Jennifer Echols's Blog, page 9
October 21, 2011
It's that time of year again!
I spoke about it at Homewood High School earlier this week, I'm speaking about it at the Southern Magic meeting tomorrow, and now I'm putting my money where my mouth is. I won National Novel Writing Month in 2008 and I am going to win it again this year with my fabulous new adult romantic comedy Star Crossed.
We here at Jennifer Echols LLC find that shame is a powerful motivator. That's why I will be posting every day of November, excluding weekends, with my word count and progress. I hope you will join me! To post to this blog, you need to have a LiveJournal account, but it takes a minute to set up and costs nothing. Some time between now and Nov 1, leave a comment with the following info:
1. Who you are
2. What you're writing
3. How many words you're going to write on November 1 (if you're trying for a daily quota, you need 50,000 / 30 = 1667 every day)
4. Encouraging thoughts for someone else who has posted
Then, each day of November, come back and tell us how you did. Here's the catch: there is NO WHINING and there are NO EXCUSES at Jennifer Echols LLC. You did or you didn't.
Ready?
I'm writing 1667 words on November 1.
And I know all of you can too.
We here at Jennifer Echols LLC find that shame is a powerful motivator. That's why I will be posting every day of November, excluding weekends, with my word count and progress. I hope you will join me! To post to this blog, you need to have a LiveJournal account, but it takes a minute to set up and costs nothing. Some time between now and Nov 1, leave a comment with the following info:
1. Who you are
2. What you're writing
3. How many words you're going to write on November 1 (if you're trying for a daily quota, you need 50,000 / 30 = 1667 every day)
4. Encouraging thoughts for someone else who has posted
Then, each day of November, come back and tell us how you did. Here's the catch: there is NO WHINING and there are NO EXCUSES at Jennifer Echols LLC. You did or you didn't.
Ready?
I'm writing 1667 words on November 1.
And I know all of you can too.
October 13, 2011
The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Kristina Springer!
The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!JUST YOUR AVERAGE PRINCESS
Jamie Edwards has loved everything about growing up on a pumpkin patch, but ever since her cousin Milan Woods arrived, things have really stunk. Jamie can't imagine it was easy for Milan to leave her life back in Los Angeles and move to Average, Illinois, population one thousand. But it's kind of hard to feel sorry for her since (a) Milan's drop-dead gorgeous; (b) she's the daughter of two of Hollywood's hottest film stars; (c) she's captured the attention of everyone in town, including Danny, Jamie's crush since forever; and (d) she's about to steal the title of Pumpkin Princess right out from underneath Jamie!
Jennifer: My July release, Love Story, is set in a creative-writing class. Did you ever take a class like that, and what was your experience?
Kristina: I took one in grad school and thought I was awful at creative writing! I thought everyone else was much better than me. When I stopped trying to fit the teacher's expectations and wrote what I wanted to write, it came much easier.
Jennifer: My heroine longs to be a novelist. Was your journey to publication filled with longing? Quick and easy? How did you make it?
Kristina: Nothing in this business seems quick or easy now :) but my first sale did happen pretty fast. I wrote The Espressologist in the late summer/fall of 2006, got an agent in April of 2007, and it went to auction and sold in May of 2007. Then two and a half years later it released.
Jennifer: In one of my creative-writing classes, I was taught never to write about writing. Oh well. Were you taught this too? Are there other writing rules you were taught that you still remember and either follow or throw out the window?Kristina: No, I never heard that one! I was told to never write at the end that you woke up and the whole book was just a dream. Unless you want to irritate your readers.
Jennifer: What good books have you read lately?
Kristina: I'm reading Peony in Love by Lisa See right now. Loved her Snow Flower and the Secret Fan.
Jennifer: When readers tell you they've read and loved all your books and they want recommendations for similar books to read now, what do you say?
Kristina: Check out Meg Cabot, Lauren Myracle, Rhonda Stapleton, Kristin Walker, and Mandy Hubbard.
Jennifer: What's next for you?
Kristina: Right now my newest YA book, THE PAPARAZZI PROJECT, is on submission. This was a super fun book to write and I think any tabloid loving teen will love it.
For the latest on Kristina's books, check out her web site at kristinaspringer.com.
September 30, 2011
How to get a boy to read
Last year, my son and I saw Jeff Kinney at his book tour stop here in Birmingham. The show was terrific, including the actors who play the main characters in the Diary of a Wimpy Kid movies. Mr. Kinney was such a wonderful public speaker that I grew very, very jealous and decided that I would like to be him when I grow up (though he is two years younger than me).
In his talk, he said that teachers and librarians tell him how grateful they are to him for writing books that excite reluctant readers. It took him a long time to realize that by "reluctant readers," they meant "boys." The crowd laughed uproariously.
My son and I just looked at each other. At the time, he was a 9-year-old in the 4th grade. In most ways, he is a typical boy. He plays football and soccer, and he's on the swim team (not all at the same time!). Violin lessons didn't work out, but now he's taking drum lessons. He regularly gets in trouble at school for talking and for not turning in his homework (even though I make sure he has done it). He can tell you the name and year of introduction of any plane or helicopter flying overhead. He would probably play Wii for 8 hours a day if I let him. His favorite TV shows are Phineas & Ferb and Mythbusters. His favorite show would be Sons of Guns if I let him watch it, and his new hobby is making models of grenade launchers out of PVC pipe.
He is not, however, a reluctant reader. I would estimate that he read over 100 books last year--not counting what he read at school.
