Nancy: On the Airwaves and America Recycles Day

This little known holiday has been keeping me hopping all week. My publisher arranged for a radio tour for my new title, Keeping Our Earth Green. I've been everywhere from Boston, to Roanoke, to Scranton, to Nevda, and St. Louis. Most days the interviews have started at 7 am with satellite stations. It's been great fun speaking with folks all over about what they can do to help the planet. I sort of have a little sense as to what our candidates recently went through on the campaign trail. It's interesting to hear all the different views and speak with so many different personalities albeit in a much smaller venue. This morning my tour wraps up in Tampa, Florida. I must say I'd love to be sitting in the station there instead of on the phone in the cool, rainy north.

After my interview I'm off to the Wellesley Booksmith, outside of Boston, for a great in-person event that combines my book signing with a sneaker recycling project. What fun!

Nina: On Teenagers, Angst, and Panoramic Covers

I am a writer and a high school English teacher, so when I tell people that my first novel is for teenagers, they often assume that my book was inspired by my work. In reality, it was probably the opposite: I wrote my novel in graduate school, before I even considered teaching high school, and at that time my only contact with teenagers was through my little brother.

Now, I am constantly surrounded by teenagers. Even on the weekends, the students who live around the corner call up to me from the street below my apartment just to say hello.

Teenagers have a bad reputation, but as most of us who write about and for them would agree, it is ill-deserved. They are inquisitive, they are fun, they are passionate, and—fortunately for YA writers—many of them are perceptive and emotionally invested readers.

I’ve had an amazing group of people read and offer criticism on my manuscript, and the feedback from these wise and insightful adults has been invaluable. But last summer, I got to extend my group of readers to two former students, and I have to admit that to sit across the table from two brilliant fifteen-year-olds as they point excitedly to different scenes in your manuscript, to witness their joy over the joyous parts and sadness over the sad parts, to hear them say, “I know exactly how she feels here”—that is exhilarating.

I wish I could give every debut YA writer that experience, but because I can’t seal my students up in envelopes and send them to you, I am going to do the second best thing and let you hear from them. I asked them a few questions about books and reading.

So now, straight from Berkeley, California, here are the kids of Maybeck High School.

When you're browsing in a bookstore or online, what draws you to certain books?

Max: Despite the saying, the first thing I notice about the book is its cover. To me a good cover is aesthetically pleasing and does not show any pictures of the characters. I never like books with pictures of the characters because I feel that it limits my ability to imagine. The second thing I notice is the length: I tend not to like books less than 80 pages or more than 400 pages. If a book has both of these things (a good cover and the right length) I will usually read the back.

Marina: I like short titles and covers that are either scattered and very busy or extremely simple. Everything in between gets lost in all the other books. It’s better when the back cover has an excerpt that represents the book well over a summary because those are often not well enough written. Praise for the book is always good. (I prefer it on the inside over the outside where it’s too showy.)

Julia: Of course, I can be superficial and judge books by their covers. I am usually drawn far far away from books with pink covers covered in candy or shoes or anything zebra-ish that seems superficial. I’m usually drawn to memoirs because they feel more real. I think that melodramatic teen angst novels are to some degree a guilty pleasure, but only really good if they are true, or seem true, because it is easy to over-do them and make them seem improbable.

Lucy: As many others are, I'm often drawn to a book by its cover, and I really love those that are a full color landscape, like a panorama over the whole cover, front and back. Basically if it's pretty, and the summary on the back looks good, I'm more likely to read it.

Dragor: I am especially drawn to books that are psychologically and ethically charged. Though I will generally read a book regardless of the content if it's by an author that I have a high level of respect for.

Sennett: I don't think I ever go to bookstores to find books by authors I haven't read yet. It’s all in the name. Cover attracts but, again, I don't buy books in bookstores anymore unless William Gibson or someone comes out with a new one.

Kathryn: I love novels with strong imagery, and a story I can connect with.

If you could read a book about anything, what would it be?

Naomi: When I was little I read the first Narnia book. I had never read anything like that before. I would give almost anything if I could capture that very moment of surprise that I had when I was a little girl reading those books. What I loved most about them was that they took ordinary kids like me and brought them to a magical world, I would go to the magical world with them.

Dragor: I would like a book that begins with the tone of a happy go lucky adventure story such as the Hardy Boys with superficial characters and a contrived unrealistic plot. I would like it to then take a turn to a darker tone and because of the setting become real and the characters become people.

Marina: People in subcultures/countercultures/anything outside ordinary society.

Max: The books that I enjoy reading the most are not the educational ones nor the ones with any particular literary value: they are the ones that keep me reading from page one. As far as subject matter, I enjoy the same types of books as lots of 12-year-old boys. Epic fight scenes, surprising twists and interesting characters are all good. Characters that rant about how bored or depressed they are not so good.

