PNWA Day 3: Marketing Tips and Wrap Up

Saturday, the third day of the conference, was as full as Friday: four sessions, split by afternoon breaks and a fun lunch break at the YA table, then a delicious dinner with keynote speaker C.C. Humphreys.

But first.

marketing tips

Alice Acheson, a publicist and marketing guru, delivered an amazing session on being your own PR person. I took like seven pages of notes. She says...

"Success is not just for the talented, but for the tough."

"The human voice is the greatest marketing tool of all."

The six secrets of success

1. Start locally, grow globally. Your greatest impact is with your friends, family, and community.
2. Try, try again.
3. Visit a bookstore twice a month to make connections, learn about new authors in your genre.
4. Incorporate your PR into your daily life.
5. Read Publisher's Weekly -- weekly!
6. Remember selling and marketing is YOUR job.

series and sequels

Amber Kizer is a local YA author and her most recent title is Meridian, the first in a paranormal series with Delacorte. She's hilarious and energetic and so passionate about YA. The session actually didn't focus much on series or sequels, but Amber took tons of questions about the nitty gritty of the publishing process, which a lot of people appreciated.

But she did talk about keeping a "Story Bible:" a document that acts as your reference source for character eye color, habits, past history, etc. As you dig deeper into sequel territory, it'll help you keep everything straight.

c.c. humphreys on magic

I loved C.C. Humphreys' keynote speech. He's a British writer and actor with a talent for making audiences laugh hysterically while telling random travel stories and getting off topic -- and he wore a black velvet frock coat. I didn't take many notes because I was too entranced with his story-telling skills, and laughing too hard, but here's a couple things that stood out:

Magic happens to those who believe in magic. And magic, for writers, is the written word -- and those moments that bring us back to our imagination.

Then he shared one of Duke Theseus's speeches from the end of A Midsummer Night's Dream, and his British accent combined with his acting talent (combined with the delicious chocolate moose that I was eating) made it a magical moment. I wish I could have recorded him reciting the Shakespeare, but here's the text:

The poet's eye, in fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
And as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination...

RTW: July's Best Book

I'm interrupting the PNWA recap to ramble about July's best book. And if I read more books in May than April, and more books in June than May, then I read WAY more books in July than June. Probably because my sister and I ransacked three libraries before we left on vacation.

And now I can't even remember all the books I read, but three jump to mind so I'll call them the best books of July.

3. Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston

I usually dislike books about faeries. Number one, that spelling annoys me. It sounds pretentious. Number two, faerie lore confuses me to no end. I feel like all the faerie books I've read have tackled too much mythology and names, and left my head spinning.

But. Wondrous Strange completely surprised me. I really liked it! And get this: the part that I really liked was not the romance between Sonny and Kelly (which was okay, but not super developed), but the faerie lore and adventures. I found it totally approachable, understandable, and intriguing. My other favorite part was the incorporation of A Midsummer Night's Dream's beautiful text and familiar story. The Shakespeare seemed to root the other faerie stuff more firmly in a world I could relate to. Plus I was a fairy in that play once, so it brought back good memories.

2. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart

This boarding school saga combines feminism, pranks (BIG ones), secret societies, romance, and coming-of-age into one of my new all-time favorite reads. The third-person narrator reminded me a little of C.S. Lewis (?) -- detached and witty, telling the story as a nameless third party. Frankie is intellectual and curious, and the narrator treats readers as intellectuals, too, smart enough to handle her struggle with the exclusionary boy-world of secret societies -- and her desire to prove to everyone that she's smart enough to belong.

1. The Truth About Forever by Sarah Dessen


Yup, I'm a huge fan of Sarah Dessen. I think I've read almost all her books this summer. But The Truth About Forever was my absolute favorite. I connected with the main character, Macy, in a way that only happens every now and then: I got the way she acted because it reminded me of myself. This is one of those books that, for some reason, cut deep and made me cry. All of the characters felt so human and raw, and I personally love the way Sarah Dessen writes -- more thoughtfully, slowly. Macy's journey to recover from the grief of her father's death and reconnect with her mother -- and also find new joy with a wacky group of friends at her catering job -- is one that I'll read over and over again.

Plus Wes is adorable. Enough said.

What were your favorite July books? 

PNWA Day 2: Searching for HP, the Myths of YA

Get out your notebooks and pens! Here's a recap of day two of the PNWA conference:

searching for harry potter

...taught by Laura Rennert. We all know her name: she's the mega-agent who represents Maggie Stiefvater, Jay Asher, Kimberly Derting, and Ellen Hopkins. To name a few. She's a powerhouse, basically, and when she pitched Shiver I practically started crying. She loves her books! 

