Year of the Sparkle Dragon: Read Less

Surely that's a typographical error? What writer wants to read LESS?

Me.

The pressure.
Last year, I signed up for the 2011 Reader Challenge on Goodreads. 100 books I declared. The year started off badly. I was home in Barbados for Christmas. And who has time for books when you have to see all your friends, and your entire family, and eat all your favourite foods, and go to all your favourite places, and you've only got 3 weeks to do it? Then I didn't start right when I got back, because it was really hard coming back, and I was homesick something fierce.

I spent most of the year playing catch up. Even when I'd caught up, I was playing "get ahead" because I knew that October is always bad at work, and November is nano, so there aren't any guarantees.

I finished the year with 116 books. Honest truth is that I appreciated all of them. Even the "bad" ones. What I didn't enjoy, I learned from. And I also learned from the ones I loved. But I never want to feel like someone's forcing books down my throat again.

Quality over quantity
This is not about the quality of the books. There are more great books published in a single year than I could read in a lifetime. It's about the quality of my reading experience. People experience books in different ways. Lots of people talk about "seeing" the characters and events. Me? I'm not a visual person. If you don't show me the character in a movie or on a book cover, I will never see them. How I experience books is difficult to explain. It's like I live them. Like I'm there.

[Warning: there's a Twilight: Eclipse/New Moon spoiler in this paragraph.]
It's like the things I read about skip all the basic forms of sense, and go straight to the destination. For example, when you feel pain, something usually happens outside your body, and the nerves convey that to your brain/nervous system, and your brain/nervous system tells you to feel pain. (Forgive me if the science is wrong here, just follow the concept.) Remember Jane from Twilight? How she can make people feel pain without a stimulus? That's how reading is for me. There's no external, everything happens inside my brain.

Because the story is so deep in my brain, it's difficult for me to come out of a book. I lose track of everything. I don't hear things, see things, and people always walk up and shake me and scare the frizzles out of me to get me attention. "Wait, wha-, who, where am I?" At the end of a book, as I've been so "intimate" with these characters, they stay with me for a while. In my brain, the plot continues. The story plays out in different ways. I was so deep in Elana Johnson's POSSESSION that I was literally incapable of following any other story's threads.

When I've got this arbitrary quota working with, I have to force myself out of one world and into another. I think I lose out on enjoying the previous story as much as I could, and I don't immerse myself in the new story like I should.

The habit
The more I read, the more I read, the more I read. 5 books in January, 10 in March, 12 in May. It's addictive. When I train myself to pick up another book promptly, then I can't NOT pick one up - unless it's a completely inappropriate time, like 4 am.

On the surface, that sounds like a good thing, but everything else gets sacrificed. I could wash the dishes. Or I could read. I could plan my vacation. Or I could read. I could write that email I've been meaning to send. Orrrr I could read.

Writing
Sadly, even writing gets sacrificed. Reading counts as developing craft. It's easy to tell yourself that there are worse things. At least this is industry-related. But getting stuck in any one stage of the craft, no matter how useful that stage, is a hindrance in the end. Like me having  a million first drafts and no completed novels. A writer should read, but a writer should also write.

Secondly, writers are connected to their creations. It's hard to form those connections when your head is full of other people's worlds and other people's characters. It's like trying to sing a lullaby while standing in front of the speakers at a rock concert. This year, it was really hard for me to get into nano. I blamed all sorts of things, but maybe it had something to do with the fact that I read 3 books in the first week of November.

I want to take my writing up a level this year. Reading is going on the back burner. If you're wondering what that means, I've set myself a goal of 52 books this year. What are you reading this year? Any goals?

PS, If you're on Goodreads, look out for me. I'm Claire Dawn.

We're important because you are

Every so often someone will start up on how useless YA writing is, or how YA/Children's authors write in their fields because they're not good enough for adult literature. Then there's a spate of articles popping up around the web in defence of YA, MG and picture books. All supported with valid arguments of why what we do is valuable.

But there is one argument I've never seen:

We're important because you are.

Our Western society values a university education. We've come to realise that it is possible to acheive great success without a degree- as proven by billionaire dropouts like Microsoft's Bill Gates, Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, TV mogul Ted Turner, toy tycoon Ty Warner and even drug lord, Pablo Escobar. That doesn't mean we're not still grateful for the leg-up it can give in today's world.

