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By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 12/5/2012
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4:00 - "Poetry lingers on": defining the verse novel
7:30 - A January book release: advantage or disadvantage?
25:50 - Satisfaction, contentment, and keeping writing and publishing separate
Twenty debut middle-grade and young adult novelists. Twenty-two signed books.
All for one lucky winner. The giveaway opens today!
a Rafflecopter giveaway
Here are some ways I'm trying to protect my creative side:
- I am in constant contact with both my critique partners and my debut group, The Class of 2k12. Both encourage me when I flounder and bolster me when I need support. Some of them have calmly told me again and again that they believe in what I write. When we can't muster the strength to see our own talent, it is so good to have people whose belief in us we can borrow.
- For the sake of my creative health, I've decided that reading the School Library Journal blog, Heavy Medal, is something that doesn't nourish me right now. As I watch people who love children's literature analyze books I admire (in a professional, respectful, invigorating way), I'm finding I doubt my abilities more and more. No book is perfect. I know this to be true. But seeing the "faults" of books well-executed while I'm drafting my own new, unformed work is enough to make me think I'll never produce anything of substance, depth, or worth.
- I need to extend to my writing the room to grow in a safe environment. For me, I'm learning it's a place free of chatter and analysis and comparison. It's a place my friend Val says needs to be quiet enough "to hear that small voice inside trying to remind you that you are doing something important, something special, something worthwhile. And that small voice is the voice you need to hear loudest right now, the one you need to be listening to. During the creation process, kick everyone else out of the room. Tell the critics, your editor or agent, the readers, the doubters to leave, kick them all out of the room and be alone with your story. You and the story. That's all there is right now. That's all that matters."
What have you learned to avoid or embrace to foster your creativity?
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 11/5/2012
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I spent fourteen years as an author in training, and while I learned many things in that time, I'm finding there are a slew of different lessons on the other side of publication. This spring, I examined the
public,
private, and
writing life I want to cultivate. Right now, I'm trying to learn just how to protect my creativity -- how to let it grow and expand with a new project, how to feed it, how to keep it from being destroyed during the fragile moments a story is unfolding and finding its way. I've yet to figure this out, but here are a few things I'm pondering:
- It's not the mind but the emotional self that gives us confidence or causes doubt. We are directly and indirectly taught the mind is a truer compass than the heart. And this is right oftentimes, especially for highly emotional people like me (and I would suspect most other writers, who tend to connect deeply and passionately with people, ideas, stories, and universal truths). The thing is, we writers know in our heads plenty of things that never penetrate our hearts. Whether we realize it or not, the emotional "truths" that occupy our lives influence our creative selves far more than we realize. How can we protect the vulnerable place stories spring from?
- Surround yourself with supportive people. Obvious, right? Find a friend or group of people who support and understand you. While non-writing friends and family are wonderful, they don't always understand the writing world. Form a critique group. Become a part of a professional organization like SCBWI. Find people in the same phase of the journey you can encourage and commiserate with. Find people farther along who can show you the way.
- Step away from the constant noise of the Internet. Never before have authors been asked to live the writing life so publicly. As soon as a book sells, the solitary falls away. We've got to find ways to protect our creativity in the midst of it all. There are too many ways to lose confidence -- reviews written by professional organizations as well as book bloggers or Goodreads account holders, articles in accessible publications like Publisher's Weekly or GalleyCat that praise our peers or their books and leave us feeling left out, or publications that praise us but leave us feeling like we'll never measure up again.
What are ways authors can protect their creativity?
Today, I'm honored that for my final Class of 2K12 interview,* I'm talking with Kim Sabatini, a delightful debut author I've actually met in person (at the SCBWI Eastern PA Poconos retreats)! First, let me tell you about her book:
Synopsis (from Indiebound): When Elliot finds herself dead for the third time, she knows she must have messed up, big-time. She doesn’t remember how she landed in the afterlife again, but she knows this is her last chance to get things right. Elliot just wants to move on, but first she will be forced to face her past and delve into the painful memories she’d rather keep buried. Memories of people she’s hurt, people she’s betrayed…and people she’s killed. As she pieces together the secrets and mistakes of her past, Elliot must find a way to earn the forgiveness of the person she’s hurt most, and reveal the truth about herself to the two boys she loves…even if it means losing them both forever.
