First things first: the winner of POWER PLAY by Michelle Martin Bossley is Shellflower whose fabulous blog has a fractal as a background. I LOVE FRACTALS! Send me your address Shell, and the book will be winging its way to you in no time. Now, my giveaway was a little unorthodox. Not a bleak and moody YA … More Giveaway Winner and some notes about Hi/Lo

I spoke of Neal Shusterman‘s UNWIND a few weeks ago. This is a dark YA book to beat all dark YA books. YOU. MUST. READ. IT.  Here’s the blurb from Goodreads. The Second Civil War was fought over reproductive rights. The chilling resolution: Life is inviolable from the moment of conception until age thirteen. Between … More I Love Dark YA Week 5 – I can’t wait for UNWHOLLY

Recently I told an editor he would have to wait for my manuscript because, in making some minor changes he suggested, I had discovered a few other issues I wanted to address. This was his response: “An author who is alert to the need for improvements without prompting by a potential editor of the project … More Good Things Are Worth Waiting For

I was worried and scared at the beginning of the month. I was daunted by the challenge of writing 50,000 words in 30 days. But is hasn’t been all that hard. I started with some rules and guidelines, which I followed pretty well. If you look at my graph, you can see my steady progress. … More NaNoWriMo Word Count – 50,946!

It all started, I think, with a snarky article in the Wall Street Journal, bemoaning the bleak and violent content of Young Adult literature.  The response was, among other things, a Twitter campaign called “#YA Saves”. Thousands of Tweets, hundreds of blogs, and commenters galore rallied to the support of dark YA books. This Blogfest … More #YA Saves

Something beautiful happened yesterday on Miss Snark’s First Victim. An author entered one of Miss Starks’ contests and wasn’t chosen as a finalist – was rejected, in other words. The writer, going by anonymous, posted this reply:                      This has proven to me that I should give up on … More Rejection Reaction

Just wanted to plug a few wonderful people and things. First of all, Kris Rothstein and the Carolyn Swayze Literary Agency. I had a great lunch with Kris today and she doesn’t seem to mind at all that I am completely bonkers. Secondly, a shout out to Carrie Gleason at Lorimer Books, who always answers my emails within … More Shameless Plugs, Agents, Publishers, Verse Novels and One Very Tolerant Husband

Here’s the deal: I love writing queries.  I’ve also never written (and sent)  a query that didn’t get requests, so I must be doing something right. I often write queries before my manuscript is even finished. Some writers are scandalized by this, accusing me of putting the cart before the horse. But just because I’ve … More Query Hell(p)

This week’s I Love Dark YA Blogfest Challenge was to score and cast the movie version of one of your favorite Dark YA books.  I just couldn’t stop at one. Before I start, I just have to quote Tessa over at Ink&Angst: Tessa’s Definition of Dark YA Life sucks, everybody dies, the end. I know … More Dark YA Blog Fest Week 3 – Dark Book, Dark Movie, Dark Music…Cute Cast?