Writers' Chasm

Sold by Patricia McCormick Lakshmi is a thirteen-year-old girl who lives with her family in a small village in Nepal. Though she is desperately poor, her life is full of simple pleasures, like playing hopscotch with her best friend from school and having her mother brush her hair by the light of an oil lamp. But when the harsh Himalayan monsoons wash away all the family's crops, Lakshmi's stepfather says she must take a job to support her family. He introduces her to a glamorous stranger who tells her she will find her a job as a maid in the city. glad to help, Lakshmi journeys to India only to learn the unthinkable truth: she has been sold into prostitution. An old woman named Mumtaz rules the brothel with cruelty and cunning. She tells Lakshmi that she is trapped there until she can pay off her family's debt -- then cheats Lakshmi of her meager earnings so that she can never leave. Gradually, Lakshmi forms friendships that enable her to survive in this terr...

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic. This Week's Topic: What do you want to know about writing and getting published? I've been working on revisions a lot lately so I've been thinking about different methods of revisions a lot. It seems like I have a new method for each book because I haven't found the one method that works for me. In my travels, though, I have had one question that keeps popping up. How do you work on revisions when your book is the last thing you want to see? How do you rewrite that scene one more time when all you want to do is throw your computer out the window?

Cryer's Cross by Lisa McMann The small town of Cryer’s Cross is rocked by tragedy when an unassuming freshman disappears without a trace. Kendall Fletcher wasn’t that friendly with the missing girl, but the angst wreaks havoc on her OCD-addled brain. When a second student goes missing—someone close to Kendall’s heart—the community is in an uproar. Caught in a downward spiral of fear and anxiety, Kendall’s not sure she can hold it together. When she starts hearing the voices of the missing, calling out to her and pleading for help, she fears she’s losing her grip on reality. But when she finds messages scratched in a desk at school—messages that could only be from the missing student who used to sit there—Kendall decides that crazy or not, she’d never forgive herself if she didn’t act on her suspicions. Something’s not right in Cryer’s Cross—and Kendall’s about to find out just how far the townspeople will go to keep their secrets buried. A Touch Mortal by Leah ...

WARNING: THERE WILL BE SPOILERS. I finished watching season two of Veronica Mars last night. This season wasn't as good as the first one, but it was still pure brilliance. I feel like they left quite a few threads untied, though. I know that's typical of the show but it seems this episode left more unnecessary things hanging than usual. Still, I was thinking about it in my sleep again so that counts for a lot. I still can't believe it was Cassidy. I'm in denial. All the time I spent loving him and wanting him to get together with Mac. I was so hoping that finally someone on this show would have a nice, long-term relationship and then that hope had to be smashed into a million pieces. I swear every time I think this show can't possibly shock me any more than it already has, I get thrown through another loop. I wish they'd stop dragging out the "Who murdered Lilly Kane" plot line. I thought I would be able to move on with my life after the season final...

Incredibly long but good week this week. It's finally starting to warm up and most of the snow melted. I just finished watching the last four episodes of Veronica Mars season two. It was BRILLIANT. Full review will be up sometime next week. Must Read: SCBWI: San Diego conference overview News: The big news this week arrived when Borders declared Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Pimp My Novel and Writer Beware both reported on the subject. Adventures in Agentland: Prologues and when you should and shouldn't use them Gatekeeper: Difficulty of finding an internship Querytracker: Author photos: general tips and posing tips Rachelle Gardner: ISBNs When you're missing the mark The Strangest Situation: Do we really only use 10% of our brains? Critique: Feeling better vs getting better In Writing: Taking a break from BB for awhile before I dive back into another round of revisions. I finished outlining CT (finished and outlined are two words I never thought I'd be using in a sen...

To me, hype and following are two completely different things. They both affect people's buying habits but how varies by person. I personally will specifically avoid books with a lot of hype and spring for books with a large following. Hype Hype typically occurs prior to a book's actual release. Companies spending millions of dollars every year hyping their products and publishers are no exception. The books that are predicted to be the most popular are typically the most hyped. My favorite example is the Twilight series. Following Following typically occurs after a book's been released. A book's following is the number of people who have read, enjoyed, and recommend that book. I will read a book with a large following over a book with a lot of hype any day. It is possible for a book to have both, but for me hype cancels out following. My favorite example is The Book Thief which I only read after several people told me about it. It is now one of my favorite books of a...

Road Trip Wednesday is a "Blog Carnival," where YA Highway's contributors post a weekly writing- or reading-related question and answer it on our own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody's unique take on the topic. This Week's Topic: How do you pick your titles? I don't really have a secret for picking titles. Basically my method is to wait until something pops into my head that sounds good to me. Sometimes that title might not even really fit the book or feel exactly right, but to me it's just a working title until I think of something better. Burning Bridges was the first thing to pop into my head when I started the first draft and needed something to name the folder. I don't know why it popped into my head because I don't really see a connection between the book and the title, but it's stuck through every one of the three drafts. Lately I've been toying with the idea of changing it to Once Bitten, Twi...