Agentarilly Blonde

Confessions of an Unemployed Librarian is no more! I have rejoined the ranks of the working. But not as a librarian.

I've started work as an assistant at the Jane Rotrosen Agency. Publishing, as many know, has been a longtime interest of mine, and I am very blessed to have found a position in a literary agency that in the long term will teach me how to take on my own clients and guide them to great careers. In the short term, I'll be responsible for filing, reading queries, tracking submissions, and all kinds of other duties that help to keep an agency running. Glamorous? No, but it's needed and I'm a no-task-is-too-small sort of worker. I firmly believe that getting really good at doing the small things makes learning the big things that much easier.

So what does that mean for this blog?

1. I'm going on hiatus for at least three months as I get into the swing of things at my job. The reading needs of an agent are very different from that of a librarian and I'm trying to balance it so that I get the big titles in my realm of knowledge while still providing the best service I can to our clients. (Translation: Their manuscripts come before my reading the book that won last year's Printz.) Also? I am EXHAUSTED, both mentally and physically. This is a welcome and anticipated, but taxing, shift in my life. Or, as my life's motto has always been: Work hard, play hard, sleep hard.

2. A change of pace and theme when I return. I'll be reading and enjoying YA, of course, along with our agency's clients. Maybe I'll do query readings for YA and women's fiction. Maybe I'll find the next Tom Clancy. Who knows?

3. But I will quickly answer your agency-specific questions:

• Yes, you can submit your query as per agency guidelines. The agency is interested in, and I quote from our web page, "romance, mystery, suspense, thriller, women's fiction, memoirs, and YA." On a more personal note, I can say that while I adore the YA authors we currently represent, we are always looking for more to join the agency family.
  
• Yes, you can direct it to me. I cannot make any guarantees other than "I will read your query."
• Yes, I'd be happy to talk to groups of librarians, teachers, or students about what I do. Contact me via email or twitter (carliebeth).
  

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi

Ship Breaker by Paolo Bacigalupi (Little, Brown, May 2010) is amazing. No two ways about it. It's also taken the #1 spot as the scariest book I've read this year.

What it's about: Nailer Lopez is employed as a ship breaker on a light crew. All day, he and his team work on wrecked ships in the Gulf of Mexico, salvaging what they can. Light crews, as opposed to heavy crews (not dark crews), are in the business of salvaging copper and other lightweight materials from the ships of yesterday. It's dangerous, it's toxic, and Nailer knows that as soon as he hits his growth spurt, he's done for in terms of being able to work on his crew. The people who live on his beach are mostly laborers, short on leisure time, money, and most importantly, loyalty. Then Nailer and his friend find the greatest treasure of their lives. After a hurricane, and we're talking a hurricane that makes Katrina look like a light drizzle, they find a wrecked boat full of riches. Only two things stand in the way of Nailer's life of luxury: His violent, greedy father and the girl, dubbed Lucky Girl, that he finds aboard the wreck. Keeping one step ahead of his father is a full-time job for Nailer, who knows that if Lucky Girl is discovered before she can find her people, she's as good as dead.

Salvaged thoughts: My only reservation about Ship Breaker is something that comes from entirely inside my own head, not the book itself. I really, really worry that this book is going to get pigeonholed as a "boy book," action and adventure and light on everything else. It has some amazing action, don't get me wrong, but it's so much more. With the Gulf Coast oil spill, it's timely, which is a very frightening thought considering that the lead time on novels is 18 months, give or take. The worldbuilding is extraordinary. Bacigalupi uses a third person voice that's anchored in events of the present. He doesn't bother providing much background on Nailer's world all in one or two data dumps, just throws in details as Nailer sees them. As a result, the details add up and you get to see that not only is Nailer living in an environmentally damaged world, but it's a world that's run by some really super-corrupt, super-evil people. Of course, Nailer doesn't take the time to think about this super corruption because he has much more important things to think about, like his daily survival. The book can be appreciated as a straightforward environmental thriller, sure, but it's also literary and horrifying in a psychological way. And lest you think I focus on the scary stuff, I also have to say that I found Nailer to be an inspiring character. He is morally upright and, in the immortal words of Dumbledore, makes the right choice between what is right and what is easy. He lives with so much uncertainty and violence, but triumphs over them when faced with tough decisions.