My take: I was lucky enough to receive a review copy of this book, and I can tell you all, it's a ravishing and unique look at the afterlife. The lives of four characters are woven together in an intricate dance after death. As the story unfolds, layer by layer, we grow to love Elliot and her friends and realize the truth of E.M. Forster's famous phrase: "Only connect." Touching the Surface is all about connecting with other lives, and making choices. Even the most minor decision can affect the other people in your life. This is one of those stories you can't stop thinking about long after you've finished the last page. And isn't that cover gorgeous? I'll be giving away my review copy; details at the end of the interview.
Kim's Pinterest site
Welcome to my blog, Kim! I'm almost as excited as you are that Touching the Surface makes its official debut in four days! (And it's already been selling out in bookstores!)
Did the idea for your book spring from your own childhood or from some other source? And did you start with a character or with an image or phrase or setting?
The idea for my book came mostly from the fact that my father had died recently. I think I chose to write a story that took place in the afterlife so that I could explore my own feelings about my where my dad had gone and why he had to leave. It also came from hearing the story of a local girl who had done something “unforgivable.” I couldn’t stop thinking about her. I realized that if I’m so hard on myself about small things, I didn’t know how someone could survive making a life-altering mistake. It made me want to write something that would make her feel better—and make me feel better too.
Do you outline before you write? If so, does it end up changing before you finish the first draft? What change surprised you the most?
I’m a pantser. A definite fly-by-the-seat-of-my-pants kind of a girl when it comes to a written outline, but that doesn’t mean I don’t plan ahead. I’m a mullet girl at heart. I mull over my story, characters and plot in my head for long periods of time before I write it down. Perhaps you could even call it a mental kind of an outline, because when I sit down to write I have very strong ideas about where I’m headed. But having said that, I’m really open to going where the story leads me. This is when it’s advantageous to be a mental outliner—it’s very easy to make corrections to the master plan. I just head in the new direction and start mulling all over again. I swish my imagination all around until the new ideas are real to me.
Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate while writing? And where do you write? Briefly describe your writing space.
HOT CHOCOLATE!!!! Don’t forget the whipped cream. I have a cute little desk area with a nice window view that I’ve put together with a couple of folding tables. But recently I’ve developed some achy spots from running and dancing and I find that sitting at my desk too long makes my legs hurt. So…I’ve kind of moved my office onto my bed. In essence, I’ve become my cat. We get up in the morning, make the bed, do the mom thing, exercise and/or run errands then curl up in a nest on the bed for the afternoon. Of course the cat gets to sleep on a pillow like a princess and I’m working like a crazy person, but I have hot chocolate with whipped cream—so I’m not complaining.
You were the first author I knew to go on Pinterest, when you posted on your blog about your Touching The Surface board. Can you talk about why you're so enthusiastic about Pinterest? How has it helped your writing?
I have always been a visual person. As a writer, I very clearly need to see my characters and setting in order to be able to create a believable story. Pinterest is a quick, easy and portable way to visually support my writing. I've always manually built a bulletin board on the wall at home, but now I can write anywhere and access it from any place. I also think it's cool to be able to share an extra layer with readers. Some people don't want to have their own imagery spoiled, which I completely understand, but like myself, many are fascinated with what the author was thinking about when they were writing. I love checking out these kinds of author boards.
What can we expect from you next? What are you writing now?
Right now I'm revising my second novel, THE OPPOSITE OF GRAVITY. I'm really excited about it and I'm hoping that after the launch of TOUCHING THE SURFACE I'll have a little more time to polish it up. I've also decided to do NaNoWriMo for the first time this November. I know this sounds insane considering it kicks off two days after my book launch, but I feel like I've got book three, CHASING ADAPTATION, knocking on my brain right now. If you see me in a puddle on the side of the road in early December, you'll know that my head exploded. LOL!
