It's Valentine's Day and what better day to chat about writing romance in young adult books. One of the big areas that editors were asking for in the last three conferences I have been to is more romance in YA.
I think it's important for us writers to remember that there should only be romance in the story if it's needed. It has to have an integral part of the plot and character development.
The romance should have a plot arc of it's own. This can be tricky to not fall into the cliche relationship.
Books that I love and give a shout out to the romance are:
Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo Jane by April Lindner An Infidel in Paradise by S.J. Laidlaw Reboot by Amy Tintera Sanctum by Sarah Fine
Here's a vlog I made for you on tips for writing romance in YA:
Last weekend I went to New York City for the SCBWI conference. It was an amazing weekend. I'm just now able to start wrapping my head around everything that happened. As promised, I'm going to give you a recap of my weekend, but it's going to have to be in a number of blog posts because so much happened!
I stayed at the Grand Hyatt with one my MiG partners, Debbie Ridpath Ohi. In fact, all the MiGs came for the conference and wow, we had a blast. You can check out this post for all the MiG pictures. Rooming with Debbie was perfect. She's the best roommate! Look for the next picture book she's illustrating, NAKED, coming out soon.
Friday morning, I took off to visit my publisher, Amazon Children's. I decided to walk because I wanted to experience the city. Man it was cold!
Once there, I met my editor, Miriam Frank. It was wild to actually meet her in person. She took me on a tour of the office area that ACP is renting out until they move into their permanent offices. She dug through their boxes and handed me some of Skyscape's upcoming books, ME AND MY INVISIBLE GUY and THE WAITING TREE. So excited to read those.
First she introduced me to Vera Soki, one of the designers, and Alan Tsai, the production manager. He also handed me a stack of picture books for my boys and classroom, which the kids LOVED.
I also meet Katrina Damkoehler, the art director, who is responsible for making all those beautiful covers ACP has.
Miriam and I went out for coffee and I talked her ear off. Strangely she didn't seem to mind. But after our conversation, I realized how much we clicked and saw eye to eye on books and stories. She gave me book recommendations and had some insightful ideas for my possible sequel. I kept pinching myself because it was all too good to be reality.
When we went back to APC, Miriam introduced me to Marilyn Brigham, another editor, as well as Tim Ditlow, the head of Skyscape, which is the imprint GILDED will be a part of. The only person I didn't get to meet that I was hoping for was Margery Cuyler. I adore her books and was secretly hoping to snag an autograph. Margery was the one who first emailed me that they were taking GILDED to acquisitions.
As much as I didn't want my time to end at ACP, I was super excited to meet my agent, Jeff Ourvan and Jennifer Lyons who runs the agency. Jeff picked me up at ACP, and it was as if I already knew him even though it it was our first time meeting. We met Jennifer at her house. I loved how there were books everywhere. Figures she's the head of a literary agency!
Unfortunately, I totally forgot to get pictures with them! We were so busy talking and planning and then off to an amazing lunch, that the thought didn't even cross my mind. Next time though!
Jennifer gave me a copy of their latest award winning book, THE REVOLUTION OF EVELYN SERRANO by Sonia Manzano. It won the Pura Belpre Honor Book.
After meeting Miriam, Jeff and Jennifer, I decided I am the luckiest girl on the planet to have a team of people who are excited about making GILDED become a reality. I think I literally floated for the rest of the day. No, I think I'm still floating.
There is nothing that kills a story quicker than when it's set in the same old setting. Like the school cafeteria or the locker scene. Don't get me wrong, you can use those settings, but my challenge to myself if I'm going to use those settings is to find something unique.
For instance, I have the cafeteria scene, but I pull out the unique details of Korea using thumbprint scanners to deduct from student's accounts. Or I have the locker scene, but then something (Sorry! No spoilers today!) very unusual happens.
When I was at the Hohenzollern Castle in Germany, I was overwhelmed by all the details that the builders put into the design of the buildings. I couldn't resist chatting about how important using unique details creates a unique story.
You can check it out here:
What are ways that you incorporate details in your settings?