But if a university education is important, then a high school education is important. You could be the most brilliant person in the world, Cambridge is not going to let you in with just primary level education. And could you imagine turning up at their gates, trying to argue your case never having taken an exam in your life? "I swear Mr. Vice-Chancellor, Sir, I'm smart. Never mind I've never had any schooling whatsoever." Let me know when he stops laughing.

That's not to say that primary and secondary level education don't have their own merits. But we could argue forever on what they are. What I don't think is debateable however, is that if an end has merit, and that end can be reached only or mostly through a specific path, then the path must have merit too.

This is how I feel about the arguments which try to extol adult fiction but put down children's literature and it's writers.

How many readers do you know that never read as a child or a teen, and suddenly woke up as a 20 year-old with a hankering for Hemingway? That's not to say it doesn't happen. But it's rare.



Most adult readers were read to as toddlers. They graduated to reading whatever early reader books were available at the time, and as teens they moved into books about romance or foreign worlds or magic or everyday people with extraordinary obstacles.

And then they graduate to the "worthy" adult books.


When you consider how many other ways there are to entertain yourself on your own these days- with the internet to be surfed and the PlayStation to be conquered, it's kind of miraculous that we're able to convince anyone to pick up a book. And when you factor in how many things have been added to our plates as adults, it's not hard to imagine that someone who didn't make time for books as a child won't bother to make time for them as an adult.

A love of these...


...leads to a love of these.

(Look at me being all multicultural with my 6-country, trilingual bookstack. Btw, do all French books write the spines backwards- reading down when the book is standing up?)


If adult books are important, then childrens books are important. If we stopped writing tomorrow, and children could no longer found things geared toward them and opted never to read, then the publishing industry would be done in about 50 years.

Not diminished. Just done.

And where would adult literature stand then?

I thought so. Say thank you.

What Katy Did- Review, giveaway, winner, and help Japan

The winner of last week's HERE LIES BRIDGET is...

Abby Stevens!

Congrats Abby! Email me at muchlanguage (at) gmail (dot) com.

--

In light of what happened here, in Japan, I'll be donating 200 yen (about $2 USD) per entrant, so please spread the word.

So, I've been reading a little differently of late. YA classics and women's fic. The first of the YA classics that I read was WHAT KATY DID.

What I didn't like:

It's an old classic. So it follows a lot of the old norms. It's a bit preachy sometimes, and there is way too much description (especially for non-visual me), and it's way slower than what we're used to.

What I did like:

It's an old classic. There's something about it that makes you kind of feel like you're curled up at a storyteller's feet. And I liked the theme: What Katy Did is a story about being responsible and grown up even when you don't want to. I'm an adult, and I sometimes feel very much like Katy.

The rules:
Because of the special circumstances, you don't need to be a follower to enter today.
This contest is open internationally.
To enter, tell me what's your fave children's classic.
You've got until Wednesday 11.59 as per usual.

Don't forget I'm donating 200 yen per entry. Spread the word.

The Scary World We Live In

It's official!

Borders has filed for Bankruptcy, owing over $200 million US, and is set to close about 200 stores.

Barbados doesn't have any major chain bookstores. So as far as I'm concerned, if I, book-lover from countries where you don't exist, know you're name, then you're huge! Borders, Barnes and Noble, Hudson, Dymocks, Kinokuniya (Asia): they're all invincible. Or they were.

I could try (and probably fail) to illustrate the complex reasons why Borders is where it is today. But I'm no economist. And I believe that wherever there is a stack of complex problems, there is a single underlying one. The reason Borders went bankrupt is simple: they didn't sell enough books.

That's a scary thought as an aspiring author. But I'm not one to sit around and mope -well, not indefinitely anyhow. So here's my list of ways for us to fight back.

1. Buy Books.

I'm always seeing people recommending that aspiring authors read. Reading is great. I do lots of it. Maybe too much. But authors make money each time they sell a book. Not
each time someone lends their girlfriend a copy. Not every time someone blogs or reviews or jumps up and down screaming how much they love the book. (Sometimes they make money from libraries, but that often has a limit and I don't know if it's as high as royalties.) That is the bottom line. Our future salaries are tied to books sold.

