Erin Callahan's Blog, page 2

ALA Midwinter!

I'll be signing ARCs and handing out fancy ART OF ESCAPING bookmarks at the ALA Midwinter Meeting in Denver on February 11th @ 2pm. Come find me at the Amberjack booth!

#YAMyLife Numero Dos—That time some douchenozzle said my fave rock stars were ugly…

Happy 2018, all! I’m currently vacationing in Florida, where it’s not exactly a tropical wonderland but it’s warmer than the frozen tundra of New Hampshire. I just spent two days in the World of Diz, watching my toddler run around like a little nutball and laughing with my bro over how ridiculously terrifying the DINOSAUR ride is. I love it but I literally have to tell myself, “Erin, you’re fine. You are not going to get stuck in the Cretaceous period. You are not actually in the Cretaceous p...

#YAMyLife — Reclaiming moments from my teenhood, one sentence at a time

Though not everyone is going to agree with my take here, I’ve long operated under the assumption that young adult literature is, at least in part, a collective art therapy project. I just recently re-read one of my YA faves from recent years, Scarlett Epstein Hates It Here. During one scene in which main character Scarlett verbally eviscerates a bunch of pretentious NYC writer-bros while drunk on wine, it struck me again that the best YA walks a thin line between presenting teenhood as it act...

Interview with a writer: Joshua Winning

Only four more sleeps until All Hallows’ Eve! To mark the occasion, I’ve got an interview with cool British guy and dark fiction writer Josh Winning. Fun story: Just a few hours after he responded to my interview questions about the Unbound campaign for his noir-ish YA novel, KILLING RUMER, the book got fully funded!

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For those who don’t know, Unbound is a crowdfunding publisher. The whole concept is really cool and you should probably check out the website. Even though KILLING RUMER is offic...

A Road to Publication Update; Plus Creepy Podcast Recs!!!

Happy Indigenous Peoples’ Day, all! Roberta at Offbeat YA reminded me recently that it’s been a few months since my last Road to Publication update, so here we go.

Edits for THE ART OF ESCAPING are officially done, which is kind of terrifying and liberating at the same time. At some point, you have to decide that your book is as good as it’s going to be and let it go off into the world. You worry about your book the way your mom probably worried about you when you went off to college, but it...

Kidding / Not Kidding — A Case Study

Like most of you, I’m still reeling from what happened in Charlottesville over the weekend, even though anyone who’s been paying any sort of attention saw this coming. I’m not going to talk about Charlottesville because I’m not sure there’s anything I can say that hasn’t already said better by someone else (in fact, you should really go read this and this). But I do want to take this opportunity to talk about something closely related.

Less than forty-eight hours after Heather Heyer was mowed...

How to not turn into a Raging Writer-Beast while editing…

Time for a Road to Publication update.

I just turned in my first round of edits for THE ART OF ESCAPING. For most books, the first and possibly second and third rounds revolve around developmental edits (also sometimes called content edits). Developmental edits address global issues with the plot or characters. Even though you may have to tweak an individual tree here or there to address these issues, you’re really looking at the whole forest at this point.

I managed not to turn into a Raging...

TFW you’re procrastinating before starting a new novel…

There are few things more delicious than being in a midst of a novel you love working on. You know where you’re going, you’re reasonably confident about where you’ve been, and your characters are starting to feel like old friends.

And then there’s the moment you start a new novel, when all you have is a blank white void staring back at you.

It should be exciting, like the start of a road trip to anywhere. But for some writers, like me, it’s mostly terrifying. Like, what if, halfway through ou...

How Did You Come Up With That?

Right around the time I sold THE ART OF ESCAPING, I decided to finally let my mom read it. She loved it (because of course—she’s my mom), but her reaction had some interesting layers. First, there was the sad and hilarious I had no idea you were so miserable in high school layer (my response: I think you already knew this and just blocked it out). Then, there was the inevitable question that writers tend to get from non-writers: How did you come up with that?

I think writers tend to avoid ask...

Book Deal News...*drops mic*

I sold a contemporary YA novel to Amberjack Publishing. You can read all about it here: https://erinpcallahan.com/2017/03/06/...