RTW: Cover Songs

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What are your all-time favorite book covers?

As a teen, if a book cover had a horse on it, I was almost guaranteed to pick it up. This meant I read a lot of bad romance novels with artwork done by folks who were savvy to the horse factor in book-buying decisions.

Have you ever noticed just how many historical romances from the 80s have horses on them? It's a formula of cleavage (her decollatage and his pecs), tight breeches, and wildly blowing long hair (and it seems that wind-blown-hair look also appears in YA book covers.), with a horse thrown in somewhere. If not horses, unicorns would do in a pinch, and they more often appeared in SF/Fantasy.




But over time my taste in cover artwork has changed, influenced by my own experiences with painting, sketching, graphic design, and photography. I find that I like covers that are simplistic and graphic-looking




or photographic with a twist




and lush and artistic (still love some of the girls in period dresses but they are becoming overdone and it's harder to make yours stand out)




I'm not much into abstract covers. What about you--what covers have caught your eye?

Market: Tu Books (Lee and Low)

I interviewed Karen Sandler, author of Tankborn which came out this month by Tu Books, but in case you were wondering what Tu books looks for in submissions:


"Tu Books publishes speculative fiction for children and young adults featuring diverse characters and settings. Our focus is on well-told, exciting, adventurous fantasy, science fiction, and mystery novels featuring people of color set in worlds inspired by non-Western folklore or culture. We welcome Western settings if the main character is a person of color.

We are looking specifically for stories for both middle grade (ages
8-12) and young adult (ages 12-18) readers. (We are not looking for picture books, chapter books, or short stories. Please do not send submissions in these formats.)

For more information on how to submit, please see our submission guidelines.

What we’re particularly interested in seeing lately: Asian steampunk, any African culture, contemporary African-American stories, Latino/a stories, First Nations/Native American/Aboriginal fantasy or science fiction written by tribal members, original postapocalyptic worlds, historical fantasy or mystery set in a non-Western setting.

We look forward to reading your book!"

Hope there's someone who has a book that fits their categories. I'd like to see what an Asian steampunk looks like for myself!

P.S. Don't forget that the deadline for entering Writer's Digest's Young Adult Short Ficion Contest is October 1.

RTW: What's with All the Nautical Metaphors?

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination through the YA Highway site and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What themes, setting, motifs, scenes, or other elements do you find recurring in your work?

Ooo, what a great topic! I think it will be interesting to see how many of the universal themes crop up in all of our posts. Motifs were easy to come up with for my books: nautical references and metaphors, crows, things that are not what they initially seem, music as symbolism, etc.

For themes in my books, I thought I would need to address my two books separately, but after I thought about it, these three themes run throughout both books:

1. Forgiveness, of yourself and others.
It seems that most people have the hardest time learning to forgive themselves. Forgiveness of others is difficult enough to put into practice, and to truly mean it, but it seems like people (especially perfectionists) hold themselves to higher standards, and are therefore harder on themselves when they don't meet those standards. Or maybe that's just my characters (okay, and my younger self).

2. Finding your strengths (and they may very well be traits you considered weaknesses at one time) and deciding your own path in life.
In Spirits from the Vasty Deep, Olivia has always considered her ability to hear spirits as a curse. When a wiser person suggests that it's a gift, it's very difficult for her to wrap her mind around that concept. After all, how could something that always brought her nothing but trouble actually be a power for good?

3. What survives after death?
In Spirits from the Vasty Deep, this is an obvious question. Some of the spirits Olivia encounters become fragmented and incoherent over time, but others actually gain power from their connection to the living--sometimes enough to influence or physically affect them. As in possess them or harm them.

In Crow's Rest, the MC's boyfriend is declared brain dead and his parents are following his wishes to serve as an organ donor. Avery (MC) was always for organ donation in theory, but when it comes to Daniel suddenly it's more than a theory. Here's a tiny excerpt (and this is a WIP, so it's still a bit rough):

His organs could go to some secretive serial killer or child molester, for all I knew. Someone who looks fine and upstanding from the outside, like Dexter. Do they do background checks on organ recipients?

My anxieties shifted into overdrive now, and my brain whirred with other scenarios. How much of Daniel would still be in those parts? Would there be scraps of him or his psyche, trapped and voiceless, while some scumbag went on a crime spree? Is that what organ rejections really are—cases where a psychic echo from the donor just can’t assimilate into the new person’s life?


Whew, I had a lot to say on this topic! Hope you all stuck around for all of it. What are your recurring themes and motifs?

P.S. Check out yesterday's post for some pictures taken on our real-life road trip last week.

