Annie Cardi's Blog, page 41

Coming to a Bookstore/Mailbox Near You

So I’ve been talking about my book for a little while now. The official sales announcement. Copyedits. Proofreading. The title change. But until now, The Chance You Won’t Return has been seen by only a few people. That’s about to change, now that it’s available for pre-order!

That’s right–now you can find The Chance You Won’t Return at IndieBound, Amazon, Powell’s, and other places you may enjoy buying books! And if online choices overwhelm you, you can also add the book to your Goodreads list and give yourself a few months to decide.

Okay, so the book isn’t technically out until April 22, 2014, but just seeing it at these online book vendors makes me super excited. This is real and maybe someday The Chance You Won’t Return will be read by people I don’t even know. As always, the only true expression of my emotions is in gif form:

Here’s to continuing that wild ride on the road to publication! (Especially if that ride is on a hippogriff.)

Friday Fifteen

I am so ready for Friday. Let’s get the weekend started with some good ol’ fifteen-word (or fewer) reviews:

1. The Thief Lord by Cornelia Funke

Funke makes Venice so magical. Ending didn’t quite match the beginning for me.

2. Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Sáenz

Really enjoyed Ari’s voice and the role parents played. Gentler than I expected.

3.  Warriors Don’t Cry: The Searing Memoir of the Battle to Integrate Little Rock’s Central High by Melba Pattillo Beals

Harrowing story of the Little Rock 9. File under “bravest teens ever.”

4. After the Quake by Haruki Murakami

Like the unsettling vibe in each, but I was expecting something odder overall.

5. One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey

A loose tooth and clam chowder? This book reminds me of a cozy fall morning.

At the Top of My Reading List

The Fourteenery is circulating ARCs and look what I just got:

Why yes, those are copies of Katie Cotugno’s How to Love and Lindsay Smith’s Sekret. Can’t wait to start reading!

I See (Writer) Pride

Sometimes being a writer is tough. We have to deal with constant rejection and, even when we are successful, we don’t really know what the future will bring. So today, I want to share one of my favorite movie inspiration moments:

Whenever you feel like quitting, remember Junior and Yul Brenner. Now let’s get out there and write!

Links Galore

Lots of good links for today:

Your work is not a horcrux, and other lessons learned from art school.
Love these artistic takes on Roald Dahl covers.
Gotta admit–the Atticus Finch lawyer business card got me kind of teary.
Might have to copy these book-inspired outfits. (For more book fashion, check out Looks and Books!)
Obviously I dig YA books that deal with mental health.
If YA were real, we’d all have cooler first date experiences and be responsible for saving the world in a post-apocalypse landscape.
Excellent post on what separates the pretty good writing from the great writing.
This YA collection of humorous stories about cultural identity sounds awesome.
It’s WriteOnCon! If you can tear yourself away from the forum action, check out awesome posts like diversity in writing,what writers can learn from contemporary YA, and writing sibling relationships.
Friend and fellow 2014 debut YA author, Christa Desir, is trying to give a voice to survivors of sexual violence. You can help!

I’d Like to Pass Your First Pages

My first pass pages! Love the “Author Set” note at the top.

Another milestone complete in The Chance You Won’t Return‘s journey to publication–first pass pages!

First pass pages are another round in the editorial process. This time, edits are really minor–removing an extra comma here, changing a word or phrase slightly there. By this point, the book should read almost exactly like it will come publication. Reading through, I marked any pages with edits with blue sticky notes, because otherwise it would have been so easy to miss changes when I sent them along to Candlewick.

At this point the manuscript is still unbound, but its pages are printed to look like they will in book layout. After seeing the manuscript as a Word document for the last few years, seeing it looking almost like a real book is pretty exciting.

I’m also a big editorial nerd, so I had fun reading through the manuscript and catching any stray errors. It’s like Where’s Waldo? but with fewer striped shirts and more em dashes.

First pass pages also means that we’re one step closer to ARCs and seeing The Chance You Won’t Return as a real-life book with a cover and bound pages and a spine so it can sit on a shelf. I’m going to have to break out all the happy gifs when that happens. In the meantime, here’s my post-first pass pages happy dance:

Onward and upward!

Friday Fifteen

Happy Friday, everyone! Let’s kick the weekend off with a few book reviews in fifteen words or fewer.

1. Lemony Snicket: The Unauthorized Autobiography by Lemony Snicket

A fun addition to the series; can’t remember if it illuminated any of the mysteries.

2. Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak

The art is gorgeous, but I always thought Max was kind of a dick.

3. Shiver by Maggie Stiefvater

I avoided this one for a while because I eye-rolled a werewolf romance. What was I thinking?!

4. Gone Girl by Gillian Flynn

Maybe my expectations were too high, but I thought the “twist” was a given.

