Industry Review: It's A Small World

Writing can be a very solitary activity.  Typing away on our keyboards as we stare endlessly at our computer screens.  From time to time we stand up and stretch, go for a walk or grab a coffee break, but interaction with others (especially during the work day) can be few and far between. 

Which is why I feel so blessed to have such a great writing community that I can turn to whenever I need a little nudge or a big guiding light. This past weekend I attended the Niagara Writers Retreat and Conference for YA and Children's Writers.  Organized by conference organizer extraordinaire Jackie Pynaert, I had the chance to spend three days with an intimate group of top notch writers, brainstorm with an incredible critique group (lead by indie editor Lorin Oberweger), have one-on-one time with Susan Rich (Editor-at-Large, Little, Brown Books for Young Readers) and be inspired by the likes of Ellen Hopkins, Sara Zarr and Kimberley Griffiths Little.  

It was a great event and I learned a lot, but more importantly, I came away with new friends who are all welcome additions to my writing family.  Through emails and Facebook, we keep in touch, spread important industry news and cheer each other on when we've finished writing a chapter or signed with a new agent. 

There are many ways to build your own network of cool industry peeps, from message boards to meet and greets at the local library. Below, I've listed a few of my support groups who all help to give me that extra kick in the writer pants (and a hug) when I need it.

1) Thinking to Inking

We started off as four strangers - most at our first writers conference (the Big Sur Writing Workshop) and came away bosom blogging buddies. 

2)  Torkidlit 

Where Toronto YA and Middle grade writers catch up online and off. 

3) The Conference Crew

Workshops aren't just weekend events, they set the stage to build long lasting friendships.  My "Your Best Book" class of 2012 is still going strong and keeping everyone informed and motivated through our Facebook group page.

Where do you go for your writer support and inspiration?  Feel free to post your replies here and spread the word on community. 

YA Book Pick: Mind Games

Once a month, we choose an outstanding YA book to review. We want to spotlight books of interest to aspiring writers, as well as highlight some of our favorite books and authors!

This month's Book Pick is MIND GAMES by Kiersten White

Synopsis (from Goodreads):  Fia was born with flawless instincts. Her first impulse, her gut feeling, is always exactly right. Her sister, Annie, is blind to the world around her—except when her mind is gripped by strange visions of the future.

Trapped in a school that uses girls with extraordinary powers as tools for corporate espionage, Annie and Fia are forced to choose over and over between using their abilities in twisted, unthinkable ways…or risking each other’s lives by refusing to obey.

In a stunning departure from her New York Times bestselling Paranormalcy trilogy, Kiersten White delivers a slick, edgy, heartstoppingly intense psychological thriller about two sisters determined to protect each other—no matter the cost.

First Line: My dress is black and itchy and I hate it.

I love how White utilizes the sense of touch right from the get-go. It’s far easier to rely on sight and sound, but much better to get a visceral reaction by focusing on a lesser-used sense like touch, taste, or smell as she has done here. It’s a simple line, but also relatable, and gives us a sense of who the mc is. Reminds me that sometimes simple and elegant works better than the overwrought sentences I’m sometimes tempted to concoct.  

Highlights:  This book moves. Fast. White spins us through a world of hard choices for a couple of sisters who are trapped in a cruel game. The tenderness between the sisters is palpable and the heart of the book. The love relationships feel more real and complex and broken than I’m used to in YA. I really liked it. I’d gone to hear a lecture on the complex darkness of covert wars the night before reading it and had a similar ache reading this book as I did hearing about the brutality of war the night before.

Notes for Writers:  White doesn’t tell the story chronologically. She begins in the present, but then provides flashbacks from various time periods throughout to fill in the backstory. She also tells the story from two perspectives. This structure is difficult to pull off, but since it’s done well here, it adds a tone of a sense of loss of control over memories, or even time itself. That tone really enhances the theme of how broken one may get when she loses of control the basic structures of her life.

