Ultimate YA

1.) Why did you choose write books for young adults?

It’s such an exciting time - everything is about discovery and choices.

2.) What is your favorite book? Your favorite author?

The Wizard of Oz, because it started it all. And J.K. Rowling is my Queen.

3.) With which characters in your stories do you identify yourself most?

Em and I have the same edit button problem. ;)

4.) Some authors work during the day. Some at night. What is your typical writing day schedule?

I have two boys, so whenever I can, wherever I can! Both of them will be in school this year, so I’ll be shooting for daytime hours then!

5.) What advice can you give to an aspiring writer?

Read, read, read, and write, write, write.

6.) How much of your personal life to you tend to bring to your stories?

There are lots of little things, such as Thomas and Michael and their love of Fruity Pebbles (the husband), and Emerson and her love of black Converse (me).

7.) What do you do when you encounter the dreaded writer’s block?

I keep going. Not always the best choice, actually. Sometimes I think it’s important to walk away so you can come back fresh. But not for too long! No more than a day.

8.) How long did it take for you to get published? How difficult was the road to getting published?

From the first word of HOURGLASS to the day it was published was just short of three years. As far as difficulty in getting published, I didn’t realize how much difficult stuff happens after a manuscript has sold.

9.) Do you have any book recommendations for the readers in our group?

Oh man! I hardly get to read books anymore - I mostly listen to them. Lately I’ve heard A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES, THE HISTORIAN and THE HELP. I realize those are all adult! Um … I love Rachel Hawkins Hex Hall series!

1. I had two imaginary friends growing up, Madeline and Muffy. 
2. I adored the Wizard of Oz and Trixie Belden as a child. 
3. My husband and I moved 36 times in the first five years of our marriage. (He played minor league baseball.) 
4. Italian food can cure most ills. 
5. Dance breaks can cure the rest of them. 
6. I am a pop culture junkie, and my interests range from Doctor Who to Dark Shadows. 
7. I can touch my tongue to the tip of my nose!

Myra McEntire knows the words to every R&B hit of the last decade, but since she lives in Nashville, the country music capital of America, her lyrical talents go sadly unappreciated. She’s chosen, instead, to channel her “mad word skills” into creating stories infused with her love of music. Her young adult book, Hourglass, is available now.

Myra’s book debuted on June 14th and can be purchased at your local bookstore, or online. For more information, check out Goodreads, or read on here:

For seventeen-year-old Emerson Cole, life is about seeing what isn’t there: swooning Southern Belles; soldiers long forgotten; a haunting jazz trio that vanishes in an instant. Plagued by phantoms since her parents’ death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She’s tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson’s willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may change her past.

Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he’s around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should have happened? 

Full of atmosphere, mystery, and romance, Hourglass merges the very best of the paranormal and science-fiction genres in a seductive, remarkable young adult debut.

Stay tuned for more about Myra and her debut book, Hourglass!

If you enjoyed reading about Melissa Kantor this month and would like to contact her, than you can email her at melissa@melissakantor.com. You can also check out her website.  Additionally, you can join her group on Goodreads and talk to her directly!

9.)  Do you have any book recommendations for the readers in our group?

I just read the galley for “Putting Makeup on Dead People.” It was so different from a lot of what’s out there—very daring and exciting. I’m loving “Dash and Lily’s Book of Dares,” and so is my eighth grade class, to whom I’m reading it on Wednesday afternoons. And I’m about to read “Real Live Boyfriends,” the final installment in E. Lockhart’s “The Boyfriend List” series, so I’d love for everyone to join me! 

10.) You mentioned that you teach classes during the school year. What subjects do you teach?

I teach middle and high school English.  I’ve taught kids as young as fourth grade, but I usually teach upper middle school (7th and 8th) and high school.

11.) Do you ever use your classes as inspiration for your stories?

