Temporary Changes

I've kind of been hinting at this for a while now, but I'm finally having to implement things. I am temporarily putting the blog on semi-hiatus. (How's that for non-committal?) Basically, things have gotten really busy for me and I can't commit to blogging every week here for the time being.

However...

I'm not going to shut up completely. (Like you thought I could do that. Ha!)

This should have gone up last week but, life being as it is, I was a bit overwhelmed last week and it got pushed back. So... officially, I'm only going to be blogging here the first Thursday of the month. I might do it more often than that, but it'll be hit or miss. Additionally, if I have news, I will be sure to share.

I don't plan for this to be a permanent change, but for the time being it's a necessary one.

As for today, I'm off to get my hair done (finally!) and then I have to spend more time being adult-me. And then I have to be mom-me. Hopefully soon I'll get to be YA-me again.

In the meantime, I've been pondering Alice in Wonderland a lot lately and this video always reminds me of a darker version. We'll see if all those thoughts manage to converge into something. Enjoy!

Meet Me in Chicago!

I am on the train to ChiCon (or getting ready to get on the train... or already in Chicago). Either way, it's ChiCon and I'll be there. If you'll be there too, find me...

Saturday 10:30-noon (in Wrigley): Why I Love My Editor panel

Saturday 7-7:30 (in Addams): Reading (definitely my adult urban fantasty Kiss of Death, possibly a bit of something else if there's time and dependent on the age of the audience, I might do Pretty Souls)

Sunday 5-6:30 (in Toronto): Literary Beers with Seleste deLaney (where I'll talk magic, urban fantasy, corsets, steampunk, sex, and romance--and there will be beer--since there's beer, I'm assuming this is a 21 and over event)

Otherwise, I'll be bopping around like my normal half-awake-half-crazy self. Feel free to stop me to say hi :) 

How Many of Me Do We Really Need?

Adult-me is on a blog tour this week and next for a book coming out on Tuesday, so I'm a little frazzled and completely forgot which day it was. Anyway, apologies for the tardiness of my post here.

Most of my readers are well aware that I write adult fiction (paranormal romance, urban fantasy, etc) under another name. When I first started in the business, I had these plans of keeping the two personae totally separate. That lasted about a day on Twitter before I accidentally tweeted something about my first adult release on my YA account. Then I said "Screw it" and removed the very thin veil of secrecy. My thought was that my names were different enough there wouldn't be any mistaking one for the other, so it was no big deal.

Considering the PRT books are on hold temporarily and my other YA projects are in various stages of submission, I haven't had a lot to talk about here or on Twitter. And I'm starting to wonder if separating my worlds so much was really my best plan. Don't get me wrong, I like having the two names to keep things very clearly separated, but I'm starting to think two Twitter accounts is... less than useful. I've had similar thoughts about two websites (though I think that is less likely to change in the long run) and two blogs in addition to group blogs (which may just mean I decrease my individual blogs to every other week).

I think I'm going to spend some time talking to my editors who work with both adult and YA and discuss the possibility of "merging" my accounts. (Essentially putting both author names on the account but a screen name that works for both.) I'm still not sure it's a good idea, but I feel like I'm neglecting people by not talking on the other account. Long story short, it's making me sad. I don't need more sad in my life.

Like many things I don't think this will be a quickly made decision, so bear with me while I ponder things. And in the meantime, if you wouldn't mind keeping your fingers crossed regarding some of those other projects, I'd be incredibly grateful.

YA and Digital Publishing

There have been studies on teens and their book buying habits. A lot of them. And recent ones have shown both that teens are reluctant to get on the ereader train and that digital sales of YA fiction are skyrocketing. They cite sales of Twilight and Hunger Games and the like. The problem is that those books are selling no matter what format they're in.

Not unlike erotica and erotic romance, a lot of adult women are embarrassed to read YA in public. There is an "I shouldn't read this" attitude that makes reading on digital devices "safer." So, the best sellers are showing an uptick.

A key difference between the erotica/erotic romance digital sales and the YA digital sales is that the YA sales aren't shifting to digital first/digital only publishers. At least not in the same droves. The problem is YA sales are dependent on actual teen readers. They are the ones who give books the push they need to succeed--they're the ones who make a book popular enough that those adult readers hear the buzz.

