Karen Sandler

Tag: TANKBORN

  • RTW – Best Book Read in October

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, What’s the best book you’ve read in October?

    My answer, Scott Westerfeld’s Goliath, was not only the best book I read in October (and I read some good ones), but the most highly anticipated. I was so glad to finally get my hands on it.

    I’d known about the Leviathan series for quite a while, but I wasn’t sure I’d like steampunk. I’m usually pretty meh about alternate history stories, so I was reluctant to try Westerfeld’s series on that basis (despite being a big fan of his Uglies books).

    Then I saw the artwork on his website and realized I really wanted to give it a try. I own a Kindle, and had planned to get the e-book. But then I was in an independent bookstore about an hour away from my house (we don’t have too many IBS’s nearby) and saw Leviathan. I realized the price for the paper book (trade paperback sized) was the same as for the e-book. Wanting to support the IBS, I bought Leviathan in paper.

    I am so glad I did. I’ve learned in the nearly two years I’ve owned my very basic Kindle that it does have limitations. Reading an illustrated book just doesn’t work as well on the electronic device. Much better to see those detailed drawings on paper, at least for me. So reading that paper version of Leviathan was sheer pleasure, and prompted me to buy the second book, Behemoth, as trade paperback as well.

    I was pretty bummed that Goliath wasn’t immediately available when I finished Behemoth several months ago. Then when Goliath came out in August, I was further frustrated because I wanted to purchase it in a brick-and-mortar IBS instead of from Amazon. But the store that’s an hour away from me was near where my son and daughter-in-law used to live. That made it somewhat convenient to shop there when I’d go visit them. But now they’ve moved out of state, so I have no reason to drive all the way to that store.

    Then I was at a nearby news and gift shop and found out they can and will order in books. I requested Goliath from them (and while I was at it scheduled a book signing at their store for Tankborn). Once it came in, I went and picked it up, then proceeded to devour Westerfeld’s book (in the figurative sense).

    Goliath is full of adventure, alternate history, extremely cool gadgets and exotic genetically engineered beasties, and wonderful characters. I’m sure it’s great fun for the young adults who are ostensibly its audience, but I think any adult lover of science fiction would enjoy the book. If you’re intrigued by history, particularly the events surrounding World War I, then Goliath (the entire Leviathan series, really) is absolutely for you. Scott Westerfeld, you are a god of the written word!

    So what did you read this month? Something wonderful?

  • Micro Booksigning in DC

    I just got back from downtown DC where I  toured the Capital and had lunch with my son. No trip to a big, unfamiliar city would be complete without at least one episode of me getting completely lost. There was some mini-confusion when I emerged from Union Station and wasn’t sure which way the Capital building was. My daughter-in-law had nicely printed off a map of the relevant area, including Union Station, the Capital, and my son’s office. As I was gaping at it, mystified, I realized I’d have to snag a local for some help. After the woman I’d asked pointed at a large dome in the distance thrusting up through the trees and said, “That’s the Capital,” I knew even I’d have no trouble finding it.

    It was after the tour when I exited the Capital building that I got myself totally turned around. I had no idea how to turn the map to coincide with the street names I was seeing. Even the recourse of asking a local was only partly successful. It wasn’t until I’d fulfilled my obligation to go off half-cocked in the wrong direction before finally, finally figuring out where I was that I was able to get on the right track. The funny part is, my son had asked me at 11:30 if I could wait until noon for lunch. Since I needed time to get lost before I got found, the extra half hour was appreciated.

    After lunch, I walked over to the downtown Barnes and Noble to autograph shelf stock. There are two B&N in DC, one in the Union Station Metro, and the downtown one on 12th & E. With “get hopelessly lost” ticked off on my agenda, I had no trouble locating the 12th Street store. They’d ordered in three copies of Tankborn, but along the way to the store, I met a woman who was headed to B&N to buy books as a birthday gift to herself.

    When she found out I was an author and that I was glad to autograph a book to her, she insisted on buying one of the three copies. Whee! Thank you, Tracy. And thanks to Ruth, the wonderful, helpful B&N sales associate.

    Fun day for me. How has your week been going?

  • RTW – What Makes a Book a Movie?

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday offers up the blog prompt What is it that makes some books ideal for a film translation? I feel a little like that kid in class whose teacher finally asks a question she knows the answer to. The kid who suddenly wakes up and waves her arm, praying the teacher will call on her.

    Well, okay, I’m not that much of an expert on books being adapted into movies. But I have written a half-dozen or so screenplays and have written and produced a few short films. My book Tankborn and its sequels Awakening and Revolution were all adapted from a film script to books (so I’m hoping they can some day go the other way too). So I’ve actually thought a lot about what kind of books make good movies.

    IMHO, the one quality that makes a book most adaptable into film is a high concept premise. What’s high concept? I define it as a premise that can easily be described in one sentence. I’ve also heard it defined as a premise for which you can immediately imagine its movie poster. Hunger Games is an excellent example. In the future, teens are chosen in a lottery for a fight to the death with other teens. Jurassic Park–scientists recreate dinosaurs using DNA and the dinosaurs fight back. I think Scott Westerfeld’s Uglies books, in which “ugly” children are converted to “pretties” at age 16, but there’s something rotten at the core of the process, is pretty high concept and would make a fantastic film franchise.

    But not every movie is high concept, nor is every book that’s adapted to film high concept. Another crucial quality is that the book is very visual. There’s plenty of action on the page as opposed to lots of internal dialogue or long descriptive passages. There’s a whole lot of the novel Pride and Prejudice that’s left out of the movie because it just doesn’t translate into the visual medium of film.

