Yay! My Writing Buddy is Back!!

The OK Bar is over - and that means:

Smithy is back! 

Yay! Here's to seeing more from me from now on! :)

Inspiration in Shared Irritation ...

One of my favourite authors is Lauren Willig - she of The Secret History of the Pink Carnation series of books (if you haven't read them ... you must, I insist.) and Ms. Willig has a great website crammed full of her quirky little tidbits. Recently, she posted how a whole stream of former blog posts she claims got her through law shcool and so, on my lunch break, I started reading them ....

And as such, must post this bit. It is relevant to all authors! (From the Post entitled: The Simple Guide to Self-Torture Saturday, August 26th, 2006)

The first stage is blinding euphoria. This will be the book that Makes My Career (careers can only be made in capital letters). Dialogue, motivations, those tender Oscar-winning moments—I've got it all. The entire story has unfurled in my head like a triumphal banner flying from the turret of a castle. Hell, I can write this sucker in a month! (Forget the fact that all my previous books have taken the better part of a year). High on the brilliance of my Best Idea Ever, I fling myself down on my desk chair—and find myself facing a blank screen.

Wait. How did that get there? Doesn't it know that it's supposed to be full of Brilliant Prose ™?

I stare at the blank screen. The blank screen stares back at me. It wins. I break eye contact first, and go to the fridge to find something to fuel my creativity. Because, really, what great writer has ever set quill to paper without first eating peanut butter from the jar?

Somethign Funny

So I started with the Query Letters today and my friend, Smithy, linked me to this: http://www.guidetoliteraryagents.com/blog/A+Day+In+The+Life+Of+A+Querier.aspx

Enjoy! :)

Rejection, the First

So, my friend Smithy convinced me to enter the Amazon Breakout Novel Contest (ABNA, for short). So I did. And I did not make it to the next round.

I will consider this Rejection, the First.
Better luck next time, Ammy.

Young Adult: Sex, Drugs ... and life lessons?

Alright, so I am a huge YA fan. For those not in the know, "YA" refers to the "Young Adult" section at the store that is nestled somewhat arbitrailty between "Children" or "Middle Grade" and "General Fiction" at the bookstore (I tend to find it, in actuality, between "Middle Grade Fiction" and "Home & Garden" for some odd reason. Why? Well ... actually, all of the explanations I have thought of include aliens and/or mind control, so ... I haven't an idea.)

I write YA. I read YA.

And here's my beef: I have read YA for about as long as I've read (I was never a picture book person - not sure why, but as soon as I understood that reading = freedom, I picked up novels and never looked back), and I genuinely like them - but I hate the implied censorship of them - always have in fact - when it comes to things like sex, drugs, dysfunctional families, swearing and other such taboo things.

I get the arguments - kids should not be exposed to certain things.

And to that I say - I'm sorry, what? Says who? And why? And why is it that our culture suddenly has this overly developed sense of protecting children for "their own good"? And where do adults come off as thinking that isolating teenagers from this will somehow make them less likely to engage in behavious these things allegedly encourage?

I was a teenager not too long ago. By that time, I was reading everything, not just YA. And I avoided YA for a while because I felt it was too ... baby. I mean, who says "Golly!" anymore? (K, so I can't remember reading that outside of those Gidget books and movies, but honestly, think of this as a metaphor for the wider issues). I started reading my Mom's romance books (without her knowledge) by the time I was ten or so. I started with So Worthy my Love by Kathleen Woodewiss, and it still sits in my bookshelf.

Why did I read that when I could have stuck with the Babysitter's club? I think, mostly, because I looked around and realized that a lot of the YA books were just ridiculously unrealistic.

More to the point, I desired something more to my reading. I didn't want this sunny and happy perspective where the biggest thing that went wrong meant being sent to your room without tv. My life was not like that, and I didn't want to read about kids who were like that.

I wanted sex and drugs and complications - I would read parts of books over and over, just for a hint of that. Like Caroline B. Conney's series of Christina novels (Snow, Fire, Fog) - the love triangle, the kiss in the cafeteria! - and her Milk Carton series - where they end up in a motel, trading sexual barbs - nothing happens, but the tension is there and it's complex. (I am a huge fan of Cooney's work, it must be said).

I didn't want to be protected from these things! Why would I? They just opened up a whole new world for me - a world that I was on the verge of exploring.

And that is why, when I write YA - I write for the teen I once was. I write in the sex, and the drugs, and teh swearing - when my characters talk, I hope they are just as awkward as teenagers are supposed to be - when they love, I want it to be with all the pomp and circumstance of a real teenagers.

I would never presume to protect my readers from the world - I am offering them a glimpse of what I have seen, a small taste of what the world could be - with all its complications, dirty and clean, smart choices and bad decisions - and I do this because I respect them. I have great respect for readers in general - and I would never presume to hide from them, things they would want to know about.

I guess, the point is - why are we really trying to protect our kiddies? And why from these specific things? Why always the triade of Sex and Love (you know, the bad kind) and Drugs? Is it that we do not trust our kids? Or do we just want to protect them in a world that becomes increasingly harder to cope with?

Anyways, food for thought.
Thanks :)

Thoughts on Getting Out There.

There is nothing as scary to me, then rejection.

Ok, fine, there are two other things - failure (which is just another form of rejection, right?) and vermin-like-animals (like hampsters ... and rats ... and squirrels).

The point is that sending out query letters, full of hope that someone will see that light that is shining under a bushel (i.e. me and my ever so apparent genius, right?) - and then getting LOADS of rejections is ... well it's like going to law school all over again, I think.

And on that note - even though at the moment, I hate law school as much as I fear squirrels - I sent out those applications, and I withstood the rejections I did get, and ended up in law school.

So I suppose, what I am saying is that I should stop procrastinating - I should stop allowing myself to be cowed by my own fear, and I should get out there and send in those queries!

Because hell, I may just get a million rejection letters - but at least I am allowing for the chance that one response will be "Hey - you're halfway decent. Send more?"

What are your thoughts?
Sorry, mine are a bit erratic, aren't they?

2011 in Writing

Happy new year and welcome to 2011 ...

*confetti*

Now onto writing.

Truth is - I have been stuck at 70k words for about two weeks or so now. And I know the ending, I know where all my characters will be and how they get there ... but I need some bridge to get me to the "there".

And more music. Loads more, please - anyone have any suggestions?