Tag Archives: Melissa de la Cruz

LA Times Festival of Books!

Photo by Carolyn Kraft

If it’s the end of April it can only mean a few things. One, that my wooden leg will start to yearn for the boreal forests of Norway and I will spend hours on the phone negotiating the fake limb rate with Virgin Atlantic, and two, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. Held this past weekend on the luxurious USC campus, the LATFOB was once again a shining mecca for writers and readers, and, this year, the grounds for a clever-creepy marketing campaign for Hulu’s adaptation of The Handmaid’s Tale, by Margaret Atwood.

I was in attendance on both Saturday and Sunday, and heard many an inspiring word. Here are some of those words:

“Writing is like breathing to me; if I don’t write, I’ll die.”

“A really good novel is like a burlesque show.”

[Regarding “unlikable” characters in YA fiction] “I remember when I was a teenager, my thoughts were pretty evil; I just didn’t say everything.”

[Regarding a writer’s process] “Instead of ‘pantser’ or ‘plotter,’ I like to think of it as are you a gardener or are you an architect?”

“The daily mind is lazy relative to the reader mind.”

“Language can be twisted to tolerate lies.”

“My experiences as a teenager were kind of dull, but my emotions were epic.”

“Chipotle asked me, do you have something that we can put on a bag for a shit-ton of money?”

“When it comes to my characters, I am a horrible person.”

Photo by Carolyn Kraft

“The highest truth is a series of contradictions.”

“That first email to Erwin, that was confrontational.”  “No, it wasn’t.”  “Yes, it was.”  “No.”  “Yes, it was like ‘I’m here, looking for a fight.'”  “No way.” “Do you want me to read it back to you?”

“You don’t write for ‘children’ you write for one child, or for the child you used to be.”

“When you’re writing a story and you get stuck, embrace it. It’s just the story telling you, ‘You’re not listening to me.’ ”

“People spend more money on yoga than on books.”  “Maybe we could change that if we can convince people to read in hot rooms.”

“I used to have this condition when I was younger called Hemingway boner.”

“I don’t know if I’m gifted, but I do know how to work hard. I have discipline.”

“We’re able to entertain several different versions of the truth simultaneously.”

“I will defend trashy YA to my death.”

“First drafts are like I’m just shoveling sand into a sandbox; later on, I’ll build sand castles.”

WHO SAID THIS STUFF (in order): Benjamin Alire SaenzAaron HartzlerMaggie Thrash; Ellen Hopkins; George Saunders; Saunders; Julie Berry; Saunders; Frances Hardinge; Saunders; strangers overheard before the start of a panel discussion; Melissa de la Cruz; Saunders; Lisa Lucas and Oscar Villalon; Saunders; Saenz; Saunders; Thrash; Shannon Hale

A Day At YALLWEST

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