Every Wednesday, the writers at YA Highway ask a reading or writing related question, aptly named Road Trip Wednesday. This week's question:

In high school, teens are made to read the classics - Shakespeare, Hawthorne, Bronte, Dickens - but there are a lot of books out there never taught in schools. So if you had the power to change school curriculums, which books would you be sure high school students were required to read?

This is a tough one for me. I loved the required high school reading. (I know, my nerd is showing.) I would not take away the Shakespeare-- everyone should at least taste the brew of the bard once.

I would definitely keep in some Twain. I loved the Brontes, but I'm not sure I would force them on everyone. Like many other Highwayers today, I would add new, relevant material, like The Hunger Games.

But I'm a middle school teacher at heart, so I have to cheat a little. The book I would love to have as required reading for middle school is The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan. It is a perfect blend of history and story, and the characters are relatable. Plot, Character, Setting, Theme, Geography, Mythology-- it's all there. I would actually love to read more upper YA that educates without being preachy.

On another note, I came home after a long day to find THIS on my doorstep:

Yay! Thanks so much to Tracey Neithercott at Words on Paper for sponsoring awesome giveaways!

And lastly, The Hunger Games trailer almost ECLIPSED my excitement for a certain midnight movie premier coming tomorrow, but it's finally time to start the countdown. Here we come, Isle Esme!

Every Wednesday, the writers at YA Highway ask a reading or writing related question, aptly named Road Trip Wednesday. This week's question:

What are your writing and publishing super powers? -- and what's your kryptonite?

Sticky notes. Sticky notes are my secret weapon and my writing super power. I use them on plot boards. I use them on the edge of my monitor. I have a stack with a pen beside my bed, to write down ideas from dreams. I have a set in my purse in case something hits me while I'm out and about. Some of them have a single word, like a character's name, or "mustache." Some have a random simile. Others have major plot points or scenes crammed to the edge. And some remind me that my son has cub scouts this week. I may single-handedly keep the post-it industry in business.

I have plenty of sources of kryptonite, but the strongest is objectivity. I struggle to read my writing with fresh, objective eyes. I skip over editing mistakes because I read what I meant to say. I have trouble seeing the story as it exists on the pages, unclouded by the way I imagined it in my mind. Thank goodness for critique partners and beta readers to combat that problem!

I love the analogy for this post; my female dog is named Lois Lane. I wanted to name our boy chihuahua Clark Kent, so our dogs would be Lois and Clark, but the husband wasn't having it. We ended up with Lois and Indiana Jones instead. How about you? Do you have any superpowers or kryptonite, writing or otherwise?

Until next time...

Music for today: Loving on Adele's 21 this week!

This post started out with one idea, but ended up with me in a state of reflection.

I read Lola and the Boy Next Door by Stephanie Perkins in just over 24 hours. I wasn't really going for a review, but I wanted to give a quick shout of love. This book has lots of the elements I love about YA, and I'm so glad that I have the blog-o-sphere to recommend 'good reads.' (More on that in a moment.)

Here are the things I loved in Lola:

San Fransisco is a character in this story. It made me miss California and our years there, and also sad that my children won't remember our weekend visits to the zoo and the wharf.

Lola perceives the world in her own unique way. I especially liked how she observed the relationships around her. Seeing the world through Lola's POV shows more about her than it tells.

And of course I fell in love with Cricket Bell. (If you've read it, enough said.)

I normally like to summarize a book for a review on my own; I enjoy the challenge. Each time I tried with this book, my paragraph blurb just came out cheesy, so I hopped over to GoodReads to check out their summary. (Here's a link, if you are so inclined.) It was several paragraphs long, but that's not what caught my attention.

I spent far too long there reading reviews, and I was crushed. Don't get me wrong, this book has a very high star rating, and it's a GoodReads 2011 Choice Nominee for Best YA Novel. (Go vote!) But I read more than a few comments that disparaged the elements I loved most.

Why did it bother me so much, enough to not publish my post? Is it the writer in me, hurt by a few negative comments? (Maybe.) Did I rethink my initial reaction? (No, not at all.) After a full day to contemplate, I've determined that I was most stymied because I'd like to have a conversation (book club, anyone?) to understand why those commenters felt the way they did.