So buy. If you can, buy a book a month. Or if you already buy, see if you can increase what you buy. It doesn't have to be spectacular. Maybe you bought 10 books last year, you could aim to take it up to 14 this year. Everybody is up in arms about the economy and how broke they are. But the truth is, most of us are not so bad that we can't afford to spend an extra $10-$20 US once in a while.

Think about it. If authors aren't buying, who will?

2. Give Books

There are a few times each year when we give presents. How about making some of these books? Personally, I love giving people gifts that they will LOVE! So I put a lot of thought into my gifts, just so I can watch their faces light up for that first 3 seconds. Sometimes I'll be reading a book and think, my neighbour, W, would LOVE this!

I don't think you should give a book just for the sake of giving a book. Nor should you give a book strictly because you love it. It's important to take the recipient into consideration. You might just be able to turn someone onto a new author or sub-genre. And before you can say, "Books rock!" they're off buying more all on their own.

Also, most of you are bloggers. Do giveaways. For your bloggy anniversaries or other milestones. Or if you really, really love a book. It'll be another copy sold, as well as some publicity.

3. Cultivate a Book Culture

Remember you were a little kid, 5 years or so? Maybe you were like me, and you were already a little read-aholic. But even if you were, you may remember your siblings or friends, wanting the latest toys, and being angry when they got a book.

Read to your kids. Before they're old enough to read for themselves, read a bedtime story or a chapter of a book to them. Apart from developing a love for reading, this has other benefits. Reading can help calm a child and help them sleep. (TV and electronics and even running up and down, provide too much stimulus making it hard to sleep.)

Read with your kids. When your kids are older, let them read to you. Once again there are perks outside reading. Adults have less and less time to spend one on one with kids when they're not racing to or from school or work. This act will give you half hour- or even just 10 minutes- of bonding time. And if your child is anything like my 6 yr-old, it will also result in the occasional hilarity. (Approximate line of text that Filch says in HARRY POTTER: "It might be nothing much to you, but it's an extra hour of work for me." What my son read: "...but it's an extra hore of work..." lol. Poor thing. He's only 6. I don't know who convinced him he could read Harry Potter. It certainly wasn't me.)

Discuss books.
It's not just the gritty books that have interesting themes. There's discussion material everywhere. The YA books I've read in the last year, have started me thinking about:

how societal pressure affects us
how teens deal with self-image
how much goes on under the surface
how materialism affects us
the possible evils of our governmental system
the possible evils of capitalism
...

It's easy to start the dialogue, "I was reading this book the other day, and it got me to realising how few of us ever meet in person, rather than reading blogs, linking up on facebook or tweeter, or calling up on the phone..." Before you know it, you've got a discussion. Then someone wants to know what the name of the book was. And then, they're off to find a copy.

There are 3 to start you off. What else can we do to save this little piece of the world we want so badly to inhabit?

The Story Siren Challenge

Born December 8
Mary, Queen of Scots
Teri Hatcher
Sammy Davis Jr
David Carradine
Kim Basinger
Sinead O'Connor

This year I'm participating in The Story Siren's Debut Author Contest.

The objective is to read 12 novels from authors debuting in Young Adult or Middle Grade between January 1, 2011 and December 31 of the same year.

Here's a list of books I intend to read from the US list on the website, in order of release. I think.

Julia Karr XVI
Beth Revis Across the Universe
Lorraine Zago Rosenthal Other Words for Love
Paige Harbison Here Lies Bridget
Any Holder Lipstick Laws
Chris Beam I am J.
Kirsten Hubbard Like Mandarin
Lisa & Laura Roecker Liar Society
Jesse Karp Those That Wake
Myra McEntire Hourglass
Vernica Roth Divergent
Elana Johnson Posession
Carrie Harris Bad Taste in Boys
Karsten Knight Wildefire
Medeia Sharif Bestest. Ramadan. Ever.
Elise Allen Populazzi
Victoria Schwab The Near Witch
Anna Staniszewski My un-fairytale life
Michelle Hodkin The Un-becoming of Mara Dyer

I was actually going ot read 13 of these anyhow. lol.

