Sandi Greene » YA Writers

Website: RWA Young Adult Chapter

Sandi Greene — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 04:49:01 +0000

At the end of August, Romance Writers of America (RWA) opened a Young Adult chapter. Titled YARWA for short, it’s a chapter specific to YA authors. Dues are only $15. It looks like for now they have an author’s links page, and plan to have more in the near future. To check it out see: http://yarwa.com/

Blogs: The Debutantes

Sandi Greene — Tue, 25 Aug 2009 16:17:09 +0000

Recently, I’ve been really interested in other people’s blogs related to writing and/or YA. In my next couple of my own blogs, I’d like to share them with you if you don’t already know them:

The Debutantes

http://community.livejournal.com/debut2009

This is a group of debut middle-grade and YA authors whose books will release this year. I enjoyed reading the summaries of their books. Here are the ones that I plan on picking up:

“Lipstick Apology” by Jennifer Jabaley. Razorbill.
Emily’s world falls apart when her parents die in a plane crash. To add to it, her mother had written the words “Emily please forgive me” in lipstick across the tray table. Emily must figure out what it means while also starting her new life.

“As You Wish” by Jackson Pearce. HarperTeen. Viola summons a young jinn out of his world and grants her three wishes. She deals with romantic complexities and the high school social scene.

“Shadowed Summer” by Saundra Mitchell. Delacorte.
One summer a boy disappears and no one knows what happened to him, though everyone has a theory. Ten years later, fourteen-year-old Rhame is determined to find out the truth.

“The Espressologist” by Kristina Springer. Farrar, Straus, and Giroux. Seventeen-year-old Jane can match-make couples based on their favorite coffee drinks (what she calls Espressology). A local coffee shop uses her as a promotion and sales go crazy. But during an interview with local media Jane is faced with a dilemma—choose her own love or her business.

“Twenty Boy Summer” by Sarah Ockler. Little, Brown. Anna is going on a vacation and agrees with her friend to meet one boy everyday. What her friend doesn’t know is that Anna is holding secrets about what happened between her and her friend’s older brother last year before he died.

“Hate List” by Jennifer Brown. Little, Brown. Valerie’s boyfriend opens fire on his school. Valerie is hurt trying to save someone else, but is later implicated because she helped her boyfriend write a “hate list.” Now with her senior year in front of her, she must move on and work through the tragedy.

Don’t Over Share

Sandi Greene — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 05:16:03 +0000

I was sitting around yesterday, trying to figure out what in the world I’m going to blog about in the next few weeks, and I realized, duh, I just got back from a writer’s conference and should have plenty to talk about. When I was at the SCBWI conference, I took only a few notes. I used to be an over-the-top, write-every-single-detail-down note-taker, but I’m not any more. (Maybe it reminds me too much of college or something). So I’ll do the best I can on this with what I have. (And my roomie and a friend I made both took excellent notes that they’ve allowed me to share).

So (I promise this has to do with today’s topic) I’m so excited because I am getting a new website! My blog and website will be in one place, and an awesome designer named Dineen Miller is going to make the design similar to my business cards (you can see the cards she did for me here…just scroll down about half way). Hopefully it will launch in another month or two.

Anyway, one of the speakers I really enjoyed was Delacorte Executive Editor Wendy Loggia. In her session she noted how important it is to watch what you say on the Internet because editors look you up sometimes! As soon as she said this, my mind started to reel through my website, my Facebook, my Twitter, my MySpace, and so forth, wondering if all my content is appropriate.

She said that editors don’t want to work with certain types of people – and I’m sure you can figure out those types. Rude, self-centered, gossipy, etc… So she will actually check author’s pages before signing them on. This served as a good reminder that you should be careful what you put out there, what you say, and how you say it. Don’t talk bad about other agents, publishers, authors, etc… Just be nice. It could make a difference in whether an editor picks you up or not.

Some pics to share of me at the conference (hopefully this isn’t over sharing! HA!):

Yep, me and my Starbucks in the lobby of the hotel. Every writer has to be a coffee drinker.

Writer’s conferences are so much fun! You have to try one if you haven’t already!

Me and my new and very cool friend Romina at the Blue Moon Ball

Me and my awesome roomy Stephanie at the Blue Moon Ball

Me and some new friends I made at the wine and cheese reception.

Thoughts from SCBWI 2009

Sandi Greene — Wed, 12 Aug 2009 16:28:40 +0000

I attended my first Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrator’s conference in Los Angles last week and I loved it. It was nice going to a writer’s conference where workshop choices focus specifically on YA. I heard a lot about the industry, most of which was surprisingly positive. Despite the economy, agents are still doing deals (some of them said this is their best year yet) and houses are still looking for books.

