Blog Archives
It’s Spring. I think my book is New Adult.
Last year about this time I had a new novel on my hands that in its gestation had swung between being adult to young adult back and forth a few times. At this point I had heard about the New Adult genre, but it was being panned from a variety of sources. From what I could tell, not many agents were repping it, and publishers weren’t quite sure what to do with it. Bookstores didn’t quite have a shelf for it.
Fast forward to the present, and all that has changed. There are more and more agents repping New Adult, and more and more publishers actually requesting it. I woke up this sunny spring morning thinking that revising that novel, which can’t find a home in either Young Adult (because it has some themes that just don’t play well in YA) or Adult (because its protagonist is simply too young), would benefit from another revision – a revision that will make it firmly New Adult.
(Photo from Think Big Entrepreneur: http://thinkbigkansascity.blogspot.com/2011/07/evolution-of-entrepreneur.html) Where does New Adult fit on age-based literature?
If you’re not familiar with New Adult, there is still all manner of conflicting opinions on it. Some readers claim that it’s just YA laced with porn, but I’m one of the growing reading and writing population that that sort of stereotyping is ludicrous. I like what NA Alley says about it in this piece: “What is New Adult?”
Like young adult lit, adults can read new adult if they want to. In fact, good New Adult has all kinds of cross-over appeal, despite its target readership. Bookstores might not even need to worry about where to shelve it, since quite a bit of New Adult is selling to an e-readership.
I’d love it if you’d weigh in on what you think and feel about New Adult literature. Do you worry that it might be picked up by too young a readership? Are NA topics/themes too sexy/controversial? Do you think people are over thinking the whole thing, and typing a book as NA doesn’t have anything to do with sex anyway? What’s your take?
Thanks!
Perhaps it’s not scientific, but it is damning: Slush-Pile Hell
From Brad Cotton, http://www.bradcotton.com/slushpile-hell-great-blog/
Writers Rejoice.
Or, Writers Despair.
It’s this kind of subjectivity that makes us want to crawl back in bed, cover our heads, and not stick one extremity back out again to consider typing another word.
Or…does it give us hope? You decide. Read this article, about a guy who submits a New Yorker story to The New Yorker – and gets rejected.
~Thanks!
What makes me squee.
I’ve noticed that the word “squee” is all the rage on Twitter now. (Or perhaps I’m already behind, and it’s no longer the rage, and I’m terribly out of vogue to even talk about squee . . . regardless . . . )
Definition of SQUEE: The cry of the overexcited fan girl. (My addition: Fan “girl” can also be a fan “boy,” but is still called a fan girl because the people who came up with the term “fan girl” are sexist.)
So what makes Rebecca Of Tomorrow squee, you ask? Well, I like to group my squeedom into four separate squeeheadings.
#1: New books coming out by authors I love
From the Charlaine Harris official website: http://www.charlaineharris.com/
For example, the FINAL Sookie Stackhouse installment by the fabulous Charlaine Harris: Dead Ever After (May 7,2013). In this instance, my squee is a bit bittersweet because this beautiful and amazing series is ending, however.
#2: Movies coming out with actors I love OR in a series I love (or both)
From the official Star Trek Into Darkness website: http://www.startrekmovie.com/
For example: Star Trek Into Darkness, releases May 17, 2013. Not going to lie, I’m a huge, no-holds-barred Star Trek fan. I’m a fan of the original series and all of its progeny, and all of the movies, and most of the books. Plus, BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH is in this one, and there appears to be a whole lot of people jumping off of really high places — so what’s not to squee about?
#3: New television episodes coming out with actors I love OR in a series I love (or again, both)
From the Sherlockology website: http://www.sherlockology.com/news/2013/3/11/read-through-roundup-110313
For example: Thank goodness BBC is finally getting around to filming Sherlock: Season 3! I mean, COME ON! You simply cannot leave Sherlock dead. You. Just. Can’t. (Chill: I didn’t spoil it for those of you who haven’t watched Season 2. Anyone who knows anything about Sherlock Holmes knows he “dies” at Reichenbach….and comes back.)
Oh, and lookie there! That’s BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH again. (Yes, I kinda squee every time I see a picture of him.)
#4: Awesome things that happen to me
Check it out on Kiersi’s website: http://typewriterstories.tumblr.com/post/45070282204/rebecca-and-the-girl-scout-cookies
For example: My writer friend, the exquisitely talented Kiersi Burkhart, wrote and mailed me my very own personalized typewriter story, called “Rebecca and the Girl Scout Cookies.” I squeed when I got it out of the mail on Saturday, and my family thought I had gone a bit loopy. But it was even better than ACTUAL Girl Scout Cookies – just sayin’.