This is largely my doing. I knew from the beginning that this kid was not going to be a reader unless I did something. From infancy he has been too extroverted and too fascinated with electronics and contraptions. But does anyone become an avid reader in the absence of encouragement...or incarceration? I would hold up my brother as a male who is naturally an avid reader, except that my mom encouraged him in many of the ways I have encouraged my son. I don't know the answer to that question.
I do know that a lot of people are frustrated that their boy-children don't want to read. What I offer here is a catalog of methods I have used to make sure my son reads, with terrific results. He is now 10 years old, in the 5th grade, and reading at a 12th-grade level. All of these steps could work on reluctant girl-children too.
1. Make them read every day. That way, they get used to it, and they stop resisting. My son's schools have been making him read every day and log the results since he was two years old. They have offered bonus points for reading on the weekend, and I have made him do it. In the summers when he has been out of school, I have made him read 30 minutes to an hour every day.
2. Log the results. Every season, tape a piece of paper to the refrigerator, and write down every book they read. That way, they can see their progress.
3. Pay them. They will learn that you value reading. I got this idea from my grandmother, who used to pay me 10¢ per book. I have given my son a raise--I pay him 50¢ per book. It's still not much, but it's the same as his weekly allowance. I write what he's earned on the reading log.
4. Read with them. Admittedly, lots of days I'm stuck at my computer, writing or editing, and my reading has to wait until after my son has gone to bed. If I can manage it, though, I read at the same time he is reading, so I'm modeling this behavior and showing him that I find it worthwhile. I also write what I've read on the reading log.
5. If you are a chick and your child is a boy, make sure he sees men reading. This might be the most important step. No matter how we try to make little feminists out of them, boys look up to men, specifically to their fathers or father figures.
My husband is not a reader. I stressed to him how important it was for our son to see him reading, but for years I had to settle for the newspaper. Then one glorious day, my husband happened to thumb through my copy of Little House in the Big Woods that I'd been trying for the third time to get my son interested in. My husband was hooked. My son saw this, and then he was hooked. Then we had a problem because they were reading the same books at the same time and fighting over Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm not going to post them because I don't show my son on the internet, but I have a great series of photos of the two of them having a wrestling match over On the Banks of Plum Creek.
6. Let them have snacks and build a pillow fort to read in. We don't have to do this anymore, but a few years ago I had to allow 30 minutes of pillow fort preparation for every 30 minutes of reading. I put up with it because of the good result.
7. Buy them books and put them in their room. This shows them that you value books. They own them and re-read them and grow to love them so much more than if these books were borrowed for a few weeks from the library.
8. Turn a blind eye to surreptitious reading. Enable it, even. If the worst thing my kid ever does is read under the covers with a headlamp until two hours after his bedtime, I think we are in good shape.
9. Let them read what and how they want. There are limits to this. I don't want my kid reading books that aren't advanced enough for him. He can read them all he wants, but they don't count toward his daily reading time. I also don't force him to read classics with archaic language. Usually he does not get into books narrated by girls, and though this makes me sad, I don't argue. Largely he sticks with middle grade adventure series, and that is okay with me.
He also reads four books at a time. I do not understand this at all. I don't know if it's a short attention span or what. I do know that he's actually reading and understanding them, because whenever he takes an AR (Advanced Reading) test on one at school, he makes 100%. If it works for him, it works for me.
10. Never discount toy and movie tie-ins. My son has made huge progress as a self-starting reader because his interest was piqued by popular culture. A couple of years ago, faced with a long drive on vacation and a dead DVD battery, I bought my son a book to occupy him and crossed my fingers. I was reluctant to buy the anthology of three Star Wars novels about Boba Fett, but that's all that interested him in the tiny mall bookstore we had available. This was the first time we had to yell at him to stop reading. Whenever we pulled over at a scenic overlook or a restaurant, he was so engrossed in this story that he refused to get out of the car.
And then, of course, there's Harry Potter. I refused to let him see the movies until he read the books, but somehow he got hold of the strangely derivative Harry Potter Lego Wii game, and that's when he finally said he wanted to read the first book. That was August of last year, when he was 9, about to enter 4th grade. Six weeks later he had read all seven Harry Potter novels.
He was a reader before, but Harry Potter really propelled him into reading voraciously--possibly because he's not afraid now of a 700-pager. He knows he can read anything. His teachers and I worried that once he finished the series, he would not find anything else that measured up. As you can see from the list below, he has found plenty. He has read all of these books in the past year, and the quotation after each listing is his commentary.
* * *
FOOTBALL HERO and FOOTBALL GENIUS series by Tim Green
"If you really like football, then you would be totally into these books. The FOOTBALL HERO and FOOTBALL GENIUS series come together in Deep Zone."
There are maybe 5 of these books. My son has read all of them but Deep Zone, which he is reading now.
SEEMS series by John Hulme and Michael Wexler
"It's just really interesting. If you like Harry Potter, you're going to like it. And if you wonder about life, death, the universe, whatever, because it has this whole other world about how things are created, like gravity and your thoughts."
There are 3 of these and my son has read all of them. We got the last one the other day and when he saw it he jumped up and down. When he was five pages in he said, "MOM. I am five pages in and it is SO GOOD."
A WHOLE NOTHER STORY and ANOTHER WHOLE NOTHER STORY by Cuthbert Soup
"If you're a really genius reader, this book is not for you, but if you like a little silliness, this book is just right. This is a true quote from a review."