It's finally here! PROPHECY by Ellen Oh. I am beyond excited for this book and I have so much love for it and Ellen herself.
I read an early draft of this book way back when Ellen and I manuscript swapped. She read GILDED and I read PROPHECY so it's kind of an amazing thing to see our books debuting in 2013.
What I love about PROPHECY:
1. The setting- Hello, ancient Korea. It doesn't get much better than that. So automatically, it hits my winner category.
2. The premise- Fighter girl who saves her people. My type of book.
3. The Korean mythology- After writing GILDED, I find it intriguing to see how other authors pull the ancient myths into their own stories and Ellen does such a great job with this.
4. The cover- Tell me that's not gorgeous.
5. The fight scenes- If you're looking for a good action-packed quest with thrilling fight scenes, you really need to read this book.
A couple of weeks ago I mentioned pulling out my plot grid when I was revising a manuscript and promised to talk more about that later. Now that NaNo is finished and many of you have a very rough draft in place, it's key to pull out or create a plot grid.
Why have a plot grid? 1.Plotting- Gives you a bird's eye view of the structure of your plot.
I'm a sucker for a good plot. Especially one that's unpredictable. Of course, creating an unpredictable plot is another whole blog post for another day.
2. Character Appearances- Allows you to see how often and which one of your characters appear throughout the book.
3. Setting- Where is your story taking place? Are you switching up your setting? To me nothing is more boring than bouncing your characters between the school cafeteria and home. Please don't do that. At least for my sake.
So, you're probably wondering what a plot grid looks like and how to put it together. Click here for the word document that I use. If you have a mystery plot, check this plot grid out.
You can also watch my vlog on how to make a bigger version of this. Personally, I need both.
So what do you find is helpful to making sure your plot flows, doesn't lag, and isn't filled with holes?
I have been excited to review for you SANCTUM by Sarah Fine. Honestly, I wasn't sure how Fine would deal with the issue of suicide, which is ultimately what this book was about. But she creates characters and a world that are both intriguing and so real that I was sucked in from the get-go.
The Blurb from Amazon:
"My plan: Get into the city. Get Nadia. Find a way out. Simple."A week ago, seventeen-year-old Lela Santos’s best friend, Nadia, killed
herself. Today, thanks to a farewell ritual gone awry, Lela is standing in
paradise, looking upon a vast gated city in the distance – hell. No one
willingly walks through the Suicide Gates, into a place smothered in darkness
and infested with depraved creatures. But Lela isn’t just anyone – she’s
determined to save her best friend’s soul, even if it means sacrificing her
eternal afterlife.
What I love about this book: There really is so much to love about Fine's writing. She brings a unique twist on Heaven and Hell, which allows readers to look at the tough issue of suicide and rape in a different light. Her characters are real people. Nadia ,who is bogged down in the pressures of our society to be perfect. Lela, the "bad girl" who struggles to get her life on track despite no support from home. And yet despite these girls differences, how much they need each other to survive.
What makes this book unique: The concept of this book blew me away. Fine created a whole new world to set her story in, including characters such as Mazikins (demons). This allowed her to deal with issues teens face today by taking readers away from their own world and reliving those same conflicts in a fantasy setting.
Why you should read it: The romance, oh the romance. Malachi is hot, hot, hot. Do I need to say more?
My favorite line: "Either you're a Mazikin, and I will destroy you, or you are ready to go before the Judge and get out of this city."
So you’ve written the story of your dreams. You’ve stamped
your soul’s signature onto it. With all your heart, you believe it’s publishable,
unique and marketable. It just has one itsy problem.
It’s a big fat mess.
Yep. That’s me with my latest WIP. It’s a new series that’s
been rattling around in my brain for about five years. While GILDED was on
submission I decided to write the impossibly complicated story.
It has earned
the fond name of THE BEAST. You might have heard me refer to this in previous
blog posts and on Twitter. Let me tell you, that book practically killed me.
And I’m not finished with it. I don’t even know if it will sell. But I truly
believe the story is stronger because of the process I put it through.
If you have a story like mine and you’re willing to not give
up on it even though it’s a big fat mess, then here are some steps that might
help you.
