Karen Sandler

Tag: awakening

  • What Should a Writer’s Conference Be?

    NY Street2sHaving just returned from the SCBWI winter conference in NY, I started pondering what the best format for an annual writer’s conference should be. Then it occurred to me that there may not be a “best.” Partly because the attendees are always at different stages in their careers:

    • thinking about becoming an author
    • starting a first book
    • crying out to the gods as they battle with a saggy middle
    • in the middle of revisions with a finished book
    • querying agents/editors with a polished book
    • agents/editors are requesting (yay!)
    • first sale!
    • multi-sales
    • a legend in the business

    There might be some other stages, but this covers a goodly portion. The thing is, each of these authors/writers require something different from a conference. For the first several stages, workshops on craft (plotting, characterization, beginnings, middles, and ends, turning points, dark moments, using compelling language, cutting out the fat, etc) are ideal. The hands-on type are especially useful, where the writers can walk out with something they created during a workshop. They also need inspiration from published authors, whether the old hands or the ones celebrating their first sale.

    As we get into the group with a truly polished manuscript, workshops on query letters would be great, as well as that all important opportunity to meet agents/editors and get an invitation to submit. The chance to find out what editor is looking for what is invaluable for someone with a manuscript ready to go. The craft workshops are probably still valuable for those in this category.

    Those craft workshops might also be useful for those who have made a first sale. From experience, writing one salable book and getting a contract for it does not mean the writer knows everything there is to know about writing. Some tips on how to continually improve are welcome. After all, you have to sell that second and subsequent books.

    For multi-published authors, a view into trends is somewhat useful, although we all know we shouldn’t write to trends. Workshops on the business side of things–contracts, tax issues, avoiding burnout, etc.–are more welcome than how to write a compelling character. It’s not so much that a multi-published author knows everything, but that the most commonly presented material in craft workshops these folks have already heard again and again. In fact, they could present those workshops.

    As to the legends, they would be giving those inspiring keynotes. They might not want to wade into the masses every day of the conference (too exhausting), but sometimes it’s really nice to just be with people who understand you, so I would think that would be a draw for the legendary authors amongst us.

    The organization that I think does the best job of presenting a well-rounded conference, one that covers the most stages of a writer’s career, is Romance Writers of America. They do a real whizbang job of it. It’s fairly expensive, especially if you’re not a member, and some of the workshops will be romance-specific. But there are plenty that are generic enough any genre could get value from them.

    So, what do you think? What would your ideal conference be like?

  • Road Trip Memories

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks the question, What’s the most dramatic road trip you’ve ever been on? What immediately pops into my mind might not have been a dramatic road trip, but it left wonderful, indelible memories. It was the summer my dad had to spend several weeks working on a satellite launch in Florida. He agreed to take us kids with us, so we drove from Los Angeles to Cocoa Beach in a 1957 Ford station wagon.

    NPS Photo by Peter Jones
    NPS Photo by Peter Jones

    I was ten years old, and had just finished fifth grade. In fact, I missed the last few days of fifth grade because my dad had to be in Florida by a certain date, so I left school early. We departed on a Tuesday in early June, me, Dad, and my older sister, Debbie. The plan was that my oldest sister, Linda, and a friend named Cathy would fly out later and join us.

    But the three of us drove. We started in Hawthorne, California and headed east. In those days, no one wore seat belts (the old Ford probably didn’t have any), so sometimes my sister and I would travel in the “way back” behind the middle seat. We also would sleep back there while my dad drove.

    We made stops along the way. The first was at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico. We arrived at the caverns Wednesday evening, just in time to watch the resident bats leave for their nightly flight. The next day, we descended into the cave on a tour, which ended in an enormous cavern set up as a cafeteria. They gave us box lunches and I still remember the taste of that cheese sandwich, and eating it hundreds of feet underground.

    Years later, I wrote a romantic suspense novel based in a similar cavern underneath the Arizona desert (Dark Whispers). In the book I’m working on now, Revolution, the third book in the Tankborn trilogy, several important scenes also take place underground.

    Tom Sawyer Cover1We left New Mexico on Thursday after the tour and headed into Texas. Because we were driving through the “fat” part of Texas, it seemed to take forever to get through the state (on our way home, my mom drove through the Texas panhandle in one night). At some point in Texas, we stopped at a truck stop and my dad bought me a copy of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer. (I might be giving away my age here, but if you take a close look at the cover, you’ll see the book cost 65 cents.)

    I devoured Tom Sawyer as we passed through the South, crossing through Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, and Georgia. Tom Sawyer takes place in Missouri, but the flavor of the book’s setting fit the countryside we drove through, adding to the experience of reading the book.

    We made it to Florida on Saturday of that week, five days of driving to cross the country. My dad had often driven through the night, only pulling over to sleep in the car when he got too tired. Not long after crossing the border into Florida, we stopped at a restaurant for breakfast where I had grits for the first time. To my Southern California eyes and palate, they looked and tasted pretty strange, but it certainly told me I was a long way from home. We spent that night in a hotel and the next day, moved into the apartment we stayed in for the summer.

    There was more to the trip. I got to see three satellites launched from the beach outside our apartment. We spent every day in the pool or on the beach, or walking down to the Howard Johnson’s in the rain for ice cream. When my dad’s job was done, we all drove from Florida to Brooklyn (now it was Dad, Mom, me and my two older sisters and Cathy). Mom and Dad took turns driving so it was a fast trip. Then we visited our Brooklyn relatives a few days (which included a trip to the World’s Fair). Finally, we drove from New York back to Los Angeles, finishing the big triangle-shaped road trip.