Me: "I don't understand. You're quoting somebody else's review from memory? I want you to review it yourself."
Kid: "Yes, but the review is true. There is a hairless dog and a guy named Ethan Cheeseman."
Me: "Whatevs."
SECRET series by Pseudonymous Bosch
"It's mystery-slash-adventure. If you like A Whole Nother Story, then you'll probably like this."
There are 5 of these, and my son has read the first 2.
ALEX RIDER series by Anthony Horowitz
I meant to get a quote from my son about these and I forgot. They are James Bond-ish. He found one that he hadn't read in his room the other day and started reading it right where he found it on the floor. An hour later he was still in the same place on the floor, still reading.
There are lots of these books. My son thinks he has read 6.
PERCY JACKSON series by Rick Riordan
"If you like Harry Potter, then you'll probably like Percy Jackson just because it's still a fantasy but it's more adventurous. It's a real page turner. You just can't wait to read the next chapter, and you read it every chance you can."
There are 5 of these. My son has read all of them.
THE LOST HERO series by Rick Riordan
"If you really loved the Percy Jackson series, you will love this, because they have much the same setting, and much the same things happen."
I am actually not clear on these books. My son also loved The Red Pyramid. Riordan may be writing two new series at once, and my son has read the first book and eagerly awaits the publication of the second of each series. I think it is pretty cool that he has acquired his own reading life that I can't keep up with.
* * *
I hope this post helps someone nudge their child into the rewarding world of reading. My book Endless Summer seems to be popular with female reluctant readers, possibly because there is absolutely no pretense of anybody learning anything by reading it. I am so gratified when readers tell me they hated reading until Endless Summer, and now they read all the time. I have turned them! Sometimes all it takes is finding one book that speaks to you, and you're hooked.
In his talk, he said that teachers and librarians tell him how grateful they are to him for writing books that excite reluctant readers. It took him a long time to realize that by "reluctant readers," they meant "boys." The crowd laughed uproariously.My son and I just looked at each other. At the time, he was a 9-year-old in the 4th grade. In most ways, he is a typical boy. He plays football and soccer, and he's on the swim team (not all at the same time!). Violin lessons didn't work out, but now he's taking drum lessons. He regularly gets in trouble at school for talking and for not turning in his homework (even though I make sure he has done it). He can tell you the name and year of introduction of any plane or helicopter flying overhead. He would probably play Wii for 8 hours a day if I let him. His favorite TV shows are Phineas & Ferb and Mythbusters. His favorite show would be Sons of Guns if I let him watch it, and his new hobby is making models of grenade launchers out of PVC pipe.
He is not, however, a reluctant reader. I would estimate that he read over 100 books last year--not counting what he read at school.
This is largely my doing. I knew from the beginning that this kid was not going to be a reader unless I did something. From infancy he has been too extroverted and too fascinated with electronics and contraptions. But does anyone become an avid reader in the absence of encouragement...or incarceration? I would hold up my brother as a male who is naturally an avid reader, except that my mom encouraged him in many of the ways I have encouraged my son. I don't know the answer to that question.
I do know that a lot of people are frustrated that their boy-children don't want to read. What I offer here is a catalog of methods I have used to make sure my son reads, with terrific results. He is now 10 years old, in the 5th grade, and reading at a 12th-grade level. All of these steps could work on reluctant girl-children too.1. Make them read every day. That way, they get used to it, and they stop resisting. My son's schools have been making him read every day and log the results since he was two years old. They have offered bonus points for reading on the weekend, and I have made him do it. In the summers when he has been out of school, I have made him read 30 minutes to an hour every day.
2. Log the results. Every season, tape a piece of paper to the refrigerator, and write down every book they read. That way, they can see their progress.
3. Pay them. They will learn that you value reading. I got this idea from my grandmother, who used to pay me 10¢ per book. I have given my son a raise--I pay him 50¢ per book. It's still not much, but it's the same as his weekly allowance. I write what he's earned on the reading log.
4. Read with them. Admittedly, lots of days I'm stuck at my computer, writing or editing, and my reading has to wait until after my son has gone to bed. If I can manage it, though, I read at the same time he is reading, so I'm modeling this behavior and showing him that I find it worthwhile. I also write what I've read on the reading log.
5. If you are a chick and your child is a boy, make sure he sees men reading. This might be the most important step. No matter how we try to make little feminists out of them, boys look up to men, specifically to their fathers or father figures.
My husband is not a reader. I stressed to him how important it was for our son to see him reading, but for years I had to settle for the newspaper. Then one glorious day, my husband happened to thumb through my copy of Little House in the Big Woods that I'd been trying for the third time to get my son interested in. My husband was hooked. My son saw this, and then he was hooked. Then we had a problem because they were reading the same books at the same time and fighting over Laura Ingalls Wilder. I'm not going to post them because I don't show my son on the internet, but I have a great series of photos of the two of them having a wrestling match over On the Banks of Plum Creek.
6. Let them have snacks and build a pillow fort to read in. We don't have to do this anymore, but a few years ago I had to allow 30 minutes of pillow fort preparation for every 30 minutes of reading. I put up with it because of the good result.
7. Buy them books and put them in their room. This shows them that you value books. They own them and re-read them and grow to love them so much more than if these books were borrowed for a few weeks from the library.
8. Turn a blind eye to surreptitious reading. Enable it, even. If the worst thing my kid ever does is read under the covers with a headlamp until two hours after his bedtime, I think we are in good shape.