Oh, also, I spent the day sifting through ALL teen books being released in January and February on Amazon. There are only a few categories you can search on, so I had to wade through the non-fiction as well. (Although Amazon.uk doesn't include non-fic. Get with it, US Amazon!) Plus Amazon doesn't differentiate between new book and new edition. Shakespeare, Bronte, and Judy Blume are definitely NOT new.

But I know have like 6 pages of books to go check up on. :)

Oh, and in case you wondered, there are a little over 500 new editions being released for teens in January and February. Ah, the tortures I put myself through for love.

PS. There are lots of vampires. And titles like 'something, something and something-something' ( for example: Me, Myself and the Girl in the Mirror. No, that's not an actual title. ) I only read two months worth and I was already sick of the vamps and the comma titles. Editors and agents are superheroes!

(PS. December rocks. Ignore Joanna. :P lol. )

Traits of Compelling Characters

First, our winner of WHEN ROSE WAKES!

Congrats to E.J! EJ, watch your inbox.

Also, don't forget you can enter the Banned Books Giveaway til 11.59 pm EST tomorrow.

The fabulastic Sarah Enni is giving away a signed copy of Mockingjay.

Okay, Elana held a blogfest on compelling characters. My mind, being the slippery thing that is, I totally forgot. Apologies Elana. But I'm here now, 2 days late, and 2 yen short. Or something. :)

I can't scientifically list what makes characters work. So here's a list of characters I'm drawn to and why I'm drawn to them.

The character that's just like you.

No, I'm not gorgeous, nor am I a fashionista, but I identify with Serena van der Woodsen from Gossip Girls. I'm pretty notorious for my bad decisions and to my mind the best way to solve a problem is still to hop on a plane.

The character who makes everything bad, totally sexy.

He's Chuck Bass. Need I say more.

The character you're supposed to hate, but secretly root for.

He starts out as an evil character. But then we see why he's driven to do what he is. Soon he begins to question what's wrong and right, instead of just doing what he must. And I just couldn't help but cheer for him. (Zukko from Avatar: The Last Airbender.)

The character who makes you wish you had a time machine.

Hannah Baker made me want to reach into the book and hug her. I wanted to make all her problems go away.

The character who's a complete twatfur, but who you have to back anyway.

You know the type- klutz good guy. Mr. Bean, that dude from Get Smart. Adorably idiotic.

The One you wish you were.

For me it's Bianca from the Duff. I wish I was tough like her.

The bada$$

This guy (or gal) is so bad, you want to apologise for watching their movies or reading their books. Just in case they take offence and whup yo' a$$. This is also the one who makes you try running up a wall, only to almost dislocate your hip. Jackie Chan and Chuck Norris characters are also in this group.

The one that you've considered marrying even though they're fictional.

Swoon. Legolas. It's not just that Orlando Bloom is sexy- and he totally is. Legolas is just my Prince Charming. Gentle, yet strong. Wise and understanding... Yeah, swoon.

What kinds of characters pull you in?

Book buyers around the world

THIS OFFER AVAILABLE ONLY IN THE US AND CANADA!

Those words are the bane of my existence.

I get it. It might be expensive to ship stuff overseas. But sometimes I feel like, "Dude just let me pay the shipping. I really want this [insert super fantastic thing here]."

And it sucks at least just as much in the bloggosphere. Many of the agent and writer bloggers are out of the US. You might say that most of publising's in New York. Yes, most. Not all! I still can't find a UK agent blog. (If any of you guys are UK, let me know if you know any.)

Anyhow, today I want to give my international friends a heads up about something that's fantastic ESPECIALLY if you live outside the US.

As you guys know, I've been on a 3 day spree, since I didn't need to pay for my airline ticket. So yesterday I put 42 books in my Amazon cart. Yeah, I know. Anyhow, eventually I figured, since I don't drive in Japan that it might be difficult to walk home from the Post Office with 42 books, so I whittled it down to 25.

Final cost: $230
Shipping: $109
Total: $339

WHAT???

Shipping is the price of another 10 books!

And then I remember my trusty FREE INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING site, The Book Depository.

They ship here and they ship to Barbados. Sometimes they're a dollar or two more expesive than Amazon. Sometimes they're cheaper. They don't have price-slashing sales as often as the guys at the big A. On occasion titles are not available. BUT they ship for free. And, since they're based in the UK, they have books you'd more readily find in Europe.

