Month: January 2008

Oh the Glory of the TBR Pile

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January 15, 2008

3:49 pm

9 Comments on Oh the Glory of the TBR Pile

Book News, On Writing

To Be Read. To Be Savored. To Be Devoured.

Before I knew A.Fortis was going to do her own snazzed out graphic, I came up with one that’s a bit simpler, but for me, quite a bit to the point: Anticipation. I still get a rush from being able to read any old book I want! Having grown up with concerned parents curtailing my reading choices, it still seems like such sweet, heady freedom to say, “I want to read THAT one!” And then to do it.

So, gleefully, and in no particular order, comes my partial (because people, it is EVER evolving) list of newbies and not-so-newbies that have caught my eye and made my TBR list for 2008 (and just for fun, I starred those that could be called “multicultural”):

YA Fiction
Revolution Is Not a Dinner Party by Ying Chang Compestine *
Does My Head Look Big In This? by Randa Abdel-Fattah *
Something Rotten: A Horatio Wilkes Mystery, by Alan Gratz
Evil Genius, Catherine Jinks
The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks, by E. Lockhart
How to Salsa in a Sari, by Dona Sarkar *
Heaven Looks a Lot Like the Mall, by Wendy Mass
It’s Not About the Accent, Caridad Ferrer *
Evolution, Me & Other Freaks of Nature, by Robin Brande
Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac, by Gabrielle Zevin
Wednesday Wars, by Gary D. Schmidt
Billie Standish Was Here, by Nancy Crocker
Sweethearts, by Sara Zarr
Beauty Shop for Rent, by Laura Bowers
Cures for Heartbreak, Margo Raab
Beige, by Cecil Castellucci
The Poison Apples, Lily Archer
She’s So Money, by by Cherry Chevapravatdumrong *
Long May She Reign, Ellen Emmerson White
The Fold, by An Na *

MG Fiction
Chasing Vermeer, by Blue Blue Balliett – mystery
If a Tree Falls at Lunch Period, by Gennifer Choldenko
Middle School Is Worse Than Meatloaf: A Year Told Through Stuff, by Jennifer L. Holm; (illus. by Elicia Castaldi)
Diary of a Wimpy Kid, by Jeff Kinney
Eleven, by Patricia Reilly Giff – mystery
Good Masters! Sweet Ladies!: Voices from a Medieval Village, by Laura Amy Schlitz

YA SF/F
Into the Wild, Sarah Beth Durst – Cybils SF/F
The Spiderwick Chronicles, by Holly Black (all of them — before the movie gets to the UK)
Prom Dates from Hell, by Rosemary Clement-Moore – Cybils SF/F
The Dead and the Gone, Susan Beth Pfeffer
Everworld series, by K.A. Applegate *
The Black Canary, Jane Louise Curry *
Snow, Fire, Sword, by Sophie Mason *
Galax-Arena, by Rubinstein, Gillian *
The Call to Shakabaz, by Amy Wachspress *
Never Never and Elsewhere, by Will Shetterly *
My Sister Sif, by Ruth Park *

NonFic
Body Drama: Real Girls, Real Bodies, Real Issues, Real Answers, by Nancy Amanda Redd
The Periodic Table: Elements With Style! by Adrian Dingle illus. by Simon Basher Kingfisher)
Tasting the Sky: a Palestinian Childhood, by Ibtisam Baraka

Graphics/Picture
Persepolis, by Marjane Satrapi *
Little Night, by Yuyi Morales*
Little Brother X, by Cory Doctorow
All Cats Have Asperger Syndrome, Kathy Hoopmann

Hookay. This is a PARTIAL list, and I just realized I’ve spent well over an hour adding to it. Over an HOUR. When I’m in the middle of a revision that needs to be to my editor next Monday. (Which is why my books have no links, and apologies for that – just really should NOT take the time for that!)

Right.
Reining myself in, then, and simply saying, “and everything else on everyone else’s lists that I haven’t read yet.” Definitely drop a few of your very best recommended into the comments box; I’m really looking for UK reads, too, since I can get them here, read them, and lend them to some of you in the U.S. (and Kel @ Big A, has already called dibs on this, so you’ll have to wrangle with her).

I want to LIVE on the YA, YA, YA list, by the way. Just so you know. Also, am taking up residence at Leila’s scarily organized list as well. I want them all.

More links for this anticipatory awesomeness at the ever-insightful Chasing Ray, who we can thank for this cool anticipation idea!

