Tag Archives: YA

What I Heard At The LA Times Festival Of Books!

Photo by Carolyn Kraft

It is a blessing the doctors were able to replace my ears in time for this year’s Los Angeles Times Festival of Books. I’ll never fall asleep in a lawn care store again, let me tell you.

Anywho, this past weekend the LATFOB was held once again at the glamorous USC campus and was a treasure trove for authors and readers alike. I checked it out on both Saturday and Sunday, and the gauze was just breathable enough to let in many an insight and observation, as well as several nuggets of wisdom. Here is a smattering of what I heard:

“Authors are the brand, not the publishers.”

“The intimacy between book and reader is part of every aspect of the industry.”

“An editor’s job is to connect the writer and the reader. Editors are sometimes guilty of not thinking about that.”

“Staying respectful is very hard to do on the internet.”

“Before Amazon, it was Barnes & Noble and Borders as the behemoths [accused of] crushing the industry, and now it’s like ‘please Barnes & Noble, please stick around!’ ”

“Someone told me that you’re only allowed one dream sequence in your career, and I’ve just blown my load in this new book.”

“I don’t remember my dreams, but for some reason people always tell me theirs…so I steal them.”

“Anyone who looks at the world, if you’re not writing horror stories, what are you doing?”

“I push back against the label ‘literary’ horror. It sounds like, ‘we like you but not your friend.’ ”

[Regarding writing] “There is no way you can escape the work.”

“Elevators are the physical manifestation of a traumatized mind.”

Photo by Carolyn Kraft

“Every story should start a chapter late and end a chapter early.”

“A fellow writer once described my book as this beautiful bonbon that when you bite into it oozes puss and maggots.”

[Regarding technology] “We tend to believe that we can make it, but not always should we make it.”

“Young people don’t have the opportunity to be bored anymore.”

“I believe there is a creative energy that connects our hearts to each other.”

“I have a blood splatter library.”

“As a Nigerian-American, you have four career options: Doctor, lawyer, engineer, disgrace to the family.”

“It is the insecurity of our parents that stifles our children.”

“Listening keeps my writing fresh.”

“You find out at 15 that you don’t have much control over what happens to you. But you do have control over how you react to it.”

“Excellence is a habit.”

WHO SAID THIS STUFF: Carolyn Kellogg; Betty Amster; Peter Ginna; Glory Edim; Ginna; Carmen Maria Machado; Victor LaValle; Ben Loory; LaValle; Jason Reynolds; Reynolds; Reynolds; Dhonielle Clayton; Marie Lu; Reynolds; Laurie Halse Anderson; Emily Carroll; Tochi Onyebuchi; Reynolds; Renee Watson; Anderson; Reynolds

LA Times Festival of Books!

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Photo by Carolyn Kraft

It’s April again and that can mean a lot of different things to a lot of different people. My apologies to anyone looking for a post on whether or not creamed honey will finally be classified as an alternative fuel. (You’ll have to wait for my review later this year of the new Nissan Mecha-Grizzly.)

This post is about the 21st Annual LA Times Festival of Books, held last weekend on the beautiful brick and stone USC campus. Saturday was rainy and Sunday was sunny and both days were very well-attended. Here are some of the intriguing things the authors I saw had to say:

“Magical realism reminds us as human beings that there is hope and beauty out there.”

“If you believe along with the narrator that the [fantastical] things happening are true, it’s not magical realism. If you don’t, then it is.”

“Writers are often reacting to things that frustrate them about their other writing.”

“YA [literature] is so wide open. You can go anywhere you want. There’s no box you have to fit into.”

“When people have complimented me on my writing, they said it’s mysterious and cryptic and things are not explained. When people have criticized my writing, they said it’s mysterious and cryptic and things are not explained.”

“What’s cool about art is the exceptions.”

“I don’t really care what genre means. The work can take care of itself.”

“When you begin a novel you feel like a bit of a fraud. The more you do it the more faith you have in the viability of the world you’re creating.”