I couldn't find 2 of the titles I had on Amazon, and I had to get another in hardback instead of paperback.

Final cost: $216
Shipping: 0
Total: $216

If you love books as much as me, and you don't live in North America, you need to head on over and make sure that your country is one of the 70 they ship to for free. Because if they are, it's totally worth it to make the switch.

Don't forget on Monday, the crazy giveaways start!

Cool Reads for a Hot Summer!

I've finally finished my list of summer reads. It proved more difficult than expected.

More things I learned while digging through the pile:

-Many "new" releases have been released in another format (but I didn't include them)
-There's a heck of a lot of YA parnormal/fantasy
-A ridiculously large portion of those are vampire romances- I can only imagine how many more didn't make it
-Agents and editors are superheros- 3 days of swimming through that pile and I've had enough
-I totally fell in love with the Penguin Group's Speak Imprint. If a girl could marry an imprint... That would make one heck of an interesting letter to the editor!
-YA is really not a genre, it's an audience. All the other genre still exist within YA, but it's sometimes hard to tell if a book is fantasy or contemporary etc., based purely on the back cover blurb.

Okay, so the list. Now, I haven't read any of these books. Nor do I know many of the authors. They've been judged purely by their premises. I've enclosed a few notes in brackets, and if the book is part of a series, you'll find that info in square brackets. Happy reading.

June

The Reinvention of Moxie Roosevelt- Elizabeth Cody Kimmel (Contemporary, a girl tries being different characters at a boarding school)

Rush- Jonathan Friesen (Contemporary, male 18 year old MC)

Sea- Heidi R Kling (debut, contemporary, romance, Indonesia)

So Many Boys [Naughty List]- Suzanne Young

Summer of Skinny Dipping- Amanda Howells (In the style of "I know what you did last summer")

Star Shack- Lila Castle (contemporary, horoscope, romance)

Girl, 16: Five-Star Fiasco- Sue Limb (romance, humour)

Battle of the Sun - Jeanette Winterson (Urban Fantcasy, London, Male MC)

Magical Mischief- Anna Dale (fantasy, humour, set in a bookstore)

Forgive My Fins- Tera Lynn Childs (fantasy, mermaid, romance)

Freak Magnet- Andrew Auseon (Contemporary, romance, humour)

Bruiser- Neal Shusterman (Contemporary, at least one male MC)

Only the Good Spy Young [Gallagher Girls]- Ally Carter (suspense, thriller)

Queen of Secrets - Jenny Meyerhoff (romance, cheerleader MC)

Things I know about love- Kate le Vann (romance, NYC, British)

Tweet heart-Elizabeth Rudnick (romance, humour, told in tweets, emails and blogs)

The Deathday Letter- (contemporary, last day alive)

Reality Check- Jen Calonita (reality tv, tagline: Friends don't let friends so reality shows)

Deception [Haunting Emma]- Lee Nichols (paranormal)

The Mosts- Melissa Senate (popularity)

My Ultimate Sister Diasaster- Jane Mendle (contemporary, sibling rivalry)

Nocturne- L.D. Harkrader (Romance, Paranormal, vampire, bookstore)

Poser- Sue Wyshynski (surfing, popularity)

Queen's Daughter- Susan Conventry (historical)

The Secret to Lying- Todd Mitchell (Male MC, adrenaline rush, dreams)

Sisters Red- Jackson Pearce (fantasy, family, love)

The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner- Stephenie Meyer

Carter's Big Break- Brent Crawford (Hollywood)

June [Conspiracy 365]- Gabrielle Lord (Male MC, Boy finds out someone killed his father and he has a year to live- one of these books is released every month.)

