Query magic

Elana Johnson (YA author) is running a query contest on her blog, offering a query letter critique from some very cool agents, namely:

1. Kate Testerman-Shafer of KT Literary (critique will be posted on her blog, Ask Daphne)
2. Michelle Andelman of Lynn C. Franklin Associates
3. Mary Kole of Andrea Brown Literary Agency
4. Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary Agency
5. Joanna Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation

Visit her blog to enter.

Marketing ahoy

Shelli Johannes (MG/YA author) is also running a week long contest, which offers some great grand prizes:

Grand Prize Package #1 – The Unagented Writer Package is for those who currently DO NOT have an agent and want one. This includes:
- A lot of books on writing and querying
- A query/ 3 Chapter Critique by my awesome agent, Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Media Group!!!!!!!

Grand Prize Package #2 – The Agented Writer Package is for those who do not want an agent, have an agent, are on submission, have a book deal, or are published. This includes:
- A lot of marketing books
- Free 2 hour consultation with me on marketing you and your book
- One free marketing item – design of a business card, bookmarker, postcard etc

Enter over at her blog.

You’ve got me wrapped around your finger

For everyone who read and loved SHIVER, Stiefvater has nine ARCs to give away. Nine!

In Maggie Stiefvater’s Shiver, Grace and Sam found each other.  Now, in Linger, they must fight to be together. For Grace, this means defying her parents and keeping a very dangerous secret about her own well-being. For Sam, this means grappling with his werewolf past . . . and figuring out a way to survive into the future. Add into the mix a new wolf named Cole, whose own past has the potential to destroy the whole pack.  And Isabelle, who already lost her brother to the wolves . . . and is nonetheless drawn to Cole.

At turns harrowing and euphoric, Linger is a spellbinding love story that explores both sides of love — the light and the dark, the warm and the cold — in a way you will never forget.

Comes out in stores everywhere July 20th. Pre-order here.

Enter to win an advanced review copies of LINGER, Sisters Red, The Dead-Tossed Waves, and The Replacement on Maggie’s blog.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Contests: Linger, queries, and marketing

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Speaking of YA, I’ve entered my first book contest over at Anna Staniszewski’s blog. She’s giving away SHIVER and THE MAZE RUNNER. Hurry, the contest ends tonight.

After reading Iain Broome’s article on it’s writery advantages, I joined the audio blogging community AudioBoo. While I may (more likely not) post audio snippets myself, I’m interested to follow & listen to other interesting people. Will be posting good feeds here as I find them.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Links of interest

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WorldVision: Online donation

View a full list of professional charities at Charity Navigator

Or bid on art, audio, or food at Help Haiti Fandom Auction.

Buy music and apparel from Gotee Records – 100% of the cost will be donated to Hands and Feet.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Haiti: ways to help

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2009 was a dreadful year all round for myself, my family, and most of my friends. Family sentiment especially was “Thank God it’s over.” However, when it wasn’t bashing us over the head with large, spiky sticks, ‘09 did try, every once in a while, to redeem itself.

the life and times of a YA writer

Began Violet my current work in progress (WIP), and finished & revised Kit, my second novel. No, these are not titles. They’re characters.

Lost the ability to attend my Wednesday morning group (regained it later) and so joined a couple night critique groups. I love them, especially the one that meets at IHOP. Not only do I get excellent feedback and advice, I can get my monthly dose of egg nog pancakes.

(Speaking of egg nog, Shatto’s is all kinds of wonderful. The best on the market.)

I’ve discovered the joys of reading on my iPhone – Stanza’s my favorite, but Kindle’s good too. Never thought I’d be an ebook person, but it’s wonderful to curl up anywhere and read. My books are always with me–including some as yet unpublished goodies by friends.

all the pretty music

Switchfoot, Hello Hurricane. On iTunes.
I’ve been in love with them since ‘00 and Learning to Breathe. Most of my first book was written to Switchfoot – all their albums on an endlessly repeating playlist titled “The write three,” which also included some Joe Strummer and Delerium. In Hello Hurricane they outdid themselves. Every song on the album is solid, and many are amazing.