    A third quality of a filmable book is that its story already follows a three act structure. I bet if you analyzed the movies you’ve seen, you’ll see the three act structure in most of them.

    What does that structure look like? The first act sets up the characters and their story dilemma, then there’s an inciting incident at the end of the first act that sets the hero/heroine on his/her way to their goal. The stakes continually rise in the second act, and there will be a turning point in the middle that changes everything, then a dark moment at the end of the second act. Then there’s the third act’s climax and denouement.

    Think about some of the books you’ve read, and I’ll bet many of them use this three act structure. Maybe the author made a conscious decision to write their book that way, or maybe the book ended up with three act structure because it’s a great way to write a story.

    So think about your own book, or if you’re not a writer, think about a fiction book you’ve recently read. Is it high concept (can you describe it in one sentence)? Is it extremely visual? Is it already written in a three act structure? Then you might have a very film adaptable story. I hope Hollywood comes knocking.

  • RTW – Looking Into My Writer’s Crystal Ball

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks the question, What do you hope to be writing in one year? Three? Five?

    I’ve always hated goal-setting. Other than the goal that in three years, or five, I want to be rich and famous. Bestselling books, accolades aplenty, twin Cadillacs in the driveway (actually, in my case, it would probably be a couple of Teslas–gotta be green, ya know).

    But that’s just pie-in-the-sky fantasizing, not goal-setting. If you’d asked me five years ago where I wanted to be right now, what I thought I would be writing, I seriously doubt that I would have said, “Just finishing book 2 and about to start book 3 of a young adult science fiction trilogy.” Five years ago, I was still writing romances for Harlequin. Tankborn, its follow-on, Awakening, and the final book, Revolution, were not even a glimmer in my eye.

    But let me try to answer the question anyway, despite my goals-averse ways. One year out is a bit of a cheat, because there is something in the works already, something I can’t talk about yet. In a year, I will have finished a re-write on Secret Book #1 and should be working on writing Secret Book #2.

    In three years, I would like to be working on another YA series. Very likely in the speculative fiction arena (fantasy, paranormal, SF). It’s also possible I will be working on future Secret Books. Because all three books of the Tankborn trilogy will have been published in three years, my dream is that we will be working on the first of the Tankborn movies (hey, a girl can dream, can’t she?).

    In five years, I would be finishing up that Other YA Trilogy, possibly writing more Secret Books, and likely starting another YA series. Or maybe I’m working with an artist on Tankborn graphic novels. I think the Tankborn trilogy would lend itself very well to the graphic novel format. Maybe instead of Teslas, there are a pair of nice, new Priuses in the driveway. And schools are clamoring to hear me speak. My book signings are mob scenes. The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is begging me to give a keynote at their summer conference. 🙂

    Okay, so it’s not all completely realistic. I don’t have quite as much control over the rich and famous part as I’d like. But I can keep writing the books I like to write and make my own future to a certain extent.

    How about you? What is your crystal ball saying to you?

  • Why I Can’t Write Your Story

    I got another one of those e-mails the other day. If you’re a published author, you’ve probably received one or two. It always starts out with some variation of “I have the most incredible story to tell, and it’s all true.” Or the writer will state, “It’s like a cross of Popular Book A and Popular Book B, except better.” And somewhere in there it will say, “I’m not a very good writer, so that’s why I’m contacting you.”

    Even if they don’t spell it out, the intention of the person who sent the e-mail is clear. They think their idea is so terrific that they want me, Ms. Published Author, to write it as a book. They believe their idea is so great that they’re sure I will jump at the chance to write the book on spec (i.e., with no payment) for the opportunity to make big money down the line.

    I usually ignore e-mails like this one because it’s never something I want to pursue. There’s never anything in the e-mail that tells me the person is a fan of my work. They just found me on the web, or in a listing of authors somewhere and threw out an e-mail to me.

    In the case of this particular e-mail, I did respond because of one line: “I am completely clueless how to get started, or where to go with this.” That meant to me that although she claims she’s not a very good writer, she was open to information. And it turned out I was right. When she responded to my e-mail, she was grateful for the information I’d passed on.

    Here’s a little of what I told her, and a few other points:

    • Professional writers don’t work for free. If we don’t charge for our work, we can’t make a living.
    • I have no shortage of ideas. I’m not looking for ideas from other people. In fact, I wish I had the time to write all the ideas that are floating around in my own head.
    • Ideas are actually the easy-easy-easy part. Constructing a novel-length story around that idea is what’s really hard and time consuming.
    • Sometimes people’s life stories aren’t as interesting as they seem to the person who lived it. Not to mention you will have to fictionalize parts of it to make it fit into the above mentioned story.
    • If your life story truly is that interesting, you ought to be the one to write it. Because you are the one most passionate about it. Because you’re the one who really cares about it.
    • Sometimes people say they’re not very good at writing when they really mean they don’t like to write. And maybe they don’t like to write because they were never properly taught how. The best solution to that is to take a class–at your local community college, online, at the library, wherever you find one offered. Learn enough to see if you actually do like writing, then you can write your story yourself.

    What if this person does learn the craft of writing, writes her life story, and it turns out to be so fantastic she gets a giant book deal? I will be thrilled. I’ll be proud that I might have had a tiny bit to do with that. But truly, it will be her own hard work that got her to bestsellerdom. And that will make the victory all the sweeter for her.