Fall 2016 YA Books to Look Out For

So today is my first post of September 2016 and Fall 2016 YA books are IMMINENT. It's very exciting, because this bookish season is looking amazing and the only sad thing about it is I've run out of bookish gift cards but anyway. BOOKS.

In honor of September and kicking off some YA awesomeness, here are ten Fall 2016 YA books to look out for, ordered by release date.

Photo credit: Goodreads

As I Descended by Robin Talley
September 6

As Talley put it, this is a queer Macbeth retelling, and I've already heard is super creepy and murdery and it sounds awesome. Even better—it'll be out next week. Also, that cover is gorgeous.

Photo credit: Goodreads

Girl Mans Up by M-E Girard
September 6

I've been very curious about this one, as we don't exactly have a whole lot of books out there with masculine-leaning AFAB protagonists. People who have read it so far have said there's a lot of nuanced gender identity stuff, so this is one to look out for!

Photo credit: Goodreads

Not Your Sidekick by C.B. Lee
September 8

Comic with a girl-crushing-on-girl protag with a superhero lineage but no superpowers of her own? Who accidentally ends up the intern of a supervillain? SIGN ME UP. This book looks like a ton of fun and I definitely want to check it out when it releases soon!

Photo credit: Goodreads

Crooked Kingdom by Leigh Bardugo
September 27

CROOKED KINGDOM IS ALMOST HERE! Six of Crows was definitely one of my favorite reads last year, and I'm super psyched to see how the duology ends. Can't wait to see more of the crew and get some closure on this amazing series.

Photo credit: Goodreads

Last Seen Leaving by Caleb Roehrig
October 4

This book sounds so great! Boy's girlfriend disappears, and the secrets he's holding are connected to her disappearance, and it's dark and twisty and there's a coming out narrative involved and I need.

Photo credit: Goodreads

When the Moon Was Ours by Anna-Marie McLemore
October 4

This book has a lot of things you don't see all that often—two POC leads in a romance (a Latina protag and South East Asian love interest), some trans boy representation, and plus it's promising a magical realism spin with multicultural elements. I'm really excited about this book, and the #ownvoices representation involved (the author is Latina) and all in all, definitely looking forward to this one.

Photo credit: Goodreads

Gemina by Jay Kristoff and Amie Kaufman
October 18

So this one's pretty obvious—Illuminae is one of my favorite reads of the year (and I'm counting it for this year, as technically I finished reading it right after New Years). I devoured that monster-sized book in like two days and am dying to see what happens next. I've been bracing myself for the inevitable body count and look forward to diving into the series again!

Photo credit: Goodreads

A Darkly Beating Heart by Lindsay Smith
October 25

So I've been pretty psyched about this book since it was first announced because a dark, time-travel revenge fantasy that takes place in Japan sounds awesome. Then I learned the protagonist is bi and it got great reviews from trusted readers, including in-community readers, so now I'm extra excited. I'm definitely looking forward to Lindsay Smith's latest!

Photo credit: Goodreads

Timekeeper by Tara Sim
November 1

I've mentioned my excitement for Timekeeper on this blog several times and now it's almost here! Victorian London! Clock mechanic boy who alters time and falls for a clock spirit boy! I actually have an ARC now and will read as soon as I can because need.

Photo credit: Goodreads

Of Fire and Stars by Audrey Coulthurst
November 22

Finally, I am so psyched for this fantasy—princess is engaged to handsome prince and falls for his sister. Plus magic and assassination and endangered kingdoms in the hands of princesses and this book sounds truly fantastic.


So that's just a sample of books to look out for this fall! What Fall 2016 YA are you looking forward to?

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On Book Binges

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So it's the last day of August and last weekend I realized I was four books behind schedule in my reading challenge. I already mentioned last week why that was, but now I've sent off Into the Black to my CPs, so I'll have a little more time to read over the next two weeks than I did before. Which means, of course, trying to squeeze in a book binge.

In the past, when I've fallen behind on my reading, I'd take a day to do a reading binge by selecting the shortest books in my physical To Read bookshelf, sitting down, and reading it all in a sitting or two in the same day. That worked marvelously and was really fun to do—until I sort of ran out of short books I could do this with. Oops!

So this time I started doing something a little different. I read a lot of the book I'm in the middle of (Skandal by Lindsay Smith), but I also headed over to my library's website to see what Middle Grade books they have that I could pick up, because I've been wanting to read more Middle Grade anyway and they tend to be shorter than the YA books waiting for me on my To Read shelf. This was a great plan and everything, until I learned my library had just paired up with Hoopla, which is a service that provides digital comic books, e-books, music and movies to library patrons.

And I was delighted. Because I could dive into the graphic novels and comics I'd been wanting to read anyway without leaving the house (win!).

