So, one of the things that’s making 2010 pretttty busy is that I’m doing some teaching, mentoring, coaching in various venues. I’ve mentioned them here before, but as a reminder:

- Writing & Illustrating for Young Readers Workshop – June 14-18 – Sandy, UT

A week-long intensive. Very excited about this. I’m not sure what kind of space is left for the workshops, but if you live in the area (or want to come out for it), you can register for the half-day conference and go to plenary sessions, breakout sessions, signing, and keynote (by Mary Pearson!). Half-day registration is only $125. Seriously—bargain. There is now a preliminary schedule of sessions up on the site.

- The Glen Online

I’m teaching an ongoing correspondence-course style class in YA fiction. If you’re just starting out, there are various assignments related to each of six lessons. If you have a work-in-progress, we can look at that in place of the assignments. You can start any time, and work at your own pace. If you have any questions about this, let me know.

- Manuscript Critique for Auction

I’ve donated a YA manuscript critique to Fire Petal Books, a startup kid/YA bookstore to be opened in Centerville. Right now, Mike Martin is the high bidder but I know he would love you to drive up the price to raise more money for the store. There are also a bunch of other very cool items for writers and aspiring writers.

No matter if you can’t do any workshops or classes or bidding right now – if you’re a writer and haven’t yet gotten to the publishing stage of your career, give yourself a few hours this weekend to write and enjoy it and reconnect and put all the industry news, the query drafts, the rejections, the buzz out of your head for a couple of days. Writing is pretty much a learn-by-doing craft so turn off the noise and go do some doing. I’ll do the same.

Full disclosure: I have spent plenty of money on books at Amazon over the years, but have tapered off considerably after getting into the book business and understanding more about it. Lately I only resort to it when I need a hard to find book ASAP. But since the Macmillan debacle, and the letter from Amazon about it that felt…well, it felt hostile, frankly…I’m done with that, and keeping my Amazon purchases to blender replacement parts, the vacuum filters my hardware store doesn’t carry, and random medical supplies. Now, in saying that, I’m not berating anyone who chooses to buy books from the big A. I understand that sometimes convenience and pricing are the difference between you buying a book and not buying a book, and if you live in the boonies with no good library and you have to buy everything you want to read, it’s challenging to go indie. And, I bet that at some point in the future I will wind up clicking the buy button of a book (assuming it’s there), myself. But by shifting even 25% of your purchasing dollars to local stores, you’ll help keep the personal, human, passionate bookselling business—and the real people who make it happen—alive.

Anyway, speaking of Sam Weller’s, right now they are having a pretty fantastic sale for in-store customers—it goes through tomorrow the 6th. 50% off used (!), 25% off new, 30% off rare. Some restrictions. There is also chocolate. So if you’re in the SLC, go down there and show Catherine and Tony and the crew some love. Heck, you can even do that when there’s not a sale. All the better. To make it even more convenient, TRAX stops right at their front door, and there are two bars and a coffee shop and some restaurants on the same block, so you can eat, drink, and buy books all in one delightful outing. (All right, yes, sometimes you go downtown on Sunday or a weeknight and things are shuttered, but that seems to be changing. I am seriously hoping this “downtown rising” thing works out, because I live within walking distance of downtown and having it actually…rise…would make living here longterm so much more enticing.)

Here’s my haul from yesterday, a mix of new and used, and not counting the four books I have on order (you know you can order books through your local store if you don’t see them in stock, right?). The wrapped one (expertly, and for free by SW staff) is a top secret gift, obviously:

Coming on the blog next week: interview with Matt de la Peña, in which we talk about the wonderful We Were Here and other writery stuff. You’re gonna like it.

Have a great weekend! Go…Saints?

- All I have to say is this: Writers may have some very different ideas about what they do and why they do it than readers and gatekeepers do. Of course that has been the case throughout all time and in all categories of publishing, but there is this extra layer of expectation in the YA world that writers should think like parents, teachers, librarians, advocates, award committees, other writers. Some do, I guess, but many don’t. Personally, I know that I didn’t get into this to be a crusader. And if I were writing specifically for an adult audience, that would not be an expectation. But sometimes I feel like that is exactly what is expected of me. That I should be a Helpful Crusader, and that’s what writing YA is all about.

- Speaking of gatekeepers, John Green looks into the future of publishing and reading and librarianship over at SLJ. It took eight days to get a “shame on you” in the comments. You’re losing your touch, John.