Ha ha! Good luck with NaNo! And thanks for joining us today, Kimberly! Readers, I'm giving away my hardcover copy of Touching the Surface, AND some cool swag from Kim herself! One lucky person gets to win all this, plus the book (and yes, that is an origami crane!): To enter, you must be a follower and you must comment on this post. International entries welcome! Extra entries for tweeting, mentioning on facebook or your own blog. Please let me know. This giveaway ends at 10:00 pm EST on Wednesday, November 7, 2012. Winner to be chosen by random.org. Good luck!
*Special thanks to Caroline Starr Rose, for asking me to participate in the Class of 2K12 interviews/guest posts. It was an honor.
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 10/10/2012
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AC Gaughen recently reminded our group of this poem and how well it applies to the writer's life. I pulled up my copy of "If", something I printed and framed for a student's bar mitzvah several years ago, and had a read through again.
The words are golden and so right on.
If—
If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;
If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two impostors just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with worn-out tools;
If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breathe a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on!”
If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man, my son!
—Rudyard Kipling
Wow! Today's Class of 2K12 interview is with a debut author who has not one but TWO young adult novels launching this year. Meet Corrine Jackson, author of:
IF I LIE, (August 28, Simon Pulse)
Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her boyfriend. And she got caught. Being branded a cheater would be bad enough, but Quinn is deemed a traitor, and shunned by all of her friends. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s serving in Afghanistan and revered by everyone in their small, military town.
Quinn could clear her name, but that would mean revealing secrets that she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. And when Carey goes MIA, Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect her boyfriend…and her promise…
Corrine's also the author of:
TOUCHED (coming November 27 from K-Teen) Seventeen-year-old Remy O’Malley heals people with touch, but her power comes at a steep cost. Every illness or injury she cures becomes her own. The pain she can handle, but she worries a day will come when she won’t recover from healing some terrible disease. Then she meets eighteen-year-old Asher Blackwell. Scarred and dangerous, he knows more about her abilities than she does, and she can’t resist wanting to know everything about him.
Class of 2K12 websiteCorrine's websiteFollow her on Twitter |
| Corrine Jackson (from her website) |
Q. Do you outline before you write? If so, does it end up changing before you finish the first draft? What change surprised you the most?
A. I’m an outliner. Usually, the characters come to me and I keep a file with notes that I collect. They’re everything from scene ideas to character traits to bits of dialogue. I write a bit to get a sense of the character’s voice. Once that’s in place, I go back and outline the whole book. My outline is flexible, though. I never feel locked in. If a scene takes me somewhere new, no big deal. I just revise the outline. I’ve been surprised at times by a new character popping up (George in IF I LIE) or an emotional scene I didn’t plan on (in TOUCHED). George was definitely my biggest change. My entire book morphed once he appeared. I love those moments.
Q. Those are cool moments! How long did it take to go from the idea for the book to the draft your editor accepted? Was it months or years? Did you go through endless revisions, beta readers, etc, before starting the submission process? Did you ever want to pull out your hair?
A. Depends on the book. With TOUCHED, I wrote it in 3 ½ months. I went through draft after draft in revisions and lots of beta readers. Once I got an agent, we went through one more revision. That’s the one my editor bought. With IF I LIE, I wrote it over a year, sent it to a few beta readers, did one round of revision, made a few changes at my agent’s suggestion, and that was it. Since I spent more time writing it, I edited it along the way, so my first draft was pretty clean. I also showed pieces to readers as I was working on it.
To be honest, I don’t like editing as much as I do writing. I’d rather do a slower, cleaner first draft, but that’s not always realistic with deadlines. I’m adapting, but I do want to pull my hair out at times.
Q. I hear you! Do you listen to music while writing or at least while thinking about and planning a book? What song or album had the most influence on this novel?