5. The Snapper by Roddy Doyle

Love the Rabbitte family. Sharon shines here, and Doyle doesn’t shy away from hard issues.

Links Galore

Lots of good links for today:

Just try not to get all the feels reading through this list of things that happened after Harry Potter. Also, lots of awesome fan art!
And speaking of Harry Potter, here’s an interview with the artist behind the new covers. I’ve loved seeing the new releases.
Challenge yourself to read all the of the NPR top 100 sci-fi and fantasy books. (Confession: I saw Watership Down on this list and thought “Wait, why is this listed? That’s not fantasy.” Rabbit society is totally real, guys.)
And speaking of NPR, check out their top 100 books for kids 9-14. Try not to read through and say “I loved that one! And that one! Aw, and that one!”
Fighting librarian stereotypes with Legos.
We totally need more YA womances.
You don’t have to be “the next JK Rowling” to have a seriously awesome debut novel.
Love the simplicity of this poem.
I want to read/reread all of these great kid lit end-of-summer reading suggestions.
When TV and books intersect, it’s cool to read.
Such an interesting look at the design of Lolita covers and what that means for readers/our society. Might have to make this my next “major literary works” read.
The Scholastic Book Club revamped as the Scholastic Reading Club, brings back flood of elementary school fangirl memories.
Great guide to YA novels with LGBTQ characters, including my current read, Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe.

Weight in YA and Book Deal Breakers

At Stacked, Kelly talks about how fat stereotypes are her book deal breaker. I freaking love this post. You should read through the whole thing, but some parts I particularly liked:

“It makes me feel ashamed that the message of most YA books featuring fat characters is that your body is wrong, it’s going to kill you, it’s going to hold you back, and it’s not worth the space it takes up on this planet. Because this is a message we already send teenagers…

What I want is for a teen to pick up a book that features a fat character who isn’t a silly sidekick or a laughing stock. Who isn’t seeking a way to better herself by losing weight.”

A-freakin’-men. As an overweight kid, I was particularly sensitive to these kinds of portrayals in children’s books. I remember reading some of the Sweet Valley Twins books, which featured Lois Waller, who was defined by how much she weighed and what food she ate. (Also, in a universe of Jessicas and Elizabeths and Lilas, of course the fat girl has a dowdy name like Lois.) Granted, it’s not like the Sweet Valley books were written to push literary boundaries and create compelling characters, but it reinforced the idea that only the perfect-size-6 Jessicas and Elizabeths can have interests and personalities and hobbies, whereas the we Loises were only defined by our size.

I don’t think YA authors try to only write about thin characters or to depict overweight characters with that being their only characteristic. But I think we, as writers, need to think more carefully about how these characters are represented and how our stories deal with characters of all sizes. So often I roll my eyes at depictions of characters who, when stressed or upset, suddenly lose their appetite. This is a totally realistic reaction to stress, but so is having a cupcake, and not many novels I can think of mention having a cupcake as a reaction to feeling stressed. Things like this may seem minor, but they can have a big impact on readers.

Like Kelly, I’d love to see stories about “fat” characters that don’t have anything to do with their sizes. About heavier girls fighting dragons, about overweight guys engaged in student council political drama, about any topic YA usually covers. In high school, I had a lot of friends of various sizes, and we all went to prom, had fights with our parents, dealt with grief, went driving with the windows down and great music playing. YA should reflect that.

Make sure to read Kelly’s post. And while I’m reminded of it, I’ll leave off with a great quote by JK Rowling about how we use “fat” to describe people in a negative light:

“Fat’ is usually the first insult a girl throws at another girl when she wants to hurt her…[Is] ‘fat’ really the worst thing a human being can be? Is ‘fat’ worse than ‘vindictive’, ‘jealous’, ‘shallow’, ‘vain’, ‘boring’ or ‘cruel’?”

Let’s stop looking at fat as the worst thing a person can be, and the only thing that can define someone. It’s certainly one of my book deal breakers, too.

Friday Fifteen

Friday, you could not come soon enough. Let’s kick off the weekend with some good ol’ fifteen-word (or fewer) book reviews:

1. Dandelion Wine by Ray Bradbury

Was expecting more sci-fi; reminded me of The Tree of Life, in a good way.

2. Catherine, Called Birdy by Karen Cushman

Only read this epistolary medieval children’s novel once, but it’s stayed with me. Should reread.

3. The Berenstain Bears No Girls Allowed by Stan and Jan Berenstain

Sexism sucks. We read this one often, which probably explains a lot about me.

4. A Wind in the Door by Madeleine L’Engle

In which I learned what mitochondria are and what cherubim really look like.

5. Conversations with J. K. Rowling by Lindsey Fraser

Because everything Rowling-related made me teary with the feels.