First Line Friday: Chris Struyk-Bonn

Welcome Back to First Line Friday.

Each Friday, I invite a guest author to share the opening line from his or her upcoming release and a favorite book. 

This week, my guest is Chris Struyk-Bonn, author of WHISPER.

Here's the Blurb:

Sixteen-year-old Whisper, who has a cleft palate, lives in an encampment with three other young rejects and their caregiver, Nathanael. They are outcasts from a society (in the not-too-distant future) that kills or abandons anyone with a physical or mental disability. Whisper’s mother visits once a year. When she dies, she leaves Whisper a violin, which Nathanael teaches her to play. Whisper’s father comes to claim her, and she becomes his house slave, her disfigurement hidden by a black veil. But when she proves rebellious, she is taken to the city to live with other rejects at a house called Purgatory Palace, where she has to make difficult decisions for herself and for her vulnerable friends.

Sounds amazing!! And that cover... GORGEOUS!

So let's get started:

What are the opening lines of your book?

On the very first day of my existence, hands pushed me into the cold water and held me down, waiting for me to drown, but even then I was quiet and knew how to hold my breath. ~Whisper Gane

Were these lines set from the first draft? And if not, how many times do you think you've changed them?

Honestly, I have no idea how many times I have changed those lines, but it is many. The lines actually make up a prologue to the story and my writing group and I got into quite the discussion concerning the benefits and drawbacks to using prologues. My group members claimed that it felt like a cheat sometimes, a catchy opening that had little to do with the book or had been stolen from a critical moment and then tossed up front to hook the reader. The other side of the argument was that it could reveal something new about the character and was relevant to the plot. I think that my prologue does this – it tells the reader that the main character has had a tough life, has battled to find success, and yet does this in a quiet, determined manner. That’s Whisper.

Why do you think this opening is perfect for your novel?

I like this opening because it doesn’t feel like a cheat to me – it feels like a revelation. We begin to know something about the character right in the opening lines and immediately the reader establishes expectations about the main character, a quiet character who is determined and knows how to fight her battles through grit and resolve.

Give us your favorite opening line(s) from a favorite book, and tell us why you love them:

If you really want to hear about it, the first thing you'll probably want to know is where I was born, and what my lousy childhood was like, and how my parents were occupied and all before they had me, and all that David Copperfield kind of crap, but I don't feel like going into it, if you want to know the truth. ~Holden Caulfield, The Catcher in the Rye

After reading these opening lines, who wouldn’t want to dig further into the book and figure out who this kid is? Right from the start we know he’s caustic, sarcastic, critical, and he’s not going to waste the reader’s time with unimportant details. As a reader, that’s an invitation that’s difficult to refuse, and I certainly didn’t refuse that invitation when I was nineteen and encountered Holden for the first time. He captured my attention and his view of the world felt so honest and true, that I’ve loved him ever since.

Thanks so much for joining me today!

Be sure to check out WHISPER-- it's out on April 1st!

Women and YA: In Defense of Romance

Recently, Kelly Jensen wrote a really fabulous essay for Book Riot called "A Censored History of Ladies in YA Fiction." In it, she makes a wonderfully compelling argument for the history of women in the genre of YA by tracing S.E. Hinton's first book through Judy Bloom and onward to some of the innovative women writing fiction for young adults. Her evidence is stark, compelling. She points out the real ways women have routinely been censored for telling the stories that concern women. As a result, in a genre were, number-wise, women should be on top, the opposite is more often true

"Even in a world where women do publish in heavier numbers than men do, they are underscored, underseen, and undervalued. Twilight is and will remain a crucial part of YA’s history — YA’s female-driven history — despite or in spite of the fact it doesn’t garner the same praises that those held up as idols within the community do. Men like John Green become symbols of YA’s forward progress and Seriousness as a category, whereas Stephenie Meyer gets to be a punchline."

What I love about Jensen's piece is that it directly challenges the notion that "genre" fiction should exist on the periphery.

But also recently, I was really kind of startled to see an exchange on Twitter that seemed to be in response to (and support of) this essay, and at the same time seemed to be repeating much of the cultural values the essay is so very carefully critiquing.

Sarah Dessen, whose work Jensen cites and who has been so important to the growth of realistic YA contemporary fiction, made some really interesting remarks on Twitter. Someone has Storified them, if you want to check them out: http://storify.com/sarahdessen/rant

Basically, Dessen talks about the experience of being in a book store and finding her books were not stocked in Teen Fiction or Realistic Fiction but in Teen Romance.

There's something about this exchange that bothers me, but let me start by saying that Sarah Dessen has every right to say that her books don't belong shelved in "Teen Romance." In fact, I'd agree with her, though not for the reasons she lists. While her books do have love stories, they do not always focus on that romantic relationship in the ways that a traditional Romance would. In terms of genre, I'd absolutely agree the shelving was off in this case.

But...

It's the way that she subtly talks about why this shelving bothers her that bothered me. It's in the way the syntax of her sentence separates "YA Novels" and "YA Romance."

Let me be clear: I do not think Sarah Dessen was in any way consciously attempting to put down or belittle Romance as a genre. I don't think it was her intention to make Romance seem like something "less" than what she writes.

But...

First Line Fridays: Lisa

Welcome back to first line Friday!

Each Friday, I invite a guest author to share the opening line from his or her upcoming release and a favorite book. I was out of town, and didn't manage to get last week's up in time, so you get two this week!

Today's guest is Lisa Colozza Cocca, debut author of PROVIDENCE, which just came out this month! 

