The Wild World of Author Visits

With my book launching in a few months I’ll all keen to get out in the world and do some presentations as a debut YA author. Earlier this year I did a few low key school visits, a public library teen book club visit and an online chat with teen readers at TeenRC. Those first dips in the author circuit pool will hopefully come in handy. But the thing is – I don’t want to be one of those authors.

If you’ve ever sat in on an author visit that’s going south – you know the ones I’m talking about - the author who never quite connects with his/her audience (however small or large). There’s a distance, a pretension that comes through loud and clear and no amount of high wattage smiles or scripted jokes can mask it.

Working in school and public libraries, I’ve been on the organizational side of an author visit – I know the value of a grounded author, one who is approachable, stays generally on topic and can put the crowd at ease with the appropriate level of goofiness or dramatic intensity as the occasion warrants.

I’ve seen authors choke at school visits (not physically, but you know what I mean) – they’re just too afraid to be silly, to be kid-friendly, to make mistakes. And then I’ve witnessed a whole gym full of kids from kindergarten to grade six absolutely enthralled at the retelling of childhood foibles that later became the basis of a writer's work. (I’m speaking here of Canadian author, Sigmund Brouwer, who wowed students and staff during an hour-long presentation we’ll not soon forget - if you ever get the chance to hear him speak....jump on it!).

So here’s to a debut year of author bookings, a year of goofing around, accidentally offending people (I tend to do that), of getting a few things right and a whole bunch of stuff wrong. If any of you have tips for the newbie, I’m all ears.

NaNoWrimo- Week 3...already?

See below on how to win a free YA book, but first we discuss NaNoWrimo!

I can't believe it's week three of NaNoWrimo already. Does that scare anyone else? I'm practically shaking in my boots...or Converse actually.

All in all, week three has been a success so far. I have yet to write today (today being Thursday afternoon) and I'm at 30,291. I was able to fill gaps and grow my characters while writing like a madwoman. I hope to come close to 35,000 today since I won't be able to write Friday-Sunday. At this point, I'm happy with my progress, despite realizing that I will have to rewrite the whole thing over again. That's what NaNo is for, right? Developing your ideas and characters before making the next draft pretty. Make sure to share how you're doing in the comments section.

Our frequent visitors may have noticed that we've placed a YAedge Follower widget in the sidebar. If you aren't following us already, please do so! Once we hit 30 followers, I will be giving away one YA book* to one lucky random follower. For every 30 followers, a new book will be available to win (one free book at 30, then 60 and so on)!

I hope everyone has a great weekend and hits their NaNoWrimo goals!

*I have yet to decide what book that will be, but will keep you updated.

Class of 2K10: Book Your Getaway

Take a break from NaNo, just a teeny one, and check out this update on the progress of the Class of 2K10.

In less than a month, the Class of 2K10 website and plan for world domination will unfold! The site has a fun passport theme with vintage images/tones – I just know you’re gonna likes it. ;) If you want to get ahead of the launch, we have a blog, Facebook page and Twitter profile - come and hang with us. You won’t want to miss our December long “Grad Party” sending the Class of 2K9 off in style.

We have several titles to launch in January, so we’re coming out of our corner swinging. In the meantime, here’s the promo trailer that the fabulous, amazing, stellar Madison at M2 Productions created for us. Enjoy the sneak peek at 23 must reads debuting in 2010!

Crawling Through Week 2

Happy Friday the 13th!

Week two ofNanowrimo is almost over and it hasn't been as kind to me as week 1 was. I've struggled due to work taking over, whether good or bad. Although not an excuse, I've been drained once home and have barely been able to open my laptop to start. The situation at work seems to be looking up, so here's to week 3!

This year for NaNoWrimo is interesting for me as far as my story is concerned. I'm writing a story I had previously started (but threw everything away from the first start, so I started from scratch) and had a complete synopsis for. I generally knew my characters, but not enough to really feel them, if that makes sense. Their words don't flow through my head, their action not obvious. I struggle each time they open their mouths.

Yesterday, instead of writing actual words, I decided to look through what I had written so far and use my plotting excel chart to see where the holes need to be filled. This helped a ton (despite the file now being corrupt) and I hope that it will speed up the writing process a bit. I won't be sending precious minutes trying to figure out what to write next.

