Off the Bookshelf: WRITING GREAT BOOKS FOR YOUNG ADULTS, by Regina L. Brooks

Subtitle: Everything you need to know, from crafting the idea to getting it published.

Very thorough, very useful, very well-organized.

The chapter titles say it all (and lots of examples and even explanations of why you shouldn't do something):

Five Rules for Engaging Readers of Young Adult Fiction

Meeting Your Characters

Building Your Plot

Setting the Timeline

Learning to Write Dialogue

Getting Constructive Feedback

And the appendices:

Feedback Resources

Publishing Processes at a Glance

YA Publishers

And more than what I've listed.

If you want to learn about it or NEED to learn about it, here's a great foundation for either starting out writing, period, or switching your focus from another genre/market/audience.

New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

Stephanie Miller had Bethany with her when she came to open up the snack bar in the Student Center the next morning. She asked me if I would mind walking Bethany over to the theater building, to wait for Ford Longfellow, who was bringing Athena up for some experimental Kindergarten program run by the drama department. I kind of shuddered, visibly, when she said "experimental."

She laughed and assured me that nobody from the sociology and psychology departments were involved. It was all drama and playing with costumes and props and letting the children's imaginations go wild. I was glad to do it. Any excuse to spend time with Bethany. She chattered nonstop about her friends in the theater and the games they played and how she got to be a "sojer" and run around with a sword and protect the "pinsess" and the "keen." I couldn't figure out if she meant queen or king.

We reached the main entrance of the theater building just about the time the Longfellows showed up. Ford saw us, and instead of taking his truck around to the parking lot on the side, he pulled up to the steps and let Athena jump out to join us while he parked. No contest between the two five-year-olds, they were both my favorites. Getting hugs from those two little girls worked like a good strong inoculation of magic for the rest of the day.

I needed it. We all did. Not that any of us realized it when we started off on our errands that morning.

New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

"How should I act? Like a spoiled brat arrogant snot who thinks she should run the world, and just makes herself look like a brainless twit?"

"Like you?" Harry added.

Sylvia let out a steam whistle shriek and launched herself at me. How unfair was that? Harry said it. She never would have realized I was talking about her until he said it.

Someone must have been teaching Sylvia boxing. She got in a good right hook between my left temple and eye socket before I realized she was getting physical. Sylvia hadn't tried to inflict capital punishment on those who crossed her since fifth grade.

While I didn't use my telekinetic power to shove her away, pin her to the wall, maybe even shove her through the wall, honesty compels me to admit that Harry saved me. Maybe he had a little ability to fly, or least do the long jump fast, and hard. He body-slammed Sylvia from behind while she was spinning around and coming back in for another strike. I was still catching my breath and seeing stars. Then suddenly the male five percent of the faculty and staff stormed into the room and got hold of Sylvia.

*****

I couldn't wait to get home and report to the "We loathe Sylvia Grandstone club." It wasn't really an official group, although a number of people in our graduating class confessed they had looked into voodoo dolls and sending requests to the State Department to keep her from coming back into the country.

No, that wasn't very mature of me. It also wasn't very mature that I let Mum and Pop praise me for not using my powers to slam Sylvia into the wall, or through a window, or just hold her up in the air and spin her around like a WWE wrestling champion. I didn't use my telekinesis because I didn't get a chance. Ten-plus years of self-imposed "never use our talents where other people can see" made me hesitate. Even when it came to a chance to work out my frustrations on Sylvia Grandstone and get payback for all my friends at school.

So I really didn't deserve any of the kudos I got. Sympathy for my black eye, yes, I earned that. Praise for not slamming that spoiled brat snot into a greasy makeup smear on the stone wall of the chapel? Nope.

Off the Bookshelf: DUST, by Kara Swanson

Heirs of Neverland, Book 1

I confess -- I got the book because of peer pressure!
And I'm glad I did it.
Lots of people in Realm Makers were talking about this book coming out. Eagerly anticipating it.

I can see why now. Wow ...

Claire, our heroine is a broken girl, searching for the truth of what happened to Connor, her brother who vanished six years before. She has a big problem: dust that constantly spills from her skin. Not just a medical condition, it can kill. Dust has put a wall between her and the rest of the world. It has destroyed her life, ripping away chances to have a family.

Claire doesn't trust the only clue her brother left behind -- a note written in a copy of Peter Pan, telling her he's heading for Neverland with Peter. For Claire, the faerie story has become a horror story.

