Road Trip Wednesday- YA IRL?

This Week's YA Highway Road Trip Topic: What IRL people can you talk to about YA?     

You mean there are people in my non-cyber life who might enjoy YA? It doesn't just exist at my library and online?

 

 

Ha! It's not really that bad, though no one I've met offline is as crazed as I am on the subject.

 

 

I have a few fellow-mom friends who read YA. We discuss things and they ask for my recommendations. I've been especially proud of turning a few Hunger Games fans into Divergent fans too.

 

 

The best part is yet to come. I'm transitioning from elementary to middle school mom. I've already been able to talk MG with my child and some of her friends. Many have read the Percy Jackson series, and now many have also read the Hunger Games.

 

 

Too bad the day may come when my child says I'm too uncool to talk YA with her and her friends, and would I please stop:( 

 

 

"But I write it too," I'll say, and my daughter will act like she doesn't know me. 

 

 

What About You? Who in your life loves YA?

MAY I tell you a few things?

First off, Happy May day!

Sara McClung has come up with this great Blogfest idea for May that's way less daunting than the A-Z April Challenge (which I did last year, but not this year, though I still enjoyed many of the posts).

It's: Blog Me Maybe, with a different "May I..." prompt every weekday.

Not that you have to post every day (that's the less daunting part).


Tuesdays are: May I tell you something about myself?


To start, I'll tell you that I drew a little blank on where to go with this post...I like prompts, but this one was still a little too broad.

Then all these S words started rolling around in my head: Silly, Sad, Sublime and Surprising, so I decided to roll with them and tell you something of each.

Something Silly: Because of my years as a preschool teacher, I LOVE sensory things. Bubbles, homemade playdough or slime, and my personal favorite, cornstarch and water...I wish I didn't feel like I needed a teacher or mom reason to play with these things.

Something Sad: I lost both my dad and my mom by the time I was thirty-seven. I'm sad for their shortened lives, for their sake, but I'm constantly shaken by how big a hole they left in my life and how much I still miss them. There is no easy time to become an orphan.

Something Sublime: The times of the year (like now) when you don't need the heat or air conditioner on. First, it appeals to my frugal nature (lower energy bills). It also appeals to my Goldilocks nature...not too hot, not too cold...that's what I need. Plus, I love the smell of a fresh breeze and snuggling under the covers with the window open as I sleep.

Something Surprising: Even as an English major, I only remember writing three short fiction stories. All as an undergraduate. And they all sucked. I only remember even halfway enjoying the writing of one. So, no one was more surprised than me when I wrote my first novel in my mid-thirties, in less than six weeks. I didn't even know how to punctuate dialogue at the time.

What about you? Anything Silly, Sad, Sublime or Surprising to share?

Second,Third, Omniscient?

Recently, I listened to and enjoyed this book:

BLINK & CAUTION, by Tim Wynne-Jones

It had some unusual Point of View choices in it, including some omniscient moments.





The story used limited third, dual perspectives most of the time, but he used the pronoun "you" in the narrative voice, not to address the reader or the character directly, but when talking about the character's thoughts and actions. As in:

"You go to open the door, but..."

or

"You're thinking, of course, this kind of crap always happens to you..."

(these examples are made up, not from the book)


I read a few reviews on Goodreads. One person, Margaret, said: "...the tight third person switches to an omniscient view in which the narrator actually addresses the characters."

Yeah, maybe I do remember a few of these times, advice-giving moments like:

 "Blink, you should know better than to trust..."

(another made-up example, and not a very good one...the ones in the book were more subtle).

Still, I didn't feel like the character could really "hear" the advice. Just us readers, in a hypothetical way. And that still doesn't explain the "you" examples above.

Another person, called it second person POV, but I thought that was when you address the reader directly, and this book doesn't do that.

What about you? What do you think? Ever seen this before? What would you call it? 

More Thoughts on Voice

On Monday, I posted about how my writing voice changed because of an intense rule-following stage I went through as a writer.

Thinking on this over the week, I realized it might have sounded like I tried to change my writing voice. I didn't.

It also may have sounded like I'd recommend my process to other people. I wouldn't.


Voice is the part of every person's writing that makes it unique. A writing fingerprint.

Like the code breakers who were able to tell movements in the enemy troops by identifying the different ways each operator entered Morse Code, other people may be able to identify elements of different writers' voices, but that doesn't mean voice is something a writer consciously does.

In fact, most of the time, I believe thinking about voice is the last thing a writer should do.

I liked Rebecca's comment from Monday: "When I start to stray, I pretend whatever I'm writing is an email to my best friend--and then my natural voice magically reappears."

She's onto something...voice is something you should tap into, not actively work on.

Voice is also magic. It belongs in that unexplainable part of writing where everything we've internalized from our reading and writing experiences collides with who we are and the story we're trying to tell.

A magic formula that's different for everyone...and if we work on/think about it too much the magic might leave.

What about you? How do you think of voice?

Best of April

This Week's YA Highway Road Trip Topic:

What was the best book you read in April?

 

 

 

Wow. Have we really reached the last Wednesday of the month again? I blinked and there went April.

 

 

 

But I do have a long list of audiobooks I listened to (more about all of them next week). Today I need to pick a favorite.

 

 

 

 

I liked everything for different reasons this month...nothing stood out completely, but the one that surprised me most was DREAMLAND SOCIAL CLUB, by Tara Altebrando.

A girl discovers her roots when she moves to Coney Island, the place she came from but has never been.

It's a quiet story, subtle but still strong. The thing I loved most about it was the fact that the main character is Coney Island...where it was, is, and will be...a wonderful tribute to this unique landmark and the spirit it embodies.

What about you? Heard/read this one? What was your favorite April read?