People Who Got Free Copies of STICK

I would like to express my heartfelt gratitude to all who participated in the first giveaway of OctoberPalooza.
The recipients were chosen by a highly scientific random process.
Callie Kingston
Charles the Reader
Laurie Lamb

Would you be so kind as to contact me in the next twenty-four hours? I need shipping info to give to Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Bookstore.
Email me:

kristen.faulconer@gmail.com

OctoberPalooza continues tomorrow.
Stay tuned.

OctoberPalooza and STICK and The Ultimate Really Necessary Reading List, Part 1

     If you would like a chance to win a free copy of Stick, by Andrew Smith, please follow, leave a comment, or both. You have until 8:00 EST today to do so. 
     Stick's official release day is Tuesday, October 11.
     On Tuesday, October 11 I am going to read  parts of Stick out loud to my students. This is all part of my plan for the Revolution. Which is coming. But I can't say any more about that right now.
     If you know any teachers, high school students, middle school students, or parents of kids of any age, this is a book you need to get for them. Stick is a book that will help make the world a better place.
     If I could, I would add this book to the Ultimate Really Necessary Reading List, which right now only exists in my head. Stick has a place with To Kill a Mockingbird and Fahrenheit 451. 

    I intend to do what I can to see that it gets a place there. 


    

Better to Beg Forgiveness. Or Not. And How Robison Wells Made My Head Explode.

     First: STICK officially debuts on Tuesday. You want to read this book. Trust me. Comment on any post and you may win a copy. I'm having Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Bookshop send out three copies to lucky followers or commenters.
     So yesterday I pause in my unrelenting quest to broaden educational horizons. We watch a tribute about Steve Jobs. And I show the kids my copy of Variant, by Robison Wells, which just arrived that morning. And I read the bookflap and we negotiate who gets to read it first  and then we wrangle about whose turn it is to check out other books (Ashes, Ghost Medicine, Crank, Gone, and Hunger, among others.)And we watch more book trailers, because book trailers are part of my Big Secret Project. Kids have started asking, "So...are you going to give us a list of all these books?" Because I have just thrown trailers on the screen and waited for just this question.
     So one of the kids says, "I don't get Twitter." Many students express similar sentiments. I talk about how I tweet about books, right? So I go right over to my computer and put in my override code, which tells the Powers That Be that I am exiting approved sites to go to Places That  They Can't Control.* Like Twitter. Because  if a kid doesn't get something we take action.
     So I figure we'll do a Twitter Field Trip. 
    And what happened was one of the best days in the history of education.
    I transcribe what follows:
   Kristen Tweets: With gleeful disregard for protocols, I am doing a demo on Twitter for my Angel Potatoes of Glory of Third Period. 
   Tweet.
   I continue: We have watched book trailers for books by @jamesdashner @thefayz and we have discussed, with joy, yet again, the rat king.**
   Tweet.
  So #rotters,@ilsablick's Ashes @robisonwells Variant are going to fly off shelves today because of my Angel Potatoes of Glory.
   Tweet.
   And I am, literally, holding Variant in my hand when...
              a response comes up on the screen
              and the kids see it
              for a second there is stunned silence
    It is a Retweet from Robison Wells: No idea what this means.
   My eyes are bugging out and I say, "How should we explain Angel Potatoes?"
   And I swear the kids are standing up and kneeling on chairs and shouting definitions of "Angel Potatoes" like Mr. Wells can hear them. They are asking each other, "Is that the real guy? The book guy?" like Mr. Wells can hear them. And my head exploded. Because what kind of timing is that? 
    And here's what I tweeted:  Angel Potatoes are my students. They are a shine and glory. Each one. One just said, "Yeah. We are your heart and your life."
    Tweet.
    And the class just erupted with cheers      and exclamations about Mr. Wells and how cool he is and what was the name of his book again?
     Mr. Robison Wells, you may never know the enormous impact you made on these kids.
     I hope that your launch party was merry.
     
