When Publishers Go Bust (Review - The Almost Girl)

What happens when a publisher goes bust? As a writer, it seems like a nightmare come to life. Unfortunately, this is just what has happened with Strange Chemistry. This sucks on multiple levels, as I've just become aware of the imprint and their titles are very, very good. As a reader I'll know I won't be able to have a go-to for recommendations and as a media specialist I know that I won't be able to have a few best bets for purchase at the beginning of the year.

Angry Robot closes Exhibit A and Strange Chemistry imprints
23.06.14 | Joshua Farrington 184  0 

 

  539Sci-fi and fantasy publisher Angry Robot is closing its Exhibit A and Strange Chemistry imprints with immediate effect.
The publisher, part of the Osprey Group, said in a statement that the two imprints had been "unable to carve out their own niches".
Strange Chemistry focused on YA fiction, while Exhibit A released crime and mystery titles.
A statement from Angry Robot said: "Angry Robot Books has a history of innovation and we continue to go from strength to strength. We’re constantly trying out new concepts and new ideas, and we continue to publish popular and award-winning books. Our YA imprint Strange Chemistry and our crime/mystery imprint Exhibit A have – due mainly to market saturation – unfortunately been unable to carve out their own niches with as much success.
"We have therefore made the difficult decision to discontinue Strange Chemistry and Exhibit A, effective immediately, and no further titles will be published from these two imprints." More

The Almost Girl arrived in my mailbox as a submission for the GA Peach Award and I immediately tagged it as a great contender. This was before I found out that soon you won't be able to find the book. Again, that's sucky. Alas, the era of the ebook, makes solid what was once ephemeral. I'm assuming that the Kindle ebook will exist in perpetuity to pick it up.


The Almost Girl by Amalie Howard

Riven is a warrior refugee, well refugee is generous. Let's call her what she is, a possible kidnapper/assassin from a war-torn parallel universe where the android war is getting worse by the day. Her mission: to find the twin brother of the prince she's loyal to for more reasons than one. But what happens when her "mark" becomes more than an pawn in a brutal game but an actual person? What happens when the lines between us and them, allies and enemies becomes blurred?

The Almost Girl is fast-paced, kick-butt science fiction with alternate universes, robots, mind/body altering serums and all the stuff you love in the genre. I will say that I agree with other reviewers that there are some editing issues, but they are easily overlooked. It's a wild ride and one that's too much fun to turn down.

The Boys of Summer : YA Summer Reviews/Drift and Fake ID

Summer is the time where we have no excuse for not cracking open a book and getting lost in someone else's life. The days are longer and responsibilities are few. Here are two books that I won't categorize as beach reads (because, really, what does that even mean) but fun must-haves for July and August.

Most books feature young, heterosexual, thin, white girls, but sometimes, sometimes you get something a bit different and if you're a guy, or a girl who occasionally likes to read from the guy's perspective or even just a parent who is looking for some good reads to drop into your lazy kid's lap, you'll love these.

Drift by M.K. Hutchins

Inspired  by Maya mythology, Drift is set in a world where people live on an island that is set atop a massive turtle floating on top of "Hell". Sounds awesome, right? Well, it is. We follow that exploits of Tenjat, who as a farmer, is at the bottom of the class ladder as he strives to make a better life for himself as a Handler, essentially warrior/rulers who defend the island against the ravenous naga monsters who haunt the shores and waterways.

In Tenjat's world Handler's and Artisans are the people with power and money and prestige and he wants in. They are also celibate, which makes relationships....complicated. But what if there was another way of life? What if the myths about a life without fear of the nagas and a chance at love and children were real?

The world building in Drift is fantastical and lush and spiritual. The reader is drawn into, not just Tenjat's story, which is full of death and love and pain, but also the rules of the world and the very real danger that is as a part of their lives as the seasons.

I'm not sure if there is anyone who won't find something to love in this novel. Did I mention that the characters are of color? Yeah, that's a bonus. Pick it up!