I could be entirely wrong about this pigeonholing. I hope I am. I'd love to see this book honored during the YALSA awards in January.

In other thoughts, 2010 has been a good year for adult authors writing YA between this and The Carrie Diaries, yes?

Review at io9 || Paolo Bacigalupi's blog || Review at Kids Lit

Been there, read that, bought the t-shirt

"Let's go to Hot Topic," I said to Liz B. as we wandered the Willowbrook Mall on Sunday. I don't buy clothes there because I'm simply not cool enough to wear them, but I do love their stationery and accessories. We agreed that if nothing else, we could poke fun at the sparkly vampire beach towels (although, I confess, I really want a Team Carlisle shirt).

We enter the store and I hear her say, "Carlie, look at this!"

She was holding this t-shirt. (I don't have an image to post here; just click the link.)

There was squeeing.

I hadn't realized that there'd be Hunger Games apparel in anticipation of the release of Mockingjay. For the movie, sure, because movies are multi-million dollar projects with bigger marketing plans than books, even books like Mockingjay with its 1.5-million copy first print run. But this time, there are multiple t-shirts for a BOOK. A BOOK, people! This is awesome.

For those who prefer black t-shirts, Hot Topic made a white-on-black "Down with the Capitol" design, one that says "District 12 Tribute," a Hunger Games cover art shirt for those of us with a more simple, classic style, and my personal favorite in sentiment if not design, one that says "Girl on Fire."

Personally, I'll be wearing my "Team Peeta" shirt to whatever book release party I go to, though to be fair I'm also "Team it's okay with me if Katniss says no to both Peeta and Gale and devotes her life to rebuilding Panem rather than romance."

This is not a review of The Handmaid's Tale

There were going to be reviews this week, and my thoughts on Ellen Wittlinger's wonderful editorial in this month's Horn Book, but instead I have been selected for the great honor of hosting some sort of disgusting virus for an indeterminate amount of time. All I really feel like doing is lying in bed, playing solitaire, and watching Beavis and Butt-head: The Mike Judge Collection. So instead of a review, here's a silly blog quiz where you can paste in an entry and it will tell you which literary great your writing most closely resembles.

I write like
Margaret Atwood

I Write Like by Mémoires, Mac journal software. Analyze your writing!

Mimi's Dada Catifesto by Shelley Jackson

I wish this book had been around when I first read Rats Saw God. I mean, not that there's ever a bad time to go back and read Rats Saw God, but since I knew very little about dadaism then, this would have helped immensely. And made me smile, to boot.

Mimi's Dada Catifesto by Shelley Jackson is narrated by Mimi, a poor alley cat with an artist's soul. The other cats don't understand Mimi's need not just for a human who will feed her stomach, but who will feed her curiosity and need to create art. Her perfect human is Mr. Dada. After all, a man who balances a very tasty-looking fish on top of his head while yelling nonsense syllables must have the artist soul Mimi seeks in her human. Mr. Dada is a hard nut to crack, but Mimi has a plan to burrow her way into his heart. She'll leave him a Dadaist message that explains why he's the one and only human for her. Guiding her in her quest for a human are Laszlo, the logical pigeon, and a couple of cockroaches that reminded me of the mice in Babe.

The art accompanying Mimi's story provides an amazing visual backdrop to her Dadaist dreams. Jackson shows what Dadaist art is, isn't, and can be while making the form completely accessible to readers like me who can barely remember the difference between Manet and Monet. Young readers also get encouragement to create their own Dadaist art in the form of "Incredibly Great Poems" and galleries of found objects. The pictures often have a scattered look to them, which I think adds to the idea of Dada art coming from seemingly random things.

