Pathways to Publication: Interview with Leigh Ann Kopans

Have a manuscript you think might be worthy of publication and not sure what to do next? Maybe you're wondering if you need an agent and how to go about finding one. Or you're confused about what kind of money is involved--does someone pay YOU or do you have to sink some of your own savings into this venture? What does an editor do? Will you have to market this book yourself?

Last month I wrote about my first feeble attempt at publishing a book. Now I'm interviewing other writers on their SUCCESSFUL pathways to publication--from self-published to traditional, debut writers to a writer who's published 130 books, and everything in between. 

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YA writer Leigh Ann Kopans on the pros and cons of self-publishing


Jody: You wrote a book that you felt was worthy of publication, what was your next step?

Leigh Ann: I wrote One and revised it twice with critique partners, signed with an agent for it, and went on one round of submission with it (all passes.) The passes from editors were widely varied, meaning that if I was going to revise the book I’d have to “revise blind” – change a large aspect of the book without knowing whether I was changing the RIGHT aspect.

I had no idea why editors didn’t like One, but I did know that almost everyone who had read it raved over it – including my agent. I took it as a sign that the book was solid, just not a good fit for a big house. I decided I could publish it myself, and make it just as awesome as it would have been coming from any of them.

Jody: How long did it take from finished book to publication?

Leigh Ann: About one year and nine months.

Jody: You mentioned that you signed with an agent.

Leigh Ann: Yes, I did sign with an agent for One, but I chose to end our contract when she made it clear that she was not interested in being an agent to a non-traditionally publishing client.

Jody: I'm interested in how self-publishing works--how it's different from traditional and what aspects are similar. Let's start with the money... Were there any upfront costs?

Leigh Ann: Ooooh, the money question! I’m so glad you asked! I hired/enlisted LOTS of people to help with the production of One (three of the following graciously offered their services free of charge. I paid everyone else.) Here’s the lineup I had: Line editor, copy editor, proofreader, cover designer, e-formatter, 3 marketing artists, book trailer designer, and publicist.

Jody: So, basically what a traditional house would provide. I guess some writers might try to handle some of these things themselves, but you hired people to do it. And I must tell you here that your book cover is stunning.

Leigh Ann: Thanks. Yes, I knew the importance of hiring people. Luckily, I had a mentor (Trisha Leigh) who had done the whole thing already and was around to give me a heads up as to the professionals I would need (all those listed above) and those I could get along without (a print formatter and distribution service, for instance- I could do those things myself.)

So, once I have all the files (print and digital) perfectly polished, I just upload them to wherever I want to sell them, and to my print-on-demand platform.  That’s about it!

My total to hire all these professionals, plus anti-piracy services, and printing and shipping paper ARCs and other marketing materials, was just over $2000. (Yes, two thousand dollars.)

Jody: That sounds reasonable. And you seem happy about your decision to strike out on your own.

Leigh Ann: I am. The benefits of taking the indie route all boil down to one thing, to me – control. I can make the decisions as to what is best for my book, and implement those as I see fit. I can set my own budget, release dates, and prices. I can do whatever I want in terms of marketing - For instance, I ordered an initial run of 30 ARCs. When I ran out of those, I just printed some more.

I recruited a pretty large street team, and I could also really think outside the box in terms of teasers and giveaways. Artistically, I could edit (or not) as I wanted, and I had a VERY heavy hand in how the cover turned out.

Most importantly, at least for me, is that I can write whatever I want next. If I want to do a sequel, or a spin off, or three novellas all in the same universe, I can – with every intention of those being published, too. The Indie route has done wonders for my creativity and enthusiasm, because I’m writing what I want to write, not what I think has the best chance of selling.

I want to mention that I've been doing a Publishing 101 series too on my blog. Here's a link if readers are interested in learning more details about the self-publishing process.

Jody: Any thoughts on the future of publishing or what's going in the industry, as far as mergers, e-books, bookstore closings, etc., go? Do you see any of these issues as affecting you now, or in the future?

Leigh Ann: Oh, gosh. The only things I know are the things I hear anecdotally, but I do get the impression that fewer books are selling traditionally and more are finding success through self publishing than ever before. For my part, I don’t see myself ever pursuing traditional publishing again. There’s so much about not asking anyone’s permission to do something and so much potential for success that I’m very, very happy with my decision.

