Links Galore

Leave a comment

Lots of good links to take you into the weekend:

The Secret Life of Gone with the Wind

Leave a comment

From this list of Gone with the Wind trivia:

“Though Mitchell spent the next decade working on characters and plot development, almost no one knew she was writing a book. She went to extreme lengths to hide her work from friends and family, including hurriedly throwing a rug over pages scattered on her living room floor once when company showed up unexpectedly.”

I don’t talk a lot about my writing with people who are non-writer friends. It can even feel weird if they ask “What’s your book about?” or “How’s the writing going?” Usually they ask out of genuine interest and enthusiasm, but it can be hard to explain the writing process to someone who hasn’t done it before. (Plus the day-to-day work  of me sitting at a computer isn’t glamorous.) And I don’t tend to show my work to people who are non-writer friends.

I think there’s a lot to be said for keeping your work private. Once it’s published and out in the world, it belongs to other people. It’s not yours anymore. But while you’re still writing, it’s yours in a very special way. Sharing that with lots of people can dilute your enthusiasm in some way.

Or maybe that’s just Margaret Mitchell and me. Do you tend to share your work with family and friends?

Be Fearless in Your Writing

Leave a comment

From this interview with Judy Blume:

Q: What do you do to fight censorship?

Well, I’m on the board of the National Coalition Against Censorship and I’m talking more and more with newer, younger writers now about there’s no such thing as a safe book.

If you think you can go into a little room and write a book that no one will ever challenge—I don’t care if it’s a picture book—if somebody wants to find something in a book, they will find something in any book.

So, write with passion and write what’s deep inside and kick that censor off your shoulder, just the way you have to kick your critics off your shoulder when you go into that room.  You can’t worry about things.

I guess that’s what I mean by being fearless in your writing.  That doesn’t mean that you’re not trying to write the very best books that you can write because especially when you’re writing for young people, they deserve the very best stories, books, characters.

In fact, the younger they are, the better it should be.

Love all of the above. Make sure to read the rest of the interview for more about Blume’s writing, New Jersey, and the upcoming Tiger Eyes movie.

A YA Room of One’s Own

Leave a comment

From Callie’s “Why YA?” post at Teen Librarian’s Toolbox:

“I’ve realized teenagers are, quite possibly, the most forgotten group among libraries. And this fact is infinitely sad. And we, as adults, aren’t fooling anyone. Teens know they’re forgotten. It can be seen simply in the size of so many library YA departments. YA departments are tiny and, unless you’re in a large city, usually don’t actually have their own librarian. A teenager comes in with a question and is referred to a children’s librarian. And, come on folks, you remember what it was like. No teenager wants to be called a child. Teenagers aren’t children.”

I remember having this exact experience when I was in middle/high school. We had a small local library which had a children’s section but nothing like that for teens. Similarly, at Barnes and Noble I felt caught between the children’s section and the adult section. There was a small collection of YA books, but it was incorporated into the children’s section–not where I wanted to be at 13. Fortunately, libraries and bookstores are offering a lot more for teens these days, including their own sections and programming, but as Callie says in her post, it’s essential adults remember what it felt like to be caught between the world of kids and the world of adults.

Royal Role Models in YA/MG Literature

Leave a comment

In response to Disney Princess week, Bailey Shoemaker Richards at SPARK counters with her own list of awesome princesses from MG/YA literature. As Bailey says: “The main characters in these books are, become or interact with princesses, and all of them have to deal with the implications of femininity in their own worlds.”

I have to admit: I was crazy about Ariel, Belle, and the other Disney princesses when I was little, and I think these characters still have a lot to offer girls. But when the princess line is marketed as just focusing on the fact that these ladies are princesses and wear pretty dresses, that’s a problem.

Bailey’s list includes three of my favorite MG fantasy heroines: Ella from Ella Enchanted, Cimorene from The Enchanted Forest Chronicles, and Alanna from The Song of the Lioness. All such awesome choices and complex characters outside of being royalty or near royalty. Bailey talks about each character and what makes her compelling, so click through to read more.

A couple of other suggestions I’d add:

Ani (aka Isi) from The Goose Girl by Shannon Hale
This is one of my favorite fairy tale adaptations. Ani has a hard time being a princess and manages to find her own strength when her position is challenged. I love seeing Ani’s progression from awkward and uncertain to a confident, sensitive leader. (Shannon Hale has a bunch of other strong female characters in fairy tale adaptations, so Ani stands in for them as well.)

Beauty from Beauty by Robin McKinley
I especially like Beauty’s relationship with her family in McKinley’s retelling. In the original tale, Beauty’s sisters are selfish and spoiled, but here the family gets along well. Leaving them behind means a lot for Beauty, and I like how McKinley reinforces Beauty’s quiet bravery.

Who are your favorite women from MG/YA fantasty?

MT Anderson: YA Visionary

Leave a comment

MT Anderson is probably one of the best YA authors currently writing. He’s tackled dystopian society hipsters in Feed and the life of a brilliant slave/social experiment in Revolutionary-era Boston in The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing with equal skill and depth of emotion. He pushes boundaries, and I think he’s done a lot for YA as a genre.

So I was really psyched to see Anderson included in NPR’s Visionaries series. Read the article and listen to the podcast here. One part I especially liked:

“Older teens tend to write to me and say, ‘Thank you for not writing down to teenagers,’ ” Anderson explained. “And then there are the letters from adults who say, ‘This is such a good book, why did you write it for teens?’ And feel like, ‘What, you should write a [expletive] book for teens, is that the idea?’”

I think this is why some YA and children’s writers find major success. Their goal isn’t to write a book “for teens” or to “teach children.” They just write good books that appeal especially to children and teens. If adults like those books too, it’s because they’re good books. Kids and teens deserve books that are held to a literary standard like any book you’d put in the general fiction section.

PS–I also had the opportunity to meet Anderson at an NCBLA event last year. He and lots of other amazing authors were signing books afterward, and I got Anderson’s signature. He was very cool and I had a major inner fangirl moment.

(image: Adam Ragusea/WBUR)