“I think about readers after the fact. It’s not what drives me to do the work. I don’t think it’s healthy to think about it.”

“Fiction, art, always has to be life plus.”

“Donald Trump is able to go for the jugular. It’s like he stole Jeb Bush’s lunch money, threw his shoes up on top of the school, and Jeb couldn’t handle it.”

“Disney told me, ‘We want a thriller, but nothing bad can happen.’ ”

“What’s special about this story? If I can’t find it, I don’t write it.”

“There’s no ‘Red Weddings’ in Middle Grade.”

“My narrator is the crotchety old man who lives inside of me.”

Photo by Carolyn Kraft

“Very rarely will someone buy your intentions. Finish the book.”

“The anxiety of not knowing where I’m going in a story is what drives me.”

“I wrote this [middle grade] book as a YA novel, but it’s not. My editor pointed this out to me.”

“Wonder isn’t about finding answers; it’s about being comfortable with the questions.”

“There are as many ways to be dead as there are to be alive.”

“Teenagers: Maximum personal responsibility with absolutely no personal power.”

“Some 17-year-olds are 13 in their heads and some 17-year-olds are 25 in their heads. And they have to hang out together.”

“The only thing worse than writing is not writing.”

“Every first draft I go through this question: ‘I don’t know how to do this.’ ”

“If you’re a young person and you have the choice between writing and having an experience, have the experience.”

WHO SAID THIS STUFF (in order): Sean McGinty, Shaun David Hutchinson, Peter Rock, McGinty, Rock, McGinty, Patrick DeWitt, Karl Taro Greenfeld, DeWitt, Greenfeld, Dee Dee Myers, Ridley Pearson, Soman Chainani, M.A. Larson, Tahereh Mafi, Larson, Chainani, Mafi, Leigh Ann Henion, Claire Bidwell Smith, Jeff Garvin, Jesse Andrews, Garvin, Don Calame, Aaron Hartzler

Going Back To The Well

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Photo by Lienhard Schulz

Last week after finishing the first draft of a new young adult novel I decided to do something different. Usually in these circumstances, after taking a moment to celebrate–helium, trampolines, etc.–I return to another project that’s in a more advanced stage awaiting a rewrite. I do have one of those, but this time, perhaps masochistically (perhaps an oxymoron when it comes to writing), I wanted to face the blank page again.

That this endeavor happens to fall within NaNoWriMo (November is National Novel Writing Month) is a coincidence. I admire all who take on the challenge, but my intent here isn’t to rush to a finish but to dig in and develop something that stretches me creatively. It’s going take some time.

And because I’m not the type of writer who has an IDEAS file, a repository stuffed with the odd narrative strand or character bio or bits of dialogue, this means going back to the well in search of something fresh to set off my imagination.

Which also means convincing my curmudgeonly sidekick Psygor to help get me in and out of the well way out there in the middle of all those cold dark woods. He’s already predisposed to grumpiness so this is really not going to please him; not when he assumed he was done until 2016. It’s going to take a lot of Sanka and moon pies and “yes, stripes do do a fantastic job of concealing your hunchback” to get him out there.

But as formidable as Psygor’s griping and Sanka-breath are, going back to the well so soon is more daunting. It could be parched. It could be packed with mud. Even if it’s knee-deep in water those things squiggling around my ankles could just be half-formed, exposed-rib entities previously abandoned. But I have to try and hope something new is lurking down there, something alive that’s going to launch me out of my comfort zone.

And if that also includes launching me out of the well hopefully Psygor stops obsessing over his hunchback long enough to catch me.

I’ll wear my puffy clothes just in case.

LA Times Festival of Books! Day Two

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Photo by Carolyn Kraft

Back again and better late than never with another field report from the LA Times Festival of Books. The magnanimity continued on the second and final day of LATFOB’s 20th anniversary. Well done, folks!

Here’s a few pearls of conversation from the author panels I attended:

“Families are like their own civilizations.”

“A lot of the times I’m writing I feel like an actor; I have to feel the emotions.”

