Tuesday, March 16, 2010

In Which Our Heroine Appreciates The Young Writers



It is the second day of Author Appreciation Week, created by the ultra fabulous Heidi R. Kling. Woot woot!!!!

Today, I am appreciating four young authors. They make me believe I can do anything - including going to school and write and have a social life oh and maybe a job and also read on subways and go out into the wilderness with wolves. :-P

First off, we have the lovely Hannah Moskowitz (who besides looking like me) is Jewish and goes to college. Your mom goes to college. She wrote her novel BREAK when she was fifteen or sixteen, got an agent, landed a deal -- all before she was eighteen years old.



(Um when I was sixteen, I was complaining how I couldn't write novels and how the cute boy didn't like me. Clearly, Hannah is better than me. ;-))

She has another book coming out this summer and a third coming out I believe in 2011. I think. Correct me if I'm wrong. She is also fiercely honest with her opinions and curses like a sailor. She makes me believe its okay to curse in my novel. A lot.

Next, we have the absolutely adorable Kody Keplinger, who hails from the South. Or the Midwest. Okay, wherever Kentucky is. She wrote her book, THE DUFF, when she was seventeen, got an agent at seventeen, and then got her book deal that summer. So basically she is like quicksand. Now you see, now you don't. (...Okay, fine that analogy sucked.) What I mean is she is like lightning. (Okay, I'm gonna stop with the bad analogies.) Besides rocking in the writing department, Kody is in an honors program at Ithaca, wants to be a literary agent when she grows up AND accepts that I dance really badly on vlogs for her.



Kody's book THE DUFF comes out in September, and her second book (some secret project she won't divulge even though I've done a lot of "Fineeeeee" whines and "I'll wait...I guess") comes out in 2011. Then she has a third book in 2012. That girl is crazy fast, I swear!!

The third young author that I am going to appreciate today is the lovely Kristin Briana Otts. She wrote this crazy awesome dystopian YA called CITY OF SHADOWS. She got her awesome agent the summer after freshman year of college. She is also my vlog buddy and has hilarious romantic issues. Which are hilarious. Anyway, Kristin is also semi-okay with the fact that I call her K.Botts and IM her like mad.



Kristin's book is about to go out on subs. Hopefully. In the meantime, she is writing a contemporary novel called SEVEN about a murder mystery in a Colorado town. It is awesome. It will rule the world, I swear.

And finally, the fourth author I am appreciating today is Alexandra Bracken. Alex wrote her novel BRIGHTLY WOVEN when she was a sophomore and junior in college. She then got an agent and a book deal and did all of her edits/revisions while in college. She now works as an editorial assistant in a big, awesome, sparkly children's department at a very cool publishing house in New York City.



Alex and I also got to meet (which was cool, but not the point of this paragraph). I got to hold the ARC of her book in my hands. I did not get to take it. I was okay with at the time. After that, I realized I wasn't too happy with not having the ARC. (Ha. Who likes getting teased?) ;-) But who cares now! Her book debuts from Egmont USA on March 23rd. Which is next week. Which is AWESOME.

I admire all four of these young authors because they made it even though people may have told them they were too young or not experienced enough. I admire them because they wrote when they were in college and got agents while in some sort of schooling and are changing what is perceived as young writers' writing -- that yes, some young writers are skilled and can make it.

7 comments:

  1. I LOVE THIS.
    What a great way to angle your #AAW post!

    ReplyDelete
  2. what a PHENOM post, rachel. seriously. it almost -- ALMOST beats your super-phenom dance moves. (probably not, actually, now that i think about it.)

    loved this. really loved this.

    you are stellar. i appreciate YOU.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Yayayayayay, young writers! :) I adore this post, and I adore all of the people mentioned. <3

    ReplyDelete
  4. I adore all of the people mentioned too!!!!!

    ReplyDelete
  5. Thank you so much!! Loved this post. :)

    ReplyDelete
  6. Ah, love these girls! Awesome.

    Also, I see your WIP is going great. Congrats!

    ReplyDelete