Road Trip Wednesday: Spin-off Characters

Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question that begs to be answered. In the comments, you can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic.


This week they want to know which supporting character would you like to see in a novel of their own.


I'd go for Alice from The Twilight Saga. She was my favourite character, and she'd have a lot of potential as a primary character.


What about you?

Friday Fives, Attention Grabbing Titles, and Writing Update

I can't believe it's Friday already. But it is, and that means that it's time for the Paper Hangover blog prompt. Every week the people at Paper Hangover come up with a question for writers and readers of young adult fiction to answer on their blogs. This week they want to know the five book titles that caught my attention.

1: Across the Barricades by Joan Lingard: This is a story about two teenagers who fall for each other in 1970s Belfast. Sadie is Protestant and Kevin is Catholic, and in the political climate of Northern Ireland in 1973 this makes their relationship very difficult. I love the title because it sounds so stark. It lets you know at the start that there are high stakes and possible violence in the story.

2: Divergent by Veronica Roth: I love this title because it works on two levels. Not only is the word used to describe the protagonist, but because it literally means 'going the other way'. Again, this tells you that this is a story about going against the grain of society.

3: Twilight by Stephenie Meyer: I love this title, really atmospheric. It also describes that period in adolescence where you're not quite a child, but not quite an adult either. A time of transition, which is really what the series is about underneath it all.

4: The Northern Lights by Phillip Pullman: This is the first book in the His Dark Materials trilogy, known as The Golden Compass in the US. I've always been fascinated by the northern lights, and was taken in by the mysteriousness of the title.

5: Wintergirls by Laurie Halse Anderson: This is a book that I haven't read yet, but the title is attention grabbing. Especially for a book concerning eating disorders.

Writing update: I have my foster placement 24 hours at this point, and I've managed to get 2,000 words down. So I'm not doing too badly. Hopefully I'll get some more work done this evening.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

I Should Probably Talk About Writing...

So yeah, I haven't really talked about my writing lately. Possibly because it's getting rather complicated. I'm progressing well with Lemons, my contemporary fiction novel, and I'm changing Guildhall over from an urban fantasy young adult novel, to steampunk. The steampunk genre suits a lot of my plot points better, and it's nice to think that my knowledge of Victorian Britain is being put to some practical use. I'm starting to outline plans for Ravensborough II. I also have a plot bunny for an adult urban fantasy series that I'm trying to resist, because I have way too many projects going on now as it is.

I'm writing first drafts, which I love. I plan my plot as I type, so I never really know where my story is going. I find out along the way. First draft involve large word counts, fast typing, and can be really tough on my hands. They're already cramping today, and I haven't even written anything, but I hope they hold up so I can get a good bit of work done. I have a ten day foster placement starting tomorrow, and three year old girls who talk a lot aren't conducive to hours of writing. Though I hope to manage an hour or two a day, anyway.

What about all of you? How is your writing going?

Review: Divergent by Veronica Roth

Thanks everyone for the beautiful comments on yesterday's post. I've met so many lovely people since I started blogging here in March, I'm incredibly lucky.

I bought Divergent to take away on holiday, pulled in by its shiny cover, my love of all things dystopian and favourable mentions on blogger. Also because it was part of a three books for the price of two special in Eason's book shop on O'Connell Street. Hey, there's a global economic crisis on don't you know?

Whatever the reason, I'm glad I picked this one up. Roth's writing style is engaging and full of beautiful imagery that easily evokes a dystopian Chicago. Tris is an interesting character, though I wish we had gotten to know her family a little bit more before everything changed.

There's not much that I can say about the plot, without rapidly wading into spoiler territory, but I really liked this gritty YA novel. There were some parts that I didn't buy, like the trains looping round the city constantly for the sole use of the Dauntless faction, but generally it was a solid enjoyable novel.

The ending is obviously set up for a sequel, but I didn't get that annoying feeling that the sole purpose of this book was to set up the sequel. This is becoming very common lately with the rise of popularity of book series. I'd recommend any fan of YA or dystopian fiction to pick this up, it's well worth a read.

