Victorious!

(photo credit)

The sun is shining a little brighter,
Bostonians are walking a little lighter (though our eyes are a little tired)
It’s a beautiful day!

Congratulations to the Bruins who won the Stanley Cup last night after an exciting 7 game final series against the Vancouver Canucks. One of the great things about living in Boston is how passionate we are about our sports teams. And there’s nothing sweeter than winning a championship. After 39 years, The Cup returns to Boston!

How sweet it is!

Q. Which Book Are You Embarrassed to Admit You've Never Read?

(And do you plan on ever reading it?)

A. The Catcher in the Rye by J.D. Salinger

Last year I read To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee for the first time. I know! I was never required to read it in middle or high school, but it was one I always wanted to read. For one reason or another I just never got around to it. Same with the *list below. Although I majored in English and read many classics, we (obviously) didn’t cover every work by every author.

After I graduated, I gravitated to the authors I enjoyed studying such as Dickens and Forster, and later Tolkien, but that was it. As a teacher my focus shifted toward children’s literature as I searched for authors I could introduce to my students. One of my goals was to inspire a love of reading in them which I hoped they would carry with them. I read them James and the Giant Peach (Roald Dahl), The Secret Garden (Frances Hodgson Burnett), Mr. Popper’s Penguins (Richard and Florence Atwater), Ramona Quimby (Beverly Cleary), Chocolate Fever (Robert Kimmel Smith) among others.

When I had children of my own, again, I read to them in the hope that they would become readers as they grew older. Now that they've passed the infant/toddler ages, the last few years have been wonderful as I’ve turned back to reading for my own pleasure. So many books and so little time. As a writer I try to read as much in my genre as possible, but not exclusively. It’s important for me to read in different categories and across genre lines. And I’ve realized that there are many classics that I’ve never read and feel that I should read.

But why? Where does the guilt come from? I claim to love literature so much that I sought a degree in it, but have neglected to read and study certain novels that “everyone” else has read. If I’m so well-read, why haven’t I chosen to seek out the classics that I didn’t read as a student? And if I’m a writer, shouldn’t I read from the masters – the ones who have stood the test of time? This last question is one that haunts me every so often, and so I try to make a point of choosing a couple of these novels a year. Since I have summers off and more time to read, I try to mix up my reading material: more MG and YA, adult fiction, and classics.

As I mentioned above, last year I read To Kill A Mockingbird. Loved it so much that it’s now one of my top 10 favorite reads. Two years ago I read The Handmaid’s Tale (Margaret Atwood), a powerful dystopian from the 80s that floored me. Three years before, Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen – another classic, never read before, that I ended up loving.

*Here’s the short list of books I’m embarrassed to say I’ve never read. My plan is to cross off at least a couple this summer.

The Catcher in the Rye – J.D. Salinger
The Great Gastsby – F. Scott Fitzgerald
Moby Dick – Herman Melville
Frankenstein – Mary Shelly
Don Quixote – Miguel de Cervantes
Catch-22 – Joseph Heller
Ethan Frome – Edith Wharton
The Grapes of Wrath – John Steinbeck
Jane Eyre – Charlotte Bronte
Middlemarch - George Eliot

Okay. I could add more but my face is properly beet red at the moment.

Is there a book(s) that you're embarrassed to admit you've never read? Do you plan to read it?

Don't worry. I won't judge. Feel free to leave a pseudonym if you don't want to leave you're real name. *wink*

A Friend to Follow

A quick plug for my friend, the lovely and talented, Donna Hosie. If you’re not following her blog, Musings of A Penniless Writer you’re missing an up and coming YA writer who has more drive and determination than anyone I know.

When I’m feeling lazy, I read one of her posts in which she gets an idea for a plot and writes an 80,000 word novel in 3 months or changes her whole novel from third to first point of view. And that’s while she works full-time, raises her kids, tends to her garden or yard or whatever you like to call that big grassy space surrounding your house. Oh, and she’s probably planning her next trip to Hobbit Country as well. Whips me into shape in no time, she does!

No challenge is too daunting for my supportive, hard-working friend and I know it’s only a matter of time before an agent snatches her up. She’s 1 follower away from reaching 200. So what are you waiting for?

She lives on the Aussie side of the world so (hopefully) she’s sleeping right now. Unless she decided to get up early to revise her ms. Wouldn’t it be great if she woke to see 200 followers? You could be the one!
Now shoo! Get going!

Good News!

I love sharing good news, but first I’m going to be totally lame today and point you to another post.

