It seems like vampires and werewolves have been dominating the children's book market for over two years, especially in the YA market. But the word from publishing houses is that they will soon be looking for realistic fiction again. So if vampires and werewolves don't easily fit into your plots, never fear. Our time is coming again soon.

I don't mean to sound ornery, but doesn't it seem like a lot of very successful adult fiction writers are lately honing in on our market? First it was James Patterson with his series for kids that, despite bad reviews, is on the NYT Bestseller List. And now John Grisham will be writing a middle-grade series as well.  Gentlemen, it's already a crowded market out there. Please save some shelf space for the rest of us.

What do you think about author celebrites writing for a new age group? Carl Hiassen certainly did a good job when he moved to the children's book market, and others have deservedly won awards for doing so, like Sherman Alexie. But I wonder: Is this just another case of publishers going with the proven name, regardless of quality, just because they know it will sell books?

The winners of the National Books Foundation Awards were announced last night, and the winner in the Young People's Literature category was Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice by Phillip Hoose (Melanie Kroupa Books, a division of Farrar, Straus and Giroux). The finalists were: Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith (Henry Holt); David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.); Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic) and
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins). 

Why does this matter? Quite aside from the fact that these books make good reading is the research it provides you, the writer. Not only should you read them to see what is recognized as quality writing and a good topic. You can also see which publishers are on this list since they're the ones who at one point took a manuscript query, recognized the quality and sent it to print.  

Three of these books are nonfiction, by the way, a reminder that fiction isn't the only genre you can concentrate on when writing for children.

    

        It has been a while since my last blog because who knew that being a magazine publisher would be a 21-plus-hour-a-day job? I've always worked hard, but never this hard. Doesn't matter though because it's worth it when I get letters, e-mails and calls from readers and advertisers who say they enjoy the articles and the way the magazine looks. I just wanted to keep something I loved going, and if all goes well, that will continue. And there's something so gratifying about having produced a magazine from an idea through to the printed product.
       But I do miss writing for children, even though I'm now writing a book column in each issue of Long Island Parent magazine called "Family Bookshelf." It's my sneaky way to stay connected to the children's book industry while doing my regular work. And I do manage to find some time to read and in fact just finished the moving Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher, a story that's both about teen suicide and about how easy it is to cause lasting harm with careless (or deliberate) comments. A lesson to us all, no matter what our age. I recommend it as not only is it a good story, it also has a sophisticated structure worth studying. The author alternates the main character's story with the story of his dead classmate through cassette tapes. Check it out.
        To see my latest magazine and new Web site, visit www.liparentonline.com  Now I must get back to work. My next issue is due at the printer. Then I plan to do some children's writing. Wish me luck.

  

             I lost my job in December, becoming one of the millions who are victims of the economic downturn. Only in my case (well, perhaps all cases), it was political. At least that's what I believe. The powers-that-be at Newsday, the parent company of the magazine division for which I worked, decided to shut down all of the magazines. I had been editor of Newsday's Parents & Children magazine for nearly 10 years. It was a role I enjoyed and my readers were loyal followers. The excuse for the shut down was the economy, but a certain VP had been lobbying for it for years for personal reasons. The economy became his convenient excuse, and the other white shirts bought it. 
        After a couple of weeks of both feeling lost, and certain that now I can finally make all those changes to my YA novel All the Answers But One I've wanted to have the free time to work on, I made a decision. I have started my own magazine and Web site, Long Island Parent magazine and liparentonline.com. Because why not make a crazy decision like that in a bad economy when you've never run a business of that complexity before? I figured if I don't do it now, I never will. It has been a baptism by fire, but a manageable fire. Tomorrow I send my first issue to the printer, and next Sunday the Web site goes live. I've had the help of many others who were laid off with me, as well as my talented writers with whom I've worked for years, and a few new staffers who are already part of the team. The magazine looks fabulous and the editorial is solid. I have big plans for the future of my new company, Wordsmiths Media LLC. And I have but one regret: Why didn't I allow myself to enjoy being unemployed for a short time so I could finish my book? What was I thinking? 
    Ah, well. At least I've made time to listen to Laure Halse Andersen's YA novel Twisted during my many errands by car. A fabulous example, once again, of how a writer can draw a word portrait of raw emotion and a believable character. Makes me miss my character Beth. Maybe next week I can get back to her. We'll see.