“I had kids smoking, getting drunk, and my editor’s worried about the scene where they aren’t wearing their seatbelts.”

“A writer’s only responsibility is to tell the truth.”

“If I want to know how great I am I call my mother; if I want to know the truth, I call my brother.”

“I’m always taken aback when people [who know I’m a YA author] ask me when I’m going to write a ‘real’ book.”

“People have suggested that hackers and artists are exactly alike.”

“Quality relationships allow for the right amount of solitude and the right amount of connection.”

“The digital revolution has undercut our need for expertise and professionalism.”

“I’m on board with the digital revolution being frightening, but I’m not so nostalgic about what we’re leaving behind.”

“All these media outlets want to ‘pay’ for your writing by promising exposure; exposure is just a way people die out in the cold.”

“Technology is whatever has been invented since you were born.”

“Why can’t we have a platform that actually benefits the people who use it?”

“Every time I hear how I am as a writer I want to rebel against it.”

“Most of what happens to human beings is funny; humor in stories is integral, it’s not a condiment.”

WHO SAID THIS STUFF: Jandy Nelson, David Arnold, Carrie Arcos, Arnold, Robin Benway, Nelson, Vikram Chandra, Joshua Wolf Shenk, Scott Timberg, Chandra, Jacob Silverman, Chandra, Silverman, Amelia Gray, Jonathan Lethem

A Day At YALLWEST

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Hard 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

Festival of Books 2013 – What Struck Me Part 2

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Photo by Carolyn Kraft

That’s right, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books is simply too magnanimous to contain itself to one day. Did you go? What struck you about the event? Here’s the writerly wisdom and wit I collected on Day 2, with a few snippets of conversation I couldn’t help but overhear:

“When I get drunk I get more affectionate.”

“Writing is very intuitive. Sometimes we know something’s wrong in a story but not how to fix it.”

“An influential pastor in Princeton, New Jersey circa 1905 once said ‘We do not entertain any new ideas here.'”

“Theodore Roosevelt was often considered a traitor to his class–meaning he wasn’t a bigot.”

“She went to his wedding even while she has having an affair with him.”

“Genre writing is pleasing for a literary writer.”

“Historical fiction is always about the present as well as the past.”

“Literature is a way of evoking sympathy.”

“Writing is crystallized improvisation.”

“When I say books you say books! Books! Books! Books! Books!”

“It’s important that the reader doesn’t know everything about the character but suspects that the author does.”

“When I say past you say tense. Past! Tense! Past! Tense!

“I’m into being interesting.”

“When I say Voyage of the Dawn Treader you say C.S. Lewis. Voyage of the Dawn Treader!…”

“Kurt Vonnegut is the original YA author.”

“I started writing at 7 or 8 years old and I was awesome. All of my sexy vampire stories were published under the pseudonym ‘Anne Rice.'”

“That sounds like diarrhea.”

“Books on writing make the invisible visible.”

“There’s always more to say about verbs.”

“Bad writing reveals what we don’t know.”

“The way writing is taught in the U.S. is completely wrong-headed.”

“The drama comes from the verb choice.”

“Recognizing your own habits and upending them is very refreshing.”

“As soon as I get comfortable with a draft, I must get suspicious of it.”

Progenitors of the quotes above include: two women sitting behind me in the Bovard Auditorium; woman in the shade near the YA Stage; Joyce Carol Oates; D.C. Pierson; Sean Beaudoin; Elizabeth Eulberg; Amy Spalding; Thomas Curwen; Constance Hale; Ben Yagoda

Interview With My Doppelganger

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Photo by Psychopoesie

So I’m writing this YA novel that’s heavy on the supernatural, and I’ve had doppelgangers on the brain lately because my main character’s double plays a significant role in the story. Well, I must have been putting more than just mental power behind it because a few days ago I was in the grocery store checkout line and suddenly there “I” was at the same time jamming a hand up the Redbox dispenser trying to steal DVDs.