Laura's definition of YA (the best one I've heard): the genre "Young Adult" refers to books that speak to the universal realm of teen experience. That means anything that deals with issues that teens deal with -- which is everything. Edgy, angsty, nasty, scary, funny, romantic: this is YA.

Laura's 5 secret ingredients for successful YA novels:

1. Voice: "Practicing voice is like looking at your feet while riding a bike" -- I thought this was a perfect simile for the vague concept of practicing voice. It's really hard. It comes best through tons and tons of reading and writing. Does that sound vague? Well, it is. As the agents say, "either you have it or you don't."
2. Memorable and dynamic characters: Readers must, above all, believe the characters. Not like them, but believe them in order to connect and identify with them. Also, it's the writer's job to know her characters completely. Inside and out. As Laura said, "it's like an iceberg: know what's below so the surface shines."
3. Compelling and cohesive narrative structure: Starting with the beginning, in which the reader should feel like she's throwing a door open on a party. Don't arrive early, cause that's when parties are boring. Arrive in the middle, when people are having fun and being loud.
4. The universal and idiosyncratic: Put universal concepts of humanity, life, etc., into highly specific situations. Don't be vague or sweeping. Instead, anchor your book's questions in slices-of-life that will resonate with your readers.
5. Literary voice and commercial conception: Successful books combine beautiful voice with high-concept and compelling what-if questions. Elevate the commonplace by extraordinary circumstances.

the myths and misconceptions 

of writing for young readers

Unfortunately I showed up late to this session, lead by Deb Caletti, Joni Sensel, and Samantha R. Vamos. I'd been at one called "The Author-Agent Relationship", but it turned out to be more about querying than post-contract-signing, so I left. Anyway, this question-answer panel with three lovely authors turned out to be great! 

Deb Caletti's journey of publication is super inspiring. Her agent stuck with her through (about?) four adult books that just wouldn't sell: they'd try one while she was writing another, then try that one...for a really long time. But her agent never gave up on her, and her fifth book sold as YA in a two-book contract. Now she's a National Book Award nominee, bestselling author, and great speaker. Plus her covers are amazing. I want to read her books! 

I came away with this: most writers hit rock bottom sometime during their journey to publication. We struggle with dark moments of wondering is it worth it? Should we give up? 

But eventually we realize that the process is joy without publication -- that we'd write forever without being published. 

 

That it's who we are, what we do, how we see the world. 

 

This is why conferences are amazing. 

PS: If you've signed up for a guest post this fall, I'll be emailing you soon. Thank you! And sign-ups will continue -- or else I'll just email you myself demanding that you post for me.... so watch out!

PNWA Day 1: Writing a Novel and Pitching un-Pushily

This weekend, I went to PNWA's annual writers conference in Seattle!

If you talked to me there, you might have gotten one of these:

Isn't it beautiful? My dad photoshopped it up for me. 

I loved every minute of the conference: all 12-hours of each of the four days. If you can attend a conference, DO IT! They're priceless (and pricey, haha) opportunities to meet writers, make friends, learn from workshops, and pitch to editors and agents. I definitely enjoyed the workshops and appreciated the chance to practice my pitch with agent Amerbly Finarelli, who looked so relieved to hear that I already had an agent and just wanted to ask her questions -- but the hands-down best part of the conference was connecting with other writers there. We practiced our pitches, talked about our WIPs, debated Twilight, frowned about ebooks, argued about the definition of urban fantasy vs. paranormal romance, talked about *gasp* non-writing-related things, and agreed wholeheartedly that YA is the place to be. I felt encouraged, refreshed, and uplifted by all the lovely people I met.

 Over the next couple days, I'll be sharing about what I learned and hopefully encouraging all of you with writing tips and wisdom from some pretty cool speakers.

day one, part one

On Thursday, NYT bestselling thriller writer Bob Mayer taught an all-day seminar on writing novels. He touched on everything from your original idea to character arcs to POV to selling your book to marketing yourself. And he's an ex-military man, so his seminar was full of words like "tactical strategy" and "strategic goals" -- because writing is a battle. Here are some highlights:

"You are in charge of your career"

The original idea:  

What makes it necessary for you to write your book?

Communicate your idea's shiver 

"Trust your subconscious"

Conflict:

Build inner, personal and universal conflict.