Fake ID by Lamar Giles

Nick Pearson is on the run while standing in place. You see, Nick is really Tony, he's also a few other people. Nick is in the WitSec, the witness protection program, a result of his ne'er-do-well Dad's involvement with the mob and unfortunately, this is his last stop. After ruining their last few placements, Nick's family has to make this placement work. He's got to keep his head down and his profile low if he wants to stay under the radar and stay alive. Too bad his only friend at school is murdered less than a month after he arrives...and he's the one who finds the body.

Good YA mysteries don't come around to often, but this one is really top-tier and keeps the pages turning late into the night. Nick is a regular guy, he's not the hero with the good looks and girls at his feet, and he isn't the underdog. He's a kid who is trying to make the best of a bad situation that just keeps getting worse and worse. He's relatable and anyone who reads the book will be able to tap into that. He's also dealing with a situation that's new and exciting, being someone you're not while trying to stay true to yourself and what you believe. Well, what do you believe if you can't be yourself?

Full of political twists, murder, a dash a of romance and high school drama, Fake ID is an essential for the Summer.

Look out for more recommendations for me as I wade through my submissions for the GA Peach Award.

The Tragic Mulatto and Great by Sara Benincasa (Review)

I'm steeped in books that are to be considered for the Georgia Peach Award and Great by Sara Benincasa was among them. I must admit that I wasn't enticed by the book flap, which described, yet another foray into the rich and entitled lives of WASPy teens during a Summer in the Hamptons, but what I found after the first chapter was a LGBTQ retelling of The Great Gatsby. Here is the good, bad and ugly.

The Good: Inventive and juicy, Great follows Naomi, an angsty Chicago-bred girl as she spends another Summer with her super-successful Paula Deen/Racheal Ray-esque mother in the Hamptons. We're told that she has two lives. One with the down-to-earth folks in the city and her Dad and another with the super-rich with her mother in the Hamptons every Summer. It's fun to see how the Gatsby character is reimagined in an 18-year-old fashion blogging lesbian, and even though you have an idea of the frame of the story the twists in the road seem fresh.

The Bad: Aren't we tired of WASPy teen settings among the children of the Senators? In addition, the endless references to the beautiful people as being pale and thin are old and untrue. We're supposed to feel snarky about it as it comes out of the mouth of our "outsider" main character, but it just reaffirms the stereotype of blonde, tall and thin as the epitome of beauty. I disagree! It would have been interesting to set the scene in Texas old money or the cutthroat world of competitive ice dancing.

The Ugly: Unfortunately you run into problems when you just swap out one character for another in a story. All placements aren't equal and when an adult male is replaced by a social climbing "outsider" teen lesbian then the story transforms into something other than a commentary on love and money. The tragedy isn't placed at the feet of the class system but at the character's sexuality. You could argue that Great is a tragic mulatto story.

From Wikipedia:

The female "tragic octoroon" was a stock character of abolitionist literature: a light-skinned woman raised as if a white woman in her father's household, until hisbankruptcy or death has her reduced to a menial position and sold.^[2] She may even be unaware of her status before being so reduced.^[3] This character allowed abolitionists to draw attention to the sexual exploitation in slavery, and unlike the suffering of the field hands, did not allow slaveholders to retort that the sufferings of Northern mill hands were no easier, since the Northern mill owner would not sell his own children into slavery.^[4]The "tragic mulatta" figure is a woman of biracial heritage who must endure the hardships of African-Americans in the antebellum South, even though she may look white enough that her ethnicity is not immediately obvious. As the name implies, tragic mulattas almost always meet a bad end.

Our Gatsby, Jacinta, is doomed from the beginning, not because of a strar-crossed love, but because she's gay, and therefore doomed from the beginning. This is problematic when there are so few love stories between girls in YA. If there were other representations I might throw up my hands and say, eh, it's just a good story.