The resemblance between us is pretty uncanny, although the DG doesn’t chew his fingernails and my eyes don’t go dark and dead like a shark’s when I feel threatened.

Anyway, there was the store manager calling the cops and I felt this intense, familial obligation to save “myself” from the police. And so while we hid inside a burned-out car in the alley I had a chance to ask my doppelganger a few questions. Here’s the transcript from our interview:

Me: What movie were you trying to steal?

My Doppelganger: laets ot gniyrt ouy erew eivom tahw?

Me: Wait, that’s my question repeated to me backwards. Is that how doppelgangers really talk?

My Doppelganger: No, I’m just messing with you. Next question.

Me: Do you know how or why doppelgangers exist in the first place?

My Doppelganger: Hmmm…well, I don’t know how to put this delicately, but basically you get a man and a woman and you connect them via their sexual organs and then–

Me: Never mind, I got it.

My Doppelganger: You sure? Want me to draw you a picture? I’m getting pretty good.

Me: So you’re like my evil twin, is that it?

My Doppelganger: Evil? You tell me, bro. I pretty much do all the things that you secretly want to do.

Me: I don’t secretly want to molest Redbox machines.

My Doppelganger: Fine, but what about the Fifty Shades of Grey fan fiction? The PB and whipped-cream sandwiches for breakfast?

Me: Oh, that’s a great idea! Christian and Anastasia would love PB and whipped-cream sand–I mean, that doesn’t…none of that…are you sure you’re my doppelganger?

My Doppelganger: Come on, dude.

Me: Yeah…

My Doppelganger: And you know exactly what movie I was going for in there.

Me: Crazy Enough.

My Doppelganger: Starring Chris Kattan–

Me: –and Chris Kattan.

Me and My Doppelganger: “It’s Twin-sanity!”

My Doppelganger: Hey man that could be us. We could be Twin-sanity every day.

Me: Um…yeah. Every day.

My Doppelganger: Yeah man, bring me home, introduce me to your wife, let me sleep on your couch. We’ll make matchstick sculptures of your favorite escalators and sell them at county fairs. Don’t keep it a secret anymore!

Me: Uh-huh, excuse me a second. Officer! Officer! The man you’re looking for is right here! Here he is!

False Starts, Fresh Starts

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Cathar Fortress, by Duncan Harris

Today I’m starting over.

Again.

For the third time, actually. To try and scale the fortress walls and rescue the prisoner that is my YA supernatural novel The Shaded.

Yes, the first two attempts stalled, and the thousands of words left behind on those 100+ pages often felt like they were being squeezed from a brain that had turned into stone.

And yet after several months of distance and maybe a little amnesia, newfound enthusiasm for the project has inspired me to pull it all apart and put it back together in an exceptional way to make it finally come alive.

I’m scared, sure, but still tenacious, and today I gird myself for battle by looking to Liam Neeson’s character in the movie “The Grey,” (a surprisingly poignant film that I highly recommend) for inspiration:

“Once more into the fray. Into the last good fight I’ll ever know. Live and die on this day. Live and die on this day.”

Okay, it might be a bit overwrought to compare the plight of the last survivor of a plane crash about to fight an Alpha male wolf with a writer in insulated booties tackling the blank page, but hey, when we writers aren’t busy being neurotic we’re playing dress-up in our melodrama. Or something like that.

But hey, self-doubt and fear can be just a vicious to a writer as a pack of hungry wolves, and where old Liam had a knife and his Irish grit, I’ve got my imagination and bullheadedness. Will it carry me through?

I’m an optimist, so yes, I believe it will.

But I could still use some help, fellow creators out there. Tell me about the projects that kicked you to the curb a few times before you ultimately struck back and conquered. Share your hard fought success stories.

A Demon’s Diary

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Photo by M.O. Stevens

In the course of doing research for my supernatural YA novel, I recently attended an estate sale for the late, obscure occultist Jarvin Vucklebog. Vucklebog, a contemporary of Anton LaVey impersonators, was the rare purveyor of black magic who shunned the spotlight, so good luck finding anything written about him.

