The New YA

YA stands for Young Adult. It is a literary category. It is tricky to quantify, it encompasses many different genres from fantasy to gritty reality. It encompasses many ages.

YA is not MG.

This is the most important thing that people need to realise when buying books for kids/teenagers.

YA is not MG.

MG is middle grade. Middle Grade is typically 8 -12. My books are Middle Grade. The first three Harry Potters are MG. Again, it encompasses many different genres, and while the age range is more specific, there are divisions within it as well. Within Middle Grade you can also have Upper Middle Grade which can be read too by 13 and 14 year olds (that awkward tween stage of literature).

So what is YA then? YA I suppose is anything above that in theory. And yet a YA will rarely have a protagonist younger than 14. Kids like to read up you see.

So what is YA then?

YA is a very new genre. People might argue that, they point to fiction for kids that has been around for forever. They point even to Judy Blume, who remains quite popular. But the new YA isn't that. I'd argue that these days those books you think of when you think of your childhood as being YA are actually Middle Grade. Even if they involved teenagers, these books were primarily read by kids in the tween age range. Once a kid got to high school, if they indeed even kept up with reading, they moved on to adult books. Teenagers don't much want to feel like kids.

I know. I remember that feeling.

I'd argue that the new YA, the YA of the last decade, is the first time YA is being written for YAs.

So what is YA then?

If we suppose that in the past teenagers moved on from what was at the time considered YA to adult books, and that now teenagers are reading actual YA books as actual teenagers, then how can we assume YA ought to remain in some category belonging primarily to middle grade fiction? If they can handle the adult stuff, why then can't YA have adult themes?

The question is asked all the time, "What is acceptable for YA?", "Am I allowed to do this in YA?"

The answer is very straightforward. Anything. Yes.

But remember these two important details. Your main character has to be a teenager. And the plot must have something to do with coming of age.

I'll also add that a faster pace than some adult literature is quite desirable. But then again in adult literature, there are times, dude, when it could also be quite desirable.

Other than that: Anything. Yes.

The new YA respects that teenagers get that the world isn't perfect. That there is sex, drugs, violence and bad language. That bad things happen. But the new YA still for the most part remains a genre of hope. It is rare you will find a YA book ending on a desperate note.

Granted I think this might frighten some adults/parents. Because we look back to our YA reading experiences, back when YA wasn't really YA but MG. We forget the texts we studied in highschool, the adult books we had to analyse, the adult content we were faced with. In our minds, YA still is innocent, because our YA was much more innocent.

There were authors pushing the boundaries, Ms. Blume of course, and the odd YA actually meant for YAs, The Chocolate War by Robert Cormier (you could consider both of them the inspiration and forebears of the new YA), but for the most part the books were much safer than they are now. However. They also weren't truly meant for teenagers. Because teenagers, again may I repeat, were reading adult books.

Because YA is also a very new genre we have to understand that books that in the past were categorised as adult, could quite conceivably have been categorised as YA had the genre existed at the time.

All very complicated, I know.

Why am I saying all this? I guess because I see articles like these and I just shake my head. The article is about a "children's book" called Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, and asks whether publishers should not take more responsibility for content. Aside from the absurd notion that it is up to publishers to censor what comes out onto the market to preserve one group's idea of morality, what the author of this article neglects to mention is that the book is not MG, is not a "children's book", but is YA. And the author of this article clearly has no concept as to what YA is. Nor do many of those interviewed. This false premise alone is the greatest frustration I have with this article. It means every argument postulated for or against, is discussing the wrong subject. It's like saying, "I read this slice of life book and was shocked to find dragons in it!" when the book you are talking about is clearly a fantasy.

Look, I write MG, I understand that there are certain topics I can't write about, or at least must handle very delicately. This is simply not the same with YA.

I will not pretend that YA with very mature themes are not a harder sell, and much harder for a publisher to market. I also will not pretend that even adult works dealing with certain themes do not get the public's ire raised as well. It is much easier to sell a work about chaste vampires, than one that deals in gritty real world issues. It is naive to say what I have said: Anything. Yes. I really should have added, "But you'd better do it darn well."

But we also have to stop pretending that the literary market is anything like it was when we were kids (and I wasn't a kid that long ago compared to some, and even since then, it has changed considerably).

JK Rowling made kids' books profitable. The MG market exploded with the advent of Harry Potter. She actually changed the face of publishing. This seeped into the YA market, which was already experimenting, and now with Twilight, it is not just a force to be reckoned with, but one of the few genres where sales have gone up in this economic climate.

Go into a bookstore and look at the YA section. It is an incredible thing. So many different styles and genres all shelved side by side. The opportunity to try new things is right there at your fingertips, not isolated from each other like over in the adult section. There is lovely PG rated work to be found, it isn't like it has disappeared, but there is the tougher stuff out there too.