It’s so funny because my students always ask that question.  They actually go back and forth on how they ask it.  Sometimes they’re like, “You should name a character after me!” or “You should put me in a book.”  Other times, they’re a little nervous like, you’re not going to put me in your books, are you?  I can say with a clear conscience that I never ever use anything I know from or about a student in a book.  My stories really come from my own experiences and feelings as a teenager.  There’s a certain amount of overlap (I think the teenage experience is, in many ways, universal and eternal), but if something that happens in one of my books also happened to one of my students, it’s absolutely a coincidence.  

12.) The problem of keeping young adults interested in reading is growing. What is your opinion on how to keep young adults interested, or even to begin to get other young adults interested in reading?

Wow, that’s a tough one.  I can say that my experience with my students makes me feel that all kids can be turned onto reading, it’s just a matter of finding the right book.  Every Monday, my students and I talk about what we’re reading outside of class.  Sometimes students start out the year as non-readers, but by June, I think I can safely say that the vast majority of them (if not all of them) have found books they’ve loved.  It takes time.  I have a lot of suggestions for them.  Their friends have a lot of suggestions for them.  If they love a book, we try to find other books like the book they loved.  If they seem to be losing interest in a book, I encourage them to find something they’ll enjoy more (but I don’t send them off on their own to do it—I suggest different titles they might like, discuss what they’re bored by in the book they don’t like, talk about other books they have liked).  Helping kids love reading and helping them to read more takes time and energy.  I could go on and on about what works and what doesn’t, but I’ll spare you the spiel.  I’ll give one final suggestion (this is for all you moms and dads out there!) avoid pushing “good” books on your kids.  If a kid loves a book, then by definition it’s a good book for that kid.  Trying to force your child to love a certain novel or writer is guaranteed to backfire. 

13.) Your characters had a variety of experiences. Do you do research before writing their stories? If so, how do you go about doing your research?

It’s funny—my background is more academic than literary (I was a political science major in college and my graduate degree is in English literature, not writing), so research feels like home to me.  I’ve never written a book in which I have to do a ton of research (I’ve never written an historical novel, for example), but I always like it when I have to investigate things.  In Book Two of The Darlings (called The Darlings in Love), I had a scene (it’s actually not in the final book, which is kind of funny) where Natalya went out for dinner at a fancy Brighton Beach restaurant.  I spent time online searching for locations and menus of actual Brighton Beach restaurants so I could integrate them into my imaginary restaurant; I wanted my made up place (called Kiev) to sound legitimate.  

14.) What inspired you to write a story about three friends struggling to find their place in the scary new world of high school?

High school is such a major transition.  The only reason it didn’t feel completely overwhelming to me was because I had my BFFs right by my side.  Just thinking about what it would have been like to make that move alone makes my stomach hurt!  Since it seemed to stressful, I thought it would make a good novel…

15.) Will you be writing any follow-ups to Jane, Victoria and Natalya’s stories?  

The second book in the series is called The Darlings in Love, and it’s all about what happens when the girls fall in love.  You can read a sample chapter from the book at the end of The Darlings Are Forever.

1.)  Why did you choose write books for young adults?

I think there are a couple of answers to this question. The first is that I have a friend who was a YA editor and who really encouraged me to write YA. That’s probably what started me writing YA. But every time I sign a new contract (or I should say right BEFORE I sign a new contract), I ask myself if I still want to write for teenagers or if there’s a different readership I’m interested in (little kids, adults). Each time I ask the question I give a resounding yes. I love writing for teens. Their struggles feel so real to me, and my own teen years were so fraught. Adult life can’t compare to the drama of high school (thankfully).

2.)  What is your favorite book?  Your favorite author?

My favorite adult author is probably Jane Austen or Virginia Woolf (it changes every few months). My favorite teen author is Norma Klein. A lot of her stuff is out of print, but two of her books were really important to me when I was younger. One is “It’s Okay if You Don’t Love Me” and the other is “Love is One of the Choices.” Her heroines are very 1970s girls—smart, feminist, curious, determined. Even the scared or shy ones usually make cool choices. I love that.  

3.)  With which characters in your stories do you identify yourself most?