9. Let them read what and how they want. There are limits to this. I don't want my kid reading books that aren't advanced enough for him. He can read them all he wants, but they don't count toward his daily reading time. I also don't force him to read classics with archaic language. Usually he does not get into books narrated by girls, and though this makes me sad, I don't argue. Largely he sticks with middle grade adventure series, and that is okay with me.
He also reads four books at a time. I do not understand this at all. I don't know if it's a short attention span or what. I do know that he's actually reading and understanding them, because whenever he takes an AR (Advanced Reading) test on one at school, he makes 100%. If it works for him, it works for me.
10. Never discount toy and movie tie-ins. My son has made huge progress as a self-starting reader because his interest was piqued by popular culture. A couple of years ago, faced with a long drive on vacation and a dead DVD battery, I bought my son a book to occupy him and crossed my fingers. I was reluctant to buy the anthology of three Star Wars novels about Boba Fett, but that's all that interested him in the tiny mall bookstore we had available. This was the first time we had to yell at him to stop reading. Whenever we pulled over at a scenic overlook or a restaurant, he was so engrossed in this story that he refused to get out of the car.
And then, of course, there's Harry Potter. I refused to let him see the movies until he read the books, but somehow he got hold of the strangely derivative Harry Potter Lego Wii game, and that's when he finally said he wanted to read the first book. That was August of last year, when he was 9, about to enter 4th grade. Six weeks later he had read all seven Harry Potter novels.
He was a reader before, but Harry Potter really propelled him into reading voraciously--possibly because he's not afraid now of a 700-pager. He knows he can read anything. His teachers and I worried that once he finished the series, he would not find anything else that measured up. As you can see from the list below, he has found plenty. He has read all of these books in the past year, and the quotation after each listing is his commentary.
* * *
FOOTBALL HERO and FOOTBALL GENIUS series by Tim Green
"If you really like football, then you would be totally into these books. The FOOTBALL HERO and FOOTBALL GENIUS series come together in Deep Zone."
There are maybe 5 of these books. My son has read all of them but Deep Zone, which he is reading now.
SEEMS series by John Hulme and Michael Wexler
"It's just really interesting. If you like Harry Potter, you're going to like it. And if you wonder about life, death, the universe, whatever, because it has this whole other world about how things are created, like gravity and your thoughts."
There are 3 of these and my son has read all of them. We got the last one the other day and when he saw it he jumped up and down. When he was five pages in he said, "MOM. I am five pages in and it is SO GOOD."
A WHOLE NOTHER STORY and ANOTHER WHOLE NOTHER STORY by Cuthbert Soup"If you're a really genius reader, this book is not for you, but if you like a little silliness, this book is just right. This is a true quote from a review."
Me: "I don't understand. You're quoting somebody else's review from memory? I want you to review it yourself."
Kid: "Yes, but the review is true. There is a hairless dog and a guy named Ethan Cheeseman."
Me: "Whatevs."
SECRET series by Pseudonymous Bosch
"It's mystery-slash-adventure. If you like A Whole Nother Story, then you'll probably like this."
There are 5 of these, and my son has read the first 2.
ALEX RIDER series by Anthony Horowitz
I meant to get a quote from my son about these and I forgot. They are James Bond-ish. He found one that he hadn't read in his room the other day and started reading it right where he found it on the floor. An hour later he was still in the same place on the floor, still reading.
There are lots of these books. My son thinks he has read 6.
PERCY JACKSON series by Rick Riordan
"If you like Harry Potter, then you'll probably like Percy Jackson just because it's still a fantasy but it's more adventurous. It's a real page turner. You just can't wait to read the next chapter, and you read it every chance you can."
There are 5 of these. My son has read all of them.
THE LOST HERO series by Rick Riordan
"If you really loved the Percy Jackson series, you will love this, because they have much the same setting, and much the same things happen."
I am actually not clear on these books. My son also loved The Red Pyramid. Riordan may be writing two new series at once, and my son has read the first book and eagerly awaits the publication of the second of each series. I think it is pretty cool that he has acquired his own reading life that I can't keep up with.
* * *
I hope this post helps someone nudge their child into the rewarding world of reading. My book Endless Summer seems to be popular with female reluctant readers, possibly because there is absolutely no pretense of anybody learning anything by reading it. I am so gratified when readers tell me they hated reading until Endless Summer, and now they read all the time. I have turned them! Sometimes all it takes is finding one book that speaks to you, and you're hooked.
September 26, 2011
Switcheroo!
After all that gnashing of my teeth yesterday...happy news! The One That I Want will still be published as an e-book, as originally planned. The release date has been moved up a few weeks, though, so instead of December 20, it will probably be December 6 or 13. I will let you know when they tell me for sure.But the best news is that now it will also be available in stores as a paperback on February 7! I was really worried about the people who don't have e-readers, because I didn't want to seem like I was turning my back on you guys. Problem solved.
I'm so happy and relieved--not only because more people will be able to read the book now, but also because the publisher caught me before I finished my Widgetbox ad with the wrong dates! I will finish it up when I get all the info, and you can tell me whether I should be doing this myself or I should hire a pro from now on.
September 25, 2011
THE ONE THAT I WANT: a cover, finally!