A. I always listen to music. I create playlists for each book. In the book FROM WHERE YOU DREAM, Robert Olen Butler suggests that listening to the same music for a book each time you write, drops you back into that creative space faster. I agree. As soon as I put the music on and read a snip of what I wrote the day before, I’m off and running on new words. When writing TOUCHED, I listened to a lot of Tyrone Wells, Taylor Swift, Tim Easton, Ben Harper, and others. Lots of soulful love songs or longing for love songs. I shifted gears a bit on IF I LIE. That book takes sad to a new level. I listened to a lot of Glen Hansard, The Swell Season, and The Frames. Glen Hansard has this voice that rips at your guts and it fit what was happening to my characters.
Thanks for joining us today, Corrine! Your books are amazing. Congratulations!
* * *
Readers, I have one hardcover copy of IF I LIE to give away! Sorry, this giveaway is only open to residents of the US or Canada. Must be 13 or older to enter. The rules are simple: You must be a follower and you must comment on this post! You have until Saturday September 8 at 11 pm EDT to enter. One extra chance to win if you Tweet about this giveaway. Another extra chance for mentioning on facebook OR on your own blog. Please note your extra entries in the comments. Thanks!
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 8/13/2012
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Anna Ingwersen is my childhood best friend, aspiring novelist, and author of a new blog called
Mother Freakin' Writers. She's running some great interviews about writing and mothering.
From
Kathryn Burak, author of EMILY'S DRESS AND OTHER MISSING THINGS:
You gave all this up for us? [My children] were sad for me, and at that moment I was sad for me too, but it was also important to tell them this--because of all the things I could say to children about the time they spend on earth, this is the most important--If you are lucky, you get to make choices.
I was lucky. I chose to make Halloween costumes, and birthday cakes that looked like pirate ships. I chose to direct school plays and teach poetry workshops. I started a film club and we made great films. I was part of a wonderful group of people who sold pizza for a year and earned enough money to build a labyrinth at my kids' school. I had the pleasure of knowing all their classmates, and sharing with those kids my love of words, and most of all, watching all of them grow up together. It was a great pleasure. It was an enormous pleasure.
I think I chose well. And most significantly, I had the opportunity to choose. And nothing about that is sad. But it was also important to tell them every choice is a trade. Something for something else.
And that morning earlier that summer when I woke up in bed with all my regrets I was thinking about that, too--of the conscious decisions you make and how they tally up, how they are the sum of your days. Go here for more.
Here are some books I hope to tackle in the coming months:
Random House Children's Books pressies -- thanks, Lisa Nadel!
Books on craft
IRA goodies
Some Class of 2k12 and Apocalypsies books
The Power of Habit - Charles Duhigg
Code Name Verity - Elizabeth Wein
Quiet: The Power of Introverts in a World That Can't Stop Talking - Susan Cain
What are you reading right now?
Meet Suzanne Lazear, author of INNOCENT DARKNESS!
INNOCENT DARKNESS: Book 1, The Aether Chronicles (Flux, August 8, 2012, for ages 12 and up)
Wish. Love. Desire. Live.
In a Steampunk version of Victorian Los Angeles sixteen-year-old Noli Braddock's hoyden ways land her in an abusive reform school far from home. On mid-summer's eve she wishes to be anyplace but that dreadful school. Her wish sends her tumbling into the Otherworld. A mysterious man from the Realm of Faerie rescues her, only to reveal that she must be sacrificed, otherwise, the entire Otherworld civilization will perish.
Suzanne Lazear writes Steampunk stories for adults and teens. Her Young Adult Steampunk dark fairytale INNOCENT DARKNESS, book 1 of The Aether Chronicles, will be released from Flux on August 8, 2012. She always plays with swords, is never described as normal, and has been known to run with bustles. Suzanne lives in Southern California with her daughter, the hubby, a hermit crab, and two chickens, where she’s currently attempting to make a raygun to match her ballgown. Visit her blog at http://www.suzannewrites.blogspot.comand her website http://www.suzannelazear.comClass of 2K12 Hi Suzanne, and welcome to My Brain on Books!Do you outline before you write? If so, does it end up changing before you finish the first draft? What change surprised you the most?