Sennett: Anything? I don't know. Its all about language and flow really. After that as long as the author is good the subject matter can be anything really.

Julia: If I could read a book about anything it would probably be about the life of someone who has lived it interestingly. The concept that the things and people in a book are actually real is usually very intriguing to me.

Kathryn: I'm with Julia, memoirs are great. I also am a huge Stephen King fan, so kind of creepy with a good plot line.

Lucy: I love fantasy, series where authors have built up whole worlds, because then you can read everything and really learn the world, understand it, and have fun in it. Despite this, I've actually started reading LGBT stuff, like Oranges Aren't the Only Fruit, Well of Loneliness, and am really enjoy them, maybe because I identify with the characters; I’m not sure. Is there a lot of LGBT YA stuff? If not, I think it might be nice for those who have already figured it out by then, or even for those who haven't, just to understand better. Gay people have to read about straight people, why shouldn't straight people have to read about gay people?

If you read YA, what do you like about it? Is there anything you wish for that you aren't finding?

Chris: I like books in general that include people of my age group as main characters because I feel as though I can become them more easily, even though the link would only be through paper. I like books in the first person, in general. I like books with sad endings, or with multiple endings, like the movie Babel, if you've seen it.

Julia: Mostly what I dislike is superficiality and over-done angst. Angst is certainly fine, and oftentimes enjoyable in a book; however, I do not enjoy reading POORLY WRITTEN fiction about sexually abused, drug addled, depressed, homeless 15-year-olds that then find their way in the world in some cliché fashion after undergoing every feasible stress and ailment in life, because while sometimes that actually happens, it is easily overdone.

Sennett: I don't know what YA even stands for. Young Adults? I guess I'm not really going to give a good response to this.

Marina: I kinda feel like anything with a teenage character is young adult. What I like about any book is the writing style because I like lyrical books with good timing. The thing I mainly remember about young adult stuff was how angsty it was. And in my opinion angsty is good unless its over played, clichéd or written by someone who has left the teenage mindset. (PS: breaking rules=good for young adult writing.)

Dragor: I read young adult mostly because I already know authors that I love and only have to find more books they have written. I would prefer to find more novels like Pullman's young adult novel The White Mercedes. That book deals with teenage problems but in a unglamorized realistic way that allows you to truly relate to the characters. It is a love story of ordinary love, true and devoted but still ordinary, that ends in a tragically ordinary way.

Max: My favorite book from childhood must have been one of the Harry Potter books, or all of them. Part of this might be because I listened to the whole series on tape, which is a medium I prefer, but I also think that the ease of sympathizing with the characters is a major strength. Sometimes I wonder why I like reading a book about an over-emotional teen with fairly two-dimensional friends (in the earlier books at least) but then I realize that I don't care what a book is about as long as it’s familiar.

Kathryn: I like novels that have twists and turns, something I can't put down. Strong characters, a solid plot.

Brian: A short interview with the fabulous Jen Yoon, Candlewick editor

1. What are some qualities in a manuscript that keep you reading and that make you start to believe you might want a manuscript? What, beyond these qualities, does a manuscript have to have in order to make it one of the select few you choose to acquire?

The one quality that draws me into a manuscript is voice. That trumps everything else for me. If I believe in a character, then I'll go anywhere with him or her. And a dose of humor never hurts with me. If I laugh out loud, it's a good sign. Anything beyond that is usually practical. If the book includes visuals or is unusual in its structure, then I have to consider how it will be published and that can involve other departments.

2. How do you acquire a manuscript? What's the process? You decide you want a manuscript. What happens from that point to the point you make an offer?

I always seek out a second opinion, so I share the manuscript with at least one (if not two) other editor(s). Since each of us have our own tastes and areas of expertise, getting others' thoughts is incredibly useful. And then, of course, it's a matter of getting everything approved by the necessary folks to make an offer.

3. Are there other factors besides the manuscript that enter into the decision to acquire?

I think at Candlewick we generally focus on the manuscript itself, but of course, we do have to pay attention to the book's market and where it fits in our publishing program. I wouldn't say that these factors would ever prevent me from acquiring a book since there's always a place for good writing and good stories.

Varian: Delacorte Dames and Dudes

I, along with four other Austin authors, were mentioned in Publishers Weekly's Children's Bookshelf this week!

Christine: Making the Media Your BFF

When I’m about to launch a new novel and start dusting off my media contacts, my mind wanders back to the time I used to be on the receiving end, sitting in the newsroom of a daily newspaper.

Here’s how a conversation might go if the present-day, fortysomething me (the one promoting my book) were to make a call to twentysomething me (the one choking down second-hand smoke amidst the clickety-clacking of forty reporters’ keyboards):

FORTYSOMETHING ME: Hi, Christine. This is Christine. How have you been?