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

Okay, okay, after this, I really am going to lie down…

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January 14, 2008

10:04 pm

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On Writing, Random Notes and Errata

A couple of news bytes that stood out to me:
…18-year-old Cassandra Carter, who rose to fame at 14 as a young author is putting off college to write a sequel to her first novel, in time for her second to be published. Ironically, the sequel is called Fast Life.

The second piece of news that stuck out to me is that Disney has crossed into a new market by marketing Disney tales like Aladdin, The Jungle Book and Winnie the Pooh Hindi, Marathi and Malayalam. I guess that’s a great idea, but I’m more inclined to wonder why Disney doesn’t find Indian stories to publish and market. But that’s just me…

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

Squeeeeal!

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January 14, 2008

9:19 pm

3 Comments on Squeeeeal!

Happenings, On Writing

Ow! Ow, ow! OW!
I got my eyes dilated today so computers are NOT my friend, and I have a total migraine, but I have to squeal anyway that the ALA Awards are out. I am excited about the Printz Award winner,(which I REALLY enjoyed, but I have to admit that I thought that Sherman Alexie would rate in here somewhere…?) and I am excited about the Newbery — haven’t read it yet, but I’ve heard SUCH good things!! Boy, can my blogosphere friends pick ’em — thank you, everybody who have read these books and talked them up and have made me want to read them too (but again: we talked about Sherman Alexie… I guess they figured the National Book Award was enough? Too bad). But I’m even more excited that two books chosen for the SF/F Cybils list and a book I absolutely ADORED this year has won an Printz Honor. A big yahoo for Dreamquake, but three huge unexpected shrieks for newcomer A.M. Jenkins’ Repossessed, one of the sharpest and funniest bits of SF/F I’ve read this year.

Whoo!

I’ll be back when the headache fades.

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

Sticking It To "Repulsive" Books

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January 12, 2008

11:07 pm

5 Comments on Sticking It To "Repulsive" Books

On Writing, Soapbox


Little Willow’s impassioned response to a book-labeling got me thinking again about fame — and publicity. Books get challenged and disappear when people don’t speak up. Long live those willing to be notorious in their defense of challenged and banned books.

According to Sarah Dessen’s blog, “The school board in Hillsborough County, Florida—where Just Listen was challenged by a parent, and called “repulsive”—has decided to keep it on the shelves, though many have opted to leave a sticker indicating that it’s for “mature readers.”

A sticker.
Well there. That’s America warned.
I’m sure young people everywhere are much safer.

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

Battering Against the Brilliance

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January 11, 2008

2:46 pm

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Part and Poetry

The Writer

by Richard Wilbur

In her room at the prow of the house


Where light breaks, and the windows are tossed with linden,

My daughter is writing a story.

I pause in the stairwell, hearing

From her shut door a commotion of typewriter-keys

Like a chain hauled over a gunwale.

Young as she is, the stuff

Of her life is a great cargo, and some of it heavy:

I wish her a lucky passage.

But now it is she who pauses,

As if to reject my thought and its easy figure.

A stillness greatens, in which

The whole house seems to be thinking,

And then she is at it again with a bunched clamor

Of strokes, and again is silent.

I remember the dazed starling

Which was trapped in that very room, two years ago;

How we stole in, lifted a sash

And retreated, not to affright it;

And how for a helpless hour, through the crack of the door,

We watched the sleek, wild, dark

And iridescent creature

Batter against the brilliance, drop like a glove

To the hard floor, or the desk-top,

And wait then, humped and bloody,

For the wits to try it again; and how our spirits

Rose when, suddenly sure,

It lifted off from a chair-back,

Beating a smooth course for the right window

And clearing the sill of the world.

It is always a matter, my darling,

Of life or death, as I had forgotten. I wish

What I wished you before, but harder.

From New and Collected Poems, published by Harcourt Brace, 1988. Copyright © 1969 by Richard Wilbur. All rights reserved.

May you continue to “batter against the brilliance.”

Poetry Friday: Hades Hath Frozen Over: I like a Bukowski poem.

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January 11, 2008

2:18 pm

16 Comments on Poetry Friday: Hades Hath Frozen Over: I like a Bukowski poem.

On Writing, Poetry Friday

“fame,” by Charles Bukowski. From Open All Night: New Poems (Black Sparrow Press).

some want it, I don’t want it, I
want to do whatever it is I do
and just do it.
I don’t want to look into the
adulating eye,
shake the sweating
palm.
I think that whatever I do
is my business.
I do it because if I don’t
I’m finished.
I’m selfish:
I do it for myself
to save what is left of
myself.
and when I am
approached as
hero or
half-god or
guru
I refuse to accept
that.
I don’t want their
congratulations,
their worship,
their companionship.