THE ONE THAT I WANT will be published as an e-book on December 20 by Simon Pulse, and here's the gorgeous cover I've been promising you! The story of Gemma and Max goes something like this: Gemma and Addison are high school juniors, best friends, and majorettes in the marching band. Max and Carter are best friends too, and they're starters for the football team. When Max and Carter start flirting with Gemma and Addison after football practice, the girls can't believe their luck. But which guy wants which girl? Gemma is into Max, so she's secretly crushed when he asks out Addison—but then Carter asks her out (making for a double date). Better to spend any time with Max than not at all, right? When it starts to seem that Max may have deeper feelings for her, Gemma must decide who is more important: her best friend or her crush?
You can already pre-order it for Kindle or Nook .
Several people have complained to me that the book is not going to be available as a paperback. They don't have e-readers, so they won't be able to read it. I am sorry to disappoint readers who have enjoyed my other books, but there is nothing I can do about this. The publisher wanted me to write a romantic comedy that would be released as an e-book only.
The complaints also continue, mostly on my guestbook , about the fact that I am not writing sequels to Endless Summer. I really appreciate it when readers tell me that they've enjoyed my books. I am being up front with you when I say that I can't write a book the publisher has already said no to. When you come back to me again and say PLEEEEEEEEESE, it just makes my stomach hurt.
Let me lay it out for you. Publishers are not peopled with meanies. Publishing houses are businesses. They have to make money or they will go under. The technology is changing very rapidly, and they are trying their best to change with it. When they decide to publish a new work only as an e-book, or when they decide not to publish sequels to their books, they are looking at how many other books like these have sold, and they are predicting how many of this new book they could sell. They are rarely wrong.
You do not have to feel helpless about this. You do get to vote for what books will come out, what TV shows will stay on for another season, what movies will be made, and what musicians will get the chance to make a second album. You are voting with your dollars, plain and simple.
A lot of people have complained that for the past few years, almost every new YA book has been a paranormal series. That is a direct result of the fact that readers basically bought Twilight over and over and over. Publishers responded by publishing Twilight over and over and over. At the same time, readers stopped buying as many romantic comedies, and that's why you haven't seen as many of them from me lately. The publisher is not asking for them because they have not been selling as well as vampire books.
Because I know this is so important, I live by this rule. I do not have the money to purchase all the books I want to read. I make sure that I borrow the ones I'm not as interested in and purchase the ones by authors I love, knowing that my dollars will make it more likely that my favorite authors will be hired to write more of the same kind of books. I own EVERY book by Jennifer Crusie . I also tell anybody who will listen how much I love her books, because I know how much word of mouth matters.
My vote is only one of billions, but I am trying my best to put my money where my mouth is.
The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Jeri Smith-Ready!
The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!
ENTHRALLED: PARANORMAL DIVERSION, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley Armstrong
This collection of original paranormal YA short stories grew out of the 2010 Smart Chicks Kick It Tour, a multiauthor, multicity, author-organized tour of the US and Canada. With it, these 16 authors hoped to bring a little taste of the Smart Chicks experience to readers everywhere.
Contributors to ENTHRALLED
Claudia Gray
Carrie Ryan
Margaret Stohl
Kami Garcia
Jackson Pearce
Rachel Vincent
Melissa Marr
Kelley Armstrong
Sarah Rees Brennan
Jeri Smith-Ready
Kimberly Derting
Ally Condie
Jessica Verday
Mary E. Pearson
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Rachel Caine
About the story "BRIDGE" by Jeri Smith-Ready
In the world of the SHADE novels, everyone seventeen and under can see and hear ghosts, but no one else can. So when Logan Keeley dies and his eighteen-year-old brother Mickey blames himself, they can't ease each other's pain or reconcile their rage. Over the course of SHADE and SHIFT, Mickey sinks into a near-suicidal depression over Logan's death.
"Bridge" is the story, told in free verse, of how two brothers, with the help of a stranger, forge the chasm between them to find a lasting peace.
Jenn: What's your favorite gizmo advertising your book?
Jeri: At the beginning of SHIFT, Aura mentions a bunch of Playlists Logan made for her when he was alive, ("Like the ballad mix, 'Missing the Shit out of You,' the punk/hip-hop compilation, 'Songs for Breaking Stuff,' and the geek-rock study aid, 'How to Not Hate Calculus'"), plus one that he made after he died, "Sucks to Be a Ghost (Sometimes)."
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It's also available on iTunes as an iMix at: http://c.itunes.apple.com/us/imix/sucks-to-be-a-ghost-sometimes/id434290107
Jenn: My July release, Love Story, is set in a creative-writing class. Did you ever take a class like that, and what was your experience?
Jeri: I had a half-year creative writing class in high school. I think I did pretty poorly because I wouldn't follow instructions. I wrote what I wanted to write rather than what the assignment asked for. I've never taken a writing class since. I know they work great for lots of people, though.
Jenn: My heroine longs to be a novelist. Was your journey to publication filled with longing? Quick and easy? How did you make it?
Jeri: Big-time heartrending longing! It was five years from when I started writing until my first book (which was an ebook long before ebooks were cool, so it had a very small audience), and then another five years before my second book. On the other hand, I learned so much along the way, about the business and about myself, when it happened for real, I was mature enough and prepared enough not to freak out over every little setback. I definitely subscribe to the idea of "what doesn't kill me will make me stronger."
Jenn: In one of my creative-writing classes, I was taught never to write about writing. Oh well. Were you taught this too? Are there other writing rules you were taught that you still remember and either follow or throw out the window?
Jeri: I was taught early on to "color between the lines" genre-wise. Meaning, don't mix genres like romance and fantasy, for instance, or fantasy and modern-day settings, or all three. But since I'm terrible at following advice, I went ahead and wrote what I wanted to write. Eventually cross-genre fiction became popular and that weird little niche called "urban fantasy" captured the world's imagination as much as it captured mine.