Bottom Line: Is it a good story? Definitely. I wouldn't review it if it weren't. Is it a good book? Maybe not. I'll definitely put it in my love story and LGBTQ display, but I probably won't handsell it too much because of the problematic depiction of the viability of teen homosexual relationships.

I could be totally wrong. Tell me your thoughts. After, all, who am I to speak for the LGBTQ community.


Note to publishers: The appeal in the book is the retelling and the LGBTQ aspect. None of that is mentioned in the flap. Are you being deliberately obscure?

Advocacy in Action - #weneeddiversebooks and the school library

We've all been galvanized by the twitter campaign #weneeddiversebooks and a lot of us have added tweets, but to make an impact we need to make an economic dent. The main challenge to diverse books is the publisher's excuse that they don't sell. Now this reason rings false to my ears when we understand that most books aren't bestsellers, nor are they expected to be. The bottom line is that an agent and editor liked it and submitted it and fought for it. Without agents and editors that relate to the writers with diverse stories then those with the power to publish will never see them. From there we have to hope and pray that the publisher doesn't have some internal bias, aversion or blindness afforded by privilege and push it further. Once the embattled story has made it through that process it is up to the market to respond. That is where librarians come in.

We have to make a commitment to these books. We have to seek them out and feature them prominently. We have budgets, we have purchasing power and that means we have a voice. One way you can ensure that you get the titles featuring people of color, feminist heroines, and  LGBTQ protagonists is to cancel your subscriptions. That's right, let Junior Library Guild and Follett know that while you'll still be purchasing, you won't be relying on them to make selections for you because they don't provide enough diverse titles. And to make an impact you have to tell them WHY you're cancelling. They are guaranteed dollars with the subscription and they won't want to let you go. Next year they'll be putting the pressure on publishers to provide them with diverse titles.

The hard part from there is actually finding the titles you want to put on your shelves. This is where the internet comes in. There are a number of places you can go. Here are a few of my faves:

http://thebrownbookshelf.com/

http://www.leeandlow.com/

http://www.cbcdiversity.com/

http://www.ala.org/glbtrt/award/honored

http://www.ala.org/alsc/awardsgrants/bookmedia/belpremedal

You can also join a listserv to connect with other librarians who are like minded. They are always good to tap for recommendations:

• equilibr@ala.org   ACRL Racial & Ethnic Diversity Committee
• ascla-igtl@ala.org   ASCLA Tribal Librarians Interest Group

•  yalsa-lockdown@ala.org  Discusses issues unique to librarians working with incarcerated youth.
•  ya-urban@ala.org    YALSA serving YA’s in large urban populations
• glbtrt-reviewers@ala.org   GLBTRT Reviewers list

Finally, start networking with people on twitter. Here are a few to follow:

@yalsa
@diversityinya
@uncommonya
@_DiversifYA
@leeandlow

The Writer's Voice - Willow Born- Query and 250

I hope this letter finds you well. I'm reaching out to you in light of your passion for young adult novels with lyrical voices and fantastic settings. I'm also betting that a Southern Gothic with witches, imps, war-mongering angels, and a time-traveling black female heroine that saves herself in the end is a cocktail you can't resist.

Years ago, witch hunters came to Carolina and devoured the Willows. Sixteen-year-old Collette, a powerful empath, was one of them. A part of a long line of witches that stretches back as far as the slave auctions of Charleston, she was especially gifted.

Decades later, a series of strange kidnappings prompts a member of her secret coven to make a plea for help and Collette is chosen to answer the call.  But things have changed. Angels have come out of the divine closet and everyone is on the lookout for the supernatural.

Snatched from the Void, she has to choose between a normal life and following the warrior path of the Willows, a coven she didn't know she belonged to. Soon, problems pile sky-high as she struggles to keep the boy who could blow her cover at arm’s length and her sanity as family secrets come to light in the midst of a serial killer.

In the end it all comes down to destiny, death  and the grey places between good and evil. But then again, when you’re Willow Born death can be just the beginning.

