Conference Tips for BEA and Beyond!

With BookExpo America right around the corner, I figured this would be a great time to share a little conference wisdom for people who may not have ever been. These are tips for anyone—authors, bloggers, reviewers, librarians, and fans alike. While BEA was the inspiration for this post, these tips come in handy for ANY conference or convention, big or small, publishing or otherwise!

1. Wear comfy shoes. I know this seems like a no-brainer, but the number one complaint you hear at BEA and other conferences is "Oh my god, my feet are killing me!" In winter, boots make great footwear because you can find stylish boots that still have arch support and good soles. Summer, however, is more tricky. Ballet and similar flats are the go-to "comfy" shoe of choice, but more often than not these are murder on your feet due to the thin soles and lack of support. Try brands like Merrill's and Easy Spirit that are designed to support your feet.
2. Bring a friend. If you're an easy-going extrovert who has no difficulty meeting and mingling, then don't worry about this one. But if you're shy, an introvert, quiet, etc., conferences can be really overwhelming. It's great to have someone there who you know, and can hang out with whenever there are lulls in the meet-and-greet parade, so you don't feel isolated. If you don't have anyone in person who's going with you, try meeting up with some fellow bloggers or authors who you know online who are intending on going. You may find they're just as relieved as you are to have someone to hang out with!
3. Plan your route. Conferences, especially ones as huge as BookExpo America, can be overwhelming, even if you think you're braced for it. Know which booths you want to hit ahead of time, and stop by each as soon as you get there to pick up their schedules. The most sought-after books aren't usually just lying around for anyone to pick, the publishers will have "drop" times, and you'll need to get in line for those, sometimes far in advance of the actual drop. These publishers will have their drop schedules on little handouts that you can grab. So plan ahead and prioritize! 
4. Take notes. You're going to meet a LOT of people, and while you think at the time that you can't possibly forget them, in a few weeks you'll regret it if you don't write something down. I tend to jot notes on the business cards I get handed, to help me put a face, or a conversation, with the name on the card. Which brings me to my next tip!
5. Bring business cards. This one is a source of contention, as some people don't think business cards are useful. I, however, fall into the "why not?" camp. If you're at an industry conference, I recommend bringing some sort of business card or other physical reminder of who you are. (Many authors use bookmarks, which is great, because we're in the book industry.) Personally, I particularly like business cards that have a picture of the person on them, because I'm terrible at matching names and faces in hindsight.
6. Follow up! You've met well over a hundred people in the span of a few short days. Do you remember them all? In a month, will you remember them all? (By the way, you with the photographic memory, I'm not talking to you. You can just go be smug in that corner over there.) No? Yeah, I didn't think so.  But say one of those hundred people emailed you the following week to tell you how much they enjoyed meeting you and how much they look forward to working with you in the future. You'll remember them now! So my last pierce of advice is that you should follow up with the people you meet who you really want to remember—and who you hope will remember you. BEA, and conferences like it, are all about networking and making connections in what can otherwise be a very solitary industry if you don't live in NYC yourself! Don't let those connections fade away.

Do you have any tips to add? Sound off in the comments!

If you're planning on coming to BEA this year, please come up and say hi if you spot me! I'll be there with Aussie co-author extraordinaire Amie Kaufman, and if you want to see where we'll be at any given time, check our schedule. We'll be giving away and signing copies of THESE BROKEN STARS and copies of SHADOWLARK. See you there!

The Science of Madness

I recently began researching insanity for the purposes of a WIP. I had some pre-conceived notions about what I would find, mainly in relation to the spotty medical care of the insane long ago. What I found was much more interesting than anything I believed I would dig up. It seems that we don't really understand a lot about insanity even today.

A lot of this has to do with the fact that the human brain and its workings remain as mysterious to us as the deep ocean blue. Doctors have been studying the brains of syphillitics, insomniacs, manic-depressives, serial killers, and even "normal" people, for a long time. Progress has certainly been made as far as understanding many, many things that we formerly were pretty clueless about, but it seems that every new discovery brings with it a massive revision of what we thought we knew twenty years ago... or even five years ago.

Madness and creativity have been good friends for a long time, something that anyone who has read more than a few paragraphs about some of the greats can tell you. But when I started digging around in the modern parameters for establishing schizophrenia, I became a little... well, I'll go ahead and use the word paranoid.