Well, INNOCENT DARKNESS didn’t start out Steampunk. I steampunked it on the fly from a contemporary outline. My main characters—Noli, V, and Kevighn--stayed the same but new characters like Charlotte appeared. The basic story stayed the same, but adding in the Steampunk elements forced me to change a lot of things, and I had to create an entire alternate world as I went along (which required research and strange google searches). From this process a lot of details I didn’t know about emerged, like Noli’s love of botany, Kevighn’s sister, and certain details about V and his past…I personally enjoy learning things about my characters as I write. Not all stories are like this for me. Sometimes I outline, sometimes I don’t, and sometimes I just jot down ideas. It all depends on the story, world, and characters.
Do you revise one novel while writing another? Or do you feel you need to write and revise one novel and get it as polished as possible before moving on to your shiny new idea?
I like to have several projects in different stages going on at once. It makes me feel more productive. I work on the one that’s most pressing (or if not on deadline, with the characters speaking the loudest), but if I get burned out or need a break, I can switch to another project for a day or two and feel like I’m still being productive. Also, I have something to do while a project is off being read by betas. It’s that whole multi-tasking thing. I like multi-tasking. And lists.
Coffee, tea, or hot chocolate while writing? And where do you write? Briefly describe your writing space.
Because I have a full time job and a family I write whenever and wherever I can. I do a lot of writing on my laptop on the couch. I write during lunch at work, I’ve been known to bring my laptop to birthday parties and family functions when on deadline, I’ve even contemplated trying to use Dragon to write while driving since I spend so much time commuting—but I’m not that brave and given my writing style, I’m not sure that would work for me.
Do you listen to music while writing or at least while thinking about and planning a book? What song or album had the most influence on this novel?
I really like to listen to music when I write and often make complicated playlists of “mood music” for each project. For some reason I never made a special list of music to listen to just for the writing of this book – though I do have a soundtrack for it. I wrote a bulk of INNOCENT DARKNESS during NaNoWriMo 2009 – 66k in three weeks—while working a dayjob so that may have had something to do with it. Yeah, I nearly died. I did write large chunks of ID while listening to Emilie Autumn on continuous repeat—especially “Across the Sky,” which I consider to be the book’s theme song, as well as “Shallot” and “Opheliac”. I adore her work, she’s a “Victorian industrial” artist and since I’m writing Steampunk, the vibes meshed really well. I also listened to a playlist of sappy love songs I’d compiled for drafting another project—especially when writing the kissing parts.
Wow! That sounds daunting. I love that your book has a theme song. Tell us what darling you had to kill that you really really wish you could have kept and what was the most fun to write.
More kissing!!! Just kidding. I actually had to cut an entire scene with Kevighn, my anti-hero, that I really liked. It introduces a new character towards the end, so it does work better to save it for book two, but I really liked the relationship between Kevighn and that character. It added a more little background and depth to my naughty huntsman. My favorite scenes involve Noli—Noli and her flying car, Noli and her friend Charlotte, Noli and V… Though I do have to say, Kevighn, being the bad boy, was really fun to write. Probably even more fun to write than V, who’s such a sweet, honorable guy. Inventing all the steampunk gadgets was a ton of fun as I tried to meld the Victorian feel with modern technology to get things like hoverboard and flying cars, yet make them as natural to Noli as a car is to us.
Thank you so much for having me on today!
Thanks for being here, Suzanne! And congrats on the book!
Auracle by Gina Rosati, coming August 7, 2012 from Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan, for ages 12 and up
Trapped outside her body, Anna sees and hears but cannot touch the one she longs to hold. Anna has a secret: she can astrally project out of her body. But when there's an accident and her classmate Taylor gets into Anna's body, what was an exhilarating gift threatens to become a terrifying reality. Anna and her best friend Rei form a plan to set things right, but they don't anticipate the feelings that are beginning to grow between them. Auracle by Gina Rosati is an exciting, sensual novel that explores the relationship between body and soul and the power of a single touch.
