Authors from A to Z: H

Authors from A to Z is a posting challenge hosted by

Heather at Proud Book Nerd. The challenge is simple: each day for the month of June (except Sundays) share your favorite authors whose last name corresponds to the letter for that day.  
For more info, click the photo.

How I'm participating in the challenge:

This year I am going to try to highlight just one author each day that I am really taken with. If I can't come up with one, it may be a book, a song, or a surprise!

H = Rachel Hawkins

Rachel Hawkins is one of those authors that can make anything funny. Her characters are awesome and I love the way she writes dialogue. It's amazing to think that Hex Hall was one of those books that I was reluctant to read (because I'm picky and wishy-washy) but I am so so so very glad that I did anyway. It had everything I wanted, and I was not disappointed with the rest of the series, Demonglass and Spell Bound, either. (My review of Hex Hall is here and Spell Bound is here. I somehow didn't review Demonglass. Don't ask me how because I can't for the life of me figure it out.)

And it was because of this amazing series that I traveled to one (two if you count SOKY Book Fest) of Hawkins' signings and got to meet her, take photos, and hear her speak. She is as funny in person as she is on Twitter and in her novels. And because she awesome at writing said novels, I can't wait for her next book, Rebel Belle, and the Hex Hall spin off series to hit shelves.

From Where I'm Standing [7] - Athena and Rachel Hawkins

On March 28, 2012, I had the great pleasure of traveling to Nashville, Tennessee, with my friend and writing buddy, Megan, from Myth-illogical.

Our trip served two purposes. The first revolved around the Parthenon, a Nashville landmark that is a full-scale, fully-restored replica of the temple of the same name in Athens, Greece. Megan, being from Florida and not subjected to the school trips to Nashville as I had been, had never seen it. Seeing that Meg is currently writing a YA series based around Greek mythology, I thought it imperative she visit.

The second purpose (and really the whole reason we decided to go to Nashville on this particular day) was to see Rachel Hawkins, author of the hilarious Hex Hall series, at Parnassus Books.

After hitting a long string of traffic on the way into Nashville, Meg and I finally made it to the Parthenon Wednesday afternoon. It was an extremely pretty day so we took some pictures outside before heading indoors to the museum portion which, unfortunately, does not allow photos. The museum inside showcases some artwork as well as using photographs and artifacts to tell the story of the original Nashville Parthenon, which was part of Tennessee's Centennial Exposition in 1897. I took some notes as there was a lot of interesting and unusual facts about the Expo that could be used for a story someday. ^_^

Once we were done looking around inside, we headed upstairs to the main event, the four-story, gilded statue of Athena. This was my third time seeing her and she is as magnificent as ever. I took plenty of pictures and Meg took even more, being sure to get the informational stuff as well to use as research. On a side note, many of you have probably seen the movie Percy Jackson and the Lightening Thief, and you may notice from my pictures below that Athena looks a little different from what she looked like in the movie. That was because they recreated the interior of the Parthenon for the film while all of the exterior shots were actually taken in Nashville.

The area around Athena's hall has replicas of what is left of the actual statues that make up the pediments of the Parthenon in Greece. I didn't take pictures of those but I did take photos of the fully restored pediments in the back area of the upper floor, where the treasury would have been in the original structure. These pediments are what adorn the outside of the Parthenon and it is always fun figuring out which god is which. There are also two sets of huge doors on each end of the Parthenon and I had never noticed before how cool the ornamentation on them was, so I took pictures of that too. Also, I loved the gryphon. I'm sure it's always been there but I'd never really noticed it before.

After we finished up at the Parthenon, we had lunch at a Panera close by, reveling in the air conditioning and caffeine. Then we made our way to Parnassus Books in the Green Hills area of Nashville. If you didn't already know, Parnassus is an independent bookstore co-owned by best-selling author Ann Patchett (see Ann go head to head with Stephen Colbert of The Colbert Report in the video below).

The Colbert Report	Mon - Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c
Ann Patchett
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I had already purchased the first two books of the Hex Hall series, so I bought the final installment, Spell Bound, when we arrived. There were chairs set up for the event and Meg and I quickly found some other bloggers from our area, Heather of SupaGurl Books, and Marla of Starting the Next Chapter. We hit it off and gabbed until the event began.

