YA Novel Discovery Contest: No query? No pitch? No problem!

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

The Serendipity Literary Agency has contacted me and asked me to pass along this contest, so all you aspiring authors listen up!




YA Novel Discovery Contest

No query? No pitch? No problem!


Have a young adult novel—or a YA novel idea—tucked away for a rainy day? Are you putting off pitching your idea simply because you’re not sure how to pitch an agent? No problem! All you have to do is submit the first 250 words of your novel and you can win both exposure to editors, and a reading of your manuscript from one of New York’s TOP literary agents Regina Brooks.

Regina Brooks is the founder of Serendipity Literary Agency and the author of Writing Great Books for Young Adults. Brooks has been instrumental at establishing and building the careers of many YA writers, including three-time National Book Award Honoree and Michael Printz Honoree Marilyn Nelson, as well as Sundee Frazier—a Coretta Scott King Award winner, an Oprah Book Pick and an Al Roker book club selection. As an agent, she is known for her ability to turn raw talent into successful authors.

ADDITIONALLY: The top 20 submissions will all be read by a panel of five judges comprised of top YA editors at Random House, Scholastic, Candlewick,  Harlequin, Sourcebooks and Penguin. The first 100 will receive free autographed copies of Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks. Of the 20, they will pick the top five submissions and provide each author with commentary. These five winners will also receive a free ONE YEAR subscription to The Writer magazine. ONE Grand Prize Winner will win a full manuscript reading and editorial consultation from Regina Brooks and free 10-week writing course courtesy of the Gotham Writer’s Workshop.

Please submit all entries via the contest website at WritingClasses.com/YAPitch. One entry per person; anyone age 13+ can apply. Open to the U.S. & Canada (void where prohibited). Entries for the YA Novel Discovery Contest will be accepted from 12:01am (ET) November 1 until 11:59pm (ET), November 30th

NOVEMBER IS NaNoWriMo
In honor of National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo.org)—an international event where aspiring novelists are encouraged to write an entire novel in 30 days—this contest is meant to encourage the aspiring YA author to get started on that novel by offering an incentive for completing the first 250 words.

So enter now! http://bit.ly/YAContest


GREAT PRIZES
The Grand Prize Winner
 will have the opportunity to submit an entire manuscript to YA literary agent Regina Brooks AND receive a free, 10-week writing course, courtesy of Gotham Writers' Workshop.

The Top Five Entrants (including the Grand Prize winner) will receive a 15-minute, one-on-one pitch session with Regina Brooks, one of New York’s premier literary agents for young adult books. They will also receive commentary on their submissions by editors at HarperCollins, Penguin, Harlequin, Random House, and Sourcebooks. In addition, they will receive a year’s subscription to The Writer magazine!

The Top 20 Entrants will receive autographed copies of Writing Great Books for Young Adults by Regina Brooks.

JUDGING
YA literary agent Regina Brooks and her team , will read all of the entries and determine the top 20 submissions. These submissions will then be read by Nancy Mercado, Executive Editor at Roaring Brook Press(Macmillan); Nicole Raymond, Editor at Candlewick; Cheryl Klein, Senior Editor at Arthur Levine Books (Scholastic); Leila Sales, Editor Viking (Penguin) Evette Porter, Editor at Harlequin and Leah Hultenschmidt, Executive Editor at Sourcebooks. These judges will whittle the top 20 down to five, and each of the five winners will be provided commentary on their submissions

Nightshade by Andrea Cremer --Review

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Title: Nightshade
Author: Andrea Cremer
Hardcover, 464 pages

Published October 19th 2010 by Philomel
http://www.nightshadebook.com/ .
Series: Nightshade #1
Characters: Calla Tor, Renier Laroche, Seamus Doran (Shay)
Setting:Vail, Colorado (United States)
Special Note: Recieved as apart of an ARC tour



Plot:
Calla Tor has always known her destiny: After graduating from the Mountain School, she'll be the mate of sexy alpha wolf Ren Laroche and fight with him, side by side, ruling their pack and guarding sacred sites for the Keepers. But when she violates her masters' laws by saving a beautiful human boy out for a hike, Calla begins to question her fate, her existence, and the very essence of the world she has known. By following her heart, she might lose everything--including her own life. Is forbidden love worth the ultimate sacrifice?


My Thoughts:

The opening of this novel is fast paced and will hook you in right away. The forbidden romance aspect of the novel really keeps suspense high all through the book. There's just something about two people coming together that shouldn't that hooks me every time. It happened with Twilight, and I got that same feeling here between Calla and Shay. This book has an interesting love triangle dynamic. Ren, the alpha male wolf she is already promised to and Shay, the guy she likes by choice. I really like Shay, but Ren totally controls the scene when he's around, making him my pick between the two.

I had a really interesting discussion with one of my good friends about this book. And she pointed out how sexist the whole wolf system is in this novel, which is true, and even Shay spells this out to Calla in several scenes of the book, but it kind of reminds me of periods in history. Times when women were subservient to men and we not treated equally. To me this story represents Calla's choice to break free from her expected role within her own society and make her own choices. Calla's growth throughout the novel was evident, I just hope she continues on the path of standing up for herself against her pack and leaders in her world.