    We rode through or visited 25 of the 50 states that summer. It was a fabulous trip, one I’ll always remember.

  • Funny Stuff

    This week’s Road Trip Wednesday at YA Highway asks, Who is your favorite comedian or funny book and/or movie? I don’t follow comedy much, so I’m not sure I have a fave comedian. If I had to name one, it would be Jon Stewart. Funny movies–I don’t see a lot of them, period, and the ones I see tend not to be comedies. I liked Bridesmaids (which I saw on a flight back from The Netherlands), but I don’t usually like that kind of gross-out humor.

    Books, though, I can come up with three right off the top of my head. Two more recent offerings in YA, one from the ’60s that I originally read in high school.

    Newest first. Fellow Tu Books author Kimberly Pauley’s Cat Girl’s Day Off was a silly, goofy, fun, funny laugh-out-loud treat. I liked it so much, it was my RTW Best Book in April 2012.

    Second, John Green & David Levithan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson was a gem. Back in the day (when I was an actual teen reading books about teens), a book like Will Grayson, Will Grayson would have been called a “coming of age” book. I love how the two main characters and excellent secondary characters (the two Wills and Tiny) are all so beautifully drawn. I disliked the second Will Grayson character almost immediately, but he had such a fantastic character arc, I loved him at the end.

    Third, Richard Bradford’s Red Sky at Morning is an actual “coming of age” story that very much deserves to be read by today’s audience. Published in the mid-sixties, the story takes place during WWII. The main character is Josh Arnold, and his father is going away to war. Josh and his mother have to move from Mobile, Alabama to Corazon Sagrado, New Mexico. Red Sky at Morning is also a “fish out of water” story as Josh, used to city life in the South, has to adjust to a small town in the mountains of New Mexico where he’s in the minority (most of the town is Hispanic). This is one of those books that will have you roaring with laughter, then sobbing within a few pages. A wonderful book.

    How about you? Read any good, funny books?

  • My Dream Bookstore

    BookshelfThis week, YA Highway asks a very fun question:  Imagine you get to open your own bookstore. What would it look like? What kinds of books would you sell?

    It wouldn’t surprise me if 99% of avid readers and maybe 95% of authors have at some time in their lives fantasized about opening a bookstore. I certainly have. Even knowing how difficult running a small business is, even with how dicey the book business can be and how it’s changing so quickly it’s hard to keep up, I still dream about being a bookseller.

    hp photosmart 720So, what would my bookstore look like? Lots of shelves crowded with books, of course. Comfy chairs for readers to relax in while they’re considering a purchase. Maybe a couple of display cases filled with cool gift items, like dragon sculptures, and pewter wizards, and unusual jewelry made by local artists. And of course, there would be a bookstore cat.

    What kind of books would I sell? I’d focus on genre fiction. Plenty of science fiction and fantasy, a section for mystery, another for romance, a little horror. Books for adults, but also a generous offering of young adult and middle grade. Of course, a corner for wonderful picture books with a few toys for the little ones to play with while their parents shop. And I would emphasize diversity in all my offerings.

    I’d also have a full calendar of author visits. Set up chairs or throw pillows on the floor, have the authors do readings, or talk about how they wrote their most recent book, or about whatever they feel passionate about. I’d have a storyteller come on Saturdays for the little ones. I’d have fundraisers for local schools or other causes. I’d want my store to be a community center where people would look forward to visiting, and even though they could save a few bucks on Amazon, they’d buy at my store instead because it’s just such a wonderful place to be.

    Yeah, kind of a pipe dream. But if I’m going to imagine my own bookstore, I might as well imagine big.

    How about you? What would your bookstore be like?

  • Goals–Fear & Loathing

    Goal KittenThis week for Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway asks, What are your goals for the new year–for reading, writing, or other? I gotta tell ya, this kind of question always terrifies me.

    It goes along with that equally frightening question, Where do you see yourself in five years? Luckily I’m not out there pounding the pavement looking for a job and so I don’t have to answer that one.

    The thing that’s so scary about goals is that I immediately fear I won’t be able to reach them. I’ll promise myself I’ll lose five pounds, and that bowl of ice cream will tempt me. I’ll declare I’ll read four books a month, and I’ll come up one short. It’s much easier to do things “unofficially,” that is, having the idea or notion or half-baked whatever that I might want to eat half as much ice cream next time I scoop up a bowl. And maybe I’ll count the number of books read without stating that this many reaches a goal.

    That’s not to say I can’t meet deadlines or finish tasks. I do that all the time. I have a few book deadlines in the upcoming year that I have to meet. But those aren’t really goals. To me, a goal might or might not happen, and let me tell you, these books have gotta happen. No choice there.

    So what is it about the word goal that makes me cringe, that makes me worry? What’s up with that, do you think?

    Well, whatever it is, let me put on my big girl panties and fess up to one goal I’d like to achieve. Here it is: I want to become more disciplined in my writing life. I’d like to accomplish that by resisting the allures and attractions of the Web and Internet when I should be writing. It is ever so much more entertaining to read blogs and tweets all day than it is to put words on a page.

    big-foot-wavingGulp. There, I said it. And I will work toward it, I promise. I will do my best to achieve that big, scary goal.

    How about you? What are your hopes for the new year?