YA lit contest

Looks like I am the contest girl lately. I’m entering Flynn into all sorts of things, and my latest venture is something that you guys might want to check out too.

Remember Guide to Literary Agents blog? The blog which I consider my MVP as far as agent-snagging resources go? They are hosting a contest in which you can submit the first 150-200 pages of your manuscript. First, second and third place winners receive a critique of their first few pages by Jennifer Laughran, an agent with Andrea Brown Literary Agency. Andrea Brown is one of the agencies for quality YA fiction right now.

The contest only runs through Feb. 21, so hurry!

In other news, I’m still working my way through the second in the Gemma Doyle trilogy. Parts of the mystery seem a bit thin to me, but it’s a good yarn. I’m interested to see what happens, and how this will lead into a third book.

RHDavis

YA and Fantasy Writing Resources

Just a quick little postie to let you know that I’ve some more resources for you.

First, I stumbled upon Writing World.com, a great site with resources for writers of all genres. They have a specifically sci fi/fantasy page for interested parties. You can also sign up for a newsletter which gives info on writing contests, calls for submissions, writing help-wanted, and other such juicy tidbits.

Then I discovered a great YA lit site called Teens Read and Write, a pretty cool blog in which teens talk about YA literature and movies, etc. For those writing YA, it’s a good opportunity to discover what your target audience thinks about books–their likes, their dislikes, what they find unbelievable or compelling.

But as always, please check out all of my links at the side of the page.

RHDavis

Haunting Borders

Yesterday, all I did for the entire day was haunt Borders.

Borders is an excellent place to haunt. They have ready-made spaces for haunters–though admittedly, those spaces have become few and far between since they moved all the chairs back to the café section. They used to have chairs all over the place, but I think someone wised up to the fact that dedicated readers sitting in the café are more likely to purchase something than dedicated readers sitting out of range of the food smells.

So. My friend Lell and I haunted the cafe for nigh on to five hours. (Borders’ plan worked, by the way; we both bought food). During those five hours, I rediscovered the joy of working in large chunks of time. It ensures that you get more done. By the end of the day, I couldn’t believe how far I’d moved along in FLYNN’s editing process.

The best situation, of course, is if you can work for a long chunk of time with a friend. It makes the time go faster if you have another human to take short breaks with. Especially if that other human is receiving periodic updates from her sister who is stranded at the Dallas airport. It’s like getting little segments of a “to-be-continued” story as you are writing your own story.

We saw another of my friends there, by completely random coincidence, and that creepy guy I’ve seen before who I’m halfway convinced is a stalker. Only stalkers wear baseball caps over their eyebrows and peer at you from over the rim of impossibly tiny glasses, right?

All in all, it was a great day of haunting, and I highly recommend a bookstore haunt to any author wishing to get serious edits done. I think I will do it again next Wednesday. Hopefully minus creepy guy and plus Lell again.

RHDavis

So Many YA Books!

The size of my reading que approaches unbelievable lengths this week.

I’m still trying to finish PURE by Terra Elan McVoy–I started this one primarily out of curiosity, to see how an author would handle the Christian faith in a mainstream YA novel about sex and friendship.

My search for further volumes of Tanith Lee’s CLAIDI JOURNALS turned up empty. Oh, I found them at the library all right, but what I really wanted was to purchase them from Border’s, since I adore the first installment so very much and want the full set all to my little self.

Despite what I said upon finishing Libba Bray’s A GREAT AND TERRIBLE BEAUTY, I do, in fact, want to read the sequel. I checked that out from the library last night, along with BECKA COOPER by Tamora Pierce.

Yes, I know, I’m behind on all the new and hot series right now. Ditto for HUNGER GAMES by Suzanne Collins, which I tried to find at the library but could not. Sad face. I consoled myself by grabbing Elizabeth Bunce’s A CURSE DARK AS GOLD.

On top of all this, I’m still trying to find time to read THE PROPHECY OF THE SISTERS. Gah! Too much! When will I get it all read?

I have a college professor for whom reading YA seems to come as easily and quickly as breathing, and I’m really wishing I could borrow his brain about now.

RHDavis

St. Louis Area Writers’ Conference, April 2010

Just signed up for a writers’ conference which I am pumped about. And not least because I actually have a friend to go with me this time!

The Missouri Writer’s Guild conference will be held April 16-18 in Chesterfield, MO. So if you’re a writer in the St. Louis or southern Illinois area (or even if you’re not but just feel like making the drive), come join us.

Agents include Kristin Nelson of Nelson literary agency, Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary and Media Representation, and Suzie Townsend of Peter Rubie Agency. And by the way, Ms. Townsend is currently building a list of clients! This is your chance to snag her before she gets swamped with work. Linda Houle, co-owner of small Texas publishing company L&L Dreamspell, will also be there. For more information on these agents and what they represent (it’s a wide list of genres), visit the web site.

Sign up now, as agent and editor appointments are on a first-come, first-served basis.

Oh, and for anyone who doesn’t know this bit of news already–one of the agents I queried requested to see the full manuscript of FLYNN. This is a very good sign, and I hope it means that an offer of representation could be in the making. We shall see.

RHDavis

Ducks and Agents

What do stale bread, querying agents, the seven seas, and ducks have to do with each other? Visit SM Blooding and Crew to find out on my guest post tonight!