Jenn: What good books have you read lately?
Jeri: I just finished Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER trilogy. So many tears! I'm a sucker for any writing that truly understands music and the power it has. Along those lines, I also adored WHERE SHE WENT by Gayle Forman, the sequel to one of my all-time favorites, IF I STAY. I'm like a lot of people in that I didn't want a sequel, but once I read it I realized the story was truly incomplete without it. Happy sigh….
I also just read an ARC for INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows, a unique fantasy also infused with music. It blew me away on every level, mind, heart and soul. That one comes out on January 31.
Jenn: When readers tell you they've read and loved all your books and they want recommendations for similar books to read now, what do you say?
Jeri: If the SHADE series is their favorite of mine, I'd recommend any of the books from the last question. If they love the WVMP RADIO books, I recommend Anton Strout's Simon Canderous series or Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.
Jenn: What's next for you?
Jeri: I'm still revising/perfecting SHINE, the third part of the SHADE trilogy, which comes out May 1. Then I'll write the final book in my adult vampire series, LUST FOR LIFE, which comes out next October.
Then I start my first YA contemporary, slated for a Fall 2013 release. We'll be announcing more details next month, but I can tell you this much: 1) it's about a boy and 2) I am very, very excited about it!
For the latest on Jeri's books, visit her web site at www.jerismithready.com!
ENTHRALLED: PARANORMAL DIVERSION, edited by Melissa Marr and Kelley ArmstrongThis collection of original paranormal YA short stories grew out of the 2010 Smart Chicks Kick It Tour, a multiauthor, multicity, author-organized tour of the US and Canada. With it, these 16 authors hoped to bring a little taste of the Smart Chicks experience to readers everywhere.
Contributors to ENTHRALLED
Claudia Gray
Carrie Ryan
Margaret Stohl
Kami Garcia
Jackson Pearce
Rachel Vincent
Melissa Marr
Kelley Armstrong
Sarah Rees Brennan
Jeri Smith-Ready
Kimberly Derting
Ally Condie
Jessica Verday
Mary E. Pearson
Jennifer Lynn Barnes
Rachel Caine
About the story "BRIDGE" by Jeri Smith-Ready
In the world of the SHADE novels, everyone seventeen and under can see and hear ghosts, but no one else can. So when Logan Keeley dies and his eighteen-year-old brother Mickey blames himself, they can't ease each other's pain or reconcile their rage. Over the course of SHADE and SHIFT, Mickey sinks into a near-suicidal depression over Logan's death.
"Bridge" is the story, told in free verse, of how two brothers, with the help of a stranger, forge the chasm between them to find a lasting peace.
Jenn: What's your favorite gizmo advertising your book?
Jeri: At the beginning of SHIFT, Aura mentions a bunch of Playlists Logan made for her when he was alive, ("Like the ballad mix, 'Missing the Shit out of You,' the punk/hip-hop compilation, 'Songs for Breaking Stuff,' and the geek-rock study aid, 'How to Not Hate Calculus'"), plus one that he made after he died, "Sucks to Be a Ghost (Sometimes)."
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It's also available on iTunes as an iMix at: http://c.itunes.apple.com/us/imix/sucks-to-be-a-ghost-sometimes/id434290107
Jenn: My July release, Love Story, is set in a creative-writing class. Did you ever take a class like that, and what was your experience?
Jeri: I had a half-year creative writing class in high school. I think I did pretty poorly because I wouldn't follow instructions. I wrote what I wanted to write rather than what the assignment asked for. I've never taken a writing class since. I know they work great for lots of people, though.Jenn: My heroine longs to be a novelist. Was your journey to publication filled with longing? Quick and easy? How did you make it?
Jeri: Big-time heartrending longing! It was five years from when I started writing until my first book (which was an ebook long before ebooks were cool, so it had a very small audience), and then another five years before my second book. On the other hand, I learned so much along the way, about the business and about myself, when it happened for real, I was mature enough and prepared enough not to freak out over every little setback. I definitely subscribe to the idea of "what doesn't kill me will make me stronger."
Jenn: In one of my creative-writing classes, I was taught never to write about writing. Oh well. Were you taught this too? Are there other writing rules you were taught that you still remember and either follow or throw out the window?
Jeri: I was taught early on to "color between the lines" genre-wise. Meaning, don't mix genres like romance and fantasy, for instance, or fantasy and modern-day settings, or all three. But since I'm terrible at following advice, I went ahead and wrote what I wanted to write. Eventually cross-genre fiction became popular and that weird little niche called "urban fantasy" captured the world's imagination as much as it captured mine.
Jenn: What good books have you read lately?
Jeri: I just finished Maggie Stiefvater's SHIVER trilogy. So many tears! I'm a sucker for any writing that truly understands music and the power it has. Along those lines, I also adored WHERE SHE WENT by Gayle Forman, the sequel to one of my all-time favorites, IF I STAY. I'm like a lot of people in that I didn't want a sequel, but once I read it I realized the story was truly incomplete without it. Happy sigh….
I also just read an ARC for INCARNATE by Jodi Meadows, a unique fantasy also infused with music. It blew me away on every level, mind, heart and soul. That one comes out on January 31.
Jenn: When readers tell you they've read and loved all your books and they want recommendations for similar books to read now, what do you say?