And it's okay. It's good to have choice. I know parents are complaining that they need age banding on books so they understand what it is their kids are reading. But I just don't think that's the answer. A child is not universally ready for something at 12, and then ready for something else at 14. It depends on their upbringing, their reading level, their likes and dislikes. Gasp! On being an individual human being. I could not, and still can't, read/watch horror. Doesn't mean there weren't kids back when I was little reading the Goosebumps series. If we age banded based on my example, no one would be allowed to read horror ever at any age.

The answer, in my mind, is understanding the new YA. And the answer to understanding what it is kids are reading is to read what the kids are reading. To understand that YA for YAs is meant to be read by intelligent discerning minds, by teenagers who are far smarter than a lot of adults give them credit for. Let's not forget that many teenagers are heading off to university by the time they are 17.

You don't want your 12 year old reading YA? There is still MG. There is some amazing MG out there (if I do say so myself). But you need to understand that difference between MG and YA. Because it didn't exist before recently. It's new. YA used to be MG. It isn't anymore.

And again, that's okay.

One final thought: Shakespeare is taught in, I'd venture to guess, almost every highschool in the English speaking world. Shakespeare was a genius. He can express thoughts and feelings in a way that is beyond perfect, you just want to roll his words around in your mouth they are so glorious. However. Shakespeare was also a naughty boy, and his plays are rife with blatant sexual jokes and innuendo. He was also a violent boy, writing about eye gouging, suicide, fights to the death. . .

Your teenagers are reading Shakespeare.

Is all I'm saying . . .

Lauren Conrad's book

So there has been some chatter on the forums I frequent about Lauren Conrad publishing a novel (for those not in the know, and I seriously envy you your ignorance, Lauren Conrad came to fame starring first in the "reality" television series "Laguna Beach" - about rich kids in California - and then graduated to her own reality show "The Hills").

This is a conversation that comes up every once and a while, and with sadly more and more frequency, as celebrities, particularly those famous for just being famous, announce they have just "written" and published a book. Real writers, and by this term I mean it not as an offense but quite literally, as very few of these celebrities write their own books, get a wee bit annoyed by such announcements and of course enjoy venting with one another online about it.

Their reason for venting is straightforward:

1. It's darn hard to publish a book. People who have spent their lives in the pursuit of such a goal, who have studied the craft in great detail, who are just in general passionate about reading and writing, suddenly discover some celeb who otherwise refuses to give a toss about books, profiting from the same industry they diss*. What's more they are getting published with relative ease. In fact often publishers will approach these celebs to ask them to write a book. I mean, what real author wouldn't love that? So of course there is just straightforward jealousy and frustration from those people out there who have dedicated their lives to writing and seeing their words in print.

* A sadly hilarious example of this is Kanye West dissing books as a whole, while at the same time promoting his own (seriously, this quote is from an interview about his book), talk about your serious oxyMoron:

"I am not a fan of books. I would never want a book's autograph . . . I am a proud non-reader of books. I like to get information from doing stuff like actually talking to people and living real life."

2. Celebs give the false impression that anyone can get a book published. It does a great disservice especially to the reputation of the picture book industry, because a lot of celebs have figured since they have kids they must know how to write a picture book, plus they're like super short, how hard can that be? It makes the public think, "Well how hard can it be to write and publish a book?" It contributes to the influx of queries that agents receive from people wanting to be published who seriously should never ever have had even the idea of writing a book in the first place. Besides which it kind of sucks that so many people think the job that you sweat blood and tears over is easy.

3. The books themselves wind up typically not being very good. Nor contributing anything particularly meaningful to society (not that all books need to, I'm just saying that celeb books rarely do this either). They come out in a flurry of hype, sell tons, make the celeb even more money than he/she probably needs, and then vanish off the radar just as quickly.


However.

I don't take issue with celeb books.

Sure I do find it somewhat sad that the public believes these celebs actually write their own books (9 times out of 10 it's a ghost writer), and sure I'd love it if my books would become instant bestsellers, and being an actor I seriously would not mind taking a tour of the talk show circuit.

But what authors, real authors, need to remember is that celeb books don't take away shelf space from other books. I know it seems like they do, but they really don't. They are their own market, and, what's more, serve a very important purpose in the industry. They make money. They make money predictably and quickly and by the truck load. And you know what happens when a publishing house makes money? They feel more financially secure. And what happens when they are financially secure? They can afford to take risks.

Celeb books, as well as the Dan Browns and Stephenie Meyers of the world, make it possible for smaller books, for more complex books, for, dare I say it, innovative books, to get published. The publishing house is willing to take a financial risk because it has a couple Lauren Conrads in their back pocket.

