WONDERFUL news!!!!
Our own lovely Clara Kensie just signed with Laura Bradford of Laura Bradford Literary!!!! Much more about this later, but I had to give her a shout out. Isn't that great? We're SO proud of her. And seriously, seriously, it couldn't have happened to a lovelier, more talented, more generous person.
Martina
Book Reviews and Giveaways
- Great story from @SWMessenger on how she got YA and MG deals from the same editor.
How I became the most accidental YA writer ever - What do you do when someone finds your work offensive?
“Offensive” Writing - Great and critique opportunities. Congrats @S_M_Johnson on the new web site.
Down Under Wonderings: Website Launch and Gigantic Giveaway - Oooo... these 5 debuts sound fantastic! Interesting interviews with the authors
The Debut Dish: January IIII - The Story Siren - Looking for some awesome reads?@PJ_Hoover lines them up for you.
ALA Midwinter—The Books
Craft of Writing
- Fantastic advice on THE END: juxtapose your first & last chapters.
YA Muses: Avoiding The End - Six important tips for your opening chapters.
Opening Chapters - What's in a name? Anything can happen in speculative fiction.
What Is Speculative Fiction? - Eight ways to get a deeper POV on your mc and have fun while you do it.
Ransacking Apartments (& Others Ways to Get to Know Your MC Better) - Important point: 1st person POV needs a unique voice and perspective.
Don’t Even Think About Using First-Person Unless... - Literary and commercial fiction defined--no judgments. Great post
Literary vs. Commercial - Pressure points, challenging reader beliefs, and whispering to the reader. Great insights from Stephen King
7 Things I Learned Last Week from Stephen King - Planning out your story? Starting a revision? Read this post on structure.
25 Things You Should Know About Story Structure - Making the end of the novel come from the characters.
Finding a Satisfying End - Great post on what adults (and ya writers) don't get right about teens today.
Teen Roundtable: What Have Adults Forgotten? - Meeting your characters in the middle without added flab.
We All Get Them Eventually: Sagging Middles - Honor your fabulous personality and let it barf out in your writing. Love this post.
Another word about Voice - Bar = Build up, Action, Reaction -- the pacing triad. Great post.
Google Reader - Five new questions to ask your characters.
Questions you should ask the characters in your novel or screenplay - Considering self-pub? Need a professional eye before you query? Here's what you should know before you hire a pro editor.
4 Ways to Find the Right Freelance Editor - Need a punctuation refresher? Here you go.
Self-Editing #6 - Clean Up Crew: Punctuation - Start at the end, work backwards to the middle, and keep going back until you find the starting point of your story.
KM Weiland on Reverse Outlining + GIVEAWAY - Four steps to finding the right metaphors in your fiction.
Think Backward to Write Meaningful Metaphors - Letting go of the baggage and releasing the power of revision.
Project 2012: Scene selection: what to throw and what to keep - Meeting goals, breaking rules, and taking names.@LisaGailGreen answers questions.
A Whole Bunch of Answers! - Don't leave the emotion out of your action scene--give the reader a reason to feel.
Writing Kickass Action Scenes: Part Three - The latest entry in the Character Trait Thesaurus: Disorganized!
The Bookshelf Muse: Character Trait Entry: Disorganized - Make your characters more vivid & visceral with this inner dialogue concept from @StoryFix. Brilliant!
Game Changer: Create An Inner Dialogue Within your Hero, and Your Villain - Twenty BRILLIANT questions to ask before you say your ms is done.
A Personal Check List for Fiction Writers - A great beginning is a balance of setting, fully-formed worlds, and complex characters…
The DNA of a Beginning - Five ways to sabotage your writing career.
5 Attitudes Toward Publishing You Should Avoid - Do your scenes all have goals, conflicts, stakes, and choices? And why do you need them?
Fundamental Check: Do Your Scenes Have What They Need? - A breakdown of one writer's outlining process. Good tips.
Outlining your novel: a method. - Fact-checking applies to fiction, too.
The Blood-Red Pencil: Be My Guest - Jodie Renner
Inspiration and Smiles
- "Be daring. Be bold. Embrace chaos, death, anxiety…" Christine Fonseca on fearlessly. I. Love. This.
Where Fantasy and Love Take Flight: Guest Blog with Christine Fonseca - The Act of Being Fearless - Step away from your writing and see if from a different perspective.
Cooking Up Some Good Writing
Fascinating. How do you look compared to how you think you look? Get comfy with it. 52 Weeks ~ A self portrait (4/52)
- Triple your daily word count by using Google+ Hangouts to host "write-ins." Great idea!
YA Highway: How I Tripled My Daily Wordcount with Google+
Issues, News, Trends, and Congratulations
- Congrats @KamiGarcia @MargaretStohl on your first (Oscar nom!) cast member!