Michael Franti & Spearhead, All Rebel Rockers. On iTunes. Older stuff on eMusic
Stumbled across this on iTunes, heard “Say Hey (I Love You),” and downloaded it immediately. Fun, happy, reggae-esque.

Future of Forestry, Travel & Travel II. On iTunes.
Longing for love and faraway places all wrapped up in melody.

Rootbeer, Pink Limousine. On iTunes.
It’s Pigeon John & Flynn Adam. Can’t beat that.

Others include the latest 30 Seconds to Mars, Owl City, and John Reuben.

and a few well told stories

The Maiden Heist might have gone belly up before it could hit theaters, but it’s no less amazing. Talk about sweet and fun – it defines the words.

The words for my new favorite show, Castle, are hip, funny, non-stressful, and all around good.

The new Wake Series by Lisa McMann, of which FADE came out last year. I loved Wake. Why wasn’t this written when I was seventeen? It probably would have been THE book of my teenage years. It’s exactly the kind of story I like – struggles, hardship, sweet guy, unlooked for hope.

While I wasn’t sure if I liked/disliked THE HUNGER GAMES, I really enjoyed CATCHING FIRE. Not only is it about the aftermath (and I love aftermath), but I actually like Katniss in this book. One of her love interests has grown on me too. Always a plus. Am very interested to see how the story plays out.

moving forward

I’ve never been big on New Year’s resolutions. Either you do something or you don’t, and if you’re going to do it – do it now. It won’t be any easier in January. But the start of a new decade, after the last one, might be worth a few things-to-do-this-year.

In the year ten, I plan to:
# Finish Violet.
# Send Kit into the wide world of agents.
# Start another story, either Sophie, Tel, or Skittles. Or something new.
# Take a Best Cam photo on even days.

For the rest? Well I don’t want to plot things out too much, takes all the fun out of it.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Forward dreaming: the Year Ten

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Kat (14, Mass.): I’m not really into racism, but I think that MySpace now is more like ghetto or whatever, and Facebook is all… not all the people that have Facebook are mature, but its supposed to be like oh we’re more mature. … MySpace is just old.

The article then proceeds to dig deeper into the race/class aspect.

I can’t argue with the perception as such, Facebook is generally considered “higher class,” but I think it has more to do with function than social class. A sociologist sees stratification. A web designer sees, well, web design.
Sure, MS & FB are social sites, but doesn’t mean they function in a similar way or with the same goals.

Design

Let’s start with FB.

Facebook is clean, structured, simple. It uses a lot of white, gray and blue, the standard colors for sites that want to scream professionalism. This is why most news outlet sites use them, including the NY times, Washington Post, CNN (with a dash of red), and FOX.
Like these, the FB design is neither innovative or noteworthy. It’s whole purpose to to focus the user on content rather then the design itself. In photography, this is the equivalent of blurring out the background so your subject is in focus.
Also note how the ads are small, and on the right side of the screen. There are no blaring elements, nothing bouncing in your face. On the other hand, you have no option to make your page look different from anyone else’s.

MySpace, on the other hand, is the exact opposite. While it sticks to the whole blue/white/gray color rule on its main page, it lets users customize their own pages as they wish. MS is just as much about (user) design as it is content. Photographically, this means everything in the image is in sharp focus.

If users want to open with a big header image, they can. If they want a pink, green, and red background, it’s all theirs. However, while offering optimization, MS doesn’t have the structure of blogging sites like Livejournal or Wordpress.com, that can handle customization within a clean, uniform boundary. For example:

Music that starts automatically, a horizontal scrollbar, vast amounts of unnecessary space between elements, no restricted width or height – MS allows users with no coding knowledge to use (and often make a hash of) code. Ads are prominent (banner at the top of every page), and the default setup is neither as clean nor uncluttered as Facebook’s. (If FB is the NY Times in terms of design, MS is the KC Star.)

The upshot of all this is MySpace intends to be (and is) exactly what the name implies – a personal space on the net just for you, and customizable by you. You can paint, put up wallpaper, decorate it however you like.
Facebook is a social directory.

