Reflections on writing and the VCFA experience

Summer Reading #4: Natalia Sylvester’s Breathe and Count Back from Ten

9/5/2022

What are holiday weekends for if not one last summer beach read? Breathe and Count Back from Ten is a little outside my usual romance wheelhouse, a YA novel with a romantic thread as opposed to a YA romance novel. (Yes, I loved the Harry Potter series but you know I was waiting the whole time for Hermione and Ron to finally get together because who couldn’t see those sparks!) However, the cover flap copy drew me in: “Verónica has always dreamed of being a mermaid.” Mermaid Cove, the fictional place in the book where Verónica dreams about performing as a mermaid, is based on a real place, Weeki Wachee Springs in Florida. I confess to having this dream, too, albeit on a much farther back-burner than Verónica. Like her, however, the water was a place where I felt at home during my childhood and early teen years. For Verónica, it’s because she can move freely there despite her hip dysplasia. For me, it was a place where I could keep up with other kids even though I was overweight. (Although I also had hip dysplasia, mine was corrected with a brace when I was a baby.) I never wanted to get rid of my legs, but getting paid to wear a sparkly fin and play pretend sounded awesome.
Verónica’s journey to become a mermaid, though, is about so much more than just scoring the job. Through this story of a disabled immigrant teen’s dreams and wishes, Sylvester makes you think about so many issues including bullying, ableism, slut shaming, and consent - both sexual and medical. Her love interest, Alex, is on his own journey combatting depression, and his art is very cool. Ultimately, my favorite character was Geoff and his @Phin journey - hooray for merpeople. Pick this one up when you’re looking for something beautifully real and relevant.

Summer Reading #3: Always Never Yours, by Emily Wibberley and Austin Siegemund-Broka

9/2/2022

I first fell for this husband and wife writing team when I picked up Time Of Our Lives, a sweet and beautiful story of Fitz and Juniper meeting up on their college tours. This summer, Always Never Yours was the perfect follow-up to Nicola Yoon’s Instructions for Dancing. I needed something that WASN’T going to make me cry, and this fresh and funny novel was perfect.
Always Never Yours is the debut novel for Wibberley and Siegemund-Broka (#Wibbroka), and it’s an ode to the shared passion for Shakespeare that brought them together. My own first high school crush involved swooning over an English classmate during Romeo and Juliet trivia challenges, and I brought the story into my own work, too, so I definitely approve. It did take me a few chapters to get into this one, but once I hit the comparison between heroine Megan and the often-overlooked Romeo and Juliet character of Rosaline in chapter 4, I fell hard. The book didn’t leave my hands after that until I hit the last page. Like Rosaline, Megan is the “before” girl. The girl guys date before they find the one. The #Wibbroka team does something truly special developing that idea, leading Megan on a wholly satisfying journey to find self-love along with true love. This is also another title with excellent banter, and a side dish of just enough drama. Highly recommended.

Summer Reading #2: Nicola Yoon’s Instructions for Dancing

8/29/2022

Summer Reading #1: Chaotic Good

7/31/2022

Summer is here in full force, and with southern Ontario in the humid 30s (that’s in the 90s for Fahrenheit people), I’m definitely feeling it. It’s the perfect weather for lounging in the shade with a lemonade and a book, and brings back so many great summer reading club memories.

I kicked off my own summer reading this year with Chaotic Good, by Whitney Gardner. The paper doll cover design combined with the D&D title caught my attention right away on the library display. Here’s the summary from Penguin Random House’s website:

Cameron’s cosplay creations are finally starting to earn her attention–attention she hopes to use to get into the CalArts costume design department for college. But after she wins a major competition, she inadvertently sets off a firestorm of angry comments from male fans online.

When Cameron’s family moves the summer before her senior year, she hopes to complete her costume portfolio in peace and quiet away from the abuse. Unfortunately, the only comic shop in town–her main destination for character reference–is staffed by a dudebro owner who challenges every woman who comes into the shop.

At her twin brother’s suggestion, Cameron borrows a set of his clothes to waltz into the shop as Boy Cameron, where she’s shocked at how easily she’s accepted into the nerd inner sanctum. Soon, Cameron finds herself drafted into a D&D campaign. But as her “secret identity” gets more and more entrenched, Cameron’s portfolio falls by the wayside–and her crush on one of the guys in the group threatens to make a complicated situation even more precarious.

When I was working as a librarian, we used to consider whether patrons tended to fall in love with books because of their characters, settings, or plots to help us make better book recommendations. For example, people who love books for their settings tend to be “books as vacations” types of readers. They love books about travel, but also books with rich settings, either real or fantastical. This book hit all four areas for me. I wanted to be friends with Cameron and work on costume design with her (and writing with her twin brother!). I loved her studio setting, the fabric store scenes made me want to hit up my local fabric store, and the Portland bits made me want to revisit Portland. And the plot - this is such an important story for the online bullying and trolling that too many people have experienced these days. It manages to be both heartbreaking and heartwarming, while remaining realistic to the magnitude of these problems.

Check Chaotic Good out at your local library, or buy it here from IndieBound. Happy summer reading!

