Jennifer R. Hubbard's Blog, page 143
September 5, 2009
The Sky Always Hears Me ...
In my continuing series of 2009 debut launches:
This week, Flux released The Sky Always Hears Me and the Hills Don't Mind, by Kirsten Cronn-Mills. Synopsis: "Sixteen-year-old Morgan lives in a hick town. Her mom was killed in a car accident when she was two, her dad drinks, and her stepmom is a non-entity. Her boyfriend Derek is boring and she can't stop staring at her coworker Rob's cute butt. Then there's the kiss she shared with her classmate Tessa . . . But when Morgan discovers a devasta...
September 4, 2009
Ash
One of the debuts that launched this week was Malinda Lo's Ash, a book from Little, Brown that I've been eagerly awaiting. And not just because of this spectacular cover:
It's a lesbian retelling of Cinderella. Writers, this is an example of what people mean when they say there are no new stories, but there are fresh ways of telling old stories.
It's a lesbian retelling of Cinderella. Writers, this is an example of what people mean when they say there are no new stories, but there are fresh ways of telling old stories.
September 2, 2009
Hate List
There are six debut books that I know of coming out today, and I decided to start with this one for the simple reason that I've read it:
Hate List, by Jennifer Brown (Little, Brown), is a YA novel about "the aftermath of a school shooting, told from the point of view of the shooter's girlfriend."
Jennifer Brown does several things exceptionally well in this book. She manages frequent time shifts; much of the book takes place in the past, so that it really forms another narrative line more than a
Hate List, by Jennifer Brown (Little, Brown), is a YA novel about "the aftermath of a school shooting, told from the point of view of the shooter's girlfriend."
Jennifer Brown does several things exceptionally well in this book. She manages frequent time shifts; much of the book takes place in the past, so that it really forms another narrative line more than a
September 1, 2009
Have you heard about ...
... the Bar Harbor Book Festival? Books! Beautiful scenery! Authors!
... the release of BEDEVILED: DADDY'S LITTLE ANGEL, by Shani Petroff, from Penguin?
Synopsis: "Angel's mom always told her that her dad was the devil. How could she have known her mom meant it literally? Being a teen is hard enough without having a dad from Hell."
Parent-child conflict does tend to ramp up during the teen years, but it looks like Angel has the ultimate Bad Dad!
... the release of BEDEVILED: DADDY'S LITTLE ANGEL, by Shani Petroff, from Penguin?
Synopsis: "Angel's mom always told her that her dad was the devil. How could she have known her mom meant it literally? Being a teen is hard enough without having a dad from Hell."
Parent-child conflict does tend to ramp up during the teen years, but it looks like Angel has the ultimate Bad Dad!
August 31, 2009
One-Liners
I just realized that when I finish my current work in progress, I’m going to have to summarize it. I had managed to block out this knowledge. It’s been a long time since I wrote the synopses for my last project, The Secret Year. Those synopses are now so familiar to me, so smooth and compact, that I sometimes forget they did not roll automatically from my fingertips. I crafted them as carefully as I crafted the book itself.
Synopses come in several varieties; they’re written for different aud
Synopses come in several varieties; they’re written for different aud
August 29, 2009
The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate
Suddenly, the book cornucopia overfloweth with debut novels. I have about nine launches to cover in the next week or so--better get cracking!
The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate, by Donna St. Cyr (CBAY/Blooming Tree). Synopsis: "When Robert Montasio finds a mysterious bottle of Madame Gorgonzola’s Effervescent Elixir on the bus, he has no idea it’s going to become the number one problem on his top ten list–and the biggest adventure of his life."
Note to middle-grade readers out there: Don't dri
The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate, by Donna St. Cyr (CBAY/Blooming Tree). Synopsis: "When Robert Montasio finds a mysterious bottle of Madame Gorgonzola’s Effervescent Elixir on the bus, he has no idea it’s going to become the number one problem on his top ten list–and the biggest adventure of his life."
Note to middle-grade readers out there: Don't dri
August 28, 2009
Could use a laugh
My reading tastes tend toward the dark. Not gore-filled, horror-type dark, but emotionally dark. I do like humor, though. Last night it occurred to me that I could use a funny book right about now, so I asked the Twitterverse for recommendations. A couple of people wanted to see the recommendations, and I agreed to post the list. Keep in mind that these are the suggestions people have sent to me; with one exception, I haven't read any of them myself. I don't know what kind of humor they ar
August 27, 2009
After
A teenage girl gives birth and leaves the newborn in a trash can. Nobody around her, including her mother, even knew she was pregnant. Was she hiding the pregnancy from herself as well, wrapped in desperate denial? Or was her cover-up deliberate and malicious? And how is justice served?
This is the setup for Amy Efaw's After, a book I've been waiting for ever since I first heard about it. And if you want to know how to handle a main character who would seem, at first glance, to be insurmount
This is the setup for Amy Efaw's After, a book I've been waiting for ever since I first heard about it. And if you want to know how to handle a main character who would seem, at first glance, to be insurmount
August 26, 2009
As You Wish
Launching today from HarperCollins: As You Wish, by Jackson Pearce. Synopsis: "High school student Viola Cohen inadvertently summons--then falls for--a young jinn after her boyfriend tells her a life-changing secret."
I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy yet, but I've heard only good things about this book so far. I would expect no less from Jackson Pearce, whose vlogs and blog posts are both witty and on point. My favorite is still this fantasy about how we wish the publishing world w
August 23, 2009
Revision in action
On this blog, I talk about revision in general, conceptual terms all the time, but I thought you might like to see a concrete example. Today I'll show you real-life "before and after" excerpts from a story I've published. The finished story, "Lunch with His Mother," appeared in the May-August 2008 issue of North American Review.
This story's earliest version was as the draft of a poem called "Cafe." It began this way:
"You ask me how I like your mother.
Your mother, with lipstick clotting in t
This story's earliest version was as the draft of a poem called "Cafe." It began this way:
"You ask me how I like your mother.
Your mother, with lipstick clotting in t