I know a lot of people don't think original interesting books are being published anymore. This is probably because all the attention goes to these celeb like books and it's hard to separate the wheat from the chaff. But the good stuff is out there too. Believe me, I've seen it, I've read it. I've blurbed it.

So maybe the biggest issue with these books is that they do take away attention from the good stuff. Even though now the good stuff is allowed to exist thanks in part to the celeb books, it still can flounder while once on the shelves - having been eclipsed by those same celeb books. Maybe that is the greatest negative I can point out. The noise from those books deafens us to the good stuff that IS out there. And once and a while you kind of wish publishers would take a small little interesting book and just promote the heck out of it like they do with the guaranteed successes.

And there's the rub. Those two words: guaranteed success. Because truly, it doesn't exist in the publishing industry. There is no path to bestsellerdom, even being a famous person does not guarantee success - there have been accounts of million dollar celeb book deals totally flopping once the book hit the shelves. So it's pretty hard to imagine a publishing house calmly willing to promote in the same manner a risky complex novel by an unknown author, not when even some celebs fail.

The celeb books are the closest the industry is ever going to get to a sure thing. That's why they aren't ever going to go away. And we real authors need to just sit back, relax a bit, and accept that as truth. And remember, behind most celeb books is a ghost author, and at least he/she is getting some work out of it. That's something!

Let's try to turn the tables on the celeb books. Instead of being frustrated, let's feel secretly smug. Let's thank them for getting us past the bouncer, let's watch them dance with frenetic energy, the centre of attention, until they burn out an hour later, and go off, limping towards home. And then we'll slowly get up, smooth out the wrinkles in our skirt, walk quietly to the middle of the room. And dance. And dance. And dance. Until we're the only ones left on the floor.

To mix my metaphors: Just keep swimming everyone. Just keep swimming.


**I am adding a caveat here, I realise that the term "real author" is provocative, and to be honest it is meant to be. However there are some celebs out there (typically they are not the celebs who are famous only for being famous) who ARE real authors, who happen to be multi-talented and actually write their own books, and are good at it. I'm talking Julie Andrews here, and John Lithgow etc. I think we all know to which celebs I am referring in this post.

Neil Gaiman at Luminato

Hey all! Just a quickie.

I wrote about the Neil Gaiman event that took place last night (which was awesome!) over at HardcoreNerdity.com. Check it out here (and I must say I am uber proud of the picture what I took).


Also I am officially up on the Polaris Convention website (July 10 - 12 here in Toronto), so yay!

I like being officially up on websites!

Off days . . .

We all have off days.

Especially us artistic types. Oy.

We can have off weeks, months . . . hopefully not years . . .

I must confess that I personally have been struggling for a little while now, dealing with all the usual fears associated with an artistic temperament. The usual worries, self doubts. And yes, despite my new year's resolution to be more confident (or again, as my friend puts it, "Be confident stupid!"), it isn't like I can automatically become something without a great deal of effort. New Year's resolutions aren't magical, they take work.

But I am feeling much better. I am. I am lucky because I have some amazing support, the coolest friends, the best family . . . people who will listen to me when I am down and cheer me on when I'm going for it. And awesome blog readers who make me smile with all their comments. So first off, I want to express my immense gratitude to all of you for your continuous support. It means a lot to me.

Thank you.

Next I want to talk about Kermit the Frog.

Now many of you will know that Kermit the Frog is Adrienne's ideal man (. . . frog, whatever). For those of you new to my blog, I shall explain briefly why. First off he is sensitive and very talented (can sing, dance, act, write his own material, produce and direct). He is also level headed and practical. However he can also cut loose, knows how to have a good time, and can be very funny. I mean his sense of humour in general is just fantastic - that laugh . . . Adding onto all of that he is also a leader of men . . . women . . . bears . . . pigs . . . chickens . . . rats. . . whats-its . . . etc. You feel better knowing he's around.

And he also owns his own theatre, which for an actress is a very attractive quality.

He is also wise, but not in an obnoxious pretentious way. He is wise in a simple perfectly put kind of way. And he does it through song.


Now the first half of my post and my second merge.


When all else fails, and you are feeling still a little down in your artistic endeavors, and even though your friends and family and blog readers have all made you smile, may I offer the following musical interlude to set your mind to purpose. It works wonders for yours truly, I do hope it can have the same effect on you guys.


For those of us seeking our rainbow connection:





Now that you have been inspired by my ideal man, may I offer you some more aquatic advice, this time of the more pragmatic variety. You now know what you want to do, so here's how to do it:




So there you go. Most importantly I think we need to remember that yup we can have off days, but that doesn't mean every day following will also be off. This too shall pass. And if it takes a little longer than usual . . . well . . . we've always got Kermit the Frog to keep us believing in the magic.