So that's what I'm doing now. I read two volumes of The Wicked + The Divine which was interesting, but after reading poor reviews for the third volume I decided to move on to Rat Queens which I am loving. I wanted to read Amulet and Ms. Marvel but it doesn't look like Hoopla has them right now, so I'll save those for another time. But pretty much all of my graphic novel reads on Hoopla were recommended by readers here on Writability because you guys rock, so thank you. I read three graphic novels in 36 hours and want to read another volume of Rat Queens today, so I'll definitely be back on target in no time.

But I'm curious how you guys book binge, if you've ever book binged, because I am happy to learn your book binging secrets and tips. So throw them at me!

What book binging tips do you have? 

Twitter-sized bite:

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Vlog: How to Write Without Filtering

Want to make your writing feel more authentic and immediate? Today I'm sharing some tips on writing without filtering.



RELATED LINKS: 

• Nuts and Bolts: "Thought" Verbs by Chuck Palahniuk
• The Emotion Thesaurus by Angela Ackerman and Becca Puglisi
• How to Write Emotion Effectively
• How to (and Why You Should) Eliminate Filter Phrases from Your Writing

Do you use these tips while revising? 

Twitter-sized bite: 

Want to make your writing more authentic & immediate? Author @Ava_Jae vlogs about writing without filtering. (Click to tweet)

Fixing the First Page Feature #26

Photo credit: Cade Buchanan on Flickr

We are, bizarrely, just days away from September, which is actually great because I am so ready for the cool down. But more importantly, it means the time is here again, to critique another first page here on Writability.

As per usual, I'll start by posting the full first 250 excerpt, after which I'll share my overall thoughts, then my redline critique. I encourage you guys to share your own thoughts and critiques in the comments (because I'm one person with one opinion!), as long as it's polite, thoughtful, and constructive. Any rude or mean comments will be unceremoniously deleted.

Here we go!

Title: CONNECT THE DOTS

Genre/Category: YA Mystery

First 250 words:

"I opened my eyes, sat up, and immediately winced. Somehow I had moved from the Underworld to underneath the light board backstage. Plus I now had yet another bruise to add to my quickly growing collection of bumps on my head. I got out from under the light board and stood up. I started to reach for my backpack to get an ice pack only to realize that it was gone. Whoever had moved me had also taken my backpack for some reason. I reached into my pocket to check my phone to see what time it was. To my horror the screen of my phone was completely shattered. It must have been crushed when I was knocked out by the staff. My dad was going to kill me when I got home now. I walked out onto the stage and realized that the production was not going on. There was no one anywhere and it was pouring rain. Everyone must have been hiding in the museum. I decided to make a beeline over there so I pulled my cardigan over my head and ran to the door. I was soaking wet by the time I got across the museum courtyard. I pushed open the doors and saw the astonished faces of Xenia and Thanos look up at me from what looked to be a shipment of more pieces for the exhibit. 

Xenia ran up to me, 'Nancy! Where have you been? Are you alright?'"

Okay! Interesting opener. The biggest thing I'm noticing right away is there's a lot of wordiness especially in the form of filter phrases, which is inflating that paragraph quite a bit and creating some distance between the reader and the protagonist. I'm curious about what's going on, but the writing could definitely use some condensing and refining.

Much of which I'll do next, so let's dive into those line edits.

 "I opened my eyes, sat up, and immediately winced. Somehow I'd had moved from the Underworld to underneath the light board backstage. Plus I now had yet another bruise to add to my quickly growing collection of head bumps on my head. I got out moved away from under the light board and stood up. I started to reached for my backpack to get an ice pack only to realize that but it was gone. Whoever had moved me had also taken my backpack for some reason. A lot of these changes so far are condensing. Check out my "How to Condense Without Losing Anything Useful" post for reasons why these changes help. I reached into my pocket to check the time on my phone to see what time it was. To my horror  [Insert horrified description/reaction—what does this emotion feel like? How does she physically react? For more on this, take a look at "How to Write Emotion Effectively."] the my phone's screen of my phone was completely shattered. It must have been crushed when the staff I was knocked me out by the staff. Made adjustment to make the sentence more active. 

[Insert paragraph break—your intro paragraph was too long and visually weighed down the passage.]

My dad was going to kill me when I got home now. I walked out onto the stage but and realized that the production wasn't not going on anymore. Adjusted to remove filtering. There was no one anywhere and it was pouring outside rain. Added "outside" because at first I thought it was raining inside or the stage was outside. Everyone must have been hiding in the museum. I decided to make a beeline over there so I pulled my cardigan over my head and ran to the door. Removed the first half of that sentence to remove unnecessary filtering. I was soaking wet by the time I got across crossed the museum courtyard. I pushed open the doors and saw the astonished faces of Xenia and Thanos looked up at me, astonished, from what looked to be a shipment of more exhibit pieces for the exhibit. Bonus: instead of "astonished" describe what that astonishment looks like on Xenia and Thanos. 