I feel a tremendous kinship with my main characters—Lucy’s struggles with her stepmother in “If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince?” are very resonant for me. And “The Breakup Bible” kind of distills every awful breakup I’ve ever had, so I feel for Jennifer in that book. At the same time, now that I’m a mom, I definitely feel for the mothers in the books. Their kids are SOOOO hard to parent sometimes. It’s fun to sympathize with different characters at different stages of my life.  

4.)  Some authors work during the day. Some at night. What is your typical writing day schedule?

During the summer, I get up, buy a bagel and something for lunch and head off to work at the student-faculty resource center at my school. The second I get there, I eat all the food I bought for the day. Then I get down to work. During the school year, when I’m also teaching, I write whenever I have a minute. Also in the afternoons of the days I don’t have classes.  

5.)  What advice can you give to an aspiring writer?

Write a book you would want to read!

6.)  How much of your personal life to you tend to bring to your stories?

The emotional lives of all of my main characters is completely factual—their insecurities, hopes and dreams are or were mine. But none of the things that happen to them happen to me. So the feelings are real but the plots are invented.  

7.)  What do you do when you encounter the dreaded writer’s block?

Oh god, writer’s block is the WORST. Usually when that happens I reach out. To friends who are writers, to my former editors, to my current editor. I need to talk out my problems to solve them, either live or in emails. My friend and former editor Helen always laughs when she gets a panicked email from me because it usually has the problem I’m struggling with solved. (Like, I’ll write, “Do you think the character should steal a car? Maybe she should steal a car. But I don’t know.  What do you think?” Then Helen will call me back to offer advice and I’ll say, “You know what? I think I’m going to have the character steal a car!”) Often just the act of writing down the problem and sending it to someone helps me solve it.  

8.)  How long did it take for you to get published? How difficult was the road to getting published?

My road to getting published was embarrassingly easy, which has nothing to do with the quality of my work and everything to do with having a close friend in the industry. I had a dinner with my friend Helen, she said, “Write me a YA novel!” and I wrote her one and she published it. Along the way, there was a lot of support and encouragement from friends and family, but Helen gets most of the credit for my career.  

1.  I’m a Capricorn

2.  The first time I ever kissed a boy, he asked me (right before we kissed), “Have you ever kissed someone before?”  I said, “No, have you?” He said, “Yes.”  So I said, “Oh, I forgot. I have too.”

3.  My favorite ice cream flavor is Chubby Hubby.  Also, if I’m sharing a pint with someone, I do this really annoying thing where I dig around for the good parts (like big chunks of pretzels) and leave them with the boring vanilla part.

4.  I cannot whistle, though many people have tried to teach me how.

5.  My favorite movie is “Ishtar.”

6.  I have very long skinny feet.  If I’m wearing white socks, they look like fish fillets.

7.  I recently wikipediaed Kim Kardishian because I knew I should know who she is but I was too embarrassed to admit to anyone that I didn’t already know.

Melissa Kantor is a YA author.  Her latest book The Darlings Are Forever came out January 4. It’s the story of three best friends who are starting school at different high schools in New York City. You can read the first chapter on her website.  She has written other YA books including If I Have a Wicked Stepmother, Where’s My Prince? and Girlfriend Material.

And now for more exciting news! Melissa is giving away 5 copies of The Darlings Are Forever this month! The rules for the contest are these:

1.)  The contest is only open to U.S. residents.

2.)  Post a response to the following prompt in 100 words or fewer onto the discussion board topic on our group page on Facebook (or, if you do not have a Facebook page, then message us your post and we’ll post the response on the discussion board for you). 

“I LOVE my best friend because…”

3.)  Include your email address so that we can contact you if you win.

4.)  The contest ends on February 28th, and the winner will be announced on March 1st.

Also, if you are interested in having your response posted on Melissa’s website, mention that at the end of your post.

Stay tuned for more about Melissa Kantor throughout the month!

If you enjoyed reading about Tracy Barrett and her books this month, and are interested in contacting her, then you’re in luck!  She can be reached via email at TracyTBarrett@yahoo.com.  You can also check out her website (click here) for more information.

8.) How long did it take for you to get published? How difficult was the road to getting published?

