The Young Adult/Cross-Over Market by Vonnie Winslow Crist

Vonnie Winslow Crist is the author of a YA fantasy novel, The Enchanted Skean, two YA-friendly story collections, The Greener Forest and Owl Light, and other books. A firm believer that the world around us is filled with mystery, miracles, and magic, Vonnie celebrates the power of myth in her writing.

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The Young Adult/Cross-Over Market by Vonnie Winslow Crist

Young Adult books are written for the teenage reader, so they usually have a teen protagonist. But some books that feature young adult characters, like Stephenie Meyer's vampire-werewolf Twilight series, Cross-Over and become bestsellers in the adult book market, too.

My newest book, The Enchanted Skean, is a YA/Cross-Over novel filled with action, adventure, and magic. Its central character is a 14-year old boy who's living a quiet life in the seaside town of Queen's Weather when his grandmother sends him on a journey to Ulfwood to retrieve his father's bones and a family skean (dagger). After reaching Ulfwood, Beck discovers the skean is magical. Soon the dagger and its owner attract the attention of dark mages, goblins, ogerhunches, and Skullsouls. With the help of wisewomen, warriors, shape-changers, and a dragon, Beck faces danger and treachery. He soon realizes there's a developing confrontation between good and evil, and he and his enchanted skean have a role to play. I'm hoping teens and grown-ups alike will enjoy the book.

I chose to write a YA/Cross-Over fantasy because I've always been a fan of them. Adults of all ages can enjoy a Cross-Over book's plot twists, varied characters, and carefully constructed world. One of the earliest Cross-Overs I purchased for my bookshelf was JRR Tolkien's The Hobbit. Though Bilbo Baggins is middle-aged in human years, in hobbit years he's a young adult. And readers get to watch Bilbo mature as he journeys through Middle-earth.

Tolkien's meticulously-built world with its own races, geography, history, creatures, rules of war, clothing, and magic is also the setting for The Lord of the Rings trilogy which features another young hobbit, Frodo, as the protagonist. Adding to the YA feel of The LOTR trilogy is the boyish friendship of Frodo, Sam, Merry, and Pippin. But the tangle of plots, subplots, themes, and characters that weave their way through The Lord of the Rings are rich enough to snag countless adult readers.

The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe by CS Lewis and the rest of his Chronicles of Narnia are also YA/Cross-Over books. Written for the teen (and preteen) reader, the series continues to be read by adults young and old.

Another Cross-Over series I've filled my book shelves with is The Sword of Shannara and its sequels by Terry Brooks. These aren't really YA books, you might say. But I submit to you that indeed they began as a coming of age story about 2 young men, Shea and Flick. And then, the Shannara books topped the New York Times bestseller list and became a favorite fantasy series for many adult readers.

The last cross-over series I'll mention is J.K. Rowlings' Harry Potter. Harry, Ron, and Hermoine, the three main characters in Rowlings' classic coming of age tales, begin their literary journey as 12-year-olds. And as such, attracted a faithful readership of preteens and teens. But it's the Cross-Over into the adult market that has help make the books one of the most successful fantasy series ever published.

I'm not the only one to notice and celebrate the increase in both the numbers and quality of YA/Cross-Over books. The Baltimore Sun, March 14, 2010, p.4, A and E section featured an article by Susan Carpenter in which she quotes Lizzie Skurnick, author of a collection of essays about YA literature: “I think part of the reason we're seeing adults reading YA is that often there's no bones made about the fact that a YA book is explicitly intended to entertain...YA authors are able to take themselves less seriously. They're able to have a little more fun...”

And that's why YA/Cross-Over fantasy novels rock! They're entertaining, enlightening, and thought-provoking – but most of all – they're fun!

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For those who'd like to know more about Vonnie's YA/Cross-Over novel, you can view The Enchanted Skean's book trailer and read a 3-chapter sample.

For more information, check Vonnie's website or blog. Find her books on Amazon, Barnes and Noble, and elsewhere. Become her friend and fan on Facebook and Goodreads. And follow her on Twitter.

Tote Winners and Other Notes

The winners:

I'm pleased to announce that Margot Kinberg and John Paul McKinney won "Killer in Crinoline" totes from guest author Duffy Brown. Congratulations!


This is super guest week:

I have two more excellent guest authors lined up. Surprise guest Vonnie Winslow Crist will be here tomorrow, and Tim Northberg will join us on Thursday.