Here's the blurb:

The eldest of ten children on a dirt-poor farm, Becky trudges through life as a full-time babysitter, trying to avoid her father’s periodic violent rages. When the family’s barn burns down, her father lays the blame on Becky and her own mother tells her to run for it. Run she does, hopping into an empty freight car. There, in a duffel bag, Becky finds an abandoned baby girl, only hours old. After years of tending to her siblings, 16-year-old Becky knows just what a baby needs. This baby needs a mother.  With no mother around, Becky decides, at least temporarily, this baby needs her. When Becky hops off the train in a small Georgia town , it’s with baby “Georgia” in her arms. When she meets Rosie, an eccentric thrift-shop owner, who comes to value and love Becky as no one ever has, Becky rashly claims the baby as her own. Not everyone in town is as welcoming as Rosie though. Many suspect Becky and her baby are not what they seem. Among the doubters is a beautiful, reclusive woman with her own terrible loss and a long history with Rosie. As Becky’s life becomes entangled with the lives of the people in town, including a handsome boy who suspects Becky is hiding something from her past, she finds her secrets more difficult to keep.  Becky should grab the baby and run, but her newfound home and job with Rosie have given Becky the family she’s never known. Despite her guilt over leaving her mother alone, she is happy for the first time. But it’s a happiness not meant to last. When the truth comes out, Becky has the biggest decision of her life to make. Should she run away again? Should she stay—and fight? Or lie? What does the future hold for Becky and Georgia? With a greatness of heart and a stubborn insistence on hope found in few novels of any genre, Providence proves that home is where you find it, love is an active verb, and family is more than just a word.

Sounds great!
Let's get started:

What are the opening lines of your book?

I first met Baby Girl in a freight car.

I was carrying a bag.

She was sleeping in one.

Where these lines set from the first draft? And if not, how many times do you think you've changed them? 

The lines were in the first draft,  but they weren't the first lines. I had a critique of the first draft at a SCBWI event. The editor suggested I start the book at that point. It has been the book's opening lines since then.

Why do you think this opening is perfect for your novel? 

They establish the theme of providence and destiny. They also draw a quick picture of the characters.

Give us your favorite opening line(s) from a favorite book, and tell us why you love them.

One of my favorite openings is the first line from Because of Winn Dixie by Kate DiCamillo:

"My name is India Opal Buloni, and last summer my daddy, the preacher, sent me to the store for a box of macaroni and cheese, some white rice, and two tomatoes and I came back with a dog."

Why? The line gives a firm idea of who India Opal Buloni is and establishes her voice beautifully.

Find Lisa Colozza Cocca online:

Website
Facebook
Twitter

Don't forget to order Providence

First Line Fridays: Kate Hannigan

Welcome back to first line Friday!

Each Friday, I invite a guest author to share the opening line from his or her upcoming release and a favorite book. I was out of town, and didn't manage to get last week's up in time, so you get two this week!

Today's guest is Kate Hannigan, debut author of CUPCAKE COUSINS, coming May 13 from Disney-Hyperion.

Children's author Kate Hannigan writes middle-grade fiction and non-fiction books. She also interviews other writers for young readers on her blog, Author Of. 

Look for Kate's first historical fiction for middle-grade readers, The Detective's Assistant, to be published in April 2015 with Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. 

Here's the blurb for her book:

 

Cupcake Cousins (Hyperion-Disney, May 2014) tells the story of almost-10-year-old cousins Willow and Delia, who have been asked to be flower girls in their aunt's lakeside wedding. But the cousins would much rather beflour girls and whip up amazing surprises during the family's weeklong vacation at the lake. With a good helping of chaos and a dash of disaster, the cousins have plenty on their plates this summer.

There are few things I like better than cupcakes--this sounds great!!

Ok- Let's get started:

What are the opening lines of your book?

"Willow scowled at the flower-girl dress like it was growing in a patch of poison ivy. Every time she looked at it, she had the same thoughts.

That it was pink.

That it was awful.

That it should not come anywhere close to her skin."

Where these lines set from the first draft? And if not, how many times do you think you've changed them?

They were there from the beginning, though poked and prodded somewhat. While I revised the entire book many times over, this opening image was there from the start.

Why do you think this opening is perfect for your novel?

I wanted to give this book an outdoor feel. It's set in August at a summer beach house the family rents each year for a weeklong vacation. I wanted to capture that sense of nature and being immersed in it – both for kids who DO know what it's like to spend the day coated in sand and sunblock, and for those who do not. 

So including imagery from nature – as well as the dread for the upcoming wedding – right off the bat was my goal with this opening.

Give us your favorite opening line(s) from a favorite book, and tell us why you love them.

"For a long time after that summer, the four Penderwick sisters still talked of Arundel. Fate drove us there, Jane would say. No, it was the greedy landlord who sold our vacation house on Cape Cod, someone else would say, probably Skye."

I am a HUGE fan of Jeanne Birdsall's "Penderwicks" series, and I can recall vividly the day my local indie bookseller handed me a copy of the first book. It is just so well-written. Even from this first little morsel, we already have a sense of Jane and Skye's temperaments, and the warm glow of nostalgia that colors the whole story.

When I wrote my book, I kept "The Penderwicks" and the non-fiction "Last Child in the Woods" nearby for inspiration. I wanted to create a sort of timeless summer story of kids free to roam outdoors and enjoy the independence they can find only in nature. Of kids pursuing their interests free of heavy parental disruption. Of suspense and excitement but where the stakes weren't too high and no dogs die.

Stop by and say hello to Kate on Twitter at @KateChicago or on her website at KateHannigan.com. Or check out her children's lit blog AuthorOf.blogspot.com, where she interviews authors of some of the best books for young readers.

And don't forget to Preorder Cupcake Cousins