The most constant thing I heard is that they are looking for fresh voices. Of course, you have to have compelling characters and plot as well, but they want fresh, interesting voices. The best way to find your own voice is to read a lot of YA. They also said over and over to write your heart rather than write to trends.

I really enjoyed speeches by Sherman Alexie (he’s just always funny), Ellen Hopkins (it was great seeing how hard she worked for many years to reach the top), and Elizabeth Law (editor at Egmont who had a great personality).

I met a lot of fun agents, editors, authors, and those aspiring. I had even more fun watching some of those “professionals” get a little tipsy and dance. (Especially since one of them was my regional advisor. Love you, Michelle!)

The best part for me personally was that Jay Asher nominated my book for the Sue Alexander award. So now Jay is officially my favorite author of all-time and just bumped Sarah Dessen down a notch

If you ever get a chance to go to this conference, I would highly recommend it. If you have any questions for me about it, I’d be happy to answer them.

Editing in Books

Sandi Greene — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 19:03:33 +0000

If you know anything about me and my reading habits, you know I am a huge Sarah Dessen fan. She is my favorite YA author and I’ve read almost all her books (the ones I haven’t read are on my “to-read” shelf amidst the other dozens of books I need to catch up on).

I just finished “Lock and Key,” which, as usual, I enjoyed and couldn’t put down. However, one thing that bothered me was that there were numerous typos. I’m not just talking one or two commas that no one would notice—I’m talking glaring errors that made me stop and re-read the sentence numerous times so I could figure out what it was supposed to say.

I recently read an Editor’s Unleashed blog called “Is Editing Worth It?” in which the blogger discussed how many errors there were in the “Twilight” books, especially the later ones.

It got me thinking…what is going on with editing in publishing? Are the authors writing so quickly (because the publishers want to make money) that they aren’t editing their own work? Are publishers trying to spin out books so quickly that they aren’t having them edited as well? What role does editing play as an author before you are published and then later on when you are popping out numerous books?

For me, I would rather do my best to find every error I can find before it gets to any agent or editor’s desk. But still…I wonder if you get to that point where you don’t care as much, and does it even matter? Does the author lose credibility with these errors?

Just some thoughts today on editing

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Tidbits for YA Writers

Sandi Greene — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 20:46:51 +0000

I read another cool article on “New Moon” today. I promise I won’t send these all the time, but I’m so excited about the movie, I couldn’t resist: http://paralleluniverse.msn.com/comic-con/new-moon-panel/story/feature/?GT1=28140

My friend Kimberly reminded me of the up-to-date news information you can find at Publisher’s Weekly. You can subscribe to their newsletter for free and one of their options is children’s books (and there is a newsletter for religious books for all my CBA friends): http://www.publishersweekly.com/enewsletter/CA6672758/2788.html

This week PW had a cool article on the expansion of the teen section at Borders: http://www.publishersweekly.com/article/CA6672662.html?nid=2788&source=title&rid=1920529184

One thing that drives me crazy about searching through the YA section on Barnes and Noble online is that the majority of the books they promote are vampire novels. I’m so sick of these that I won’t even look at them! (But don’t worry Bella and Edward…I’ll never leave you!). So I was thankful for this funny comic strip my friend Michelle sent to me today:

She got it off of a hilarious website that I’m just now learning about called Inkygirl.com and WillWriteForChocolate.com.

Happy writing!

Contests for Unpublished YA Writers

Sandi Greene — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 03:30:05 +0000

Following is a list of contests for unpublished authors, all of which have a YA category. Some have passed, so you might check back next year (or when the previous year’s deadline was) to find out more information. I cannot vouch for any of these, nor do I have more information other than what I found researching on the Internet.

You may notice that most of them are contests put on by RWA (Romance Writer’s of America) chapters, so if you have a YA romance you might have a lot of places to enter! (Although, keep in mind that many of them only require the YA entry to have romantic elements, not necessarily follows the “rules” of traditional romance, so that’s good too).

I’m a little biased and found that the majority of these are general, contemporary, or romance YA types of contests. If you want to find fantasy/sci-fi/paranormal YA contests, check out this site (there are also other writing contests listed there and this woman does a thorough job with the details): http://www.stephiesmith.com/contests.html

Also, while contests can be great, many of them also cost money, so you’ll really want to do your research first. It’s best to look at what the prize is or who the final round judges are. Many times a final round judge is an agent, so if you already have an agent it wouldn’t matter if he/she requested your full ms after the contest was over. However, many times the contests will get some great YA editors to serve as final round judges and these I would suggest would be great to enter.