Jeri: If the SHADE series is their favorite of mine, I'd recommend any of the books from the last question. If they love the WVMP RADIO books, I recommend Anton Strout's Simon Canderous series or Seanan McGuire's October Daye series.
Jenn: What's next for you?
Jeri: I'm still revising/perfecting SHINE, the third part of the SHADE trilogy, which comes out May 1. Then I'll write the final book in my adult vampire series, LUST FOR LIFE, which comes out next October.
Then I start my first YA contemporary, slated for a Fall 2013 release. We'll be announcing more details next month, but I can tell you this much: 1) it's about a boy and 2) I am very, very excited about it!
For the latest on Jeri's books, visit her web site at www.jerismithready.com!
September 17, 2011
The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit presents Megan Kelley Hall!
The Girlfriends' Cyber Circuit is a web ring of YA authors. Check these posts for the latest releases!DEAR BULLY
Edited by Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones
WHY THEY DID IT
Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones formed the group YAAAB (Young Adult Authors Against Bullying) in April 2010 when they both coincidentally blogged about the Phoebe Prince case on the same day. Megan reached out to Carrie expressing her frustration with this case and the fact that bullying that seemed to be growing at a ridiculously fast rate. As a Massachusetts resident and having already spoken about bullying in schools, Megan was horrified after hearing about the bullying that took place in the Phoebe Prince case. While writing her books, SISTERS OF MISERY and THE LOST SISTER, she had to dig deep to make mean girls as evil as she possibly could. When she heard about all the bullying and bullycide stories in the news, she felt like the bullies had jumped off the pages of her book and into real life. She was also disheartened by the numerous times she'd done book signings and would say to readers, "I hope you never meet girls as mean as the ones in my book." Shockingly, they almost always said, "We already have." Carrie Jones was also moved to do something, as she was the target of bullying as a young child due to a speech impediment. Together, they felt that they owed it to teen readers to discourage bullying -- to make it "uncool." Megan Kelley Hall started by creating a Facebook page that kicked off an entire "movement" to end bullying. This was the day that Megan, Carrie and other authors decided to use their platform as Young Adult authors to actually facilitate change and to be a voice for those kids who cannot speak out or are too afraid to be heard.
HOW IT HAPPENED
Right away, a large number of authors jumped on board of this cause -- wanting to be involved in any way possible. The Facebook group jumped from 5 to 1500 members in one weekend and is now closing in on nearly 5,000 members. Carrie and Megan were thrilled when HarperTeen offered to put all of the stories into an anthology. The thought of having 70 authors – well-known, highly successful writers – sharing their personal bullying stories with their fans was something beyond what they had ever hoped for.
The stories in DEAR BULLY come from all angles: from the point of view of the victim, the mother, the friend, the sibling, the classmate – even a few from the actual bully. Some of the stories are light-hearted, while others are raw and emotional. All of them drive home the point that bullying is something that almost everyone has experienced. And while that is a sad fact, they want to prove that it's not a rite of passage. It doesn't make you stronger, wiser, or better. But it is something that can be overcome, something that can be changed, something that is relatable, and something that one should never be ashamed of. Through these stories, the authors want to show that they understand what teens are going through today. It is important to encourage bystanders to speak up and make bullying unacceptable. Parents and adults must get involved. Bullying is something that people no longer have to endure--at least, not by themselves.
Though quite a lofty mission, the goal of DEAR BULLY is to help just one person get through a difficult time, and hopefully make bullying a thing of the past.
Don't forget to join the Facebook page at www.facebook.com/dearbully, visit the website at www.dearbully.com, or follow DEAR BULLY on Twitter at www.twitter.com/dearbully.
September 9, 2011
New cover!
Yesterday I got a beautiful cover for Winter's Kiss, an anthology containing The Ex Games by moi and The Twelve Dates of Christmas by Catherine Hapka, in stores January 3. A lot of readers have said, and I agree, that the new anthology covers for the old Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies are gorgeous, and this one is no exception!In other news, I received the revision notes for The One That I Want, my brand new Simon Pulse Romantic Comedy coming out as an e-book on December 20. And hey, now that I look, there is a description of it on Amazon !
Gemma and Addison are high school juniors, best friends, and majorettes in the marching band. Max and Carter are best friends too, and they're starters for the football team. When Max and Carter start flirting with Gemma and Addison after football practice, the girls can't believe their luck. But which guy wants which girl? Gemma is into Max, so she's secretly crushed when he asks out Addison—but then Carter asks her out (making for a double date). Better to spend any time with Max than not at all, right? When it starts to seem that Max may have deeper feelings for her, Gemma must decide who is more important: her best friend or her crush?
I have to say that I am really thrilled with the way this book turned out--you are going to like Max, I think--and my new editor was very sweet about her critique. I'm looking forward to diving into that project next week.
In the meantime, I'm about to register for a special Southern Magic session. If you're a writer and you live around Birmingham, you should definitely take advantage of the programs offered by the local chapter of Romance Writers of America. On September 24, they're hosting an all-day workshop called "Law and Order for the Writer." This will be so helpful if you ever write crimes or cops, but you have to pay for this one, and you get a discount if you pre-register by September 16. Details here.
On October 22, we're back to our usual free meetings. This time it's a NaNoWriMo bootcamp and I am one of the speakers on the panel because I was in a NaNoWriMo-like haze on deadline last month when they asked me and I was too frazzled to think of an excuse not to. Come by and I will tell you how I won a few years ago. I am planning to do NaNoWriMo again this year because it was such a terrific experience. I have planned to do it for several years running but my publisher sent me revisions that came first. This year may be no different. But I *hope* that I will have a clear writing month, and if I do, I will blog about my progress here every day, as I did that first year.
