Tag Archives: Sara Zarr

What Can I Say? I’m easily excited.

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I have $70 to spend at Barnes and Nobles thanks to winning a Gotham Writers Workshop drawing and a fabulous friend who knows I love books. I’ve been embarrassingly meticulous about how to spend this.

Here’s been my thought process: Do I want to spend it all at once and feel like I’m on a shopping spree? Or should I spread it out so I can keep going back to the bookstore? Should I buy hardcovers since I rarely splurge on those or should I buy paperbacks so that I can add more to my collection? Should I purchase books I wouldn’t normally buy rather than books I was planning on getting anyway? How should I prioritize my list? Should I allow some flex spending for titles that catch my eye at the store or should I come in knowing what I want so I don’t forget something I’ve been truly dying to read?

Preliminary conclusions:

I should spend it all at once so I can look “baller.”

That is, perhaps, the first time the word “baller” has been used with regard to purchasing lots of books.

If I’m this excited for having $70 to spend at Barnes and Noble, I would probably keel over upon winning the lottery?

If I won the lottery I would certainly buy more than $70 worth of books.

A mixture of paperback and hardcover would probably maximize my gain in terms of happiness units. (I learned that term in my mediation class. It’s meaning is nebulous….I learned that word from Michael Scott…and also from my cloud unit in 5th grade science class.)

I should create a list of books I want prioritized in order of desire to own but should treat it much like I treat outlines–nice to know I have one, but not worried about it if I stray…This would have more more resonance with me if I actually ever had an outline…

Contenders:

Cracked Up To Be by Courtney Summers

Savvy by Ingrid Law

Madapple by Christina Meldrum

Undone by Brooke Taylor

The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson

Living Dead Girl by Elizabeth Scott

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

Going Bovine by Libba Bray

Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan

Hate List by Jennifer Brown

Jessica’s Guide to Dating on the Dark Side by Beth Fantaskey

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

The Summer I Turned Pretty by Jenny Han

Wondrous Strange by Leslie Livingston

Thoughts?

Alas, as they say, mo’ money mo’ problems…

Give Up the Ghost

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Short break from Weekday Warrioring to remind y’all about an awesome author who came on and shared her road to publication earlier this year. Megan Crewe’s Give Up the Ghost is coming out from Henry Holt next month! You can pre-order here on Amazon and I highly recommend that you do.

GiveUpGhost

Not only do we love to support our debut authors, but this book sounds really, really fun!

Don’t believe me? Check out her awesome book trailer.

And, oh yeah, as part of the countdown to release, she’s giving away swag. Enter her Spill Your Secrets Giveaway before August 24 and you could win these:

A large GIVE UP THE GHOST prize pack, including:
-A signed advance copy of GIVE UP THE GHOST
-All five ghost scent samples
-A GIVE UP THE GHOST tote bag
-A 10″ LED paper lantern (from the book: Get [Paige] interested, though, and she brightened up like a Chinese lantern.)
-A friendship bracelet (from the book: I’d kept thinking of Danielle as my real best friend. We had the extra four years between us, that back history of friendship bracelets and sleepovers and secret sharing.)
-A sticker set featuring the main characters of the novel
-A GIVE UP THE GHOST bookmark
-A GIVE UP THE GHOST button (not pictured, but I should have them by the time the contest is over)

and…

First choice of THREE of the ARCs pictured above (ALPHAS by Lisi Harrison, ONCE A WITCH by Carolyn MacCullough, CRAZY BEAUTIFUL by Lauren Baratz-Logsted, TRICKS by Ellen Hopkins, SOULSTICE by Simon Holt, CATCHING FIRE by Suzanne Collins, RIOT by Walter Dean Myers, DEMON PRINCESS by Michelle Rowen, FOREST BORN by Shannon Hale, DEVIL’S KISS by Sarwat Chadda, and ONCE WAS LOST by Sara Zarr).