After meeting with some of the big names in publishing, agent/author Mandy Hubbard, generously shared some valuable information on her blog in her post, The Epic Post on Trends (YA & MG). For kidlit writers who have high hopes of being published this info is invaluable. I suppose if the genre you write in isn’t included on a publisher’s wish list, then it would be simply “eh” news. Not necessarily bad, but not good if you just typed the final period on your epic high fantasy novel about an alien merboy and the girl who loves him. Personally, I don’t believe in writing to trends, but when my ms seems close to hitting one of the desired targets I can’t help feeling encouraged.

On to the Good News:

Ms. Hubbard's post was relevant to me because MG may well be the new YA and I’ve been plugging away at an upper MG contemporary for over a year. Just the incentive I need to finish this novel.

My “on hold” project is a YA ghost story that I’m dying to explore.

I’m not sick anymore!

The Science Fair is over! (3 kids + 3 projects/papers + 1 computer = too much tension) My life will finally start becoming my own soon.

The sun broke through the cloudy gray drizzle for about a half hour today!

And, it's Friday!!

Meet you on the other side....of either the weekend or in the Great Beyond.

What good news do you have to share? Has this song been stuck in anyone’s head besides mine this week?

Oh Blogger, You Devil!

Thought you'd be tricksy on Friday the 13th, did you?
Well, I'm on to you.

Thought you'd wipe out yesterday's brilliant *cough* post?
Well, I'm 2 steps ahead of you this time, even though my mad tech skillz are usually 5 steps behind everyone else.

See, because I'm so anal efficient, I wrote yesterday's post in Word and saved it. Pretty smart, eh?

So today when I discovered that you had a craving for clever writing, or maybe just writing, I was able to retrieve my words and voila!

Mwahahahahaha! Foiled again, Blogger!

(Even though I was able to repost below, the comments by the lovely Donnas were gobbled up. Sorry gals. I invite you to recomment if you'd like to.)

Did Blogger's meltdown create havoc with your blogging? Do tell!

You Know It's Time to Work on Your MS When...

You open Word and the title of your WiP isn’t listed under “Recent Documents” anymore.

You can’t remember what chapter you’re on.

You have to scroll back to remember the names of some of your minor characters.

You can’t remember what your last scene was about, so...

You have to go back and read several chapters before continuing.

You don’t know the word count of your ms (especially if you’re obsessed about this while writing like I am).

You miss your main characters.

You miss writing.

How do you know it's time?

Blog Light and Sci-Fi - YA Style

Blog Light - it’s not a new brand of diet soda or beer. But I am going to cut back my blogging over the next 3 weeks. Don’t worry. This is not going to be one of those posts in which I describe how busy I am. Nope. I promise (even though I am and might be only slightly freaking out about it). Who’s not busy, right?
So, I need to prioritize what little free time I have during the month of May. After work and family obligations, I will be alternating between working on my draft one and critiquing a friend’s manuscript the next (and so on), and also squeezing in some reading time. I always make time for reading.

As for blogging during this time, I’m going to blog once a week until the beginning of June.

Speaking of reading I’ve been noticing a trend in my choice of YA fiction lately. I’ve been reading quite a bit of science fiction during the last year. Psssst. Don’t. Tell. Anyone!

Not that there’s anything wrong with science fiction, trust me. But if you had recommended a sci-fi book to me when I was a teen way back when, I probably would have either laughed out loud (since LOL wasn’t invented yet) or said, “Thanks, but no thanks.” Or I’d pass it on to my friend Brian who loved all things Star Trek. Please don’t judge. I’m not proud of my closed-minded, judgemental sci-fi snobbishness. The closest I came to sci-fi back then was when Star Wars hit the theaters. What’s not love about Han, Luke, Leia, and Chewie?

As far as fiction goes, I guess I could say that I didn’t hate Lord of the Flies, 1984, A Brave New World, or even A Wrinkle in Time when I was a teen. But they didn’t exactly fuel my fiery love of reading either. In fact, during those years my focus shifted from Nancy Drew to cute boys, REO Speedwagon, General Hospital, and trying to survive high school. I hardly read at all. Again, I must implore you not to judge.

My first dip into contemporary YA sci-fi was The Hunger Games trilogy. My heart raced as I devoured this series. My next sci-fi choice was The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson. Adored it! Since then I’ve read M.T. Anderson’s, Feed, and the Uglies series (Uglies, Pretties, Specials, Extras) by Scott Westerfeld and enjoyed them all. Currently I’m in the middle of Across the Universe by Beth Revis. The chapters alternate between two characters' point of view, Amy and Elder, and let me tell you, I cannot put this book down! The pacing is excellent and the suspense builds slowly through the novel.

What I love about these books is that the sci-fi elements of the book are not in your face. The relationships between the characters and the internal and external conflicts they have to deal with are the main focus. That's what I like in any genre.

How do you feel about sci-fi? Do you have any favorite YA sci-fi novels?