Author: Katy Upperman

Thankful Thursday: MADELINE

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Oasis for YA knows that the surest way to get good things in life is to be thankful for what you have.  So why not encourage a group thankful-fest once a week in which we all send out good energy and hope to get some back in return? Plus, participating in Thankful Thursday is a great way to connect with other writers.

Here are the rules:
1.  Do your own blog post on what you’re thankful for today.  It doesn’t have to be book or publishing related (but it can be!).
2.  Be sure to grab our badge and include it in your post.
3.  Post a link to your blog in the comments here so that others can find you.
4.  Go forth and share your gratitude!  (And when friending new blogs, be sure to let them know you found them because of their participation in the meme.)

Today’s Prompt: Let’s get out of the realm of writing and YA for a bit. What picture book are you thankful for?

I absolutely adore picture books. At one point several years ago, I was certain that if I ever wrote a book, it’d be a picture book. Then I discovered the awesomeness that is YA and the rest is history… Still, I buy picture books *almost* as often as I buy YA, and my daughter has acquired quite a collection. In fact, she told me the other day that her bedroom is “kind of like a library.”

One of our favorites is Madeline by Ludwig Bemelmans.


From Goodreads: Madeline is one of the best-loved characters in children’s literature. Set in picturesque Paris, this tale of a brave little girl’s trip to the hospital was a Caldecott Honor Book in 1940 and has as much appeal today as it did then. The combination of a spirited heroine, timelessly appealing art, cheerful humor, and rhythmic text makes Madeline a perennial favorite with children of all ages.

I remember reading Madeline with my mom decades ago, and I love reading it with my daughter today. (She’s very big on fairly tales and Princesses, so any time I find a real-life story she truly enjoys, it’s a win.) Madeline is simple yet incredibly charming, and the illustrations are uniquely beautiful. There’s an interesting sense of urgency that comes across as you read (especially if you’re reading out loud, I think), something I picked up on as a child and have come to really appreciate as an adult. Definitely check Madeline out if you haven’t read it before–especially if you have a child and DEFINITELY if you have a little girl.


What picture book are you thankful for?

RTW: June’s Book of the Month

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Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where the ladies at YA Highway post a weekly writing- or reading-related question for participants to respond to on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic: What’s the best book you read in June?

In celebration of Contemporary YA Month (the brainchild of the talented authors over at The Contemps), I tried hard to read only contemporary YA stories in June. There were some winners… and some I just didn’t care for. Either way, it was great to immerse myself in realistic YA fiction for several weeks–there are so many choices and I learned a lot. Here’s what I read:

Moonglass by Jessi Kirby – I spoke about this one in great detail in a Debut Love post, which you can find HERE. In short, I thought Moonglass was lovely.

Beauty Queens by Libba Bray – Incredibly well-written, funny and a totally unique idea, but lacking an intense romantic thread–what usually keeps me coming back for more. If you don’t care either way about boys and kissing and love, and you like your fiction smart and witty, then you’ll probably enjoy Beauty Queens.

Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez – While I think it’s important to portray diverse relationships in YA (these characters are exploring whether it’s possible to be bisexual and what that means in the world of high school dating), this book didn’t do it for me. I found the message to be too heavy-handed and the dialogue unrealistic.

After by Amy Efaw – This one read like a Jodi Piccoult novel, but with a compelling teen voice. It covers the aftermath of a girl who’s had a baby in secret, then ditched the newborn in a dumpster. I bought After wondering how Efaw could possibly make her protagonist sympathetic. She does, and still manages to write a very entertaining novel.

Sweet Valley Confidential by Francine Pascal – Okay, this isn’t technically YA, but to me the twins will always be young adults. And let’s be honest, they act like the lowliest of overly-hormonal teenagers in this story. I had problems buying into the behavior of pretty much every character populating Confidential. Winston, Bruce, Todd, Steven, even Jessica and Elizabeth… they all turned out to be terribly out of character and really unlikable. Bummer.