2. The second prize is for everyone who submits any sort of story, and it’s pretty awesome too! It includes…

A signed advance copy of GIVE UP THE GHOST

A medium GIVE UP THE GHOST prize pack including
-All five ghost scents
-Small paper lantern
-Friendship bracelet
-Sticker set
-Bookmark
-Button

-Second choice (after the grand prize) of TWO of the additional ARCs

3. Five additional winners will receive a small GIVE UP THE GHOST prize pack (same as medium but only one ghost scent) and choice of ONE of the remaining ARCS!

Since I’ve been seriously wanting to get my hands on CATCHING FIRE and ONCE WAS LOST, and RIOT (ok, you get the picture), you can bet I’ll be entering. Maybe y’all can guess which secret is mine.

And finally, if you want to read the Fumbling with Fiction interview she did several months back, click here.

Saturday Six

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1. Finally told my agent about the new project. He loved the title and seemed genuinely excited about seeing the new project whenever I was ready. So, of course, that made me feel good! I feel sort of illegitimate if I haven’t touched base with him in awhile and it had been about a month. I feel much better now. P.S. Can I just tell you how wonderful it is to have an agen who always responds the same day? It’s wonderful.

2. I’m having a “pretend writing retreat” this weekend. I can’t figure out why it’s pretend exactly other than that I’m in my house alone and going nowhere special. My goal is 7k words this weekend, the weekend being from Friday evening to Sunday at midnight. So far I’ve written 1, 800. Not great, not horrible.

3. Books I so, so badly want to read: Winter Girls by Laurie Halse Anderson, Wings by Aprilynne Pike, Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins, Demon’s Lexicon by Sarah Rees Brennan, Story of  A Girl by Sara Zarr, Canterwood Crest series by Jessica Burkhart, and The Brilliant Fall of Gianna Z by Kate Messner. There are others, but I will spare you. The ARC that I already have in my hot little hands for which I am most excited is My Soul to Take by Rachel Vincent. That book is coming out this fall from the brand spankin’ new Harlequin Teen imprint. I’m looking forward to seeing what type of book that line will offer.

4. Fellow Hopeful Karen Duvall just won First Place in the HTH Romance Through the Ages contest for her new manuscript, MYSTIC TAXI! Congrats again, Karen!!!

5. Another friend, Theodore Quester, turned me onto this resource: AR Bookfind. You can use the site to look up wordcounts for virtually any book. This was really helpful to me. Not that you should aim for a specific wordcount necessarily. But, of course, there are industry standards. And it might even give you an idea of how a book should be paced by giving you a point of comparison to see how many words it took to tell a given story. Knowing y’all you’ve probably known about this resource forever, but I thought I’d share just in case.

6. Happy early birthday to my critique partner, Jen Hayley!!

Recommend Responsibly Part 2: A Book for Everyone

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As promised, we’re discussing what books to recommend and to whom. Reading isn’t one size fits all and, as writers (or readers) who want to support the book industry, we know we need to recommend responsibly. We do that by encouraging so-called  ”non-readers” to read and thus, hopefully, converting them into at least occasional book-buyers. But, we can’t do this by impressing non-readers with our love for dense, flowerly prose or by insisting that they’ll love whatever genre we write in. Or by peddling every book we love. We recommend books like we give presents–we think of the recipient.

Rule Number Two: We ditch the snobbery. A lot of writers aren’t fond of celebrity authors. Who can blame them? Here we are working our bums off, fighting through rejection, and in walks Lauren Conrad with a three book deal. But BIG books, like these celebrity books sell. People like them. We *want* publishers to make money so they can take risks on other manuscripts. So, if you think your Aunt Matilda would like to read Maureen McCormick’s new book, then get it for her, or recommend it! No worries.

Ok, so I’ll need y’alls help making this list, but I’m going to try to start thinking of types of people and what types of books they like. When it’s done I’ll add it to the books I recommend page.

