The Nice List Book Donation

We are officially on the down slope to Christmas, folks, which means there are less than FIVE MONTHS LEFT to do all those crazy Christmas things like shopping, baking cookies, and getting in enough acts of kindness to make sure you're on The Nice List.

What's that, you say? You aren't sure if you have enough acts of kindness to make it on the Nice List this year? Well, even though I'm sure that's PREPOSTEROUS (*bats eyelashes* *clucks chin*), I happen to know of one really big, really amazing, really incredible act of kindness that could land you at the tippy top of the Nice List.

Some of you may remember me mentioning my cousin, Nikki. Once upon a time, she wrote a YA book and I went all "Um, I write YA books too!" and so we started dreaming about how we would be bestsellers together and buy matching castles in New Zealand, as bestselling authors do. But then she went and did something that puts her on the Brave List for Life -- she moved to South Korea to teach kindergarten. Fast forward a few years to now, when she is back in the states but still doing Crazy Brave Things.

Nikki is, as of this August, beginning a teaching job at a middle school in San Francisco. This school is excellent for a number of reasons, but one area that is not so fantastic is Nikki must furnish her classroom's library on her own. When she told me this and expressed concern on how she would make sure her kids had access to enough amazing books to quench their reading needs, I went all "Um, but I have friends who have fantastic books!"

Hence the Really Big Really Amazing Really Incredible Act of Kindness: filling Nikki's classroom with books. As part of such a ridiculously supportive and all-around breathtaking community of writing professionals, I know we won't stand for Nikki's classroom being empty of books come time for school to start. So this is what I am asking:

Steps for The Nice List Book Donation:

1) Go through all your old books and select a few that you think a classroom of 8th graders would enjoy and/or benefit from (sorry, but all your copies of 50 Shades of Grey will have to remain yours). Or even new books, if you are feeling particularly generous.
2) Email me at seesarawrite@gmail.com and I will send you the address to which you can send your books.
3) Send said books to said address before school starts, ie by August 31.

Three simple steps separate you from a 100% guaranteed spot on the Nice List before Christmas. If it seems too good to be true -- well, it's about to get better.

Because everyone who donates books to sad, empty classrooms is deserving of fantastic things themselves, there are, of course, more tangible rewards for participating in The Nice List Book Donation (though I'm sure I won most of you over with my 100% guaranteed spot on the Nice List before Christmas).

If you donate one book to Nikki's classroom, you get your choice of a query critique from Yours Truly OR a special amazing early Christmas present.
If you donate two books to Nikki's classroom, you get your choice of a query critique and a synopsis critique from Yours Truly OR a special amazing early Christmas present.
If you donate three+ books to Nikki's classroom, you get your choice of a query critique, a synopsis critique, and a first-fifty-pages-of-your-manuscript critique from Yours Truly OR a special amazing early Christmas present.

EVERYONE WHO DONATES WINS. No drawings or selections. Instant WIN. Yes, that just happened.

The donation starts -- NOW! *fires race gun*

IMPOSTOR Giveaway!

A few months ago Jill Hathaway's SLIDE came out. And the peasants rejoiced.

Now the peasants can rejoice still further because as of next year, the sequel to SLIDE will be sliding into shelves (see what I did there? SLIDE. Sliding. You get me). IMPOSTOR is due to release March 26, 2013, and because she knows what we want, Jill is holding a massive giveaway for ARCs on her blog!

There's a crazy amount of different ways to win that don't involve anything quite as terrifying as having a killer take over your body. So slide (see? I did it again!) on over there for a chance to be among the first readers of IMPOSTOR. You know you want to.

IMPOSTOR:

What if a killer took control of you?

Vee Bell’s gift (or curse) of “sliding”—slipping into the mind of another person and experiencing life, briefly, through his or her eyes—has been somewhat under control since she unwillingly witnessed the horrific deaths of her classmates six months ago.

But just as things are getting back to normal, Vee has a very bizarre experience: she loses consciousness and finds herself in a deserted area, at the edge of a cliff, with the broken body of the boy who took advantage of her on the rocks below.

As Vee finds herself in stranger and stranger situations with no memory of getting there, she begins to suspect that someone she knows has the ability to slide—and that this “slider” is using Vee to exact revenge on his or her enemies.

*snort*

For more chuckle-worthy Thursday bits, go here.

Weekend Boost

The Storyteller's Creed

I believe that imagination is stronger than knowledge.

That myth is more potent than history.

That dreams are more powerful than facts.

That hope always triumphs over experience.

That laughter is the cure for grief.

And that love is stronger than death.

--Robert Fulghum

Happy weekend, everyone!

Fantastical Things

Thanks to my current WIP, I've plunged back into a world I haven't been in since middle school: the world of fantasy. Specifically YA Fantasy, and specifically current kick-ass YA Fantasy books such as the much-anticipated SHADOW AND BONE by Leigh Bardugo.