Honey, Baby, Sweetheart by Deb Caletti – I liked this one a lot, but I would have loved it had it focused more on Ruby’s out-of-control destructive relationship with Travis Becker, and less on the Casserole Queens subplot. Still, Ruby has some of the best life observations I’ve read in YA. She was a truly likable character despite her sometimes questionable decision making.

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson – This is the first Maureen Johnson novel I’ve read, and I see now why she’s so popular. The characters were distinct with clear flaws and motivations, and the writing was clean and often funny, but Bermudez lacked the darkness and angst of books I truly love. That said, I’m looking forward to reading Maureen’s upcoming The Name of the Star.

And June’s Book of the Month, hands down, is Saving Francesca by Melina Marchetta…


From Goodreads: Francesca is stuck at St. Sebastian’s, a boys’ school that pretends it’s coed by giving the girls their own bathroom. Her only female companions are an ultra-feminist, a rumored slut, and an impossibly dorky accordion player. The boys are no better, from Thomas who specializes in musical burping to Will, the perpetually frowning, smug moron that Francesca can’t seem to stop thinking about. Then there’s Francesca’s mother, who always thinks she knows what’s best for Francesca—until she is suddenly stricken with acute depression, leaving Francesca lost, alone, and without an inkling who she really is. Simultaneously humorous, poignant, and impossible to put down, this is the story of a girl who must summon the strength to save her family, her social life and—hardest of all—herself.

Melina Marchetta is so incredibly talented. Her stories are real and layered and nuanced and clever, so freaking enviable. I’d venture to say that Jellicoe Road (March’s Book of the Month) is my very favorite YA novel*, and Saving Francesca does not fall far behind.

Protagonist Francesca Spinelli manages to walk the very fine line between endearingly vulnerable and sassy smart ass. She spends the course of the book discovering not only who she is, but who her parents and teachers and friends are, and most importantly, who she wants to be. Thanks to Francesca’s wit and spot-on remarks about life and human interactions, her journey (which isn’t exactly high concept) proves to be fascinating.

I absolutely love how Melina Marchetta is able to take a ragtag group of characters and weave interesting and genuine relationships among them. I adored Francesca’s friends and family. Supporting characters Thomas, Jimmy, Justine, Siobhan and Tara are fantastic, and love interest Will Trombal… sigh. LOVE him.

I recommend Saving Francesca to anyone who enjoys contemporary stories, and especially to anyone who writes contemporary YA. You will love the setting (an Australian all boys’ Catholic school that’s recently [and begrudgingly] opened its doors to girls), the dialogue (smart, funny, perfect), and the characters (engaging, delightful, memorable). Someday very soon I’m going to reread Saving Francesca AND Jellicoe Road–they’re that good.

*Incidentally, I recently told my husband that if we ever have a little boy, I want to name him Jonah after Jellicoe Road‘s Jonah Griggs. My husband immediately snorted and told me to “bury that name deep.” Boo.

So, what’s the best book YOU read in June?

Time Management (Or Not)

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Lately I’ve thinking a lot about 2006. It was a weird year. I was living in Tennessee about two-thousand miles from my family and lifelong friends,my husband was deployed, and I was childless. Since I’d had a roommate or lived in a sorority house all through college and my husband and I got married two weeks after graduation, 2006 was my first experience with living completely alone. It was cool. I could eat whatever I wanted, watch whatever I wanted on TV, sleep whenever I wanted, go wherever I wanted. Granted, I was teaching full-time, but from about 4pm to 11pm, I could do as I pleased.

Now, whenever I think about 2006, I ponder with equal parts bewilderment and annoyance the following questions: WHY THE HELL DID I WASTE ALL THAT FREE TIME?! WHY DON’T I HAVE ANYTHING TO SHOW FOR IT?! WHY WASN’T I WRITING SERIOUSLY BACK THEN?!

