This week! Books!
Twilight is back! Stephenie Meyer revealed that there will indeed be a new Twilight novel on August 4, Midnight Sun, which will retell the series from vampire Edward Cullen’s perspective. I for one am quite curious how he felt attending high school when he was over one hundred years old.
I have to say I’m pretty excited we now have new Twilight and Hunger Games books to look forward to. 2000s book series FTW!
Congrats to the winners of the Pulitzer Prize (not to be confused with the Noble Prize), including two-time winner Colson Whitehead!
Apple is making moves in the self-publishing realm and launched Apple Books for Authors, which includes access for PC users. David Gaughran has a great roundup on what this means for self-publishers.
As you know I’m big big big on making sure you know your protagonist’s motivations, and over at DIYMFA, Sara Letourneau has a solid post on motivation and how it intersects with the inciting incident. (Here’s my advice on motivation and inciting incidents).
A great reminder from Dan Blank for people wondering about whether their voice matters in this time: Don’t give away your creative power.
And while it feels like this time is without precedent, humanity has obviously been through this before. The Guardian took a look at what plague literature tells us about our future.
This week in bestsellers
Here are the top five NY Times bestsellers in a few key categories. (All links are affiliate links):
Adult print and e-book fiction:
- Camino Winds by John Grisham
- If It Bleeds by Stephen King
- Little Fires Everywhere by Celeste Ng
- Where the Crawdads Sing by Delia Owens
- Walk the Wire by David Baldacci
Adult print and e-book nonfiction:
- Untamed by Glennon Doyle
- The Splendid and the Vile by Erik Larson
- Hidden Valley Road by Robert Kolker
- Educated by Tara Westover
- The Great Influenza by John M. Barry
Young adult hardcover:
- One of Us is Lying by Karen M. McManus
- Chain of Gold by Cassandra Clare
- Five Feet Apart by Rachael Lippincott with Mikki Daughtry and Tobias Iaconis
- The Hate U Give by Angie Thomas
- The Children of Virtue and Vengeance by Tomi Adeyemi
Middle grade hardcover:
- The Complete Cookbook for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
- Wonder by R.J Palacio
- The Complete Baking Book for Young Chefs by America’s Test Kitchen Kids
- Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid by Jeff Kinney
- Ali Cross by James Patterson
This week on the blog
Don’t forget that you can nominate your first page and query for a free critique on the blog:
In case you missed them, here are this week’s posts:
- Weave exposition naturally into the story
- Give your protagonist a mini-quest before the main plot kicks off
- Be careful starting a novel with dialogue (page critique)
And keep up with the discussion in all the places!
Comment! of! the! week! goes to Ken Hughes (again!) for some follow-up thoughts on weaving exposition into the story:
You mentioned “how unicorns were invented.” A Ready Player One approach would be to explain them only when the character hears “we have to deal with unicorns next,” or even only when they see one. But Harry Potter is famous for making its decidedly whimsical world flow better by making a thing come up separately first. Harry, Ron, and Hermione would have a scene that touched on the history of unicorn-making, and it might be just one clue as they’re trying to solve the next puzzle ahead — or it might be a “random” class, that interests us in itself because it continues whatever interpersonal conflict they’ve got at the moment, and because we know Snape or Malfoy will cause trouble in the middle of it. The whole scene would be there so we’re ready for unicorns later, but at the time it’s just the Next Fun Thing.
Who’s going to knock Ken off his perch for next week?
And finally, a message from Allen Iverson:
Have a great weekend!
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I’m glad Stephanie Meyer is back with Midnight Sun. I don’t know if you all remember, that’s the one where her rough draft was leaked to the public. She got a lot of negative feedback and lost her muse to finish. No matter what you think of the books, that was an awful thing to have happen. Rough drafts are not meant to see the light of day. I’m happy she was able to go back and finish writing. Very courageous. If she can tame her inner self-doubt after that, we can too. Keep writing!
I have to comment on the Stay Home, Stay Safe issue. This morning on a podcast out of Colorado, Karen Kataline, a caller said that when she sees the state DOT lighted signs that say “Stay at Home, Save a Life” she thinks, Is the alternative, “Get out, Kill Someone”?
I’m confused…
Sorry. Not appropriate for this forum.