    So, if you're looking to break into children's books, apparently it doesn't hurt to have been a reality show star. It was announced today that The Hills star Lauren Conrad just got a three-book deal with HarperCollins two write a YA series I can only assume is based on her experience. Ah, me, why didn't I think of that? If only I had time to star in a reality show of my own . . . Well, I wish her luck and I'm sure all predictions that the books will be blockbusters are true. Teens I live with love the series Secrets of My Hollywood Life by Jen Calonita, and I confess I've enjoyed them, too. There's just something about those glimpses into a world we don't occupy that is thrilling to read about. Alas, I'll stick with the YA world I like to write about, which is a little closer to home. Even if it means I'm, well, not dealing in reality.

        My last entry was a gentle condemnation of sloppy writing and editing, and I used as examples one book I have read and one I had yet to start. It's the latter for which I want to apologize now that I've finished it. Stephenie Meyer's final book in her series, Breaking Dawn, wasn't all that sloppy. There were some inconsistencies, but for the most part it had fewer typos than did her other books. Yeah, there were a number of neatly tied bows, but all authors do that, and readers forgive them.
        However, now that I have read it, I have more important issues with the book than I expected. As a writer and editor, I don't understand why Meyer chose to change point of view for one section of her book. Hearing Bella's story through Jacob's eyes removed the reader from the main character they had followed for three other books and made it difficult to understand the plot. Why couldn't we hear Bella's thoughts and decision process during a most disturbing plot development? I suspect Meyer's decision to change POV is the reason the rest of the book, which switches back to Bella's POV, feels off track, as though Meyer no longer really knew her Bella. The third section feels like a completely different book than all the others before it. Fans have said that the series ends for them when the first section of Breaking Dawn ends. I can see why.  
        But none of this is my biggest problem. As a parent and a parenting writer and editor, I am deeply disturbed by the plot and kept thinking the whole time I was reading it: This is not a kid's book.  Particularly in the second section, Jacob's POV--and here's a spoiler, so beware--when Bella is pregnant with a vampire child that violently breaks her ribs, pummels her belly, bruises her, making her near death. Bella has to drink human blood in graphic details to save the baby--and she likes it. And the only way to birth the baby is to bite it out?! It's totally gross, and if my daughter weren't already 18, I'd have insisted on reading it with her if she insisted on reading it, just so I could help her through these parts. But Meyer's fans are as young as 12 (and I'm sure younger) and I can tell you I wouldn't want my 14 year old reading it. If there are any parents of younger girls who haven't screened the book and it's not too late, I highly recommend doing so. And if it's too late, please talk to your child about the book. Maybe modern kids are jaded so it doesn't bother them. But I've read a lot of children's fiction and I've never run across a book in which teen pregnancy was handled in such a violent way. Yes, Bella is married so there are no moral dilemmas, but seriously, what's to be gained by everyone around Bella being tortured by how the pregnancy is draining the life out of her, while the "monster" inside her gets stronger? This is the stuff of horror movies that are rated at least a PG-13, but most likely R.
        Then there's Meyer's message, which as the mother of two teen daughters, bothers me as well: That at 18 you can know exactly what your future will be, so forgo college, marry and become a mother and from that alone you will be fulfilled for a lifetime. That just like in the movies, you'll have the perfect home, fancy cars, and oodles of money that comes from a source you needn't concern yourself with. It's a fantasy we'd all like to buy into.  And there are many families that do start out in the teen years. But usually as a society we worry about them because they're more likely to be living below the poverty level, unless they have an abundant source of income, which is rare. 
        As a wife, mother and an adult, I can appreciate Bella's love for her new family in ways my 18-year-old daughter could not. She doesn't yet understand the fierce love that a mother would have for her child, the passion that would make her do anything, even kill, to protect her child. So she wasn't able to relate to that Bella in any way. Which is another reason I feel this book was probably better directed at adults. As a writer I can understand the psychology with which Meyer, a wife and mother, must have been living as she wrote this book. I can imagine that she felt closest to Bella when she was now a wife and mother as well. It was clear from the writing how much Meyer loved the "adult" Bella. But that's exactly why the teen Bella, the girl that Meyer's fans loved and followed, seems to have been forgotten. And I feel for those fans. Meyer has said in interviews that she writes for herself, and that is her prerogative. But I wonder if once you've created such a powerful fan base through what you've written that you don't have a responsibility to them to at least remember their ages as you're writing. Yes, Meyer makes sure to let her readers know that the sex (the only human need that vampires can apparently engage in, and it's better than for humans it seems) follows the wedding, a message I'm grateful for since teen movies and TV seem to make sex after the first kiss an inevitability. And I'm also happy for Bella that in her vampire form she seems to have come into her own, enjoying a power so strong it saves her community. But I'm afraid all this isn't enough for me to justify the course Meyer's plot took. (Not that it ultimately matters what I think, I grant you that.)
        My suspicion is that since Meyer wrote her adult book, The Host, around the same time she was working on Breaking Dawn, she simply forgot how to write for teens. But then I guess that goes back to my earlier post: It's the editor's job to get the writer back on track. Had this not been Meyer's fourth book, had it been her first, I suspect it would have been rejected by an editor, or at least sent back for major revisions. That once again supports my theory that the industry does get a little sloppy when it knows it has a sure sale. We writers owe our readers much more than that.