Where I'll be next Monday

Writer/blogger Julie Luek is running a Monday series in May at her blog A Thought Grows. The series is called Writing Through the Seasons. First there was "The Twenty-Something Writer" by Sarah Allen followed by "Writing and Motherhood" by Jennie Bennett. Today Julie posted "Facing the Fall Season of My Life." I'll be closing up the series next Monday with "The Retired Writer."

This series has been popular and drawn a lot of comments -- I hope you'll drop by Julie's blog and check it out.


Still trying to get back in the groove

I can't believe how many of my routines and habits were totally disrupted after being away from home for 16 days. If I can change my mindset that fast, then perhaps we don't really need a whole thirty days to build a new habit or break an old one.

This is not a bad thing.

Lord Save Me From Critique Groups by Duffy Brown

While others girls dreamed of dating Brad Pitt, Author Duffy Brown longed to take Sherlock Holmes to the prom. She now has two cats, Spooky and Dr. Watson, and conjures up who-done-it stories of her very own for Berkley Prime Crime

Duffy was an Agatha nominee this year for best first book (Iced Chiffon). She's third from the left in this photo with authors Stephanie Jaye Evans, Erika Chase, Mollie Cox Bryan, and Susan M. Boyer.
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Her new release in the Consignment Shop Mystery series from Berkley Prime Crime is Killer in Crinolines.

"When Reagan Summerside is asked to make an emergency bowtie delivery to Magnolia Plantation for a wedding, she finds the groom facedown in five tiers of icing and fondant, a cake knife in his back and her good friend and UPS driver accused of the murder. Can Reagan find the real killer without winding up in the local swamp as alligator meat? Will Walker Boone badass attorney and once upon a time gang member help her out or will he feed her to the alligator himself."

Duffy will be giving away a Killer in Crinolines tote to two lucky visitors who leave a comment on today's post before midnight Mountain Time tomorrow (Sunday, May 19th). Be sure there's a good trail to your contact information to qualify.

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Lord Save Me From Critique Groups by Duffy Brown

Critique group is two words, two parts. The group part builds your story; the critique part ruins it. Brainstorming with others develops, creates and unites; critiquing destroys frustrates and separates."

There are boatloads of how-to books out there on the basics of writing and lists of workshops that can hone skills, but when it comes to writing your story, it must be one-hundred percent told in your voice. If you let a critique group at your story you get book-by-committee. It’s sliced and diced and put back together to suit them, not you. Nothing fresh and new comes from working with a group. Fresh and new and exciting comes from deep inside the writer.

Critiquing is like throwing a rock through a window. The original work is shattered. Brainstorming is like throwing a rock in a pond. It lands and the ripples start building from small circles to every widening ones that seem to go on forever. The brainstorming group forms a pool of creative energy where great ideas feed off other great ideas. Goals, motivation and conflict of the story are explored in ways you never even thought about.

Brainstorming an entire story doesn’t mean someone else writes my book. It means you come with the basic premise, characters, maybe a beginning and end and some turning points. You bring these ideas to the group, ply them with chocolate-chip cookies then write down their ideas as they suggest ways to fill in the rest of the story. Do this in three stages--the opening and beginning of the story, the middle action and turning point, the climax, black moment and epiphany. You explore what makes the story unique, the characters unique, what hooks fit and how to best pitch the story to an editor.

You can take notes but a tape recorder is better. You write down and take into consideration all the ideas, even ones you think will never work. What sounds crazy now may very well be what works the best when you’re actually writing the story. One idea often sparks another idea that you’d never have thought of on your own.

In brainstorming, the most important things to remember are that there are no wrong ideas, no one insists their idea is best or someone else’s won’t work and pass the cookies.

Brainstorming doesn’t have to be for an entire book. Maybe its the beginning or end or a scene that needs help. Perhaps a character’s gotten into a mess and you don’t know how to get him out of it. Maybe he needs to get into a mess and you’re looking for the right motivation.

A fun and incredibly productive way to brainstorm is a brainstorming weekend. This is not a vacation; this is work. In fact, when you get back you’ll need a vacation. Being with other authors lets you see how they plot and create wonderful intriguing characters that bring their stories to life.

Brainstorming is far better than critiquing. It’s a positive experience, not negative in any way. Editors say, write the book of your heart—not hearts. It has to be your story told your way in your voice. When that editor buys your book, the most important thing they buy is your voice. The way you tell the story...not the way the group tells the story.

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You make some very good points, Duffy. I belong to a critique group and have gained a lot of ideas and support from the members over the years. The occasional bouts of frustration come when a member forgets to "suggest" and instead pushes her own point of view with a bit too much enthusiasm. We need to know when to listen, and when to stick our fingers in our ears and sing "la la la la la la."

