Food for the Literary Soul #2

As you are reading this I'm tucked away in a quiet lake house, working feverishly on the still-secretly titled book two of the Crewel World trilogy.  Unless, of course, I've been hacked to bits by an axe murderer.  That's always a possibility when one stays at a secluded lake house.

Today's inspiration comes from the photographic art of Vania Stoyanova, whose the badass behind VLC Photo.

[caption id="attachment_474" align="aligncenter" width="200" caption="Copyright Vania Stoyanova. All rights reserved. Used with permission."][/caption]

 

Doesn't that make you want to tell a story?  Why don't you try in the comments.

Food for the Literary Soul #1

I'm going to try to host a weekly post on Wednesday that has some food for thought or inspiration, either a photograph, a quote, a painting - something to inspire.  Today is my first one, and how fitting, considering I sent my son off to his first day of school. I can definitely use the inspiration right now.

 

Source: google.com via Genn on Pinterest

 

Definitely a sentiment I hope to instill in my son!

Summer Review

Oh, dear readers, are any of you left after the summer of plane hopping and amusement parks and revisions and eye infections?  I owe you many wrap ups from many events, but I'm going to condense them into a greatest hits.

BEA - Also, known as my week eating too much pizza but still losing 5 lbs.  Score.

What can I say about BEA?  It was like the start of summer party, the graduation night where everyone is excited and eager and about to have that one amazing summer where your life goes from that to this.  I met so many fellow authors and bloggers.  Margot Wood brought me a copy of her Crewel photo.  I discovered Sarah J. Maas is the spitting image of Jennifer Lawrence — and also a hell of a lot of fun.  I had too much wine at the West boys' rooftop party.  And I basically was Barney Stinson for a night thanks to the wild Zoraida Cordova.  There's a night that will live in infamy.

And yes there was this.



And this.

My first signing - and people came!

 

ALA Annual in Anaheim - or, the trip with Splash Mountain

ALA was memorable for three things.  One, I loved the pace of the convention.  People were respectful, but laid back.  It was all about books in the best sense.  Two, Jessica Khoury (whose debut ORIGIN comes out so soon!) and I went to Disneyland. The decision went something like this:

Scene: 10:30 pm on a Saturday night.  I have sneaked into her Disney property hotel through the covert means of a cab.

Jess: What do you want to do?  Disney closes soon...

Me: I sort of still want to go, because you know it's Disneyland and we can.

Jess: Oh good, me too.

I mean, yeah, we only had like an hour and a half.  But it's Disney-freaking-land.  Then I made a crack that went something like "I just wrote a YA novel, I'm going to Disneyland!" And then Jess made me feel old by sort of blinking at the reference.   Ugh, prodigies.

The infamous Splash Mountain photo

Also, I'm going to say it, it's time to let go of some of the animatronics, Disney.

And then on the ALA floor someone recognized me, and I was flustered and was like "Me?  Do I know you?" Which I think sounded bitchy, but really I was just confused because why would anyone know me?  Surreal!

Comic-Con International - or OMG, is everyone here a psychic vampire preying on my life force?

Seriously, I can walk a floor for hours and gab, flit from event to event.  Maybe it was the early flight, and 20 hour first day or having my husband with me, but after a few hours at CCI, I was exhausted.  Also I saw no movieish celebs, but met lots of literary rockstars.  My panel was full of them and, dear readers, I was so shaky the first few times I answered a question.  I'm not usually the nervous type.

Hungry for Dystopia Panel

Then there was the total fail Kayak Adventure, and Sarah and Sooz's fun with Stormtroopers.  Oh, and btw, for all the nerdy goodness going on at teh convention center, the night I snuck out with Sarah and Sooz was the most fun I had.  It's always a wonderful moment when you realize you've met two kindred spirits!

And now I have a travel break until September.  I've loved, loved, loved my summer, but I'm quite happy to be back on the ground.

My completely unscientific, biased forecast of YA trends

So I am something of a psychic when it comes to the next big thing (or probably it's all in my head).  For instance when I was planning my outdoor wedding (yep, its a wedding anecdote), I thought personalized water bottles for the guests would be so cute and thoughtful and I was laughed at.  Laughed at, I tell you!  But look what we have here.  This, of course, totally proves I am a marketing genius (disclaimer: this proves nothing).  So why not look into my crystal ball and tell you what the next big trends in YA will be? (Because I am totally unqualified to do so, maybe?)

Ok, I am basing this post off the deals I've seen coming through Publisher's Marketplace as well as the queries I've been reading in various writerly forums.  It seems to me that certain trends are emerging, but I could also be completely wrong and full of myself.  However, if you are interested in what's trending, getting ready to query your own book or tossing around ideas, you might find this interesting.  (Note: probably never a good idea to write to a trend since the market will be on to a new things by the time you are ready to jump in).

1.  TIME, TIME, TIME - Time travel, alternate timelines, controlling time, lost time.  It is literally everywhere in books coming out next year.  If the last few years have been dystopian love triangle books, next year is all about teens and time from a boy who can travel through time at the speed of thought (TIME BETWEEN US) to nineteen year-olds jumping through time working for secret government agencies (TEMPEST) or a tale of two teens who discover a window into their future Facebook account (THE FUTURE OF US).  2012 may herald the end of the world, but I guess time is on our side.

2.  PARALLEL WORLDS, EVIL TWINS, AND DOPPLEGANGERS - Would JJ Abrams be proud or what? From a boy mourning the loss of his girlfriend finding out she's still alive in an alternate dimension (THROUGH TO YOU) to space operas featuring long lost twins and government conspiracies (LINKED) to a girl living out her life in two possible realities who must choose one (PIVOT POINT).

3.  SUPERHEROS - Teens will be getting a dose of super-powers in the coming year as new books about characters with extraordinary powers hit the shelves from an invisible girl dealing with her mob boss father (TRANSPARENT) to reality shows for superheros (FAILSTATE).

4.  LIFE AFTER DEATH - We're not talking vampires, but a slew of books dealing with the afterlife in many different forms.  From the oldschool aka Underworld (EVERNEATH) to books exploring the implications of reincarnation (INCARNATE) to characters picking up the pieces after death by broken heart (THE CATASTROPHIC HISTORY OF YOU AND ME) and a futuristic purgatory via pod (LEVEL TWO).

Also making waves?  Murderous mermaids seem to be all the rage.  Ghosts are popping up left and right, but isn't that what they're best at?  And everyone thinks contemps will be making a comeback (did they ever really leave?).  And there's still quite a few angels and demons books selling these days (you know what they say one person's hell is another's heaven).

Dropping off the radar?  Dystopians are a harder sell these days according to those in the know.  Paranormal romance is struggling a bit with finding fresh ideas.

And the word of the day: genre-bending. Agents like it.  Editors love it.  If you can pull it off, it may be your golden ticket.