Mimi has starred reviews in Booklist and Kirkus. Not that she'd expect any less.

review from the Sacramento Book Review ||

Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'brien

I read Birthmarked by Caragh M. O'Brien (Holt, 2010) because Melissa Rabey told me to, and the only thing I trust more than her taste in clothes is her taste in books. Once again, Melissa proves she can pick a winner, something both trendy and stylish.

The premise: Gaia (first syllable is pronounced like "guy," not "gay"), sixteen, is the apprentice to her mother, the sector's midwife. Gaia and her parents are mostly happy with their simple life outside the walled city called the Enclave. Gaia looks forward to learning more about midwifery. Every month, the first three babies born that month are brought, or "advanced," to the Enclave. Gaia doesn't like this ritual but she knows it's the law. She doesn't think that anyone has done much to act against the law until she comes home one night to an interrogation. Her parents are gone, arrested, and she must carry on her mother's work by herself in order to make a living. She can't deal with the lack of information about her parents and finds an underground group that can help her enter the Enclave. While in the Enclave, she performs an extraordinary feat: She delivers a full-term healthy baby from the body of an executed prisoner. Now she is simultaneously hero and criminal. Either way, she knows she has to get to her parents and rescue them from the Enclave. An unexpected ally in the form of an attractive young soldier with his own dark past joins Gaia when she is asked to break a code that could give the Enclave the key to saving many of its residents from genetic diseases.


What you'll love about it: Gaia kicks ass! Okay, well, she kicks ass as much as any other human would in her situation. In the face of danger she stands up for herself even when she's scared. It's not enough for the love interest to be hot; he was to be able to keep up with her. Gaia has an admirable sense of loyalty to those she loves and to the profession of midwifery. Through most of the book, she is hunted and has to think on her feet. She also comes face-to-face with the cruelty behind the Enclave's government. It does upset her, but it also inspires her to learn more about her own past and what her parents' work in their town did that got them arrested. I see more than one Katniss Everdeen comparison in the future.

Most likely to succeed? I know this book has a few things against it in terms of making the big sales: a striking but not bright-on-black cover, straightforward science fiction, no paranormal creatures to romance with. It has quite a lot, though, in its favor: A well-built dystopian world, fascinating and damaged people, and captivating writing that mixes action neatly with world-building. And as we know in the literary world, good writing trumps all. I'd love to see this show up on the Morris Award shortlist, as it definitely shows excellence by a first author.

Caragh M. O'Brien's website || review at The Compulsive Reader || review at Shut Up, I'm Reading

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling

When I think of the delightful Maryrose Wood, the first book that always comes to mind is Sex Kittens and Horn Dawgs Fall in Love, which I love to recommend when I'm asked about romances appropriate for middle schoolers. So it's hard for me, in a way, to think of Maryrose as a writer of gothic MG. (Old dawg, new tricks, you know the drill.) I need to get over myself, and fast, because this new book of hers is gothic and Snickensian (Snicket+Dickens) and a fabulous read.

The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place: Book I: The Mysterious Howling (Balzer & Bray, March 2010) centers around Miss Penelope Lumley, a recent alumna of the Swanburne Academy for Poor Bright Females. She answers an ad for a governess and is thrilled to find that the job is at a beautiful estate. Sure, the residents are a little oblique as to what the actual governess duties will be, but Penelope can tolerate that. Then she meets the children.

They were raised by wolves. No, really.

Employing a little quick thinking and some animal psychology, Penelope is able to communicate with the children and later gain their trust and love. Not everyone in Ashton Place is as enamored of the children as she is, though. In fact, someone seems to be looking for a reason to send the children back into the wild. Penelope, however, is having none of that, and one should never underestimate the tenacity and smarts of a Swanburne graduate.

