Christine and Ethan Rose | YA Fantasy: It’s Not Just for Kids

As we tour around the country signing our book, Rowan of the Wood, we are frequently asked this question: "What age group is your book written for?" It’s a very difficult question to answer because we write for young readers of all ages. The content is appropriate for younger readers but it’s enjoyed by young and old, alike.

I learned to read at the age of six. A year later, I read Gulliver's Travels. By the time I was ten I was reading Frank Herbert's Dune, and now, at the age of 40, I consider Tove Jansson's Moomin books some of the best ever written. I read nearly as many young adult books as anything else. Many of the books I read in childhood were not fully understood by my younger self, but I enjoyed them anyway. They also helped me get a jump start on many difficult subjects that I would have to wrestle later in life.

The mind of a child is much more curious and agile than that of an adult, as well as being infinitely more creative. It should be fed to the limit of its capacity. Good stories, well written and enthralling, are a great way to encourage that creative appetite. Once a child’s mind is captured by the possibilities inherent in reading, they will never look back.

A good story is ageless. Timeless. It spans generations and breaks down international borders. YA Fantasy, with the success of such books as Harry Potter, Twilight, and Eragon, has become recognized and enjoyed by readers of all ages. For those of us who love a good story and do not require steamy sex scenes, the genre provides an escape into a more innocent time. We can once again dream of being the hero in a grand adventure, having magical powers, saving those we love. We believe in magic and in the goodness of people. Our hearts break with the sacrifices of the tragic hero and rejoice with the reunion of lovers. A good story is ageless. Timeless. Young Adult fantasy is no longer just for kids; or rather, it’s for the child in all of us, whatever our age.

So now when asked what age Rowan of the Wood is aimed at I reply, "nine to ninety-nine," but don't exclude anyone outside that age group who loves a good story.

BOOK BLURB After a millennium of imprisonment in his magic wand, an ancient wizard possesses the young boy who released him. When danger is nigh, he emerges from the frightened child to set things right. Both he and the boy try to grasp what has happened to them only to discover a deeper problem. Somehow the wizard’s bride from the ancient past has survived and become something evil. Award-Winning Finalist of the National Best Books 2008 Awards

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The book is available now via Amazon (Kindle, too) and wherever books are sold.

Christine and Ethan Rose are the authors of the new YA fantasy novelRowan of the Wood. They live in Austin, TX with their three dogs and Shadow the Cat.http://www.christineandethanrose.com/ * http://www.rowanofthewood.com/

Margo Candela | Little Darlings

I spent most of my spring and all of my summer finishing my fourth novel, How Can I Tell You? (Touchstone, August ’09). Hours blurred into days which turned into weeks which…well, you get the idea. The only thing I really remember about this time is asking myself every morning as I sat down and every night as I curled up into a fetal position in bed was, “How the heck did I manage do it the last three times?”

You’d think that I’d have some sort of idea of how to write a book by now. I’ve even taught a course on it. True, I have the basics down, but somewhere in the midst of the process, I always find myself scrambling. The worst thing I can ask myself is: What am I doing? Nothing derails a productive, if not creative day, in front of the computer more than self-doubt, self-pity and all those other wonderful little demons that run rampant when the mind is looking for reasons to shut down and take the body to the movies.

This time, around late May and early June, I abstained from playing hooky and instead invested in books on plot and structure, how to write faster and about three or four different writing software programs. All promised to get my thoughts in order and guide me through this dark time. In the end, I could do no more than skim the books—they reiterated much of what I already knew, and it was nice to see I wasn’t totally on the wrong track. I went back to MS Word, as I always do, because I just couldn’t handle the learning curve of something new. Suffice to say while this was going on, I was doing very little writing but a whole lot of worrying about it.

Paradoxically, I was also fighting off the urge to start, or re-start, other projects that suddenly seemed to call for my attention. They coaxed me with promises of good times in front of the keyboard. The exact opposite of what I was going through with the manuscript I was supposed to be tending to.

Despite everything, I got the manuscript done (nothing puts the fear of litigation into my heart like a contractual due date) sent it in to my editor and promised myself, “Next time things will be different!”

With that experience a few weeks behind me, I’m now concentrating on promoting my third novel, More Than This (Touchstone, August ’08), enrolled in a couple of classes at my local college and I’m taking my time to figure out what I want to write next. Do I finally commit to revising and polishing that one novel that’s been my unrequited love for a few years? Or focus on my YA idea that’s been on the backburner for far too long? Along with those, I have at least two or three more projects that are all calling, yelling, screaming for my attention. “Pick me, pick me!” they each beg. But no, not yet.

There’s time enough for that. I’m enjoying not being tied to my computer and facing down a deadline. I almost feel human again. For now I’m going to enjoy reading what I want, writing just for the fun of it and maybe getting some sort of a life again. Soon enough, I’ll take another look with fresh eyes and see which of my little darlings is ready to become full-fledged manuscript.