Social sites vs. social directories

I loved Facebook in college. Not because I could friend people online, but because I could locate almost anyone. As photo editor of the paper, FB saved my life. Need the email of the card club president? Check FB. Need to call that student your reporter profiled but-somehow-lost-the-kid’s-number-sorry? Message them on Facebook. As long as you had an .edu email, you could access the real name, number, and email of kids all across the states. Facebook is the ultimate “See where your classmates are now!” service. Even I, who was home schooled, have had a “You may not remember me, but I knew you back when you had pimples” FB message.

MySpace started in a time when everyone thought that posting any information online, including your real name, would get you raped and brutally murdered. Last names are hard to come by on MS, and phone numbers are rare. Your page can be as anonymous or detailed as you like. You have the options.

While FB is now open to everyone, it began as a school networking tool. Your page was automatically private, to semi-protect your information, but it required that you use your real name.
MySpace was always open and unconcerned what name you used. That was your business.

Media

Of the two, MySpace is by far the leader in media content in pages. You can post videos and music that will stay visible on your page forever (and not as a news item, or buried under links). It’s the music side that really stands out. Most bands/artists/singers are on MySpace. If they’re not, they should be. MySpace offers an excellent embedded music player, easy tour date info, and best of all allows users to embed songs on their pages from MS bands. If it’s hosted on MS, it can be your theme song. While, as a rule, I hate music on sites (even on photography sites), the ability to embed songs I love in an accepted forum is amazing. The song may be a pre-release, as yet unavailable anywhere, but I can go to my page and listen to it all night.

Media on FB is all in news snippets and secondary to its primary networking function, except for photo management. FB has an excellent photo album and upload program. But even here, the directory is active. You can tag people in your photos, which means someone looking for a picture of you in different situations can find all they need.

Maturity

In general, MS attracts a younger crowd then FB. Often a much younger crowd. While one could argue all the aspect of race and social class, I think it comes down to two things:

Design: Facebook is clean, easy to update, easy to navigate, and looks less tacky = older.
MySpace offers lots of customization and embeded music = younger.
As a general rule, older people want non-overwhelming basic function. Younger people want function that’s pretty/cool. If MS is the ghetto of social sites, it’s because it hands out a free box of spray paint to every user. FB keeps everything from wall paint to watercolors behind barbed wire and under constant video surveillance.

Directory: MySpace groups mostly anonymous users by interest = younger.
Facebook has everyone’s name, school, work, email, and often telephone, plus easy ways to set up event invitations = older.
MySpace is about hanging out online. Facebook is about keeping in touch, setting up offline events, and finding old contacts (ie snooping).

Also Facebook offers everything at face value, as a directory does. It offers better contact info, and apps, but less emotion. It’s much easier to get an idea of a user’s likes/dislikes, favorite colors, current emotions, and general life doings from MySpace. MS was built to focus on you. Facebook was built to network, and the best networking is done when anything much deeper then “My name is…I work at…my interests are…” is kept to a minimum. Not that many MS users go into great depth about their lives (this is usually reserved for blogging), but the ability is more prominent.

Each site has different goals, and reaches them in different ways.
Personally, I have moved on to other things.
Like Twitter.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Classifying MySpace, Facebook

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In photography, the pieces are the hinted emotions – the lines and colors, the overall feel that I want to emphasize or downplay.
In web design, they’re the style and theme, dictating how the text shows up and which points are emphasized. When the pieces are chatty, the design process simply flows – smooth, uncomplicated, fast, fun.
In writing, the pieces are my characters. They have definitive ideas on everything. If you know your people, your scenes will write themselves. In any given situation, there’s only so many things a character will do if he remains true to himself.

This is all well and good, until the pieces go off to have a smoke and flat out refuse to show up. They can be fickle that way.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Piecing creation

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EDIT: Apparently Metric is huge in Canada, seriously big. I found them through emusic, thinking they were a good but unknown indie band and they turn out to be the top dogs of rock. So, does that mean I have excellent taste? Or am just utterly clueless? I’ll go with the former.

Metric – Grow Up And Blow Away, and Fantasies. I love Fantasies, especially “Gimme Sympathy,” “Blindness,” and…well, the entire album. It’s the new staple on my playlists.

Stars – Set Yourself On Fire. Very interesting band. I’ve very attracted to some of their songs, and as truly cannot stand others. Overall, the good outweighs the bad, and the good is very good.

