8 weeks down, 5 more to go…

July is almost gone. Where did the time go? July is the “Middle of my Novel” month, and my goal was to be finished with the middle by the end of the month. With one week to go in the month, it seems like that isn’t going to happen.

The day job took the driver seat after Thursday and after working 12 hour days, I just wanted to sleep, so I didn’t write anything for the challenge.

The good thing is that I’ve been thinking about my ending. I’m the kind of person who needs to have some idea where she’s going. The ending has changed several times, but it’s always a variation of the original. Usually it never turns out to be what I planned, but that’s okay. We’ll see how it goes when I reach it.

Here’s the story for Week #8:

Total for Week #8: 3419

M: 1128
T: 1205
W: 541
TH: 545
F: 0
S: 0
Su: 0

Total for the Challenge: 31002

Words to Challenge goal: 14,498

Now it’s time for the quote for the next milestone. It comes from Your First Novel: An Author Agent Team Share the Keys to Achieving Your Dream by Ann Rittenberg and Laura Whitcomb.

“You should be passionate about your novel without being closed-minded. You need to love your story and at the same time be open to advice about improving it. If you are too fixated on the writing exactly the way it is, you will suffocate it. Let it breathe.”

Write away…

One of the things that I love about summer is the abundance of books that come out. All those extra bookcases in the bookstores with suggested summer reading.

I come across an oldie but goodie recently. Forever… by Judy Blume.

What girl doesn’t like Judy Blume? I read Forever last month, and it’s amazing the impact that this book had on me. It was the catalyst for one of the novels I wrote in high school. Certain phrases I remember saying came from this book.

What impressed most about this book is that it was written in the 70’s but even reading it now, it’s still relevant. That’s the thing about writing about universal themes—they are truly timeless.

For me, I consider Forever to be a teen classic. Sort of like a rite of passage for readers—the start of reading books that deal with real-life situations in an honest manner.

I also came across a book of essays out this week, Shelf Discovery: The Teen Classics We Never Stopped Reading by Lizzie Skurnick.

A big bonus in the book is that one of my favorite authors, Tayari Jones, wrote an essay about Forever.

It’s amazing how we remember the books that touched us as young people and how those same books touch teens today. I guess this is the lasting impression of a classic.

As many of you know who read my blog, Liar by Justine Larbalestier is on my TBR list. When I read the jacketflap, I was all over it. Micah is a pathological liar. Did she kill her boyfriend? Was he even her boyfriend? These were the questions that popped in my mind and got me interested.

So at this point, the cover art wasn’t an issue. It wasn’t until I read an excerpt off of Justine L.’s blog that the character described herself as black and having “nappy hair” that she wore close cropped and had a body like a boy.

The cover art didn’t match.

At this point, it still didn’t bother me. Could it be that the publisher put a clever clue for the readers in plain sight?

Seems like I was wrong.

This raises a LOT of questions of the choice of cover art. Questions that me and other writers of color have been asking for long time.

Justine L. has posted a response on her blog about the cover art issue. This is what struck me most in her post:

“The notion that ‘black books’ don’t sell is pervasive at every level of publishing. Yet I have found few examples of books with a person of colour on the cover that have had the full weight of a publishing house behind them. Until that happens more often we can’t know if it’s true that white people won’t buy books about people of colour. All we can say is that poorly publicised books with ‘black covers’ don’t sell. The same is usually true of poorly publicised books with ‘white covers.’

Are the big publishing houses really only in the business of selling books to white people? That’s not a very sustainable model if true. Certainly the music industry has found that to be the case. Walk into a music store, online or offline, and compare the number of black faces you see on the covers there as opposed to what you see in most book stores. Doesn’t seem to effect white people buying music. The music industry stopped insisting on white washing decades ago.”

I think Justine L. makes a great point here. And she is challenging everyone who is upset by the cover art of Liar to go out and support books with black cover art.

I really commend Justine L. for writing a blog post about this issue. You should go over and read her blog post, Ain’t That A Shame.

Publisher’s Weekly also has an article about the book, Justine Larbalestier’s Cover Girl.

I read this New York Times article, Target Can Make Sleepy Titles Into Best Sellers

Target is building a reputation as a “tastemaker” of books. With its Breakout program, the store highlights unknown writers and have helped many make it to the bestseller list. Plus, the Bookmarked Club Pick is selected by a panel of Target employees.

Each book selected has a special Target edition with an author letter specifically addressed to Target reader.

Here’s another interesting thing about the program.

“Virtually every book at Target is shelved face out. Books in the book club and Breakout program are set apart on so-called endcaps — narrower shelves that stand at the front or end of aisles — with specially designed signs.”

Of course, Target does not stock as many books as Barnes and Noble, but the great thing is that many authors are getting a “second life” for their novels.

It’s interesting because this week I watched an interview with Prince on The Tavis Smiley Show on PBS. He also has a somewhat similar type of program that exclusively markets his music to Target shoppers.

Target is definitely thinking outside of the box and getting “under the radar” books into the hands of readers.

Another great post over at Chasing Ray.

What A Girl Wants #4: The Girl vs. Woman (When it Comes to Reading) was a fascinating read. For me, I just love reading different author responses and perspectives. Colleen posed the question of the need for YA titles for girls.

These two quotes stood out for me.

Sara Ryan talked about what some people may think what YA may be:

“I’ve noticed that many adult authors of YA want to ‘give us something to think about’ and ‘change our lives.’ Those are the kind of books the teachers make us read in school. But the truth is, when we go shopping for a novel and spend our money, we just want to be swept away and entertained.”

I think most teens want to be taken into a different world and more specifically to be entertained. For me as writer, that is my first goal to take a reader into a new world and a different situation. But also, I want to give teens something to think about as well—but it should not be the major focus of the novel—I think teens are smart enough to realize when they are getting a sermon. I believe in nuance and I think teens are sophisticated enough to understand it.

Margo Rabb talked about how important books are to teens:

“The books that I read as a teenager were so incredibly important in shaping who I am, in figuring out who I was and who I wanted to be, that I sometimes wonder who I would’ve become without them.”

When I was a teen, it was a very volatile stage and really without books, I don’t know how I would of made it. It was in books where I found kindred spirits to let me know that I wasn’t some maladjusted kid but I was just Karen and that was okay. I didn’t need to conform to the high school “authorities” that didn’t match my personality.

For a long time, I really didn’t want to write YA. I wrote primarily middle-grade because that was just a great period in my life. My young adult years were very hard. Middle-grade novels are where I had my first success—it’s how I got my agent. Even the novel that I’m working on now started out as middle-grade.

But here I am. Writing YA.

I think the reason I’m now compelled to write YA is that it is a formative period—especially with teen girls and everything that they are facing today in this world. I agree with what Sara Ryan stated in the blog post, it is about respect. Respect for girls who need to have their current life experience explored and empathized. To show that being a teen girl is a rite of passage and not something to be endured.

You should definitely go over and read the blog post at Chasing Ray