Karen Sandler

Karen’s Blog

  • Old School Reading: On Paper

    As a Kindle devotee, I’ve been reading e-books nearly exclusively since December 2010 when my husband gave me one for my birthday. Even before that I was happily using the Kindle app on my little iPod because it was just so easy to zip through a book in e-format. I did discover that electronic is not so great for non-fiction–there’s no easy way to flip back and forth to and from the endnotes–but it’s a dream for fiction.

    By happenstance, I’m in the middle of reading a non-e-book, the second book in a row in paper format. In the case of the first one, I was at a fabulous indy bookstore, The Avid Reader, in Davis, California. I mentioned to the bookseller that I was a local author, and I told her about Tankborn. She promised to get at least one copy in stock. It seemed only right that I buy a book at the store, and when I spotted a trade paperback edition of Jasper Fforde’s One of Our Thursdays is Missing, I snapped it up. If you haven’t read any of Jasper Fforde’s delightful Thursday Next books, you must check them out. Start with The Eyre Affair. It’s a wacky fantasy that draws heavily on Charlotte Bronte’s Jane Eyre.

    After finishing One of Our Thursdays is Missing, I moved on to a hardcover edition of Mette Ivie Harrison’s YA fantasy The Princess and the Hound. I met Mette at the Life, the Universe and Everything conference in Orem, Utah. We shared a fabulous Thai dinner one night, then she was kind enough to drive me to the airport to catch my flight home. Along the way to SLC airport, we agreed to exchange author’s copies of our books. She sent me The Princess and the Hound and I sent her a couple of my backlist romance novels. I’m loving Mette’s book with its very unique take on magic. It’s a very hard to put down story. And isn’t that a gorgeous cover?

    What I’m rediscovering about reading hardcopy is that it has some definite advantages over the electronic versions. First, it’s far easier to see where I am in the book (somehow, the percentage on the Kindle doesn’t cue me quite the same way). I think I emotionally pace myself as I read, thinking differently about the story at, say, the half-way point than I do three-quarters through. It’s easy to flip through to find how many pages to the end of the chapter so I can decide whether to keep reading or to turn out the light and go to sleep. It’s a piece of cake to turn back to some previous part of the book to recall who a character was or to refresh my memory if it’s been a day since I last read the book.

    There are downsides to paper too. A paper book is heavier than the Kindle, particularly the hardcover. I like to be able to hold a book in one hand (sometimes I’m doing something with the other, like eat lunch) and that’s easier with the Kindle. It’s easier to turn the pages on the Kindle. And if I set the Kindle down, it might timeout, but it will keep my place. A paper book will often close itself if I have to set it down quickly. If I haven’t stuffed a bookmark in there, I have to search for where I left off.

    So I suspect I’ll still be reading the bulk of my books on my Kindle. But I’ve realized I enjoy reading the occasional paper book. Particularly when it’s autographed by the author, like Mette’s, or full of clever illustrations, like Jasper Fforde’s. It’s lovely to have the option though, to go either way.

    What do you think? Die-hard reader of books on paper? Or are you loving using an e-reader? Drop me a comment and let me know.

  • RTW: Favorite Literary Moment

    Today’s Road Trip Wednesday on YA Highway asks us to relate our favorite literary moment–a long-awaited kiss, a surprise ending, a character’s decision. As with all the prompts that ask for my “favorite,” I find it difficult to pick just one. The thing is, different books or moments are favorites for different reasons. One book can delight me because the heroine finally kisses the boy, another because she tore the head off her enemy (okay, maybe I’m not delighted in that latter case as much as gratified).

    The first book that popped into my head while contemplating this prompt was Red Sky at Morning. I’m guessing many of you have never heard of it. Red Sky at Morning is a coming-of-age story published in 1968. It takes place during WWII. The main character, Joshua Arnold, lives in Mobile, Alabama with his Southern Belle mother and ship-building father. When Josh’s father enlists in the Navy, he has his family relocate to Sagrado, New Mexico where they’ve previously spent their summers.

    The book is hysterically funny, in a John Green kind of way. But like John Green’s great books, there is heart-wrenching emotion in the book as well. I’ve read the book uncounted times.

    So, favorite moments? There are several. When Josh discovers the bully is more bluster than action. When he finally sends the mooching “professional house guest” Jimbob packing. When Josh sees for the first time the tribute his sculptor friend has paid to his father.

    Beyond these key moments in the book, this is a fantastic book featuring an ensemble cast, including Josh’s best friends Marcia and Steenie. Although the main characters are all white, there is a significant number of secondary characters who are POC, who are interesting and well fleshed out.

