Announcing the "My Funny Valentine" Finalists

Before I announce the finalists, I just wanted to say thank you to everyone who entered the contest.  This was a really tough choice and I was seriously tempted (especially early on when we only had a handful of contestants) to call everyone a finalist and let the voters make the tough choice.

It was so hard to choose, because all the valentines were so funny and unique.  In the end, what helped me decide was that element of surprise.  All the valentines I chose as finalists are ones where the pair is unexpected in some way.  A love letter from Dr. Jekyll to his evil alter-self.  A sweet valentine from a Tigger who just wants to be part of the family.  A letter of friendship from Dobby to the wizard who gave him his freedom.  And I couldn't resist a haiku from Oedipus' Mom to her son/husband/whatever he is.

Please vote for one of these fabulous finalists!

Patti Struble:  From Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde
Kemendraugh: From Tigger to Kanga
Dave Symonds: To Harry Potter, From Dobby the Free Elf 
Prof. Bragg: An Oedipal Ode (in haiku form)

The Voting Booth will be open momentarily (see the sidebar) and will stay open until 11:59pm EST on Friday, February 25.  (Any votes posted after that time will not be counted.)

We're all mature human beings, so I'll be using an honor system here.  This means only one vote per person, OK?  But definitely feel free to help spread the word and tell your friends to vote!  I will tally the votes and announce the winner next Saturday.

Good luck to all!

Recap of Finalists:

Patti Struble:  From Dr. Jekyll to Mr. Hyde

You left the milk on the table,
I did not put it away.
I was not able.

You tossed the laundry,
Broke the vase.
You even jumped up
On my work-space.

Still, you brought me yet another gift.
Half-beaten man from over the rift.

Now the lab’s all a-twitter,
We, we’re not quitters.

His heart will go; lungs & brain too.
For these gifts, I give to you.

          * * * * *

Kemendraugh: From Tigger to Kanga

I don't have a mama, and I'm not Roo.
But I sure love bouncing in on you!
You guys are my family. Like it or not.
And you're the best family I ever did got.
I can't write much, and I can't spell more
That doesn't matter, it's you I adore
I want you to know you're special today
Well, you're special all days but this day especially special, okay?
So here's a valentine's ditty
Because you're quite pretty
To Kanga (and Roo the little pest)
(I didn't mean that I just needed it to rhyme.
(Poets say things like that all of the time)
Like I said, Kanga, and Roo the pest.
Poems is what Tiggers do best!

          * * * * *

Dave Symonds: To Harry Potter, From Dobby the Free Elf

To Harry Potter

Dobby is extremely fond
Of Harry and his waving wand.
And Dobby always gave support
As Harry fought Lord Voldemort

While at the Malfoy’s alma mater
He was freed by Harry Potter
Luscious Malfoy was in shock
When Dobby got that dirty sock

Although Dobby is a goner
Dobby feels it was an honor
Helping Harry to the end
As a free elf and his friend

Your friend
- Dobby the Free Elf

          * * * * *

Prof. Bragg: (an Oedipal ode in haiku form)

Love found after love
Grief and misery remain
Baby Man of mine 

My Funny Valentine Finalists Coming Soon!

Dearest Friends of iggi!

I am so sorry I haven't announced the finalists and set up the poll for my Valentines Contest just yet.  You see, I moved houses yesterday and in my semi-delusional state I actually thought I'd have oodles of time this weekend to review the contest entries and figure out the poll widget-thingy.  Alas, we don't have our internet set up so I'm borrowing some to write this message.  I guess living out of boxes is not conducive to one's efficiency so please forgive my tardiness.

But don't fret!  I will be posting the finalists by the end of the day on Monday and I'll be leaving the poll open until Friday so all the participants will have plenty of time to tell their friends and get votes!

In the meantime, please send some sanity-filled-happy-unpacking-vibes our way.  I'm doing fine but iggi's a bit out of sorts without his usual writing fix.

YA Cafe: The Teen-10

Welcome Back to YA Cafe, where book lovers can gather and chat about teen literature.  I'm your barista, along with Ghenet from All About Them Words.

Each Friday we pick from a menu of topics and share our thoughts on our respective blogs.  We've also got plans brewing for interviews, events and even some exciting giveaways, so stay tuned!  Join the discussion by responding in the comments, on your own blogs or on twitter using the hash tag #yacafe.