Because doctors have no way of documenting the internal processes of the insane, they have to rely on external behaviors to diagnose schizophrenia. Here's a general list of symptoms from the Mayo Clinic:

Positive Symptoms:

• Delusions:  These beliefs are not based in reality and usually involve misinterpretation of perception or experience. They are the most common of schizophrenic symptoms.
• Hallucinations:  These usually involve seeing or hearing things that don't exist, although hallucinations can be in any of the senses. Hearing voices is the most common hallucination among people with schizophrenia.
• Thought Disorder:  Difficulty speaking and organizing thoughts may result in stopping speech midsentence or putting together meaningless words, sometimes known as word salad.
• Disorganized Behavior:  This may show in a number of ways, ranging from childlike silliness to unpredictable agitation.

Negative Symptoms:

• Loss of interest in everyday activities
• Appearing to lack emotion
• Reduced ability to plan or carry out activities
• Neglect of personal hygiene
• Social withdrawal
• Loss of motivation

Yep. I dare any writer lost in the drafting process to look at these lists and defiantly declare they exhibit zero of these symptoms.

Now, be assured I'm not making light of mental illnesses. I've been doing some heavy research and learning a lot about the diagnosis (and mis-diagnosis) of mental illnesses both in the past, and not-so-distant years. There have been plenty of people institutionalized that were less outwardly insane than you or I. On the flip-side, some people who really need help don't get it because their symptoms aren't extreme enough to warrant intervention. 

In the end, the most glaring fact I've taken away from my research so far (and please, be aware that I know exactly how much of a layman I am) is that we really don't understand the human brain very well, even today.

If I've piqued your interest check out this recent TEDtalk about what we know - and what we don't.

Would You Live On Mars?

So I saw the other day that the Mars One mission now has over 78,000 applicants for a one-way mission to Mars.  That's close to 100,000 people saying that they are willing to leave behind their families and friends, not to mention beer and sushi and the other little luxuries of life (like, you know, being able to breathe outside) in order to live and probably die on Mars.

Of course, you're trading those little luxuries for something intensely rare and exotic: dust storms like blizzards, tiny winking sunsets, quirky moons, and the chance of seeing a little rover out and about.  And maybe Gary Sinise.

The thing is that we've fantasized about about going to Mars for over a hundred years.  Sometimes it's awesome, sometimes...not so much.  What's the science fiction verdict about living on Mars?

The Martian Chronicles by Ray Bradbury: Humans come to Mars in 1999 and after some initial hostility and misunderstandings with the Martians, manage to colonize the entire planet and kill all the Martians with chicken pox.  Then there's nuclear war on Earth, so most of the colonists go back to be with their loved ones.  Only a few lone humans are left to live in the shells of the terraformed and "civilized" planet.  Verdict: Humans are jerks, and some Martians too (but mostly humans.)  But the planet itself is reasonably safe and easy to tame.

Out of the Silent Planet by C.S. Lewis: A philologist named Ransom is knocked out and kidnapped for a Mars mission that's really all about gathering gold, which is supposedly plentiful on Mars.  The Martians are dying out, but refuse to invade Earth because they're better than that.  But they still send Ransom and his companion back to Earth in a spaceship doomed to fail because they think humans are jerks.  Verdict: Like I said, humans are jerks, and the Martians refuse to truck with that nonsense.  Planet has tons of wealth, but we're not invited to the party.

Stranger in a Strange Land by Robert Heinlein: Valentine Michael Smith, a human orphan raised on Mars by the native Martians, returns to Earth as a young man.  He witnesses Earth's flaws and foibles, and uses his tremendous gifts to start a church combining existing elements of Earth spirituality with telekinesis and other psychic abilities.  His church is persecuted and he's killed.  Verdict: Humans are jerks, and the Martians will only refrain from killing us if we stop being jerky and get more awesome.

The Mars Trilogy by Kim Stanley Robinson: The First Hundred colonists are brought to Mars via the spaceship Ares and complex political and personal narratives ensue, leading to revolutions, battles with Earth, and eventually the transformation of Mars into a habitable planet, complete with water, air and plants.  Boosted by this success, humans spread out across the universe.  Verdict: Humans can be jerks, but a lot of times aren't, and can overcome great obstacles to achieve amazing things.