Lately, there just does not seem to be enough time in the day. Thanks to yet another deployment (the fourth of my eight year marriage, in case you’re curious), I am essentially a single parent. Luckily, I have a sweet, well-behaved, awesome-to-hang-out-with child, but holy cow does she keep me busy! I feel like I’m running her all over Western Washington (ballet and swimming and play dates and Spanish) all day everyday, and when we aren’t rushing to one of her activities, there’s grocery shopping and lawn mowing and house cleaning and bill paying and dog walking… plus, I’ve recently decided to run an organized 5K, so there’s exercise to fit in to the day as well.


Did you notice that I didn’t list writing on my above list of activities? That’s because by the time my kiddo goes to bed, I’m too exhausted to sit up straight, let alone add to my WIP word count. Still, I’m trying hard to fit it in. I’ve got three different projects in varying stages of crazy completion. Where Poppies Bloom is close to being “done” and hopefully on submission, Cross My Heart is being replotted and rewritten (I’m REALLY excited about where it’s going!), and Bus WIP is… well, very much still a WIP.

I’ve come to the realization that I’m going to have to do some serious prioritizing to ensure that I’m getting everything I need to get done DONE, and that includes writing. But for me, there are a few things that will always come before I sit down at my computer to work:

~Family. My daughter (and my husband, when he’s home) come first.
~My health, including exercise and nutrition (I will never be one of those people who’s working so hard that oops, I forget to eat).
~The cleanliness of my house. I simply can’t clear my head enough to write when I’m surrounded by clutter.
~Reading. I consider it professional development, plus, I really enjoy it.

And there are some things I’m more than happy to let go of in order to get the words down on paper:

~TV, Movies, Magazines. Thank goodness for DVR and Netflix. 🙂
~Hobbies. Once upon a time, I fancied myself a quilter (no, I am not eighty), but that little pastime has kind of gone by the wayside over the last few years.
~My Social Life. If you don’t have a four-year-old who my daughter likes to play with, I’m probably not spending a lot of time with you. Sad but true.
~Sleep. Overrated.
~Social Media. This is a hard one because often it goes hand-in-hand with a successful writing career. BUT, there’s no writing career if there are no complete manuscripts.


So, I’m curious… how do you prioritize your time? What are you willing to sacrifice for writing? What comes first for you?

Friday Five: The Creative Spark

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Paper Hangover is a fantastic group blog offering writing tips and advice, book reviews, weekly blog topics, and teen interviews. I recommend you spend some time exploring the site–they have so much to offer!

Here’s today’s Friday Five prompt:

1) Music. Particularly country music, because the songs are almost always little stories themselves.

2) Walking, biking, running, yard work… I get a lot of thinking, brainstorming, and plotting done while passing my exercise time.

3) Doing something creative with my hands, like quilting or appliqué or even coloring with my daughter.

4) Seemingly mind-numbingly boring activities like showering, driving, or vacuuming usually get my creativity flowing. Gotta keep my brain busy somehow!

5) Rereading something I’ve recently written and love, or rereading a favorite book with amazing plotting, imagery, or characterizations.

What about you? Where do you find your creative spark?

RTW: Fleeing the Flames

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Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where the ladies at YA Highway post a weekly writing- or reading-related question for participants to respond to on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic: Your house is on fire and you can only grab FIVE things before you flee. What are they?

Well isn’t this an uplifting question to ponder…

Even if we assume my husband, daughter and dogs are safe, there just aren’t that many material items I care much about. In the end, the five things I’d choose to save hold some sort of sentimental value or have a particular memory attached to them:

Image Credit

1) My daughter’s baby book, full of pictures, newborn memorabilia, and journaling I did during her first year. Irreplaceable.

2) My jewelry box–not because I own tons of expensive pieces, but because each piece was given to me by my husband and marks a certain significant event in our lives.
 
3) My laptop, for obvious reasons.
 
4) My wedding photos, because I got married so long ago I don’t have them on a disc. I don’t even like them much, but I imagine my daughter might want to see them someday.
 
5) My daughter’s big basket of Princess figurines. She LOVES to play with them and would be lost without them.  
 
So, if your house was burning, what would YOU save?