It ain't true if it ain't a little cheesy. :)

Book Expo of America (BEA) 2009!

First off let me apologise with my extra long absence. I realise that I have been starting many blog entries like that of late, but it doesn't make the sentiment any less sincere. Life has a way of being life you know? Getting in the way and all that . . .

At any rate, I am back, and with one of my uber extra long posts sharing every minor irrelevant detail of my adventures that was BEA this year. So put the kettle on, curl up with the cat, and enjoy the following tale!

Our story does not begin well unfortunately. I shan't go into great detail about what happened, but needless to say it involves an 8 hour delayed flight. I was supposed to get into the great and wonderful New York City at 3:30pm. Instead I arrived at the hotel at 1:ooam. This was a bit of a pity. However I did meet the delightful Marian Jarkovich who works for Robert Rose here in Toronto who was also attending BEA and so we hung out for the day in the airport, and shared a cab into the city.

Here is a picture of me pouting about the delay in the airport in Toronto:



I had to get up at a reasonable time Friday morning because that's when I was doing my official signing of copies of Timothy and the Dragon's Gate. I was of course really looking forward to it because there is nothing like a book signing to make an author feel special. That is, so long as people are there waiting for you to sign for them, otherwise it is uber depressing.

Fortunately once I was escorted to signing table number 6 there were a few people waiting for me, and once I started, there was a constant stream of people. It was so awesome, and everyone was just so sweet. I have to say though the highlight of the experience was that I was signing just two tables away from John Rocco, who I have mentioned many times on this blog as he is responsible for my awesome covers (and is a brilliant author/artist of his own work). He came over and we hugged and I might have been just a little too giddy about meeting him, I hope I didn't scare him . . . oy.

Since I only had an hour, we had to end the line for books. But when I went upstairs to the Weinstein Books booth to sign some stock I was kind of followed and I wound up signing books for another hour. I did not mind in the least. How can one mind something so very flattering?

Finally at 1pm we were done, and I met up with my amazing fellow Toronto author Tish Cohen for a brief lunch in the convention centre. We sat on some chairs and people watched and talked all about our experiences and general chat about the book world. Then she was off in a cab and I wondered around the centre for a bit to check things out.

Now I know a lot industry pros are saying the conference was way different this year, and I totally believe them as they kind of know what they are talking about, but from where I stood it seemed just as vibrant and packed as two years ago when I first attended. The only famous face I saw though was Neil Gaiman and that was a bit of an odd moment. See we follow each other on Twitter, but we of course don't actually know each other. The internet though is a strange place, and as I walked right by him I almost stopped and said "Hey" as if we were old friends. Until of course I realised he has no clue who I am. But it was quite a close call. He was of course signing copies of The Graveyard Book with the world's longest queue.

Then I went back to the hotel to wait for my friend Carrie (who lives in Boston) to come join me for the weekend. The rest of the weekend was awesome. Friday evening we had drinks with friends of Carrie's mom, then a late dinner with her friend Faran, her cousin, and her cousin's two just lovely friends. We walked on Saturday (glorious weather btw) from Rockefeller Center (which was right where the hotel was) all the way down to Battery Park - stopping off at lunchtime to meet with my friend John from LAMDA.

For dinner we met up with some amazing author ladies who I've met on the internet over at Verla Kay (aka The Blue Boards). We had so much fun, and were maybe just a little too giddy at the fact that we were meeting each other in person:


Then Carrie, her cousin, and I went to a massive bar on a barge on the Hudson. We climbed up to the top where we had a wonderful view of the city.

Next Carrie's cousin got a text from the two gents from the previous night inviting us to tag along to a midnight showing of "Up" which I have been dying to see. And so we saw it. And so we wept like babies (from sadness and laughter). This is a very good movie. See it.

Sunday, Carrie and I met up with Faran once more for a delectable lunch, and then we parted ways, she to go back to Boston, and me to check out the Guggenheim for the first time. I have to say, it was smaller than I expected. And very crowded.

I walked back to the hotel through Central Park which was just glorious, the weather was beyond perfect. My favourite bit was the ramble where despite the fact that the park was packed, there were very few souls to see.

The evening prompted another walk, where I wandered over to Times Square which was terrifying in how packed it was. I went up Fifth Avenue, and got to watch some fireworks going off in the distance. Then I stopped by Tiffany's to check out their window display and it was totally made for me: a combination of doorknobs and keys! (for those of you who know Alex and Timothy you'll know just how perfect that is) And so I took a picture:





Monday was my last day and I was doing a presentation for the Jewish Book Network as well as joining them for a luncheon. It went very well. I think it helped that I demonstrated to them all the proper way to die melodramatically. Yes, you read that right. And I got to meet a lot of lovely people.