My first novel, Anna of Byzantium, found a publisher almost right away. I assumed that after that success I would never have any trouble getting an acceptance, so I was stunned when Cold in Summer was rejected twenty-four times before finding a home! It’s done quite well and has won awards and is still selling, so I don’t think it was the quality of the book that was the problem. It was that I hadn’t found the right editor. That same editor has published six books of mine (including King of Ithaka) and I have two more under contract with her.

9.) Do you have any book recommendations for the readers in our group?

Recommending a book is like setting a friend up on a blind date! I feel like I have to know someone very well before I would recommend either a date or a book for them. So I’m afraid I’ll have to pass on this one.

10.) Do you have a favorite book out of all the books you have written thus far? Or a favorite scene from one of your books?

The favorite of all my books, and the favorite of all the scenes, is the one I haven’t written yet. I know this sounds like I’m dodging the question, but a book (or a scene) I’ve imagined is perfect until I write it down. Then something happens and it becomes mere words on a screen, and I have to wrestle and wrestle with it to get it to something close to what it was in its pre-written state.

11.) Your latest book, King of Ithaka, is based off ‘The Odyssey,’ from the point of view of Odysseus’s son, Telemachos. Your next book, Brother Minotaur, is based on Greek mythology. So, I’ve been wondering, what is your favorite myth? You favorite mythological character?

The minotaur story is one of my favorites. By far my favorite mythological figure is Athena. I’m fortunate to live in Nashville, which has the only full-scale model of the Parthenon that replicates the ancient building both inside and out. In the inner chamber is the world’s largest indoor sculpture: an interpretation of the Athena Parthenos that used to stand in the Parthenon in Greece. I love seeing the offerings that people leave for her!

Another long-time favorite is Hector from the Iliad. I suppose he’s a mythological figure, even though the Iliad, like the Odyssey, isn’t really a myth.

12.) Do you have a set date for when Brother Minotaur will be released yet?

It is scheduled for publication sometime in 2011.

13.) Could you tell us more about Brother Minotaur?

Brother Minotaur is the story of the Cretan half-man, half-bull, as told in alternating points of view by the minotaur’s sister, Ariadne, and his killer, Theseus. It has a lot of moon-goddessy elements in it and is less adventurous but more complicated than King of Ithaka. In my version, the minotaur isn’t a monster, Ariadne doesn’t betray her beloved brother, and Theseus isn’t a cold-blooded killer.

1.) Why did you choose write books for young adults?

I think it chose me. I don’t consciously write for people of any particular age; I just write what I would want to read. If young adults like what I write, that’s great. If someone else likes it, that’s great too!

I think my natural voice is a YA voice. Maybe that’s because I’ve been a college professor for a long time, and I know a lot of people in their late teens and early twenties. Or maybe I’m a college professor because I’m naturally drawn to people of that age. It’s kind of a “Which came first—the chicken or the egg?” situation.

2.) What is your favorite book? Your favorite author?

That’s always such a hard question, and my favorites are so varied that I don’t think you could find a common thread in them. In no particular order, I love Charles Dickens, E. B. White (his essays as well as his books for children), James Thurber, Barbara Kingsolver, Jane Austen, all the Brontë sisters, T. H. White, Ursula K. LeGuin, Philip Pullman, P. G. Wodehouse, Homer, Dante.

There’s no way I could pick out just one favorite book. There are too many!

3.) With which characters in your stories do you identify yourself most?

I don’t know that I particularly identify with any of my characters, but I can identify with little pieces of all of them. I do see my children in my characters, though. My husband and daughter both noticed that Telemachos and Brax in the first half or so of King of Ithaka are very much like my son, Patrick, and his friend Riley. In fact, Brax was so much like Riley that I had to change his physical description, because I was having a hard time putting Brax in danger or even uncomfortable situations because I kept feeling like I was doing it to Riley! But I didn’t plan to model Telemachos and Brax on them, and I was surprised when it was pointed out to me that I had done so.

I consciously modeled Ariadne in Cold in Summer on my daughter. When my daughter read the manuscript, she said there was only one part that she found unbelievable, when Ariadne thinks of something snotty to say to her parents but thinks better of it. My daughter told me, “I would have said it.” She would have, too.

