s a Graceling, one of the rare people in her land born with an extreme skill. As niece of the king, she should be able to live a life of privilege, but Graced as she is with killing, she is forced to work as the king’s thug.

When she first meets Prince Po, Graced with combat skills, Katsa has no hint of how her life is about to change. She never expects to become Po’s friend. She never expects to learn a new truth about her own Grace—or about a terrible secret that lies hidden far away . . . a secret that could destroy all seven kingdoms with words alone.

Here is what I have to say about this book:

I’m not sure what genre most people classify this book as. Maybe middle grade fantasy. Maybe YA. It reads like a fairytale. There are plenty of bad guys and grim truths and harrowing adventures. But most classic fairytales are also full of evil wolves or witches lurking in the woods. And any kid who loves Hans Christian Anderson or the Brothers Grimm will love Kristin Cashore.

The thing that I like best about this book is that Katsa is one serious tough cookie. She isn’t Cinderella or Snow White or some other Disney Princess. She’s a very strong and capable young woman who is both willing and capable of jumping on a horse and riding off to rescue the prince.

The Hunger Games gets a lot of hype because Katniss is a strong female character, and also the star of a very gripping and insanely popular series. But personally, I find Katsa far more compelling than Katniss. So I’m going to suggest Graceling to another set of future readers. Not only should lovers of fairytales read this book. But lovers of hard core female superheroes should read it too. If you’ve finished The Mocking Jay and are looking for another fun adventure about a tough girl kicking butt maybe it’s time to give Katsa a try.

One note I feel I should add to this review. I just checked and the School Library Journal recommends this book for grades 8 and up. Teens who enjoy fantasy and adventure will definitely love this story. I do think that slightly younger kids could enjoy it too, but parents who want to read this story to their kids before bed should be forewarned. This story is just as violent as everything written by the Brother’s Grimm and may not be suitable for kids that get nightmares.