And then I was off home. The flight was not only right on time, it got in early. I went from the airport to the pub to meet up with some friends. And then finally home where my glorious pillow was waiting for me.

And then I slept.

And it was good.


Some pictures!


Outside the Javits Center which was where the BEA was being held . . .



Signing books with enthusiasm!



Inside the lobby area of the Javits. You'll note in the above picture posters for the latest Dan Brown book. I understand that they felt they needed to hang 30 ft posters because they are concerned no one will have heard of this book otherwise. Kind of have to feel sorry for this Dan Brown guy . . .


The Hachette Book Group section (they distribute Weinstein Books - whose booth you can see in the distance).


Just loved looking at the seeming infinite numbers in the sky . . .


Carrie and I stopped into St. Patrick's Cathedral, we'd never been inside before!


Proof we made it to Battery Park (doesn't Carrie look proud of herself!).


Me just hanging around at Battery Park. Gorgeous day right?


Radio City Music Hall - right across the street from my hotel. Purdy ain't it?

Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Some more links . . .

Sigh, I'm really sorry guys. I've been overwhelmed with my writing projects lately and every time I think I'm in a lull ready to wax philosophical to all you guys, something else crops up.

But I do feel guilty that already a week has gone by without word from yours truly. So I thought today, because it takes little time for me to do, I'd do one of those link salads things. Basically link you to a couple of blog entries I've read recently about the writing industry that I just thought you might be interested in.

First today there were two blog entries by two different agents detailing how much they love their jobs. It might seem like a strange subject to write about, one would hope they loved their jobs, but seeing as lately there have been a lot of negative blogs out about the relationship between agents and writers, I thought some positivity was in order:

Janet Reid: Publishing may not be perfect but . . .

Jessica Faust: An Agent's Passion


Meanwhile agent Kristin Nelson is in the UK for the London Book Fair (which takes place at Earls Court which was so close to where I used to live, le sigh) and has been reporting about it here.


Next I was directed to this interesting article from 2008 about appearance (specifically female appearance) and being an author. Considering my post a few weeks ago about gender and publishing, I thought it would be interesting for you guys to check out:

Writer's Digest: Does This Book Jacket Make Me Look Fat?


Another topic I often like to discuss is trends. Often I talk about how it's impossible to gauge what the next trend will be, and jumping on bandwagons is silly because what is published today was bought two years ago. But there is also the flipside, the worry that one shouldn't write a certain book because the topic has been so trendy lately (a current example might be Vampires). The ever amazing Nathan Bransford has a great post up today about the fact that there are few original concepts out there, and writing has more to do with execution than idea. It's good reading:

Nathan Bransford: On Concepts


And lastly, and ridiculously, most of you know I am also a correspondent for a website called HardcoreNerdity. Well my latest task has been writing the "Manly Monday" article (I know I know. We also have a "Foxy Friday"), where I get to basically objectify some actor in some genre role and say why he is so awesome. This week seems especially appropriate to my writing blog as I chose Jason Isaacs as Captain Hook. You can check out the article (complete with pics) here. You can also then click through to some previous entries that include Robert Downey Jr. as Iron Man, and The Men of Middle Earth.

Very silly, true. But fun!


That's all for today, hope this post will do for now. Uber apologies again for my poor posting of late!

Tuesday, April 07, 2009

Gender in the Publishing World

(there will be many generalisations in today's post, I realise there are exceptions to every rule, and that people are individuals first, categories second . . . but today I am afraid I will be indulging in generalities. My apologies.)

Today I wanted to ask a question that's been on my mind a lot lately:

how big a role do you think gender plays in the world of books?

This is a broad question and meant to be. There are so many different levels on which one can discuss this topic. And it of course depends on your role in this world, there is a different perspective from each area: publisher, agent, author, reader . . .

For example, as an author, I often wonder whether men (or I suppose boys in my case with my audience) are put off reading a book with a female author's name obviously at the bottom. I know lots of boys read JK Rowling, but there was a reason her publisher suggested she use her initials only. Not only did they hope to widen her potential market, they also felt that because her main character was a boy, it was the best way not to alienate that audience.

I have to say that I have been pleasantly surprised by the number of boys who read Alex and really enjoy it. We are told often that boys will not read a book with a female protagonist, and I actually had a boy the other day look at me in shock when I mentioned Alex was a girl. This boy had already read the book, in which I say often that Alex is a girl, and yet I suppose because it isn't about the fact that she is a girl, that she isn't particularly "girly", whatever that is, he actually forgot he was reading about the opposite gender and saw her more as an "everyman" (everywoman?) kind of character. Something, I must be honest, that was indeed one of my goals with the book, so I am immensely pleased. But at the same time, does this mean that if I write a "girly" protagonist I will lose the boys who so enjoyed my other books simply on that fact alone?