Set characters against each other at every level of conflict.

Change:

• Change begins with a moment of enlightenment, leads to a decision (either good or bad), and results in sustained action. 
• Characters faced with change undergo five stages (like the five stages of grief): denial, anger, bargaining, depression, acceptance

POV:

There is no one reality.

POV is like a camera: with stops and starts, shots and cuts

An MIT study shows that the normal human brain can handle three POVS, max.

The voice that's easiest is the one you should avoid. It's too close to you. The voice you fear is the one you should experiment with.

"Once you finish your novel, it becomes a product." 

"Perseverance and grit are more important than talent"

Selling your book:

• Communicate the passion (the shiver)
• Know your goals
• Understand why you want to achieve them
• Reality: out of 1.2 million books printed in 2004, approx. 950,000 only sold 99 copies

 day one, part two

After Bob Mayer finished up his session in mid-afternoon, I attended an awesome session on pitching without being pushy, taught by non-fiction writer Janna Cawrse Esarey. And I'm not going to give away too much because she's agreed to write a guest post on pitching this fall! 

 

But I did finally synthesize a pitch for FELL, which I shared with a few seatmates. I always feel ridiculously canned when I give my pitch, but Janna told us to "get over it." So I did. Kind of. I'll video it later... 

Tomorrow: Searching for Harry Potter with mega-agent Laura Rennert and more!

What's in a line?

...particularly the last line.

I'm so close to finishing the rough draft of Fell: probably no more than a sentence. Which means I'm SO close to reading Linger, my prize for finishing that arrived the mail yesterday.

But I'm stumped.

When you write a book, put your characters through all sorts of nasty stuff and make sure they grow because of it, you say a LOT of things -- in Fell's case, about 72,000 words. So then what do you say to finish off?

Are last lines the culmination of 72,000 words? Or are they just a leaving-off place?

The way I see it, there are two options for ending a book:

1. End with a bang: an epic line that will change your reader's lives forever.
2. Just end: with something simple, definitely not the most important sentence in the book.

 I can't think of either for Fell. What do I say when I've already said so much?

What do you think? (And yes, all of these questions are begging for answers; they're not rhetorical! Help!) End loudly or quietly?

Mostly right now, I just want to think of something, anything to say so I can type THE END and read Linger!

Teaser Tuesday

I know I said I'd stop posting FELL teasers soon because I don't want to give away the whole book, but I can't stop myself. Mostly this is a procrastination tool for me: I can skim through the already-written parts of this draft, searching for something to share -- instead of coming up with the 63,042nd word of the rough draft. (I'm not making up that number, actually; it's exactly where I am right now. And the final climax is beginning!!)

This little chunk takes place while Birch and Harley are eating breakfast together.

***

“Tell me about yourself,” he says once he’s scarfed two bowls of cereal.

I blink. “I’m more interested in you.”

“Well, I’m more interested in you. You know all sorts of things about me, and I know absolutely nothing about you besides your name…and your address.” Harley watches me wrestle with this, and that lazy smile lights up his eyes when I finally laugh.

“What do you want to know?”

“How old are you?” he asks.

Oh yeah. Important detail. Ivy would have found that out right away. That whole illegal thing, she’d say. “I’m seventeen. You?”

“Seventeen. And a half.”

That half is important: I like that he’s older than me. It makes me smile, and it makes him smile, too. We avoid each other’s eyes for a minute.

Then he says, “Okay, what else?”

“I’m not that interesting.”

“Come on.”

“You’re probably the most interesting thing that’s ever happened to me," I say.

He twirls his spoon in his fingers. “Well. You’re welcome. But you’ve been doing something for almost seventeen years.”

“I hang out with my friends,” I say. “I have a job, I go to school… Oh, and I dance.”

“On tables or dance floors?” The naughty twist to his smirk makes me blush, and I scoot my chair back from the table to get more coffee.

“I dance ballet,” I say, sticking my nose in the air a little, “and sometimes I dance hip-hop and jazz.”

Harley snags my cup before I can get up. “I’ll get that.” If it’s meant to flatter, it does, and I forget the snarky comment as he pours.

***

Okay, I'm going to go figure out that word now. This rough draft is almost done!!