There is nothing about this book that isn't pure delight. Penelope's neuroses in the beginning of the book are charming (and all too familiar to me!), and she admirably works through her uncertainties by employing logic and a strong sense of what is right. The children are intelligent and kind at heart without falling into the trap of being overly precocious or smarter than the adults. Wood sets up a mystery at the end of the book because she's evil and now I have to wait for the next book, I mean, a good writer who is building a larger overreaching plot for the Incorrigible Children series. I love the timelessness of the setting and the story. I also think that with its four starred reviews, we could be looking at a Newbery contender.

review at Welcome to my Tweendom || review at KidsReads.com

The Duff by Kody Keplinger

You know it's been a good BEA when weeks later, you're still unearthing yourself from the galleys. I'm hoping to get out some reviews of at least a few of my BEA haul, but we'll see.

First up: The Duff by Kody Keplinger (Poppy, September 2010). I will knock people down to get to advance copies of anything Poppy prints, and The Duff did not disappoint. I got a copy after hearing Cindy Egan, queen of Poppy, speak about it. Duff, she explained, is an acronym for designated ugly fat friend. The book is narrated by Bianca, who knows her two closest friends are gorgeous but never really thought of herself as fat and ugly until it's pointed out to her by Wesley Rush, a gorgeous sex-crazed egomaniac. Bianca wants nothing to do with Wesley, who insists on calling her Duffy. Too bad for her, they've got killer sexual chemistry. What starts for them as a sex-without-strings relationship evolves into a friendship when Bianca finds that not only is Wesley's life not perfect, but he's happy to listen to her about her own troubles. Then Bianca starts dating with the boy she's crushed on for years. So why is she still pining for Wesley?

What's good: The emotional complexity. Bianca's front of sarcasm hides her insecurities from almost everyone, and her relationship with Wesley doesn't morph into instant awesomeness once she realizes the trouble he hides. The female relationships were very positive, too, even when Bianca and her two BFFs drift apart for a while. Despite feeling like the Duff, Bianca's friends don't do anything that makes her think she's less than beautiful and cherished. I don't love the cover and I thought there were some cliched sentences and phrases that screamed "amateur writer," but the potential of the book to spark discussion far outweighs these blemishes.

I also saw in Variety that McG (producer of one of my favorite shows, Supernatural) is looking to produce the movie version. I think there are definitely cinematic qualities to the book, so I'll be interested to see what happens with it.

Kody Keplinger's website || review at Good Books & Good Wine || I don't have copies to give away but if you want mine and you're the first person to ask, you can have it.

Rush, big time

A lot of people, now that I'm a confident, outgoing, stylish adult with a killer shoe collection and a makeup box to put Carmindy to shame, believe that I must have been popular in high school. Truth be told, I was neither super popular nor super unpopular. I wasn't the prettiest girl around, but no one turned to stone when they looked at me, either. I had friends, interests, activities, boyfriends from time to time, etc. I was mostly average.

The one thing about me that stood out was my devotion to all things band geek. I was a percussionist (and went on to get a degree in percussion), a drum major for the marching band, briefly sang in the choir, played in the school orchestra and jazz band, did well at Solo and Ensemble, you get the picture. And any high school drummer who devotes time to the instrument eventually hears the musical stylings of Neil Peart and is nothing short of hella impressed. When I first heard a recording of Rush at band camp in seventh grade, I was hooked. I had to run right out and get that recording of A Show of Hands so I could listen again and again to the drum solo track, "The Rhythm Method." Turned out that "The Rhythm Method" was a gateway drug. By the time I was a freshman in high school I had found all of Rush's albums on my own, and if you were the person who wanted to borrow Chronicles from the Niles Public Library that summer, I am really, really sorry.