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Leigh Ann Kopans lives in Columbus, Ohio and is a rabbi at The Ohio State University. Her debut YA novel One, forthcoming June 11, is about a girl with only half a superpower, the boy who makes her fly, and her struggle to make herself whole.

You can find out more about Leigh Ann on her website www.LeighAnnKopans.com

Pathways to Publication: Interview with Patty Blount

Have a manuscript you think might be worthy of publication and not sure what to do next? Maybe you're wondering if you need an agent and how to go about finding one. Or you're confused about what kind of money is involved--does someone pay YOU or do you have to sink some of your own savings into this venture? What does an editor do? Will you have to market this book yourself?

Last month I wrote about my own first feeble attempt at publishing a book. Now I'm interviewing other writers on their SUCCESSFUL pathways to publication--from self-published to traditional, debut writers to a writer who's published 130 books, and everything in between. 

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YA novelist Patty Blount on the importance of research and rewrites


Jody: You wrote a book that you felt was worthy of publication, what were your next steps?

Patty: Send required a lot of research. I had to find out what law the main character Dan Ellison could be found guilty of breaking, so I attended a seminar on cyber-bullying held by a local Bar Association and learned that the laws vary widely at the local levels. Few laws exist specifically for bullying. In Dan's case, other laws were used to 'fit' his crime. After I finished the novel, I joined my local RWA chapter, where members critiqued my manuscript and helped me get it pitch-worthy.

Jody: RWA?

Patty: Romance Writers of America

Jody: Oh, right! Always a good idea to join a professional organization. Once you had your polished manuscript, how long did it take from that point to publication? Was all this wrinkle free? Or were there setbacks along the way?

Patty: My journey to publication was fairly wrinkle-free, relatively speaking. There are ups and downs, certainly, but over all, it was smooth sailing. I learned in autumn that Sourcebooks would publish Send the following August. I had some moments of panic trying to meet the aggressive deadlines for revisions and copy edits and am happy to report I met every one!

Jody: Do you have an agent?

Patty: I do! I'm represented by the awesome Evan Gregory of the Ethan Ellenberg Agency. I got my agent exactly the way my research said I should: I wrote a query letter and followed submission guidelines. Evan submitted Send to various editors, tutored me through the publishing contract process, helped me understand royalties, brainstorms plot holes and title ideas, and even showed me how to write a film treatment.

Jody: Explain a little about your book deal.

Patty: Send and TMI (coming this summer) are published with Sourcebooks Fire. I have a two-book deal and received an advance. I just learned Send earned out that advance, which means I earned royalties that exceeded the advance amount. This is really exciting news! Because Send was my first novel, it was finished before the contract was signed. But TMI was just an idea. I had to get that entire novel plotted out and written in just a few months. I learned so much about the craft of writing with that project.

Jody: Was there a lot of revision involved at that point? (Oh, and congrats on earning out the advance, by the way!)

Patty: Thanks! Yes, I did extensive rewrites on both novels. For Send, I re-crafted the ending and for TMI, I dropped a point-of-view character. Next, I worked with a Sourcebooks copy editor, who caught some really embarrassing mistakes like the time when main character Bailey asks a boy to email her but never gave him her email address. Both books got amazing covers from the Sourcebooks design team.

Jody: What about marketing and promotion? How do the people at Sourcebooks approach that?

Patty: I got to work with a talented publicist who coached me through Send's launch, set up a great blog tour, designed really eye-catching bookmarks, and wrote a fantastic press release. Together, we brainstormed ideas for engaging teachers and librarians, like wrist bands for students and school visits. I bought my own ads on various websites to help promote the book. For me, traditional publishing means I don't have to coordinate every little thing all by myself.

Jody: Any thoughts on the future of publishing or what's going in the industry, as far as mergers, e-books, bookstore closings, etc., go? Do you see any of these issues as affecting you now, or in the future?