So, on this Monday-after-daylight-savings-time-makes-you-really-sad-about-losing-an-hour-of-sleep-over-the-weekend, look for the things in life that will make YOU squee.
Thanks!
Book Love.
Okay, so we’re packing up our house to sell and move. I took 12 – TWELVE – boxes full of books to donate to our local library – good quality kids and adult fiction. Our local library will shelf those donations that are appropriate for the lending area, and sell the rest for fundraising efforts. It’s nice to know that others will love them as much as we have. These twelve books barely scratched the surface of our book holdings, but we can’t part with the rest. Plus, I have new books coming that I ordered online.
Thankfully, our new house has several built in bookshelves.
Is there anything better than the feeling of opening a new book?
I think the only thing better will be opening a new book in a nice book-reading spot in our new house.
Once I get a picture of said spot, I’ll share it with you; so stay posted!
~Thanks!
Ideas Wanted!
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Cement Shoes. -
Would you shop in a store called Cement Shoes? Maybe…. -
What service does the store provide? -
Karma Kafe -
“Re-prize-all Used Toy Store”. Where all toys are a prize to be re used. -
I didn’t read your post correctly. I thought you said it was a toy store.
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never-the-less, I like reprisal
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outwardly it sells one-of-a-kind items, but it’s really a Twilight-Zone kinda store that dishes out what people deserve – for good or bad.
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IforNI, Something Karma
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Karma Kitch
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Does the winner get royalties?
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or an honorable mention on the acknowledgment page????
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Retailiation. No? -
Okay, if it gives out good as well as bad… The Winnowing Fork.
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you might check anagram web sites to for some of these words. Or mythological sites. -
Dang it! I was just typing “Retailiation.” Great minds and all that. -
Too funny! Great minds, indeed.
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If it’s an ice cream shop… “A Dish Best Served Cold.”
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The Sauce and Gander. Although that sounds like a pub. -
Teak Jar Music. Anagram of justice and karma
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Themis Retail Tea. Or Old Bailey’s Retail Tea.
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I4NI -
Comuppins
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U Hadit Comin
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In Greek mythology, judges were called “servants of Themis” or themistopóloi. Using “themistopoloi” at Wordsmith, you get this list:
http://www.wordsmith.org/anagram/anagram.cgi?anagram=themistopoloi&language=english&t=1000&d=&include=&exclude=&n=&m=&source=adv&a=n&l=n&q=n&k=1 -
Reciprocity. Strangely I just took a Stanford course at work this week called “managing without authority” and reciprocity is one tool to use! -
You Asked for It.
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You guys ALL rock. I’ll let you know what I go with soon. And the Moirae are going to play a big part in this store.
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And thanks so much for the Chicago earworm. “He had it comin’….He had it comin’….”
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That was sort of the idea.
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Ack, get it out of my ears!!!
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I like his suggestion. It works for the one-of-a-kind-items shop as well as for the actual purpose of the shop. You Asked For It seems like the perfect name. And, btw, I LOVE the Cell Block Tango. -
If it is a fabric store it could be Reap what You Sewed
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Keep ‘em comin’…you’re on a roll, sir.
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“Eye for an Eye” or “Serve the Same Sauce” -
Ooh, I’ve never heard of the “serve the same sauce” expression before.
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Or it could just be “The Same Sauce”….
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Thai Restaurant.
Pai Bach Sab Ich -
That took me a moment. Geesh!
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Tee hee
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It’s a bit of a stretch but you could do Zeke’s 25/17. Referencing Ezekiel 25:17 better known from the Sam Jackson’s speech from pulp fiction
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Lemme go look it up….
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Oh, wow. That’s heavy. But I really like the Bible verse idea. There’s a religious element in the story and the store, actually.
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I’m also thinking of R&P….which stands for “rewards and punishments” but could be an innocent-sounding name of a store on any main street in America.
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Not Your Girl Next Door……. -
Oh a dessert shop. Karmeringue
Name That Novella!
A little contest over on Madeline Hunter’s Facebook Author page:
She’s re-releasing a fantastic romance novella, and wants a shiny new title to go along with her shiny new cover art. But if you want to get in on the contest, you have to get over there and submit your title idea PRONTO, because they’re picking the title TOMORROW! (January 16, 2013 – 4 pm)
~Thanks!
MARCO POLO Blogging #2: But the cost would be prohibitive . . .
MARCO: Given the opportunity and the technology to make it happen, would you consider living on the Moon or on Mars? Would you? Which would you choose, why, and what requirements (other than air, water, food, heat, shelter, etc.) would you take with you?
POLO: If I could, I guess I’d live for a year on Mars – provided there was a nice, big human-friendly habitat all set up for me. There’s no way I’d rough it on Mars. I don’t even rough it on Earth. And I’d choose Mars over the Moon because I prefer a little more gravity so as not to lose critical bone and muscle mass.
