Trish Milburn | The Power of Music

It’s amazing how much emotional power can be packed into song lyrics. I admire anyone who is a good songwriter, creating a story out of a few short lines. I like to incorporate music into my stories to show a character’s feelings or to set a mood. Though I’m careful not to venture into copyright infringement by using actual song lyrics, I do reference them.

For instance, I was recently working on a young adult story (Winter Longing, Razorbill, Summer 2010) in which my heroine has experienced a significant loss. As teens often do when they’re hurting, she listens to certain music over and over. For my heroine, Winter, it’s the songs of Breaking Benjamin, a band that I like and whose lyrics really speak to what she’s experiencing.

Winter is enduring a loss, so when she hears Breaking Benjamin’s “Breathe,” the lyric “You left a hole where my heart should be” really packs an emotional punch. Later, it’s the band’s song “So Cold” that takes on new meaning when heard in the new context of her life. Though I don’t quote the lyrics, it’s the lyrics “You're so cold, but you feel alive; Lay your hands on me one last time,” that serve as an important turning point for her.

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Melissa Walker | Trusting Young Adult Readers

My Violet series is about a not-so-confident model named Violet Greenfield, a real girl who finds herself under runway lights and in the clutches of an overbearing (and sometimes cruel) agent. Over the course of the trilogy, Violet tries to navigate the crazy fashion world, hold onto her real friends and discover who she is on the inside while attention swirls around her outside.

In the Young Adult genre, there's been some talk about "message books," books that teach lessons, essentially, and whether YA authors have an obligation to write this kind of book. I say absolutely not--why should YA authors be held to a different standard than Adult authors? Teen readers are smart, imaginative and endlessly savvy. They deserve characters that ring true, that grow, that inspire them. But they don't need Pollyannas at every turn.

That's why I sometimes wanted to explore the dark sides of the fashion industry with the Violet books. In Violet on the Runway, Violet encounters drug addiction; in Violet by Design, she faces immense pressure to stay skinny in order to be "runway ready;" and in Violet in Private, she has to make a choice--stay in the spotlight or give up modeling and risk becoming a wallflower once again. Is there character growth? Yes. Sugar coating? No. Violet doesn't always make the right decisions--in fact she makes a lot of wrong ones.

But that's the beauty of real life, right?

The Violet series is featured on readergirlz.com this month, where there's a soundtrack, a downloadable poster, discussion questions and more.


Melissa Walker
melissacwalker.com
myspace.com/melissacwalker
twitter.com/melissacwalker

Carol Culver | 10 Things I Love About Writing The YA Novel

Two weeks ago I was at the RWA conference in San Francisco where I gave a talk about writing for the YA market.

For those of you who weren't there, here's the list -

1. YA books stay on the shelves longer (by longer I mean longer than category romance which is my other outlet) Category books are gone in a month, but the last time I checked at my local Borders, all three of my books in the BFF series, MANDERLEY PREP, RICH GIRL and THE GUY NEXT DOOR were still on the shelves.
   
   
2. Teens are loyal readers, if they like your book, they spread the word by texting, calling or whatever.
   
   
3. Series are popular. Hook a teen reader and they'll stick with you.
   
   
4. YA books are short, around 50,000 words. You can write more books in a year than single titles.
   
   
5. Writing for and hanging out with teens can keep you young.
   
   
6. You can dig into your own past for material or use your kids or your neighbors.
   
   
7. Deal a blow forever to the memory of those geeks, freaks, nerds, cheerleaders, jocks and goths who wouldn't eat lunch with you, date you, or even speak to you in the hall.
   
   
8. Teen novels can play to your strenghts. They can be romantic, paranormal, dark, light, funny, edgy or angsty.
   
   
9. Teens are voracious readers and they've got more leisure time than many adults do.
   
   
10. Teens are smart. They expect a lot. You can't let them down.
    

In the interest of fairness, I should say a few words about why I also love writing for Harlequin Mills & Boon, my British publisher.

• The books are translated into many languages (Spanish, Danish, French, Japanese, to name a few) and sold around the world which keeps the royalties rolling in long after the initial publishing date.
  
  
• The London editors are a fabulous group of supportive, kind, generous women.
  
  
• Working with the London editors encourages foreign travel to see the office and meet them. Definitely a fringe benefit.

Carol Culver

www.carolculver.com/

Linda Gerber | My Fiction Addition

Hi. My name is Linda and I’m a fiction addict.