To learn more about Duffy and her mysteries, visit her website. She can also be found on Facebook.

I Spent Some Time Unplugged...and I Like It!

Yes, I'm finally back. I arrived home late Monday evening but I've been in some kind of "post-frantic activity" twilight zone ever since. With any luck, I'll get back to my normal blogging and writing schedule very soon.

My apologies to Duffy Brown and my followers for not having Duffy's guest post available today. I didn't expect to be unplugged for most of my stay, and I originally expected to get home on May 6th instead of May 13th. I'll make it up to Duffy in the near future.

Now about being unplugged --

I only had access to a computer for a couple of days over the last two weeks, so I simply had to put e-mail, Facebook, Twitter and blogging out of my mind and deal with my mom's move from her apartment to assisted living.

Losing access to the Internet didn't hurt me one bit.

Now that I'm home, I've found the urgent stuff could be handled in about fifteen minutes a day. I'm not going to go back to review missed Yahoo! Group digests or my friends' past blog posts. Today's a new day, and I'm looking forward. Sure takes the pressure off.

I have no idea what will show up on this blog for the next few days. Stay tuned.

Oopsie! No Computer Again

Knowing I was about to get unplugged again on Tuesday, I hustled to the computer to pre-schedule this notice of my uncomfortable state of disconnectedness.

I had already pre-scheduled the announcement of Mike's book and David's guest post, so that was good. However, I had nothing ready for today or all of next week. I might get home Monday night, and I might not.

For those who don't already know, I'm in Illinois getting my Mom moved out of her apartment and into an assisted living facility. We've been going through every file, every box, every piece of clothing, every piece of china, etc. Then I've shredded, sorted and packed, talked to movers, and took Mom to all her various appointments. If all went well, the move took place Thursday afternoon. If there were any hitches in the plan, I may be here a bit longer.

That's life.

On Puffery and Bloviating by David Freed

David Freed, who grew up in Denver, is an instrument-rated pilot, screenwriter and former Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist for the Los Angeles Times. His work appears regularly in Smithsonian’s Air & Space and The Atlantic, where was honored in 2011 as finalist in Feature Writing by the American Society of Magazine Editors. David has also worked extensively within the U.S. intelligence community.

His debut mystery-thriller, Flat Spin (Permanent Press) was hailed by the Associated Press as “one of the best debuts of 2012,” and by Audiofile as, “one of the funniest books of the year.” His second mystery-thriller, Fangs Out, which hit bookshelves in April, has received rave reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, Library Journal, and the New York Journal of Books, among others.

He lives in Santa Barbara, California.

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On Puffery and Bloviating by David Freed

Had I known before selling my first mystery-thriller, Flat Spin, exactly what would have been expected of me after the book hit the shelves, I likely wouldn’t have started writing it, or its sequel, Fangs Out, which landed a few weeks ago.

Call me naïve. I most certainly was. In my pre-publication ignorance, I had assumed that the promotion and marketing of my book would be largely undertaken by whatever big publishing house was lucky to be first in line and snap it up, with a fat check in hand. Funny story: turns out there was no line, at least none in which any publisher was willing to offer me an advance big enough that I could buy my dream gite in rural France. The book did find a home, though in fairly short order, with The Permanent Press, an elite and highly regarded smaller publisher who I’ve come to love. PP does much to promote the books it releases, including mine. It nominates them for awards, sends copies gratis to hundreds of libraries around the country, and offers hundreds more in free giveaways on websites like Goodreads—all with the intent of attracting readers and selling even more books.

The rest, however, is basically left up to me. In that regard, I am hardly alone. Most authors today, unless they’re superstars, are expected to toot their own horns as frequently and as loudly as possible. We stage and typically pay for our own tours. We volunteer to guest blog, and we’re expected to blog ourselves--when we’re not tweeting and begging people to “like” our Facebook author pages. We count our blessings when we’re asked to appear on community access TV talk shows whose viewer ratings are only slightly higher than informercials that air at 3 in the morning. We make ourselves available for readings and signings at far-flung bookstores where, if we’re fortunate, more than our drunken college roommate shows up. We foot the costs of attending endless mystery conventions, networking with fans and fellow authors, trying to build a following so that we might one day actually support ourselves fulltime in this racket. Sometimes, I think it’s a wonder that any of us have any time to do what we’re supposed to be doing, which is writing books.