Must read NOW…

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There are several new releases in the coming weeks that have me VERY excited. Hopefully this dreary Washington weather turns summery soon because I want to be outside under the sun with my beach towel and an icy drink, devouring these books*…


June 21, 2011 Charlotte’s best friend thinks Charlotte might be psychic. Her boyfriend thinks she’s cheating on him. But Charlotte knows what’s really wrong: She is one of the Forgotten, a kind of angel on earth, who feels the Need—a powerful, uncontrollable draw to help someone, usually a stranger. But Charlotte never wanted this responsibility. What she wants is to help her best friend, whose life is spiraling out of control. She wants to lie in her boyfriend’s arms forever. But as the Need grows stronger, it begins to take a dangerous toll on Charlotte. And who she was, is, and will become–her mark on this earth, her very existence–is in jeopardy of disappearing completely. Charlotte will be forced to choose: Should she embrace her fate as a Forgotten, a fate that promises to rip her from the lives of those she loves forever? Or is she willing to fight against her destiny–no matter how dark the consequences. A gorgeous cover, an interesting spin on angels, and apparently ethereal and intensely romantic… yes, please!

July 19, 2011 For Erin Blackwell, majoring in creative writing at the New York City college of her dreams is more than a chance to fulfill her ambitions–it’s her ticket away from the tragic memories that shadow her family’s racehorse farm in Kentucky. But when she refuses to major in business and take over the farm herself someday, her grandmother gives Erin’s college tuition and promised inheritance to their maddeningly handsome stable boy, Hunter Allen. Now Erin has to win an internship and work late nights at a coffee shop to make her own dreams a reality. She should despise Hunter . . . so why does he sneak into her thoughts as the hero of her latest writing assignment? Then, on the day she’s sharing that assignment with her class, Hunter walks in. He’s joining her class. And after he reads about himself in her story, her private fantasies about him must be painfully clear. She only hopes to persuade him not to reveal her secret to everyone else. But Hunter devises his own creative revenge, writing sexy stories that drive the whole class wild with curiosity and fill Erin’s heart with longing. Now she’s not just imagining what might have been. She’s writing a whole new ending for her romance with Hunter . . . except this story could come true. Jennifer Echol’s Forget You is one of my favorite YA contemporaries. Fingers crossed that Love Story is just as fabulous!

July 12, 2011 In Maggie Stiefvater’s SHIVER, Grace and Sam found each other. In LINGER, they fought to be together. Now, in FOREVER, the stakes are even higher than before. Wolves are being hunted. Lives are being threatened. And love is harder and harder to hold on to as death comes closing in. While I loved Shiver, I was slightly underwhelmed by Linger. Still, I’m super curious to see how this trilogy concludes.


July 12, 2011 Someone’s been a very bad zombie. Kate Grable is horrified to find out that the football coach has given the team steroids. Worse yet, the steroids are having an unexpected effect, turning hot gridiron hunks into mindless flesh-eating zombies. No one is safe–not her cute crush Aaron, not her dorky brother, Jonah . . . not even Kate! She’s got to find an antidote–before her entire high school ends up eating each other. So Kate, her best girlfriend, Rocky, and Aaron stage a frantic battle to save their town. . . and stay hormonally human. I am seriously in LOVE with this cover, and the story sounds like a fun, cheeky take on the zombie phenom… very cool.

July 21, 2011 Lexi is cursed with a dark secret. Each day she goes to school like a normal teenager, and each night she must swim, or the pain will be unbearable. She is a siren – a deadly mermaid destined to lure men to their watery deaths. After a terrible tragedy, Lexi shut herself off from the world, vowing to protect the ones she loves. But she soon finds herself caught between a new boy at school who may have the power to melt her icy exterior, and a handsome water spirit who says he can break Lexi’s curse if she gives up everything else. Lexi is faced with the hardest decision she’s ever had to make: the life she’s always longed for – or the love she can’t live without? I’ve yet to read a really great mermaid book, but I’m hoping Ripple will change that. Love the dark, brooding cover and the sort of tragic feel of the blurb. 