Ten Things for Monday

1. This is Kirsten again -- I'm on dry land (a.k.a. home)!

2. Thanks to Jessi for dropping by while I was gone and roping in two more followers to the blog!

3. The world still feels tipsy/wavy when I close my eyes. Ocean hangover.

4. Also, my hair is three shades lighter. My skin is three or more shades darker (thank you, sunshine).

5. I'm not quite ready to be home, as usual, because vacations are so refreshing and different and lazy.

6. Lazy? Yes. One day, I spent half the afternoon and all of the evening reading the second and third Shopoholic novels by Sophie Kinsella.

7. I also read Need by Carrie Jones, The Truth about Forever by Sarah Dessen, and Wondrous Strange by Lesley Livingston. Loved them all!

8. Fell bypassed the 50k mark over vacation, although I didn't work on it much since computers+outside don't really mix, and I basically lived outside for the last two weeks. But it's downhill from 50k, right?? Ha.

9. This Thursday is the first day of the Pacific Northwest Writer's Conference!! I am already drooling over all the amazing session topics. Don't worry, I will share the juice with you next week.

10. Tomorrow's post will be less scattered, I promise. But for now, happy Monday!

Betwixt and Between = Stalled Out

Confession: The last time I sat down and worked on my WIP was June 23rd.

*Cue cringe*

That was before a 10 day trip visiting friends and family, and before another whole week of friends and family visiting me. The last of our visitors left yesterday, and now, well, I'm in writing limbo. Can't seem to decide what to do. I'm hoping if I give you the background, you can help!

Here's the deal: Since March, I've been working on my second novel, IN HONOR. It's gone well, I love the story, and I'm about 20k in. BUT. I'm supposed to receive my edit letter for MOONGLASS, my first novel, by the end of this month, so I've been trying to prep my brain to switch gears from writing mode to revision mode as well as getting ready to jump back into a whole different world than I've been writing in.

SO.

I sat down to write last night and realized I need to back up and read the last few chapters of IN HONOR to get the flow of it again before I could actually write anything. Instead, I watched the very first episode of Friday Night Lights while making sea glass snowflakes. Yes, really. Then this morning I thought maybe I'd go through my MOONGLASS outlines and old notes to see if anything sparked all the intense feelings I had while writing that one. And, uh, if you look at the time this post was put up, you can probably guess what I did instead.

And that brings us to my (slightly desperate) question: What do I do??? (I'm a little freaked out here!)

Do I start re-reading to get back into IN HONOR just in time to get my edit letter and have to set it down again?

Do I read over my MOONGLASS material and listen to the soundtrack I made on my iPod to try and get in the mood again?

Do I just relax and finish reading GONE while I'm waiting?

What would you all do?

Steppin' In!

Hey everyone!

Jessi Kirby here, hoping, after Kirsten's super-sweet intro, to keep you entertained while she's on vacation. Her blog shoes are definitely big ones to fill, but I'll do my best! I have a few topics lined up, but I'm also totally open to questions or requests. In the last nine months, I've queried, chosen an agent, gone out on sub, been part of an auction, gotten started working with an editor--you name it. So ask me anything!

As an intro, I thought it may be fun to answer the "Me In 3's" questions Kirsten did a while back, so you have a better idea of who I am. In little snippets.

So here goes:

3 Names I go by: Jessi, Mama, Mrs. Kirby

3 Jobs I've Had: Lifeguard, English Teacher, Librarian

3 Places I've Been: The top of Mammoth Mtn. in a snowstorm, beneath the ocean, on the reefs of Crystal Cove on a crystal clear day, and Fresno. Hahaha...

3 Movies I Love: Say Anything, Saint Ralph, and Almost Famous

3 Shows I Can't Miss: I actually do miss a lot of shows, but if I could catch up, they'd be Friday Night Lights (mostly to watch Tim Riggins), Modern Family (which makes me laugh out loud), and Glee.

3 Books I Recently Read That I Love: Can't answer this one without mentioning Hunger Games and Catching Fire, the first books to make me stay up all night in forever. Shug, by Jenny Han, and The Six Rules of Maybe, by Deb Caletti.

3 Spare-Time Hobbies: Running, sea-glass collecting, and coming up with various creations to use all the sea glass I find

3 Things I'm Really Looking Forward To: An upcoming "research trip" to Sedona, fall--the best season in California, and actually seeing my story as a real book in a real book store.

So there it is. Now that we've been properly introduced, I look forward to hearing what you all have to say and keeping you entertained. Have a beautiful summer day!

On Va-cay!

I'm out for the next two weeks on vacation. Wheee!

We're going to my favorite place in the WORLD on our family boat. I'll have endless time to read, write, hike, sail, kayak, lie on the cabin top and bake in the sun... also eat s'mores and hot dogs.