I’m sure I’ll find myself panic mode at some point, wondering how I ever got myself into this mess all over again. On the plus side, I’m already stocked up on the how-to books and writing programs.

Margo Candela
http://www.margocandela.com/

Christina Meldrum | When a Plot and Its Characters Collide

How does a writer create a story with a compelling plot AND compelling characters? This was a question I asked myself throughout my writing of Madapple (Knopf), my debut novel. Released last month, Madapple is a crossover novel intended for older teens and adults. Part literary mystery, part psychological thriller, I knew the success of Madapple would depend at least in part on my ability to devise a page-turning plot acted out by well-developed characters. I expected this would be difficult, because often novels provide either an intricate plot or complex, richly developed characters. Rarely does a novel provide both. But why?

But why? As I was writing, I quickly realized why. An intricate plot makes demands on its characters, requiring them to act according to its mandates, which may well be inconsistent with what turns out to be any given character’s inclinations. I’m referring to characters as if they are alive, I know—as if they have inclinations separate from an author’s intent. Well, I think they do sometimes: the characters of Madapple certainly did.

As an author, I may have given birth to my characters but, like children, my characters seemed to have minds of their own. My plot may have demanded that my protagonist Aslaug behave in a certain way, only to have me realize Aslaug was behaving in an entirely different way. My plot may have required Madapple’s other main characters, Sanne, Rune, Sara and Rebekka, to say a certain something or do a certain something, only to have me discover the characters say or do something else altogether. Hence, there were times I had to rein my characters in—to force them to behave more consistently with my plot. Did this make my characters less rich, less real? Maybe. But there were also times when I altered my plot to appease my characters. Did this make the plot less intricate, less compelling? Maybe.

This is the challenge: sometimes a plot and its characters collide. The challenge for any writer, it seems to me, is not that different from the challenge of any parent: to give progeny the freedom to grow beyond expectations, while still setting some necessary limitations. I don’t know whether or not I accomplished this in Madapple. I hope I did. So far the reviews of Madapple have been encouraging. Madapple received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist and Kirkus Reviews and was spotlighted by Kirkus in its special edition: “Fresh Fiction: 35 Promising Debuts.” Vanity Fair described Madapple as “mesmerizing” and featured it in its June 2008 issue as one of its “Hot Type” selections. The Chicago Tribune called Madapple “exquisite” and listed it among its “Hot Summer Reads.” The San Francisco Chronicle said Madapple is "an ambitious, often haunting debut, a unique meditation on language, rationality and faith” and the Marin Independent Journal described Madapple as “a gripping mystery.” Now, I can only hope Madapple will reach those for whom it would be meaningful.

Christina Meldrum

www.christinameldrum.com/.

Christina Meldrum | MADAPPLE: What is a “crossover” book?

My first novel, MADAPPLE, is coming out this May from Alfred A. Knopf. The publisher sent out advance copies of MADAPPLE to book buyers and reviewers. A surprisingly large number of these readers have asked me: “Why is this a teen book?” “Did you write it for teens?” “Shouldn’t the book be categorized as adult fiction?” Truth be told, I didn’t write MADAPPLE for a specific audience. I just wrote the book I wanted to write. My editor sees MADAPPLE as a “crossover” book—that is, a book that spans the genres of adult literary fiction and young adult (“YA”). Yet, because of the way the publishing industry works, the book must be categorized as one genre or the other. Hence, it is being marketed as YA with the hope that it will reach adults as well.

When I was a teenager, J.D. Salinger, Fyodor Dostoyevsky, Hermann Hesse, Harper Lee and Sylvia Plath were among my favorite authors. I was captivated by the antics of Harper Lee’s Scout. I identified with Salinger’s Franny. Were these authors thought of as YA authors? No. Yet, today, I think some of their books certainly would be categorized as YA. The question: Does it matter? The answer: I’m not sure.

As a teenager, I was transformed by literature. I was not yet juggling the responsibilities of job and family, and I was not entrenched in my belief system. Rather, I was curious about and welcoming of new experiences and ways of thinking. I longed to understand the world and my place in it. And I had time to be curious! Reading was a way to learn about the world. It also was a means of escaping the world, during those awkward teenage moments when I needed to escape. Even today, some of the books that are most dear to me are books I read first as a teen, including Harper Lee’s To Kill A Mockingbird, Salinger’s Franny & Zooey, Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment and Hermann Hesse’s Steppenwolf. Those books became part of the fabric of who I am as a person.