August 1, 2011 Abby and Luke chat online. They’ve never met. But they are going to. Soon. Abby is starting high school—it should be exciting, so why doesn’t she care? Everyone tells her to “make an effort,” but why can’t she just be herself? Abby quickly feels like she’s losing a grip on her once-happy life. The only thing she cares about anymore is talking to Luke, a guy she met online, who understands. It feels dangerous and yet good to chat with Luke—he is her secret, and she’s his. Then Luke asks her to meet him, and she does. But Luke isn’t who he says he is. When Abby goes missing, everyone is left to put together the pieces. If they don’t, they’ll never see Abby again. Eek. Talk about a parent’s worst nightmare. Still, there’s nothing quite like a creepy disappearance story.

*All blurbs and publication dates courtesy of GoodReads.

I’m dying to know… what are the summer releases you can’t wait to read?

And the winner is…

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As promised, I’ve selected a random winner for my Moonglass giveaway…

Congratulations, Meagan Spooner!

Please email me your address at katy(dot)upperman(@)live(dot)com and I will have your brand new book on the way. I hope you love it as much as I did!

Friday Five… Must Follows

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I’ve recently discovered Paper Hangover, a fantastic group blog that offers writing tips and advice, book reviews, weekly Friday Five topics, and teen interviews. I highly recommend you spend some time exploring the site–they have so much to offer! Today I’ve decided to give Paper Hangover’s Friday Five a shot. Here’s the prompt:

And here are my Must Follows (Click the links to be redirected to each Twitter page):

Savvy Authors – An online writing community for writers of romance, offering tons of diverse workshops, forums, and pitching opportunities. I met a few of my super talented CPs at Savvy.

YA Highway – A group blog focusing on (duh) everything young adult lit.

Gayle Forman – YA Author (If I Stay and Where She Went… LOVE) who always has thoughtful, witty Twitter contributions and awesome blog posts.

Georgia McBride – Founder of YALitChat, extremely knowledgable, host of Wednesday night YA Twitter chats, and overall awesome.

Vickie Motter – My agent… Hello! Of course you should be following her!

*BONUS* If you like reality TV of any kind, you follow Andy Cohen – He’s got nothing to do with writing or publishing, but he’s Bravo TV Royalty, and he’s absolutely hilarious!

Tell me–who are your must follows on Twitter?

RTW: The Elevator Pitch

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Road Trip Wednesday is a ‘Blog Carnival,’ where the ladies at YA Highway post a weekly writing- or reading-related question for participants to respond to on their own blogs. You can hop from destination to destination and get everybody’s unique take on the topic.

This Week’s Topic: You’re re-reading one of your favs when someone asks the dreaded question: “What’s that book about?” Give us your best off-the-cuff blurb of any book, any genre, and have your readers try to guess the title in the comments!

Gotta love YA Highway’s example: Well, this high school chick gets her first period in the gym showers and totally freaks. Her classmates pretend to like her, then humiliate her at the prom by dumping pig blood on her head, so she kills them all by using her telekinetic powers and burning down the school… I know, I know! It’s Stephen King’s Carrie, right? 🙂

Unfortunately, pitching in a clear, concise manner isn’t one of my strengths, but this challenge is too much fun to pass up. Here’s my off-the-cuff blurb for a classic favorite:

Four optimistic siblings are forced to survive the streets of an idyllic small town after the death of their parents, while eluding the heartless grandfather they’ve never met. The children take up residence in an abandoned railroad car, and while the eldest brother works odd jobs for a kindly doctor, the others decorate their new home with treasures from the local dump. When one of the children falls ill and her siblings call on the doctor for help, he realizes they’re the grandchildren of his wealthy, benevolent friend and must determine how to best reunite the family.

So… any guesses? And don’t forget to visit YA Highway to check out the rest of the posts.

Also, before I forget… have you entered to win a brand new copy of Jessi Kirby‘s amazing debut Moonglass? I’m giving one away right HERE! The contest is super easy, open internationally, and ends this Friday, June  17th. Trust me: You want to read this book!