Overall verdict: Mars isn't a bad place to live, but since people are people whether they're on the Olympic peninsula or the Olympus Mons, stuff can go wrong.  Or right.  Or both, which is what history suggests would happen.  And if we ever met extraterrestrials, they would think we are horrible, horrible people.

Would you do it?  Risk death by radiation and suffocation and your jerky neighbors in the dome to the right in the name of exploration and discovery?  Of being in the vanguard of human spacefaring?

How much SCI in your FI?

I love that YA sci-fi encompasses such a diversity of books, and a diversity of the science within them. Some possess more intense science, some are more soft sci-fi.

CONTROL was written with a very purposeful hand when it came to making the science accurate, or at least believable. Even the world building--things like transportation or growing crops--was carefully thought out. There had to be a reason behind the design, even if I never explain it in the actual book. I spent countless hours refreshing my understanding of genetics, neurobiology, photosynthesis, olfactory physiology...

But at the same time, I also knew I didn't want the science to take over the story.

In the end, CONTROL is simply about a 17 year old girl who's trying to get back what she's lost. And though the science is not a quiet bystander, it's there. Waving its hand, like a total spaz, from a few rows behind my main characters.

So I'm curious. For you sci-fi readers--how much sci do you like in your fi?

Celebrate the paperback launch of BLACK CITY

Today we're celebrating the paperback launch of one of our new League member's books: Elizabeth Richards' BLACK CITY!

About Black City

A dark and tender post-apocalyptic love story set in the aftermath of a bloody war

In a city where humans and Darklings are now separated by a high wall and tensions between the two races still simmer after a terrible war, sixteen-year-olds Ash Fisher, a half-blood Darkling, and Natalie Buchanan, a human and the daughter of the Emissary, meet and do the unthinkable — they fall in love.

Bonded by a mysterious connection, that causes Ash's long dormant heart to beat, Ash and Natalie first deny and then struggle to fight their forbidden feelings for each other, knowing if they're caught they'll be executed —but their feelings are too strong.

When Ash and Natalie then find themselves at the center of a deadly conspiracy that threatens to pull the humans and Darklings back into war, they must make hard choices that could result in both their deaths.

Watch the trailers

Fun facts about BLACK CITY

• The book’s original title was CRAVING
• The city is based on Victorian London
• The female MC, Natalie Buchanan, is named after one of Elizabeth’s closest friends
• BLACK CITY is the first in a trilogy. The sequel, PHOENIX is out on 4 June
• The series has been optioned by Screen Gems
• BLACK CITY was selected as one of Penguin’s Fall 2012 Breathless Reads 

Giveaway

Here on the League, we're giving away a paperback copy of BLACK CITY to celebrate it's launch! The competition ends on Sunday 12 May, and is open internationally.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Keep 'em hanging

“Just one more chapter...”

Does that sound familiar? We’ve all been there. Fifteen chapters later, it’s four o’clock in the morning and your eyes feel like they’ve been licked by a thousand newborn kittens (it's not as cute as it sounds), and yet you still can’t stop reading. What sort of witchcraft do these authors have over us? Why can’t we just PUT THE DAMN BOOK DOWN AND GO TO SLEEP? Well, chances are they’ve perfected the art of the 'chapter out'.

Chapter outs are something I spend a lot of time over when writing my novels. In fact, I won’t start a chapter until I know how it’s going to end, so I know how to build up the tension and keep the action rushing toward that (hopefully) exciting end point.

Good chapter outs should finish on a revelation, turn the story on its head, or raise the stakes (and preferably do all three), so it keeps the reader on their toes and desperate to find out what happens next. Of course, some endings are more successful than others, and I don't suggest every chapter ends on a 'dum-dum-duuuuuuuum' type cliffhanger, but it should keep the reader curious. Don't give them an excuse to put your book down and go to sleep!

In my opinion, the queen of the 'chapter out' is Suzanne Collins. She's made it something of an art form. If you don’t believe me, here are the chapter outs for the first three chapters in The Hunger Games (by the way, this next part of the post is going to contain some SERIOUS spoilers, so if you haven’t read The Hunger Games, then just assume everything I write next is life changing and awesome, and skip to the bottom...)