When Rachel Hawkins came out, she was as hilarious as expected. She told of her adventures touring for her book, which mainly involved the part of her tour she called AllyHawk, which was when she was with author Ally Carter. She shared several funny stories about them getting lost and being treated like wandering kittens. As for SoloHawk, her solo tour, things had been less eventful. Hawkins then began signing books and taking photos. I was so glad I was able to meet her, hear her speak, and get my Hex Hall series books signed.

All in all, Meg and I had a great trip. We came away with lots of pictures, an armload of books, and many fun memories! I hope you enjoyed hearing about our little adventure. Look out for the next installment of From Where I'm Standing in which I'll be sharing what happens when this Tennessee girl attends the Southern Kentucky Book Fest. Thanks for reading! ^_^

Missing the Boat

Recently, I realized how many "boat" phrases appear in our (American) vernacular.

"Whatever floats your boat."     "I'm on a boat!"     "We're in the same boat."

"Don't rock the boat."     "Just off the boat."

But for a YA writer, the idiom "missing the boat" is probably the one that is most relevant.  As we're typing out our first, second, fourth, tenth draft of our novel, we're watching the shelves, the publishing mags, and the blogs with a slightly paranoid eye.  When you've yet to be published, your book yet to be "out there," there is this sometimes feverish need to get it done so that you don't "miss the boat" in terms of book genre trends.

Many unpublished writers have heard the advice from their forerunners not to write for current trends, because by the time your book makes it into the hands of readers, that trend will likely be long past.  And it was probably frustrating for all those with vampire novels in the works, whether in the early or late stages of publishing, to see Twilight take off like it did, creating a hurricane of trend that swept up their work with all the rest.

But what is a writer to do when their current project's genre hasn't trended yet?

My friend and critique partner, Meg from Myth-illogical, is writing a YA novel surrounding, well, myths, specifically of the Greek variety.  So when she and I started seeing all these Greek myth oriented books appearing on blogs, well, I freaked a little bit.  I had to know exactly what each of these books was about because I didn't want the ship to sail on Meg's type of story without Meg being on the boat!

And you know what books I'm talking about, don't you?

   

 

And the honorable mentions (because they were out before the trend):

 

But there is one key difference between all of these YA novels and their respective series and the one Meg is writing...and I'm not going to tell you what it is.  I'll let you discover what it is yourself when it gets published.  ^_^  

(Just so you know, the first book - because it is going to be the first in a series - is quite awesome and I love it.  Hence the overprotective book-stalking of those shown above.)

But because of this key difference, Meg has not missed the boat.  Yet.  She is working diligently to finish her book.  But she's not the only one feeling the paranoia of "missing the boat."

Yep, me too.

But, as far as I can tell, I haven't missed the boat yet either.  My current project has a magical base, but unless there is a giant trend in contemporary novels and a huge backlash against anything with magical/paranormal/supernatural themes, I should be okay.  But I still have to wonder where my book will fit in if (when, WHEN) it gets published.

Judging by what has appeared in recent years, my novel may share some similar situations/themes/settings as these books:

Let's call them 1, 2, and 3, for simplicity's sake.  Based on reviews/summaries of 1 and 3, and my own reading of 2, my main character is similar to the MC in 3, in that she has a magical heritage but does not do magic.  My MC's view of magic is more like that of the MC from 1, but the magic itself is more like that in 2.  The setting is also like 2, and so is the series arc of "something bad is going on in this world that needs to be stopped."  And 2 also has some mean girl/betrayal things that are similar to mine.

There is romance (though I don't know which of these mine is most like in that aspect) and mine has tragedy similar to 1.  Family dynamics are probably most like 3.  But my story is not urban fantasy like 3, and there are no fey or creatures - part human or otherwise - in my story, like 1 and 2.  And I'm pretty sure mine is twisty in a few ways that is not like any of these.

So, though my story has elements of each of these novels, in its entirety, mine is pretty different from each of them, and each of these books are also very different from each other.  This gives me hope.  Magic is a subject that is pretty much always there in YA, but because it is so variable from book to book, it is hard to define magic as a trend, especially when things like vampire, werewolf, fey, and angel novels are easier to recognize and lump together.

And though I know without a doubt that more YA books containing and revolving around magic are going to be published before mine ever will, I can't count my novel out yet.  I think I will literally keep pushing at it until I see at least ten published books so like mine that it is uncanny.  I'm going to keep writing, all the while hoping that I finish before I see that boat in the harbor, about to set sail without me for the ever-changing waters of the Sea of Trends.

What about you?  Do trends affect how/what you write?

Have you "missed the boat" or are you ahead of the game?

Let me know what you think in the comments!