Alcon Sets Richard LaGravanese, Viola Davis For ‘Beautiful Creatures’ - Congrats to Maggie Stiefvater and Scholastic. I can't wait for September!
Maggie Stiefvater Inks Deal for 4-Book Epic Fantasy - What do Murphy's law, Gaiman's Law, and six others have in common and why can you relate?
8 Laws Named For Writers « PWxyz - Congrats to @JosinMcQuein on the book deal. WOOT!
My Bloggish Blog Thing - The YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adult lists. Congrats to everyone on it!
2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults | Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA)
Self-Publishing, Book Promotion, and Author Marketing
- Five quick things you can do to promote your pen name.
Promoting a Pen Name - Does the author's gender matter enough in your genre to merit using your initials instead of your name?
Gender Issues In Publishing. Using Initials As A Female Thriller Writer - Four tips to help you make the most of your book tour.
Your Book Tour: Seize the Opportunity to be Memorable
To Market
- Check these great agent interview links.
Interviews with Literary Agents - Crossing genres? Be smart, pick the alpha element as a tag, and never give up.
Is it OK to cross genres? - Great interview about what makes Entangled Publishing different.
Interview: Liz Pelletier, publisher of Entangled Publishing - Pitch critique fest -- hurry up and join the workshop.
Pitch Workshop with Brenda Drake, Shelley Watters, & Cassandra Marshall - Interesting query observations from Red Sofa Literary.
A Penny for Your Thoughts: Queries from 2011 - Great way to think of the pitching process.
Pitching Is A Job Interview - New MG twitter hashtag, plus wonderful online events for MG writers.
Love to Write Middle Grade Fiction? Fabulous News... - What to do before you query so you'll be ready for the call.
Before THE Call: Ten Tasks to Complete Before an Agent Calls - Don't think an agent earns her keep? Read this.
playing for the house: an editorial assistant on the dangers of going agent-free - What agents and editors really talk about.
The Inevitable Shit Agents and Editors Say - Great post on the small press vs. large press experience.
Harry Potter for Writers: Guest Post: Why A Small Press? by Alicia Rasley - Why a huge advance isn't always in your best interest.
It’s Not Always About the Money | Rachelle Gardner - Twelve great tips to get your 90-second pitch perfect.
Crafting Your 90-Second Pitch - On a journey to publication? Read this guide by @JaneFriedman
Start Here: How to Get Your Book Published | Jane Friedman - Agent Chris Richman of Upstart Crow Lit seeks YA/MG books for boys, books w/unforgettable characters, & high-concept material.
The Official SCBWI Conference Blog: Chris Richman: the Current Market for Your Work - Interesting post about agents, submissions, and the publishing environment.
25 Things Writers Should Know About Agents
Other Weekly Round-Ups:
- Cynthia Leitich Smith at Cynsationsdoes a Cynsational author, craft, and book news review.
- Elizabeth Craig posts a comprehensive weekly list of all her helpful Twitter posts.
- Stina Lindenblatt does a fabulous Cool Links Friday post every week.
- YA Highway's Friday Road Trip hits the high points of the publishing industry, writing craft, submissions process, and other fun stuff.
Happy reading and joyous writing,
Clara and Martina
Congratulations, Clara! And thanks again for a terrific weekly roundup. So many great links to check out, love it :-)
ReplyDeleteYAY Clara!! So very happy for you! Hopefully we'll hear more good new soon, eh? Hugs to all you ladies for all your hard work. I appreciate all the great content you bring us week after week! :)
ReplyDeleteHappy Friday!
Angela @ The Bookshelf Muse
Fantastic news (AND links)!! Off to click!
ReplyDeleteThanks, as ever! The links relating to revisions are particularly important to me at the moment...
ReplyDeleteCongrats, Clara! That's great news!
ReplyDeleteAnd thank you, as always, for compiling as these links.
Congrats Clara! I'm SO excited for you. That is such awesome news.
ReplyDeleteOkay, your links on the MG twitter activity is making me decide to join real quick. Thanks for the links.
Thanks, everyone! I'm still pinching myself. Did it really happen? I signed and mailed the agency agreement so it must be real, but it still feels like a dream.
ReplyDeleteGlad you're all enjoying the links. I'm afraid I was pretty much useless this week when it came to finding them for you. Martina did the heavy lifting. So now I'm off to find you more links for next week!
~Clara
Big congrats to Clara, woo! Awesome.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed KM Weiland's first person article, and will be enjoying the rest of the linkies too, very soon. Thanks!
Yay for Clara. Time for the happy dance.
ReplyDeleteThank you for the congrats. I'd missed the mention until I saw people were hopping to my blog from here.
ReplyDeleteAnd HUGE congrats to Clara. Commence the happy dancing!