Patty: Ebooks are great - I have an e-reader that I use all the time. But there's something permanent, something real about holding a book in your hands, smelling its pages, feeling the texture under your fingertips that just can't be replicated. I know people devoted to one or the other medium and that's fine. What's interesting to me are the debates on how much people are willing to spend on an e-book. Though I realize the words I buy in an e-book, are the same words I buy in a physical book, I still feel outraged if both are the same price. I feel e-books should be less expensive because I don't get to sniff and feel and hug my e-copy.

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Technical writer by day, fiction writer by night, Patty Blount mines her day job for ideas to use in her novels. Her debut YA Send was born after a manager suggested she research social networks. TMI, a novel about the danger of social networks, will be released Aug. 6, 2013.

Learn more about Patty on her website www.pattyblount.com

Pathways to Publication: Interview with Marcia Thornton Jones

Have a manuscript you think might be worthy of publication and not sure what to do next? Maybe you're wondering if you need an agent and how to go about finding one. Or you're confused about what kind of money is involved--does someone pay YOU or do you have to sink some of your own savings into this venture? What does an editor do? Will you have to market this book yourself?

Last month I wrote about my own first feeble attempt at publishing a book. Now I'm interviewing other writers on their SUCCESSFUL pathways to publication--from self-published to traditional, debut writers to a writer who's published 130 books, and everything in between. 

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Marcia Thornton Jones, author/co-author of 130 books for children, on the phenomenal growth and change in the children's book publishing industry over the past twenty five years.


Jody: You wrote a book that you felt was worthy of publication, what were your next steps?

Marcia: Researching was important when I first started publishing. Targeting publishers, writing query letters and proposals, formatting manuscript: all that was new to me. I did everything I could to learn more. I went to conferences, started a critique group, read books and magazines, and joined SCBWI. For each manuscript I kept a list of possible publishers. Then I submitted, exclusively. I tried to be good and follow the rules. Really I did.

But it’s interesting to note that my first book, Vampires Don't Wear Polka Dots was sent unsolicited to a publisher that at the time did not accept unsolicited manuscripts. And they bought it.

Jody: How long did it take from finished book to publication? Any setbacks along the way?

Marcia: That first book took about 18 months from acceptance to published book. No setbacks. If there were any wrinkles I wouldn’t have stumbled over them because I was floating on cloud nine the entire time.

Jody: You didn't mention signing with an agent. You snagged the book deal and negotiated the contract on your own?

Marcia: I do have an agent. Now. I didn’t for a long time, though. In fact, most of my books I published before getting an agent.

For a long time I continued teaching full time while writing books—sometimes as many as 12 in one year. There came a time when I got another multi-book contract and I decided it might be time to ask an agent to step in and help relieve some of the marketing and negotiating duties.

I used multiple resources to locate reputable agents of children’s books, but the most important to me were word-of-mouth recommendations by other writers and a couple of my editors.

Basically, I want my agent to be a first reader to my book: to assess if it has market potential or to determine if it needs more work. Once my manuscript is ready, I expect my agent to target my book to the most appropriate publishers and editors. In other words, find the perfect person to buy my book. Finally, I want my agent to negotiate the best possible terms for contracts.

Jody: You've been doing this for a long time...

Marcia: It makes me feel old to admit it, but yes. A long time. My first book will be celebrating it’s 25th anniversary soon! Things have changed since then. A lot!

I’ve published 130 books; all of them traditionally. Terms varied depending on the book, the series, and the publisher. Individual contracts were negotiated with different advances and royalty terms. (An advance is an advance on the royalties--money paid up front before the book hits the market, which means no more money is paid until the book sales earn off that advance.)

Jody: Tell me a little about what happens after a deal is signed. Did you have to do any revisions?

Marcia: I’ve had to edit/revise all of my books except one. Some books required minor editorial tweaking. Others required major rewrites. Every editor I worked with has been respectful of my writing, yet frank about changes that need to be made. Most suggestions I had no problem with since I figure editors have knowledge and insight to what is good and what sells. Only a few suggestions did I either compromise on or outright refuse.

Jody: We haven't talked about the marketing aspect yet. I'm guessing you've done a lot to promote your books.

Marcia: Oh yeah. I’ve done cross-country tours, book signings, radio and television interviews, school visits, and <a-hem> blog interviews. I enjoy all of it, but the problem with author marketing is that as an individual writer I’m limited to how many readers I can actually reach.