White keeps command of the story through all the time jumps by anchoring us in the present, and titles each chapter with the name of the girl who is telling the story as well as how long ago the story occurred for clarity.

Be on the lookout for the poetic ending, too, it’s more beautifully broken and insightful than I was expecting from such an action-heavy work.

A Good Read For: Fans of dystopian who’d like a female Jason Bourne twist on the genre, as well as fans of White’s Paranormalacy series, which I also enjoyed (personally, I think White has really come into her own in this series, though, and knocked it out of the park here.)

Villain of the Month: Regina George

Though it may have come out in 2004 (has it really been that close to a decade already???), Mean Girls is still a staple film for the high-school set. In fact, I hear it quoted more than any other movie by my teenagers. I will contend, that much of its enduring popularity is due to its fantastically fabulous and equally brutal villain: Regina George.

Here are my TOP TEN reasons why I think Regina George makes such a fantastic villain:

10. She looks angelic with those long flowing locks and rosebud lips.
9.  Her compliments are vague and served with a smile.
8. Her cruel assessments of the receiver of the compliment the minute she turns her back are equally specific and brutal. And still served with a smile. 
7. She has stolen her parents' bedroom (such a small detail to convey such dominance. genius.).
6. She can and does date the hottest guys in school. (Even if she has to lie, cheat, and steal to do it.)
5. Her car. Her house. Her waistline.
4. She falls. When faced with a rival, she actually stumbles thereby gaining our sympathy. How can one fully demonize a beautiful girl in a back-brace who has been secretly fed weight-gainer by a "friend"?
3. She fights back. At a time when it is incredibly difficult to navigate girl-world, she doesn't let others determine her status -- no matter how far she has fallen.
2. She's funny. Cruel-funny, but funny.
1. She does what so many great lust-worth villains do: she fulfills in the reader the hidden desire to say what one wants to say regardless of the cost. And is often rewarded for it. Such a silly lot of us: to crave/desire to be the ones we despise the most.

She's such a great villain, in fact, that "Regina George" even has her own Twitter account with almost half a million followers. Check it out any time you want to get inspired by/inside the head of the original mean girl: https://twitter.com/ItsReginaG (Twitter handle: "ItsReginaG"). You're welcome.

Why do you think she makes such a great villain?

Thinking Beyond the Page: Musician/Writer Collaborations

A friend I met on Twitter, Kelsey Macke, made a big announcement a few weeks ago. Not only did she sell her debut novel, but she and her husband are also writing, recording, and producing an album as a companion to that novel.

I think the GIF Kelsey used in her announcement post says it all:

In addition to making me absolutely thrilled for (and okay, a bit jealous of) Kelsey, this news got me thinking about ways music and novel writing can complement each other.

For example, author Glen Duncan and musician Stephen Coates of The Real Tuesday Weld collaborated on the novels and albums I, Lucifer and The Last Werewolf.

While in these cases the soundtracks were authorized and official, there are also plenty of instances where musicians were simply inspired enough by works of fiction to create music that (hopefully) complements the book and enhances the reading experience.







On the other side of the creative spectrum, one of my favorite musicians, Ben Folds, teamed up with author Nick Hornby a few years ago. The result was a full-length album featuring lyrics by Hornby and music by Folds: Lonely Avenue.


It sounds like an odd combo, but it really works. The album has become one of my favorites!

The Chicago Sun-Times has an excellent interview with Ben Folds where he explains how the collaboration came to be and how their process worked.


Have you ever considered fusing music with your writing (or, for that matter, writing with your music)?

It Took Stephen King 4 Novels...And Other Inspirational Publishing Examples To Keep You Going When The Going Gets Tough

Hi Writing Friends.  Ever have one of those weeks?  Or hell, one of those months?  You know the one I'm talking about - where your computer starts to look like that kid from sixth grade who atomic-wedgied you in the bathroom, and publication sounds like the name of an invite-only party you conveniently never received an invitation for (but you bought the dress, the shoes, and the purse to match and now you have no where to wear them to.)

