Category: Young Adult Fantasy

A Whole New World

Posted C. LaVielle1 CommentPosted in Writing, Young Adult Fantasy

I just finished reading two great books. nova, by samuel r. delany, is a science fiction classic; and I predict that Behemoth, the second book in the Leviathan Trilogy, by Scott Westerfeld, will become a fantasy classic. World building is crucial in science fiction and fantasy. Both genres take place in strange worlds with totally alien landscapes, codes of ethics, and/or creatures. These worlds must ring true from the start, because the sooner the reader gets her balance and bearings, or at least finds promising and intriguing handholds, the more likely she is to keep reading. But science fiction and fantasy have slightly different rules for world building. The worlds in science fiction must be based, at least tentatively, on accepted scientific theory and fact. Fantasy has no such constraints, but it does demand that its worlds be true to their own rules and history. Actions must be predictable and understandable. If one character can levitate and all the others can’t, the author must provide… Read More »

Strength and the Werewolf

Posted C. LaVielle4 CommentsPosted in Major arcana, Tarot, Writing, Young Adult Fantasy

Whenever I read a story about werewolves, the lion on the Strength card roars in my head like the start of an old MGM movie. A tale about werewolves is always about the eternal struggle between our animal desires, instincts, and power and our logical, self-controlled, altruistic human side. At the end of the 2010 remake of the 1941 movie, The Wolf Man, the Wolf Man attacks his fiancée, forcing her to shoot him with a silver bullet. Her words, which end the movie, states the moral dilemma posed by Strength and the werewolf beautifully. “It is said there is no sin in killing a beast Only in killing a man But where does one begin and the other end?” In his latest book, The Last Werewolf, Glen Duncan’s line between man and beast is fairly clear and painfully raw. Jake is a werewolf from hell. A week before full moon the wulf, as he calls, it begins to mess with him. Phantom fangs and… Read More »

Willamette Writers Conference, 2011

Posted C. LaVielle6 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Young Adult Fantasy

I got good news and bad news at this year’s conference. The good news was that Miriam Kriss, an agent with Irene Goodman Literary Agency, asked to see a synopsis and the first ten pages of Forging the Blade. She was the only agent I pitched to because I’d already pitched to all the other agents there that were looking for YA fantasy. The bad news also came from Miriam Kriss. After carefully listening to my pitch she said:  You’re book isn’t really young adult fantasy because you’re main character doesn’t have the same concerns and problems that young adults have and she spends most of her time with adults.  Your book is high fantasy, which doesn’t sell as well as urban fantasy.  Your second book should never be a sequel to your first book (mine is), because if you don’t sell your first book, or if it sells poorly, you’ll never be able to sell your second book. Ah well, maybe… Read More »

Three Bits of Advice from a Pro

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Young Adult Fantasy

The opening chapters of The Remaking needed something. I wasn’t quite sure what it was, but they weren’t ready to send out to agents. The best thing for me to do when I get stuck like this is talk to another writer, so I invited Kris out for a lunch of gourmet grilled cheese sandwiches. We watched the weather do what it always does in Portland in late May—dither about raining and then raining. We also talked about my manuscript. Because she is my friend as well as an English teacher and a writer, she listened to me as I drowned my sorrows in Coke and cholesterol and rambled on about the plot’s back-story. When I was all done she said:  You need to include more of that back story right up front so I have a better understanding of your character. By golly, I thought, she’s right. Figuring out how much back-story to include is tricky. The reader doesn’t want to wade through… Read More »

The Fry Graph—No, You Won’t Find It in a Cookbook!

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Young Adult Fantasy

When my friend, Kris, who teaches English and Writing at a community college, critiqued the first few chapters of my manuscript, one of the first things she did was analyze them using the Fry Graph readability formula. Unfortunately this formula doesn’t tell an author how much his readers will enjoy his writing, but it does calculate how easy or difficult his writing is to read. The Fry Graph result is a grade level. If the analysis result is 6.4, that means that most sixth graders would be able to read it. It counts the number of syllables and sentences in a hundred-word writing sample, and plots words vs. syllables on a graph. The more syllables and the fewer sentences there are, the higher the grade level. It’s best to use descriptive or narrative parts of a piece of fiction, not dialogue. The analysis is simple. This is how to do it. So that’s great, you say, but what good is it? Edward Fry developed the… Read More »

Wish Me Luck!