See, I'm all about sharing the love. I've followed Charlaine Harris for years now, and that lady is as mad a reader as she is a writer. (In a fantastic way.) She reads tons of books, and she reviews around one or two per week. But she only reviews the books she likes and recommends. I don't think I've ever read a negative review in four years. I am in favor of discussing what worked for a given reader, or what didn't, more than writing a negative review. If I love a book, I tell people. If I didn't love a book, I recommend it to people who I think may love it, but I try not to tear anyone down.

So, am I alone in this ra-ra rave-fest? Should we warn fellow readers when we find a book that really misses the mark, or should we keep everything lovey-dovey?

Music for today: I teared up today when I heard Stay Young, Go Dancing by Death Cab. Sad to see the end of Ben and Zooey, my favorite, quirky celeb couple. :(

Every Wednesday, the writers at YA Highway ask a reading or writing related question, aptly named Road Trip Wednesday.

In honor of November as National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo), today YA Highway asks:

What kind of writing coach do you need? When you have to coach friends, what kind of coach are you?

First of all, does it count for NaNoWriMo 2011 if I finish the third draft of the novel I wrote during last year's NaNoWriMo? I've had 'before Thanksgiving' as my goal for getting my WIP ready for beta readers since August. If I keep on schedule, I think I'll make it. That makes the idea of a writing coach a timely question for me.

Having other people read my work terrifies me. Ironic, isn't it? Having readers is the logical endgame of writing. I took the first step with my first critique group in August, and I'm glad to have a few partners ready to go for the full manuscript. I've discovered I need just the right blend of positive reinforcement and reality check. If I picked a celebrity coach, it would be Sharon Osbourne.

I try to use that same approach. In the early stages, I encourage my writing friends to keep plugging away. Even if you don't make that 1,000 words per day, at least write something every day. 100 words here and 100 words there eventually add up. When I'm critiquing, I try to use the same guidelines I made my students use when I was teaching: for every suggestion you give, be sure to find something you loved to even it out.

And in the interest of meeting those November goals, I'm going to keep this post short and sweet and get to it! I do want to mention that I'm thrilled with YA Highway's focus on contemporary YA in November. I have been looking for some powerful, character-driven contemporary YA for my to-be-read list, and I'm excited for a month full of new suggestions. The last amazing contemporary I read was Kristin Harmel's After, about 16 year old Lacey's life after the death of her father.

Until next time...

Music for today: Driven by Their Beating Hearts by A Silent Film

Yay! It's finally time for Fall Book Club! Thank you to Tracey at Words on Paper for hosting this awesome blog discussion. October's book was Daughter of Smoke and Bone, by Laini Taylor.


Daughter of Smoke and Bone is fresh, different, and exciting. I've never read anything quite like it. These qualities make it a good read, but it’s not just good. It’s an I-have-to-stay-up-past-my-bedtime-to finish-and-then-write-a-five-star-review-at-two-in-the-morning great book.

Here is my attempt at a brief, spoiler-free summary:

Lovely, unique artist Karou walks a line between the world we know and a world of wishes and monsters. She runs errands for her not-quite human mentor Brimstone, wondering what he does with all the teeth he collects from around the world. When a mysterious stranger threatens the portals between earth and Elsewhere, Karou has to discover the truth about her past and decide which future she will fight for.

So, what makes this book amazing? The world building and story are both phenomenal. But it's the language that pushes it to the next level. Taylor writes with such depth and grace; the prose rolls from the tip of your mind like honey.

One of the reasons I’m in love with this book is because it blurs the lines between good and evil. Taylor’s word choices play with our preconceptions. Karou begins on the side of the “devils” and “monsters,” and the “angels” are heartless killers. The beautiful part is that by the end, we get to see both sides of the story, through brilliant third-person narration.

I loved this book. I’m not in favor of trying to put a unique thing in a box, but I do have lingering questions about how to classify Daughter of Smoke and Bone. Is it urban fantasy? Parts certainly take place on cities in present-day earth. But at a certain point late in the novel, the story shifts into straight fantasy. This approach works; the reader identifies easily with Karou in the beginning, and the cross-world connections are integral to the story’s progress. But I went in to this book blind for the Fall Book Club, and I actually went back to read the ‘flap’ summary halfway through, because I wanted to know how much the publisher gave away.