1.Ask yourself if you’re committed to thestory.
Are you willing to do anything for it? This includes major rewrites, structural, plot, or overarching changes in the main character’s internal conflicts?
If you can answer yes to all of these things, then keep reading. If not, forget
your story and write a new one. 2.Okay, so now that you’re committed, you need
to write a query, synopsis, and a detailed outline. The query will tell
you the central issue your story will face. The synopsis will give you an
idea of flow of the story, and the outline will show where your plot holes
are located, among other things. 3.Study your query, synopsis, and outline.
Personally, I like to also use a plotting grid. See the one attached that I
made up using a traditional one with my own personal tweaks. (Don't worry, I plan on vlogging more on this plot grid later) Find where your
weaknesses are. Number them from biggest issues to smallest issues. Tackle each
one step at a time. 4.Now send it to two or three critique partners
who will tell you if it’s awful or not. When they send back their notes, take
them seriously. If more than one person is saying the same thing, you should
strongly consider changing what they say is the problem. I find that my
critique partners are right 99.9% of the time. 5.At this point I print out their suggestions and highlight
them in various colors. An example is: character issues,I highlighted in blue, plot is in green,
internal conflict with main character in purple. I’m a visual person and right
away I can see where the central problems are lying in. 6.From there, I brainstorm ways to fix my problems
using a flow map. Something like this. 7.Don't be worried about trying multiple versions. In THE BEAST, all three of my crit partners didn’t
like the opening. It was too slow, but they didn’t know how to solve it. They all
gave me suggestion though. What I found after looking at my color scheme of
highlighting that most of my issues stemmed back to my main character’s
internal conflict. It wasn’t strong enough and therefore those opening chapters
reflected that. So I decided to write three different versions of chapters 1-3.
It was hard work, but I think I got closer to solving the problem. Hopefully,
you’ll be able to fix the problem without writing three different versions. 8.Mission accomplished! You’ve now finished another draft of your
beloved manuscript. You read it and it’s all fixed. Yay! Go celebrate! But this
was not the way it went with me. I felt I still had problems. I didn’t know
what they were but something was still not right. 9.Try, try again. So…. If this happens, write a new query, synopsis
and outline (or plot grid). Then pull out your old versions and compare the
two. What changes did you make? How did these changes improve your story? Can
you take it to another level? 10.Get More Feedback. If you’re like me, I decided I needed more
feedback from my crit buddies. I resent it to two of the girls and they took
another look at it. While they were looking at it, I didn’t even think about
the manuscript. Instead, I took a break and started writing another book. I
think sometimes, stepping away from a project helps you get a clearer picture
of that project later on. 11.Take a Break! After a few months break I took on the new
suggestions that my crit partners gave me. I reread the manuscript with fresh
eyes and made the changes I felt were needed. 12.Send it off! A couple of weeks ago, I sent THE BEAST to my
agent.Last week the two of us chatted. It's still not submission ready, but it's closer. He had great ideas of how to fix my biggest problems. I've been playing around with some different scenarios and seeing which angle will work best. I'll let you know what happens! Ultimately, the key to revision is the
ability to adapt and be open to change. If you can do those two things, you
have a chance to slay THE BEAST before it kills you.
I'm supposed to answer all kinds of questions about the book I'm working on. I'm actually working on two other projects, one a sequel to GILDED, and another is a dystopic fantasy. Even though I'm over-the-moon excited about these two projects, they're still in the secret stages where only the Brilliant Ones (my crit partners) and my ninja agent know details.
I thought you might want to hear a little more about GILDED because this baby is coming out to the world next November (Yes! My editor gave me a release month).
What's the working title of your book?
GILDED (Crossing fingers I get to keep the title)
Where did you come up with the idea for your book?
I love mythology. While living in Korea, I was teaching Greek mythology to my students. I thought it would be fun to learn more about mythology of the country I was living at. When I came across the myth of Hameosu and Princess Yuhwa, I was hooked. I knew I was going to write their story.
What genre does your book fall under?
