Matthew Cody announced the title for his brilliant new middle grade novel — stay tuned for THE DEAD GENTLEMAN, coming to stores near you in Summer 2011!

Carrie Harris is the newest Active member of the Science Fiction & Fantasy Writers of America, with BAD TASTE IN BOYS due from Random House in July 2011.

ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS by Stephanie Perkins is already making waves ahead of its December 2010 debut from Dutton, with fabulous blurbs from Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson.

“Imagine a mug of rich, thick hot chocolate. Now add a swirl of sweet whipped cream. Yummy? Oui. Well, Anna and the French Kiss is richer, sweeter, and–yes–even hotter. You’re in for a very special treat.” — Lauren Myracle, New York Times bestselling author of Peace, Love & Baby Ducks and Let it Snow.

“Very sly. Very funny. Very romantic. You should date this book.” — Maureen Johnson, New York Times bestselling author of 13 Little Blue Envelopes and Scarlett Fever.

We’ve also sold German rights to ANNA, to Random House Germany. (Publishers Marketplace link, subscription required.)

Operation Redwood by S. Terrell French is on the Horn Book’s Summer Recommended Reading List.

There’s even MORE good stuff pending, but not yet ready for release. Stay tuned!

But there’s got to be some good news we can share, right? (Besides the arrival of my new boots from Duo, which I ordered in London, pictured above.)

Well, I’ve been pitching new novels by Amy Spalding and Trish Doller, both of which I love to pieces. And I’m always optimistic about being able to share more good news about those in due course!

I’m also only a day away from meeting Carlos Rosas, one of the two founders of Nia, and continuing my study of that with training towards my Green Belt.

What about you? What good news do you have to share with the world? Let the comment section ring!

So, to start us off, this post from John Scalzi about eARCS. (Please do click over to Whatever to read the whole thing). In brief, Scalzi writes:

Dear publicity folk: You know I love you, am philosophically inclined to and aligned with your goals, and I know you’re trying to do your job in innovative and interesting ways. I can’t blame you for that — indeed I applaud you. But this is a simple fact: The moment you make me jump through all sorts of hoops to access a book you want to publicize, you lose me. Because I am lazy, because I don’t take kindly to having to leave even more information about myself in someone else’s hands, because I don’t like feeling I’m not trusted and because I have lots of other books competing for my interest which don’t require me to do anything else but read.

Now, I love my Kindle. Love reading on my Kindle. I don’t put too many new books on it, because its main purpose is to make it easier for me to read manuscripts, but I’m not against the idea of reading published books on it. If I could find a sort of lending library for ebooks, I would be all over that — until then, most of the finished books I read are ones I either borrow from the library or have on my shelves. That said, I had my own moment of eARC fail last year at BEA. I picked up a code from a publisher for a book I’d heard about and was dying to read, went through the whole process of signing up (which Scalzi did not), but when I got through all that, all I could do with the novel was read it on my computer.

And, well, I can spend something like 10 hours or more a day in front of my computer. When I’m reading for pleasure, I don’t want to be tied to it. I want to curl up on the couch, or sit in the sun on the back deck. Hell, I want to use my Kindle for the purpose it was designed. So did I end up reading the eARC? No.

For publicity purposes, I agree with Scalzi — making reviewers jump through major hoops is a fantastic way of ensuring you won’t get too many reviews. But what do you think? Are you a fan of eARCs? (With the understanding that the purpose of any advanced reader copy is to promote the book and get people excited about it.) Do you think they work?

And even more basically — do you have an eReader of your own? If so, how do you use it?

Red Boot Pearl!

Pearl, please send me an email with your phone number, and the times you’ll be available to chat next week. To take us out into the weekend, another except from my teen writing. Does anyone remember the tv show Double Trouble? I loved that show. I think this was based partly on that, and partly on my obsessive reading of the Sweet Valley High books. This is the entirety of chapter one. Enjoy!

“What am I supposed to wear? How am I going to get you-know-who [Voldemort?!?!?] to notice me if all my clothes are horrible?”