TWENTYSOMETHING ME (guardedly, eyeing the clock as a deadline beckons): Okay….

FORTYSOMETHING ME: Great! Hey, by the way, I loved your column Sunday about your Vegas jaunt. Kinda Hunter Thompson-esque. Speaking of writing, I’ve touched base with you in the past when I’ve launched a new book, and I’m about to….

TWENTYSOMETHING ME (relieved to finally glean enough information to pass the buck): Um, you really need to talk to our features editor.

FORTYSOMETHING ME: Cara? Actually, I’ve already contacted her and she referred me to you. She said your paper doesn’t do book reviews anymore, but that a feature article might be a possibility, so….

TWENTYSOMETHING ME (casting evil glance at Cara on the other side of the newsroom for being one step ahead in the buck-passing department): Yeah, you know what? So many people are writing books these days that we’re really cutting back….

FORTYSOMETHING ME (making mental note that Twentysomething Me is way more cocky than her skills merit): Right. Everybody and his brother are self-publishing these days. More power to ’em! Landing a publisher is brutal. But my publisher is Random House, and….

TWENTYSOMETHING ME (slightly more interested but still conveying studied indifference): Oh. A real publisher.

FORTYSOMETHING ME: Right. Anyway, my book is a tween novel called Talia Talk, about a middle-school girl who starts a commentary on her school podcast and….

TWENTYSOMETHING ME: Yeah, if you’ll just send me a press release….

FORTYSOMETHING ME: My publicist already has, so I’m following up with a phone call. Do you think I could stop by at your convenience and….

TWENTYSOMETHING ME (shuddering at the thought, what with newspaper people being introverts who avoid human contact at all costs): Maybe I can just ask you a few questions over the phone….

FORTYSOMETHING ME (triumphantly): Great! Is this a good time?

Morals of the story:

* The media are inundated with press releases and give most of them approximately as much attention as the gnat buzzing about in the newsroom. Follow up.

* The media (all media: print, digital, radio, TV, etc.) are busy and appreciate quick, concise pitches, although the occasional shout-out to their work doesn’t hurt.

* Because they’re inundated with pitches, the media are looking for reasons to quickly cut you off at the pass. Anticipate their brush-offs and stay one step ahead with information that makes your pitch distinctive and appealing.

* Be upbeat but not obsequious, persistent but not pesky. Above all, be professional.

* Mind your manners. Send thank-you notes for nice publicity. Seek out media contacts at social functions or community gatherings just to say hello. Ask about their lives, not because you’re trying to cultivate contacts but because you’re sincerely interested. (You’re a writer, so this comes naturally … right?)

* Handle brush-offs or bad reviews graciously. The air is rarified on the high ground.

Hope this helps. Oh, and one more note from Fortysomething Me to Twentysomething Me: You have SO much to learn. Get over yourself, will ya?

Saundra: Five Books That Made This Writer

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE - Maurice Sendak

Not only is this book willfully transgressive and stubbornly unsentimental, it's the first book that taught me that the words left off the page are just as important are the words left on.

Let the wild rumpus begin- and then it did in the most incredible way. Those strobe-captured moments left so much room for Max's celebration to become anything- as wild, as rumpusful, as infinite as our own imaginations allowed.

WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE is the very essence of show, don't tell- the very foundation of writing.

BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA - Katherine Paterson

A book of startling honesty, BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA is the first book that I remember reflecting the real caprice and chaos of the world. Sometimes people are strange and selfish; sometimes terrible things happen for no reason at all.

And for me at that age, I was comforted knowing that other people Went Away- to Terabithia, to their fantasies, and that these otherplaces could live with, not in spite of, the ungentled intrusion of reality.

THE OUTSIDERS - S. E. Hinton

There's a certain shell of despair to poverty, and this book gets that. In three brothers and a handful of greasers, S.E. Hinton revealed the distraction of hunger. The restless acceptance of a menial fate. The ordinariness of violence and death. The inescapable truth that your friends and your pride- these are all you will ever be able to call your own when you're poor.

But Hinton also let the sunrise and sunset bring hope- not a promise that things will be better, but a whisper that things could be better. That you could be more. That it's possible to be hungry, but still full- of thoughts, ideas, even beauty.

HOMICIDE: A YEAR ON THE KILLING STREETS - David Simon

This book is quite simply the absolute distillation of everything I took from WHERE THE WILD THINGS ARE, BRIDGE TO TERABITHIA and THE OUTSIDERS. It's non-fiction, beautifully written, revealing how directed, and how arbitrary, our short time here on earth really is.

Simon's exhaustive, exhausted look at the men and women who investigate murders in Baltimore, Maryland is not about true crime. It's about living, and finding the perversity, the tragedy, the beauty, and the sacred in all of it.