Oh, and I think I'd plump for Erudite, if you're interested ;)

Shelley Watters' First Page Critique Contest

Shelley Watters is holding a first page critique contest over at her blog. You can check it out here. The rules are listed there, but basically writers in certain genres post the first 250 words of their novel on their blog for open critique. Afterwards, the polished extracts go forward to win the chance of being looked at by a hot agent. Pretty cool right? So here's mine:

Prologue

I woke up in a cold sweat, my heart racing. I’d had that dream again. It had been haunting me for the past few weeks, and I still had no idea what it meant.

            It started with me lying face down in a dark room, with a cold stone floor beneath me. I knew there were other people around me – I could sense them, but didn’t know who they were. I heard someone walk across the room, their footsteps echoing on the stone floor.

            ‘This is your last chance,’ I heard a woman’s voice hiss in my ear. ‘Or it will be all over for you and your friends.’

Her tone told me that, if I didn’t do as she asked, something terrible would happen. I got slowly to my feet, and faced her. Moonlight streamed through a window illuminating the voice’s body, but I couldn’t see her face. A black shadow came over the window, blocking out the moonlight. A second later there was a large crash, an explosion.

            Someone pulled me to the ground, away from the shadow.

            ‘Stay where you are,’ another voice whispered in my ear urgently. A high-pitched scream echoed above and I closed my eyes tightly, afraid of what I might see. When the screaming stopped, I opened my eyes. Just inches from where I lay I could see the unmistakeable glossy slick of blood.

Friday Fives: Creative Inspiration

Every week, the lovely people over at Paper Hangover give a blog prompt to help those of us who, very occasionally, run out of ideas for posts. This week they want to know: What are the five things that get your creativity juices flowing? Because Paper Hangover is predominantly YA, I'll be listing things that help me write YA urban fantasy, rather than my other genre, women's contemporary fiction.

1. Music: When I get stuck in a scene, I find playing music can jog my brain. Maybe it's because music appeals on an emotional level? 

2. Rain: I find that I get inspired by the rain, and I find it easier to get write on cold, damp days. Good thing I live in Ireland then.

3: Reading history and mythology: I find that my YA fiction depends more on my university education than my adult fiction does. The political situation in Ravensborough is inspired by historical research, and my steampunk WIP is based in an alternative Victorian era, a period I've specialised in. So non-fiction comes into play.

4: Eavesdropping: It's amazing how many ideas you can pick up from listening to people talk in public. Not that I would lift an idea completely, but if gives you a starting point. Then you ask 'what if...' and a plot strand begins to take shape.

5: Life: This sounds like a bit of a cop out, but it really isn't. The more things you do, people you meet, and places you see, the more your imagination grows. Like any living thing, creativity needs fuel.

What about you guys? What inspires you?

'It's Friday, Friday, gotta get down on Friday...

...Everybody's lookin' forward to the weekend.'

Say what you like about that song, it's seriously catchy. Anyway, every Friday the nice people at Paper Hangover give a blog prompt. This week's prompt is your five best summer reads.

Summer reads conjures up visions of lying on a beach, under a baking hot sun. That's a far way from the weather here which, even for an Irish summer, is disappointing. We've had thunder and lightening this week (twice), hailstones (twice) and rain every day. Still, here are the books I'd recommend for summer.

1.Sophie Kinsella Can You Keep A Secret?


This book is really good fun, and laugh out loud funny. It follows Emma Corrigan, a woman who goes on an airoplane and, thinking that some mid-flight turbulence means that she's going to die, she tells a stranger beside sitting next to her all her secrets. When she survives, she goes into work to find out that the stranger was in fact her boss and he now knows all the things that she keeps secret, like her tactics for skiving off work. Emma goes into damage limitation mode, and ends up tying herself up in more knots. Sophie Kinsella is a fantastic writer, and this is one of my go-to feel-good books.

2. Marian Keyes This Charming Man

Marian Keyes is my favourite women's fiction author, and this is in my opinion her best book. It has her trademark wit throughout, yet deals with a very dark theme in a sympathetic way. I've loved her books ever since I read Rachel's Holiday when I was thirteen. This story is told from multiple points of view, including in an abrupt diary-style from Lola's POV, which you either love or you hate. Can't recommend this book enough.