 

Middle School girl: Beacon Street Girls, Savvy by Ingrid Law, The Floating Circus by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer, Gallagher Girls series by Ally Carter

Middle School boy: Zen and the Art of Faking It by Jordan Sonnenblick, The Wishlist by Eoin Colfer, The Giggler Treatment by Roddy Doyle, Antsy Does Time by Neal Shusterman, The Hobbit by J.R.R. Tolkein

High School girl: Girl, Hero by Carrie Jones, The City in The Lake by Rachel Neumeier, Shift by Jen Bradbury, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

(If looking for non-edgy-Hattie Big Sky by Kirby Larson)

High School boy: Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, Ink Exchange by Melissa Marr, Lord of the Rings by J.R.R. Tolkein

College girl: The Undomestic Goddess by Sophie Kinsella, Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr, Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr, Bergdorf Blondes by Plum Sykes, Magic Lost, Trouble Found by Lisa Shearin, Kitty and the Midnight Hour by Carrie Vaughn, Are You There Vodka? It’s Me, Chelsea by Chelsea Handler

College boy: Foundation by Isaac Asimov, Lolita by Nabokov, John Adams by David McCullough, Blink by Malcolm Gladwell, Freakonomics by Stephen Dubner

30s-40s-50s women: The Mermaid Chair by Sue Monk Kidd, Water for Elephants by Sara Gruen, A Lotus Grows in the Mud by Goldie Hawn, Stephanie Plum series by Janet Evanovich, The Sinner by Tess Gerritsen

30s-40s-50s men: American Sphinx: The Character of Thomas Jefferson by Joseph J. Ellis, Marley and Me by John Grogan, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln by Doris Kearns Goodwin

 

For the Southern fic reader: Secret Life of Bees by Sue Monk Kidd

For the no-nonsense, none of that fantasy junk reader: Sophie’s Choice by William Styron

For the historical fiction lover: The News from Paraguay by Lily Tuck

For the hopeless romantic: The Notebook by Nicholas Sparks

For the woman growing up: Eat Love Pray by Elizabeth Gilbert

For the why-would-I-read-fiction-unless-I’m-learning-something reader: Pillars of the Earth by Ken Follett

For the vampire lovers (adult): Interview with a Vampire by Anne Rice

For the vampire lovers (young adult): House of Night by P.C. and Kristin Cast

For the celebrity gossip lover: Confessions of An Heiress

For the lawyer: One L by Scott Turow

For the guy searching for the meaning of life: The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

For the I-Miss-Harry-Potter reader: His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman

 

Ok, wow, that was exhausting! I’m sure I’ll think of more later. But help me out!

Point of View’s a Point of Contention

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When writing a novel–or anything for that matter–one of the most pivotal decisions an author makes is choosing the point of view from which the story will be told.

I write Young Adult fiction, but the same holds true for other genres as well. Right now, first person point of view is “hot.” It seems that industry professionals have decided that writing in first person adds voice and spark and a closeness to character unachievable through third person.

I’ll agree that it is easier to find a voice while writing in first person. After all, you’re using your main character’s pattern of speech. This works especially well in YA because the narrator is usually the age of the reader and clear “teenspeak” can add both biting wit and humorous perspective.

But, is it the most natural?

I have long been an advocate of third person (preferably limited) even as it has become increasingly passe. Third person written in the past tense is the natural way to tell a story.

Even when first person is correctly “framed” (I’ll explain that later), the description given by the narrator is still often unrealistic. How someone’s elbow is bent, the narrator’s body position. These are all odd things for a person to tell regarding their own story.

I’m currently writing in first person and I am enjoying it–a lot. It’s fun to write from your character’s perspective. But, I’m constantly plagued by the question of why my character is telling the story. That’s what framing is. I’ll give you two examples. In The Confessions of Nat Turner the story is told by Nat who is in the process of confessing his crimes along with his motives to an attorney prior to his execution. Framing.