- I love this interview with Mo’Nique in the Sunday Times. There’s a lot there for writers, or anyone in a creative profession, to think about in terms of working hard and letting the work speak for itself. And, this quote (about Precious) is great:

“I keep hearing, ‘It’s so dark, it’s so dark,’ ” she said, placing her hands flat on the table. “This movie is not dark. This movie is honest, and I think we get that confused. I believe dark is when you see the action movies, and they’re killing 25 people in a room for no reason. That’s dark. Some people,” she said, looking up at the reporter, “can’t deal with that type of honesty, and so they just call it dark.”

I haven’t seen the movie yet, but this response applies to some of the criticisms of realism in YA.

- Here is a nice review of Once Was Lost at Through a Glass, Darkly. Thanks, Kari.

The Publishers Weekly article, Justine’s report, Chasing Ray opinion, E. Lockhart’s two cents

There is a lot of outrage, and I think for good reason. Though, some of the comments floating around the o’sphere indicate a belief that the publisher is evil, bad, calculating, etc. Here’s what I think: it’s not like editors and marketing people are monsters. I have met a lot of people in children’s publishing over the last few years, and almost to a (wo)man, they are great, smart, hardworking, passionate people who wants to get books into readers’ hands and to be able to keep doing that by staying in business. I think this was simply a bad decision symptomatic of a larger, mostly hidden problem that we need to talk about and it’s good we are doing so. Being the clueless raised-in-diverse-and-liberal-SF white girl that I am, I had no idea, personally, about the belief that black people on covers don’t sell (or inside picture books – read E. Lockhart’s post). I’ve always been a little naive about racism and racial bias. In the soil I grew out of, it didn’t seem come up much.

Aside from the bigger implications, the cover story itself is yet another reminder of how little we as authors can control* about our jobs. The only part we can totally control (to the extent that we can control it) is the writing, and making it the absolute best we can. And by all accounts, Justine has done her job and written a brilliant book. Seriously, I have heard nothing but raves, and I can’t wait to read it. I wouldn’t want that to get lost in the scuffle. No author wants a controversy to overshadow the hard work on her baby.

*…which is not an excuse to not fight for things that should be fought for. But sometimes, you lose.

P.S. Here is the cover I mentioned in my comment on Justine’s post—a cover that made me pick up the book in the first place, when I was just browsing my local store. I bought it based on the cover. I can’t imagine I’m the only reader/book buyer in the world that is drawn to covers that have people on them who are not like me.

More resources:

The Brown Bookshelf

Color Online

Mitali’s Fire Escape

Reading In Color

“I think the YA authors who nail teen girls’ voices credibly — and part of that is recognizing that a monolithic Teen Girl Voice does not exist — respect girls and their lives in a way that authors of adult books with teen girl characters often don’t. The YA authors who get it don’t treat being a teenage girl as the best or worst time ever, or — as is perhaps most common with authors of adult books — as a time of such excruciating awkwardness that they can barely stand to evoke it. Instead, the authors who get it present girls’ teen years simply as a time when a lot is happening, some of it confusing, some of it exhilarating, some of it tragic, some of it amazing. Much like, you know, the rest of life.”

Also, as I read the various responses, I found myself confirmed in my belief that YA fiction is something very specific. It’s not junior varsity adult writing. It’s not practice fiction for younger readers. It’s not just for teens. It’s a specific genre of fiction (with many sub-genres) that accomplishes something unique. Now, putting what exactly that is into words is hard, and maybe not the point. To me, the point is it’s not better or worse than other genres and categories in excellence, purity, usefulness, merit, and potential to inform, entertain, provide escape or connection or whatever else a reader might be looking for. It’s not To Kill a Mockingbird vs. [insert your favorite YA novel] in a “is it YA?” smackdown. It is what it is, and as Sara R. alludes to, we are not all writing for one archetypal Teenager. We’re writing for humans, in our specific ways.

The whole What a Girl Wants series:

• Introduction
• Part I The Books We Can’t Forget
• Part II Girl Detective Fiction
• Part III Representing All the Girls (race/ethnicity in YA)
• Part IV The Girl vs. the Woman (when it comes to reading…why YA?)

Meanwhile, at Readergirlz, Cecil Castellucci and Jim Rugg chat live tonight.

