Author: Katy Upperman

Friday Five

Today: My five favorite writing/publishing blogs… my MUST READS!
One:  Editorial Ass – Information on everything from querying and contracts to trends and advances from an anonymous individual in publishing.

Editorial Ass: I work in publishing and I like to read things. Herewith: free association on books, nice things I ate, publishing, editing, and other nice things I ate.

 Two: Kidlit – Everything you need to know about writing, querying, and (hopefully!) publishing picture books, middle grades and YA novels.

A site for writers, readers and fans of children’s literature written by Mary Kole, associate agent at Andrea Brown Literary Agency!

Three: Nathan Bransford – If you’re an aspiring writer and you’re NOT reading Nathan Bransford’s blog, you’re missing out on a wealth of information presented in a fun and witty way.

I'm a literary agent with the San Francisco office of Curtis Brown Ltd.

Four: Kiersten White – Her debut novel’s coming out in a few months and she’s proof that perseverance pays off. Plus, she’s funny and candid and an average mom & wife who’s about to be published. There’s hope for all of us!

I'm a YA writer represented by the wonderful Michelle Wolfson of Wolfson Literary. My first novel, PARANORMALCY, will be published by HarperTeen in September, 2010, with two sequels to follow. Which makes me all sorts of happy.

Five: Rachelle Gardner – Honest advice for both aspiring and published writers. She posts info you don’t even realize you need until you’re reading it. Lots of great guest bloggers, too.   

Rachelle Gardner, Literary Agent at Wordserve Literary

Friday Five

So, I’m planning to make my Friday Five a regular feature. Today… five things that are making me very happy this week! 

Number One: My husband and I, after years of hemming and hawing, finally signed up for Netflix! Full of excitment, I packed our queue full of new releases and TV series we’ve never seen. Since I’m a newbie, said queue was a complete cluster with zero organization, though I didn’t know any better. When we got our first DVD delivery on Saturday I was all kinds of excited, until I saw that we’d received Six Feet Under SEASON TWO, discs one and two. Yeah, seeing as how neither my husband nor I have seen Season One, we didn’t want to start with Season Two. So, feeling like a bit of an idiot, I sealed those discs right back into their convenient little envelops and tucked them into the mailbox on Monday, then immediately organized our queue. Imagine my surprise and delight when on Wednesday (a mere two days later!) Six Feet Under Season One, discs one and two arrived! Talk about quick turnaround! So, I’m a satisfied and happy customer and an official Netflix convert.
**In case you’re wondering, Six Feet Under is kind of awesome… I highly recommend it if you haven’t see it! 

How has it take me so long to jump on this bandwagon?!

 Number Two: I’ve read two amazing and completely different books this week – 

 

And 

 

Click on the covers to visit the authors’ websites to learn more. Next on my reading list? An Abundance of Katherines by John Green. 

Number Three: The new season of Bravo’s Real Housewives of New Jersey starts Monday! I’m a total Bravo junkie and will watch pretty much whatever they air, but RHONJ happens to be one of my all time favorites. If you didn’t see Teresa’s table flipping fiasco last season, you must YouTube it immediately. Seriously, these women are so completely over the top, but there’s something about them (with the exception of Danielle, I think) that’s genuine and intriguing and oddly endearing. If Dina, Caroline, Teresa, and Jacqueline lived in my neck of the woods, I’d totally want them as friends!   

 

  Number Four: Tomorrow night I get to go see him: 

 

 

Jason Aldean

Sing about:

 

Big Green Tractors

And them: 

 

Brooks and Dunn

  Sing about:

 

Red Dirt Roads

 I’m just a little excited!

 Number Five: Last, but certainly not least, my precious girl who makes me happy every day of the week. After receiving a form rejection email yesterday, I told her I was feeling a little sad. She replied, “That’s okay, Princess Mommy. I still ‘lub’ you.” How could I possibly stay in my I’m-the-world’s-biggest-failure funk after something like that?  

 
 

Isn't she the cutest?!

 

 

 

 

If I Stay by Gayle Forman

I read If I Stay months ago and fell completely in love with it. It’s a simple and beautifully told story about first love, family, and profound choices.It’s also one of the few books that have made me cry, and I’m not talking about a few pretty tears; by the end I was fully and embarrassingly sobbing. Here’s the publisher’s blurb, incase you’re unfamiliar:

In the blink of an eye everything changes. Seventeen-year-old Mia has no memory of the accident; she can only recall what happened afterwards, watching her own damaged body being taken from the wreck. Little by little she struggles to put together the pieces – to figure out what she has lost, what she has left, and the very difficult choice she must make. Heartwrenchingly beautiful, Mia’s story will stay with you for a long, long time. 

Here’s an interview: http://www.examiner.com/examiner/x-3859-Hartford-Books-Examiner~y2010m4d22-If-I-Stay with Gayle Forman in which she discusses If I Stay, the movie adaptation, comparisons to Twilight and The Lovely Bones and the role of music in the book. Definitely worth checking out if you’re already a fan, or if your curious to learn more!

To Read:

I’m not really sure how–or even when–this happened. I’ve always been the type to buy a book, read it, buy another book, read it, and so on. Now, though, I have a daunting pile of books and I’m not even sure where to start! I try to alternate between YA and “grown-up” books, if only so that I can participate in conversations with friends and family when they’re discussing the best sellers they’re reading, but lately all I want to read is YA. I just finished Looking For Alaska  (I know, you’re probably wondering how it is that I’ve JUST NOW read Looking For Alaska… really, I have no idea what took me so long, but I loved it!) so now I’m due to read something in line with my actual age group, but my heart’s just not in it. I’m thinking I’m going to ignore my own rules and dive into Rules of Attraction instead. 

I should take a moment to note: lately it’s been taking me weeks to get through a novel. In addition to the time my real life–husband, daughter, housework (I can’t write if my house isn’t clean!), etc– take up, I’ve been busy adding the finishing touches to my manuscript Forget Me Not and dealing with this:


Cute, isn’t he? His name is Toby. He belongs to my parents, who travel often and allow me the privilege of puppy sitting whenever they’re out of town.  I’ve been told he looks like Marley from Marley and Me, (a book I refuse to read because I heard how it ends). From what I’ve been able to deduce from the Marley and Me movie trailer, it seems Marley and Toby are cut from the same mold.

I have two dogs of my own. Quiet, well-behaved dogs who go lay down when they’re told to do so. Toby… not so much. He’s adorable, but he’s like a newborn. If you’re planning to write, research, outline, revise, read, or do anything else even semi-productive, please take my advice: Don’t get a puppy!