I can only try to capture the thinnest margin of his success there, but every time I sit down to write, I try.

ON WRITING - Stephen King & STARTING FROM SCRATCH - Rita Mae Brown

I love both of these books for the things they say about the art, the heart and the meaning of writing. King's description of the telepathic art and Brown's insistence that a book is only half done when it leaves your hands (and your cat's paws) were deeply meaningful for me.

But I also love them for reminding me that nobody- not even a best seller- knows anything about the act of writing.

The only way to write a book is to sit down and write it. And everything else- from Stephen King's absurd dismissal of word counts under 5000 words a day, and Brown's brow-lifting dictate that every writer should learn Latin, Greek and own all 13 volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary- that's all personal eccentricity.

Having these books as reminders of both- art and act- has defined me, and I'm so glad to have them both in my collection.

Heidi: Election Day and You're Talking About Research?

Like they say, timing is everything.

So it's Election Tuesday and my dear agent Sara picks this day for me to write about researching my upcoming novel SEA. I hope you've brought your I-Just-Voted-sticker-wearing-self into your local Starbucks for a free cuppa joe and are just settling in to read about the election...or better yet...to read about how a virtually unknown future debut author researched her novel SEA. Obama who? McCain whaaaa?

In the hopes that you're all election'ed out, it started like this:

My husband, a young psychiatrist fresh out of residency intent on bettering the world, didn't want to start a big $ private practice. He was interested in non-profits and more specifically international humanitarian efforts. So after the Asian Tsunami hit, he volunteered and spent two weeks at an Indonesian orphanage helping the surviving children with their post-traumatic stress: nightmares, night terrors, anxiety, depression etc. It was the first time he'd done anything like this and came home *cliche warning* a changed man. I kid you not about this. I mean, he was always a great guy, but he came back...different, like the hero at the end of the disaster movie who somehow makes it out the other end and lives to tell. But how does this involve me?

This was 2005. I had already earned my MFA in writing for children and was working on another project albeit half-heartedly. Our son was a toddler; I was busy. But after he'd been home for a week or so, my husband looked me straight in the eye and said, "You should write about this."

I'm like, right. I know nothing about Indonesia. Nothing about the tsunami. I can't begin to imagine what those kids went through. He said, "Well, think about it. Otherwise their story might not get told."

So I thought about it. A lot. I tried to think how to take my husband's reality, his amazingly detailed journals, illustrations, stories, pictures and fictionalize them. How to create fictional characters readers could relate to. How to create a story of hope out of a story of tragedy.

I got in touch via email with some of the older kids he worked with, the teenagers. I talked with them back and forth, got a feel for their broken English, their strong, sensitive voices. Their incredible spirits and their never-ending questions about America. I read and re-read my husband's  journals, appreciating the humor in a situation that you might think humorless--the lack of toilet paper, the insane traffic, the goats riding sidesaddle on motor scooters.

And I created a voice to tell the story. Once I started I could not stop. The story just flowed out, my fingers flew across the keyboard. I dreamed about my characters, I fell in love along with them; the passion never let up.

Over the course of the next two years I wrote the book. My husband and his team went back two more times and spent a total of eight weeks there, coming back each time with more details about the people and experience. 

A lot of SEA involves non-verbal communication. The touch of a hand to a heart. The thick heat of dancing to the beat of a drum. Hand charades. Laughter. But I also wanted to learn some of the language so my main character could communicate with some of the children who hadn't yet learned English.

Bahasa Indonesia--the language of Indonesia. I studied mostly pocket Lonely Planet, the same guide my husband uses when he goes. I ran my dialog by our friend Skye who volunteered in an orphanage over there for a year and spent two full years in Indonesia for accuracy.

I emailed my friends, the boys who survived the tsunami. I asked them about slang. They happily offered any help I may need. As more story and plot came to me, I researched the setting. Googled pictures online. Used my husband's pictures to create story. SEA contemplates many religious themes as Indonesia is a land of many religions. Instead of researching the religion specifically, I'd ask a young Muslim to explain the story of Mohammad; a Buddhist to tell the story of the Buddha. I wanted to get these stories first hand from a believer's point of view, not the encyclopedia's, so the dialog would ring true.

So research. I'm no expert. I just explored all the options that were open to me. I set out to tell this story as authentically and honestly as possible. To honor these incredible kids who ran away from an enormous wall of water and lived to tell about it. Who lost most of their family to that menacing wave. Who with their strong faith in religion and in each other still wake up each day urging themselves to go on. Who play in the rain, tell talk-talk stories, and comfort each other when they're all alone in the dark and there's no one else to chase the ghosts away.

Looking at their pictures, I felt like these incredible kids looked me in the eye and dared me to figure out a way to write their story.

I would have been a fool to say no.

SEA debuts Summer, 2010 with Putnam (Penguin)