WILLOW BORN is a 77,000 word stand-alone Paranormal Fantasy with series potential. Fans of Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver and  Cassandre Clare’s City of Bones will be delighted with the book’s mix of supernatural drama, romance and Southern fantasy.

My main occupation is as a high school librarian in Atlanta, Georgia and I set all of my novels deeply in biscuit-and-sweet-tea country. Please note that this is a multiple submission. 

First 250

PART ONE – I’m Beginning to See The Light

Lake Murray, South Carolina One Summer Night

The imp prowls anxiously behind the ancient Willow tree, his muscles rippling under his too-tight feline skin. He knows the old witch isn’t as skilled as he needs her to be, but the pickings these days are slim. She’s the best of what’s left.

Warm breeze scatters scorched sections of the day’s newspaper, creating tiny cyclones around the bonfire. A photograph of a young girl with thin dreadlocks floats on dusty air before lighting and turning to ash. 

Miss Collins picks up her bottle of hooch. She drinks quickly, spitting the rest into the flames. The cat who is anything but a cat chases the darkness to keep hidden, shielding his emerald eyes from the flares. 

"They call them ‘Dolls’, Lord! ‘Dolls’! It is the coven who hears their cries." The old witch wails into the darkness as starlight dribbles like sweat through the boughs of the tree.

Herb perfumed smoke rises thickly to the heavens. This is what he’s been waiting over half a century for. This night. This spell.

"Lord, fourteen precious girls have gone missing, then dead. My task is great, but your mercy is greater. I come to you a daughter of Odion, the first of our kind!"

At this she pulls the tree-shaped dagger from her waistband. Without taking her eyes from the sky she slices open her palm and flings the first drops of blood into the flames. Glittering blue flares erupt where blood meets ash.

#WeNeedDiverseBooks

Next : D'Bow's High School Hoops by Kevin Waltman (Review)

I will admit that sports books are outside of my comfort zone. I'm a vampire and alternate reality type of girl, but I will say that Waltman's Next: D'Bow's High School Hoops drew me in with great dialogue and the kind of break-neck action that has you waiting on the end of your seat and skipping to the next page to see what will happen next, and this is despite my little knowledge of basketball terminology, and that's saying quite a bit. I was four chapters in before I figured out a "bucket" was a good thing.

Derrick Brown is the next rising start at Marion East High, the struggling inner city school on the wrong side of town. His coach is hard on him, mostly because he can see potential, but Derrick bristles. When Hamilton East, the preppy private school in the "nice" part of town comes calling Derrick can't help but listen, especially when they thrown in a few perks to sweeten the deal, but after a full season of sweat and tears with his team can he just transfer and turn friends into enemies?

You can kind of get an idea of what Derrick will choose early on, but it's a nice ride and it's a quick pick for anyone who is interested in basketball. What's also great is that while the dialogue is completely on point there was no effort to dumb down the content for the reader. This is a mistake that I see too often with sports books and books targeted for boys, especially boys of color.

Pick it up!

Girls Like Us by Gail Giles (Review)

Gail Giles weaves a tale as rich and thick as triple-chocolate cake. We all know that some people think diversity is just double-speak for Black, but in Girls Like Us we get to know girls who are marginalized, not just because of their color, but because of their experience, their placement in school, their pasts.

Biddy and Quincy are "Speddies", or slang for special education students who have just graduated from high school and are placed together in an apartment that they rent from an elderly woman in town. Biddy cleans house and works as a home-health aide and Quincy does the cooking at a local bakery. Both girls are developmentally disabled on different levels, but we get to learn how they navigate the world, how they treat it and how it treats them in return.

The pain of their childhoods cut deep and Quincy's quick Southern tongue is a special treat for someone like me who has a soft spot for regional fair. These girls aren't rich, pretty, or neurotypical. They aren't at all what is usually presented to us and you have to love them. It is a must read and a punch to the gut in the same way that Push by Sapphire was when it came out. I totally expect it to be challenged and for that you should have your school book club read it now!