Despite all of this, I'm not too far behind. I'm writing this at 3:30pm on Thursday, having yet written a single word for NaNoWrimo today. I hope to finish this post and get right to it, if work doesn't interrupt. My total as of right now is: 16,849

I will admit, every year I've done NaNo, I've had the hardest time in the middle of week 2 and the beginning of week 3. Hopefully that will happen this year and I will pull into the winner circle just in time.

That being said, I want to hear how all of you are doing! Please post your totals in the comments. I hope to have a contest soon, maybe next week. I just need to decide what YA books I have to use as contest giveaways, so stay tuned!

Book Fair Buys

There was a Chapters book fair at the local high school, so I dropped in to nab a few titles. While browsing, I chatted with my favourite Chapters manager, Bryan, and his lovely assistant, Megan - who, on a side note, pointed me in the direction of a publicist looking for clients. Books and a possible marketing guru connection! The trip was well worth the drive in the icky sleet.

I purchased a few titles I’ve been dying to get my hands on:

hush, hush by Becca Fitzpatrick – sure, there was a lot of hype for this release, and "angels might be the new vampires..." as Megan said - but still – I read this one in a night and will be waiting for the next book.

Going Bovine by Libba Bray – my twitter friends had me itching for this title, they said it was hilarious and I don’t doubt it. A kid with mad cow disease, a punk angel, a dwarf and a yard gnome go on a warped journey as they search for a cure. There’s a combination I couldn’t resist.

For my hubbie and love of my life (which is handy, being that we’re hitched and all), I purchased Tim Hamilton’s graphic novel adaptation of Ray Bradbury’s, Fahrenheit 451. He might get to read it….but only when I’m finished.

Bryan and Megan recommended I try Monstrumologist by Rick Yancey. If you can read the back cover blurb without buying the book, you’re no fiend of mine. ;) They also suggested The Hunchback Assignments by Arthur Slade. Canadian author and young adult steampunk thriller?! All too quickly, that gem joined my stack of finds.

And that was my little book shopping expedition at the high school book fair. Not too shabby. What have you picked up lately?

Nanowrimo- Week 1

How many of you are doing NaNoWrimo? Raise your hands! How many of you have started actually writing your NaNo novel? Raise your hands! If you have your hand raised, great job! Even putting down a few words each day is a huge accomplishment. There are too many distractions in our world today for most people to spend the small amount of free time they have, working on something fun, inspiring and creative. Just starting NaNoWrimo means you deserve a pat on the back.

Now comes the hard part. How many of you are on pace to finish on time? Raise your hands! I'm sure a few of you have had to put your hands down at this point, but don't fret! There is still plenty of time to catch up. The weekend is almost upon us, that is the great news. It's a great time to sit down with no other worries, throw dinner in a crock pot, tell your family it's time to write and just do it (now I sound like a Nike ad from the 90's).

So, congrats to all the NaNoWrimo participants out there. Feel good about yourself for taking this mighty task upon yourself. And for those who have yet to get started, there is still time. You can still sign up at NaNoWrimo.org and catch up to everyone. It seems like there are two different NaNo'ers. The ones who start strong, giving themselves a head start, but slow down in the end or those who have a slow start and have a marathon ending. Both work (trust me, I've done both-this is my 4th year participating), so don't worry if you're behind.

For those of you who are looking for a writing buddy, feel free to link up with me here. I'm always happy to have more word counts to stare at as mine stays in place.

So, for what you've all been waiting for, my word count! As I type this (on Thursday evening), I'm at 10,040. I've had some marathon of word wars to help my count! Thanks to everyone's participation in that!

Good luck on week 2 everyone! I'd love to see how all of you are doing in the comments section!

The Winner of the Halloween YA Book bundle is...

Llehn!

Congrats Llehn, you're the winner of the Halloween YA Book bundle. Please be sure to email us at YAedge AT yahoo DOT com. If you email us your address by Friday, I'll try and make a trip to the post office this weekend.

The winner was picked using a random number generator based on the numbering of the comments from the original post.

For all of the loyal blog commenters who didn't win, stay tuned for more giveaways in November!

Also, each Friday in the month of November, I'll be posting about my progress with NaNoWrimo. You can watch my daily progress and become my writing buddy here!

Have a great day everyone!