* I may hear from the Powers That Be. Oh well.
**The rat king has become an object of discussion, fascination, and speculation. It's from Daniel Kraus's Rotters.
    

Why YA Should Be GB, or The Caliban/Ariel Question

     For more than a year now I have immersed myself solely in reading YA books. And I took a few detours to read Diana Gabaldon and George R.R. Martin and Stephen King. And I have been thinking about the distinction between "YA" and "adult" books.
     I'm in education. I don't like labels. Education loves them. The state labels a kid with a tag like "Far Below Basic" if a kid didn't do well in a particular standardized test subject. Or "Below Basic." Or "Proficient." Or "Advanced." I hear the labels "gifted",  "at-risk", "college prep" now as buzzing sounds.
     I've been teaching a long time, and I understand that categories have their uses. But danger lurks. If I know a kid struggles in an area, I can help her. Identifying areas of need is a concept I get, and I would argue that "identifying" and making kids visible is not the same as branding them with a label.
    When I was a young adult I read everything. I am profoundly grateful that Lois Duncan writes, and Zilpha Keatly Snyder writes, and Sid Fleischman--I am grieved that he died before I could thank him. I also read Stephen King and Jane Austen and J.R.R. Tolkein. I read Barbara Cartland novels and laughed at her use of ellipses at supremely intimate moments. And I am so grateful to Judy Blume for clarifying what happened during Barbara's elliptical moments.
     I read a lot of books where the target audience was adults.
     But if we called them Adult Books--well, that conjures up another industry. We don't call books written for an adult audience AB.
     I have to say that I find this arrogant and condescending. Do I have this right? When adults write books for adults we say "books" or "fiction." We identify books by genre. I get it.
     And these books by adults for adult audiences get read by adolescents in school as great literature. My experience is that, much as the kids complain, they understand, even like, these books. 1984. Brave New World. One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest. I get it.
    What I don't get is this: The  "YA" books I'm reading now are good books because they tell good stories and are crafted by true wordsmiths who write about the human journey. The human journey includes adolescence. Adults had to be adolescents first.
      Unless they are pod people, which is how many of them act.
     A publisher has to have great confidence to publish a YA book. My thinking is that the writing and storytelling in  many YA books is significantly better than the writing in  "adult" books. And I think that the label "YA" is limiting.
      Because the world would be a better place and parents would be better parents and teachers would be better teachers if we recognized our adolescence as part of the human journey. Adults have banished, excised, exiled their teen years, or elevated those years to "the best years." It's a Caliban/Ariel issue when it should be a human being issue.
     Many adults see teens as "Other." This label means it's okay to  trivialize, denigrate, and ignore. Control. Teens are young adults. Not "dumb adults" or "less than adults."
     So why are books for young adults treated as "dumb books" or "less than books"?
     My local Barnes and Noble recently moved the "Books for Teens" to  the middle of the "Adult Books" section. You don't have to be a publishing or marketing genius to figure this one out. A lot of adults are reading books written for teens.
     I know what this tells me. They want to read good books. New label: GB.
     I confess to being part of the whole label problem. My Twitter handle is currently "KristenYAwriter" because my name is long. It was "Apocalypse Junki" but I changed it--that's another story.
     I'm not part of the publishing industry. I don't have an agent or a published book. I'm not a power player.
     But I have this blog.
     I'm not going to be KristenGBwriter because I am not published. I might merit the label GB writer if my books  ever sit on the same shelves as Sarah Zarr, Michael Grant, Libba Bray, Andrew Smith, Neil Gaiman and other luminaries.
     So I am now KristenWriter because I know a good book when I read one.
     No matter what section it inhabits in the library, bookstore, bestseller list, or Publisher's Weekly.
 

Men: An Appreciation. And OctoberPalooza.

     There are a lot of hot men out there, and, to my shame, it took me a long time to figure that out. I've always been a late bloomer. 