Xenia ran up to me, 'Nancy! Where have you been? Are you all right?'"

So this is a really great start—I think plot and intrigue-wise, this opening is definitely on the right track. The main work it needs lies in the line edits, which is 100% doable. If I saw this in the slush, I'd probably pass because the line edits required are on the heavy side, but I'd certainly be interested if it went through more revision first.

I hope that helps! Thanks for sharing your first 250 with us, Emily!

Would you like to be featured in a Fixing the First Page Feature? Keep an eye out for the next giveaway in September!

Twitter-sized bite:

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On Traditional Publishing If You Don't Live in the US

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So one question I get asked with surprising frequency is whether or not international authors can get published within the US. These questions often come from writers who live anywhere outside the US and worry that they can only be agented by the tiny pool of agents in their country, or published by publishers in their country, and thus won't really be able to get a fair shot at traditional publishing.

As this has been a frequently asked question, I figured I'd write a post about it.

The easy answer is this: agents and editors within the US work with people from all around the world all the time. It's absolutely not a requirement to live in the US to get traditionally published by a US publisher, or to be represented by an agent living in the US. Most of the work that gets done between authors, agents, and editors is all done either via e-mail (where contracts and manuscripts get sent back and forth) or on the phone to discuss all manner of things. A lot of American authors haven't even met their agent or editor in person—or don't for several years—because the truth is not much really needs to be done in person.

This also works the other way—there are agents who don't live in the US but work with US clients and publishers all the time. This probably happens less often than the other way around, but just off the top of my head I can think of several agents who do this, and again, it's not a problem.

So if you're a writer living outside of the US and you're worried about your location complicating your ability to get a US-based agent and publisher, don't be. It's a pretty common scenario and shouldn't be an issue at all. :)

Twitter-sized bite:

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Fixing the First Page Winner #26!

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Yet another quick Thursday post to announce the winner of the twenty-sixth fixing the first page feature giveaway!

*drumroll*

And the twenty-sixth winner is…

EMILY GRASSO!

Yay! Congratulations, Emily!

Thank you again to all you fabulous entrants! If you didn't win, as always, there will be another fixing the first page giveaway in September (September!!), so keep an eye out! :)

What I've Been Reading

So somewhat unsurprisingly, this month I've fallen behind on my yearly reading goal. I say somewhat unsurprisingly because I'm revising on deadline, and also have been sick more than usual, and also it was the Olympics (which ate up a bunch of my reading time) so I was kind of expecting it. But that said, I have still been reading and while I haven't had the chance to write up any formal reviews, I figured it'd be fun to talk about some of the books I've read recently a little about why I liked them.

So here we go!

Photo credit: Goodreads

The Star-Touched Queen by Roshani Chokshi

I've been wanting to read this one since I first heard about it, and it was beautiful. The writing, the incredibly unique fantasy incorporating Indian mythology—gah there was so much about this book that I was just heart eyes over. I've heard some people say they found it a little hard to get into at first, and all I've got to say is keep reading if you can because I really loved this beautifully complicated world and the truly gorgeous imagery and writing that went along with it, even as I was initially incredibly frustrated with the protagonist. ;)

Photo credit: Goodreads

Slasher Girls & Monster Boys edited by April Geneviece Tucholke, with Stefan Bachmann, Leigh Bardugo, Kendare Blake, A.G. Howard, Jay Kristoff, Marie Lu, Jonathan Maberry, Danielle Page, Carrie Ryan, Megan Shepherd, Nova Ren Suma, McCormick Templeman and Cat Winters

I mentioned reading this anthology before, but I hadn't finished it last time I talked about it and now I have! I really enjoyed this anthology—and I can say a story scared me for the first time ever because while I was fine while reading it, as soon as I turned off the lights and glanced at my open closet...I had to get up and close the doors for reasons. I have maybe been closing those doors more than ever since I read a particular story in there. >.<

Anyway, these stories were disturbing, and unsettling, and creepy, and I definitely give it a thumbs up if you like scary stories.

Sekret and Skandal by Lindsay Smith

I just recently finished Sekret and I've just started Skandal and they've been a fun read! I don't often read historical stuff, but this is historical fantasy, and this blend of fantasy—psychic spies—was just too awesome to pass up. I've never read about telepathic teens quite like this before and seeing Smith's unique blend of psychic writing plus the Cold War era has definitely been entertaining thus far. I'm curious to see how the duology ends!

So those are my most recent four books that I've read/been reading—what have you been reading over the last couple months?

Twitter-sized bite: 

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