I may have half-a-
million readers,
a million,
two million.
I don’t care.
I write the word
how I have to
write it.

and, in the
beginning,
when there were no
readers
I wrote the word
as I needed to write the
word
and if all
the half-million,
the million,
the two million,
disappear
I will continue to
write the
word
as I always have.

the reader is an
afterthought,
the placenta,
an accident,
and any writer who
believes otherwise
is a bigger fool than
his
following.

I had to read Bukowski in grad school. His violence, aggressive language and sexually charged fiction wasn’t my favorite by a long shot, but with this one poem, I agree. Fame isn’t anything all that desirable to me. I’m not sure if it’s possible to make a living from writing without achieving some measure of fame, but I’d like to think I would still write every day if I won the lottery… so it must mean more than money to me. (Good thing, huh?!) If fame means having every facet of my life scrutinized and more attention paid to my couture choices than my writing, then I’m definitely not interested.

I wonder what the perks and drawbacks are for people who are ‘famous’ in YA circles… other than JK Rowling, of course, who is just having fun being a celebrity. If you don’t flash your cash or own a castle like Rowling does but can make a living from your writing, are you still considered famous? What really makes fame? I wonder.

Someone posted the Naomi Shihab Nye poem on fame last week, which really got me thinking. I love her concluding stanza:

I want to be famous in the way a pulley is famous,
or a buttonhole, not because it did anything spectacular,
but because it never forgot what it could do

Is that fame enough for you and me? I wonder…

(I also wonder why all the “kids” from Fame look about thirty five. Anyway!) More poetry people have gathered at The Book Mine Set, get thee thence!

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

"Let's Think Of Something To Do…"

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January 10, 2008

3:04 pm

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On Writing, Random Notes and Errata

“…While We’re Waiting.”

Remember that song from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood? Apparently the people during the writer’s strike have thought of something to do: write children’s books. (Via Mitali’s Fire Escape.) The article is titled, “Striking Writer’s Turn to Child’s Play.” Let me tell you something, Washington Post: the picture book writing: SO not child’s play.

I expect a few goodies in the mix since the people who write The Simpsons and other long-running TV favorites are writing. Will this be a shot in the arm for children’s books, or a really annoying (semi-BACA-y) idea? Time will tell.

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

"Let’s Think Of Something To Do…"

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January 10, 2008

3:04 pm

6 Comments on "Let’s Think Of Something To Do…"

On Writing, Random Notes and Errata

“…While We’re Waiting.”

Remember that song from Mr. Rogers’ Neighborhood? Apparently the people during the writer’s strike have thought of something to do: write children’s books. (Via Mitali’s Fire Escape.) The article is titled, “Striking Writer’s Turn to Child’s Play.” Let me tell you something, Washington Post: the picture book writing: SO not child’s play.

I expect a few goodies in the mix since the people who write The Simpsons and other long-running TV favorites are writing. Will this be a shot in the arm for children’s books, or a really annoying (semi-BACA-y) idea? Time will tell.

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

Ferreting (Heh) Out Plagarism

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January 10, 2008

2:14 pm

1 Comment on Ferreting (Heh) Out Plagarism

On Writing, Writing Daze

There’s been a story I’ve been following along with the folks at GalleyCat about a romance author who lifted quite a few passages from other works (including a work about …ferrets. Let the bad puns continue!). That started quite an intriguing discussion on the difference between copyright infringement and plagiarism.

According to Candy: “…plagiarism is an ethical issue. It’s concerned with what’s right and what’s not. Copyright infringement is a legal action…It’s concerned with what’s legal and what’s not.”

That’s the cut and dried interpretation. Personal ethics is a whole ‘nother ballgame, folks.

When the Kaavya Viswanathan story broke awhile back, S.A.M. circulated a polite little letter around his circle of writers and told us that while our editors would make every effort to defend us in public if anything like this ever happened, we should know that if we ever made them — or him — look bad, we could really kiss our contracts goodbye. “DON’T even let it come up,” he warned us.

My second novel is historical fiction, and you can bet I have an attribution list that will make it look like I’ve written a book report — but it’s important to me that everyone read the first books — out of print, not widely circulated — that sparked my interest in the topic. How could I do any less for those who wrote before me?