     True, when I was younger I read Richard Peck and Robert Cormier. I loved Stephen King, and will never forget how I read Carrie during a sleepover while Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy played in the background. I stayed up all night with Carrie. I read  and re-read James Clavell's tomes.

     Fast-forward to now.

     I have reveled in untrammeled joy in books by men. Men I didn't know existed until I committed myself to reading  YA exclusively for a year. I have since come to the conclusion that YA as a category needs a name change, but that is a topic for my next post.

     Patrick Ness, The Chaos Walking Trilogy is amazing, heart-rending, true, necessary.

     Matt de la Pena, We Were Here should be required reading for all middle school students. It's real, heartbreaking,  breathtaking, and gritty.

     Michael Grant, you know how to set up a wild ride that starts on page one and doesn't end. Plot maestro. I am not bitter that I can't find the next book after Plague. Really. Not bitter. Because BZRK will be out soon.

     Neil Gaiman, Coraline scared me to bits. The Graveyard Book sings Siren songs to me. I am so glad I can't find a label for you except Neil Gaiman.

     Joseph Lunievicz, Open Wounds opened wounds with the deft precision of one who dances with, and commands, weapons and words. I can only be in a sort of zen-like awe, and loan your book out to my students. Thanks for Lefty.

     Daniel Kraus, with Rotters you took me to places I never thought I wanted to go. But when I arrived, I found I really had to be there.With wide eyes and a slightly bilious stomach I learned of coffin liquor and The Rat King and a saw how a storm should be written and I thought, Shakespeare would have loved this.  I did.
     G. Neri, Yummy is a book I'm just keeping in my room and having kids read. They cluster around it, shoving a little. It gets passed around during class, and I pretend not to notice. Because some of them haven't seen a graphic novel before, and I want them to get hungry on the idea.
     Jay Asher. Thirteen Reasons Why. I am grateful.
     Matthew MacNish, friend, blogger, supporter to all who write and strive for excellence and success, you work for the greater good in more ways than I think you know. You have seriously charged your karma battery, and I believe the universe sees.
      Andrew Smith. Wild rides, grit,  sorrow, moments of grace. Your stories disturb, haunt, and yet hope persists. Ghost Medicine, In the Path of Falling Objects, The Marbury Lens, Stick. And lots of great recs.
     Men, your work is hot. It is vital, necessary, inspiring, humbling. It took me a while. The late bloomer is trying to make up for lost time. 
     Thanks.
 Post-script from a mortified Kristen:
James Dashner, I am thrilled that The Death Cure will be out next week on October 11. I have it pre-ordered.
Sherman Alexie and Brian Selznick, you are both authors on my To Be Read list.
I know there are hosts of you who I have not yet read. I'll get there. Late bloomer, remember?

OctoberPalooza Begins: Stick by Andrew Smith

     It's easy to participate in OctoberPalooza, and it's free.

     Mission Statement: To give away copies of amazing books 

                                  To support independent bookstores

                                  To gain site traffic

     Rules: Leave a comment on any of the blogposts for one entry

               Follow the blog for one entry

               Follow and comment for three entries-comments can be on/about any previous posts as well as this post and posts this week.

               Obviously, the more entries you have, the more chances you have of winning.

               All entries between now and next Sunday, October 9th, 8:00 PM EST will be eligible for a drawing, in which randomly selected entries will win a copy of Andrew Smith's latest book, Stick, which gets released October 11.

              Winners will be announced here on Monday, October 10, and will have twenty-four hours to get back to me with contact info.

               I will take the info and send your book from Mrs. Nelson's Toy and Bookshop, an independent bookstore in California. Mrs. Nelson's ships only to United States and Canada, just so you know.

To view the book trailer for Stick click here.

OctoberPalooza continues next week--New Contest--for Sara Zarr's How to Save a Life
And we'll finish up the month with Tara Kelly's Amplified!