I've heard the urban legends - So And So wrote 50 novels and submitted eighty bajillion queries before landing their Dream Agent and subsequently their Dream Publisher and then went on to become a universe-crushing best selling author. But are the stories true? Or are they just urban legends?

Turns out they are totally, 100% true.  So for those of you who are having one of those my-computer-is-an-asshole-and-why-did-I-ever-think-I-could-do-this weeks, I thought I'd share some of my favorite totally true stories of publication inspiration.

Stephen King Threw Carrie Away.

Carrie was not SK's first attempted novel, but his 4th, and it almost never saw the light of day because he tossed the type-written pages into the trash.  Thankfully, his wife saw the potential and fished them out.  Carrie became King's first published novel, went on to become an international best seller, and now he's the literary King Of The Universe. If it wasn't for SK, I wouldn't have my gut-wrenching fear of clowns, but who cares?  Those things are creepy as hell anyways.

Dean Koontz Wrote 4 Novels That Never Sold

Koontz attributes his own self-doubt to his early novel writing struggles.  He'd had some early success with short stories, but ended up shelving 4 manuscripts before his novel-writing career took off.  According to interviews, he will never publish the shelved works. The beauty of hindsight taught him that they weren't ready for publication, and he now knows that he needed those early attempts to help build his craft.

It Took Over Two Years to Sell The Sookie Stackhouse Books

A world without True Blood?  Say it ain't so.  Lucky for all of us, Harris's agent was tenacious in his quest to sell Dead Until Dark, the first in The Southern Vampire Series.  Harris published several other mystery series before writing Sookie's story, but according to her they were only mildly successful and she was always at risk of being cut from her publisher. Her desire to write something different lead to the creation of the Bon Temps-based series, but it took over two years before her agent sold it to a publisher.  Turns out it didn't suck after all.

*Looks around room.  Realizes no one is laughing. Scuttles off to pun in shame*

The Help Was Rejected By Over 60 Agents

No joke. Stockette was rejected over 60 times before she landed her literary agent. It took her 5 years to write the story and countless nights locked up in a hotel room feverishly revising before she struck gold.  It went on to sell over 5 million copies, spent over 100 weeks on the New York Times Best Seller list, and I'm sure the whole movie/Oscar thing didn't hurt either.

It wasn't Always Happily Ever Afters for Danielle Steel

Love her or hate her, no one can argue with Steel's prolific career. I've had the pleasure of walking past her castle, er, house, in San Francisco, and trust me when I say she is doing just fine. But it wasn't always HEA's for Mrs. Steel.  As she said on her blog:  "I was very lucky that my first book published - but the next 5 weren't, and were never sold or published.  But my 7th book was.  If I had given up before that, I would never have had the career I have today. So you just have to keep at it and not give up (as with most things in life), and keep writing."  What would the Lifetime network have done if she'd given up before that 7th book?  My Sunday afternoons would be much less entertaining, that's for sure.

Nora Roberts Was Rejected, And She Turned Out Just Fine

According to an interview, Roberts had three years of hard work and several rejected manuscripts behind her when she finally published her first novel in 1981. She's since written over 200 novels and was the first author inducted into the Romance Writers of America Hall of Fame. Not too shabby for someone who received a boatload of form rejections from Harlequin before hitting gold.

Somewhere In The World There's an Agent and an Editor Who Said No to Harry Potter

True story - a friend of mine in the publishing industry sent a form rejection to J.K. Rowling. She didn't read the manuscript, but someone in her office did and they made the decision to pass.  In fact, it took almost a year to sell Harry Potter and The Sorcerer's Stone. And as for Ms. Rowling's quest to find an agent, she too fell victim to the infamous form rejection before she met her match.  It just goes to show you - the business really is subjective, and one person's trash is another one's treasure.

Keep writing, people. It's the only surefire way to make your publishing dreams come true.