Golden Rose Contest (an Oregon RWA chapter)

http://www.rosecityromancewriters.com/contest.html

Deadline: Early August

The Golden Pen (an international RWA chapter)

http://www.thegoldennetwork.com/goldenpen.html

Deadline: Mid-August

Finally a Bride Contest (an Oklahoma RWA chapter)

http://www.okrwa.com/fab_index.htm

Deadline: Early September

Launching a Star Contest (a Florida RWA chapter)

http://www.authorsofromance.com/contest.htm

Deadline: Early September

Hold Me, Thrill Me (a Florida romance writer’s chapter)

http://www.swfrw.org/contest.php

Deadline: Early September

RWA East Texas Contest

http://www.easttexasrwa.com/html/southern_heat.php

Deadline: Early September

RWI Magic Contest

http://rwimagiccontests.wordpress.com/

Deadline: Early September

First Coast Romance Writers Contest

http://www.firstcoastromancewriters.com/contest_un.htm

Deadline: Early October

MERWA Synopsis Contest

http://www.mainerwa.com/2009_Synopis_Rules.htm

Deadline: Early October

Linda Howard Award of Excellence (Birmingham RWA chapter)

http://www.southernmagic.org/lindahowardcontest.html

Deadline: Mid-October

Hook, Line, and Sinker Contest (Hudson Valley RWA)

http://www.hudsonvalleyrwa.com/contest

Deadline: Early November

Great Expectations Contest (Northwest Texas RWA)

http://ntrwa.org/contest/contest.htm

Deadline: End of December

Kids at Random House

http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/writingcontests/#youngadult

Deadline: End of the year

Notes: Requires submission of full ms

RWA Golden Heart Contest

http://www.rwanational.org/cs/contests_and_awards/golden_heart_awards

Deadline: Early December

Washington Romance Writers

http://www.wrwdc.com/ee/index.php/marlene_awards/

Deadline: Mid-January

Yellow Rose Contest (RWA chapter)

http://yellowroserwa.com/contestUnpub.php

Deadline: End of January

River City Romance Writers

http://rivercityromancewriters.org/duel.html

Deadline: Mid-February

Sandy Writing Contest

http://www.cbfriendsofthelibrary.org/page.cfm?pageid=6378

Deadline: Mid-February

MWA Novel Contest

http://www.marylandwriters.org/contest2009.html

Deadline: End of February

Pacific Northwest Writer’s Association Literary Contest

http://www.pnwa.org/displaycommon.cfm?an=6

Deadline: Mid-February

Wisconsin (RWA)

http://www.wisrwa.org/contest.html#FabFive

Deadline: Early March

Writer’s League of Texas

http://www.writersleague.org/contests/manuscript.html

Deadline: Early March

Connecticut Chapter of RWA

http://ctrwa.org/connections/

Deadline: Early March

Daphne du Maurier

http://rwamysterysuspense.org/d_unpublished.php

Deadline: Mid-March

Notes: No specific YA category, but optional single category

Chicago North RWA

http://www.chicagonorthrwa.org/contest.shtml

Deadline: End of March

ACFW Genesis Contest

http://www.acfw.com/genesis/

Deadline: End of March

Notes: Christian contest that is looking for entries appropriate for the CBA market

Great Beginnings (Utah RWA)

http://www.utahrwa.com/gbcontest.html

Deadline: First of April

Spring into Love (RWA San Diego)

http://www.rwasd.com/contest/

Deadline: Early April

Alaska Writers

http://akrwa.alaskawriters.com/about.html

Deadline: Mid-April

The Beau Mode RWA

http://www.thebeaumonde.com/royalascot/

Deadline: Mid-April

Charter Oak Romance Writers

http://www.charteroakromancewriters.org/contests.html

Deadline: Early May

Southwest Writer’s Contest

http://www.southwestwriters.com/swwcontestrules.php

Deadline: Early May

Writer’s Digest Annual Competition

http://www.writersdigest.com/contests/annual/77th/

Deadline: Mid-May

The Molly Contest

http://www.hodrw.com/2009-Molly.htm

Deadline: End of May

Northeast Ohio RWA

http://www.neorwa.com/index.php/Contest/Contest

Deadline: Early June

Emerald City Opener (RWA)

http://gsrwa.org/contest.php

Deadline: Early June

Original Golden Opportunity (Toronto RWA)

http://www.torontoromancewriters.com/contest.html

Deadline: Early June

Lone Star Writing Competition (Northwest Houston Chapter RWA)

http://www.nwhrwa.com/html/contests_announcement.html

Deadline: Early June

Maryland Romance Writers

http://www.bemispromotions.com/mrw/index.php?page_id=9

Deadline: Mid-June

Chick Lit Writers Contest

http://www.chicklitwriters.com/contest.htm

Deadline: Mid-June

Indiana RWA

http://www.indianarwa.com/contest/contest.htm

Deadline: First of July

Florida Writer’s Association

http://www.floridawriters.net/RPLA.html

Deadline: Mid-July