Today's Special is: The Teen-10

What's the Teen-10 you ask?  This is the list of my absolute favorite 10 books from teen literature.  These are the books that affected me so much, I can't imagine what life was like before I read them.  One of these books I read just a few months ago so I guess you can say my life wasn't completely whole until this past November.  (And yes, I do have a flare for the melodramatic.  Can't you tell?)  Here it is... the moment you've been anxiously awaiting.  *drum roll*

Gabi's Teen-10 

Listed in order of ranking on my oh-so-scientific scale:

LOL<------>Super Suspenseful<------>Total Tearjerker

• I am a Genius of Unspeakable Evil and I Want to Be Your Class President (Josh Lieb)  An evil mastermind running for eighth grade class president?  Hilarious!  This kid has such a great voice, it cracks me up.  Some readers might also not fully appreciate the voice, but chances are that's because they're just not smart enough to appreciate the sheer genius that is this book (and this character).  Then again, it's easy to overlook genius in its own time.

• The Earth, My Butt and Other Big Round Things (Carolyn Mackler)
A funny, heartfelt book about a girl who's struggling to live up to the unrelenting standards of her seemingly perfect family.  It was a tough call between this book by Carolyn Mackler and two of her others (Vegan Virgin Valentine and Tangled) but I chose this one for my Teen-10 because it's the one that spoke to me on the most personal level.  Anyone who's ever felt a little too fat or not good enough will relate to this heroine.

• Geektastic (Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci)
This collection of short stories captures geekdom on all it's geekish levels.  Geektastic has all sorts of geeky goodness represented here--from trekkies and techies--the stories are written by bona fide members of the "nerd herd."  Why I love this book: first there's the sheer inspiration factor; being a geek doesn't condemn you to a lifetime of awkward loneliness (these writers are living proof).  Second (in number but not in awesomeness) this book intermingles short stories with super-funny comics.  What's not to love?

• Feed (M. T. Anderson)
Feed is one of my favorite books of all time and it most definitely wins the prize for best first line in a novel EVER.  I can't think of what else to tell you that won't seem meaningless, because no summary can do justice to the awesome that is this book.  But I'll try.  Here goes.  Imagine a world where everyone has the internet pumped directly into their brains.  Sound scary?  Maybe because it's not too far from being reality.

• The Looking Glass Wars (Frank Beddor) 
Alice in Wonderland meets Star Wars.  If you don't find that unbelievably awesome, you need to get your head examined.  'nuff said.

• What I Saw and How I Lied (Judy Blundell)
When I read What I Saw and How I Lied I read it practically in one gulp because I couldn't put it down.  Now, let me just say this... with all interwebby awesome out there and reruns of Law and Order on just about every cable channel, the temptation to put a book down is pretty big.  But this book grabbed me by the scruff of the neck and would not let me go.

• Ice (Sarah Beth Durst)
Who would have thought a book entitled Ice would be so warm, heartfelt and passionate?  The relationship between Cassie and Bear is loving, sexy, and real.  I love how this book combines elements from so many different genres and styles; it has the flavor of a folktale with the structure of a fairytale and the strong-yet-vulnerable female protagonist of contemporary YA.  A breath-taking book.

• True Believer (Virginia Euwer Wolff)
Of course I had to include a verse novel on this list because verse novels are among my favorites.  This book makes my Teen-10 because when I read True Believer (book 2 in the Make Lemonade series), I detested it.  I thought it was sappy and silly and ridiculous.  The thing is, when a book makes me feel so viscerally against it, I often have to go back and take a second look.  In this case, I decided to go back and read book 1 in the series (Make Lemonade) and it's positively lovely and made me reconsider my feelings about True Believer.  When a book (or in this case, author) wins me over on a second read, it often becomes a favorite of mine.  It's as though I end up liking it all the more because I disliked it so much at first.  This is one of those books.  The other book I felt like this about is now my number-one-all-time-favorite-book:
Pride and Prejudice.

 

• The Book Thief (Markus Zusak) 
A book narrated by Death?  A story about the power of words?  Love, war, friendship, betrayal, family and sacrifice all woven together?  The Book Thief is a bibliophile's dream.  Seriously.  When I read this book, I cried almost the whole way through.  Not because this book is sad (which it is, by the way) but because it's so beautifully crafted that I kept thinking "I'll never write like this!"  My writerly insecurities aside, if you haven't read this book, you need to.  Right now.  Seriously, step away from your computer and Read. This. Book.

• If I Stay (Gayle Forman)
This book made me cry.  So much so that I couldn't read the ending right away because vision was blurry.  Seriously, I had to get up and make a cup of tea so I could collect myself and read those last few pages.  This book has special meaning for me, for reasons I can't quite explain here.  Suffice to say, this is a heart-wrenching but beautiful book.  Read it with a box of tissues.

* * * * *

Still craving more YA-licious literary goodness?  Fellow barista, Ghenet shares her picks on her blog: All About Them Words.  Check it out, then tell us one or two (or ten!) of the books on your Teen-10 list.  