Little of this ancillary activity comes naturally to most authors, myself included. Folks who spend the bulk of their productive day alone, staring at a computer screen, tend to be a rather insular lot. They’re hardly inclined toward naked salesmanship, or preening like peacocks. I nearly had to be arm-twisted to attend my first Bouchercon, an event I knew literally nothing about until after I signed my contract:

MY PUBLISHER: “I think you’ll really enjoy Bouchercon. It’s in St. Louis this year.”

ME: “Bouchercon? What’s a Bouchercon?”

MY PUBLISHER: “It’s the big annual gathering for fans who enjoy reading mysteries. It would be very productive if you went.”

ME: “I don’t like big crowds. I’d rather stay home. My goal is to become the J.D. Salinger of mystery writers.”

MY PUBLISHER: “There’s no such thing today. You have to go. You have to promote yourself.”

ME: “Will you pay my way if I go to this Boucher-thing-whatever-it-is?”

MY PUBLISHER: “Pay your way? Of course not!”

I went anyway. And I had fun, despite myself. I met many great fans and more than a few writers like me, inherently shy people who would’ve preferred to stay home. I also met others who were masters of self-promotion, glad-handers of the highest order, who were happy to share with me some of the tactics they’ve refined to make themselves better known. I employ some of those tactics these days as I strive toward commercial relevance. But not without some reluctance.

My professional background is as an investigative journalist. Later, I worked extensively with the US intelligence community. Both pursuits frown keenly on transparency. I spent years striving to fade into the background, to not draw attention to myself. I’ve also been a licensed pilot for more than 30 years. Aviators don’t talk about how cool they are. Being boastful in any fashion is not the “Right Stuff.”

And, being boastful of their books and, by default, themselves, is precisely what we authors must do these days if we’re to find a niche in the increasingly overcrowded skies of contemporary fiction. We tout ourselves, telling the reading world with as much ego as prudence allows, and as much pride as we can swallow, how fantastic our latest critically acclaimed, award-winning effort is. Because unless we push our products, no one else will.

I’m learning to get more adept at it. The process is not as distasteful to me as it once was, but it’s still distasteful. I’m no braggart. I’d prefer to let my writing speak for itself, come what may. Unfortunately, the marketplace demands otherwise.

So, if I toot my horn a little too loud at times, I hope you’ll understand.

Almost as much as I hope you’ll buy my book.

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David, I love the way you're fighting your loner tendencies. It was a pleasure seeing you again at Left Coast Crime. And by the way, folks, I enjoyed Flat Spin very much and consider it the best mystery I read in 2012. I'm looking forward to another good read in Fangs Out.

To learn more about David and his Cordell Logan mystery series, visit his website. You can also now find him hanging out on Facebook, Twitter, and Goodreads.

Announcing Mike Befeler's Latest Novel

Mike Befeler’s latest humorous mystery novel, The V V Agency, was released by Oak Tree Press in April, 2013.

This paranormal urban fantasy follows Befeler’s other mysteries including Retirement Homes Are Murder, Living With Your Kids Is Murder, a finalist for the 2009 Lefty Award for best humorous mystery, Senior Moments Are Murder and Cruising in Your Eighties Is Murder, a finalist for The Lefty Award for best humorous mystery of 2012.

Imagine a dash of Philip Marlowe wrapped in an urban fantasy. The V V Agency is a paranormal mystery that spoofs the PI subgenre and introduces the transvictus—a unique shape shifter. Van and Vanna run a detective agency, but clients never see them together for a simple reason. A sexual encounter transforms one into the other, and nudity renders them invisible. This presents some interesting dilemmas for his and her love lives, but gives them a distinct advantage when doing detective work. Van and Vanna take the case of a woman suspected of killing her husband.


What others say about The V V Agency:

“A cheeky PI story with a fresh urban-fantasy twist. It’s a snub nose revolver loaded with intrigue and chuckles.”—Mario Acevedo, author of Werewolf Smackdown

“Befeler branches out into one of the most interesting paranormal mysteries I’ve ever read. Definitely not some of the same old, same old. Fun and compelling.”—Donnell Ann Bell, Author of The Past Came Hunting and Deadly Recall.

“Zany and clever, The V V Agency is written in a style reminiscent of detective novels of the ‘40s, but oh so much more original. The sleuth, when naked is invisible—but that’s not his only power, the second one is problematic to his sex life.”—F. M. Meredith, author of Dangerous Impulses

Mike Befeler retired from a career in high-tech marketing to write full time. He holds a Master’s degree from UCLA, a Bachelor’s degree from Stanford and resides in Boulder, Colorado, with his wife Wendy. He is president of the Rocky Mountain Chapter of Mystery Writers of America.