The Young Adult Writer's Journey VBT

Blurb:

Finally, an all-inclusive book on young adult fiction must-do, don’t do and how-to. If you want to write a young adult novel, you need to read this book first. Coauthored by an award-winning YA author and an acquisitions editor, both experts on kids and what they like to read, this encyclopedia contains all you need to start or improve a career as a YA fiction author.

From an examination of the market, genre and its sub-genres, to mechanics and the business, everything is at your fingertips. This amazing writer’s resource is written in a relaxed and interesting style, with plenty of contemporary references and examples for clear understanding and easier application.

Excerpt:

Most writing classes for Young Adult fiction and Middle Grade tell you the duty of your book’s opening is to hook your reader and to catch the interest of an agent. The truth is, that’s only one of the purposes of your opening. Too often we forget that, as Frank Herbert said in Dune, “A beginning is a very delicate time.”

When writing for young adults, you should know where you’re going, just as when you write adult fiction. Plot construction for stories with universal themes is the same in any genre. There is a plan, a plot, a diagram you can follow to create a satisfying read. Just as with painting, every artist who uses the same subject will create a different and unique work of art. So, using a basic outline to be sure you write a story that resonates to the inner psyche of readers is not a bad idea. 

Some may argue that modern stories can’t demonstrate enough diversity when trying to fit the entire world into a single format such as The Hero’s Journey, but iconic success stories like Star Wars, The Lord of the Rings, the Harry Potter stories and more don’t seem to mind. They’re hardly the same stories, are they? Do they seem like boring knockoffs to you? Millions of fans and dollars later...they are still growing their fan base. Lucas even spoke of Star Wars and the incorporation of Joseph Campbell’s Hero’s Journey and appeared in his Bill Moyer’s series.

Janet, thanks so much for stopping by. How did you get started writing?

 I’ve been an avid reader all my life. I was helping one of my kids do a report and realized how much I like writing, doing research, and creating. I decided writing a book should be easy. I mean I’ve read so many. So, I wrote the biggest historical romance novel ever written. It had everything in it but the kitchen sink and was a thousand pages long. Once I’d written It, I had no idea how to get published. I joined RWA, went to conferences, attended workshops, volunteered, and through that ended up a newspaper reporter. Weird, I know. I was a reporter for ten years and writing every day, receiving criticism, some constructive, some not so much, taught me to be a much better writer. After I retired, I wrote a Cracker Western called Alligator Gold and it was published by Pineapple Press, a Florida small press. From there, I wrote romance and adventure fiction, then started writing young adult fiction. I love YA. Kids are amazing. They make the best characters.

What was the inspiration for your book?

My publisher asked me to write a How To for Young Adult fiction after the first book in my series, The Vagrant Chronicles, received four prestigious awards. I asked her to partner with me in the writing because she has knowledge of marketing and the industry I do not possess. Between us, we produced a complete package covering all aspects of writing a book for young adults and even New Adult fiction.

What’s a genre you haven’t written in yet that you’d like to?

I’d like to write more historical  fiction, but not yet. I have too many ideas and too much work in front of me right now.

Are there any genres you won’t read or write in? Why?

I’m not a fan of horror, though I wrote two horror shorts for a Halloween anthology published by Tell-Tale Publishing. My two, were more like Goosebumps than real horror, cute, involving teens or middle-school kids. I’ve read a lot of Stephen King, but to me, horror just isn’t all that horrible.

What are you up to now? Do you have any releases planned, or are you still writing?

Tell-Tale Publishing just put out my second book in the Vagrant Chronicles, Mutant. They also released an adult adventure fiction/thriller book called Valley of Golden Mummies. Both are available on amazon.com and at Tell-Tale Publishing. Elizabeth and I are partnering on a fantasy New Adult series called Beauties and their Beasties. We are in the editing process for the first book Annabelle and the Jackal.

Alright, now for some random, fun questions. Favorite color?

Viridian (I’m an artist, too)

Favorite movie?    

Rock-n-Rolla

Book that inspired you to become an author?

Shogun by James Clavell

You have one superpower. What is it?

I’m very intense.

 

You can have dinner with any 3 people, dead, alive, fictitious, etc. Who are they?

I’m an introvert so three invisible people.

Last question: Which of your characters are you most like and how/why?

Annabelle from Elizabeth’s and my last book, Annabelle and the Jackal. In literature, I’d say Lisbeth Salander from Girl with the Dragon Tattoo

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Author Bio and Links:

Daughter of a Colonel, Janet Schrader-Post lived the military life until she got out of high school. She lived in Hawaii and worked as a polo groom for fifteen years, then moved to Florida where she became a reporter. For ten years she covered kids in high school and middle school. Kids as athletes, kids doing amazing things no matter how hard their circumstances. It impressed her, and it awed her. “How wonderful teens are. They have spirit and courage in the face of the roughest time of their lives. High school is a war zone. Between dodging bullies, school work and after school activities, teens nowadays have a lot on their plate. I wrote stories about them and I photographed them. My goal was to see every kid in their local newspaper before they graduated.”

Janet love kids and horses, and she paints and writes. Now she lives in the swampland of Florida with too many dogs and her fifteen-year-old granddaughter. She started to write young adult fiction with the help of her son, Gabe Thompson, who teaches middle school. Together they have written a number of award-winning YA novels in both science fiction and fantasy.

Elizabeth Fortin-Hinds knows kids well. She spent decades teaching teens and adults to write and improve their reading skills. As a literacy expert and certified coach, she helped both teachers from elementary to secondary and preservice graduate students learn to improve reading and writing instruction. She has taught at both the secondary and graduate level, everything from rhetoric, essays, and thesis statements, to poetry, short stories, and how to write a novel. She has learned to use both sides of her brain simultaneously, but enjoys the creative side the most, learning to play piano, draw and paint, and find time for her own writing since retiring from her “day” jobs. 

A “true believer” in Joseph Campbell’s The Hero with a Thousand Faces, mythic structures, she uses that lens when considering manuscripts for Tell-Tale Publishing Group, a company she founded with some friends from her critique group a decade ago.

Wise Words Publishing, an Affiliate of Tell-Tale Publishing Group, LLC

We are a small press, a traditional publishing company bringing you the best in E-books, print and audio books to feed your body, mind and spirit.  Our cutting-edge fiction includes old favorites and edgy speculative fiction for today's eclectic readers.  Our stories will grab your attention and take you on a fast, exciting ride that will leave you breathless. WW, our affiliate, publishes select literature under our Cosmos Imprint and nonfiction titles under our Ivy Tower Imprint. 

Founded in 2009, in Michigan's Lower Peninsula. Our company motto of "excellence in creative entertainment and learning, " informs our artwork, manuscript selection, editing and publishing. 

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