3 teen editors on 3 blogs with 3 prizes.
Submit your logline, query and first page for the chance to win critiques from three teen editors. Click here for details. Submissions end August 7.
WriteOnCon
Free online conference for YA and MG writers from August 13-14. Forums are already open for critiques and more. Click here and here for details.
WriteOnCon/Reading Room Aspiring Writers’ Competition
Submit the first 500 words of your MG/YA/NA novel for the chance to win $1000. Click here for details. Submissions end August 16.
Quirk Books "Looking For Love" Fiction
Contest
Submit your novel-length unconventional love story for the chance to win $10,000 and publication by Quirk Books. Click here for details. Deadline is October 1.
Monday, August 5, 2013
Giant Giveaway on YA Highway
Click here for the chance to win ARCs, books, critiques and more from YA Highway as they celebrate their 4th anniversary.
Tuesday, July 16, 2013
Writing Tips & Advice
Assorted articles I've saved over the past few months with helpful advice for writers:
The Most Important Error: POV
Guide for Inner Conflict
Taking Away Elements to Fix a Scene
Tangled Beat Sheet
Formatting Titles
6 Simple Rituals to Reach Your Potential Every Day
The Most Important Error: POV
Guide for Inner Conflict
Taking Away Elements to Fix a Scene
Tangled Beat Sheet
Formatting Titles
6 Simple Rituals to Reach Your Potential Every Day
Monday, February 18, 2013
Anna and the French Kiss
By Stephanie Perkins
Anna has the perfect life in Atlanta—loyal best friend, awesome job at a movie theater (her dream is to be a film critic), and things are finally heating up with her long-time crush. But her father takes it all away when he sends her to a boarding school in Paris. She expects a miserable senior year, but she's quickly embraced by a group of quirky friends, including Etienne St. Clair. A boy who is utterly charming—and absolutely taken. Knowing she and St. Clair can never be more than friends, Anna does her best to squash her growing feelings. But in the most romantic city in the world, her chance for love may not be as far away as she thinks.
Reading this book felt like devouring a piece of rich dark chocolate—it's delicious and irresistible. It will make you fall in love with Paris. And it will make you fall in love with love. Charming characters, beautiful setting, perfect pacing. I adored it.
Anna has the perfect life in Atlanta—loyal best friend, awesome job at a movie theater (her dream is to be a film critic), and things are finally heating up with her long-time crush. But her father takes it all away when he sends her to a boarding school in Paris. She expects a miserable senior year, but she's quickly embraced by a group of quirky friends, including Etienne St. Clair. A boy who is utterly charming—and absolutely taken. Knowing she and St. Clair can never be more than friends, Anna does her best to squash her growing feelings. But in the most romantic city in the world, her chance for love may not be as far away as she thinks.
Reading this book felt like devouring a piece of rich dark chocolate—it's delicious and irresistible. It will make you fall in love with Paris. And it will make you fall in love with love. Charming characters, beautiful setting, perfect pacing. I adored it.
Wednesday, February 6, 2013
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Shift
By Kim Curran
Description from Barnes & Noble:
When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he's not so average after all. He's a 'Shifter'. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he's ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.
When I saw this book on NetGalley, I snatched up the chance to read it based on the awesome premise, and the story didn't disappoint. It's fast-paced and clever with a likeable main character. It's set in London, written by a UK author, and the language has a definite British slant to it, which I enjoyed. Unlike many YA novels, this is one that will definitely appeal to boys as much as girls.
My only complaints were that the ending felt a little abrupt and there were a couple of plot points near the end that I felt could have benefited from more elaboration to not feel quite so convenient. As a writer, I think I'm overly picky about this kind of thing though, and it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
I don't know if a sequel is planned, but there is definitely potential for more from these characters, and I'd love to go along for the ride.
Description from Barnes & Noble:
When your average, 16-year old loser, Scott Tyler, meets the beautiful and mysterious Aubrey Jones, he learns he's not so average after all. He's a 'Shifter'. And that means he has the power to undo any decision he's ever made. At first, he thinks the power to shift is pretty cool. But as his world starts to unravel around him he realises that each time he uses his power, it has consequences; terrible unforeseen consequences. Shifting is going to get him killed. In a world where everything can change with a thought, Scott has to decide where he stands.
When I saw this book on NetGalley, I snatched up the chance to read it based on the awesome premise, and the story didn't disappoint. It's fast-paced and clever with a likeable main character. It's set in London, written by a UK author, and the language has a definite British slant to it, which I enjoyed. Unlike many YA novels, this is one that will definitely appeal to boys as much as girls.
My only complaints were that the ending felt a little abrupt and there were a couple of plot points near the end that I felt could have benefited from more elaboration to not feel quite so convenient. As a writer, I think I'm overly picky about this kind of thing though, and it didn't detract from my overall enjoyment of the book.
I don't know if a sequel is planned, but there is definitely potential for more from these characters, and I'd love to go along for the ride.
Saturday, September 29, 2012
The Scorpio Races
By Maggie Stiefvater
This is a book that will make you forgo both sleep and food so you can devour it—without even realize you're doing it. A book that when you reach the end, you'll flip back through to reread all your favorite parts. A book that sits with you even days after finishing it; that eats at your soul and crawls inside you. Full of lines you repeat in your mind over and over because you like the weight and the feel of them. A book you want everyone to read, right now, but you won't loan out your copy because you aren't ready to let go yet.
I realize my little mini reviews rarely tell you much about the actual plot of the story. Don't bother reading the jacket copy, because it's rather blah and won't tell you anything either. This is a story about killer water horses, racing, cliffs and the sea, but really it's about loyalty and all kinds of love. And a thousand other things you'll just have to read the book to feel.
Like all the best stories, I wish I could live in its world a little longer.
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