Jody: What do you mean?

Marcia: One way traditional publishers benefit the writer and the book is that they have direct market access to stores, schools, and readers. Where I might be able to contact a handful of stores, the traditional publisher markets to the entire nation. It makes a huge difference in sales when a traditional publisher gets behind a book and promotes it. Especially now that there are more books than ever.

I have friends that have e-published, and they spend a lot of time and money trying to get their books noticed. Emphasis on ‘a lot’. There are two problems with that. First, time spent marketing is time away from writing. There needs to be a better balance than what I’m seeing.

The second problem is money. Investing chunks of money up front and spending more than you make borders on vanity publishing--which is fine if your primary objective is to have the opportunity to be read. But if writing is your primary source of income then it only makes sense to consider the concept of the return on the investment.

The bottom line: getting your book noticed is a major issue, and right now traditional publishers still have the loudest voice when it comes to getting the word out.

Jody: Do you see other benefits to working with a traditional publisher?

Marcia: Well, I mentioned before about revisions. With a traditional publisher you know your book is going to go through editorial revisions and copy-editing before it reaches the public. That means, bluntly, that it’s gone through a process to ensure a professional quality level. I know there are some really good self-published books out there, but buyers/readers also have to be aware that if anyone can throw a book up to the cloud, chances are you might be buying books that could’ve benefited from going through editorial vetting.

Jody: Some of these writers hire editors.

Marcia: That's true. And necessary. It also costs you, the writer, money up front. I’ve heard of people making a million by e-publishing. Sounds really really tempting. But it’s rather like buying that winning lottery ticket. Most of us probably aren’t going to win the lottery, just like most of us probably aren’t going to make a million by self-publishing. That’s why signing a traditional contract that includes an advance is nice.

Jody: As someone who has been in this business for twenty-five years, any thoughts on the future of publishing or what's going in the industry, as far as mergers, e-books, bookstore closings, etc., go? Do you see any of these issues as affecting you now, or in the future?

Marcia: More and more people are e-publishing. Publishers are tiptoeing into that format. My agency now has a person dedicated to e-book publication. All while selling a book to traditional publishers is harder than ever.

Yes, times are changing.

I’ve been very fortunate with traditional publishing, and today, right now, I still believe traditional publishing makes the best business sense while providing more growth opportunity for writers willing to hone craft based on editorial insight.

But I’ll be frank. I have several books that my agent once-upon-a-time thought were marketable and yet they haven’t sold. Do I shove them in a drawer and chalk them up to experience? And within the last year, several of my books have gone out of print. Should I file the reversion-of-rights letters and forget about them?

Since all these books have been vetted for quality and have gone through editorial revisions I feel confident that they’re ‘good enough’ for publication so, yeah, I will e-publish some of them. Better to have tried than not, right? But what I would like to see is a process by which e-books are vetted for quality, along with time and cost-effective ways to help writers market their work.

Jody: But you're not giving up on traditional publishing?

Marcia: No. I still hope for traditional publisher contracts. But in the meantime…if you know of anyone looking to hire a slightly used children’s book writer…

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Marcia Thornton Jones is a former elementary school teacher and the author or co-author of 130 books for children, including the beloved Adventures of the Bailey School Kids series, Ratfink, and Champ. 

You can find out more about Marcia on her website www.marciatjones.com  

On the 8th Anniversary of My First Writing Retreat...

In 2005 I was on the verge of a turning point, but I didn't know it. I was sort of floundering around with my pursuit of a book-writing dream.

I told myself I was working hard. I wrote a couple of days a week. I thought about writing a lot. Truthfully, I thought about being published a lot. I had very vivid daydreams of winning awards and receiving awesome book deal advances. Also, spending book deal advances. Mostly, though, I was spinning my wheels, not making any real progress, treating writing as a hobby rather than as my work.

Then, a very serendipitous thing happened. In the same week I had a story accepted in the magazine Cicada and I got a brochure in the mail inviting me to attend a retreat put on by the Highlights Foundation.

