North Texas Teen Book Festival -- be yourself!

 Teen readers -- and some parents, teachers, maybe even kid brothers and sisters -- packed the Irving Convention Center this month for the annual North Texas Teen Book Festival. With more than 40 panels, speakers, and events packed into a single day, it's hard to pick even highlights.

But for those wondering what tales are suitable for teen readers, the answer is almost anything: a spot of mayhem, the darkness of family violence, love-sweet-love, and especially diversity.

Even the staple of fairy tales drew a huge audience of young readers. But these weren't your grandma's tales. They drew from the "Frozen" canon (yes, Disney is still a fave), pop culture remixes, rediscovered tales from a variety of cultures, even tales in which bad guys could take center stage.

"I find villains fascinating," said James Riley, author of The Story Thieves series. "A hero would give up love to save the world. A villain would give up the world to save his love."

(At least, for awhile. . .)

Taking risks with darkness also played out on the panel "Sidelined: Play by your own rules," with among others, panelist Torrey Maldonado, the author of books dealing with broken families, domestic violence, and "how absolute power can corrupt."

"As a teacher for 30 years, toxicity is something I've witnessed and experienced," he said. 

And if this sound too heavy for his middle-grade readers (his books are under 200 words), they've received such real-life accolades from teachers in the trenches of teen life.

It was the same kind of "be yourself, take risks," advocated by author Stacey Lee on the fairy story panel. "I didn't see any books with Asian people in them, so I did a lot of repression (as a teen)." That is, until she had kids and her inner writer demanded books about kids who looked like them. Now she's the author of Reese's YA Book Club pick, The Downstairs Girls, among other books for teen readers.

And on the "looking like me" issue, what if kids are half and half, like the heroine of The Other Half of Happy, by Rebecca Balcárcel, getting flack from both ethnic sides of your family?

Seeing ourselves in story characters isn't only a matter of race, ethnicity, or gender. Neurodiversity got its due as well. Panelist Alyson Gerber told its story in Focus, the tale of a chess champion struggling with her mental spirals. The techniques in the book include those used by Gerber herself, who lives with ADHD.

But if young readers don't shy from the darker side of life, they also long for stories about love. Like those from Elise Bryant, who proclaimed herself a believer in instant love. 

Not incidentally, she's the author of romantic comedies Happily Ever Afters, and others, who said she knew by age 19 who she wanted to marry and made him "pinky-swear" to do so. (Amazingly, despite that he was still willing to ask her out.)

The filled auditorium who greeted the romance writers with applause seconded Bryant's words.

Panelists ranged from lifelong "Jane Austen nerds" like Sayantani DasGupta who still missed seeing characters who looked like her in romance, to J. C. Peterson who "envied the banter," to Bryant, who dubbed herself "the bad girl here" for never having read Austen.

The Bridgerton TV series also received shout-outs for its combination of racial diversity, Regency style romance, and gorgeous clothes.

North Texas Teen Book Fest

Then there was Julian Winters, whose opening statement, "I mostly write queer contemporary fiction. Queer teens fall on their face and fall in love," drew wild applause from the audience.

Love and laughter were in the air, even among the panelists. 

But given that they're writing for young audiences, how far can the romance really go, moderator Gabi Sikes asked. "What's the most challenging part of writing characters falling in love?"

The hardest part, Peterson said, was "showing real flaws. Letting them see the flaws in characters and saying, yet, I still want to be with this person."

Winters said, "I don't want to give young readers false hope," noting that for queer people, finding suitable romantic partners can be tough. But the hardest part of writing romance for teens? "It's the kiss."

(He admitted to keeping a folder of kissing scenes, perhaps for inspiration.)

"The kissing scenes were so difficult," DasGupta agreed, admitting she turned to her own teen kids for help. Their answer, "Where are the kissing scenes, Mom? More kissing!"

***

Next: What's up with banned books?

Wordcraft – Where the heck do you go to meet an agent?

Third of an occasional series about publication and promotion

It’s a story dear to the hearts of all published writers: how they found their literary agent. It’s always as unique as a love story, they insist. It was a once in a lifetime event, they say. It’ll never happen this way to anybody else, they say. Please. No matter what the romantic trappings of love stories, they all amount to this: two somebodies put themselves out there. No one ever fell in love – or was fallen in love with – while huddled in a dark closet. Same thing with meeting agents. They get out there. We gotta get out there.

I met my agent because a friend invited me to come for dinner one evening in a small city on the other side of the metroplex. I was so tired that night I almost didn’t go. Who cares, I thought? Nothing’s going to happen anyway. But it did. Of course, it helps to put ourselves out there in places where agents are apt to lurk – such as at the restaurant where my friend was waiting. But for those without attentive, agented friends, I suggest conferences. Especially conferences with agents.

Stuff happens when people meet

These are usually more plentiful in the spring and summer, which is why I post lists of several Texas conferences early each year. At this season, I searched further afield to find a few still available between now and year end, and will mention some coming up next year, because we need time to prepare.