You never stand on the top for long unless you acknowledge the shoulders of those upon whom you are standing.

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.

Booknerdom, Sentient Cars and Other Oddlings

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January 10, 2008

11:00 am

11 Comments on Booknerdom, Sentient Cars and Other Oddlings

On Writing, Random Notes and Errata

While the Significant Other is narrowing down his PhD project topics, he’s started talking with people in the Humanities Advanced Technology And Information Institute at the University, and is leaning heavily toward a project dealing with the ethical philosophy of data management and archiving. Archiving means libraries, and so he may actually take a few library science courses in the course of his studies. Since I always wanted to be a librarian (okay, BIG nerd alert) this is kind of cool to me – Mac is one step closer to being an even bigger booknerd than me!

Libraries on the brain today — did you know that in the UK, authors can make (a little) money from their books in the library? Public Lending Right, or PLR as its called, is “the right for authors to receive payment under PLR legislation for the loans of their books by public libraries. To qualify for payment, applicants must apply to register their books with us. Payments are made annually on the basis of loans data collected from a sample of public libraries in the UK.” Isn’t this interesting? I wonder if there’s any American library equivalent. This certainly encourages a relationship between authors and libraries.

I’m obsessed with book covers. Some of them — like Laura Ruby’s Chaos King are so well done – suffused with color and movement — and others… like Northlander or Nightwalker leave a bit to be desired in the imaginative design realm, which is unfortunate, because they’re both such great books. That’s why I like
JacketWhys — the site combines commentary on covers with mini book reports.

“I’d like to be able to see the past – the bulk of the children and teen book jackets from ten years ago. How often were these techniques used then? What will be the future? The big trend ten years from now?”

It’s good to know someone else wonders what’s up with some of the strange crop jobs and repeat themes that are dominating cover art. Year before last it was headless females, last year it was head bits and feet. Who knows what this year will bring? Arms? Knees?

The other day, I read that there was to be a musical of The Diary of Anne Frank. I chose not to believe it. However, I read it in the paper, and so I must.

People —

Never mind. There are no words.

A recent conversation with my editor came to mind when I read the Guardian Blog’s mini-rant against tidying up children’s book reprints. One of the characters in my latest YA-work-in-revision smokes, and while I definitely do not advocate it for young adults – old adults — monkeys or marsupials, and have never done it, will never do it, and think it’s a bad idea all-round — the character who smokes is seventy-eight or so, and has been in the military. It’s something the character DOES – it goes with the time period when they were born, when people still thought that tarring your lungs was a way to lose weight and look cool. Despite the fact that it’s a grandparent smoking, my editor gently insists that I change a scene where it’s hinted at that the character smokes in a car with teens.

I have no problem with that, but it strikes me as really interesting. This is a trend that started with this publishing company awhile back when they voted to digitally change the picture of the author of Good Night, Moon to erase his cigarette. While I have no problem whatsoever with making this infinitesimal change, I am bothered by the idea that everything I write is meant to stand as an Example to Young People somehow. That’s almost a churchy thought; I grew up with the idea that I’m meant to be an Example to the World. It made me paranoid and uncomfortable then, ditto this is publishing terms now. Do the rest of you feel like you’re meant, in all ways, to write as an example?

I think of a writer like John Green (whose Nerdfighter “Happy Dance” made me tear up for some weird reason) who was training to be a minister of some sort at one point, and people like Maureen Johnson and Sara Zarr and the myriad others whose work has been sharply criticized for language or content and banned. I wonder if anyone ever really feels just a little like they deserve the slap on the wrist for their book content… I mean, it follows if we believe that we really are Examples to the Young…

I don’t know. I am so anti-smoking, it’s not even funny. But I also don’t really expect teens to pick up on a habit someone from who is a.) old, b.) scary c.)and in a book, for goodness sakes.

What struck me even harder is that an underage character in the novel has a drink … and my editor didn’t say a word. Not one.

What strange mortals we be. What strange morals have we.

Don’t mind me, though, I’m still having a lot of “hmm” moments from my last editorial letter. My editor’s mind works so differently than mine, and that’s why I love her. She’s given me lots and lots to think about.

Aaaaargh!!!!
Oh, now this is painful… Knight Rider… lives. What is it with resurrecting every single bad sci-fi show from my childhood? Somewhere, someone is reshooting Automan. *Shudder.*

All content (unless otherwise attributed) is © Copyright Tanita S. Davis and may not be reproduced in any form.