Solo – “Songs ‘N Sounds.” A good song, but didn’t find much else on the album I wanted to keep.

Julianna Barwick – Florine. No lyrics, few instruments. She layers her voice, deeper and higher, in an ethereal mix of voice and light. Very different.

DJ Keri – “Ocean Blue.” A great, soothing electronic piece.

Years – “Kids Toy Love Affair.” Another different, instrumental number. Sounds like the soundtrack to an off-beat/fantasy indie film.

Cut Copy – “Midnight Runner,” “Out There on the Ice,” and “Feel the Love.” Emusic totes Cut Copy as “Killer dance punk from Down Under.” I don’t entirely agree. The songs I chose are more poppy, airy, with a semi-electronic, sometimes almost old school feel. I really enjoy these songs, though didn’t find enough in the album to burn my last five downloads on.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Emusic Daze IV

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So I’m on a mission to locate corn syrup free pop. Here are my findings so far:

With caffeine
# Jones Soda (Pure Cane) – Strawberry Lime, Cola, Sugar-free Cola, all have caffeine. The other flavors (at least of the Pure Cane line) do not.
# Coke from Mexico, available from a Mexican grocery, is also supposed sweetened with sugar. There’s one in the area, so I plan to stop by next week.
# RC Cola says it’s made with corn syrup and/or sugar.

Without caffeine
# Whole Foods offers a great variety of caffeine free sodas, all pricey and un-caffeinated.
# Lost Trail Sugar Cane Cola – high class stuff, worth the extra cost. This applies to everything Louisburg Cider Mill puts out. Though, their cider has lost the top spot in my all time favorites, in favor of Simply Apple juice. That stuff is amazing (and also corn syrup free).

Not as many as I hoped for, though more then I expected. Tune in next week for more heart-pounding discoveries in the soda aisle.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Searching for HGCS-free pop

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March was heavy on the sythpop, thanks to Pandora and my Iris radio. It’s been my constant writing and driving (via the iphone) companion. I’m in love with having internet radio with me everywhere I have a signal. However, Pandora does have it’s drawbacks, including little international support. A friend recently suggested Grooveshark, which boasts the ability to listen to any song anywhere, and to create your own playlists. Very cool. Better yet, I hear a Grooveshark iphone app is in the works.

But now for music.

Paul Van Dyk – “Connected,” and “The Other Side (Martin Roth Dub).” Good electronic stuff. While emusic doesn’t carry much, I ordered more of his cds from the library.

Fake the Envy – As They Fall. Came Brina recommended. Excellent stuff.

Assemblage 23 – Defiance. Heard “Drive” on Pandora and had to have it.

Seabound – Double-Crosser and Beyond Flatline. Found them on Pandora and downloaded Flatline. Later Brina suggested Crosser as well.

VNV Nation – “Perpetual” and Judgment. “Illusion” is an amazing song and yes, Brina clued me into it. To my credit, I first heard the band on Pandora.

At least I found Laswell on my own. That’s impressive, right?

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Emusic Daze III

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Greg Laswell – Through Toledo. While overall Three Flights From Alto Nido is my favorite, this earlier album has some excellent songs.

Sigur Rós – Med sud I eyrum vid spilum endalaust. A band from Iceland, I first heard their song “Hoppípolla” on a soundtrack and felt much happier about life. While Emusic doesn’t have “Hoppípolla” (from the album Takk), iTunes does.

The Echoing Green – “True Love.” The latest single from a much loved band.

Oakley Hall – Gypsum Strings. This was in my Emusic recommendations. Different, interesting, rocky, folksy, somewhat-out-there music. I especially like “Lazy Susan,” but have yet to give the full album a good listening to.

Beth Waters – Self titled. Comes Brina recommended.

Icon of Coil – “Dead Enough for Life” and “Sleep: Less.” I picked this up because it was supposed to be similar to Iris. It’s not.

Suzy Solar – “Odyssee Breakbeat Remix.” The clip sounded promising.

Ella Fitzgerald – “My Heart Belongs to Daddy.” It’s Ella people, enough said.

Written by Tessa, posted at And Anything

Emusic Daze II

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