As a reader . . . I have noticed that a novel written by a woman that centres around romance (though isn't necessarily a Romance Novel), tends to be shuffled aside as "chick lit", while similar novels by men are categorised as general fiction, and tend to be treated with a bit more respect. I have also noticed that men keen on writing Romance Novels feel a need to change their names to appeal to that audience as well. I have also heard tell of men being frustrated with an industry and audience that is predominantly female, and that the male audience/POV isn't always taken into consideration.

This disparity between the genders seems to exist in every genre. Agent Kristin Nelson wrote in her blog post entitled Dad Wisdom & Publishing:

"From my personal experience (and I really can only speak from that perspective), I truly believe that for literary fiction, it’s much easier to sell boy writers than gals. I know. Who can possibly make such a general statement but I have to say that I’ve encountered several worthy manuscripts that I’m rather convinced that if the writer had been male, the novel would have sold."

She also wrote another very interesting blog entry about the genders entitled PW Survey Says about the differences between genders within the publishing industry itself (an industry, one will note, that is heavily female).

And I find it all so distinctly odd. I do think that there are certain types of fiction in which, for whatever reason, certain genders prefer to write, but if someone from the opposite gender has done a decent job of it in their "wrong" genre, why shouldn't they be allowed the same chances and same level of respect for it? And why is it that two people can write a very similar story, and be shuffled off into totally different categories?

On a personal level I have met some interesting reactions with being a woman who is also funny. Many people (usually men - again generalisation) simply refuse to believe at first that I am as funny as I wind up being in my writing. Even in person I have had men look at me in total shock and say, "Actually you're quite funny." My books get that same response, and I must confess there are times I wonder what sort of reaction they would have got if the name on the cover had been Adrian, and not Adrienne. I wonder if by reading a book with a female name, readers (another sweeping generalisation) expect a certain sincere offering, and when a woman makes an ironic/satirical or cynical joke, the reader gets confused and sees it as not meant to be funny in the first place.

I have no proof to back that last statement up, it truly is just a question lingering in my mind that I'm not sure will ever be answered. But I do think there is an inherit prejudice (either in favour or against) an author of the "wrong" gender in a certain category. Someone will see the name, not even process it consciously, but somehow it will still affect how they read the work.

In fact I would suggest you try this little game at home, where you pick up a book by a female author say, and open it up and pretend it was written by a man and see if that changes your perspective on it (and vice versa)? I have, and I have to admit that there are times where it really changes the way in which I read the book. But maybe that says more about me, than anything else.

So what do you guys think? Am I totally off my rocker? Does gender matter in writing? In the publishing world? Is there a bias for one over the other in certain genres? And really anything else you feel like contributing to the discussion!

Wednesday, April 01, 2009

Ad Astra 2009

Yes my third Ad Astra convention was this weekend, and I have to say that it was by far the most exhausting one I've been to. But this of course had something to do with the fact that I was on many more panels this time round, and was doing a co-signing/reading with the lovely Lesley Livingston (author of Wondrous Strange). I've also made some amazing friends over the years at the con, so there were also their events to attend as well. In all, it was an amazing event, but I'm not sure I've quite recovered yet!

So . . . the story!

Lesley and I arrived around 9am on the Saturday to put up some posters about our reading. We'd changed the time so as not to conflict with the awesome and extremely prolific Ms. Julie Czerneda, so we needed to inform the general populace of this. We had decided to call our event, "Dark Power and Mouthy Cleverness: together at last!" in honour of our awesome shared Globe and Mail review.

We were both a wee bit tired that morning. It did not bode well for the rest of the weekend.

Then we had to hustle to our first event which was a panel on getting into writing YA, which we shared with Michelle Rowan and Marc Mackay. We were certain no one would show up, it being first thing in the morning, but as we went on, by the end of the hour, we had a full house. 'Twas awesome.

Next was Lesley on a panel about putting combat in books. Lesley was fantastic and more than held her own despite the fact that she was slightly hidden behind a post.

We then went to listen to Julie Czerneda read from her latest book, in a very crowded room, and then we were off to support the amazing Douglas Smith, who has had a collection of short stories published: Impossibilia. This really impresses me because in the publishing industry I'd say short story anthologies, along with poetry and picture books, are one of the hardest things to get commercially published. So it was very cool. Got to buy a book and have it autographed of course.

Then Lesley and I parted ways as I was to help Julie Czerneda teach a writing workshop to teens. Really I'm more like her assistant and comic relief, Julie is so awesome at leading these workshops, but we had a great time with the teens, and they seriously came up with some truly original ideas. Really fantastic ideas. Pretty marketable ideas too.