Meet Gina Rosati! As soon as she could ride a bicycle, she’d visit her local public library and check out as many books as she could fit in her bike basket. When she was 15, Gina got her first ‘real’ job in the Newton Free Library shelving books. Leaving the library for a job as a supermarket cashier was a huge mistake … not only did she have the misfortune to be working the night three guys showed up with panty hose masks and sawed-off shotguns to rob the store, but Gina became trapped in the food industry. After many years of scooping ice cream, decorating cakes and assorted secretarial drudgery which included fetching coffee for a boss who called her his “Tomato”, she finally escaped. Now Gina happily writes and volunteers at her local middle school library in southern New Hampshire, where she lives with her husband and two teenagers. Auracle is her first novel.
Did the idea for Auracle spring from your own childhood or from some other source? And did you start with a character or with an image or phrase or setting? The idea of a novel using the concept of astral
Stop by Project Mayhem today, where author Joanne Levy is posting about humor and middle grade. Here's a taste of what you'll get there.
I’ve been told I’m funny person. In my opinion, that’s a pretty good place to start if you’re looking to write humor—you kind of need to know what makes people laugh. I write my funny on instinct and don’t really think about it too much, so it’s hard for me to talk intelligently about how I write funny. But I’ll give a shot.
16 Comments on Navigating a Debut Year: Private Life, last added: 6/16/2012
Have you read these books? One lucky commenter will win a packet of Apocalypsies and Class of 2k12 bookmarks. Let's get a discussion going!
The Wicked and the Just - J. Anderson Coats
Cecily’s father moves her to Wales where she must put up with her brazen servant, Gwinny, where every interaction between the girls is loaded with more meaning than Cecily initially understands, where heartache on both sides forges a shaky unity, and where the unflinching storyline cannot leave the reader unchanged.
Love & Leftovers - Sarah Tregay
Yanked from home by her mother when her parents’ marriage crumbles and longing to understand love, Marcie embarks on an exploration of boys, friendship, affection, passion, and understanding in this smartly written verse novel.
Scarlet - A. C. Gaughen
Robin Hood’s right-hand man, Will Scarlet, is recast as a delightfully complex girl, who’s feisty and fierce and secretly loves Rob -- rollicking fun!
Chained - Lynne Kelly
I couldn’t resist letting CHAINED speak for itself:
"This must be what Ne Min meant about being brave. Never in my life have I been so afraid, but here I stand."
Under the Never Sky - Veronica Rossi
A sweeping glimpse of a dystopian world that is equally strong in story and style, Rossi’s characters force readers to examine the difference between living life and merely existing.
A Voice for Kanzas - Debra MacArthur
6 Comments on One Sentence Debut Reviews: Spring 2012, last added: 5/29/2012
Classroom Connections is a series meant to introduce teachers to new books.
Sarvenaz Tash - THE MAPMAKER AND THE GHOST (Walker/Bloomsbury, April 24, 2012)
age range: 8-12
study guide
What inspired you to write this story?
I really wanted to write the kind of adventure story I would have loved as a kid. I woke up one morning having dreamt about a girl named Goldenrod Moram, and I thought, what kind of girl would have that name? And then I thought, it sounds like a fairy tale name but wouldn’t it be funny if she was a smart, practical kid who was actually annoyed by that fact? And it went on from there.
Could you share with readers a few interesting tidbits you learned while researching?
I learned so much, especially about Lewis and Clark (Goldenrod’s heroes)! I learned all about the extraordinary number of plants and animals they discovered and documented (like coyotes and prairie dogs). I learned that they traveled over 7,000 miles, a lot of it on foot. I learned that Meriwether Lewis got shot in the leg by one of his nearsighted crew members who mistook him for an elk.
3 Comments on Classroom Connections: The Mapmaker and the Ghost, last added: 5/22/2012
From a Class of 2k12 conversation I couldn't pass up. Posted here with permission:
Also, writing? Sometimes it's not sacred. Sometimes it's like making ground beef by pressing a live cow through a colander. It's messy and hard and unglamorous and really quite insane, but at the end you still can eat a burger.