Mythological paranormal
Which actors would you play the movie rendition?
For Jae, I'd choose Song Hye Kyo because of her look.
This is how Jae looks most of the time (ticked off, thanks to Haemosu)
But when she's around Marc, the world changes:
For Marc, it would have to be William Moseley.
What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
About a 16-year old Korean-American girl who discovers an ancient Korean god has been kidnapping the first-born daughters of her family for generations. And she's next.
If you're interested in a pictorial idea of GILDED, you can check out my Pinterest page here.
What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Um.... there really isn't much out there in YA. The closest would be the Percy Jackson books. I'm anxiously waiting to read Amanda Sun's INK. From its blurb, it might be the closest YA out there in similarity.
Who or what inspired you to write this book?
Living in Korea absolutely inspired GILDED. I wrote what I saw, heard, smelled and lived. Most of the scenes were recreations of stuff that actually happened to me. Like the ski scene. So me.
What else about this book might pique a reader's interest?
If you like books with: tough fighter girls, romance, lots of action, dragons, portals, fantasy and mythology then you'll like GILDED.
Fear of rejection, fear of reviews, fear you'll never land an agent or editor, fear that your next book won't sell, fear your agent or editor won't approve those edits.
The list is endless. But the only way to overcome those fears is to face them. While I was in Europe this summer, I filmed this short vlog with tips on how to face those fears.
Cheater. Traitor. Slut. Quinn’s done the unthinkable: she kissed a guy who is not Carey, her
boyfriend. And she got caught. Shunned by everyone she knows, Quinn loses her
friends, her reputation, and her identity. Because Carey’s not just any guy—he’s
a Marine who’s serving overseas, and beloved by everyone in their small,
military town. But Quinn didn’t cheat. She could clear her name, but that would mean
revealing secrets she’s vowed to keep—secrets that aren’t hers to share. So she
stays silent, and waits for Carey to come home.
Then Carey goes MIA, and Quinn must decide how far she’ll go to protect
her boyfriend…and her promise.
Over at the YA Rebels we all talked about a time when we lied or withheld the truth in celebration of the release of IF I LIE. This was actually my last vlog with the YA Rebels as a guest poster. I had a lot of fun vlogging with them!
You can check out my vlog here where I talk about how I lie every day.
Today's highlighted book on Asian literature is THE ROYAL BEE by Frances Park and Ginger Park. This is an elegant picture book about a boy named Song-ho from Korea who desperately wanted to go to school. But he wasn't from the wealthy families, the yangban, but instead a poor sangmin boy. So he wasn't allowed to attend.
Yet this didn't stop him. He sat outside of the school in the freezing cold, his ear pressed against the rice paper door just to listen to the master. This determination changed his life forever.
The illustrations by Christopher Zhong-Yuan Zhang cast a portrait of a beautiful age in Korea. It's an excellent way to see the dress, culture and landscape of Korea.
What I love about this book: How this story showed the courage of Song-ho to stand up for who he was as well as his determination to never give up despite the obstacles faced before him.
What makes this book unique: I especially love how this is written by two sisters and it's based on their own grandfather's experience. How inspiring!
Why should you read it? It's a story set in Korea. (Okay so I'm a little bias there). The values and morals makes this not only an excellent read aloud but inspirational as well.
Favorite lines: "shadow of the master", "The Sodang School, surrounded by golden rain trees", "when the moon shines into the Great Hall"
One of the things I love about my agent, Jeff Ourvan, is he not only rocks at his job as my agent by placing my book into the right editor's hands, communicating quickly, and calming my worries, but he understands me as a writer. I think a lot of this stems from him being a writer himself.
It opens with a very cool foreword by Baseball Hall of Famer Orlando Cepeda and includes 100 color photos featuring a few kids from his past Little Leagues.
You can link to the Amazon or B&N listings right from his newly launched website: www.everykidwins.com. Or just access it here on Amazon's or B&N's websites. The book can also be found at your local bookstore May 1st.
I've already ordered my copy of the book. I've got two sport fanatics at home who are ready to learn all they can on baseball.