So, what else is going on? Post your interesting YA-related links in the comments if you’ve got ‘em…

I love our friend the Internet. You know I do. But I’ve always hated that you can’t write an Amazon or Goodreads review without adding a star rating. How can you rate a Carson McCullers novel using the same scale as a VC Andrews novel—that is, 0 to 5 stars? I might give both Member of the Wedding and Flowers in the Attic a 5, as they are both totally satisfying to me in their own ways. But they are hardly equal. This same star scale is used to rate all consumer products, restaurants, cities, mechanics, doctors, ISPs, hair stylists…the list goes on and on.

Aren’t these things a tiny bit more complicated than a five-star rating system? What do the ratings and rankings really tell you other than an average opinion of average people who may or may not be anything like you in their needs and tastes? In an ideal world, excellent things would also be popular, but the fact that America’s Funniest Home Videos has been the most widely-viewed TV show for eons tells you that is not always the case.

Some books are excellent but not popular. Some books are popular but not excellent. Some are excellent and popular–yay! Of course this all ties into the last big online debate in kidlit: Who is qualified and should be allowed to review books? Which ties into the bigger cultural picture and the demise of print journalism, the controversies over citizen reporting and mommy bloggers, and the re-evaluation of the purpose of and need for gatekeepers.

There is a seismic cultural shift going on, and the ALA is not immune. As is always the case with change, whether it turns out to be bad change or good change, something is lost. I think we lose a lot by the way star ratings have encroached on how we make choices, and I fear that they—and any kind of popular vote scenario—can even keep us from knowing certain choices exist. The breadth and depth of the BBYA list has been so great—it’s hard for me to see the proposed changes as anything but a loss, with nothing gained since there are already so many ways to measure and reward popularity.

Doesn’t he look a little Tommy-esque here?

Earth Day. I don’t know how I feel about it, as a day, which mostly feels like yet another opportunity for capitalism to taint what should be common sense. But, here are a few of the major though easy things I’ve done in the last couple of years. 1) I really, really, really try to avoid buying bottled water. For one thing, good, drinkable water should be free. Like air. For another thing, when I realized how many bottles I was tossing into recycling bins (when available, and they aren’t always), not to mention how much money I was spending, I felt lame. Recyclable doesn’t necessarily equate with desirable. All that recyclable stuff still has to be processed. 2) Re-usable cloth grocery shopping bags. They’re like 99 cents each. And who doesn’t want to stop the reproduction of plastic bags under the kitchen sink? I keep a couple in my car for spontaneous shopping trips, or in case I forget to take them from the house (happens all the time). 3) Flushing only when necessary. Enough said. 4) I air dry a lot of my laundry. I live in a very dry climate, so most articles of clothing that aren’t really heavy will dry in a day. 5) I’m obsessive about going around and turning off lights. Ask my husband. Next step: turning off the power strips when the things attached to it are not in use.

Someone on twitter posted the following from the Association of American Publishers: February publishing stats: adult hc down 0/9% in Feb, 17.7% YTD; adult pb down 38.8% for Feb, 29.5% YTD; mm down 18.3% for Feb, 14.7% YTD. Childrens/YA hc up 62.1% for Feb, 46.4% YTD; childrens/YA pb up 13.4% for Feb, 17.4% YTD. Ebooks up 131% for Feb and 177.2% for year ($6.7m) Very interesting. I certainly do not want to see any stats down, but jeez, seeing any segment of the economy grow at an over 50% rate right now is incredible, and makes me grateful I’m in the business I’m in. (That’s only one of the many things I’m grateful for lately.)

Everyone have a great day!

Super agent to the stars Michael Bourret (you heard he was promoted to VP, right?) gives us a great example of how to post about “bad” publishing news without being a total Dirk Downer. (This was something I mentioned in my talk on blogging – if you become known for posting sad, scary, alarmist links that basically amount to “why you shouldn’t bother writing any more,” you will lose readers.)

Ecogeek Hank Green is also hopeful, but this time it’s about the environment. Which, I guess, might be slightly more important than the publishing industry. Read and respond to his post at YA for Obama.

Why so few books for young readers with African American characters? And when they do come out, where do they go and what happens to them? Varian Johnson ponders this issue, and invites nominations for 28 Days Later 2009 over at the Brown Bookshelf.

Speaking of underrepresented stories, the NJ Star-Ledger has a great article/interview on Robin Friedman and her book, Nothing, about a teen boy with an eating disorder.

Nominations for the 2008 Cybils are now open! Only until October 15! This is your chance to suggest your favorite and perhaps overlooked books from 2008. Jen Robinson explains how.