Category: Favorite YA Authors

You’re Gonna Make It After All

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Love this post by  Justine Larbalestier about when you know you’ve made it as a writer. Lots of hilarious items included like:

“. . . I get my very first fan letter. Someone read and enjoyed my book enough to write to me! Best. Day. Ever.

. . . the fan letters I get make me cry because they are so moving.

. . . the fan letters I get make me cry because they are so illiterate.”

Make sure to read through the whole list, because it’s awesome and a good reminder that being a writer isn’t about being on tour or having an agent or getting a Nobel Prize. It’s about writing.

(Couldn’t resist including Mary Tyler Moore in this one.)

The Latest YA/Adult Lit Debate

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It happens whenever there’s a YA/children’s book bestseller or movie adaptation: someone writes an article about whether or not YA/children’s books are worth reading if you’re over the age of 17. The New York Times features just such a discussion over at their Room for Debate.

YA Patricia McCormick holds down the fort for YA. She argues:

“…adults are discovering one of publishing’s best-kept secrets: that young adult authors are doing some of the most daring work out there. Authors who write for young adults are taking creative risks — with narrative structure, voice and social commentary — that you just don’t see as often in the more rarefied world of adult fiction.”

Obviously I very much agree. It’s a wonderful time for YA, when authors are allowed to push boundaries, and readers are enthusiastic about these risks. Teens already seek out innovation in technology, music, and other fields. Why should it surprise anyone that this happens for literature?

Columnist Joel Stein argues that adults should be embarrassed for enjoying anything that a young person might appreciate. But I find it hard to listen to an argument by anyone who claims that he can’t appreciate Pixar films–has he seen the heartbreaking depiction of love and married life in Up?–and hasn’t even read a YA novel. I’m sure he doesn’t appreciate or understand these novels, but I also think he wrote the article to be controversial and get hits. As such, I’m even more inclined to ignore him.

Lots of other articles included as well, most of them in favor of adults expanding their bookshelves with YA novels. In short: just as with adult literature, there is a lot of good and a lot of bad and a lot in the middle. But you shouldn’t cancel out a whole genre simply because you assume it’s beneath you.

(HT: Chronicles of a Mountain Librarian)

Links Galore

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A few more links to get you through Wednesday:

  • A response to critics who claim Jennifer Lawrence is somehow not skinny enough to play Katniss (while ignoring how her male costars aren’t underfed either).
  • A questionnaire for your characters (or you!), inspired by Proust.
  • A sneak peak at the SCBWI summer conference schedule. Wish LA weren’t so far away!
  • A book awards program where the winners are selected by young readers.

Storytelling and Reporting

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Gene Weingarten is one of my favorite feature writers ever. He knows how to craft a story and isn’t afraid to look at complicated characters. A couple of pieces he’s written are “The Peekaboo Paradox,” about children’s performer the Great Zucchini, and “Fatal Distraction,” about parents who accidentally leave their children behind in a car on a hot summer day. Both are heartbreaking and wonderfully written, and I highly recommend checking them out.

Writer’s Digest has an interview with Weingarten about the writing process. About storytelling and reporting:

One of the things I admire about your work is that you consistently prove that great writing begins with great reporting. Talk about the importance of reporting.
Well, let’s start with the maxim that the best writing is understated, meaning it’s not full of flourishes and semaphores and tap dancing and vocabulary dumps that get in the way of the story you are telling. Once you accept that, what are you left with? You are left with the story you are telling.

The story you are telling is only as good as the information in it: things you elicit, or things you observe, that make a narrative come alive; things that support your point not just through assertion, but through example; quotes that don’t just convey information, but also personality. That’s all reporting.

What distinguishes a well-told story from a poorly told one?
All of the above. Good reporting, though, requires a lot of thinking; I always counsel writers working on features to keep in mind that they are going to have to deliver a cinematic feel to their anecdotes. When you are interviewing someone, don’t just write down what he says. Ask yourself: Does this guy remind you of someone? What does the room feel like? Notice smells, voice inflection, neighborhoods you pass through. Be a cinematographer.

Very much like Weingarten’s focus on the story itself, not extraneous flourishes, and creating a cinematic feel in a piece. Even though this is about nonfiction, I think both of these tips are extremely useful to fiction writers as well.