What would you do if you had the time to write... no distractions... no responsibilities... Just you and your lap top. You'll stay in your own cabin and all of your needs will be taken care of... You'll eat delicious food prepared by a chef. You'll meet other serious writers on the same journey...  

I don't remember the exact words printed on the brochure, but it was something like that, and it struck me to the core. Oh, yes, I would like that.

And get this: the cost of the retreat (which was somewhat pricey and hard for me to justify) was EXACTLY the amount of the payment I'd just received for my Cicada story.

I'm no dummy. I know a freaking sign when I see one.

I went. It was my first time away from my family (the kids were 8 and 12 and I was a stay-at-home mom). It was the first time I'd been alone since college.

To say I was anxious is an understatement.

The hardest thing was the first night when our small group made our introductions. Simply saying I wanted to be a writer almost made me start crying. For all of my supposed pursuing of a dream, I hadn't said these words out loud to anyone in years.

The week pretty much changed my life. Not in a magical way. I didn't return home with a finished manuscript that would win an award (although, that particular manuscript is something that I continue to work on, and hey, who knows?) I didn't snag an agent or a book deal right away. In fact it would be many years before this would happen.

What this retreat did do for me was remind me that I was, in fact, a writer. That I was not alone in my quest. That my dream was not some ridiculous thing no matter how impossible it might seem at times.

Here is what I wrote in my journal while I was there:

Seeing these writers and editors makes me so hopeful about what I picture myself doing.  I keep thinking that it is a possible life for me, if I keep pursuing it.  

Tonight I called home and my son asked me if I liked it here or if it was terrible.  I said it was wonderful, that I loved it.  “Are you going to go back there next year?” he asked.  “I’d like to,” I said.  “Would that be alright with you guys?”   

He laughed.  “We’re doing okay, you know. And I like eating poptarts.”

I am thinking about this retreat because in two days I am going back.

I am in a different place now in my writing and personal life. My son is in college--just to put time in perspective. My teen daughter will be off doing her own thing. I am sure they will both be gorging on the forbidden poptarts while I'm gone. I've got my first book coming out this year. I received a nice advance check for that (mostly, already spent). I do think of myself as a writer and I am not afraid to say that anymore. (Maybe I say it too much?)

But here is what is the same: I still feel anxious about what I do. I still have so much to learn about craft and technique and voice and language. I still enjoy connecting with other writers and hearing about their stories and their journeys.

So that is why I signed up to go.

It may be that I am on the verge of another amazing turning point. I'll let y'all know when I come back...

5-Star Summer Reads

Looking for a few good YA books to read this summer?

Here's my list (at the moment) of the top 2013 YA releases in no particular order:

The Lucy Variations by Sara Zarr

I am a big fan of Zarr and always eager to pick up her latest book. The characters in this one depart a bit from her usual, focusing on a teen concert pianist from a wealthy, high achieving family (Zarr's other books feature kids growing up firmly in the working class world.) Lucy realizes that she's privileged--it's one of the many issues she's grappling with. The main source of angst, though, is her ambivalence about her talent. Nearly a year ago, she walked away from her promising piano career.

The pressure from her family (and from herself) grew to be too much. She hasn't touched a piano since, but her friendship with her brother's new piano teacher has her questioning her decision to quit and pushing her to figure out if there is a way to make music a part of her life again.

This book has a couple of strange plot strands--the relationship with the piano teacher is the big one, but all of the characters are so fully realized and the story itself pushes and spreads in a variety of directions that feels like life unfolding in the real world. What Zarr has to say about living a creative life--when you are amazingly good at what you do--is thought-provoking and inspirational.

17 & Gone by Nova Ren Suma

This is one of those novels that takes a big risk. The language is lyrical and metaphorical. The subject matter is potentially lurid (kidnapped teen girls). And the narrative is almost completely internal. Oh, there were so many ways that this book could go wrong!

My big pet peeve with literary novels is that those beautifully crafted metaphors draw attention to themselves and pull readers out of the story. (When I'm noticing what a lovely simile you just used, I forget what's going on in the narrative.) And very few writers are able to depict difficult subject matter without slipping over the line into soap-opera-y drama.

Add the whole internal stream-of-consciousness angle, and honestly, I didn't think Nova Ren Suma could pull this one off.

