Young Adult Pick and Mix 9-14-13 Edition with BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA Giveaway

by Adventures in YA Publishing

Woo hoo! My edits went in at 3:00 am Thursday/Friday, and I am trying very hard to believe that because it is a spooky(ish) book, turning it in on Friday 13th is actually lucky. Thanks Facebook friends who have been helping me in the convincing department! 🙂

Want to hear a secret? Okay, three secrets.

1) I’m superstitious. I don’t know why. But oddly, only for things that are bad luck, jinxes, and so forth. The superstitions that bring good luck? Those I have a harder time believing.

2) I love this book. Am I allowed to say that? I know, dorky, right? But I am so lucky to be getting to do a series because it means I get to spend time with my characters, and I do love all of them. Even the villains. (Okay, most of the villains.)

3) And best for last, my cover is coming along, and the more I hear, the more I LOVE. I got to actually chat with my cover designer a bit and she read the whole book. How wonderful is that? Again, I may be dorky, but I didn’t know cover designers actually did that. Not only did she read it, she was kind enough to say she loved it, and to tell me what she loved. Her enthusiasm and her portfolio make me want to hug her and my editor for picking her. And rereading my edit letter as I sent off the notes for it this morning also makes me want to hug my editor.

Okay, enough about that.

We have three, count them THREE, new interns! Which is FANTASTIC.

Please welcome Kate, Talynn, and Alyssa. I will be posting their official bios and titles and all sorts of goodies about them next week. And I can’t wait for them to get started, because they are going to let us do even more wonderful things here on the blog!
Have a great week, everyone! And please be sure to read my blogger of the week note. It’s important! 🙂 Happy reading and writing, Martina

Thought for the Week

via Pinterest

Young Adult Novel Giveaway This Week

You stop fearing the devil when you’re holding his hand…

Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town… until River West comes along. River rents the guest house behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard.

Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more?

Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery… who makes you want to kiss back.

Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it.

Blending faded decadence and the thrilling dread of gothic horror, April Genevieve Tucholke weaves a dreamy, twisting contemporary romance, as gorgeously told as it is terrifying—a debut to watch

Purchase Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea at Amazon
Purchase Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea at IndieBound
View Between the Devil and the Deep Blue Sea on Goodreads

Young Adult Novel Giveaway Last Week

Winner: Ellie Moreton

An ARC of

The Dream Thieves

by Maggie Stiefvater

Scholastic

Releases 9/17/13

Add to Goodreads Shelf | Preorder on Amazon

The gorgeousness of this book and my love for these characters knows NO limits! It’s so gorgeous that last weekend, a bunch of writers (we will remain nameless) got together to ~~gush~~ chat about where the characters and where the plot is going. You are going to have to pry this out of my hands. BUT, I am going to share, because it would be a sin not to share it.

The second installment in the all-new series from the masterful, #1 NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Maggie Stiefvater!

Now that the ley lines around Cabeswater have been woken, nothing for Ronan, Gansey, Blue, and Adam will be the same. Ronan, for one, is falling more and more deeply into his dreams, and his dreams are intruding more and more into waking life.

Meanwhile, some very sinister people are looking for some of the same pieces of the Cabeswater puzzle that Gansey is after…

Something to Watch

Books, Books, Books

Ohmygosh, have you seen all the BOOK NEWS THIS WEEK? I am so thrilled!

Kami Garcia and Margaret Stohl are writing a new spin off series from Beautiful Creatures featuring Link and Ridley! It will be called DANGEROUS CREATURES. How wonderful and perfect a title is that?

Maggie Stiefvater is writing a spin off from her Shiver series. And stay tuned. THE DREAM THIEVES is out in stores next week, and I am going to sneak out of the workshop Friday night to hear her speak and to buy some signed books to give away. 🙂

Many of you have heard me rave about the generous, lovely, and wonderful Lorin Oberweger, who runs the Free-Expressions workshops like the BREAKOUT NOVEL WORKSHOP that I am attending this coming week. Well, she is also an editor and a brilliant writer in her own right, and she and lovely Veronica Rossi, NYT Bestselling Author of the UNDER THE NEVER SKY SERIES (and BREAKOUT NOVEL graduate) have gotten together to form a story development company. They also have a new book deal. WOOT!