(Have to mention that the first draft of this post said "YA Fantasty," not "YA Fantasy," in true ironic typo fashion. Why yes, YA Fantasy CAN be quite Fantasty, Subconscious Me. I will explain why below.)

If you haven't heard of SHADOW AND BONE, um, do some serious googling. Like now. I'll wait.

*glares through computer screen*

Did you google? I trust you.

Now aside from Leigh making me feel severely inadequate (did you read her bio? CLEARLY YOU DID NOT GOOGLE. *glares harder*), SHADOW AND BONE is in and of itself quite a revelation for YA Fantasy/Fantasty books. I mean, a Russian-based fantasy world? Name one other YA Fantasy/Fantasty Russian-based world. YOU CAN'T, CAN YOU?

And if you've been chilling out on my blog for awhile, you might remember that a few years ago I worked for a brilliant little Russian travel agency, which re-awoke within me the bright-eyed twelve-year-old who watched the movie Anastasia and vowed to someday dance through Peterhof Palace. Russia is every bit as magical and glittering as Anastasia depicted it, and SHADOW AND BONE is every bit as magical and glittering as Russia itself is.

Which brings me to a few things.

One: seriously, go read Leigh's bio so I'm not the only one who feels like I need more hobbies.

Two: Good YA Fantasy/Fantasty stories have certain elements. Certain elements that SHADOW AND BONE very passionately incorporates, and certain elements I am beating my laptop bloody to incorporate into WINTER.

True to the OCD Writer within me, I shall outline these elements for you.

1) A glittery world. Yes, glittery. (Is this just me? Maybe?) A world so enriched in magic all its own that you enter this world feeling like you both have known it your whole life and have never seen it before.

2) Fighting. Bloody, gruesome, edge-of-your-seat fighting. My constant struggle with WINTER is feeling like a scene is boring if no one is getting attacked. Luckily, in SHADOW AND BONE, LOTS OF PEOPLE GET ATTACKED. Which is a really weird thing to like in books. Don't judge me.

3) Hello, YA Fantasty. The highly appropriate typo should speak for itself -- there should be tasty things. People, more specifically. People like Mal in SHADOW AND BONE. Mmm, Mal. And the Darkling. Mmm Darkling. Mmm. What? Oh, right.

4) Finally, the most important element (I feel) of a good YA Fantasy/Fantasty book -- culture. A culture so rich and unique and beautiful, so deep and thought-out and original, that you when you leave the book your world feels a little less complete for not having the same kind of traditions/methods/rhythm. No surprise at all, basing your fantasy world on such an already rich, magical culture as Russia is a sure-fire way to bring about a beautiful word.

So, yes, this post was more of a rave about SHADOW AND BONE than a post strictly about YA Fantasy/Fantasty elements (I think I might just start calling it YA Fantasty). But Leigh's book is one of the most original worlds to come along in quite awhile, and it feels like a door of sorts has opened in the YA Fantasty world. Could it be that Fantasty books will be the Next Big Thing? As someone with a huge bias toward the future of YA Fantasty should I commit to finishing WINTER (and it's looking good, folks), I certainly hope so. If SHADOW AND BONE is any taste of things to come, we're in for some killer worlds.

Loves

So I'm 20k words into the new draft of WINTER, and I'm at the point where I feel like a giggly little girl in the throes of a new love. One reason I'm currently high on book-writing is I rediscovered something I'd forgotten I adored the first time I wrote WINTER: court intrigue. Which is making me want to scoop up a bunch of court-intriguey books (I'm looking at you SHADOW AND BONE and THRONE OF GLASS) and devour them a-la-Lily in that episode of How I Met Your Mother where she has to gain weight to fit into her wedding dress and she chows down on a pile of fudge.

Because I'm all book-high and kind of incapable of writing coherent, helpful blog posts, I pose a question instead: what plot aspects have you found make you all giggly whilst writing? Court intrigue, steamy romance scenes, heart-pounding fight scenes, etc? Though, let's face it, we all get giggly with steamy romance scenes.

Back to the drafting trenches! *aways*

And then a meteor came crashing to earth...

AND EVERYONE DIED.

THE END.

...is what I feel like writing when I get to the Editing Point where I just. can't. read. my book. anymore.

Which, in all fairness, has never really been used to end a book. NO ONE WOULD SEE IT COMING. Unless your book is about meteors crashing to earth.

But, yes, I finished another round of edits on Ghost Book. I am finally to the point where (as mentioned above) I am so tired of reading my book that blasting the crap out of my writing world sounds more fun than reading it anymore. This is, weirdly enough, how I know I am close to being done, edit-wise.

And because I'm fried from another Editing Sprint (this time a three-day editing sprint), I ask you: how do YOU know when you are done/close to being done with editing?