What that means is those YA digital first/digital only publishers have a daunting task ahead of them. They're trying to sell books to people who don't shop in the same way as their adult readers. Teens don't go hunting for new stores to buy books from. Which means unless the publisher puts a lot of money and effort into promotion, they won't reach that target audience.

What's interesting to note is that there are the occasional self-pubbed YA titles that take off. Whether that's because the author really knows how to target their promotional efforts or they hit with the right book at the right time or they sold their soul... (This is not to say any of those success stories are undeserving, merely to point out that there seems to be a gap in knowledge from those successes to publishers being able to mimic them.)

So, what's the trick? How does one prod teens to go in search of books that aren't hitting the shelves of their local bookstore? Books that aren't the ones all their friends have already read?

Remembering When

One of the things that I think can make or break a YA author is how well they remember and connect with their own teenage years. It's one of the reasons a lot of people right out of college do really well with YA--their teen years aren't that far behind them and a lot of the adult stuff is either new or hasn't happened yet.

I did a rather angry post yesterday at the Evil League of Evil Writers about life experiences and how they affect authors. One point I made is that everyone's life is different; even when we experience the same things, we likely will change in different ways in the aftermath. "Adult" experiences ("real job," marriage, children, divorce, etc) tend to pull people further and further away from that connection to their youth--unless they actively fight against it.

The book I was reading last week is by an author I've read for years. Over the last few books, I've really started to question her "YA brain." She had her female characters doing things and behaving in such ways that it made them (for me) stupid and rather unlikeable. Everything from the way a breakup was handled to weight issues to not understanding how someone could be hurt by betrayal.

Here's the thing... I remember being a teenager pretty well. Everything is bigger then. The highs are higher, the lows lower, and someone's world is going to end pretty much every week. At least this was my high school experience.

But all of us "got it." There was no "you two broke up three months ago, you should be over it." There might be a nudge toward the cute guy behind door number three, but not "get over it" attitude. When someone (male or female) dumped their girlfriend/boyfriend in a horrible way... people reacted. Sure, their friends might've stood by them. (And even there, sometimes there's irritation and anger. For example, I broke up with a guy--after a couple days--because kissing him felt like kissing a relative. My friends who were friendly with him as well weren't exactly happy with me.) But the jiltee's friends? No. They would want the jilter's head on a platter with a side of fries, thank you very much.

And, the level of this anger is in direct correlation to how long the couple dated, how long one wanted to date the other. Those things matter, and most teenagers (especially most teenage girls) wouldn't brush them aside.

Adults do that.

And the minute teen characters (no matter how responsible they might be) start to act like adults in those instances, they lose credibility for me. And so does the author.

I know YA fiction is hot right now, and a lot of agents and editors are dying for some quality middle grade novels, but... if an author can't deeply connect with that part of their past, it shows. It's been showing with this particular author for the last three books... maybe even four. The result is that I'm torn with continuing to buy the books. I'm emotionally invested in one character, but I'm not sure my wallet cares enough to find out what happens to him in a world where teenagers seem to have forgotten how to be teenagers.

Sorry

Apologies for the lack of blogging. I was away last week, and this week... I'm reading a YA that is making me really angry. I'm trying to give it the benefit of the doubt, but last time I did that with this author, I was horribly disappointed.

At the moment I'm debating a post about the book (without naming the book) to discuss the issue that's plaguing me. Honestly, it's the only thing YA-related that's on my mind at the moment, so there's no post this week either until I get my thoughts in line on the matter.

Sorry...

On Bullies...

In my past life, I was a high school teacher. Prior to that I was... a summa cum laude graduate, marching band member, choir member, statistician for the wrestling team, treasurer of the drama club, mathlete, and science geek. And those were the good years. In my younger years, I was... less cool than that. (Actually, as odd as it sounds, my high school years were awesome. I truly believe it had a lot to do with the school I went to as it encouraged activity cross-overs.)

The point is between my years of nerdiness and my years teaching, I've seen more than my fair share of bullies. And I've heard about even more.

Lately there's been a lot of talk on the internet about bullies on review sites--specifically GoodReads. The thing is... I think the people using that word either never dealt with bullies or forgot what it was like.

