May I join the club?

Toothpaste · Jun 26, 2008

Since I've been a member of AW I have enjoyed visiting the YA section as an outsider. There have been the odd things I could relate to in my MG way, but really I just read and enjoyed.

Well, I have now decided to take the plunge into YA land and write one myself! It makes me very nervous to do so, and I'm not sure I can do it, but I like to try new things!

So I just wanted to officially say hi, ask what kind of hazing I need to go through to get my YA membership, and if there was any advice oh wise YAers that you can give a newbie like me!

Huzzah!

Shady Lane · Jun 26, 2008

Oh, hazing.

Basically you come in and say hi and we interrogate you about your WIP. You'll have to learn our bizarre-ass slang. We'll probably harass you if you make a typo, and every once in awhile you'll be sucked into a conversation that has NOTHING to do with writing and everything to do with drugs/sex/chimichangas.

And by every once in a while I mean basically on the reg.

Welcome, Toothpaste.

Esopha · Jun 26, 2008

Hazing? What hazing?

Oh, that hazing. It's not too bad, really. I mean, I survived it mostly except for my left foot but we don't talk about that OKAY.

Welcome to the YA forum. We're an all-inclusive, all-talking, sometimes-writing, all-the-time gaggle of crazy kids.

What's your WIP about?

Angela_785 · Jun 26, 2008

Yay on stepping into YA! We aren't that scary, honest. And hazing is pretty straight forward--you spend a night in a wharehouse of zombies, no big deal...

Zoombie · Jun 26, 2008

She's gonna have to learn the cant. Can't have no cage-rattled berks wandering around our kip with them addled eyes, no we can't can't.

So, are you gonna get chordwise quick or are we gonna have to pen ya inta the Deadbook?

Donne expect me ta fill up yer brain box for ya, too, cause I'm not no Tout. Touts cost jink, and I don't never get no jink...

maddythemad · Jun 26, 2008

ADRIENNE!

Hazing is only for people we don't like. You get kisses and warm brownies!

So cool that you're going to foray until the world of YA! Fantasy or contemporary?

Toothpaste · Jun 26, 2008

Aw you guys! I feel all warm and fuzzy. Then again it's very hot outside. That may have something to do with it!

I'm not too good talking about my WIPs before they're done. I'm not sure why. I guess I worry what if I totally give up on it and people ask me . . . maybe it's a luck thing . . . (don't worry it isn't a stealing idea thing, I know it's about execution not idea) But I'm all about steampunk these days so it'll be a bit of that, Edwardian time period, and is a reinvisioning of Shakespeare.

So not ambitious in the least

BTW I like to swear. A lot. That's okay for this book right?

Shady Lane · Jun 26, 2008

Um, we swear, like, all the fucking time. In and out of our manuscripts.

Sophie's really into steampunk. I tried to do a Hamlet-in-high-school thing, but it was le fail.

althrasher · Jun 26, 2008

Hooray, someone new! In an abstract, non-new sort of way...

But jump on in! We don't bite (unless you're into that kind of thing...maybe not in MG...)

Sage · Jun 26, 2008

Join us in the RM thread

As the name implies, we're very random

Zoombie · Jun 26, 2008

Did someone say....STEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEAMPUNK!

heatheringemar · Jun 26, 2008

Welcome to the club!

(and truth be told, I'm "new" to YA myself.... been ordering it -- and reading it -- for the library since January, and somehow started writing it.......)

bethany · Jun 26, 2008

Yeah, you kind of have to go to Random musings to join the club. Otherwise the threads get all lost and you feel ignored. Be prepared, it will zap your brain and turn you into a zombie who posts things over and over like
I need to write
I should be writing
I'm going to write as soon as I eat these doritos
someone post something amusing otherwise I have no recourse but to write
Yay I met my 15 word goal for today, my wip will be done in 2023, as planned!
I should write
Are you writing?
Do you like doritos?
15 words is a lot....
and so on and so forth

Cassidy · Jun 26, 2008

Hey Adrienne,
I've enjoyed your posts in other forums and it is very cool that you are moving YA-wards. I don't tend to post a lot (like Bethany said, all the action is in Random Musings and I'm really really bad at small talk...) but I lurk a lot and am very happy that we have a YA area to chat.
So welcome. And congrats on the nice review in the Canadian Children's Book Centre magazine, by the way.