-J. Anderson Coats
GILT by Katherine Longshore (Viking/Penguin May 15, 2012, for ages 12 and up) Source: advanced reading copy from publisher
Synopsis (from Indiebound):
In the court of King Henry VIII, nothing is free--
and love comes at the highest price of all.When Kitty Tylney's best friend, Catherine Howard, worms her way into King Henry VIII's heart and brings Kitty to court, she's thrust into a world filled with fabulous gowns, sparkling jewels, and elegant parties. No longer stuck in Cat's shadow, Kitty's now caught between two men--the object of her affection and the object of her desire. But court is also full of secrets, lies, and sordid affairs, and as Kitty witnesses Cat's meteoric rise and fall as queen, she must figure out how to keep being a good friend when the price of telling the truth could literally be her head.
Why I liked it: Besides all the fascinating court intrigue, gossip, flirtations, and dangerous secrets? I really liked Kitty. She's a complex, well-rounded character. Only a few chapters into the book, you feel you know her. It's a long book, but well worth reading, and would be especially fun for a rainy weekend. Have some tea and chocolate and settle in for a while!
Katherine Longshore graciously agreed to answer a few questions today.
Class of 2K12 Katherine's Blog (the YA Muses)
Welcome, Katherine! Do you outline before you write? If so, does it end up changing before you fini
Breaking Beautiful, by Jennifer Shaw Wolf (Walker, coming April 24, 2012, for ages 12 and up)
Synopsis (from Indiebound): Allie lost everything the night her boyfriend, Trip, died in a horrible car accident—including her memory of the event. As their small town mourns his death, Allie is afraid to remember because doing so means delving into what she’s kept hidden for so long: the horrible reality of their abusive relationship.
When the police reopen the investigation, it casts suspicion on Allie and her best friend, Blake, especially as their budding romance raises eyebrows around town. Allie knows she must tell the truth. Can she reach deep enough to remember that night so she can finally break free? Debut writer Jennifer Shaw Wolf takes readers on an emotional ride through the murky waters of love, shame, and, ultimately, forgiveness.
Links you should visit:
--
Class of 2K12 --
The Apocalypsies --
Jennifer's website --
Jennifer's blog I'm thrilled that Jennifer agreed to take over my blog for the day and write a guest post! Welcome, Jennifer!
The Books that Influenced Me as a Young Reader
At some point in when I was writing BREAKING BEAUTIFUL, the thought occurred to me, “This is turning into a mystery.” This idea was immediately followed by, “I can’t write a mystery.” Mysteries involved suspense and clues and complex plot structures and I wasn’t sure anything in my background had prepared me to write a book like that. Then I remembered what I’d read as a kid. There were a lot of mysteries. From Homer Price, to Nancy Drew, to Agatha Christie, to old Ellery Queen and Alfred Hitchcock mystery magazines, I loved trying to solve a puzzle.
I think that it started when I was about ten, with a series called THE THREE INVESTIGATORS. One of my first trips to our small public library, when I was old enough to pick out my own books, I stumbled upon THE THREE INVESTIGATORS. They were three boys who solved mysteries and they had the coolest hideout; an old trailer, burie
Meet SarvenazTash, Class of 2K12 author!
From her own website, here's how to pronounce her name: My name is pronounced Sar (like the first part of Sara) - ve (rhymes with yeah) - naz (rhymes with 'cuz). Or you can just listen to me pronouncing it
here.
(Joanne's note: I love Teaching Books.net -- there's a link right over there in my sidebar!)
Her debut novel, TheMapmaker and the Ghost, pubs on April 24, 2012 from Bloomsbury/Walker, for ages 8 to 12.
