Author Advice

Untamed: Interview with YA Author Madeline Dyer

I’m super excited to introduce you all to the wonderful YA author Madeline Dyer. She writes dark YA and explores the topics of survival and rebellilon in her latest YA dystopian series Untamed. She also has a fascination the relationship between madness and death, lives in the UK with her Shetland ponies, and loves Victorian novels….

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How To Be a Great Art Ally

When you see an author with a new book out you probably think: “Damn, that person has made it! They have a published book!” Of course getting a book published is a huge accomplishment. And in many ways the author is a success story, having accomplished a life-long dream. But that’s not the whole picture….

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Writing the Multi-Platform Novel: The Lexie Project

Living in the age of social media and the internet, storytelling has been given new form. We tell stories in 140 character tweets, eight-minute YouTube serials, and blog installments. We get information from a hundred different angles, permeating our culture and affecting how we digest story. So, how can we use these new technologies in our fiction? Have you…

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Writing Advice from 30 YA Authors

In the last few months I’ve been in book festival fantasyland! I attended the Los Angeles Times Book Festival, LitFest Pasadena, and Pasadena Loves YA Teen Book Festival. I’ve had the joy of seeing over 30 YA authors speak about their books and share insights on their writing processes. It has been glorious! I love to…

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It’s All About Taste

I’ve been thinking a lot lately about writing, publishing, and the importance of taste. Many of my friends are in the trenches of querying agents and submitting novels. They’re racking up long lists of rejection letters and wondering why they aren’t good enough. They’re asking: Why doesn’t this agent want my book? Why didn’t they connect with…

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New Adult: A Genre is Born

“Mixing romance with the life-changing experiences of early adulthood – college life, first jobs, independence, self-discovery and finding love – theses authors are defining the new genre of New Adult. New Adult fiction blazed onto the scene a few years ago and rapidly captured the hearts and minds of readers. YA readers love the contemporary…

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