I discussed this with one YA author who prefers more ‘reality-time’ in the beginning. A few years ago the trend was toward faster immersion, with the story beginning where some strange (paranormal, magical, etc.) event thrusts the protagonist into the new world in the first five pages. Michael Smith’s The Alchemyst comes to mind, and Casandra Clare’s City of Bones. Is that trend shifting? In Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children (which I enjoyed very much) I did feel a disconnect between the longer period of ‘reality’ in the beginning, because the fantasy elements came so much later.

What do you think? Would you rather a fantasy begin in the ‘fantastic’ world, or would you rather have more time to get to know the characters in the real world first? I can't wait to see how everyone else reacted!


Music perfect for this story: Paradise by Coldplay

Every Wednesday, the writers at YA Highway ask a reading or writing related question, aptly named Road Trip Wednesday. This week's question:

What was the best book you read in October?

Well, let me say first I'm blogging as part of Tracey Neithercott's Fall Book Club, and our reactions to Daughter of Smoke and Bone will be posted on Friday. It wins my fave book of the month award, but I'll save it for Friday. Instead I'll talk about my second favorite of the month, The Son of Neptune by Rick Riordan.

This is essentially the seventh book in a series, and I loved it just as much as all the others. I love how Riordan explores characters from a mix of races and cultures, and I love that Percy is dyslexic and has ADHD. The characters aren't perfect; they have flaws and complications, making them realistic and relatable. I also love the slow, complicated build up of the romantic relationships. Riordan manages to entertain and teach history at the same time, and the middle school teacher in me loves that most of all.

In case you're not familiar with the premise, in the series all the Greek and Roman gods are real, with modern bases are in the United States. These gods have relationships with humans, resulting in demigod children. The first five books are about Percy Jackson, son of Poseidon, and his adventures with other Greek demigods. The second set of books introduces the Roman demigods, which brings us to The Son of Neptune.

If you haven't already jumped on the bandwagon, go back and start at the beginning with The Lightening Thief. You'll be glad you did!

Until Friday...

Music for today: Punching in a Dream by The Naked and Famous

Road Trip Wednesday on YA Highway asks a reading or writing related question each week, and invites bloggers to give their own unique perspectives. This week's question:

What's your numero-uno reason for writing?

Writing gives me a voice.

A few nights ago, my family was sitting around a fire outside. My boys wanted to tell ghost stories, and my husband said, "You're the writer. Tell us a scary story."

Oh, and that should be simple for a writer, shouldn't it? After all, we make up stories every day. But I struggled to think of a story I'd heard from someone else, much less made up myself, and even then I was pretty sure I wouldn't tell it the right way. (It reminded me of the episode of Dexter where he told the kids a scary story, and that certainly didn't seem appropriate.) Some people are amazing verbal story tellers, and those same people tell jokes with great punchlines. I am not one of those people.

I'm the type of person who thinks back on conversations, especially heated ones, and regrets what I said. Not because I said something I didn't mean, but because I couldn't manage to say what I actually felt. I'll think about it for days or weeks, until I finally come up with exactly the right words. Of course by then, it's too late.

Writing is the antithesis of that. Because I am in control of the story, the conversation with the reader, and I get to spend hours or days or weeks getting a paragraph just right, to say exactly what I want it to say. And I don't even have to let anyone enter that conversation until I'm ready, and I invite them.

Now I'm going to sneak in a second reason. I am a daydreamer. I don't daydream about myself, though. I daydream about people who I'd like to know, and what would happen to them in crazy situations. (Let's call them characters.) But if I walked up to someone in Starbucks and said, "I had the craziest day dream the other day, about this girl, who..." I have a feeling they would hightail it for the parking lot. So instead, I tell their stories on paper. And I love them. All of them. Even the naughty ones. (I loved Kristin's post last weekend on loving all your characters.) If I didn't have something to say, I guess it wouldn't matter if I didn't have a voice. But I do have stories to tell, and I would like readers to meet my characters and love them as much as I do.

How about you? Why do you write?

Music for this week: Refer to yesterday's post :)