New skating novel - Every Reason We Shouldn't

3/18/2020

I’m so excited to share the release of a new YA skating novel, Every Reason We Shouldn’t, by Sara Fujimura. The daughter of famous Olympians, Olivia Kennedy is trying to enjoy life as a normal teen after her own Olympic dreams have ended. Speed skater Jonah Choi’s arrival at her family’s struggling rink upends all that. He’s driven, talented, and gorgeous - but will the rivalry that develops between them bring them closer or drive them apart?

Check out the cover below, isn’t it fun?

There aren’t a ton of novels featuring speed skaters and I’ve been in love with the novelty of that since Sara first pitched her book idea to me. Her roller derby additions bring an extra element of fun to this book as well. In addition to loving the story and characters, this novel holds a special place in my heart because I had the opportunity to advise Sara on the skating scenes.

As an author, one of the parts I love about story creation is collaborating. People tend to think of novel writing as a solitary endeavor - but there’s a reason that authors often need a few pages for acknowledgements. When I was writing The Boy Next Door, many of my writer friends served as beta readers. My synchro teammates helped me hash out subplots over team breakfasts, a fellow skating club mate learned some pair moves with me, and a judge friend helped with technicalities. It really does take a village to write a book.

When Sara reached out to me to look over the skating scenes, I was thrilled to be part of her book’s village. Since Every Reason We Shouldn’t is about both a figure skater and a speed skater, one of my synchro teammates who also speedskates connected us to the West Michigan Speedskating Club. With four minds working together, we were able to come up with a super signature move for Olivia and Jonah. Hint: think about how speed skaters look as they skate around the end curves...

I know a lot of my skating village friends are currently mourning the loss of their competitive seasons with the coronavirus pandemic closing many US rinks. If you’re stuck at home, this book is like a fresh breath of icy rink air. Bonus: it’s also available through Audible so you can listen and do off-ice workouts at the same time.

Reading Resolutions

1/6/2018

As much as I love Christmas, New Year's gets some serious love on my holiday list as well. It's even more perfect when we're getting socked with snow like we were this season in Michigan. It's true that driving isn't the most fun in it, but the fresh, cleanness of new snow is the perfect setting to think about how I want to improve in the new year.

This past summer, I bought a planner from INK + VOLT and I love it. Love. It. It's really helping me break down goals, always important in writing and even more so when I'm balancing family, writing, librarian-ing, and skating. Another thing I love about it is that I have the version that starts in the summer. Starting a shiny new planner in summer was like New Year's in July. Because of that, I've been having a pretty productive year, and now the new year is adding an extra kick of motivation. The only place where this planner isn't really working for me is for reading. Reading isn't something I need to pencil into my schedule - my schedule is all the times when I have to put a book DOWN to do other things. So I wouldn't say it's a fault design of the planner, but I do like to set reading goals.

I'll be doing the Reading Challenge on Goodreads this year, but I'm looking for something more than a number. Several friends are doing Book Riot's Read Harder challenge, and honestly I'll probably end up doing it along with them just because we talk about what we're reading and I know I'll be getting lots of recommendations from them about books they picked up to fulfill the challenge list. Therefore, I'm thinking that for my own personal challenge, I'm going to try to read enough books from my Goodreads Want to Read list to get it down to under 200 books. Since my local library cooperative has increased patron hold limits, I'm usually able to just put books that sound interesting on hold. Thus, books on my Want to Read list have fallen aside, since I've stayed busy with a steady stream of holds. Time to rectify that.

Wishing you all a wonderful new year filled with reading!

#CoolReadsHotNights YA Winter Sports Romance Giveaway

7/17/2017

I love ice skating, but my next favorite thing is summers at the beach. This summer, I’m teaming up with fellow authors Melanie Hooyenga and Jennifer Comeaux to combine those favorites. We’re having a giveaway of YA winter sports romance novels to give you some awesome beach reading.

Beginning TODAY, you can enter to win a paperback copy of each of our books — THE BOY NEXT DOOR, THE SLOPE RULES, and GOLD RUSH — by sharing a picture online of how you enjoy winter in summer.

The Rules:

—> Post a picture on Instagram, Twitter, AND/OR Facebook with the hashtag "CoolReadsHotNights" by Sunday, July 23rd.
—> You must live in the US.

It's that easy!

A few more details:
—> You can enter more than once
—> Get creative! Ice and ice cream are easy, but drag your snowshoes from the basement and take a hike in the dunes!
—> We'd love it if you tag us: @melaniehoo, @kvanark (twitter), @LadyWave4 (twitter)

Now what are you waiting for? Share your winter in summer pics!