But, let me just say WOW. This book pulls you in from page one and keeps you turning pages with the mesmerizing hypnotic voice of girl who suddenly believes that she is seeing the ghosts of missing girls.

Look for 17 & Gone on the short list for the Printz Award this year...

Dear Bird's Advice for Sad Poets by Evan Roskos

It rarely happens to me anymore, but once in a while I read a book and forget that I am a writer. The part of me that is constantly editing and analyzing shuts up and I simply fall into the story. I don't know why this happens with some books and not others. I wish I did! But I think it comes down to the voice--something about it resonates and pulls me in.

The voice in Dr. Bird's belongs to an anxious, sensitive, battered soul of a boy named James Whitman. James carries Walt Whitman's poems around with him. He hugs trees and contemplates grass blades. He talks to a bird therapist in his head. He worries about his sister Jorie who has been kicked out of school and out of the house by their %&^*# parents. There's a mystery at the core of the book: WHY did Jorie get kicked out? But really this book is about James trying to cope with the crappy aspects of life.

Here's something that a lot of adults seem to forget about being a kid: it sucks. So much of your life is out of your control and you're seeing for the first time the unfairness, the flaws in the adults who rule the world (and you). There is no magic answer to how you figure things out--how you grow up--of course, but I get the feeling at the end of this book that James will be all right.


Eleanor and Park by Rainbow Rowell

This love story blows all other teen romances away. The main characters are complex and flawed. Eleanor is a little overweight and weird and bullied. She's hurting, just treading water to survive in her dysfunctional family. Park is quirky and quiet. He stands out in their gritty midwestern town because he's half Korean.

The two don't have a love at first sight moment, instead, their relationship slowly, almost painfully, unfolds. They don't even hold hands until at least a third of the way through--but that moment is more charged than all of the ridiculously over the top teen Harlequins put together.

Oh, it's also set in the 80's, which will make teens today feel like they're reading historical fiction, I suppose. For adults of a certain age, uh, ahem, me, it will feel like time travel.

A Bummer of a Writing Day Turns Awesome

Lately I've been struggling with a revision. It's a story that, for whatever reason, I refuse to quit on, and so every other year for over a decade I've been rewriting it.

I've added characters. I've killed characters. I've changed settings and reworked plotlines. I've played around with the voice, the language, the target audience. This used to be a middle grade novel and now it's become young adult. I even changed the title three times. Sad fact: I love the title now, but I'm probably going to have to let it go because I noticed that there's a new YA novel out with the same title.

Darn it.

(just a few of the printed off versions)

I have a nice little writing process that I've figured out over the years, tricks I've learned and methods that seem to work. Every book I've written has been a little different in how it comes together. Thin Space, for all of the work involved (at least five rewrites over two years) was a relatively easy book to write.

This one, obviously, has not been easy. But I press on with it. At the core is a story and main characters and a world that I love, and those aspects have never changed. One of these days, one of these rewrites, I know it's going to click...

That day was not yesterday.

I stared at the computer screen most of the morning and into the afternoon, writing a sentence and then deleting it. There is a part of me that can deal with this kind of cruddy writing day, that thinks: "oh well. I'll figure it out, eventually." There is another part that screams in frustration, that doubts that I will ever get this book "right" (whatever that is), that doubts that I even CAN write anymore, hisses in my ears, "Thin Space was a fluke and who am I kidding? that book isn't even good, quit now blah blah blah."

That part was winning.

And then I had to shut down, at the height of this self-doubting/depressing internal rant, to go give a talk at my local high school. The librarians there and at the public library oversee a joint teen book club every month and they invited me to visit. I gave the school librarian, Laura Piazza, who has been a debut writer's dream by the way, a handful of advanced review copies of Thin Space last fall and she's been passing them around to students and teachers.

Talking to this group made me feel better immediately and reminded me what is at the other end of the sometimes excruciating process of writing a book: if you do keep plugging away, eventually, that finished story will one day make it into the hands of readers.

(I love this picture! First, because these ladies were all so cool and  enthusiastic about Thin Space, and second, because it looks like one of the book clubbers is Hermione Granger...) 