Side note: I'm pissed at Candlewick for this awful, awful cover. If you can't do justice to the multiracial backgrounds of the characters then don't depict them at all. There are tons of font heavy covers to offer you inspiration.

Placed on Recommendation list for a GA Peach Award. (By the by. If you want to read great fiction. Review it and let people know about it.)

The Summer Prince by Alaya Dawn Johnson : What Awesomesauce is made of

Feminist, sci-fi, queer friendly, post-apocalyptic, Portuguese, afro-Latino revolution music. That's what The Summer Prince is. It is what you've always wanted to be printed, what you've been waiting for, but just didn't know it.

Alaya Dawn Johnson weaves a tale set 400 years after the apocalypse in a floating glass pyramid on the shores of what was once known as Brazil. In this matriarchal society (yes, I said, a city ruled by a Queen and her sentry of Aunties) a strange custom has evolved where each moon year and sun year a Prince is crowned from among the wakas (citizens under 30. With advanced technology, death has been almost eliminated as people age well into their second century) only to shine brightly until the end of winter where he'll be sacrificed and choose the new queen with his final dying act.

June is our heroine and she is "the best artist in Palmarez Tres." When her best friend Gil and she both ogle over the newly elected Summer Prince, no one is shocked more than she is when Enki chooses Gil to be his consort at the very first inaugural dance. (You caught that right. I said the PRINCE chose, GIL, a boy to be his consort). Raised in the verde, the bottom tier of the pyramid and dark as night, Enki gives the Aunties a little more than they bargained for with his revolutionary leanings, leanings that June is all to happy to attach herself to as she tries to make a name for herself as an artist. What follows is a tale of revolution, the pain of accepting love and the joy of accepting death, and there is plenty of  data streaming, spider bot, technological body modifcation to satisfy any sci-fi lover.

Our characters are honey-colored, sandy brown and almost blue black. The language is Portuguese but we're reading it in English, our food is spicy and the lines of sexuality are so blurred they either no longer matter or no longer exist. Technology is running rampant to the point where a soul can be downloaded and the body left behind. The New World Order has left many of our issue behind, but the struggle for power still holds true and the battle between young and old, rich and poor, still exist.

This is a must read, a MUST read.

Newly endowed with power I've recommended the title to be considered for the Georgia Peach Award List for 2014-2015. This is where a call for diversity starts working to lift good titles to the forefront. Diversity advocates have to sit on the boards that recommend titles for recognition, they have to write reviews and they have to constantly push the books with characters of color, with characters who are LGBT, with characters who are other than affluent, suburban, straight and blonde.

The Planning Period: Librarians as Educators, Charter Schools, and 'Hood Love

The Planning Period with Jovan Miles | Listen via Stitcher Radio On Demand via kwout

Make sure you check out my interview with Mr. Jovan Miles on The Planning Period as we discuss the pros and cons of charter schools, librarians as educators and passion vs. profit.

Fantasy Fail: Slavery is Boring

Dear Fantasy Writer,
In a world that you've created completely from the clay of your own mind, where dragons fly and magic prevails, where dwarves dwell and giants rule, why oh why are there still slaves?
This world is full of beauty and innumerable pleasures, but we cannot forget that the world ends for someone everyday, where horrors that make your brain and heart hurt flow freely. Murder, rape, torture.....enslavement. Get that. Enslavement is a horror.

I know you understand this because in recent years you've decided to call yourself "aware" and remove all people of color from your story lines and have replaced them with aliens or dark haired "barbarians". You've carefully side-stepped the moniker of "racist" by eliminating all the tawny-skinned, curly headed or big-bottomed characters that may give your reader a flashback of real slavery. You wouldn't want them to be offended.
You failed.
Slavery is offensive. A fantasy world where literally anything can and does exist, but sun and earth colored folk is offensive. A heroine who falls in love with a noble savage is offensive and has been for quite some time. But more than that, you're boring.
We've read this story line before. I already know how it ends.
Do something new. Create a new world order. You're a god with a pen. I expect more of you.