Tricia Williams, Allison Jackson’s best friend responded with a sigh, “Oh Allie, you have tons of clothing. Why don’t you wear your red leather pants [really?]with your white shirt [she must not have had too many clothes if she's only got the ONE white shirt.]?”

“Oh Tricia, gimme a break. It’s only the beginning of September. [Yeah. No one wears winter white in September. Jeez.] How about this?” Allison held out a fluorescent pink minidress. “Too loud, maybe?” [I don't think I meant it ironically.]

“Allison, it’s perfect!”

“Okay, so now I have a dress, but nothing to do with this face, or my hair!”

“Allison Jackson, your hair is perfect just the way it is, and you know your face is fine.”

Allison Jackson [in case you didn't already know her name by now] was one of the most attractive girls at her school. She had long, silky blonde hair, skin as smooth as silk and eyes as blue as the sky. She practically always had a tan since she lived in Southern California [if you think she sounds plastic, I should probably note that I was totally describing a Barbie doll. Seriously. My Barbie dolls had very detailed lives.] Fortunately for her she loved aerobics and dancing, which kept her in great shape. She lived with her sister Tia and Tia’s husband Charles.

Tricia, meanwhile, was the exact opposite. While Allison had straight blond hair [in case you forgot already], Tricia had short, curly, black hair. Tricia’s eyes were also dark.

“Now come on Allison, let’s go.”

“Okay. But if Lance Robins doesn’t notice me, someone’s gonna die and it might be you.” [Ooh! Murder threats! And a boy named LANCE!]

In case you hate the idea of not knowing what happens, I can assure you that Allison and Lance did wind up together, after some heartbreaking misunderstandings, AND she won the dance contest! And that’s my last dive into my teen writings, I promise.

But every time I think I’m getting close to being ready to go, I remember something else I can’t forget to bring, and suddenly, the guest room bed where I’m laying out all my stuff in preparation for packing begins to look like a rummage sale. Can I fit that ALL in one bag? (Well, ok, one checked bag, one laptop bag, and one small carry-on.)

I aspire to be an amazingly light packer with fabulous outfits I can mix and match in interesting ways… but I doubt I’m going to be THAT different a person when I travel than I am at home. Still, I can dream.

At the moment, my dream consists of three pair of shoes. That’s it. It may be a bit of a nightmare, but hey — worst case scenario — I’ll be in Italy when I decide I need something new. Oh noes!

So how do I tie this into writing your book and/or publishing?

Well, how about this? You can pack by writing a list of things to bring and checking them off one by one as you put them in a bag, or you can just throw things willy-nilly into a suitcase and hope for the best. So — do you outline your novel or just let it flow? And if you DO outline, is there room for that extra pair of shoes you just can’t pass up in Italy?

Let me know your thoughts in the comments!

I’ve read dozens of posts and articles from different agents and writers about how to write a query letter, but there’s one thing I’m still curious about. It seems querying is easier if you have an exciting, titillating premise. But what about literary fiction where the journey is an inward one? What if you don’t have that high-concept hook? What makes you as an agent ask to see more of this kind of book? For example, I was reading Criss Cross the other day and as much as I loved the characters, there was no external action. I wondered how the author went about querying this book. I checked for jacket copy, but there was none — just reviews saying how awesome a book it was. If you see the word “literary” in the book’s description in a query, are you more forgiving of the pitch? And how do you go about pitching a book like this to a publisher?

Amy, I took a gander at Criss Cross on the IndieBound website, and the blurb for the mass market paperback reads as follows:

She wished something would happen.

Something good. To her. Checking her wish for loopholes, she found one. Hoping it wasn’t too late, she thought the word soon.

Meanwhile, in another part of town, he felt as if the world was opening. Life was rearranging itself; bulging in places, fraying in spots. He felt himself changing, too, but into what?

So much can happen in a summer.