4.) Some authors work during the day. Some at night. What is your typical writing day schedule?

My writing habits were formed when my kids were younger and living at home, so I write mostly in the morning, when they used to sleep in, and early afternoon, when I would be home from work and they were still at school.

I never write at the university where I teach, and I never bring teaching work home. I’ve consciously divided my two worlds so carefully that if I’m absolutely forced to correct tests or something at home, I have a very hard time concentrating on them, and if by chance I find myself with a free hour or so at the university, I can’t write, no matter how hard I try.


5.) What advice can you give to an aspiring writer?

1. Find your own way of doing things. After Sharon Creech won a Newbery Medal for Walk Two Moons, she decided to take a writing class. She called up her editor in a panic and said, “I’m doing it all wrong!” Her editor said, “Sharon, your process is your process. Honor it.” I have found that I absolutely hate outlining fiction (it’s essential for nonfiction, though). If I write out the plot and character development and everything else ahead of time, even if it’s in the abbreviated form of an outline, I have little interest in writing the actual book, because I already know what will happen. I usually write to find out the answer to a question I have about a person, a place, something in history.

When I started King of Ithaka, I knew pretty much how the story had to begin and how it had to end. I did know that I needed to change something, though—the way, in Homer’s Odyssey, Telemachos and his father commit a horrendous slaughter at the end. I didn’t know how I would change that, but I trusted that if I made Telemachos a well-rounded character and developed his motives and his actions well enough, a different ending would arise from him. And it did!

2. On the other hand, break out of your comfort zone. Try outlining if you normally don’t, and try winging it if you normally plot out everything ahead of time. Write a different genre than your usual one. Try out humor if you usually write in a dark tone. Write nonfiction if you’re most interested in novels. If you’re a prose writer, try poetry, and vice versa. Even if it doesn’t work, you’ll learn something.

3. Read a lot. It doesn’t have to be the kind of thing you want to write; good writing is good writing, be it in a novel, a magazine article, a play, a TV script, whatever. You’ll soak things up without noticing it.

4. Recognize that revision is a crucial part of writing. People who claim they don’t need to revise probably do a lot of mental pre-writing and pre-revising before they put a word on paper.

6.) How much of your personal life to you tend to bring to your stories?

I tend to write what I know emotionally. I don’t know much about being a Byzantine princess, but I do know about sibling rivalry. Anna of Byzantium is based on the life of a Byzantine princess, but it’s really about family relationships. I’ve been the new kid in town (who hasn’t?) and I pulled on a lot of those memories for Cold in Summer. I’ve been fascinated by ancient civilizations my whole life, so it was easy to make Hector in On Etruscan Time be drawn into Etruscan culture.

I was a Classics major in college and fell in love with the Iliad. The Iliad and the Divine Comedy are the only two works of literature that I’ve read that I think you can’t translate with any success. My fascination with and love for ancient Greek culture formed the basis for King of Ithaka and my next novel, Brother Minotaur.

And although I’m not terrified of sailing like Telemachos, I don’t much like it, to the dismay of my sailor husband!

7.) What do you do when you encounter the dreaded writer’s block?

Work on something else. Usually after a little while I realize that the reason I’m blocked is that I’m trying to get my character to do something that that character won’t do as I’ve written her/him, so I’ll go back and change their personality and then suddenly they’ll do whatever it is that they were resisting before.

8.) How long did it take for you to get published? How difficult was the road to getting published?

My first novel, Anna of Byzantium, found a publisher almost right away. I assumed that after that success I would never have any trouble getting an acceptance, so I was stunned when Cold in Summer was rejected twenty-four times before finding a home! It’s done quite well and has won awards and is still selling, so I don’t think it was the quality of the book that was the problem. It was that I hadn’t found the right editor. That same editor has published six books of mine (including King of Ithaka) and I have two more under contract with her.

9.) Do you have any book recommendations for the readers in our group?

Recommending a book is like setting a friend up on a blind date! I feel like I have to know someone very well before I would recommend either a date or a book for them. So I’m afraid I’ll have to pass on this one.