Attacking the Stack Whilst Creating another Stack

Back in January I set a goal for myself to read the 49 books that had collected in teetery tottery piles around my house. I vowed that I'd read 4 books per month, which left room for me to read new books that might come onto my radar, and I gave myself an escape clause: I'd put down a book if it didn't grab me right away.

Five months into my Attack the Stack Reading Challenge, I figure it's time to share my progress.

The good news: I am on track.

I've read an average of 4 books per month and I only quit on one (which, truth be told, I feel guilty about it) Look Homeward, Angel by Thomas Wolfe. This is one of those classics that I somehow skipped along the way and always wondered about. I may still be wondering about it for the rest of my life. It's a fascinating depiction of a certain time and place in America, and I am sure that it was a ground-breaking piece of literature when it was first published. But I am struggling with the language--it's over-written, to the point of absurdity. Also--and I know it's unfair to judge an old book by today's standards--but it is racist in a way that makes me anxious and sick. I want to believe that writers are observant and sensitive to their surroundings and to issues of obvious inequality.

Um. I guess not! But the main reason I ended up putting this book down was that I simply could not read more than ten pages at a time without falling asleep. I'm so stubborn when it comes to reading books I start, that I have a feeling I will pick this one up again. If nothing else, I will use it when I am having trouble falling asleep.

But back to my progress on tackling the stack...
The bad news:
I have created another stack!

(New stack)

Here's a pic of the original stack in case you were wondering:

(Old stack)

I am glad that I committed to my challenge. I've loved many of the books and wondered WHY WHY WHY they had been sitting so long in my stack in the first place.

Some faves so far:

What I Was by Meg Rosoff.  No idea why I waited so long to read this one because I've LOVED everything Meg Rosoff has written. This book was a slow-building, absorbing story with a freak twist at the end that I did NOT see coming. Like all of Rosoff's books, it doesn't fit neatly into any category. Coming of age? Historical fiction? Magical realism? Analysis of gender roles in society?  Whatever. Everything the woman writes is brilliant and transcends all genres.

Shadow and Bone by Leigh Bardugo. I went to her book-signing back in the fall and thought she was cool. I have no excuse at all for waiting so long to read her book. It's a fantasy, but instead of being set in the stereotypical Lord of the Rings/Middle Ages type world, it's set in what feels like turn of the last century Tsarist Russia. Great story.

Lest anyone thinks that I don't read books outside the YA genre--

My favorite adult book so far (when I say adult book it always sounds like I am talking about porn. But I am not. Ha ha) is The Fiction Class by Susan Breen. The main character is a writer who teaches a workshop once a week and after the class goes to visit her crochety dying mother in a nursing home. There's so much in here about relationships and aging and choices we make, but also some very interesting stuff about writing and writers too.

High Tide in Tucson by Barbara Kingsolver has been sitting on my bedside table for years. Kingsolver is one of my favorite writers but I had the impression that this collection of essays was going to be dense, something I'd have to work my way through. I was wrong. I read it like it was a novel, in two days. It's thought-provoking but has some laugh out loud moments too. This book reminded me that a truly good writer is NEVER hard to read.

Last but not least, a book I finished a few weeks ago and am still thinking about. Many Stones by Carolyn Coman, is an oldie by YA standards, published in 2000, and I am stunned that I never read it until now (It was a finalist for the National Book Award) I can't think of a more perfectly put together book. Short and powerful--simple and complex at the same time. The main character Berry is still reeling from her older sister Laura's death in South Africa. Laura was volunteering at a school and was murdered, right around the time that the Apartheid system was falling apart.

Berry's father, a take charge/no nonsense kind of guy, decides that the proper way to deal with their grief over Laura is to go to South Africa and donate money to the school where she worked. Berry has no desire to go on this trip. She doesn't get along with her father and still holds a lot of anger toward him for divorcing her mom. The book is the two taking their trip and painfully and awkwardly trying to relate to each other. The politics and history of Apartheid hover behind the story, a back drop to Berry and her father's broken relationship.

The book asks: How do we go on living after tragedy? How do we forgive the people who have hurt us? There's no real answer, of course, but like every great novel, the reader finds a bit of hope at the end.