Anyway, I’d only planned on browsing that day; I wasn’t in the market for foam pentagram hats, or Ouija board TV trays, or Jack Parsons’ mustache.

But there was a recent Vucklebog acquisition that did interest me, and the price, surprisingly, was just right. For $20, I picked up a black iron obelisk, about three feet tall, engraved from base to tapered peak on its four sides with several rows of mystic symbols, signs and ciphers. According to the sale guide, the obelisk was the diary of the demon-being commonly known as Xyzeethulu, no relation to Quezeethulu, though both entities frequented the Plegorthian sector of the Fourth Crusted Layer of sub-Hades.

I was at a loss to translate it, of course, but opportunity soon arrived when it was announced that everyone who had purchased an item from the sale was invited to a group seance to communicate with Vucklebog’s spirit. After an eternity of table-rapping and bad lemonade, Vucklebog finally announced himself through his beloved lhasa apso Buckles, and I was able to make my question heard over the clamor that ensued. There seemed to be no response when suddenly I was overtaken by a spastic fit of automatic writing and produced a translation key.

As I convalesced in our local asylum, I began the task of deciphering the diary. It’s been slow going, but what I’ve discovered so far offers chilling insight into the demon mind…

DIARY OF XYZEETHULU – January 23, 2012

“I’m so mad at Devon right now I could just spit the River Styx. He knows me (or I thought he did), knows what’s in my wheelhouse. On video I’m going to do one of two things, eat babies as a ritual sacrifice or push the souls of pre-adolescent girls a smidge darker than they already are. Any other YouTube channel, I’m a freaking star, but Devon’s? He won’t even let me audition unless I agree to eat 666 steak burritos on camera, because hi-ho isn’t it funny that when I pass gas hell-fire shoots out of my butt and my eyes. Stupid genetics. Thanks dads. I know I promised Dr. Baralyxneluthu-Legion Class IV no more poltergeists, but Devon is really pushing my Hot Buttons of Legorah Dominion, burned into my flesh on my 16th Searing.”

To say this has been a real boon for my novel, is an understatement. Stay tuned for more installments of…A Demon’s Diary.

Do You Write Without A Net?

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Man on Wire

There are many popular writers out there, John Irving among them, who never begin a project without knowing exactly where they’re going. I remember an interview with Irving where he said he starts a book by figuring out what its last sentence will be. There is something to be said for having a map, a guide book of sorts to keep you on track, to allow you to chart your progress.

Conversely, there are just as many well-known writers, Stephen King among them, who start with just a germ of an idea, a character or two, and then delight in discovering their story in the moment as they’re actually writing it. They feel that an outline only serves to stifle the creative process; in their view, to plot a story is to suffocate it.

Here’s where I stand on the issue: I spent many years authoring screenplays which began life as structured, organized outlines, and so when it came to writing my first novel I was determined to work without a net. I knew only the bare essentials before plunging in: the story would involve repressed memories, and my teenage main character would somehow become his parents’ therapist. The process was extremely liberating; in fact, maybe too liberating, in that it resulted in a huge first draft. But I don’t regret my choice and believe the story would not have as much of the energy and surprise that it does if I had plotted it out beforehand.

Things are a bit different with my new project, a YA horror novel. I’ve decided to go a bit further with plotting, to know more about the story and characters before I set off to write. I’m not sure if it’s because this is a “genre” project and I’m concerned about hitting on certain “genre” beats or expectations, but it just feels like the right move for this story. However, I haven’t completely abandoned my intrepid spirit, as my plot structure is pretty loose and I’ve purposely left open the answers to several questions that I’ll dig up when I start writing. There needs to be an element of mystery, a willingness to embrace the unexpected, or the writing will go stale. I can only write about my characters and the story for so long before I get the itch to finally bring them both to life.

So how about you? If you’re a writer reading this, where do you fall on the issue of story preparation? Outline or no outline? Net, or nothing but the unforgiving ground to catch you if you fall?