Links Galore

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Lots of links to start your week off right:

  • I know this guy! Matt walked across the country, so now he’s walking every street in New York City.
  • “It’s not surprising that writers, historically technophobic and requiring either sequestered mental space for composition or greater proximal awareness for gathering material, would recoil from smartphones.” Has the New York Times seen #yalit?
  • I’d attend “How to Explain to Your Parents That Your Novel is Not Based On Them” and other rejected AWP panels.
  • New thesis topic: cultural myths and literary tropes in pizza delivery menus that I will never throw away.
  • Why can’t scientists write like poets? I know a few who certainly could handle/appreciate that kind of language.
  • Is our personality in our genes? Maybe not.

A Big Year for Epic Book Adaptations

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Like pretty much everyone else in the YA world, I saw The Hunger Games this weekend, and I was very satisfied by the adaptation. Overall I think they edited well in terms of what they could/couldn’t add into the movie (even if it got a little exposition-heavy at times; tracker jackers, anyone?). The performances were all fantastic. I’d been hesitant about Jennifer Lawrence as Katniss just because she looked older than I’d imagined Katniss to be, but she was fantastic. Lots of the more minor characters were excellent, too. (Rue destroyed me!) I’m very excited to see upcoming versions of Catching Fire and Mockingjay.

Another big movie adaptation coming up this year is The Hobbit, which is set to be released in December. The trailer for this one looks great, so hopefully it’s going to be an excellent year for book adaptations.

If you’re so excited about these movies you just want to squish them together into one giant epic, check out this fun quiz, which examines your knowledge of quotes from The Hunger Games and Lord of the Rings. Probably not too hard for fans, but I like getting validated for my knowledge of movie/book trivia.

Your thoughts on The Hunger Games or The Hobbit adaptations?

Friday Fifteen

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We made it to Friday! Time for a Friday Fifteen, in which I review fifteen books in fifteen words or less.

1. How to Breathe Underwater by Julie Orringer
A favorite collection of short stories. Sharp and evocative, potential for YA crossover.

2. Fodor’s In Focus Barbados & St. Lucia, 2nd Edition by Fodor’s
Picked this up before going to St. Lucia. Moderately helpful.

3. Along for the Ride by Sarah Dessen
Nice balance of sweet and serious, with charmingly beach-y setting.

4. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier & Clay by Michael Chabon
A dynamic novel and a cool look at the history of comics, but the Pulitzer?

5. Bird by Bird by Anne Lamott
A must for writers of any level, with lots of humor and tenderness.

6. Miss Manners’ Guide to a Surprisingly Dignified Wedding by Judith Martin
Didn’t agree with everything, but made me feel more sane about my own wedding.

7. Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day by Judith Viorst
Still want to read this every time I have a day that cannot go right.

8. Walking to Martha’s Vineyard by Franz Wright
A gorgeous collection of poetry. “The Only Animal” is a favorite.

9. The Penderwicks: A Summer Tale of Four Sisters, Two Rabbits, and a Very Interesting Boy (The Penderwicks #1) by Jeanne Birdsall
Sweet and cozy family story set in Massachusetts. I would have been obsessed with this at nine.

10. Antigone (The Theban Plays #3) by Sophocles
My English teacher had to explain Oedipus to us. First use of fuck in class.

11. Hip Hop Til You Drop (Full House Stephanie) by Devra Newberger Speregen
When you can’t take dance, you read about it in a bad television spin-off book.

12. Stardust by Neil Gaiman
Lively fairy tale-esque adventure with a fallen star. Not as deep as other Gaiman books.

13. The Gardner Museum Cafe Cookbook by Lois McKitchen Conroy
Haven’t tried anything yet, but it’s a fun look at culinary history.

14. Franny and Zooey by J.D. Salinger
One of my very favorites. Thoughtful and touching, with New York fifties chill.

15. Love in the Time of Cholera by Gabriel García Márquez
Beautifully written saga of love, plus old people hooking up.

Links Galore

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More links to take you into the weekend:

YA Rocks and It’s That Simple

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At the Guardian, Maureen Johnson talks about YA and why it’s appealing to people who aren’t teens. My favorite quote: “I think that the reason it’s taken off so much is that it’s good. I think it’s actually that simple….It has its detractors and its detractors generally don’t know much about it.”

Totally agree. Much like any other genre, there are bad books in there are well, but overall YA is a fantastic category and adult readers should feel no awkwardness checking out that section of the bookstore.