Having had the pleasure of interviewing author Jay Asher for last month's From Book To Screen (and back again) series and still reeling from all the great information I learned from the Your Best Books Workshop in Charlotte (you can find great blog reviews from my fellow workshop attendees Janis Marziotto and Carol Baldwin), I thought it would be fitting to have an Industry Month in Review that reflected on news that crossed the lines between screenwriting and novel writing. 
As we've seen, over the past few months, there have been a number of Young Adult novels optioned for film including dystopian and fantasy novels Marie Lu's Legend, Laini Taylor's Daughter of Smoke and Bone and YA Muse Veronica Rossi's Under The Never Sky and more contemporary fare John Green's The Fault In Our Stars and Lauren Oliver's Before I Fall.
With the continued success of books to features such as the Hunger Games and Twilight series and the highly anticipated Divergent series not to mention books to television such as Vampire Diaries and Pretty Little Liars, we're sure to see the film rights of YA novels continue to be picked up for some time.
While we continue to blur the lines between books and screen, there are still fundamental principles that stand the test of any medium. A friend directed me to an old post by Script Shadow entitled Ten Screenwriting Tips You Can Learn From The Breakfast Club, and even though it's from spring 2011, it help re-emphasize all the things I learned in Charlotte (plus I LOVE the Breakfast Club). Crystal clear characters, challenging dialogue, and conflict. They are things we hear over and over again but getting them right is the biggest challenge.
Finally, from one of the master authors whose bridged that page to screen gap many a times comes one of the best news stories of this year (for me at least). A group of students in New Brunswick, Canada sent 1,100 letters asking Stephen King to please visit them before Halloween and guess what? He did! Here are a few tidbits from the man who wrote what some would consider the bible on writing:
Before his first story was accepted for publication King used to display rejection letters on a nail on his wall. After 60 or 70 rejections, the nail fell down.
“There’s always going to be room at the bottom, because people like me are going to croak.”
Finally, I have the pleasure today of also guest blogging for the YA Muses, you can check out my blog on "the best piece of writing advice I ever received" here.
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