Sincerely,
Faithful, Fantasy Reader

The Case for Black Characters

Whenever I approach a publisher or distributor about my desire to stock my high school shelves with Young Adult books with characters of color the response is easy to predict:

• "There just aren't that many being published because there aren't that many writers." (false)
• "The market just isn't there." (also false)

What drives the second excuse into the dust is a recent survey released by the Pew Research Center, E-Reading Rises as Device Ownership Jumps.

 Looky, looky. Which ethnic group has the highest reading rate? Black folk. Eighty-one percent of Black people read at least one book last year versus just 76% of white people. Why is it that less than 3% of books published feature a character of color? 

With this kind of hard evidence at hand I'm glad to say I have a tool to advocate for more books for my kids based purely on a profit-minded model. As we all know, the push for social justice is a noble but slow process, but the push for more money is lightning fast.

Southern Spaces

When we first learn to analyze passages, and this is as early as first grade, we learn to pay attention to setting. Where are we? What do we see when we look around? All of that matters, but it is really simplistic. Later, we realize that setting affects how the people around you act, how the speak, how the dress and how they think. Every single space on this earth has its own idiosyncrasies, but few places evoke the kind of visceral reaction like the South.

Sounds ominous, doesn't it. The South.

Even for those who have never visited, have an idea of what its like "down there". Reactions swing from the romantic to the revolting. Images of rolling green hills and magnolia trees are juxtaposed with those of men in white hoods and lifeless black bodies swinging from those same magnolias. Even still, the culture, the food, the speech that has emerged from the mix of African, French, Spanish, Native American, and Mexican influences has created something completely American.

As a writer, we choose our tools. Some write exclusively from the female perspective, or just science fiction, but as a Southerner I write from the South and always will. My characters eat biscuits and grits, they say 'yes, sir' and 'no, ma'am'. They go to church on Sundays and know that you can only make sweet tea when you mix the sugar in while it's hot. This does not change. What can't you change in your writing?

How to Shave 10K from your MS in no time!

So, if you're like me, you like really fat, juicy, wordy books. Unfortunately, that can be intimidating for some YA readers and those big, fat books are hard to sell. Maybe you've been told to "hurry it up already" or someone has gently reminded you that 450 page romances just don't sell. Either way, you've got to edit. 

Fear not!

From my own vast knowledge (wink,wink) I've come up with five fool-proof ways to shave thousands of words from your manuscript.

1. Kill a character. I know that you love all your characters, even those that provide comic relief, or the brother that really helps establish your characters softer side. Sorry, he's taking up precious real estate in your story. If it doesn't move the story along in a major way, just get rid of them. You'll be able to cut dialogue and whole scenes really easily.

 2.Shut your mouth. Dialogue helps establish how your characters think, but sometimes those conversations with other characters, especially bit ones, go on too long. Shut it down. Make it funny, make it sad, but most of all shorten it.

3. Park your bottom. Establishing setting takes a little while, especially if you're doing it right, but every time you introduce a new setting you have to spend the time to describe where your characters are, what they see and hear. Stop moving around so much. Think of a TV sitcom. They've got a few sets they've built and they have to make it work within those few sets. Do the same.

4.Keep your eye on the prize. Like everything, it helps to have a goal. I like to overshoot and then cut back. I think it's easier to whittle a scene down than it is to build one up, but whichever you choose, have a word count in mind. This makes it easier to make those hard decisions. You have to ask yourself, "Is this necessary?"

5. Become a gold speculator. I know that all your quips and heartfelt confessions are gold, but how golden are they? Sometimes you have to measure that perfect phrase against all the others in your manuscript. If it doesn't move the story along, it can follow the rest of the detritus to the chopping block. Be confident, there's enough good to withstand the loss of a few clever turns of phrase.

Happy slaughter!