I’d take 1. my family 2. reading material and 3. coffee. Well, definitely the reading material and the coffee . . .
How ’bout you?
Comment below for your “POLO.”
Thanks!
Mr. Churchill’s Secretary
I feel like sharing.
I am reading Mr. Churchill’s Secretary by Susan Elia MacNeal. What it’s about is rather self-evident from the title. A very bright woman, a mathematician, is marginalized into a common secretarial position with the P.M. at the onset of the invasion of England in WWII, but quickly becomes the smartest and most valuable member of his staff.
Here’s one of my favorite bits so far:
“Air raid, please. Air raid, please,” they heard Mr. Rance, the overseer of the War Rooms, call. It didn’t surprise Maggie that at a time like this he was using the word please. At No. 10, one said please for everything. She could just as easily imagine him saying, “The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, please. Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse, please.”
Want a good historical drama-mystery? Want a great feminist book? Check out the first Maggie Hope Mystery, Mr. Churchill’s Secretary.
Thanks!
If I Wrote Standardized Tests . . .
So I’ve been proctoring E.O.G.s or End of Grade Tests at my daughters’ elementary school this week. While I was strolling around, being all . . . um . . . proctoral? . . . I let my mind wander from time to time. Here’s what I came up with. It might indicate the kind of television I watch a little too much of. Hope you enjoy. Feel free to answer the questions in your comments to this post! 
Procedural Crime Dramas Meet The E.O.G.s!
End of Grade Test – Reading
1. Which of the following sentences best describes the use of cold reading in the criminal profile of a person of interest?
(Simon Baker, The Mentalist)
A. Cold reading actually has its place in criminal investigating, since it involves the study of a subject’s body language, clothing, hair style, behavior and nervous habits, but cannot be used in place of concrete evidence.
B. Cold reading is a trick used only by con artists and carnival performers, and has been discredited by modern investigators.
C. Impressions made by an investigator by cold reading a person of interest, is solid admissible evidence in a court of law.
D. A trained investigator who does a cold reading on a person of interest in a crime, can make 100% accurate summaries of that person’s character.
End of Grade Test Mathematics – Calculator Active
2. If the rate of heat loss of a dead human body is approximately 1.5 degrees per hour, the normal human body temperature, in life, is 98.6 degrees, and the ambient temperature of the crime scene is 75 degrees, how long can you estimate the victim has been dead if the victim’s internal body temperature is currently 88.6 degrees? (Round up to the nearest whole degree.)
(Probe Thermometer)
A. 10 hours
B. 7 hours
C. 5 hours
D. 2 hours
End of Grade Test – Calculator Inactive
3. If the average payback for a Las Vegas slot machine is 90%, you play ten dollars and cash out before winning the grand prize, approximately how much money will you likely cash out of the machine?
(Jack Pot Slots)
A. (negative) -$5.00
B. (negative) -$2.00
C. $9.00
D. $19.00
End of Grade Test – Science
4. The sketch below represents the progression of pubic bone sympysis in an adult male over time.
(Shows 6 phases of sympysis, 5-10 year progression, from age 20 – 65+)
If you found this section of an adult male pubic bone, approximately how old would you estimate the individual was when he died?
(Adult male pubic bone)
A. 20-25
B. 35-40
C. 50-55
D. 65+
THANKS!
Zombies go to church too, don’t they?
Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit: 2 Jonathan Maberry novels (Rot & Ruin, Dust & Decay), 2 DVDs (Zombie Apocalypse, I Am Legend), Survival Rations (Spam, Monster Juice, Doritos), No-battery wind-up Flashlight, Pocket Knife & Deer hunter belt buckle,a cool hold-it-all Camo Backpack, and a "Rules for surviving a Zombie Attack" poster! WHAT MORE COULD YOU WANT???
Some of you know that I am the Youth Leader for our church’s youth group. We’re going on a mission trip in June, and we need funding. So, our main fundraiser starts tomorrow: a silent auction. We’ve been busy collecting donated items.
Absolutely my FAVORITE ITEM is, hands down, the above “Zombie Apocalypse Survival Kit” shown above. Can’t get any more churchy than that, can ya?
And yes, you can tell I’m all about books, since I based three separate silent auction theme packs around books. We’ve got the zombie one. We’ve got a Titanic 100th themed one, and we’ve got an awesome “beach reads” bag.
It’s gonna be epic, I tell you. Epic!
And, in organizing all of this, I’ve been crazy-busy. But I’ll keep you all updated about how the auction goes. Oh, and, if any of you are interested in bidding, please let me know. I can be your proxy!
Thanks!
