Tag Archives: Barry Goldblatt

What Are You Reading?

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Photo by Serge Melki

Photo by Serge Melki

As July slowly but surely starts to brown around the edges, it’s time to catch up with you, my fellow book lovers, and find out what’s been on your reading tables 0f late. As we all know, the most highly anticipated and controversial book this summer is Fudgin’s Doesn’t Not Play Nice, by P.I.X. Gwantonomous. But there’s been so much press and social chatter about it already, I won’t drag us down that rabbit hole.

But how about the second most highly anticipated and controversial book released this summer? Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman. Have you read it? Are you going to? I’ve read a few reviews and despite the lukewarm response it still piques my interest. But I’m a little queasy about buying a book that it’s dementia-addled author may have been coerced into publishing. Do I want to finance her exploitation? Am I being too precious about this? You tell me.

Anyway, in the past month I’ve read Ready Player One, by Ernest Cline, and The World According to Garp, by John Irving. Both books are great reads and rather topical; Ready Player One because 1980’s pop culture will never, ever, ever die, and Garp because it includes a zany but honest and humane exploration of a transgender celebrity.

At the moment and in anticipation of my attending the annual SCBWI Summer Conference, I’ve currently got my nose in The Diviners, by Libba Bray. To my knowledge, Ms. Bray isn’t scheduled to be at the conference, but her agent Barry Goldblatt is and I’d really like to talk with him. On the horizon there’s some intriguing nonfiction for me to get to, like Raising Hell: Ken Russell and the Unmaking of The Devils, and H Is For Hawk, by Helen Macdonald.

So that’s my book business, what are you reading these days?

A Day At YALLWEST

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YALLWESTHard to tell from my crappy photo but yes, the first annual YALLWEST festival was held this past weekend in Santa Monica!

An offshoot of YALLFEST, this was a gathering of high-profile YA and Middle Grade authors, agents and editors coming together to connect directly with fans and to celebrate writing and reading teen literature.

I checked out the festivities on Saturday, attended a few panel discussions, and thought I’d share what struck me at what I hope will become an annual event:

“The first time I read you is probably in an email.”

“A writer should be able to capture the essence of her book in a single, elegant sentence.”

“The toughest times I’ve ever had is when I went against my gut.”

“You can publish anything regardless of what’s trending if the book is great and you can convince your team to believe in it.”

“Are we done with gay teen witches?”

“Publishers want to buy stories they can build on.”

“Writers these days need to engage directly with their readers because their readers expect it.”

“Don’t go to law school.”

“It was called the ‘Taco Bell of books’ ”

“So much of creative success is luck and timing.”

“Every ‘failed’ manuscript made me a better writer.”

“Can you imagine if everyone gave you instant feedback on everything you did every day? You’d never leave the house.”

“Writing is like a Roomba.”

“Writing is like a glass of wine: it makes sense when you start but then it all goes downhill and you should probably just sleep it off and hope that when you wake up it makes sense again.”

“Sometimes I’ll just find myself sobbing outside on the porch.”

“Science fiction and fantasy stories are a great way to talk about the present but with a protective gauze.”

“I can’t write with too much ‘genre’ in mind.”

“Writing is inefficient.”

“The inner voice is raw and impolite.”

“The YA authors I know whose work is banned are the nicest white women.”

“I choose to be ignorant of the people who might be vastly misinterpreting my work on Goodreads.”

“The YA writing community is amazingly tight. It’s a small world.”

“Kids are afraid to be their authentic selves. They think they have to be something they’re not.”

“An administrator once told me they only have ‘2% reduced lunch’ at their school and I’ve come to realize that ‘reduced lunch’ means ‘black.’ ”

“The number one thing that kids need to know: ‘You are not alone.’ ”

“We cannot underestimate the emotional intelligence of teenagers.”

“What we’re trying to do is find a voice in order to show as realistic a portrait of young people as we can. We need to be patient to find that voice.”

WHO SAID THIS STUFF: Richard Abate, Jennifer Besser, Sarah Burnes, Barry Goldblatt, Emily Meehan, Julie Scheina, Erin Stein, Jo Volpe, a smirking teen in the crowd, Brendan Reichs, Melissa de la Cruz, Lisi Harrison, Tahereh Mafi, Veronica Roth, Coe Booth, Greg Neri, Lauren Oliver, Rachel Cohn, Ally Condie, Susan Ee, Ellen Hopkins, Ransom Riggs, Carrie Ryan, Alex Morel, Madeleine Roux, John Corey Whaley, Aaron Hartzler