Librarians as Advocates

As a librarian I have the unique responsibility and pleasure of creating the universe. Arrogant? I don't think so. I create the universe because I curate the library. I pick the books that students read to understand the universe. From a very young age, we understand and are taught that if it is important it is in a book. So, if I don't read histories that include positive and accurate portrayals about people who look like me, talk like me, and live in places like mine then it is like I don't exist, or rather I can begin to believe that there is nothing positive about people like me. I could also reject books entirely, because I know that there are positive, interesting and fantastic things about me and people like me, but they aren't found in books.

Librarians MUST be advocates for all children. Not only for students that may be marginalized, but also for those students in the dominant culture, because they can grow up with a false sense of entitlement. Those kids grow up and become teachers themselves and tell their students things like "we don't need another black president". The take-away being that we've done that already, lets get back to the real business of white only, male only, Christian only politics. Read More

As we create the universe through the books we choose to place in the our libraries and on our classroom shelves we must be sure to:

• Acquire titles that show diverse perspectives of historical events - On Columbus Day and prior to Thanksgiving be sure to display books from the perspective of Native Americans. Patriotism is not a religion. We make ideas available. Children should be allowed to look at history from every angle and make up their own minds.
• Choose books that reflect the real lives of your students - Don't shy away from books that deal with racism, rape, incest, drug addiction and the like. We have kids in our schools who have been raped. We teach kids who are struggling with or have parents struggling with addiction. They need to know that they are not alone.
• Make sure that there are diverse reflections of all kinds of students, even if you don't teach them - If you have an all-white population it is important that your kids have books by and about people of color and vice versa. If all kids consume is Teen Mom and Cops, white students will grow up to fear people of color and children of color will grow up to hate themselves (yes, I said it!)
• Recognize LGBT students - You have a gay student. Again, you have a gay, lesbian or transgendered student. You may not know who he or she is, but they are there. Let them know that they exist in the world by choosing fiction and non-fiction books about their experiences. A review of the Stonewall Riots is essential in your non-fiction section. Take it a step further and choose titles on first amendment rights of students and then display it during Pride Week.

The stereotype of librarians as meek and mild mannered may be true in some cases, but that does not mean that we are weak. It does not mean that we are not powerful. Seize your power and create a world that is real, colorful and aware.

YA with Black Female Protagonists

Check out this fantastic convo we had on twitter where I got some great recommendations for YA with Black Female Protagonists.

Writing Resolutions: I Resolve To....

Every year brings a new opportunity to reset, reassess and revitalize your life. I'm one of those people who love New Year's Resolutions. I like to look back and see what I can do better and then do it. Goal setting is fun and it's nice to cross things off your list. A good friend of mine and I used to host goal setting dates with each other and create a whole life binder out of the get-together. We'd cover everything in categories: physical, spiritual, mental, financial and emotional. I'm not as detailed as all of that anymore (this was in high school and early college), but I do love a good list.

Last years goals included:

• Finish my novel
• Speak at a professional conference
• Be published professionally
• Become a reviewer

Now this isn't the full list, because I've only listed things that I actually accomplished. I didn't decorate my sunroom or run a 5K as I'd hoped, but there is room for that this year. I'm hoping to really grow my writing portfolio, brand and reach this year so that means that I'll have to make some changes, so my goals are to:

• Query my revised novel
• Finish a novella
• Secure an agent (I don't usually like goals that require approval from someone else, so this is more of a hope)
• Post on the blog once a week
• Journal every week
• Write 1000 words each week (Now this seems small compared to a lot of writers, but I'm a binge writer, I'll knock out 20,000 in a week and then have a dry spell for a month sometimes. That is NOT happening this year. I'm increasing my output three-fold.)
• Publish or secure a deal for publishing (There is also the  idea of self-publishing, but I'm still waffling on that one. We'll hash that out in another post.)

I've got some personal goals that involve getting my soft tail off the couch, but I'll keep those private for now. There is research that suggests that making your goals public increases your chance of meeting them so I'm putting mine out there and stepping out on faith. Do you have any you'd like to share?