When children are in school and being bullied, there are a few things that they tend to have in common...
- Bullies attack outsiders. They rarely target the jocks or the popular kids or the rich kids. They go after those who are different or who don't have a lot of friends.
- The bullies hide what they do from anyone who can do anything about it. They don't throw kids against lockers in front of teachers. They do it when anyone with authority isn't around. They don't taunt their targets aloud in class, they whisper when the teacher is helping another student.
- They can't be avoided. Bullies are in the same school, oftentimes in the same classes, as their targets. Those students can't just walk away or pretend they don't exist because they are always there.
- They follow their targets. Bullies will wait outside practices to torment students after school. They will send them messages online to follow them home. The abuse is doesn't stop when the target leaves school.
- The people who try to stand up to bullies are often targets themselves. Bullies attack where they see weakness. That means that the only hope for targets is strength in numbers--something that rarely happens.

None of this seems to be true of the instances of "reviewer-bullying." Reviewers are, by definition, critical--it's part of the job. When an author (or publisher or agent or publicist) chooses to send a book out for review, they are aware of the possibility that there will be both good and bad reactions to the work... just like they'll get from readers when the book hits shelves. This is part of the gig.

Are some people jerks--especially with the anonymity allowed by the internet? Yes. Is GoodReads home to a lot of them? Also yes. There are reasons authors are advised to avoid their reviews. It's because even the "good" ones can sting.

The bad ones? Those are brutal. The assholes? Even worse. I've seen some of the horrible stuff trolls have said about books by friends of mine. They are vicious and nasty.

But here's the difference... the author and any of their fans has the ability to walk away from those reviews and foul comments--and never see them again. The "reviewer-bullies" don't seem to be following authors home or sending them death threats. The worst they've done? Gone on Twitter and mentioned their experience with the book and/or author. Contrary to popular belief, Twitter is not high school (or even elementary or middle school)--it's too damn big a crowd for people to just follow. One person tweets a bad experience? Even if it's re-tweeted by a hundred people, it's still only hitting a small corner of the internet. And that assumes there are a hundred people who are going to believe it on face-value.

That's not bullying. It might not be nice, but it's not bullying.

Also? There are a shit-ton of fantastic people who review books and blog about them and use good reads. A negative review doesn't mean someone is not a great person. We're supposed to be adults here. We should know the difference.

On the other side of things, authors need to learn not to feed the potential for negative publicity. I've seen an instance of an author responding in the comments to a negative review by posting all their amazon reviews as evidence the reviewer was "wrong." I've seen where people associated with an author have blasted reviews and reviewers on GoodReads. I've seen authors trying to discredit reviewers (though I'm still a little confused on how you discredit someone's opinion unless you can prove it isn't actually their opinion, but...)

People can disagree without it being bullying. People can have opinions without it being bullying. People are allowed to dislike each other without it being bullying.

To put it another way, if I went out with a guy who mis-treated me, you can be sure I would let all my girlfriends know. That doesn't make me a bully to the guy who treated me poorly, it makes me a good friend to those other girls that I've warned away from him. Some of them might choose to go out with him anyway and might end up liking him, but I would never regret telling them about my bad experience.

Instead of beating up the people whose reviews you don't agree with, either walk away from them or write your own very positive review. Be proactive rather than reactive. And for the love of all that is good, don't choose to become an actual bully in retaliation.

Sex in YA... Again

I've talked about sex in YA before. As an author who writes both sexy adult stuff and YA, I see a definite difference in how I personally approach things. I don't believe in shying away from sex in young adult fiction, but I write it differently than I do in my adult work.

To illustrate this, I have a niece who is thirteen. I let her read any and all of my YA manuscripts, and I know she regularly reads published YA with sex in it. A while back, she asked if she could read one of my adult stories, and I said no. Even without finding out whether or not my sister would throw a fit, I was uncomfortable with her reading a specific scene in that story because I didn't feel my niece had the necessary experience to understand what was going on in the heroine's mind (and it was kind of... violent sex). Anyway, this isn't a slam on my niece. A lot of adult readers hate that scene--in my mind because they don't understand the character. That's okay, but I'm not going to willingly hand it over to an unprepared 13 year old.

Turns out, my sister would have indeed been upset. My niece and I were talking book recommendations over the weekend and I asked my sister if anything was "off-limits" as far as content. She basically said "sex", at which point I had to clarify that she meant descriptive sex as opposed to "knowing it happened without seeing it." (I think she'd prefer her daughter read only books about virginal heroines who have no intention of ever being anything else, but whatever...)