July

Blindsided-Priscilla Cummings (MC is told she will lose her sight)

The Grimm Legacy- Polly Shulman (A library of fairy tale things from Brothers Grimm Legends, contents start to disappear)

Paisley Hanover Kisses and Tells [Paisley Hanover]- Cameron Tuttle (contemporary, popularity, reputation)

Watch Me- Lauren Barnholdt (reality tv, romance)

Come Fall- A.C.E. Bauer (based on A Midsummer's Night Dream)

My Life As A Book- Janet Tashijan (Male MC, slow learning)

August

Divided Souls [Darke Academy]- Gabriella Poole (suspense, murder, Istanbul)

Plus- Veronica Chambers (romance, weight, contemporary)

Thresholds- Nina Kiriki Hoffman (magic, paranormal)

You wish- Mandy Hubbard (A girl wishes for all her birthday wishes ever to come true, and it happens)

The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May and June- Robin Benway (paranormal, magical sisters)

The Wonder of Charlie Anne- Kimberly Fusco (historical, Depression era)

The Madman of Venice- Sophie Masson (based on The Merchant of Venice, historical, mystery)

Mockingjay [Hunger Games]- Suzanne Collins

The Life and Opinions of Amy Finawitz- Laura Tofflier (told in emails and one act plays, contemporary, NYC)

No and me- Delphine de Vigan (translated, Paris, homelessness)

Juggler in the Wind [The Wand Bearer, Book 1]- Wim Coleman and Patt Perrin (Male MC, fantasy)

The Charlatan's Boy- Jonathon Rogers (hoax, paranormal)

Butterfly- Sonya Hartnett (coming of age)

I was also happy to see that they're releasing the Famous Five Series (I don't know how big they were in America, but I think they were a rite of passage for us British system babies) and some of the Ramona the Pest books, since a movie's coming up!

Happy Summer Reading!

Watching paint dry...

Today should be a Time Travel Tuesday, but I am too bored to surf youtube. Did you know that was even possible? Last week Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday were holidays. Thursday I was in the office with nothing to do. Friday, I taught 3 elementary school classes. Monday, back at the office with nothing to do. Tuesday, my JHS kids were all practicing for this weekend's sports festival, and the one class I was actually supposed to teach was sequestered by the dentist. Today (it's already Wednesday here), I actually taught a class. Yay! Tomorrow is probably 1 class at my small elementary and Friday is 3 at big elementary.

So my class total for the last two weeks? 8! Oops I forgot kindergarten. 9. 6 hours of the 35 in my workweek. Needless to say, I am bored to tears. You think being employed to do nothing would be fun. Until you actually are!

Since I had nothing to do yesterday (but re-learn the town dance and watch centipede races- where the kids tie themselves together) I started looking for a list of upcoming YA novels to post for my friends on inkwell. But I couldn't find one. :( I can't even find a list of upcoming novels. If you search upcoming movies, a gasquillion sites will pop up telling you whats coming up from now til December 2013. So I decided to use the almost 14 hours at my disposal over the two days and compile such a list.

It's a summer reads list, so it's only releases for June, July and August. And I'm not including everything I find, just because it would be too long. . I only checked Harper, Penguin, Random House, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Bloomsbury and Amazon. So if a book isn't on any of those lists, it had no chance to make mine.

Here are a few things I discovered as I was poking around.

-Some publishers websites leave a lot to be desired. I couldn't figure out how to search upcoming titles on some.
-Hachette didn't list too far into the future, nor did Bloomsbury.
-Publishers didn't provide synopses for some books. On some of those occasions, synopses existed on Amazon. There is no reason in the world a middle man should be better than the source. No reason at all.
-Some publishers didn`t differentiate in a searchable way, between YA and children`s and some didn't differentiate at all.

The lesson I learned from all of that?

Self promotion!!!

There was one author, who's cover looked interesting on Amazon, but the book didn't have a write-up. There was a write-up for the first book in the series, however. Same thing on her publisher's page. I even tried her blog. And while the info might be there somewhere, I couldn't find it. You can't sell a book that you can't look inside, with no info other than the title and the cover. Well maybe you can. But you can't sell it to me!

Authors, expect your publishers to do what they promise, but also have a web presence of your own, and links to synopses and other relevant pages in the sidebar or on the top page.

On top of that, you might want to do some research on the publishers, as your agent submits. See what they do for books, and what goes on on their websites. I'm not telling you to turn down your only publishing offer. But seeing what I've seen these last two days, the website would play a role in my choice if I had more than one bid.

Something else did come of these hours of searching.

The lack of one place to find upcoming YA (Amazon does a half decent job of it, but I can't help thinking how fantastic it would be to have an extensive independent source) has me kinda tempted to start a blog or website for the cause. Maybe when I'm done with this list, and have got the million other things on my plate in order, I'll think about doing it for real.

Hopefully, tomorrow I'll present my list.