The Answer is In the Work

All you have to do is glance at the twitter feed for the SCBWI Winter Conference in NYC (#ny11scbwi) to know that Sara Zarr seriously rocked the house.  There have been numerous recap posts about her talk.  My favorites include:

Jenny Torres Sanchez [Read. Write. Suffer.]  Sara Zarr at SCBWI--VALIDATION!

Candy Gourlay [Notes from the Slushpile] NYC 2011: Sara Zarr gives the speech she wanted to hear.

Now it's been two weeks since the conference and as I sit down to write this post, I can't shake that feeling of dread... that feeling that no matter what I write here, it could never do justice to the AWESOME that was Sara Zarr's actual speech.  With that in mind, I have come to the conclusion that I will not do a recap.  Yes, I have pages and pages of notes.  Yes, I could give you a long list of all the amazing things she said.  But I could never manage to recreate the energy that filled the room while she said it.  So rather than try and fail miserably, I will simply try something else.

"The answer is in the work."  Even as I write this post, I realize how true Sara Zarr's statement is.  The answer isn't some elusive thing floating out in the ether.  The answer is in the work.  All the things Sara Zarr listed as being essential to a fulfilling creative life are simply ways of taking the focus from neurotic writer-selves and channeling it toward the work.

Here are some of the qualities that Sara Zarr mentioned that lead to a fulfilling creative life (and obstacles that get in our way):

• Sustainable
• Engaging (as opposed to Disenchanting)
• Invites Company but Knows When to Send Company Away (as opposed to Inviting the WRONG Company)
• Faith-Based (as opposed to having a Lack of Faith)
• Gives Back (as opposed to being Self-Obsessed)
• Practice and Craft are central (as opposed to emphasizing Process or the Commodification of Creativity)

As I look down that list, I realize that writers will tap into all of the qualities of a fulfilling creative life the moment they focus on loving the work.  If you love the work, it will sustain you and engage you even when the people around you are not supportive.  If you love the work, you'll invite good company into your circle of trust and send the bad company away.  If you love the work, you'll have faith that someday, good things will happen even if the present moment kind of stinks.

"The true goal to strive for is to love doing the work."  ~Sara Zarr

Notice also that all the obstacles that oppose those good qualities of a fulfilling creative life can get knocked down the minute we start loving the work.  If we love the work, it's hard to be self-obsessed or to commodify our creativity.  The work will have inherent meaning to us, not just meaning defined by what other people think of our work.

Ultimately, writers need to love doing the work and believe that there's enough generosity in the universe to go around.  In the words of Flannery O'Connor: "People without hope do not write novels."

In closing, there is a line in that movie Pushing Tin, and it sums up the writing experience for me.  This one air traffic controller is returning to work after having a meltdown and his therapist has given him a mantra: "It's a big sky, there's lots of room."

I feel like that mantra captures the writing life beautifully.  This isn't a zero-sum game.  OK, it might be if your end-goal is to have a #1 bestseller or win some prestigious award--but that doesn't necessarily make for a fulfilling creative life (and can lead to a lot of stress and neuroses).  But if the goal is to love doing the work, then there's plenty of good stuff in the universe to go around.  It's a big sky.  There's plenty of room for everybody.

How to Survive the Revision Process

OK, I'll admit it.  When I was in school (and college and grad school) I was seriously guilty of turning in work before revising it.  Sure, I would do a quick spell-check and maybe give it a once-over for grammar, but rarely did I ever roll up my sleeves and do serious revision.

Now that I have a draft of my book done, I find myself in the middle of the revision process and I totally realize why I was resistant to revision before: it's flippin' scary.  This is why I was so thrilled to hear James Scott Bell speak about the revision process at the Writer's Digest Conference.  I was particularly excited to attend his talk because I am a huge fan of his book The Art of War for Writers.  Here are some of the sparkly nuggets I took away from this session.


Principles of Revision

1)  Write hot, revise cool.  Revision allows you to add rational choices and strategy to the frantic bursts of creativity that came out in the first draft.  Take at least two weeks (maybe longer) after writing your draft to let it cool down before you revise.

2)  You need to finish first.  Nothing you write is etched in stone... you can always come back and make it better later on.  The only thing you can't do is revise a blank page.  Finish first.

3)  Do a first read-through.  Try to recreate a reading experience so that you're not focused on the fact that you're reading your own book.  Make minimal notes.  Tip from Gabi:  I put my book on my Kindle and have been reading it there so that it feels more like a "real book" and not just a draft on printed computer pages.  I use the footnote function on the Kindle to make my notes, and since I'm lazy about taking notes on Kindle, it forces me to make my notes short.