Rush stayed with me through boyfriends and college and moving and grad school and more boyfriends and a husband and more moving and into my career. Rush was the first concert I ever saw (not saying how old I am, but it was the Counterparts tour, and if you're the person who stole my concert t-shirt out of the laundry at Lawrence, you're going to Hades). I made one of my first friends in college when Jeremy, seeing me walking down the hall in my Rush t-shirt, fell to his knees and said, "A girl Rush fan! A pretty girl Rush fan! Wow." Yes, female Rush fans are few and far between, but look at it this way: I never have to wait in line for the bathroom at their concerts.

Being a Rush fan for over half my life, you can imagine my happiness when I saw that Rush: Beyond the Lighted Stage, a documentary following the band's 35+ year career, was coming to theaters nearby for a one night engagement. Here's the trailer:




In short: Three geeky guys form a band, band puts out millions of records, the guys stay geeky, and now that people like Stephen Colbert have a big hand in pop culture, it's cool to like Rush. What keeps Rush relevant? Lyrics that resonate with their intelligent, mostly marginalized audience, and more musical technique in one finger than most bands will gain in a lifetime. The movie also has a 100 percent fresh rating on RottenTomatoes.com. Missed it in the theaters? It'll be available on DVD June 29.

Even if you fall into the camp of "the sound of Geddy Lee's voice makes my ears bleed," consider Netflixing the movie. It's a fascinating look at what Rush has meant to today's pop culture leaders...and what they meant to yesterday's band geeks.

In a dark, dark Furnace...

Still alive, just working on a lot of projects that I prefer not to discuss at this time. But!

It's going to be a long, dark rest of 2010 until Solitary: Escape From Furnace 2 comes out in December. To tide you (and me) over, here's an Escape from Furnace LOLCat, made especially by Courtney of Otaku Goddess, who is also a Furnace fan.

9781591585060

No, it's not a phone number. Nor is it the number of excuses I've made for not blogging lately (though it's probably pretty close). Before I reveal this number's importance, I'll rewind a little.

Every now and again on this blog, or in comments to friends, I've said things to the extent of, "I will be a normal human being again when I'm not busy with the Chinese Democracy Project," or, "Sorry, can't talk, I'm on a deadline for the Chinese Democracy Project." That usually elicits a response of, "I didn't know you were interested in Chinese politics." I'm not, but I am interested in rock music. In rock music, Chinese Democracy is the name of the newest Guns N' Roses album, an album that famously took Axl Rose about 20 years to make. Less famously, I embarked on a project that took 4 years to make. That was way longer than I'd originally intended, so in homage to GN'R, I named my project after theirs. My project, however, was not an album, but a book, namely, this book:


and the number in the subject is, as I'm sure all avid readers know by now, its ISBN.

Isn't that a great cover, btw? Major win for the design people at Libraries Unlimited.

I haven't talked much about writing this book because there was a point in the writing process where I wasn't sure it was going to be published. I had huge problems with making the page count because this is strictly a reader's advisory guide, not a library services guide like Jack Martin's or a look at the history of GLBTQ YA literature like Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins's. By keeping the focus tight on YA books and following what I perceived to be the Genreflecting series vision, I sort of wrote myself into a corner. I had originally envisioned writing about movies, tv shows, music, and books, but that meant taking the focus off YA literature. It also meant that I had to be very judicious about what adult books I added. The Genreflecting series already has a book on GLBTQ literature for adults and I was charged with writing a companion, not a competing, title. What I ended up doing was writing in the introduction and chapters about how pop culture has some effect on GLBTQ YA lit and the people who read it. For examples...and more...you can read the book.

The book, which will be out on March 30, is available for pre-purchase through my publisher, Libraries Unlimited, Amazon.com, and major book distributors (B&T, Ingram, etc.).

The Girls by Lori Lansens

The Girls by Lori Lansens is one of those books I kept moving down in my to-read pile. Not because it didn't look like a great book, but because I just had to read other books for other reasons. I had a little time to spare while visiting family, though, so I got to read it (finally!). It's an adult book, but one that I think could have very high appeal to teen readers as well.