In The Immoralist, the main character is telling about how he has changed to his three friends who are, in turn, judging him.

Another common device is using a main character who is a writer and therefore it is natural that he or she would be describing in flowery detail the events that have passed.

However, even in something as fabulous as Nat’s tale, I’m thinking, Why would he relate every snippet of dialogue ever? Really. Why?

I don’t have anything against first person. I promise, I don’t. I’m only pointing out that it is a less natural way of storytelling and conversely, that third person is the most comfortable way to be told a story. Therefore, it’s the most comfortable for the reader.

And there is no reason that third person cannot remain extremely close to the characters. Wicked Lovely by Melissa Marr provides an excellent example. Wicked Lovely is written in third person limited with alternating perspectives. Melissa does a fabulous job and at many points, the reader forgets that the author has written the book in third person. That’s how close the narrative is. With third person, we can still be tied to the character’s thoughts.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks is another example of a recent YA novel written in third.

While I may not always follow this myself, my opinion is that unless there is a compelling reason to write in first, stick to third. 

 

What do y’all think? Feel free to disagree.

 

For other posts on the process of writing read: The Squee and 7 Ways to Beat the Block

 

Status: I just finished Betrayed by P.C. and Kristin Cast. This is my second novel this week. Two books! And it’s Wednesday!! I think something must be wrong with me. No wonder, I’m having trouble getting things done. I’m going to try to snag the next House of Night book, Chosen, asap. But, in the meantime, I plan to read Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr and then Eclipse once Nate is done.

My SCOUT query is 2 for 2! I am incredibly excited about the latest request and the agent seems enthusiastic, too. Keep your fingers crossed, guys!

Friday Forecast: Let’s Talk Money

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For today’s Friday Forecast I want to talk about money. A lot of people are disillusioned about how much *the majority* of writers make. What’s a typical advance? Do novelists live off their writing? What the heck is a “nice” deal and why is it different than a “good” deal?

All good questions. And here are you your answers.

For whatever reason–I’m guessing it’s decorum–the publishing industry has broken advances into categories:

A “nice deal” is defined as any advance equaling $49,000 and under (ex. Joy Preble’s Spark)
A “very nice deal’”is between $50,000 and $99,000 (ex. StarLit Productions’ The Break Up Code)
A “good deal” is $100,000 to $250,000 (ex. Lindsey Leavitt’s Princess for Hire)
A “significant deal” is $251,000 to $499,000 (can’t think of one right now)
And…A ‘major deal’ is $500,000 and up (ex. Anna Godbersen’s The Luxe)

(For some humorous descriptions of how these advance categories should really be labeled check this out.)

Most books advances for first novels fall between $5,000-8,000. Nice deals make up almost 50% of advances. The median advance is about $5,000.  Now remember that an advance is not a lump sum. The publisher will break it up into parts usually. At least some of it is paid on publication. Your agent can try to weight the money as heavily toward the front end as possible, but the insistence of publishers on splitting up the advance has become increasingly heavy-handed.

Don’t quit your day job. Until you’ve written more than one book and have begun to earn royalties, do not depend on your writing. Think about this: Ally Carter, author of the Gallagher Girl series just quit her day job this winter and she has two bestsellers, a couple adult books out there, a movie deal with Disney, and another couple books already bought up unwritten.

I always find it funny when people ask, “So, if your book sells are you still going to law school?” Yes, Yes, Yes! I am still going to law school. I am still completely law school. No matter what. Make the time to write. Work it into your life, but if you force yourself to depend on it, your muse might be too stressed out to appear.

 

Status: Later today I will be posting the artwork that goes with SCOUT. I still have not seen it yet, but my fingers are crossed an my hopes are high. Earlier this morning I finished New Moon. I guess it’s time to get Eclipse. I ordered in Story of  Girl by Sara Zarr at the library, too. Now, I’m working on a synopsis for SCOUT, which will be part of a proposal package should we get a request for more materials.