Laini Taylor has a new cover and it’s GORGEOUS!

Tumblr is opening a reblog bookclub.

Lauren Kate has a new book trailer.

Simone Elkeles has two new webisodes based on her WILD CARDS series!

There’s also a preview about the series on HOLLYWOOD CRUSH here.

Young Adult Reader of the Week:

Vivien

Interests	I absolutely love reading all genres of books. Plus some video games get me hooked 🙂 Especially Resident Evil.

* Want to be the reader of the week next week? Leave a comment on our Thursday or Friday posts!

Young Adult Writer/Blogger of the Week:

I want to do something a little different this week, and take time to acknowledge Jan and tell you how amazing she is and how lucky I feel to have her here on the blog! Would you raise some bubbly for her with me? She is starting on a fantastic path toward becoming an author’s assistant, and she’s already doing so well that she just put in her two weeks notice to go the virtual assistant route full time on her own. In addition, she is starting an amazing opportunity as an intern to an assistant who handles several NTY Bestselling authors. Even better? Hopefully this will give her even more opportunity to focus on her own writing, because she has a fantastic idea of a high concept novel.

I ADORE Jan, and I know you all do too. But you may not know that she really is the drivng force behind all the contest we host here and that she keeps tabs on the guest posts and coordinates the giveaways. She’ll be handing off a lot of this to our new interns, which will give her more time to do more contests and let us provide even more help to aspiring writers and provide more promotion opportunities for the fabulous books that are published every week.

Ready? Raise your glasses and . . . Here’s to JAN! WOOT!

Jan Lewis, our scheduler and contest coordinator extraordinaire, writes young adult fantasy of the contemporary and traditional varieties. She lives in Oklahoma with a husband, two kids, two cats, a dog, and a mother. Instead of unpublished, she prefers to call herself pre-published. While she enjoys drafting, her heart is truly in rewriting and editing. Recently, Martina called her “better than aspirin”, so her new goal is to become better than valium. She loves ladybugs, fairies, blue roses, cats, musical theater, and pretty much all things geek. You can find Jan on twitter at https://twitter.com/janlewis77.

* Want to be the blogger of the week next week? To be honest, this is pretty much the only way I have time to discover new blogs, so it’s a great way to get into my twitter feed and into these round-up posts if you have great content to share. Leave a comment. I’ll pick from among the bloggers who leave comments here on the blog today through Wednesday.

Writing Tip of the Week

Move your writing beyond the five senses. When you describe what your character sees, smells, hears, tastes, and touches, connect that description to a current emotion, a memory, or a decision. Use the description to advance both character and story while putting your reader in the room.

Another Writing Tip

“At one time I thought the most important thing was talent. I think now that — the young man or the young woman must possess or teach himself, train himself, in infinite patience, which is to try and to try and to try until it comes right. He must train himself in ruthless intolerance. That is, to throw away anything that is false no matter how much he might love that page or that paragraph. The most important thing is insight, that is … curiosity to wonder, to mull, and to muse why it is that man does what he does. And if you have that, then I don’t think the talent makes much difference, whether you’ve got that or not.

[Press conference, University of Virginia, May 20, 1957]

William Faulkner

Writing Brain Fuel

via Pinterest

Loading…

Adventures in YA Publishing

Posted: Sep 14, 2013

Category: Imported from AYAP

Tags: YA Fiction Giveaways | Young Adult Fiction

Welcome to Transmedia Mutts

Yellow origami dog on a teal background

Unleash your creative bark!

Shout out to AYAP!

Logo for Adventures in YA Publishing

Thank you to the women who started Adventures in YA Publishing and ran it for years. AYAP and TMM have merged to form Adventures in PUPlishing, and the legacy AYAP posts are now part of TMM. Click here to learn more about the earlier AYAP team.

Click to Join our Facebook Group

Share advice, practice pitching, celebrate successes, and support each other through writing and publishing adventures.