Then, finally, I got a bit of a break. By now it was 3:30pm and I hadn't really had anything to eat. Of course I actually didn't get a chance to eat anything at that moment either as Lesley and I had to set up for our reading, but I did snag a few of the mini cupcakes I brought along for the event. Heck they were my cupcakes and I can eat them if I want to.

The reading was well attended, despite the change in time and location. We hadn't really prepared what we would say or how we would start it, so we kind of just looked at each other, and then Lesley read first. She did a great job, getting tons of laughs, and then I read, doing a great job and getting tons of laughs. We really are fabulous, what can I say?

Then we had a draw for a cover plate of her book, and the audio book of Alex. And then we signed books (which had been provided courtesy of the lovely Chris Szego at Bakka Phoenix Books).

Finally we were done for the day. At least, professionally. It was 6pm and we stuck around until midnight, hanging out in the bar with the likes of Martin Springett, S.K.S. Perry, JM Frey, Steph Lalonde, Joe O'Brien, Caitlin Sweet, Jonathan Llyr, Gabrielle Harbowy and Russell Winkelaar (and many more, but there was so much coming and going it was hard to keep track, apologies for leaving anyone out, trust me I adore you all!). I had a ridiculously long and wonderful conversation about how awesome Pixar is with Karin Lowachee and Derek Molata (which basically consisted of us saying, "What about Finding Nemo!" "Oh yeah that one is awesome! You know what part I like best. . . ." and then "What about The Incredibles!" "Oh yeah that one is awesome! You know what part I like best . . ." etc etc).

Then Lesley and I got rides home from the lovely Mr. Perry, and I fell asleep the second my head touched the pillow.

DAY 2

I didn't need to be at the hotel until 11am the next day, and my dad was kind enough to give me a ride again. I met Lesley at the coffee stand. She was very frustrated that she had only managed to fill her cup half way before the pot had run out of coffee. But we had no time to wait for a fresh one as we had to go to the launch of Julie Czerneda's latest anthology Ages of Wonder, for which the amazing Caitlin Sweet had written a story. All the authors came dressed up in a manner that reflected what they had written. Caitlin was tiny bit late curling her hair, but she looked fab so it was worth it.

They drew for prizes.

I did not win.

Then I headed over to be on a panel about adding humour into serious works along with Steven Kerzner (for those Canadians out there, Mr. Kerzner's alter ego is Ed the Sock), D.K. Savage, and Ed Greenwood. It turned out that most of us on the panel really tend to add humour into humourous works, but I still think we managed to keep on topic. In fact it was a heck of a lot of fun, and fortunately also pretty hilarious. There's also always that added pressure of talking about humour that people expect you to be funny talking about it. Not sure why. I think it could be pretty entertaining to have a very serious, dry conversation about humour. It also doesn't help that I'm still a bit uncomfortable in my role as humourist (despite the fact that it seems to be something I'm quite good at). For a blog entry about my said discomfort, please click here.

I would also like to add that despite his alter ego Ed the Sock being a rather crass individual, Steve Kerzner himself is just lovely.

Just so you know.

Then I had to fly off to see Mr. Jonathan Llyr in action. As you may know, I work as a correspondent for his website, harcorenerdity.com, as well as am a member of his theatre company, Tempest Theatre. He's a pretty big name in the geekish parts of Canada having worked for the Space channel for around a decade and interviewed just about every SF/F celebrity out there. So of course they asked him if he'd be interested in being on a panel about the upcoming Star Trek movie.

Thing is, he'd actually seen around 20 minutes of the film in a special screening, so while the rest of the panel were speculating, John actually had the serious knowledge. The panel for that reason wound up really interesting, because it wasn't just all speculation, but fact as well. And it was fun. And now I REALLY can't wait to see the movie.

(btw I should add that John was VERY skeptical about this film, kind of almost against it, and then he saw those 20 minutes and totally did a 180, so I'm pretty confident it will be pretty good)

Then Lesley and I dashed off to join Violette Malan (MOD), Fiona Patton and the amazing Tamora Pierce (who is so funny and deadpan - love it) on a panel about YA reading for Grownups. I think this panel was my favourite. It was all about what makes YA (and MG) so worth reading as an adult, what makes YA/MG unique. It was just really inspiring, talking about the hope the genre offers. How we are all so sick of everything in adult literature being so ironic, world weary and cynical. I pointed out that in Timothy, the main character IS world weary and cynical, but the difference is that attitude is meant to be perceived as foolish, not heroic. Truly we just missed the grand heroic stories from our youth. Tamora Pierce pointed out that she felt MG was where the true innovation was these days, and that made me feel happy as sometimes even in talking with YA authors you can feel a bit like a lesser author writing MG.