But don't worry, my good friend Jessi will be keeping this blog from getting too dusty while I'm gone. Be excited for her posts! She's one of the coolest people I know, and I'm sooooo lucky to have her as my critique partner and writing buddy. Her debut novel Moonglass will be published by Simon and Schuster in Summer 2011!!

*cue fangirl squealing* 

I read an early draft of this novel and I can't wait to see it on shelves. When you read her descriptions of California beaches, you'll hear the ocean and feel the breeze and really want to take a spontaneous trip to the coast. Check out her website here.

So she'll stop by every now and then to keep everyone entertained and happy, and I'll be back sometime later this July. Be sure to click on the top side-link if you want to guest post this fall. Oh, and my girls Rebecca and Amna both started new blogs recently, so check those out, too!

ciao!

Jacob is hot, Edward is pale: ECLIPSE gets two stars

Our Eclipse adventure was its very own saga. Not kidding. We faced excitement, danger, crazy people -- and conquered it all. This is both a story and a review, and the review is non-spoilery, so don't worry if you haven't seen this, um, epic movie yet.

the story

My sister and I went downtown around 7:30, remembering the insane lines of HP6 last summer when we got there around 7 and everyone else was already there. But no one was in line, so we hung out in a bookstore and then a coffee shop, played cards, got screamed at by a crazy homeless lady. Around 9:30, there were about 10 people in line, so we joined them, even though we were majorly outside of the demographic: not tweenage, not screaming, not wearing bright colored tutus and homemade Team Edward t-shirts. Their enthusiasm, though, was great to watch.

Anyway, we hung out in line and took a bunch of pictures:

Jacob is so HOT!

Edward is such a creeper.

Bella...is just Bella. 

Also, this homeless guy asked us for a smoke, got all sad when we said we didn't have one, and then told us "You are..........astounding." And a lot of strange people walked by. Then, around 11, we decided we wanted coffee, so we asked the lady behind us to save our spots. She said she would if we bought her an Americano :) But the coffee shop was closed! Amazingly, this girl was still working behind the counter cleaning up, and said she'd make us tea even though it'd been like 40 minutes since close. Woohoo! She told us to say hi to Edward for her. 

We did say hello to Edward just after midnight with the rest of our enthusiastic theater -- and the couple boys (who were there why??), including a Justin Beiber wanna-be with his posse of middle school girls.

The "danger" part of the night was getting stalked by some weird guy at 2:30 am on the way to our car, but we survived. Lesson learned: the safest place to be at 2:30 am is at home in bed.

the review

Overall, Eclipse was definitely the best Twlight movie so far. Much less unintentionally hilarious and much more serious/violent than the first two, Eclipse proved itself to be a legit movie, not just a cheesy summer blockbuster.

The movie glanced at the history of the vampires and the Quiliut tribe (complete with historical flashbacks to the first settlers, the Civil War, and the 1920s), providing solid background for the final vampire battle. It built up the story of the newborn vampire army with convincing acting by Xavier Samuel (who is super cute even with bright red eyes). And the movie souped up its special-effects big time -- although if you're not a fan of watching vampires get torn apart limb by limb, you might want to close your eyes.

I'm not Team Edward in any way, but some of his scenes with Bella actually did convince me that they sometimes have good chemistry, even if Edward is creepy and controlling and annoying. I'm very much Team Jacob, so I enjoyed his shirtless scenes, his big grin, and his mega-testosterone-charged run-ins with Edward. He definitely had the some of the best one-liners in the movie, too. I won't spoil them for you, but he made me laugh out loud.

While most of the movie, as I mentioned, was more difficult to make fun of than the first two movies, the opening voice-over of Bella reading an angsty quote (about fire and ice) to a shot of Forks's mountains made me laugh hysterically -- probably not the intended reaction. The "helicopter" views of Seattle, obviously computer generated and SO FAKE also made me scoff.

And Bella, as usual, just didn't grip me with character development or...anything. She proves she has some spine in parts of this movie, but she babbles at the end about character development that I didn't see. I guess Kristin Stewart is just really good at looking angsty and beautiful while her two hotties fight around her. And that's my main problem with these movies: so much happens around Bella, but she never gets too involved while other people fight for her. 

I still enjoyed this movie -- a lot. Something about this saga is so addicting and entertaining, and I would definitely see it again. Both Team Edward and Team Jacob fans will leave satisfied, even though, as my sister said, "I know the ending, but I still hope every time it'll turn out differently..."