← Previous: FOUR YA Book Giveaways plus New Releases 9/13-9/20 Next: Conference Round-Up: Novel Revision Retreat →

The first slide is an animation of a science/magic room in a castle. A cartoon character of a mad-scientist looking man in in the foreground says: “Hello! Dr. Frankenstein here to say, Well Done on kid lit zombie week! I’m an expert at reviving the dead, and let me assure you, with a little spark, you can bring dead projects to life. Especially if you dig up parts from other dead things. I’ll even let you have a sneak peek at my laboratory’s store room to consider potential parts for your dead project. If you see something with a yellow glow, that means you should click it. Have fun!”

He points to the right side of the screen and a new scene slides in of a castle science/magic storage room. There are various cartoon Frankenstein body parts scattered around. Some of them have a yellow glow. If you click on them, the images below appear (I’ve added alt text to them, so I hope it works).

The Heart of your story is the main character. The protagonist is the beating core that truly brings your story to life. If your MC doesn't make kids (and their grown-ups) care within the first few pages, your story will flatline. </p>
<p>Your main character needs to be:<br />
• Relatable enough for kids to see themselves<br />
• Unique enough to stand out in the slush pile<br />
• Active enough to drive the story<br />
• Memorable enough to survive multiple readings at bedtime</p>
<p>Where do you find this amazing donor heart? It might be the very thing you loved so much about the manuscript you want to revive. It might be the younger sister from your shelved YA novel. Or maybe it’s the hilarious kid you blogged about meeting at a school visit. Find a character beating with potential and place it in the center of your story.<br />

The Brain of your story is the theme or central message. The theme is the big idea that controls everything else. Picture books are more than stories - they're tiny life lessons disguised with humor and heart.</p>
<p>But your theme needs to be:<br />
• Subtle enough not to trigger the dreaded "didactic" rejection<br />
• Clear enough for a four-year-old to grasp<br />
• Universal enough to speak to both kids and adults<br />
• Fresh enough to prevent agents and editors from responding with "Not another sharing/bedtime/first-day story!"</p>
<p>Check your other dead manuscripts to see if there is a recurring theme, something that really seems to be speaking to you. Find the bit of poetry you scribbled on the back of a receipt to see what theme inspired it. Reread the pep talk you texted your critique partner at 1am. Pick the theme that will drive your story, giving it purpose, direction, and deeper meaning.<br />

The Legs of your story is the plot. Not to be confused with a grave plot.🤪 The plot is what keeps everything upright and moving, as well as providing support for all the other elements. You have very few words to use in a picture book, so you need to do a lot with each plot point.</p>
<p>In general, your plot should:<br />
• Hook readers fast<br />
• Build tension that a child can follow<br />
• Create page turns that feel natural<br />
• Wrap up in a way that satisfies</p>
<p>You can borrow a plot twist (a leg) from one manuscript and the opening (the other leg) from a different manuscript. Consider if the subplot of the middle grade novel you trunked would work better as a picture book. Or maybe your Facebook post about a disastrous camping trip could become a story for kids. Just keep putting one foot in front of the other until you have your storyline.

The Arms of your story are the side characters.

The Torso of your story is the setting. Setting helps a story breathe and connects all the elements of the story. It isn't just where your story lives, it's what makes your story ALIVE. It's the difference between "this happened in a park" and "this happened in that park, the one with the twisty slide that burns your legs and the creaky swing that sounds like a baby crying.”</p>
<p>Your setting should:<br />
• Make your character's world feel real<br />
• Contain your story in a way that makes sense to young readers<br />
• Connect different scenes and moments organically<br />
• Give your illustrator enough room to add visual subplots</p>
<p>Half-finished manuscripts are a great place to dig up settings, since you worked out the place details before the plot petered out. Or maybe you had to cut a second fantastic location from your chapter book. You can also revisit the detailed caption from your Instagram carousel documenting your tour of that delish candy shop. Disinter a robust setting that can house all of your story's vital organs.

After you press the Click When Done circle button, the lights flash with the sound of electricity buzzing. Then the screen goes black and lightning zaps across the screen with the sound of thunder.

The screen then lights up to show the storage room, and all the Frankenstein pieces have been assembled into the whole monster. An upbeat song plays in the background. Then a speech bubble pops up with the words, “I’m alive! I’M ALIVE!” Then the screen goes to black.

Dog holding a sign that says Pupdates!

Sign up for our newsletter for pupdates and publishing advice