Chapter 1

Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smooths the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it’s not me.
     It’s Primrose Everdeen.

(Chapter 1, Pg 24, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic Children's Books)

Holy hell fire! That’s an opening and a half.  The reader expects Katniss Everdeen’s name to be read out, so the swerve-a-rooney is not only shocking but it’s amazing character development, as it gives Katniss something to fight for, which isn’t just a ‘selfish’ need to save her own life. Brilliant. *tips hat*

Chapter 2

Oh well, I think. There will be twenty-four of us. Odds are someone else will kill him before I do. 
Of course, the odds have not been very dependable of late.

(Chapter 2, Pg 40, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic Children's Books)

By this point, Peeta is clearly being set up as the love interest, and yet Katniss realizes she’s going to have to kill him. Talk about a doomed love! The reader is instantly gripped. How is this going to be resolved, so we get our ‘happily ever after’? Is it possible that we *gulp* won’t get a happy ending?

Chapter 3

“…Haymitch can well be the difference between your life and death!”
Just then, Haymitch staggers into the compartment.
“I miss supper?” he says in a slurred voice. Then he vomits all over the expensive carpet and falls in the mess.
“So laugh away,” says Effie Trinket. She hops in her pointy shoes around the pool of vomit and flees the room.

(Chapter 3, Pg 57, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, Scholastic Children's Books)

By the end of chapter 3, we have all the conflict we need to keep reading to the end: a girl being thrown into the hunger games to save her little sister; a boy who loves her but their romance is doomed; and their only hope is a drunk. How is Katniss going to get out of this situation?

It's amazing how much you can achieve in just a few short sentences, so it's worth taking the time and effort to go through your chapter outs and ask yourself:

a) Does this reveal anything about the character/situation?
b) Does this raise the stakes?
c) Does this turn the story on its head?

By getting your chapters outs nailed, you too can keep readers up all night!

Guest Post Saturday: Shipping FanFi, Or, Why I Love Both

Welcome to a special Saturday guest post by the wonderful Margaret Stohl, one of the co-authors of the Beautiful Creatures series and the author of the upcoming Icons, a book that I think most readers of the League will adore. So, without further ado, here's Margie!

Shipping FanFi: Or, Why I Love Both

by Margaret Stohl

Some of our Beautiful Creatures readers were surprised to hear that my first solo series was going to be a Sci Fi near future romance. People understand things like Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games books or Veronica Roth’s Divergent trilogy, but from the co-author of the Beautiful Creatures novels (written with my partner in crime, Kami Garcia) an adrenaline-pumping pulse-pounding alien-landing city-destroying sci-fi love story was just – well, strange.

This is the part where I come out of the closet as a huge nerd. Melissa de la Cruz calls us the Geek Girls, and it’s actually true. My two favorite childhood books were The Dark Is Rising, a fantasy series by my most beloved Susan Cooper, and A Wrinkle in Time series, by my other most beloved, Madeline L’Engle.

When one of my very first videogame jobs in my sixteen-year videogame design/writing career gave me the opportunity to adapt Frank Herbert’s Dune universe, I was hooked.  I went on to discover Heinlein (Stranger in a Strange Land, along with one of my all-time favorites, The Moon is a Harsh Mistress) and Dan Simmons (The Hyperion books, with a Catholic Space Army) and my personal god of the insane, Philip K. Dick. Sadly, my super crazy soulmate. I’ve read The Martian Time Slip more times than any other book, and that’s probably not a good thing. Arthur C. Clarke’s 2001: A Space Odyssey books (2061 and 3001) have to be read all the way through. His Rendezvous with Rama books shouldn’t be missed. And ICONS itself was born after a giant re-read of his seminal (for me) Childhood’s End.

I love inventive universes, and I love to invent universes. I will always and forever love Hans Solo and the 10^thDoctor equally. As a die-hard #SuperWhoLock, I adore Supernatural’s Sam and Dean Winchester brothers, but I also worship Firefly’s Mal and BSG’s Starbuck (never Apollo.) I am a genre girl, and I have more than one genre.

I hope you do to, and I hope you’ll give ICONS a chance.

XO Margie

Links

Twitter: @mstohl 

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheIconsSeries

Tumblr: http://theiconsseries.com/