Today in the United States we changed our clocks at 2:00 a.m. to spring forward from 1:59 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. This is called Daylight Saving Time.
But not all countries in the world follow this tradition. If you click here you can find out who observes Daylight Saving Time. There's also a really cool graph here to show you how Daylight Saving Time allows us to better use the daylight hours. Now this whole concept of changing time made me think. (Partly because I just finished reading TEMPEST by Julie Cross, a fast-paced time travel book.)
In some ways I have time traveled. When we would fly from Korea back to the States, we would arrive at Atlanta the exact same time as when we left Seoul. Now this might not be the traditional sense that you'd think of time traveling, but I always experienced sickness (jet lag), additional time (thank you time zones) and disorientation (the differences in air and elevation).
Last week I watched the movie Midnight in Paris. I loved how depending on the person, different characters yearned for a different time. It's interesting how people never thought of their time as the time to live in.
So to celebrate the concept of time, I'm giving away two fantastic books that I highly recommend. TEMPEST by Julie Cross- The year is 2009. Nineteen-year-old Jackson Meyer is a normal guy… he’s in college, has a girlfriend… and he can travel back through time. But it’s not like the movies – nothing changes in the present after his jumps, there’s no space-time continuum issues or broken flux capacitors – it’s just harmless fun. HOURGLASS by Myra McEntire- For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn't there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.
As you can see, both of these books have fantastic plots, but they also have characters that are real and worth reading about. I cannot wait for their sequels!
So how about you? If you could time travel, where and when would you go?
Fill in the Rafflecopter form below by Mar. 18th to win!
The launch took place at Inkwood Books, an adorable indie bookstore. If you're ever in Tampa, I'd recommend checking out what they have to offer.
We ate yummy #5 cookies while we listened to Kristen share about her writing journey, which was touching and really an inspiration to us all. Tara even won swag!
Kristen then read us an excerpt of her book and already I'm anxious to start reading my new autographed copy.
Kristen's agent, Joanna was there for the occasion, having flown all the way from Chicago! It was such a touching moment to listen to Kristen share how her dreams have become a reality.
We also met book blogger, Sarah, from The Book Life too!
Here's the blurb on Kristen's book:
ARTICLE 5, the first installment of a dystopian trilogy for teens. Major cities have been abandoned, the Bill of Rights has been revoked and replaced with the Moral Statutes, there are no more police – instead, only soldiers. Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that life in the United States used to be different. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. She has learned to keep a low profile, but then her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And what’s worse, one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I’m a big, big fan of multicultural fiction. Not only do I get to learn about new cultures, civilizations, but I get to ‘travel’ to new places. Very cool.
I tend to be bias to Asian fiction, but you can’t blame me after living in Asia for 10 years! I was thinking about some of my favorites, while at the same time looking for new stuff that you might have found. So here’s a quick list of good reads, but please add others that you know of in the comments section. I'm always on the hunt for book recommendations!
Here’s some of my top reads that I’ve taken some liberty categorizing.
Historical Fantasy
Silver Phoenix by Cindy Pon (YA)- adventure set in China
Year of Impossible Goodbyes by Sook Nyul Choi (YA)- set in Korea (a must read)
So Far From the Bamboo Grove by Yoko Kawashima Watkins (MG) set in Korea, but from a Japanese POV (great comparison novel to Year of Impossible Goodbyes, but controversial)
Carpe Diem by Autumn Cornwell (YA)- set in Southeast Asia
Sea by Heidi Kling (YA)- set in Indonesia (haven’t read this one, but it’s on my to-read list)
Archer’s Quest by Linda Sue Park (MG)- set in the US, but with a character from ancient Korea
Note: The first two pictures were taken in Kyoto, Japan and the last three were taken in China. And I'd like to add, don't be fooled by the impression of peace and tranquility you might feel at looking at the pictures of the Golden Pagoda.
My two boys were very, VERY busy creating havoc by climbing rocks and throwing pebbles into the pond, disrupting the perfect reflection. So while most remember this beautiful setting with serenity, I only remember chasing two little boys and repeatedly apologizing to tourists.