September 2-4, 2016: I was amazed to learn there is still space available at the Historical Novel Society conference in Oxford, UK. Check the site for information, or see next year’s schedule when the HNS will meet in the United States.

September 9, 2016:  Still room too at the Sacramento Writing Workshop, in Sacramento, California, September 9. Besides teaching classes at the one-day event, agents will also be available to hear writers’ pitches. Check the site for further information and pricing.

November 19, 2016: Same story at the Las Vegas Writing Workshop – still space available and agents to teach and pitch to. 

And coming up next year:

February 16-19, 2017: The San Francisco Writers Conference runs through the long Presidents’ Day weekend with lot of classes, lots of chances to socialize, and “speed dating” for agents. Registration is currently open.

Spring 2017, TBD: The Houston Writers Guild  hosts a Houston-area conference with speakers, classes and – agents! Usually in April each year, but check back with the site later for information.

May 6-8, 2017: DFW Writers Conference returns to downtown Dallas. Registration is currently open, and by taking a survey, we may win prizes – including possible free registration!

June 22-24, 2017: Historical Novel Society conference in Portland, Oregon. The Historical Novel Society meets in England and North America in alternate years – in 2017, it’s the colonists’ turn!

June 30-July 2, 2017: Writers League of Texas Agents & Editors Conference in Austin, Texas. This is the biggest writers conference in the state! Keep an eye on the site for registration opening later this year.

July 11-15, 2017: ThrillerFest in New York City. I’m thrilled just thinking about it. Lee Child will be there! (Need I say more? Oh, yeah, craft workshops, a pitch fest, and agents!)

July 26-29, 2017: The Romance Writers of America holds its annual conference in Orlando, Florida. Yes, it’s nearly a year away, but this one always sells out early, so keep an eye on the site.

Wordcraft -- Romance writing with a side of mayhem

There are as many kinds of romance writing as there are writers--or readers. And last weekend’s Readers & ’ritas conference in Allen, Texas, brought out so many, I had to make some difficult decisions in picking which discussions to attend.

One that made the list was the “50 Shades of Mystery” panel featuring authors with styles as different as Diane Kelly’s relatively light-hearted Death and Taxes series, Mary Burton’s law enforcement thrillers, Kay Thomas’s Elite Ops military-flavored series, and Dianna Love’s terrorist hunting operatives. The covers for their books feature guns, bullet holes, and fully-clothed characters (with maybe a bare shoulder or so). And they do believe in doing their background work, from the Writers Police Academy; to citizen police academies, to trying on the ever-present Kevlar vests. And talking a lot to experts.

So what, exactly, does it take to write a story that qualifies as “romantic suspense”? And how much suspense/thriller/mystery gets added to the mix? And given the usually slender page counts for series romances, how much room does a writer have to deal with multiple plot complications.

To a great extent, panelists agreed, the answers depend on the which publisher--and which line of that publisher--the author is writing for.

“We talk a lot about the percentage,” Thomas said. “It’s fifty percent suspense, fifty percent romance for some lines,” with other publishers looking for as little as twenty percent or as much as eighty percent of the plot to come from suspense elements. Although Romance Writers of America’s criteria for awarding awards requires the love story to be the main focus, sometimes the suspense is dominant bookstores don’t even shelve the volumes in their romance sections, as Kelly says happens to hers.

And Love and Thomas are tending toward single title books rather than series, to allow for more complicated plots. “My newest is 110,000 words,” Love said. “I write what I
enjoy and I like really big.” (Compare that to the Romance Writers of America guidelines for “traditional romance” with word counts topping out at 60,000.)

How hard is it to do to the technical research for suspense writing, a reader asked. “The research can really fuel your writing,” answered Burton, who recommends the Writers’ Police Academy, to be held next fall in Jamestown, N.C. And all panelists agreed on the need to check facts with experts.

“People are so willing to be helpful,” Thomas said, adding that she’s also lucky to have a homicide detective as a family friend.

“It helps if they know you,” Burton agreed, and especially if the interviews are done in person, “because honestly,” she admits, “if you just email, your questions will sound kind of creepy.”

Face to face interviews can also bring out information a writer may not think to ask questions about, Kelly noted.

Just how much of the facts she gathers does a writer need to put into her books?
“Sometimes you can’t be technically correct but you have to do enough to draw the reader in,” Burton said. “Too much information is a huge temptation.”
“It’s a balancing act,“ Kelley said. “What do you owe your sources and what do you owe your readers? I would never make (my sources) look bad, but as a writer I have to do what it takes to entertain a reader.”

Readers & ’ritas is a program of Fresh Fiction, the brain child of mother-daughter book reviewers Sara and Gwen Reyes. See Fresh Fiction events and featured authors, at 
www.freshfiction.com/.

For information about the Writers’ Police Academy, which usually sells out quickly, see www.writerspoliceacadmy.com/.

(Next Monday--romancing the paranormal, another facet of the Readers & ’ritas conference.)