RHDavis

A Busy Week

Pub Board discussions are going on this week at Written World Communications. It’s quite an exciting time as we look at a selection of submitted work and decide which items to pick for publication this year. We’re hoping to start the year off with a bang, and also to be diverse in the fiction we publish. We have discussed genres from romance to historical to paranormal thriller. Just have to wait and see how things shake out as far as what will be published, and when.

Aside from that, I have taken a delightful stroll with FLYNN through the first chapters of her adventures these last two days. I love the final stages of editing–when you don’t have to change much, but you get to focus on making the wording ever-more delicious and stare anxiously at your word count as you find unnecessary “that”s and “then”s and “had”s that really shouldn’t have been there anyway because, let’s face it, you cheated a little bit and used those words you weren’t supposed to use in your prose!

I’ve also been reminiscing about my time working at a small newspaper in northern Illinois. I loved all the strange quirkiness of being at a newspaper. The man we called “Captain Underpants” because he came into the office in boxers and a wife beater. The suspicious pile of dead hogs that my boss happened upon on a farm and tried to do an exposé on. The automated phone message that would always call the office and begin “Hi. This is not a joke.” Ah, good times. I never thought I would miss anything about living up north, but Ogle County Newspapers is it.

Back to work for the day. I received a message from an agent, letting me know she’ll be looking over my query soon, so stay tuned for any news!

RHDavis

New Round of Queries

My new posting schedule at SM Blooding and Crew has begun! Visit them to see this week’s post on how I go about finding the right agents to query for my work.

RHDavis

Team Edward Team Jacob

So unless you live under a rock, you know the terms “Team Edward” and “Team Jacob.” They’re shorthand to differentiate between the two Twilight camps. Those in the “Team Edward” camp rooted for Bella and Edward. Those in “Team Jacob” decided that Bella’s breakup with Edward was actually a positive thing, as it brought her to Jacob.

Why am I, a non-Twilight fan, talking about this? It’s because the Team Edward, Team Jacob phenomenon doesn’t just apply to Twilight. Since the dawn of time, storytellers have tugged listener’s heartstrings between two potential love interests in romantic tales. Think of Luke, Leia and Han in “Star Wars,” or Bruce Willis and Billy Bob Thornton fighting over Cate Blanchett in “Bandits.”

We almost always “take sides” in these stories, rooting for the hero (or heroine) who, in our opinion, deserves the protagonist more. Some of us remain staunchly loyal to the first love interest, experiencing vicarious jealousy when the second shows up. The less sentimental among us don’t play by such first come, first served rules, and we’re willing to accept whichever person seems more awesome.

I’m sentimental. Unless the story makes it clear from the outset that the first lover is a complete loser, I’m going to root for him to the bitter end. In other words, I am always a Team Edward.

Until now.

The magical web comic that changed my mind is Red String. *spoilers imminent* Red String, an online American manga at strawberrycomics.com, tells the story of Miharu, a tenth-grade Japanese girl who is unwillingly thrown into an arranged marriage. As luck (or fate?) would have it, she falls in love with her intended. But things get tricky when a second guy shows up, also claiming to be her arranged fiance. It turns out to be a misunderstanding, as he’s actually betrothed to her cousin–but unfortunately, he’s already fallen for Miharu!

Following my usual pattern, I rooted for First Guy. He and Miharu fell in love in chapter one, after all, and Miharu believed it was fate. Second Guy was first presented as an antagonistic threat to true love.

So what on earth made me switch teams?

When First Guy’s parents change their minds about Miharu, they browbeat him to break it off with her. Feeling that the situation is beyond his control, he gives up. Miharu is crushed, and Second Guy is there to help her get through it. At first I thought this was just a red herring, the author instigating a love triangle even though she knows perfectly well that First Guy will be back. But as I read on, I noticed something interesting; Miharu and Second Guy have a happier, more “real” friendship than her relationship with First Guy.

Miharu and Second Guy go to the amusement park together. They do painting projects. They laugh and banter. I was really getting into the chemistry of this second couple. Mortified at myself, I went back and read the beginning chapters of Red String to re-immerse myself in the guy I was “really” rooting for. And I found that, in comparison, he was–emo. Sure, he liked Miharu, but that infatuation with her seemed to define their whole relationship, apart from having anything in common. He was moody, had emotional problems relating to his family, and they experienced drama together more often than they experienced a carefree relationship.  Against my will, I began to hope that Second Guy was here to stay.

What about you? In love triangles, do you typically root for the first lover, or the interloper? Or does it depend on the story? What would make you “switch teams” in a story?

I encourage all of you to stay tuned to Red String. Go back and read it from the beginning. Join “Team First Guy” or “Team Second Guy” and let the battle begin!

RHDavis

Plugging Away at Edits

I never thought I would become one of those grouchy editors who breaks your heart by telling you to rearrange your story! Okay, so I’m never grouchy about telling people that, and I really hope I’m not breaking hearts. But being an assistant editor, I have already run across some stories that are solid gold–if only most of the plot were shuffled around. Sigh. It’s hard to give that kind of advice because, as a writer, I know what it feels like to hear it.

I’m reminded of Anne Lamott and her anecdote about writing ROSIE. It’s one of the most inspirational stories a writer can hear about the need to tear up your story and put it back together. For anyone interested, it can be found in her popular book BIRD BY BIRD, which is a book of advice on “writing and life.”

RHDavis