The funny thing is, I'm reading a YA right now that is very sexually charged. None of the characters have had sex in it yet, but it's a major topic and a plot driver and very much viewed with want. I'm kind of torn because while it's a very realistic portrayal of how a lot of teens think about sex, it's... a lot. And it got me thinking: where exactly is the line between "okay for YA" and "too much for primetime?"

And yes, that's pretty much how I view things. If it can be on network TV before 10pm, it's probably okay for YA. After 10 or on cable? Odds are it's too much.

But the written word is different. You don't see body parts, they're described. The want is described rather than being viewed through the actions of the actors. So, can you get away with more description, where the viewing equivalent would push it to cable? When does written sex push from PG-13 to R?

I'm really not sure. There's a scene snippet in a manuscript I have on sub right now that I feel is very borderline, and that's with it described through the filter of a character who doesn't want to see it and wants absolutely nothing to do with anything to do with sex. (That virginal heroine? Yeah, her. She's just surrounded by non-virgins.) Another manuscript I have out has a sex scene or two, but they are very fade-to-black in nature.

I'm sure the line is different for every reader, but I'm curious. Where do you draw yours?

Cancer Sucks

Yesterday I got to spend an hour on the phone with my mom. This doesn't sound like such a bad thing... until I tell you that we spent the hour talking about cancer.

No. There is no emergency or reason for panic (at least with regard to me or mine--at the moment).

The thing is, cancer runs in my family pretty hard-core. And today I'm going in for the first step in the process of getting the genetic test done to see if I'm at greater risk for breast or ovarian cancer. That meant I had to fill out paperwork on my family history with regard to the disease.

Here's the deal. I know, in my heart, that at least one of the two tests will come back positive--likely both. I've known since I was a little girl that odds are, cancer's going to get me. It was never an "if," it's always been a "when."

But it's different to watch that piece of paper get filled up. It only goes as far out as grandparents and aunts/uncles/cousins. Of my four grandparents... three had cancer (two died from it). One aunt had it (survived). Her daughter died from it--she was the same age I am right now. Closer to home, one of my sisters is a cancer survivor. (She was diagnosed when she was younger than I am now.) Of the other three, two have had lumps removed that were thankfully benign. My mother did too. Of the two that have been tested--both have the genetic markers. 


It's a vicious, vicious, scary-ass disease.

Why am I writing this post today? I'm not sure. Maybe because it's a topic that people don't talk about enough until it's already an issue, and then the conversations start with "I'm so sorry..." Maybe because I'm more nervous about the test than I thought I'd be. Or maybe it's just because it's late and this is what's on my mind. Maybe all of the above.

When Life Hands You Lemons

Sorry about no post last week. No excuse. It just didn't happen.

There's a saying that says: When life hands you lemons, make lemonade. I saw a picture recently that said: Unless life gives you sugar and water too, your lemonade is going to suck.

It got me to thinking about a lot of things. As some of you know, there have been... issues (it's a nice, innocent, all-encompassing word) regarding the PRT. The short version is life gave me lemons. Since I don't expect life to hand everything to me, I went off in search of water and sugar. I found some--yay! But the lemonade still sucks.

Basically, what the story boils down to is this--the PRT is going to be on hold for longer than anticipated. Sadly, I can't afford the vodka necessary to make this lemonade rock.

On the other hand, I have this other bottle, and if I let it age for a while it'll make a killer party beverage. So, as much as you don't want to wait and I don't want to wait, that's the option at the moment. On a high note (because even when there's no vodka, I'm a look for the silver lining kind of girl), I'm hoping that when the time comes that I can release PRT 2, Perfectly Human, the rest of the series won't be far behind. As long as I can find the time in between other projects to write them, the remaining four books in the series will all be released within about a 12-24 month period of time.

Will there be other things from me in the meantime? I sure hope so! And I promise if and when I have news, I will let you know.

To that end though, I may step back a bit from blogging. Not quitting, but not stressing over content every week. So, it might be normal post, or a video, or a movie review, or some sort of character sketch. And I may miss a week here or there while everything else in life tries to settle.

But rest assured, I am NOT abandoning Elle and Cass. The PRT hasn't disappeared, it's just taking a break and licking its wounds. They will be back.