OctoberPalooza: Celebrating a Month of New Releases and Indie Bookstores

I tried.
I tried to come up with a super-clever title for this contest/giveaway. I love words like "extravaganza" and "gala". But those words make me wary, because they sound like sparkly events that require high heels and big hair. I don't do heels or big hair.
Chagrin.
So then I looked up "lollapalooza"--spelling varies--and it's actually a word in its own right, not just the name of a major music event. According to a reliable online dictionary:

lol·la·pa·loo·za   [lol-uh-puh-loo-zuh]
noun Slang .
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.

Well. There it is. So I ditched the "lolla" and kept the "palooza" and, Bob's your uncle, there it is.

Details to follow.

Why What Andrew Smith Writes Matters

     I haven't met Andrew Smith face to face , but I've read all of his books.  All of them matter to me.
     The first one I read was The Marbury Lens.  I didn't know anything about the book, because even though I belong to Goodreads, I don't rate books or read reviews. If someone I trust recommends the book, I get the book.
     So I dove right in to Jack's world. Disturbing, real, gritty, anxiety-inducing, absolutely riveting, and--the best part--totally un-categorizable.  Reading this book was a wild ride that made me uncomfortable in my skin and got into my DNA.
I loved it.
     So then, through a happy sequence of unexpected events, I got my hands on a digital copy of Stick.
     I was honored. It's a sacred trust, having someone trust you with a copy of a book that's not out yet, someone they don't know.
I felt awe. I looked at it. And I read the first line and I was a goner.
I cried at various times throughout the book, and, as I have mentioned before, crying isn't something I do a lot. I cried because I love Stick, the main character. My husband got worried that I was all teary. I read parts of the book to him. I read parts of the book to my mom. I'm going to read parts of the books to my students next week.
     And Stick is a completely different kind of book from The Marbury Lens. This is amazing. And yet it is so clearly a book by Andrew Smith. Real. Beautifully written. Intense. Just like the story was something that had to come out of him. I love this book fiercely. I show the book trailer to my students. They want to know Stick, and I am glad.
     So then I had to read Ghost Medicine and In the Path of Falling Objects.
     And here's the thing: these books are different wild rides of their own. I loved Ghost Medicine because the depiction of innocence and longing is so true that it echoed in my bones. I've never read a book like this before.
     And when you read In the Path of Falling Objects, the combination of violence, brotherly love, loss, and friendship will put your hair on fire.
     I don't think about anything at all when I'm reading Andrew's books. I have to read. I am grabbed by these stories and taken on these journeys and I read like my soul is going to get sucked out if I don't. And when I'm finished, then I think about the books, and they stay with me.
     Here's how I see it: Andrew writes  because he has to, like stories pour out of him, with blood and sweat and joy and sorrow, with never a thought about audience because the story has to happen. I don't know if that's true or not, but that's how the books read. I love that.
     Because you always hear people say they write because they have to. I don't know if Andrew says that. I do know that I believe it of him, and his work.
And I love that his books defy categorization. I'm sure they get labeled for marketing purposes or whatever, but I like that when a student asks me about Andrew's books, what kind of book it is, I just say, "It's a story. You should read it."
And when they persist,asking what kind of story, I say," The best kind."
And that's why what Andrew Smith writes matters.

Stick comes out on October 11, 2011.
    