In all it was just fabulous, we laughed a lot, we also just got so excited about the genre. Because, really, there is so much there to be excited about.

And then we were done. And then we were exhausted. And then John, Lesley, Russell and I went to the Keg for linner (lunch/dinner). And then I went home, watched the Star Trek Family Guy (Rob Lowe? What the heck?). And then I went to bed.

I begin to drift off. Let my mind wander. Yay, think I, I get to sleep in . . . I get to . . . Holy ****! I sit blot upright, "I have an audition first thing in the morning!" Set alarm early to allow myself time to go over my monologues in the morning. Lie back down.

And finally . . . .

Drift off to sleep.



And now. . . some pictures!! Yay . . .

Getting into writing YA panel, left to right: Me, Lesley, Michelle Rowan and Marc Mackay.


Lesley on the fight panel. Slightly hidden behind the speaker stand.


Douglas Smith reading from his anthology.


Me and Lesley at our reading: "You go first" "No you go first. . ."


Me reading from Timothy.


Me finding myself utterly hilarious.


Me and Lesley FINALLY done for the day and able to relax.


Things get a little silly.


Then, for some reason, sophisticated.
(with that hat and the wine, it's hard for Russell not to appear so . . .)


Day 2 at the Ages of Wonder launch. The trio together again, Lesley, Caitlin (all greeked up) and me. Aren't we just fab?


The adding humour into serious works panel. Left to right: DK Savage, Steven Kerzner, me, Ed Greenwood.

We found ourselves terribly amusing.


John at the Star Trek film panel. Sitting next to moderator, David Clink.


John noticing me taking his picture. He is not amused. Odd.


Tamora Pierce, Violet Malan and Fiona Patton: the left hand side of the YA reading for Grownups panel.


Me and Lesley: the right hand side of same panel.

And now we rumble.

No.

Not really.

Not at all.

But Lesley and I get to be the Sharks. Is all I'm saying . . .

Monday, March 23, 2009

Reviewed in the Globe and Mail!

Hey all!

I must apologise for my long absence. I've been busy working on edits for my YA (to be utterly clear, this YA has not been sold yet to a publisher or anything, when I say edits, I mean that I am currently working with my agent to make the book as super awesome as possible before sending it out to editors). It was a rather time consuming activity, and managed to make my back feel rather uncomfortable. But they're done, yay! And now I have some time to do . . . other stuff. Including blogging. I have some blog posts planned for this week (I've been brainstorming even if I haven't been blogging), so I'm looking forward to sharing them with you.

However today, I'm catching up on fun things, like paying bills and food shopping, so instead of composing something particularly dense, I thought I'd share with you all some awesome news that happened this weekend..

Timothy and the Dragon's Gate was reviewed in the Globe and Mail on Saturday! For those of you who aren't Canadian, the Globe and Mail is the largest national paper in Canada. Getting a review from them alone is next to impossible, getting one of a children's book even more so . . .

And getting a review that ALSO reviews your good friend's book? Well the odds are astronomical.

Yes by sheer amazing coincidence, I got the distinct honour to be reviewed in the SAME article as my amazing friend, the lovely Lesley Livingston (whom I've written about many a time here on this blog, and who's first book, Wondrous Strange, is doing wonderfully well). We also share the article with Charles De Lint, but really, I'm more excited about us.

So that alone is super cool. Super cooler is that both our books garnered reviews that could be called nothing short of glowing. However the coolest bit, in my opinion, can only be found in the print version. At the top of the article you'll find our pictures with the following caption: "Livingston and Kress: dark power and mouthy cleverness".


Technically Lesley would be dark power, I would be mouthy cleverness, but to look at our pictures you would think the opposite.

Still, pretty awesome superpowers to have. Well . . . maybe not mouthy cleverness. I can't see how that would really save the day . . . in fact I could see it causing more grief than good. Could be really annoying.

Anyway . . . it was a great way to start off a Saturday, and so special that I got to share it with Lesley. Gots to love happy coincidences!

I have to apologise for my long absence from MySpace.  My account was "phished" and I had a lot of issues trying to get out of a vicious cycle of constantly changing my password.  But so far it appears like I'm finally back!  Yay!

So thank you to all my new friends for wanting to be my new friends!  Thank you to all the lovely comments, in the comments section and on my blog.  I really appreciate them, and you are all so very sweet!

And I'm going to post some more blog entries here from my "normal" blog, get you guys back up to speed on what's been going on in my life.

Again, I hope no one has been thinking I've been ignoring them, it's been one frustrating time I have to say!

all best,

Adrienne