Guest Post from Fellow Winter Sports Author, Melanie Hooyenga

4/27/2017

The most recent Swoon Reads cover contest has me craving swoony book covers and I love this one! Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of presenting at the Rochester Writers spring conference along with several other YA authors. Melanie Hooyenga and I met for the first time, and the cover of her YA skiing novel, The Slope Rules, caught my eye right away. If you loved the winter sports and romance mash-up of The Boy Next Door, you should definitely check out The Slope Rules. Here's what Melanie has to say about what inspired her to write The Slope Rules and her own skiing experiences:

Being a Michigander, I’m no stranger to snow, so writing a skiing book isn’t that far-fetched. I first came up with the idea in the winter of 2014 while watching the winter Olympics. West Michigan was buried under 100 inches of snow and I spent a lot of time snuggled on the couch thinking about snow and watching amazing athletes do incredible things with their bodies. I’ve always skied and thought it’d be fun to write about a skier—but not just any skier, a girl who isn’t afraid of anything and can hurl herself through the air like the best of them.

I borrowed the idea of two kids meeting on vacation and cliques with silly names from the movie Grease, then I tossed in a few Mean Girls and added a brewery because my husband and I love craft beer and brew beer at home.

As for skiing, my grampa worked at a small ski place on the east side of Michigan so I first learned when I was five-years old. In junior high I joined the ski club—which means they set 200 7th and 8th graders loose on a hill once a week—but I didn’t get over my fear of going fast until I took a ski class in college. I’ve always been more about precision—the Snow Bunnies’ style is based on how I ski—but being graded forced me to get over myself. Now my husband and I regularly race down the slopes—but I’ll never do spectacular stunts like Cally.

Despite my familiarity with the sport, I did a lot of research for the terminology in THE SLOPE RULES. I spent a day riding up the chairlift on the terrain park to watch how the kids interacted on the jumps and tricks, and I critiqued my own skiing. When you’ve done something your whole life you don’t think about the technique, you just do it, so I paid attention to little things like which leg you lean on to turn and what the snow sounds like when you catch an edge.

So far the response from readers has been great, and I especially love the people who say they’ve never skied but my book made them feel like they could. That’s why I do this. To unleash readers’ imaginations and make them imagine things they never thought possible. Even if it’s just pulling a reverse 360 on snow.

You can find out more about Melanie Hooyenga and her other YA novels on her website and social media accounts:
http://www.melaniehoo.com
https://www.facebook.com/MelanieHooyenga
https://twitter.com/MelanieHoo
https://instagram.com/melaniehoo/

Here's where you can get your own copy of The Slope Rules:
Print: https://www.amazon.com/Slope-Rules-Melanie-Hooyenga/dp/1542620309
Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/Slope-Rules-Melanie-Hooyenga-ebook/dp/B01MUBSOLO
BN: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-slope-rules-melanie-hooyenga/1125532935
Kobo: https://www.kobo.com/us/en/ebook/the-slope-rules
Smashwords: https://www.smashwords.com/books/view/698287
iBooks: https://itunes.apple.com/author/melanie-hooyenga/id714226093

Honestly Awesome: My Review of Bill Konigsberg’s Honestly Ben

4/23/2017

This is one of those novels that makes me wish that Goodreads let you rate books at six stars. The kind of novel that makes me wish I had a book group. The kind I want on every end aisle of every bookstore everywhere.

Sequels and companion novels are hard to pull off well. There’s all the expectations of the first book, and after Openly Straight, I had high ones. Here's just one of my favorite passages.

“I'm glad we did this,” I said, looking over at Ben. “I'm glad you came.”
            “You wish I came,” he said.
            My face flushed pink, or pinker. The silence felt like it could fill the resort for hours. “Did you just make a sex joke?” I finally managed to say.
            He grinned.
            “You're such a dick,” I said, laughing.
            “Are you trying to make me another one?” (247-248)

The relationship between Rafe and Ben was heartbreakingly real. I also loved the premise of Openly Straight, which made me feel so deeply about the way we label people.

As you may have guessed from my first paragraph, though, Honestly Ben did not disappoint. It went beyond the questions of labels and boxes to “are you in or out?” and “what have you bought into that maybe you shouldn’t have?” These weren’t just about sexuality, either, but about life. Are you really in life, engaged with those around you? Are you buying into “truths” that you haven’t really considered, about the way you only think things have to be?

I don’t want to give spoilers, but I’ll say this much. For my fellow romance lovers yearning for happily-ever-after, this realistic ending is satisfying. And on a completely unrelated note, the subplot about Ben’s speech is plotting genius. Go get this book, now.

Vacation Photos from The Book Barn in Niantic, CT

8/16/2016

WARNING: Book porn below! All those with bookstore fetishes may want to skip this post.

I spend a good chunk of each day either working on my own books or helping my critique group members with theirs. The rest of the time, I work at a library, where I frequently wrap up shifts by visiting my public library on the way home - even if I already have a bag of books from work with me in the car. You, my fellow bibliophiles, get it - even if we had forty-eight hours in each day we couldn't spend enough time with books.

My family just got back from our yearly visit to my sister's Massachusetts farm. Of course, as much as I love books, spending time with my little sis and her awesome husband (I couldn't have written her a better match!) was the best part of the trip. As far as attractions, though? Visiting the Book Barn in nearby Niantic, Connecticut was definitely the highlight. This used bookstore is so huge, they have several overflow buildings. (All the pics are just from their main store and you're not even seeing a quarter of that!) Plus, there are cats!

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