I live fiction, I breathe fiction, I make up really creative excuses when I forget to turn in my PTA sign-up sheets. Honestly, I can’t go through the day without a fiction fix.

Today, for example, I went to the bookstore to grab Stephenie Meyer’s latest. Just walking into the fiction section was like entering an enchanted canyon where everyplace I turned, something wonderful called out to me. Sadly, THE HOST was not on the shelves. The bookstore had just sold their last copy. I panicked. Leaving the bookstore without a book was not an option. Heart palpitating, I ran back to the fiction section and scanned the shelves frantically until found the next two books on my TBR list. Holding them in my hands, I was finally able to breathe easier.

Once, on vacation, I finished all the books I had brought with me. And I a whole day left at the beach and an entire flight home to get through! I made my dear husband drive into town – thirty miles away – and find a drugstore with a decent fiction selection(it was too small to have its own bookstore. I know, sad!)

With my fiction fixation, writing books is like a dream job for me. And exciting! Case in point, while working on DEATH BY BIKINI, I got to live at an exclusive tropical resort where I rubbed shoulders with senators and rock stars and ultimately outwitted an assassin. How can you beat that?

Speaking of DEATH BY BIKINI, if you like YA fiction, you are cordially invited to my cyber launch party May 15-18 at lindagerber.blogspot.comwhere you can win books from over 15 YA authors, including yours truly.

Meanwhile, what about you? Are you addicted to fiction? What is it about fiction that grabs you?

Thanks again to everyone at Fresh Fiction for having me!

Linda Gerber

lindagerber.com
lindagerber.blogspot.com

Coming May 15 from Puffin Books – DEATH BY BIKINI

Richelle Mead | Writing Pressures

The release of a new book is always a scary thing. The debut novel? Especially terrifying. A new series? Yikes. Nail-biting. Yet, none of these compare to the pressure of when the second book in a series is about to come out...

When Vampire Academy was released last fall, I didn't know what to expect. Adult urban fantasy was where I felt most comfortable; I'd kind of stumbled into YA. Fortunately, Vampire Academy had solid sales early on, which was a huge relief. (When you write full time, you always have the weight of the rent and the grocery bill on you!) But then something else started happening. I started getting fan mail--lots of it. I'd gotten a fair amount of it with Succubus Blues, but nothing like this. And reading through these emails, I discovered something. People weren't just buying my book; they loved my book.

That's every author's dream. It was my dream--and is still my dream today. I've often said that I don't need J. K. Rowling fame, so long as I have a large enough group of devoted fans to let me keep writing. I stand by that--only, I didn't realize how daunting that would end up being. Frostbite, the sequel to Vampire Academy, was written while I was in the process of getting divorced. Those writing conditions were, uh, not optimal in the least. I had just about finished its revisions when Vampire Academy really took off, and suddenly, I started freaking out. These fans were telling me how much they loved the first book and how they couldn't wait to read Frostbite. I panicked. Was I going to let them down? Was this manuscript good enough for them? I felt like I should have been locked away in a pristine mountain retreat to write the book, not plotting chapters in the throes of depression and monetary settlements. I was certain I should have done something more in writing the book--only, considering the circumstances, I didn't think there was anything more I could have done.


And it was too late anyway. The book had to go to press. I had a great editorial team at my back, and I had to believe that all of us had done our jobs. Still, the worry stayed. Mail from people who were excited about the book was still coming in, and soon, it was joined by people who were also excited about the third book! I have a new series coming out in the fall, beginning with Storm Born, and friends were asking me if I was nervous about it. My response: "Hell no! That one has no expectations yet. All the pressure's on Frostbite." I so, so wanted it be good enough for my readers.

Then, last week, I got an unexpected email. It was from someone who had apparently gotten a hold of an early copy of Frostbite, and--they loved it. A huge pressure suddenly lifted from me. A day or so later, I heard from someone else with an early copy of Frostbite--and they loved it too. Slowly, it began to occur to me that maybe I had done it after all, that I really had written a book my readers loved as much as the first. It’s an amazing feeling.

Knowing this has suddenly taken the stress off from book 3, Shadow Kiss. I finished it a week ago and had a bit of that same fear while writing it: should I be doing more? Should I be in the mountain retreat to make sure this is perfect? But, the truth is, books aren't written in mountain retreats. Well, not most of them. They're written in chaos, while we're happy and while we're hurting, and that all goes into the pages. That’s how authors write, and that’s what makes good writing.

Thank you so much for letting me blog today! More info about me and my books can be found at: www.richellemead.com/





Richelle Mead