Now, if I look at the hardcover blurb — because even if there’s nothing on the back of the book, or on the flaps, somewhere, an editor worked her ass off to write catalogue copy, so it DOES exist. So, the hardcover copy:

Debbie is wishing something would happen. Something good. To her. Soon. In the meantime, Debbie loses a necklace and finds a necklace (and boy does the necklace have a story to tell), she goes jeans shopping with her mother (an accomplishment in diplomacy), she learns to drive shift in a truck (illegally), she saves a life (directly connected to being able to drive, thus proving something), she takes a bus ride to another town (in order to understand what it feels like to be from “elsewhere”), she meets a boy (who truly is from “elsewhere”), but mostly she hangs out with her friends: Patty, Hector, Lenny, and Phil. Their paths cross. Their stories crisscross. And in Lynne Rae Perkins’s remarkable book, a girl and her wish grow up. Illustrated throughout with black–and–white pictures, comics, and photographs by the author.

Both do give the impression of SOMETHING happening, and even while it may seem trivial (taking a bus ride, finding a necklace), there is action to describe.

So that’s something you can do in your query letter, at least. What I wouldn’t do is spout review-worthy phrases about “lyrical writing”, “luminous prose”, or other such meaningless drivel. It may be TRUE, but what does it MEAN?

The best thing you can do when there’s not a obvious hook to hang the query on is to clearly express the quality of the writing in the sample, and tell me why I want to care about the characters, when not a lot happens to them.

Does that help? Readers, how would you, or how HAVE you, queried for literary fiction?

Speaking of reading, that’s one of the things I *do* expect to get done on my break. I’m stocking my Kindle with your romances, your paranormals, your mysteries and thrillers. I’ve got drafts of new novels by several of my clients (lucky me!) and a couple of fulls I’m hoping live up to the promise of the early chapters.

But never fear! Even while I’m gone, I wouldn’t dream of leaving you stranded without something to read (and shoes to swoon over). All next week I’ll be featuring guest posts on the blog from my authors, as well as one from Intern Jenny herself, with her thoughts on the query process.

But I’m also curious — so many of you are writers building your web presences. How do you handle blog vacations? Do you schedule posts in advance? Let the blog be silent while you’re gone? Post by phone, just to keep your hand in? It’s not just vacations either — when your deadline is hard and fast upon you, do you let your blog get dusty, or is that when you’re MORE inclined to post, as a form of procrastination? How do you handle enforced time away from the internet? Do you celebrate?

May the comments be lively!

Needless to say, with Valentine’s Day (and my birthday) coming up on Sunday, love is in the air. But I know that not everyone is a fan of this (some say manufactured) holiday, and in THEIR honor, I want to talk about the Bechdel Rule. Maybe you’ve heard of it? I first learned of it from Jezebel, not in this article, but that is the most recent time I saw it. To explain, this is a rule created by cartoonist Alison Bechdel, who “had one of her female characters cite a simple rule: She’d only go to see a movie if it had:

1. At least two female characters, who …
2. talk to each other about…
3. something besides a man.”

So, my question for you today is: do your YA novels follow this rule? Do the female characters you create talk to each other without talking about boys? I’m not saying they can’t EVER talk about boys, but do they talk about other things, too?

And besides your own fiction, what other YA novels can you list (in the comments) that follow this rule? You may have to think about it — I know I do. It’s not something that springs out at me when I’m reading, mostly because I love romance. But I also love stories about awesome teen girls being awesome — think of Mia and Lilly in The Princess Diaries by Meg Cabot.

Whatcha got for me?

As you’ll recall from my original post, you too can participate for a chance to win a copy of Band Geeked Out by Josie Bloss. All you have to do is also read Catching Fire or any one of the Mortal Instruments books (and just so my clients don’t feel left out) OR any book by a kt literary client, and post a review on your site or somewhere linkable (i.e. GoodReads totally counts). After Labor Day, I’ll put up a “Recent Reads” post, and anyone who comments there with a link to their review of one of the above books will be entered to randomly win Band Geeked Out.

Ready? Set? Read!