How Sara Zarr Changed My Life

     This is a true story.
     I don't think Sara knows it, though.
     So I'm working on a novel, and my crit partner said that I needed to read this book, Once Was Lost, by Sara Zarr. At the time I didn't know anything about Sara Zarr. But my crit partner is really smart and gifted, so I usually take her advice. So I bought the book.
And I read it in one sitting, in one night, and a school night to boot.
     And I thought about it, and kept thinking about it, because it isn't just what Sara writes its something about her How. How she writes. And I couldn't put words to the How, but I knew I liked it a lot.
     And when I read this book I was in Hard Times. You know. We've all been there.
     And then I signed up for a Children's Writing Conference. I admit, I wasn't really sure if I belonged there. I was nervous and full of self-doubt and glad I was Doing Something With My Writing.
     Being new to the conference scene, I didn't check out the faculty. I just showed up. And I get my schedule of crit groups. And I also get a fifteen minute session with a faculty member to go over my query.
     And my eyes just about fell out of my head. Because my query time is with Sara Zarr.
     I don't know anyone at the conference. My heart is pounding. I run outside and call my husband, and I say, "I'm going to meet Sara Zarr." And my husband, who is an architect who reads architect-y stuff, says, "Who?" And so I tell him--remember when I stayed up and read that book? And he kind of does. But he does get that I am thrilled and excited. And nervous.
     So I do my crit groups, which were great, and I stay up really late revising, and periodically the thought "I'm going to meet Sara Zarr" pops into my head and I just know I blanked out and stared at stuff for a minute or two each time.
     So as my time nears I have a folder with my query letter, and I'm pacing, and my stomach is all kerfuffled.
     And then it's time and I Meet Sara Zarr.
     I almost cried.
     And we talked about my book and her books and she was this real, amazing human being and when I left the meeting my head was spinning.
     I called my dad. "I met Sara Zarr."
     I called my mom. "I met Sara Zarr."
     At this point, if you are still reading, you might be thinking I'm a little crazy.
     I don't think I'm crazy. I think I'm grateful.
     Because Meeting Sara Zarr meant a lot to me. Here is this writer whose books are like Vermeer paintings. Quiet, intense, full of light and jewel tones and real life.   And I don't cry a lot, but Story of a Girl had me crying because of the story and the joy of reading the story.
     And I periodically look at my husband and say, "I met Sara Zarr." Full of wonder, still.
     So yeah, Meeting Sara Zarr changed my life because when I get bogged down I remember her and Vermeer and my spirit feels renewed.
     And Sara's new book, How to Save a Life, is coming out October 18. And somehow that title seems apropos to me, because sometimes changing a life means saving it.
     Thanks, Sara.

YA Confidential: A Proud and Gleeful Promotional Post

     Okay, I know. There's a lot of shameless marketing on blogs and on Twitter. And I am dutiful in following these blogs and Tweets, because supporting fellow writers is important to me. I learn a great deal from my fellow writers, and someday I intend to be among their published ranks.And then I will be in an even better position to support the writing community. These are all happy thoughts that spring from happy actions.

     So by dedicating  an entire blog post to the YA Confidential contest, I am helping myself by adding five points to my overall contest total. This is an entirely selfish action, and I cop to it without a blush. Because even as it helps me, this post helps a host of other people, too, including a cadre of "teen spies"--which is admirable--and I have no problem competing for free books, and getting the word out about these books, because I.Want.Them.All.

     So check this out.

     You can be in the running to win a query critique from Sarah LaPolla of Curtis Brown Ltd.  I don't know about you, but writing query letters is, for me, a plunge into a circle of hell that Dante never imagined. Dante never had to write one, or he would have included it as one of the bolgias. If you read Ms. LaPolla's website, you will see buckets of trenchant insights. If you win, imagine those trenchant insights applied to your anemic, sad, pathetic, totally inadequate, utterly risible query.
Trust me. You will want to enter this contest.

     Also up for grabs is a five page critique by Vickie Mottar of Andrea Hurst and Associates. A critique of this length by Ms. Mottar would make the angels weep, if they had critiques.Ms. Mottar's blog is here. She has serious mad skills.
You really want to enter this contest.

     And then there are the books. Yes, go ahead. Gaze wistfully at this list. Which would you pick, given the choice?

• ARC of Shatter Me, by Tahera Mafi
• ARC of Scorpio Races, by Maggie Stiefvater
• ARC of Legend, by Marie Lu
• ARC of Crossed, by Ally Condie
• FINISHED COPY of The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer, by Michelle Hodkin (Which has to be one of the coolest titles ever!)
• FINISHED COPY of Fateful, by Claudia Grey
• Both of these FINISHED COPIES were donated by Diana Fox of Fox Literary Agency

So. All of this info, and more, is available at YAConfidential.