3. Jodi Picoult My Sister's Keeper


This isn't quite as light as the other's, but it's a great book. I love the way Picoult manages to put over multiple sides of the same story, and can make you see where all her character's are coming from in amazingly difficult situations. Plus, her style of writing is so beautiful it makes me want to cry with envy. Sigh!







4. Richelle Mead Succubus Blues (Georgina Kincaid Series)


I love Richelle Mead. She writes really witty urban fantasy that keeps you reading late into the night to see what happens. Five of the six books in this series have been released, and the sixth book is coming out in August. The premise is that the heroine, Georgina, is a succubus who falls in love with a mortal man. Unfortunately, she can't touch him in case she takes away his soul. Add in some adventure and danger, and you have a great series.

5. Richelle Mead Vampire Academy Series


This is Mead's YA series, and it's excellent. The protagonist has a lot of conflict going on but, unlike some other YA novels, has ambitions outside of her love life which I really like. I have read most of these books in one sitting, they are totally escapist and this series inspired me to write my own YA novels.







What about you, have you any summer book recommendations? Hope everybody has a great weekend :)

Thematically Speaking...

Anyone who stays on top of happenings in the on-line book world is probably aware that an article was published in the Wall Street Journal over the weekend criticising contemporary young adult fiction. Now, I'm not going to take the article point by point and refute its claims, because many bloggers in the YA fiction community have already done so, more eloquently than I could put it. Instead, I'm going to look at the purpose of exploring 'dark' themes in books.

Outrage over the reading material available to our youth is nothing new. The Harry Potter series received a lot of criticism from parents who argued that the books promoted the occult. Just last year urban fantasy writer Richelle Mead, bestselling author of the Vampire Academy series, had the latest instalment of her series banned before she had even finished writing it.

One of the arguments in the article, was that the depiction of activities such as self-harm normalises the practice. I would argue that this is no bad thing. I knew girls who cut themselves when I was in school, and they were regarded as freaks. A well-written fictional story that includes cutting gives a voice to the practice, and develops a readers sense of empathy. The next time they see someone with cutting scars they might not think 'freak', they may realise that there is a lot going on inside that person's head and feel some compassion. Is that not what we want to instil in the young generation? Compassion? Dark issues happen in the teenage world, it doesn't do anyone any good to deny that.

Not every book is suitable for every teen, true. But parents should know what their kids are reading, and maybe read some of them too. If a book covers issues such as self-harm, talk about it with them.

I took a course on understanding literature, and one of the themes that we covered was the importance of the 'scare factor' in books for children and young adults. Part of their emotional development rests on 'experiencing' scary things in a safe environment, such as fear, despair, anxiety. As they follow a character on screen or in a book, they 'rehearse' the emotions that the character is feeling, and usually see a resolution in the happy ending. This means that when they themselves feel the emotions in real life, they're not completely knocked. And they keep their sense of hope. This is recognised by psychologists.

Plus, take an issue like drug-taking. Your parents may tell you about the dangers of taking drugs, but do teenagers always listen to their parents? If a character they admire in a book takes drugs and something bad happens, that will strengthen their resolve in a way that parental lectures (however well-meaning) won't.

I think keeping 'dark' issues away from teens underestimates their intelligence.

I Got Through To The ABNA Quarter-Finals!

I just found out last night that I've made it through to the quarter-final stage of the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award!


Ravensborough is my young adult novel, and the first book that I completed. It's very special to me. My husband (who is a journalist and editor) had read through it and liked it, but I still wasn't sure that it was good enough to submit to agents and publishers. So ABNA seemed like a good way to get some constructive feedback.

They took 5,000 entries in the YA category, and in the first round they narrowed the field to 1,000 entries. I was chuffed to get through to the second round. When I found out that I made it through the second round, where they allowed only 250 of the 1,000 to go through, I was completely overwhelmed.

The best thing was the reviews I got. Two Vine reviewers read over my work, and gave me comments. Their comments were super-nice, and they seemed to really enjoy my story. To get praise from people who aren't worried about the repercussions of hurting my feelings is fantastic.

 The big thing now is that Publishers Weekly is going to look at my manuscript! I can't believe it. I'm really nervous about it, but I've got a month to psyche myself up for it I suppose. :)