4)  Summarize your changes.  Write a 2000 word summary of your draft with the new adjustments you just noted.  Tip from Gabi: You can also try extracting an outline from the first draft, as a way of getting a handle on what you have written.  Then adjust the outline according to the notes you made in your read-through and implement those changes in the draft.


Things to Think About in Revision

Character:  The characters need to jump off the page.  Here are a few exercises to help you with this:

• Try creating some "off-screen" scenes where you see what the character would do in crazy situations.  
• Do the "opposite exercise" where you have the character do the opposite of what you'd expect, then figure out why they did that.

Remember, even at the very beginning, try to give the reader an inkling that the character has the potential for change.

Opening:  As Bell put it: "Cut out the parts that people skip."  Start the story where things get interesting.  Also, make trouble for your characters from the start.  Readers become engaged with the characters at the first sign of conflict.

Dialogue:  Compress the dialogue and extend the action.  Get rid of exposition and ramp up the conflict.  Even if characters are on the "same side" they should still have some kind of conflict between them.


Take-Home Message

Ultimately, revision is where you add the strategic element to your story.  Now that you know who the characters are and what's going to happen, you can plant foreshadowing moments and hint at themes that will be important later on.  You can't do all this in your first draft because during that stage of the process you don't know your characters or the story completely.  It's only once you know the ending and who your characters are at their core that you can manipulate the story in a strategic way.

Much as my brain understands all the amazing benefits of revision, I still find myself having trouble because I keep psyching myself out. 

Help!  Do you have any revision tips I can borrow?

What is Copyright and What Does it Do?

There are 4 main areas in IP (intellectual property) law.  These are: patents, copyrights, trademarks and trade secrets.


Patents:  Protect an invention.
Copyrights:  Protect artistic expression.
Trademarks:  Protect brand names and symbols.
Trade Secrets:  As long as you don't tell the secret, it stays protected.
(Example: the Coca-Cola formula is a trade secret.)

For authors, the most relevant area of IP law is copyright.  Here are some of the basic things you should know.

What is copyright?

Copyright is a property right which insures that someone else will not take your artistic expression and claim it as their own.

What does it cover?

Copyright covers various forms of artistic expression.  This includes music (both composition and recordings), dramatic works (plays, dance, opera), visual arts (painting, sculpture, illustration), and film/TV.  Of course, the most relevant category for writers is written expression, which is also covered by copyright.

How long does coverage last?

This is a tricky question because the law changes frequently.  (The running legal joke is that length of copyright follows the "Mickey Mouse rule" in that coverage is extended continually so that lovable cartoon mouse will always be copyrighted.)  A more specific answer can be found in the FAQ section of the U.S. Copyright Office website.

How do you get a copyright?

The minute you write that last sentence and put down your pen, your work has gained certain rights under the copyright laws.  This is why you don't need to tell agents or editors that your work is copyrighted because they already know that.  Caveat: while ownership of the copyright is automatic, you may not be able to collect all the damages if you don't register it.

How do you register a copyright?

You can register with the U.S. Copyright Office.  Registering preserves some rights that you might not otherwise get, such as the right to sue for statutory damages (a fixed amount per work) and attorney's fees.

Does this mean that if you do all these steps and someone copies your work, the Copyright Police will go after them?

Sorry, but that's not how it works.   First of all, there isn't really a copyright police (yes the FBI deals with copyright matters, but usually in the case of large scale criminal infringement) and the copyright office doesn't enforce copyrights.  You're probably wondering what the point of copyright is if it isn't enforced.  What copyright means is if someone copies your work, you can take them to court and sue for damages or get an injunction.  (An injunction means that the offending party must stop doing what they are doing.)

Take-home Message:  Copyright is a property right to your work which you own automatically.  By registering it, you give yourself evidence of having created that work.  If someone copies your work, you can sue for damages or get them to stop their infringement.

Legally Speaking

As many of you already know, I'm married to a wonderful man who--for the purposes of this blog--is called lawyer hubby.  In fact, he's an IP (intellectual property) litigator, which means he understands all that legal rigmarole that writers often fret about and he has actually represented authors in court.

Of course, I get to reap the benefits of his wisdom, but it hardly seems fair that I should be the only one.  Hence my new blog series for Tuesdays: Legally Speaking.  Starting this afternoon and going for the next few weeks, I'll be doing a series of posts on the different aspects of copyright and legal stuff that writers should know about.  Lawyer hubby gave me a crash course and I've done my best to translate it from legal-speak to normal-people-speak.

That said, here's iggi with his little Disclaimer poster.  I'm not a lawyer.  These posts should in no way be considered legal advice.  The point of these posts is to give my writer friends (that's you!) some of the basic information so when you do seek legal advice from a lawyer, you can ask smart questions.