Posted C. LaVielle6 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Synchronicity, Young Adult Fantasy

The rewrite of the first few chapters is complete. After several back and forth e-mails of suggestions on her part and revisions on mine, Jessica, my editor, says it’s “in good shape.” She wanted me to tighten it a bit more, and I tried, I really did, but I was only able to pare it down by a sentence here and there. She doesn’t like the title either. She says it needs to be more active and let the reader know that this is a fantasy. I’ve thought about shortening it to The Remaking, or possibly Forging the Blade. I also had Kris, a friend who teaches English and Writing at a community college, take a look at it. She critiqued the manuscript in a totally different way than Jessica. As an English teacher, she mostly looked at sentence structure and length and word usage. And because she’s only read the first three chapters she was able to give me a viewpoint of someone who’s… Read More »

Two of the Worst Things That Could Happen Just Happened (Continued)

Posted C. LaVielle12 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Major arcana, Synchronicity, Tarot, Young Adult Fantasy

Thing 2: A few days after I got The Letter I went to the library to find a book to read. I was too lazy to check my list of books that I need to read, I just wanted something to relax and entertain. It would be nice to be able to to say that a sense of foreboding settled over me as I approached the New Books rack, but it didn’t. I just picked a likely looking book, The Last Days of Madame Rey, skimmed the blurb, and checked it out. It was several days before I got a chance to sit down and begin reading it. The prologue was titled “The Fool”. Oh good, I thought, a book with a tarot theme. When I got to the first chapter and it was titled “The Magician: I began to panic. I looked ahead. Sure enough, the second chapter was “The High Priestess” and the third was “The Empress”. To my horror, A.W. Hill, the… Read More »

Six more Steps Along the Road to Finding an Agent

Posted C. LaVielle5 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Young Adult Fantasy

1: Go over the OryCon critiques and rewrite the first three chapters of The Remaking of Molly Adair and Molly Adair, Beware. Ron Root, a writer friend, gave me a valuable piece of advice about rewriting the first chapter of The Remaking. We were sitting in a bar at OryCon and I was whining to him about how I was having trouble figuring out how to fix the damn thing. “The reason the chapter is weak is because Tracy’s character is flat and no one understands who he’s supposed to be,” Ron said. “I’d go back and do an in-depth character profile on him before I even thought about rewriting.” So I got out the trusty Character Template he’d sent me and filled it in for Tracy Bliss. It covers everything from physical description, to mannerisms, to fears, to desires, to religious philosophy, to strengths and weaknesses. By the time I was done, I knew just what I needed to change in the first chapter.… Read More »

OryCon 32

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Young Adult Fantasy

As sci-fi/fantasy conventions go, OryCon is medium sized, has a good, steady following, and has been around since the late seventies. It’s Oregon’s only convention of this sort. I was told that all the others failed in their first few years. Even though OryCon is packed with writers and thought provoking writers’ panels and workshops, it is a very different sort of gathering than the Willamette Writer’s Conference. WWC has a serious air about it. Writers go there to pitch their manuscripts, network, and improve their techniques by attending excellent workshops. OryCon is an extravagant outpouring of fans’/writers’ love of science fiction and fantasy, and their joy at being with over a thousand other excited people who are ready and willing to talk for hours about the genre and all the philosophies and ideas connected with it. “It’s my yearly dose of sanity,” quipped one conventioneer. And the costumes were fabulous. Wizards conversed with pirates and steampunkers strolled down the halls with barbarians. In fact,… Read More »

OryCon and Lake Oswego High School

Posted C. LaVielle2 CommentsPosted in Getting Published, Tarot, Young Adult Fantasy

And what, you may ask, do OryCon and Lake Oswego High School have in common? They both are sources of critiques for my manuscripts. OryCon is a huge Science Fiction/Fantasy convention that’s been around since the late seventies. I’ve never been before and I can’t imagine why, it looks like fun. How could it not be with over 1,500 sci fi/fantasy lovers all in one place? At the OryCon Writer’s Workshop I’ll get a fellow writer’s and a pro’s critique on the first 7,500 words of both my manuscripts for just $10 apiece. Such a deal! Of course, this means that I had to critique two manuscripts. The ones I received were Vampire Seminarian by Jeff Nichols and Tales from the Curr’s Head by Anna Lewis. They were fun to read and I was surprised at how inspiring and instructive it was. Looking at another writer’s work, seeing what they do well and not so well, and thinking about what it needs to make it… Read More »