Toothpaste · Jun 26, 2008

I dunno, the random musings thread scares the crap out of me. Plus I have no idea what you all are talking about!

Glad to have the swearing thing confirmed. I was pretty sure, but then I read Wicked Lovely and it only had the F bomb like once and that worried me. I'm about the start Twilight.

Speaking of Steampunk, anyone got any suggestions on a good read? I'm new to that as well.

Why do I set myself these goals? Hey Adrienne, why not write a book in a genre you are unfamiliar with, based on an author who's not only a genius but already wrote the story in the most fabulous way possible, and in a style that you've never actually read before. Dude, I'm so there!

ETA: Aw thanks Cassidy!

Shady Lane · Jun 26, 2008

RM scares me and I've been there since page 1.

seriously. just leap in. we hug.

Zoombie · Jun 26, 2008

Big manly hugs.

Even though I'm like the only guy*. And I wear dresses when I'm home alone!**

SO! Steampunk...uh...the only thing I can suggest is Arcanum: Of Steamwork and Magic obscura

It's a video game...but it's got enough text to make it almost a book. It also has Virgil, the hilariously confused religious convert who babbles incoherently at you for the first five minutes.

It's great! He also has the most astute summery of elves ever: "Oh blood and ashes, why do elves always have to be so damn cryptic!"

*: except for all the other ones

**: Really, just the underwear...and that's purely a comfort thing.

Hapax Legomenon · Jun 26, 2008

Random Musers is a thread about nothing.

So just act like you're in Seinfeld and you should be okay.

Zoombie · Jun 26, 2008

But...

We need more wine to be on Seinfeld. Or was that Frasier?

Esopha · Jun 27, 2008

bethany said:
Yeah, you kind of have to go to Random musings to join the club. Otherwise the threads get all lost and you feel ignored. Be prepared, it will zap your brain and turn you into a zombie who posts things over and over like
I need to write
I should be writing
I'm going to write as soon as I eat these doritos
someone post something amusing otherwise I have no recourse but to write
Yay I met my 15 word goal for today, my wip will be done in 2023, as planned!
I should write
Are you writing?
Do you like doritos?
15 words is a lot....
and so on and so forth

What bethany forgets to mention is that while you'll be posting things like this, you'll actually be ridiculously prolific and write like a book a week.

Steampunk is cool but there isn't a lot in YA. You could try Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (which I think is actually MG), but it's only kind of steampunk.

Shady Lane · Jun 27, 2008

Esopha said:
What bethany forgets to mention is that while you'll be posting things like this, you'll actually be ridiculously prolific and write like a book a week.

Steampunk is cool but there isn't a lot in YA. You could try Airborn by Kenneth Oppel (which I think is actually MG), but it's only kind of steampunk.

YES

I spend more time on RM than ANY OF YOU and I'm basically the most prolific.

so DON'T MESS

Toothpaste · Jun 27, 2008

Esopha, I actually don't need to read YA steampunk. Just steampunk in general (though I will look up Airborn, thank you). I just need to understand some of the mechanics of the genre. Not how to write YA steampunk specifically. That I think I can figure out

. My biggest problem is I've seen a fair bit of it in film, but I have no idea how authors go about describing it in books. I want to see what tricks they use.

So basically if you have any adult titles too, that would be awesome!

Esopha · Jun 27, 2008

Try this?

Jeff VanderMeer is a veritable GENIUS. It would probably be a good starting point, at least.

Toothpaste · Jun 27, 2008

Woah. Now that should have been an obvious title.

Thank so much Esopha!

brittanimae · Jun 27, 2008

Welcome Toothpaste! You've fallen in with the right lot.

Steampunk Shakespeare huh? *goes to look up "steampunk" on wiki*

Sounds fun!

May I join the club?

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

my name is hannah

bam pow zap.

Dragon of the Multiverse

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

my name is hannah

Prodigal Muser

Our Lady of Parentheticals

Dragon of the Multiverse

lurking behind that corner..

:)

writing for kids and teens

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

my name is hannah

Dragon of the Multiverse

Dragon of the Multiverse

bam pow zap.

my name is hannah

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

bam pow zap.

THE RECKLESS RESCUE is out now!

making a fresh start.