Read this one if you love paranormal/urban fantasy romance in YA!!



Check out this video about Shay I found on Goodreads! LOL

Winter's Passage by Julie Kagawa

Monday, October 25, 2010

Title: Winter's Passage
Author: Julie Kagawa
ebook, 59 pages

Published June 1st 2010 by Harlequin
Special Note: NetGalley



Plot:
Meghan Chase used to be an ordinary girl...until she discovered that she is really a faery princess. After escaping from the clutches of the deadly Iron fey, Meghan must follow through on her promise to return to the equally dangerous Winter Court with her forbidden love, Prince Ash. But first, Meghan has one request: that they visit Puck--Meghan's best friend and servant of her father, King Oberon--who was gravely injured defending Meghan from the Iron Fey.




Yet Meghan and Ash's detour does not go unnoticed. They have caught the attention of an ancient, powerful hunter--a foe that even Ash may not be able to defeat....

My Thoughts:

I am truly in love with this series! Winter's Passage is a great short story that bridges the gap from when Meghan leaves her house in book one and sets out for the Winter Court in book two. Ash is my favorite guy in the series and this novella has Ash in every page, so I loooooved it. This story also shows the feelings Ash and Meghan have for each other.

Read this one if you loved The Iron King and before moving on to The Iron Daughter.

Adios Nirvana by Conrad Wesselhoeft --Review

Sunday, October 24, 2010

Title: Adios, Nirvana

Author: Wesselhoeft, Conrad
Length: 235 pages
Genre: Fiction, Young Adult
Publisher / Year: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt / 2010
Released: October 25th, 2010
Special Note: Recieved from Publisher through NetGalley



Plot:


When you piss off a bridge into a snowstorm, it feels like you're connecting with eternal things. Paying homage to something or someone. But who? The Druids? Walt Whitman? No, I pay homage to one person only, my brother, my twin.



In life. In death.

Telemachus.



Since the death of his brother, Jonathan's been losing his grip on reality. Last year's Best Young Poet and gifted guitarist is now Taft High School's resident tortured artist, when he bothers to show up. He's on track to repeat eleventh grade, but his English teacher, his principal, and his crew of Thicks (who refuse to be seniors without him) won't sit back and let him fail.

My Thoughts:

I really loved Jonathan's voice. It was believable. A great voice is what pulls me into the story and then keeps me hooked. The struggle Jonathan goes through to grief is brother is touching, along with the scenes when he visits hospice and goes over WWII with David, the army vet who he has to write a story about for school. I know a death of a loved one can haunt people for years, and Jonathan shows his grief in a realistic ways. The book was wrapped up neatly at the end, so I felt content as I closed the book.

So read this one if you like boy narrated stories, and characters that struggle with their grief.

Also I think if you liked The Sky is Everywhere, you may like this one.

Beautiful Dead: Jonas (Book One) by Eden Maguire

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Title: Beautiful Dead : Jonas (Book 1)
Author: Eden Maguire
Paperback, 288 pages

Published: Sourcefire Books March 2010 (Orginally-April 2nd 2009 by Hodder Children's Books)
more details...
Series-Beautiful Dead #1 .
PLOT:

Something strange is happening in Ellerton High. Phoenix is the fourth teenager to die within a year. His street fight stabbing follows the deaths of Jonas, Summer and Arizona in equally strange and sudden circumstances.


Rumours of ghosts and strange happenings rip through the small community as it comes to terms with shock and loss. Darina,Phoenix's grief-stricken girlfriend, is on the verge. She can't escape her intense heartache, or the impossible apparitions of those that are meant to be dead. And all the while the sound of beating wings echo inside her head! And then one day Phoenix appears to Darina.

Ecstatic to be reunited, he tells her about the Beautiful Dead. Souls in limbo, they have been chosen to return to the world to set right a wrong linked to their deaths and bring about justice. Beautiful, superhuman and powerful, they are marked by a 'death mark' - a small tattoo of angel's wings. Phoenix tells her that the sound of invisible wings beating are the millions of souls in limbo, desperate to return to earth.Darina's mission is clear: she must help Jonas, Summer, Arizona, and impossibly, her beloved Phoenix, right the wrong linked to their deaths to set them free from limbo so that they can finally rest in peace. Will love conquer death? And if it does, can Darina set it free?


My Thoughts:

I loved the spin on 'zombies' in this novel and how they can't move on into the afterlife until they find closure. All of the Beautiful Dead have weird circumstances surrounding their death, and Darina gets roped into helping the dead kids from her school move on.

While it is written that Darina and Phoenix had a tight relationship, I never really got a good feel of how they were before Phoenix died. The opening of the novel just kind of throws you in and sometimes it feels like your missing parts of the story. However, the mystery and the whole 'I gotta figure this out thing' kept me hooked. Book one focuses on Jonas, and I wanted to get to the bottom of Jonas's death just as much as Darina did.


Darina is very likable, but I felt her dialog, along with the secondary characters weren't quite up to todays teen standards. That was the only thing that held me back from totally loving this story, because the plot is quite good.
I did enjoy this one, though. I found myself invested into the story and just had to find out how it ended and what happened to Jonas. Looking forward to book two!
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