Four Fried Chickens and a Coke

Feeling a little old school this Friday...

Thursday YA News

Thursday YA news, delightfully free of iPad hype:

YA Bookish Stuff

J.K. Rowling promises a new book is coming soon, reports The Washington Post, though no Harry Potter. Still, good news for you fans.

Kat Fall’s underwater YA novel Dark Life will be a Disney movie, reports Variety. Looking forward to it already.

ForeWord announces its finalists for YA Book of the Year. And here are the RITA’s, including YA nominees.

Read an interesting PW interview with Rick Riordan (Percy Jackson series writer, remember?), about juggling two series and his success.

And PW has some book reviews by teens—great stuff there.

Teen Culture

Doc Martens turn 50, reports the L.A. Times. And they still kick butt.

YA authors Megan Kelley Hall and Carrie Jones started a Facebook group against bullying (in response to Phoebe Prince’s suicide that I’m sure broke everyone’s heart). YA readers and authors can join here.

Publishing Biz

What's hot in YA? Find out in this PW article on an agent panel at one of their recent events.

For you librarians (we love you!): SLJ has a free webcast on April 15th on library biz. Check it out here.

Andrew Karre of Carolrhoda Books shares some interesting stuff on the Bologna Book Fair, with thoughts from rights director Maria Kjoller—great for those of us who couldn’t be there.

For Writers

Agent Caryn Wiseman is sick of vampires (amen to that), and wants to see MG and YA—check out her interview with GalleyCat for more info.

And for fun: check out this colorful poodle from a pageant—maybe I’ll try that with my dog.

Mysteries Rock (Now With Research!)

Of course, we already knew that mysteries rock. But now there's research to support this: a recent NEA study showed that 54 percent of readers like mysteries best, with thrillers (mystery's fraternal twin who likes to wear running shoes) at 32.6 percent.

That's a combined 86.6 percent! It's probably statistically incorrect to just add those two numbers, but I'm doing it anyway. The reading public has spoken: mysteries and thrillers rock.

Check out the link on M.J Rose's blog Buzz, Balls & Hype, where I found this info.

For Writers: Pitch That Book

I was going to start this post with a bit about how I’m so happy I don’t have to pitch my projects at conferences anymore. But that’s nonsense, of course. Even if you have an agent, or a published book, you’ll always be pitching. To your readers, your editor, your agent, and to your family at the Thanksgiving table, right before they ask you how much money you’ve made off your books.

Pitching is part of a writer’s life, so I thought I would share some helpful links on this misery. For those of you going to conferences, or not. And for myself. Pitching is tough.

So here are those links, so you can spit-shine your elevator pitch:

--Kidlit agent Mary Kole has some excellent advice in her Pitchcraft posting.
--Literary Agent Nathan Bransford explains conference protocol.
--Agent Kristin Nelson on pitching.
--Guide to Literary Agents talks pitching.
--BookEnds Literary Agency talks about pitch lines that don’t work—some really good tips there.
--Women on Writing has an article on conference pitching here.
--Writers Conference Guidelines covers pitching.
--Agentquery has some good information on writing query letters that also works for constructing your pitch.

Good luck, and remember to keep it simple. And have a mint, that never hurts.

Where It's At

This would be New Mexico, Santa Fe and Albuquerque to be exact. In November, YALSA is having its Young Adult Literature Symposium in Albuquerque, and Left Coast Crime 2011 (March 24-27) is criming things up in Santa Fe, Big Chili style.



Road trip!

Your Viking Name

Because you should be working or otherwise be productive, I thought I would give you this link to get your Viking name.



You've been wondering, I know.

Thursday YA News

Thursday news is skinny this week—maybe everyone is busy spring breaking. Here’s what I found in YA for you:

YA Bookish Stuff

Twilight author Stephanie Meyer is releasing a novella this summer—and you can read it for free on certain dates. Find out more at GalleyCat.

Canadian Cormorant Books is launching a children’s and YA imprint, with first releases this fall, says Publishers Weekly.

And Gossip Girl producer John Stephens signed a book deal with Alfred A. Knopf for Young Readers to write a MG trilogy. The series about three siblings and an ancient prophecy is due out spring 2011.

Teen Culture

New York wants guys to lose their saggy pants—or at least NY State Senator Eric Adams does, because he bought a bunch of billboard campaigning for the raised pants. “Raise your pants, raise your image.”

Speaking of pants: kids are sitting on them too much—or their butts, anyway. The world’s kids are couch potatoes, says a Journal of Pediatrics study.

And teen blogging is good for the soul, says an Ohio State University study.

For Writers

Registration is open for April’s Pikes Peak Writers Conference; learn more here.

Before I move on to this fun closing, let me say that you should never steal someone's favorite toy.

Still. This is funny.