For teens

Honestly, most of us try not to embarrass our kids in public. My kids have been very tolerant of me being a writer and not the recluse every teen hopes their parents are, if not a famous superhero.

I've said many times that there isn't enough money to get me to return to being a teen. Perhaps it is even more complicated now days. Thus, I'm going to remind everyone of another Blog Party writer, Jeannine Garsee. Remember her Y/A books?

Jen does a fabulous job of writing about "today" topics for teens. In Jen's debut with BloomsburyUSA, Before, After, and Somebody in Between, Martha wants to be much more than her white trash beginnings. School is tough, but home life is tougher. Martha has a mouth on her. She doesn't go slumming, she is from the slum ~ with a big dream to be a professional cellist. Is foster care her chance to shine as a musician?

Jen's second book with BloomsburyUSA is Say The Word. Following up on yesterday's blog topic, What if your parent is gay? When I beta read "Say The Word" I fell in love with the story. Shawna is a typical suburban teen, headed for the front row seat at medical school (more what she 'should do' rather than wants to do). Her parents are divorced ~ typical. What isn't typical is her dad. He says absolutely horrible things about her mom and mate (girlfriend). To my delight, Shawna's step-mom helps her... I'm not telling the rest. Oh and to be clear, Jen's straight.

Both books are wonderful stories and I would not want to label them, but the topics are real life issues for teens and perhaps along with the entertainment of the read will come new information and insights. Even so, if you want to read a fantastic writer's works, get Jen's books.

Jen Garsee at the world's most awesome book blog party: http://nadinelaman.blogspot.com/2009/08/party-with-jeannie-garsee.htmlJen's website: http://www.jeanninegarsee.com/
Check out Jen's blogs: http://onegrapeshy.livejournal.com/
and this blog: http://jeanninegarsee.blogspot.com/

There was no compensation for this post.

Party with JEANNINE GARSEE!

Day 5 of the blog party and we are just getting started!

Show me anyone else who gives away a free book ~ autographed by the author ~ every day for 4 weeks!

Gonna warm up the crowd with some teen music! Everyone is a teen today!



Backstreet is B-A-C-k! (see what my web designer taught me to do with YouTube?)




Carrie had so much fun yesterday that she is giving away two autographed copies of Ghost Sniffer and Other Stories. The envelope, please! Yesterday's winners are ... Kate and Susan! Ladies email me for details!

Jeannine Garsee, author of Before, After, and Somebody in Between ~AND~ Say The Word, has another book on the way... Jen writes for Bloomsbury USA. Check that out! She rocks!

Jen is the first author I met on the internet, years ago. Way back then Before/After had a different title, a working title. Then her agent or Bloomsbury's editor, can't remember the details, said the title had to change.

You have to be flexible if you're going to play in the majors. (A USA baseball term meaning the big time.) We started calling her ms (manuscript), "Martha" after the MC (main character). Psssst! I still call it 'Martha'.

Martha has a mouth on her. She doesn't go slumming, she is from the slum ~ with a big dream to be a professional cellist. As with all of us, everything goes perfectly fine and all her dreams come true by page 7 ~ NOT.

It is no small feat to get a publishing deal with a big NYC publishing house, ya know. So when Jen told me she was thinking about writing her second teen book (YA) with a gay theme, I thought, "Wow! That's a big risk for a debut author in teen lit."

When I beta read "Say The Word" I fell in love with the story. Shawna is a typical suburban teen, headed for the front row seat at medical school (more what she 'should do' rather than wants to do). Her parents are divorced ~ typical. What isn't typical is her dad. He says absolutely horrible things about her mom and mate. To my delight, Shawna's step-mom helps her... I'm not telling the rest.

The problem with Say The Word is that Shawna's BFF calls her "Chica" all the time. AND ~you guessed it~ I got that stuck in my head. For a YEAR (no kidding) CHICA was my buzz word.

Party Game: Whatever you post in the comments HAS to include the word *chica* somewhere in the post. Jen has two books to give away. Jump in and start posting!

More music...(I had help from Ella!)



Carrie sent me this one...



Ivy emailed this one to me (good luck on your day, Ivy)



I thought of this one...



From the party comments...




Coming Monday, Erin Collins! You have all weekend to go back and read the whole party. I'll be here...

The comment section is below this line. Click on the word "comments." That's where you can leave a note. eMail me if you have trouble with this...NadineLaman(at)aol.com

Character development through dialogue

Actions speak louder than words, the saying goes. In writing the words have to create the visual experience for the reader. Characters can't run from point A to point B to...Z endlessly.

A writer has to give a voice to the characters. Their voice has to be realistic (no one speaks grammatically correct ALL THE TIME) as well as match the character. Each of my beta readers caught Shasta using a double negative. (Can't not, no nothing...) I wrote it that way because six year old kids, especially those who have lived on the street, aren't going to have perfect grammar.

The dialogue has to have the tone of the character and situation. A couple of years ago, my friend Jen Garsee wrote a great blog entry where she had different characters say the same thing. (If I find the specific link, I'll edit it into this post.)

There are rules to dialogue too. In the UK, for example, the ending punctuation is outside the quote mark. In the US, the ending punctuation is inside the final quote mark. There are rules about when to use single and double quote marks. There are format rules requiring each speaker to begin a new paragraph, indented, even if they speak only one word.

There is the endless argument about the dialogue tag -- he said -- part of the formula. One that always gets someone riled up on a writing forum is whether the tag for a question is 'said' or not. If I use a tag, I use 'asked' when it is a question. Technically, I've been convinced that 'said' could be correct. Even if it is, it reads silly. Anything that doesn't read right, even if it is correct, pulls the reader out of the story. Not good.

I attribute deep emotions to my characters. Written dialogue doesn't show when someone's voice drops to a whisper. So I tag it that way. This isn't correct either, but I used it in Storm Surge: “Be careful, don’t cut yourself,” I warn. Maybe it is just me but when I warn someone, I say it different from asking what time it is.

Excessive tagging is boring reading. If it is clear who is speaking, drop the tags. If more than two people are talking, it is unlikely they are going to take turns, 1-2-3-1-2-3-1-2-3, so the unruly characters need their lines tagged.

The fastest way to get me to throw a book in the recycling bin is to make me stop and count down to see who said what when the conversation is long-ish and sentences could be said by anyone in the room. Sometimes this can be fixed with direct address rather than tagging, for example, "Yes Sister, blah-blah-blah." That clearly indicates the speaker is not the nun, but you're screwed if both speakers are nuns. heh heh heh

There are some of the basics about dialogue. A good writer develops a feel for when dialogue is needed to advance the story, to set the pace, to give information, to develop a character.

Do I always get it right? No. Mark Twain had dialogue mastered. Jen Garsee is great with dialogue writing. You don't have to take my word for it, Jen has two YA (young adult) books published by a big publisher. http://www.jeanninegarsee.com/