    My 18-year-old daughter finally convinced me to read Stephenie Meyer's hugely successful series about the love triangle of Bella, Edward the Vampire, and Jacob the Werewolf.  It took me a while because I'm not a vampire-werewolf kind of person. I prefer the characters in the books I read to be wholly human. But I suppose because I happily expanded that limitation to embrace Harry Potter, it was only a matter of time before I stretched my boundaries. Besides, since following the children's book industry is one of the things I do for a living, I really had no other excuse. So, I've spent my free time reading the first three books in the series over the last two weeks. And now I can start the final book, Breaking Dawn, which every Meyer fan has already finished, though the book was only released on Friday. 

    But I'm not looking forward to it. That's because my resident book critic has already informed me that Meyer's latest is being called an "epic failure" filled with "WTF" moments by the readers who matter most: teens. Fans aren't happy with Meyer right now. They say her 754-page final installment is about 400 pages too long. Then there's the issue that makes the editor in me twitch: I've already noticed in the other three books that there are many typos, misspellings and some sloppy writing. Fans say this book is worse and even teens are questioning if she rushed through it. Now that's harsh. 

    Why do I mention this? Because I'm amazed at what I see as a growing pattern among popular mainstream, successful writers to get carried away with their work and get sloppy, to put it mildly. Libba Bray did the same with the last book in her Great and Terrible Beauty trilogy, another tome that is about 400 pages too long. In this case, as with Meyer, the novelty of the author's ideas and her ability to capture teen angst and love and to tell a thrilling story definitely earned her the hefty advances and bestseller spot. But somewhere along the line, the writers seem to have gotten caught up in their own success, forgoing the good writing skills necessary to sustain fans. Bray's third book registered barely a blip, and the reviews were harsh. Meyer is already suffering the same fate less than a week from the release date. I question where the editors were in the process. After all, as an editor I know my job is to smooth out my writers' work so they look good. If I don't, I'm failing them.  Has the publishing industry become so caught up in their writers' successes that they and the writers think they can do no wrong? You will find no harsher critics than the female teen reader.  Just read some of the latest blogs about Meyer to see what I mean. I wonder if Meyer is surprised and I also wonder what will happen next. She takes her fans very seriously, so I have no doubt at some point she'll respond to them. And I wish her every success because the story of her writing career so far is a writer's dream. (In fact, her first book, Twilight, came to her in a dream. You can read more on her site, www.stepheniemeyer.com.)

    What does all this mean to the rest of us? I think it proves that as writers we need to be steadfast about our writing skills and not be swept up by the promise of stardom, because sometimes even our editors can fail us. Ultimately what wins out with our readers is the quality of our writing. Well-written books stand the test of time and aren't considered novelties.  Sure I'd like the $750,000 advance Meyer got for Twilight. But I also want to make sure that the books I write--and the books my children read--aren't produced solely for profit. I think it's our job as writers to take the quality of our work seriously at all times. In the end, those are the books that win the awards. 

        A while ago I wrote a short essay about a memorable aspect of my writing career for the American Society of Journalists and Authors, of which I'm a long-time member. I had forgotten it was to be published in a book until it was delivered today. The book is Sixty Candles: Reflections on the Writing Life. My excerpt is on page 112. But it's filled with comments and advice from many writers whose names you may recognize. If you want to learn more about how to be a writer, it's always a good idea to read our take on it. You can order a copy at www.iuniverse.com or 800-AUTHORS.