    They did a pretty decent job on the movie adaptation, but read the book first. It’s simply wonderful.

  • Tankborn Outtakes

    Back around October 2009, I finished work on a manuscript titled GENeration, a young adult science fiction book. I knew it wasn’t finished finished. I didn’t yet have an agent or editor for the book, but I knew that when I did, they would have their say in further re-writes. But I thought the book was ready enough to start querying agents. It turned out I was deluding myself, but I nevertheless e-mailed out my first query on October 13, 2009.

    I’d been sending out queries for about a month and a half when it occurred to me that having a beta reader look it over would be a really great idea (gee, ya think?). Luckily, I could keep the read in the family via my younger son. He wasn’t exactly swimming in spare time (he was in the third year of his PhD in economics), but he’s a fast reader and brutally honest. He got back to me at the end of November 2009 with suggestions for some pretty extensive changes.

    Of course, I’d already sent the complete manuscript out to a few agents, including the agent who eventually took me on. Hindsight being what it is, this was when I realized I really hadn’t been ready to start querying. Yes, I wish I’d thought to send the book to my son before that first query. But water under the bridge and all that.

    In any case, those agents who had the manuscript were happy to replace it with the new and improved version. I eventually got offers from two agents. The agent I signed with asked for another major re-write before he sent it out. Then the book sold to Lee and Low/Tu Books, and required even more changes including a title morph from GENeration to Tankborn. Tankborn was released in Sept. 2011.

    Along the way, what with all this re-writing and editing, by necessity a lot of material got deleted from the manuscript. As part of the various and sundry editing, there were four quite sizeable chunks that ended up on the cutting room floor. Each of them was at least a few pages long and the content in them was fairly significant. They offered some pretty cool perspectives of life on the planet Loka, where Tankborn is set. Unfortunately, these scenes didn’t do anything to move the story forward. They didn’t “earn their keep” and had to go.

    But I thought it would be fun to put them up on my website, part of some exclusive material that will only be available there. So if you’d like to read what might have been in Tankborn, take a look here. If you haven’t yet read the book, there is some spoilerage, but it is clearly marked. So it’s safe for all to take a peek.

  • Tankborn Sequels!

    I’ve finally been given my editor’s blessing to announce my good news. There will be two Tankborn sequels: Awakening, which is scheduled for release in Spring 2013 and Revolution, scheduled for Spring 2014.

    I’d been working on Awakening these past several months, even before the offer was in hand, because I wanted so much for Kayla and Devak’s stories to continue. Now the pace for writing book 2 has picked up to a fever-pitch as I work toward a, shall we say, challenging deadline.

    What’s in store for our heroine and hero in Awakening? Aw, you don’t really want to know that, do you? No spoilery here. But I can say there will be more adventures, some familiar returning characters, some new characters, and more intriguing questions asked about humanity, race, and class.

    One fun thing about writing Awakening is that I already have a “story bible” to rely on to use as a basis for my world. Most of the heavy lifting of world-building was done in Tankborn. I get to reap those benefits, using Tankborn as my reference material. At the same time, I’m giving myself the freedom to invent some new things that (hindsight being what it is), I would have mentioned in the course of writing Tankborn if I’d thought of them. It’s very cool to add some layers to Tankborn‘s world. Also quite nifty to know there will be a third book which I can start to set up in Awakening.

    So keep an eye out for updates–cover reveals, blurb teasers, Scribd samples. Spring 2013 will be here before you know it.

  • RTW – The Best Book Read in February

    YA Highway‘s prompt for today’s Road Trip Wednesday is What was the best book you read in February? No ties this month. The answer was easy-peasy.

    I read three books in February: Maggie Stiefvater’s The Scorpio Races, M. T. Anderson’s Feed, and Beth Revis’s Across the Universe. I might have finished Stardust in the early days of February (I started it in January) and have started another book that I won’t finish until March, but I think the above three qualify as “books I read in February.” (How do you count the books you’ve read each month?)

    Anyway, hands down, no thought required at all, The Scorpio Races was the best book I read in February. I’m sure it will turn out to be in my top five for the year, without even knowing what else I’ll be reading. This book had the perfect combination of marvelous, engaging characters, a wonderful premise, a breathless plot, and an enigmatic, yet fascinating setting. Add the fact that I love horses (that’s my beautiful Belle to the left–doesn’t she look just like Dove?) and this book was a guaranteed hit for me.

    One thing about The Scorpio Races, which is true for other great books–it stuck with me for days. I kept reflecting on the book, kept feeling the pull of the story even though I’d finished it. That puts it in an entirely different category than other books I’ve enjoyed but weren’t quite elevated to greatness in my mind.

    So, what were your favorites this month?