What I Did Over Vacation

Missed my blog post yesterday because we'd just gotten back into town and I was busy catching up on things (what's that you say--I could have set up a post ahead of time to go up automatically? Did you catch the "vacation" part?). So here is a photo essay catching you up on the places we went and things we saw:

We stayed in the hills above Pillar Point Harbor (near Half Moon Bay, CA)



Used the rental cottage as a base and went into San Francisco for day trips, including sights like the Maritime Museum at Fisherman's Wharf



and the Japanese Tea Garden



and the Conservatory of Flowers



along with a side trip to the Filoli estate (this is just the garden room, and I totally want one)



Went lots of other places, but I didn't want to turn this into a captive blog audience vacation slideshow. Hopefully this little taste is enough to inspire you in your writing somehow--I know it did for me!

What Carolrhoda Doesn't Want in This Round of Open Submissions

For the month of September, Andrew Karre of Carolrhoda is opening for submissions. Unlike his previous special requests, in which he said, "Bring on your bastards and your unresolved romances," this time his request includes what he is not looking for (because he already has books under these categories):

"Until the end of September, I will be accepting electronic submissions of YA novels with the following exceptions (based not on prejudice so much as on what I've got brewing in the lab already):

1. I'm not considering dysto/post-apocolypto books.

2. If your book can be sung to the tune of a song by The Police, please make sure it's not “Don't Stand So Close to Me.”

3. If your books is more than 60,000 words, please don't send it.

4. Unlike that little kid in the movie, I don't read dead people. No narrators from beyond the grave.

5. If you have superpowers, I have kryptonite. Stay away.

6. I don't do high fantasy. Here there be no dragons."


So if your YA novel fits outside of one of those categories, take advantage of this momentary opening of his mailbox! Good luck, all!

RTW: Best Book(s) of August 2011

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors and followers post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on their blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.

This week's topic: What's the best book you've read in August?

I jumped the gun a little on this post back on August 12, where I listed some great books I'd been reading. You can follow the above link for my comments and a video, but the titles were:

White Cat, Red Glove, and The Poison Eaters by Holly Black
Enchanted Ivy by Sarah Beth Durst
Zombies vs. Unicorns ed. by Holly Black and Justine Larbalestier

All of those are definitely recommendations (can't wait for the next Curse Workers book, Black Death) and I'll probably reread them again sometime, but the best book of the month for me was not technically YA (although it was exactly the kind of book I would have been delighted to find as a teen):



I've mentioned before that I used to work in a book store (where I met my husband, but that's another RTW) and one of our former coworkers is now a sales rep for a publisher. He and his wife (who also met while working at the same book store, but that's another another RTW)(and also, HI!, since she reads my blog) kindly send me packages of books every once in a while.

The last two boxes were a treasure trove of titles that I haven't quite worked my way through, including some Gene Wolfe books. Anvil of the World was nestled in there, and I can see that there was a theme going on. Kage Baker does a lot of the same kind of highly skilled character- and world-building as Wolfe, but she adds little brushstrokes of humor a la Terry Pratchett. The closest book in tone that I can think of is The Flying Sorcerers by David Gerrold and Larry Niven.

Here's the little blurb on Anvil of the World from Amazon: "The Anvil of the World is the tale of Smith and his feud-prone people, the Children of the Sun. Smith, formerly a successful assassin, is trying to retire, hoping to live an honest life in obscurity in spite of all those who have sworn to kill him. But when he agrees to be the master of a caravan from traveling from the inland city of Troon to Salesh by the sea, trouble follows.As always, Baker's approach is charmingly distinctive. Smith's adventure is certainly the only fantasy featuring a white-uniformed nurse, gourmet cuisine, one hundred and forty-four glass butterflies, and a steamboat."

This was one of those books that the entire time I was reading it, and after I finished, I kept telling my husband, "You have to read this one!", even though our tastes don't always overlap. But I also say to you, dear blog readers, "You have to read this one!"

Grants Available for Readings and Workshops

Poets & Writers is offering grants to fund readings and workshops in selected areas, so if you're lucky enough to be in one of these locales you can apply for a grant:

"Organizations that sponsor readings and workshops in New York State or California, or Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Houston, New Orleans, Seattle, Tucson, or Washington, D.C., may apply for grants to be used for writers' fees.

We make grants for writers' fee payments only. Grant checks are payable to the writer and sent to the sponsor, which is responsible for delivering them to the author. We do not fund administrative costs, publicity, transportation, or other expenses related to producing events. We do not fund in-school events, children's events, staged dramatic readings, or storytelling events featuring non-original or adapted works."

There are lots of other details, so go check it out for yourself. Please note that you must apply at least eight weeks before the event--breaking that rule alone is enough to disqualify your application!

Also, new to my critique partner Christina Mercer's blog is a section called Events listing upcoming workshops, conferences, and contests. Go over there and check out her list, too.