Rose Darlen is mostly the narrator of this book. She's writing her autobiography. That's not an uncommon thing to do, but Rose is somewhat of an uncommon person. She and her sister, Ruby, are craniopagus twins, joined at the head. Separation was never an option, because they share an essential vein. They come into the world on the day of a tornado that takes the life of a local boy, an event that ties them unwillingly to one of their neighbors. Rose and Ruby are raised by the nurse that delivered them and her adoring husband, who they refer to as Aunt Lovey and Uncle Stash. Lovey and Stash do everything in their power to always treat the girls as two separate people and encourage others to do the same. The Girls goes somewhat against the grain of what's popular in YA lit right now (not that it was ever intended to be a popular YA book, imho): Rose and Ruby are extraordinary people, but they get the most joy and meaning from ordinary events and things. In that way, it reminded me a lot of my all-time favorite book, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn.

What impressed me the most about this book was Lansens's ability to write distinctly in the two girls' voices. Lots of books are told in two voices, but few are told in the voices of two people who are so close physically and emotionally. Rose, whose goal in life was to become a writer, writes like someone who reads, with lusher phrases and a larger vocabulary. Ruby is no less intelligent than Rose, but her dislike of reading in favor of television leads her to more forthright language. I didn't always like the characters as people, but I found them fascinating from beginning to end. Definitely a great life-story book, even if said life is outside the realm of experience of almost every one of its readers.

books are always a Hot Topic

Am I the last person in the world to know that Hot Topic is now carrying Percy Jackson and the Olympians merchandise? I probably am. But check this out:

Bright orange Camp Half-Blood shirts!

Trident shirt!

Personally, I'm not much of a t-shirt wearer, but I would absolutely love for them to carry gold ballpoint pens with "Riptide" written (or engraved?) on them. Bonus points if there's a way to Velcro it into your pocket.

Cannot wait for the movie.

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder: intelligent, wise, magical, and strong

Into the Wild Nerd Yonder by Julie Halpern is one of those books that I wish had been around when I was in high school. It's centered on Jessie, an average (not in a bad way!) sophomore who finds her circle of friends changing. Her two BFF's, Bizza and Char, have suddenly gone mall punk. They've developed a minor obsession with Jessie's brother's punk band and are using Jessie rather than being her friends. Bizza even hooks up with Van, the boy she knows Jessie has crushed on for years. Jessie's brother has gone from punk to preppy, even dating a popular girl. Jessie feels a little like she's lost her center, even though she maintains her love of audiobooks and making crazy print skirts. Where's a girl to drift? In this case, it's toward the nerds.

Though she resists their initial advances, Jessie finds herself enjoying the company of a group of Dungeons and Dragons players. Popular they're not, but Jessie finds them refreshingly honest, which is very much what she needs after the way Char and Bizza have treated her. There's even...gasp...a cute boy in the D&D group! It's not that Jessie isn't enjoying her time with her new friends, but she worries about her social standing and what it means for her longtime friendships and crushes if she develops new ones. Is it "once a nerd, always a nerd?"

I know I was prejudiced toward this book because it has a pink cover, but I also picked it up because I'm conversant in Nerd. Even if the cover had been blue, I'd still recommend it. Jessie is smart and funny, but not to the point where it sounds like the author just wants to be the next Joss Whedon. Halpern also does an excellent job of balancing Jessie's feelings about her friends. I saw how badly her friends were treating her, but I didn't want her to be lonely and alienated, either. She also has a really positive relationship with her brother, which warmed my heart. The way Jessie reacts to her changing friendships felt realistic to me. She's defined herself a lot by her friends, but doesn't give up on herself or fall into a pit of despair when she grows apart from them. I'd say this was a winner, but one doesn't really win a game of D&D, so I'll just say it rolled a 20.