For this reason, when I first learned MADAPPLE would be published as a YA novel, I was excited—and somewhat overwhelmed. It seemed both an awesome and daunting opportunity. I was thrilled by the prospect of reaching a population of people for whom reading is potentially transformative, yet I felt the responsibility of this as well. MADAPPLE is arguably controversial. It certainly has mature themes. I tried very hard to address these themes with sensitivity. And I certainly did not write the book seeking controversy. That said, I did write the book with the hope that it would spur thought.

Like many first-time novelists, writing was not my day job. When I began writing MADAPPLE, I was a litigator. I spent my days formulating arguments for my clients, selecting and emphasizing those facts that supported my positions. In each case, opposing counsel would do the same, emphasizing the facts that behooved his or her client. In theory, truth somehow filtered through: the judge or jury would sort through the relatively extreme arguments and parse out what was fair and true. In actuality, each argument oversimplified reality, and the ending result, while perhaps as fair as was feasible, often had little to do with truth.

In writing MADAPPLE, I hoped to build on my experience as a litigator and explore ways in which we humans, in our attempt to understand the world, at times simplify it and thereby distort it. I wanted to think about how we create categories, based on what we want or have felt or believe is socially acceptable, and then divide the world into these categories.

Specifically, I wanted to explore the dichotomy between science and religion. As Aslaug, the protagonist of MADAPPLE, says, “Science describes the world, it doesn't explain it: it can describe the universe's formation, but it can't explain…how something can come from nothing. That’s the miracle.” Yet religion absent science also seems insufficient. If God exists, would not nature be a means by which to understand God? The more I researched the natural world in my writing of MADAPPLE, the more I appreciated Einstein's belief that genuine religiosity lies not in blind faith but in a “striving after rational knowledge.”

Ultimately, I hoped MADAPPLE would be a contemplation on faith: faith in God; faith in science; and the way in which faith can both open the mind and confine it. And I hoped Aslaug would be an embodiment of this contemplation on faith. An isolated girl whose daily existence is utterly dependent on the natural world—on foraging—and who interprets the world through this lens; but whose emotional life, due to extraordinary circumstances, becomes fueled by religion and mythology. When these two ways of seeing the world collide in Aslaug’s trial for murder, the reader must ask: Is the devil in the details, or is it God?

In the end, the categories fail: the answer is both.

To learn more about MADAPPLE, please visit my website at www.christinameldrum.com/.

Thanks for reading!
Christina Meldrum

Matthew Peterson | Life after Harry Potter

I’ve been talking on the radio all morning long about my new young adult novel, Paraworld Zero... literally. 18 radio interviews, back-to-back. Just about all of the interviewers had one question in common, so I’ll address that topic, which is... drum roll, please. Now that Harry Potter is over (and even that is questionable) how do we get young adults to keep reading?

Being a father of five boys–all of whom enjoy fighting with light sabers on a daily basis–I have my work cut out for me. After watching my book’s video trailer on my website (http://www.paraworlds.com/) a dozen times yesterday, my oldest son said he couldn’t wait for me to put the rest of my book into a movie, so that he wouldn’t have to read it. He’s only eight-years old, so it’s understandable that he’s not into reading just quite yet, but his comment made me realize that I’m going to have to work harder at helping him to enjoy reading.

The first step is to understand your child’s interests. I have boys who can’t get enough fantasy and science fiction in their lives. They breath it in like air. So I naturally need to pick some shorter books that they might enjoy. At that young age the cover matters a lot to them. One thing I can do is to read to them. The time reading with a parent will be priceless and they will equate reading as a good thing, because that’s a time “I get to spend with daddy or mommy.”

When they become teenagers, I’ll need to monitor what they read more closely and keep reinforcing good books. That means I’ll need to read reviews, skim through the young adult section of the library or bookstore, and talk to other parents about what their teenagers like to read. Books like Harry Potter will come and go, but the love for reading is something I want to instill in my boys so that they’re always waiting for that next book to read. And who knows? Perhaps it’ll be my next book they’ll be waiting for.

Visit my website http://www.paraworlds.com/ to read/listen to sample chapters and perhaps order your own copy of Paraworld Zero.

Here's a link to the Paraworld Zero book trailer.



Matthew Peterson

Melissa Walker | Violet on the Runway

I’ve always been stuck in my teen years—and I love it.

I’ll admit it: I loved high school. Okay, I didn’t love getting up at 7am for Chorus class or the emotional drama of liking the same guy as my BFF, but I did love my friends—still do—and I have lots of good memories. Please don’t hold it against me.

Fast-forward college writing classes, and I found that I was still focusing on high school love, the most intense emotion I’d ever felt. 22-year-old crushes seemed more practical, more attainable—and somehow not as searing or sweet.



Teen magazines became a way for me to re-live those years, and as I worked as an editor at ELLEgirl, I interviewed teenage actors, musicians and real girls who were doing amazing things. I felt so close to 17 again that I couldn’t believe they actually paid me!