When she gets a new clue that takes her to London, where she meets a police officer named Jeremy Darling, and the man who was seen with her brother six years ago is named James and has a hook for a hand ... yeah, it gets kind of scary. Dark. And confusing ... because Claire's dust is pixie dust, and it can either heal or it can kill, and she doesn't know who to trust while she races to figure out how to control it before time runs out.

Did you catch the part where this is Book 1? Really? I have to wait a YEAR to find out what happens next? Nooooooooooo!

New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

What I tried to hide was my grin. Until that first booksigning where people were lined up halfway around the block, it never really registered that my parents with twenty books to their names were indeed popular writers. People paid good money and waited eagerly for first editions in hardback.

"I can't believe I never made the connection." Sylvia tipped her head to one side, letting her hair fall in her face. "I mean, yeah, they're the weird, hippie Zephyrs, but they're famous. They've got about a gazillion books that people buy. You are rich."

Uh huh. So that was her problem. Nobody in town was allowed to be rich other than the Grandstones.

"How did you con them into adopting you? Like, you're gonna be rich when they kick off. Both of them are so old. You have got to tell me how you did it."

Why? So she could con someone into adopting her?

"I didn't do anything. I was only six when they adopted me." I barely managed to hold back "remember?" because of course, the only time Sylvia paid attention to me back in school was when I stood between her and what she wanted. "Right place, right time, right people, I guess." I couldn't really say my parents were warm, loving people who were looking to share their love. Sylvia would not understand at all.

"Some people get all the luck." She straightened up and shook her head, with that calculated, slow kind of movement that I swear she had to practice in the mirror. How else could she get her curls to respond like that and lay just so on her shoulders? "You're rich. Who would have thought it? I mean, you don't act it."

The Adventure: CALEB'S DESTINY, by Carole Brown

Today:

Learn about a historical romance,  CALEB'S DESTINY.

Tomorrow:

Meet the author, CAROLE BROWN

Mr. Michael, Destiny Rose McCulloch, and Hunter have a mysterious history. Why were three fathers, all business partners, murdered under suspicious circumstances while on their quest to find gold? 

Hunter, who is Mr. Michael's ranch manager, is determined to find the answers and protect the precocious young lady who he suspects holds a key answer to his questions. 

Mr. Michael wants only to be left alone to attend to his property, but what can he do when Destiny refuses to leave and captures the heart of everyone of his employees? 

Destiny almost forgets her quest when she falls in love with Mr. Michael's ranch and all the people there. And then Mr. Michael is much too alluring to ignore. The preacher man back east where she took her schooling tried to claim her heart, but the longer she stays the less she can remember him. She only came west to find a little boy she knew years ago. A little boy all grown up by now...unless, of course, he's dead.

Purchase Links:

Amazon: https://amzn.to/3egdd2q

New Release Sample: SEMI-PSEUDO-SUPERHEROES

"Am I supposed to ask what you were thinking?" I asked, after we stood there for a few minutes in silence.

Sylvia was the one Grandstone who had learned some patience. Where just staring down her cousins, Reggie and Freddie would get them to mouth off and get themselves in trouble, silence didn't get under Sylvia's skin. She could stand there and smirk, or give indications of the mental gymnastics she was going through, and wait for someone else to talk.

The smart tactic was to take control of the pseudo-conversation when Sylvia was involved. Besides, the more time she had to think, the better the chances she would twist the situation around entirely in her favor. For instance, if I made her stand there long enough, by the time an argument arose and she started screaming, she would have convinced herself that I had tricked her into staying behind after the Q&A. Since I had survived ten years of attending school with her, the odds were good that I could predict what she would say and do, and even how she thought. If the mental gyrations in the gray matter of a Grandstone brain could be called "thinking."

"Just how long did you think you could keep that secret?" She adjusted her stance so the other hip was cocked out and she leaned against the other side of the door.

"Uh, it's a secret to me, I guess."

That got one of her trademark squeal-snorts. "Your parents."

"It's no secret that I have parents."

I fully expected her to harangue me with the fact that I was one of the Lost Kids of Neighborlee. Former resident of Neighborlee Children's Home. A reject. A throwaway. Sloppy seconds.

"They're famous!" Sylvia came out of the doorway, jamming her fists into her hips. "Your parents are big-time, famous writers! How long did you think you could hide it? Some people!" Another squeal, with only a touch of snort.

"Uh, I never tried to hide it."