Last but not least, don't forget to register for the Southern Magic Readers' Luncheon on November 5. I am the welcome speaker for our fabulous keynote speaker, my critique partner, all the way from the Rocky Mountains,
![[info]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/hostedimages/1380451598i/2033940.gif)
victoria_dahl
!
Details here
. See you there!
September 2, 2011
All growed up: click to see!
I am writing adult romance now! This deal actually went through last week, but I was so involved with my July 2012 YA novel, Such a Rush, that I didn't have time to be excited. Yesterday I turned the book in, and it's excitement time! I will be writing two adult contemporary romances for Pocket Books, which is the parent arm of the publisher for my YA romantic dramas, MTV Books. So I will actually have the same editor for all of these books, the brilliant Lauren McKenna.
This is not a move away from YA for me. In 2004, when I decided to make another big push to get published (and this time there was a wondrous new invention called the Internet to help me!), I noticed that a lot of romance authors published in two genres--historical and paranormal, for instance. That gave them variety, security, and more books to write! I saw that several authors of adult contemporary romance were also writing YA: Nicole Burnham/Niki Burnham, Alesia Holliday/Jax Abbott/Alyssa Day. That was my goal too. By 2005, I had an adult contemporary romance and a YA contemporary romance making the rounds of publishers. My agent and I thought it would be great if both sold, but we had our hopes pinned on the adult. The YA, Major Crush, sold instead.
All this time I have been working diligently on the YA half of my career, but I have felt that the adult half was waiting in the wings. And finally, here is her cue! The details of these books are really up in the air right now, which means the possibilities are endless, and that is a happy place to be.
So I am going to spend my Labor Day weekend relaxing, reading, doing an awful lot of post-deadline cleaning, and thinking about what my next few books will be. I hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday too!
This is not a move away from YA for me. In 2004, when I decided to make another big push to get published (and this time there was a wondrous new invention called the Internet to help me!), I noticed that a lot of romance authors published in two genres--historical and paranormal, for instance. That gave them variety, security, and more books to write! I saw that several authors of adult contemporary romance were also writing YA: Nicole Burnham/Niki Burnham, Alesia Holliday/Jax Abbott/Alyssa Day. That was my goal too. By 2005, I had an adult contemporary romance and a YA contemporary romance making the rounds of publishers. My agent and I thought it would be great if both sold, but we had our hopes pinned on the adult. The YA, Major Crush, sold instead.
All this time I have been working diligently on the YA half of my career, but I have felt that the adult half was waiting in the wings. And finally, here is her cue! The details of these books are really up in the air right now, which means the possibilities are endless, and that is a happy place to be.
So I am going to spend my Labor Day weekend relaxing, reading, doing an awful lot of post-deadline cleaning, and thinking about what my next few books will be. I hope you have a wonderful and safe holiday too!
August 17, 2011
DOUBLE DATE finally has a title!
I've gotten bad news and good news in the last few weeks. The super-sad news is that my editor, Jennifer Heddle, is leaving MTV Books. Here we are having a great time together at the RWA conference last month. She has been my editor the longest and has edited the most books for me (Going Too Far, Forget You, and Love Story), so I am devastated to be losing her. On the bright side, in her new job she will be editing Star Wars books for Lucasfilms. She is a pop culture junkie and a Star Wars fiend, and as I told her, it's like this job was made for her. So I am trying not to be too sad. Or panic. Jen and I had worked together enough that I knew what she would and wouldn't like in a book. Now I don't know who will be editing Such a Rush. I have a lot of uncertainty. But the other folks at MTV Books have been really good to me, too. Several of them must have gotten up at 4 in the morning a few weeks ago to hand out copies of Love Story at the American Idol concert in Central Park. They have lots of brilliant, seasoned editors on their roster. I an trying to look at this change as a new chapter.
*huge sniffle*
The good news is that I finally have a new title for Double Date, also known as "the majorette book"! My romantic comedies are published by a different division of Simon & Schuster called Simon Pulse, and I have a new editor over there too--Annette Pollert, who is also the editor for Jeri Smith-Ready's wonderful Shade series . My last editor did not seem to mind the Double Date title, though I knew the title might not stand because it had to get through marketing. But Annette wanted something more sophisticated to reflect the beautiful photographic covers and the new direction the Simon Pulse Romantic Comedies are taking. We tossed ideas around for several months. I whined to my critique partners. Finally, at football practice Monday night, I came up with The One That I Want and e-mailed it to Annette with the subject line, "Perfect title!" Because it is. She e-mailed me back, "Toss those batons in the air—we have a winner! The One That I Want it is." Because she is adorable like that.
So! In The One That I Want, Gemma and her friend Addison are at majorette camp when Gemma spots Max across the field at football camp. Gemma sees him first and feels like she is finally going to get flirty with a guy who "gets" her--but he asks out Addison instead. WHAT??? And then, because Addison's mom won't let her go out without Gemma, Addison insists that Gemma go out with Max's friend Carter. I think those feelings of not wanting to betray your friend but ooooooooooooooh really liking her boyfriend are going to be familiar to a lot of people. Annette has started reading it and says she's enjoying it [WIN!!!], and I will be able to show you the gorgeous cover soon, whenever they plant the new title on it.
In the meantime, I'm finishing Such a Rush and getting lost inside my head on a South Carolina beach.