That’s why getting into the head of Violet, the main character in Violet on the Runway, was pure fun. I wanted to write about a real girl from a small town, one who had real insecurities and flaws, one who would go into this crazy, dark, beautiful world of fashion unsure of herself and come out having realized her own inner strength.

Book 2 in the series, Violet by Design, comes out in March, and I hope everyone enjoys reading Violet’s adventures as much as I enjoyed writing them. And yes, there’s a little bit of me in her, but I was never a supermodel—I swear!

Melissa Walker

melissacwalker.com

myspace.com/melissacwalker

Melissa Marr | Secret Passages & Mirrors? Not So Much.

As a writer, I've found the misconceptions about writing fascinating. Now, as a rule, I don't tell people what I do, but somehow or another it almost always eventually comes out--at which point there are several typical responses.

1. "Who'd you know? You have to know someone to sell a book."-- This is utterly false. I wrote a book, researched agents, queried, wrote another book, queried some more, signed with an agent who shopped my book. Then I accepted an offer. There were no secret passageways, networking, muttered passwords, or any of those things. No tricks. Write, research, repeat as needed. It's pretty straight-forward.

2. "Who are you in the book?"-- I've been astounded by how many people ask this. I write multiple points of view, so there are various guesses. Ash likes photography, so do I . . . so maybe she's "me." Hmm. I have friends who like photography too, but I'm not them either. Having an interest in common with a character isn't being that character. Those commonalities help me write the characters, but each character has something of my beliefs or interests or ant-interest or anti-beliefs. It's an exercise in adding veracity, not a mirror into the author.

3. "Ok, but am I in the book? Or will I be in the next one?"-- I'm sorry, but no. You're alive; they're fiction. I'm aware that some authors do this, but I'm not at ease with any conscious insertion of real-world people into my texts. It feels uncomfortable to me. In retrospect, I sometimes see traits of people I have known. These aren't intentional on part when they do happen. My fave example is that a person I dated 14 years ago had a shoulder tattoo that I ended up giving a minor character in Wicked Lovely. I didn't do this deliberately, but after the fact, I realized that this tattoo had impressed on my memory and was in text. The character has no similarity to the real person beyond the tattoo. Little bits of life swirl in our memories and end up on the page, but again, there's no mirrors.

I love my job. Spinning out stories is exciting to me. Sometimes, though, the misconceptions are as interesting as the fiction itself. Secret passwords, hidden versions of people, and identification games--this is exciting stuff . . . but a sort of fiction as well.

http://www.melissa-marr.com/

Caridad Ferrer | Fear of Booksignings?

You want me to do what?

Or, a nervous author faces her first solo booksignings.

Let me preface this by saying, I am an inherently shy person. Those of you who know me personally… Shut. Up. And quit laughing. It's true. I am painfully shy and always have been. It just manifests itself in weird ways. See, if I'm introduced to someone first, I'm okay. I can talk about any subject under the sun. If I'm part of a small group, you'd be hard pressed to shut me up, really. Tell me I have to walk into a room full of strangers and introduce myself, you'll find me over in the corner in a fetal position clutching my blanky. This is, essentially, what a booksigning feels like to me. Add that to the horror stories I've heard about authors sitting at a table and the only people who talk to them are the folks looking for the bathroom and mix in a healthy dose of overactive writer imagination and you can figure that sleep's been pretty hard to come by lately.

Now, I'm not a complete booksigning neophyte—I've done the RWA literacy signings and various other group signings and I love those. I do enjoy speaking to people and when you've got other authors on either side of you, it takes on a distinct "comrades under fire" sort of feel if people are constantly passing you by on their way to see Nora or Sherrilyn or anyone else who tends to command the long lines. There's almost a sense of relief, even, because, hey, how can you be expected to compete with that, right?

But a solo gig? It's all on you, man—no excuses, no Nora to fall back on. And in come the nightmares about sitting by myself, for two hours, directing people to the bathroom and telling them which coffee drink is the best one. These aren't just signings, either—I'm supposed to read. And talk. I have no idea what section I should read from. How do people even choose these things? It's all so… stressful.

There is a bright spot, however. As part of a large Cuban-American family, I have, at my disposal, what I lovingly refer to as the Cuban Grapevine. My mother is marshalling her forces and sending out, God help me, invitations. My sister works at a hospital and is handing out, God help me, invitations. So at least the Miami signings may have more than me and the baristas. According to my mother, I may even have a city councilman attending. NOT going to ask how she swung that. It's probably better that I don't know.

At the same time, though, I'd better make sure I'm all stocked up on my heavy duty concealer.


IT'S NOT ABOUT THE ACCENT September, 2007

ADIÓS TO MY OLD LIFE July, 2006
2007 RITA WINNER Best Contemporary Single Title Romance

Caridad Ferrer
www.caridadferrer.com