Synopsis (from Indiebound): Goldenrod Moram loves nothing better than a good quest. Intrepid, curious, and full of a well-honed sense of adventure, she decides to start her own exploring team fashioned after her idols, the explorers Lewis and Clark, and to map the forest right behind her home. This task is complicated, however, by a series of unique events—a chance encounter with a mysterious old lady has her searching for a legendary blue rose. Another encounter lands her in the middle of a ragtag gang of brilliant troublemakers. And when she stumbles upon none other than the ghost of Meriwether Lewis himself, Goldenrod knows this will be anything but an ordinary summer . . . or an ordinary quest.
Welcome to My Brain on Books, Sarvenaz! And I'm looking forward to your release day next week. Thank you so much for agreeing to do a guest post! Take it away, Sarvenaz.
My Favorite Childhood Book
Today, I'm thrilled to be interviewing J. Anderson Coats, author of the upcoming YA novel,
The Wicked and the Just, 9780547688374, coming April 17, 2012, from Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, for ages 12 and up.
Class of 2K12 website J. Anderson Coats's websiteHer blog Synopsis (from Indiebound): The year is 1293. The setting: Wales.
Cecily’s father has ruined her life. He’s moving them to occupied Wales, where the king needs good strong Englishmen to keep down the vicious Welshmen. At least Cecily will finally be the lady of the house.
Gwenhwyfar knows all about that house. Once she dreamed of being the lady there herself, until the English destroyed the lives of everyone she knows. Now she must wait hand and foot on this bratty English girl.
While Cecily struggles to find her place amongst the snobby English landowners, Gwenhwyfar struggles just to survive. And outside the city walls, tensions are rising ever higher—until finally they must reach the breaking point.
Oh, that sounds intriguing! I'm lucky to have friends who live in Wales and I've visited them there. Welsh history is fascinating.
Jillian, welcome to My Brain on Books! Do you outline before you write?If so, does it end up changing before you finish the first draft? What changesurprised you the most?
For W/J I didn’t outline; I really didn’t have to. I had a skeleton of historical events tofollow and a series of conditions to impose that just required some research todust off and spit-shine. All thatremained was creating some characters and populating the world. All the stuff in W/J – the corruption andunfair laws and extortion – all of it was real, andI just gave it voice.
Tell us a little about gettingyour agent. How many queries did you send out? How long did it take before yougot an offer of representation?
I queried four different books over ten years before I soldW/J. The Erin Murphy Literary Agency wasalways at the top of my list, but they don’t take unsolicited q
Today, I'm excited to interview A. C. Gaughen, author of SCARLET!
Scarlet, by A. C. Gaughen arrives February 14, 2012, from Bloomsbury/Walker, for ages 12 and up. And isn't this one of the coolest covers you've ever seen?
Synopsis (from the publisher): Many readers know the tale of Robin Hood, but they will be swept away by this new version full of action, secrets, and romance, from debut author A. C. Gaughen. Posing as one of Robin Hood's thieves to avoid the wrath of the evil Thief Taker Lord Gisbourne, Scarlet has kept her identity secret from all of Nottinghamshire. Only the Hood and his band know the truth: the agile thief posing as a whip of a boy is actually a fearless young woman with a secret past. When the heat turns on the band of thieves as the Sheriff of Nottingham seeks revenge, the romance burns strong between Scarlet and her flirtatious fellow outlaws. Helping the people of Nottingham could cost Scarlet her life as Gisbourne closes in. It's only her fierce loyalty to Robin-whose quick smiles and sharp temper have the rare power to unsettle her-that keeps Scarlet going and makes this fight worth dying for.
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| A.C. Gaughen |
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By: Caroline Starr Rose,
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Want to know what's worth reading early next year?
Love & Leftovers - Sarah Tregay
Scarlet - A. C. Gaughen
Never Eighteen - Megan Bostic
5 Comments on The Class of 2k12's Spring Covers, last added: 7/22/2011
By: Caroline Starr Rose,
on 4/19/2011
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Just a quick post to let authors debuting in 2012 know that The Class of 2k12 is capping at 20 members. We currently have two slots still available and will consider additional members on a case by case basis.
For those of you with questions, please don't hesitate to email me personally.
Lovely! Something fun to listen to and keep me inspired while I fold some laundry. :)
:)