Yes!! Yvie is finally back, after what seems like forever!!
 |
| Get outta here George! This is my time to shine! |
Time to launch you, my ape-friends, into the weekend with a healthy dose of internet fun!
Here we go!
Friday, June 1, 2012
Wednesday, May 30, 2012
Wednesday Weird
Woo Hoo! I'm back from Wiscon 36 and it was awesome! I'll chat all about it later, maybe Monday, but for now, we're back to Wednesday Weird.
On today's Menu:
Pando.
No not Pandas.
Pando.
Question? What's the largest living organism on the planet?
No it's not the blue whale, it's Pando.
Pando (Latin for 'I spread'), aka The Trembling Giant is a tree, specifically a single male Quaking Aspen, located in Utah. Sort of (the tree part I mean. Not the Utah part)
All right, let me start with some bio. When the Quaking Aspen reproduces it both flowers and produces a clone of itself. It extends its roots and then forces them up through the ground, producing a new tree. The new tree is a clone, with the same genetic makeup and markers to show that it actually belongs to the first tree.
Similar to how Twin is a clone of me. But don't let her tell you otherwise. That's just clone talk and should be avoided.
So the new tree grows with the old one and together they develop a large root network which produces more and more Quaking Aspens causing the single tree to expand into a clonal colony.
Normally clonal colonies are about 0.1 hectares in size. But not Pando. Oh No. Pando is 43 hectares and weighs about 6,000 tons.
Yeah.
As the trees on the surface die, the root system lives on and shoots up more trees and stops producing nutrients for those that have died. Because of this, Pando is protected from forest fires, which actually help it by killing nearby conifers and providing more space.
Because of this, Pando is, more or less, the Wolverine or Hulk of trees: invulnerable. Pando is estimated to be around 80,000 years old. Which means it was watching mastodons walk around doing mastodon things.
Of course, being that old has some drawbacks, mostly the changing environment. Pando hasn't flowered in over 10,000 years, which means its survival is dependant purely on its cloning ability.
There you have it. Pando. The tree you don't want to mess with.
(shout out to Matt for the Pando push)
On today's Menu:
Pando.
 |
| awww! |
No not Pandas.
Pando.
Question? What's the largest living organism on the planet?
No it's not the blue whale, it's Pando.
Pando (Latin for 'I spread'), aka The Trembling Giant is a tree, specifically a single male Quaking Aspen, located in Utah. Sort of (the tree part I mean. Not the Utah part)
 |
| Pando |
All right, let me start with some bio. When the Quaking Aspen reproduces it both flowers and produces a clone of itself. It extends its roots and then forces them up through the ground, producing a new tree. The new tree is a clone, with the same genetic makeup and markers to show that it actually belongs to the first tree.
Similar to how Twin is a clone of me. But don't let her tell you otherwise. That's just clone talk and should be avoided.
So the new tree grows with the old one and together they develop a large root network which produces more and more Quaking Aspens causing the single tree to expand into a clonal colony.
Normally clonal colonies are about 0.1 hectares in size. But not Pando. Oh No. Pando is 43 hectares and weighs about 6,000 tons.
Yeah.
As the trees on the surface die, the root system lives on and shoots up more trees and stops producing nutrients for those that have died. Because of this, Pando is protected from forest fires, which actually help it by killing nearby conifers and providing more space.
Because of this, Pando is, more or less, the Wolverine or Hulk of trees: invulnerable. Pando is estimated to be around 80,000 years old. Which means it was watching mastodons walk around doing mastodon things.
Of course, being that old has some drawbacks, mostly the changing environment. Pando hasn't flowered in over 10,000 years, which means its survival is dependant purely on its cloning ability.
There you have it. Pando. The tree you don't want to mess with.
(shout out to Matt for the Pando push)
Wednesday, May 23, 2012
Wednesday Weird
Woo Hoo! Back to our usual installment of Wednesday Weird. Oh how I've missed it.
Before we get started, though, just a brief update. This weekend I will be heading out to Wiscon 36, and because of that, I won't have blog posts for either Friday or Monday, since I'll be driving to and from Madison WI (hopefully without getting any speeding tickets). Blog posts will resume as normal next Wednesday.
OK! Onto the Weird!
Today we're going to talk about Sedna.
What's Sedna, you ask? Why the ninth planet in our solar system, of course! (tenth, if you're still counting Pluto. I haven't made my mind up on that yet)
What what you ask? Yep. You heard me.
Let's get serious here. Space is effing big. We can all agree on that. And pretty much it's too bright between Mercury and the sun and too dark after Uranus to even really see anything with our current technology. So really, anything could be in our solar system. Space whales? Why not! Space Titanic? Don't be ridiculous. That thing crashed on its maiden voyage.
Even though we're pretty confident about our existing planets (except for Pluto, of course) we're actually not all that confident about other possible planets hanging out in the neighborhood. Which is too bad because they probably hate us for not inviting them to the block parties and junk.
Back to Sedna. Scientists discovered an object orbiting the sun. Yep. Sedna. As of 2012 it was about 3x the distance from the sun as Neptune. So you know, waaaay out there. No one's really sure of its size, but it's at least as big as Pluto. Sedna's long, elliptical orbit takes 11,400 years to complete. Which means chances are, anyone living there has never had a birthday.
So there you have it! Sedna! Of course, I haven't even mentioned Tyche yet, or the fact that there's also a huge gap in asteroids after Pluto, which tells scientists that there's likely a planet between the size of Earth and Mars hanging out back there, munching up all that space rock.
Ahem. But we will. We'll get to Tyche and other things (Nemesis) on later Wednesday Weirds.
Space is awesome.
So what do you think?
.
Before we get started, though, just a brief update. This weekend I will be heading out to Wiscon 36, and because of that, I won't have blog posts for either Friday or Monday, since I'll be driving to and from Madison WI (hopefully without getting any speeding tickets). Blog posts will resume as normal next Wednesday.
OK! Onto the Weird!
Today we're going to talk about Sedna.
What's Sedna, you ask? Why the ninth planet in our solar system, of course! (tenth, if you're still counting Pluto. I haven't made my mind up on that yet)
 |
| See that dot? Yep. That's Sedna. |
What what you ask? Yep. You heard me.
Let's get serious here. Space is effing big. We can all agree on that. And pretty much it's too bright between Mercury and the sun and too dark after Uranus to even really see anything with our current technology. So really, anything could be in our solar system. Space whales? Why not! Space Titanic? Don't be ridiculous. That thing crashed on its maiden voyage.
Even though we're pretty confident about our existing planets (except for Pluto, of course) we're actually not all that confident about other possible planets hanging out in the neighborhood. Which is too bad because they probably hate us for not inviting them to the block parties and junk.
Back to Sedna. Scientists discovered an object orbiting the sun. Yep. Sedna. As of 2012 it was about 3x the distance from the sun as Neptune. So you know, waaaay out there. No one's really sure of its size, but it's at least as big as Pluto. Sedna's long, elliptical orbit takes 11,400 years to complete. Which means chances are, anyone living there has never had a birthday.
So there you have it! Sedna! Of course, I haven't even mentioned Tyche yet, or the fact that there's also a huge gap in asteroids after Pluto, which tells scientists that there's likely a planet between the size of Earth and Mars hanging out back there, munching up all that space rock.
Ahem. But we will. We'll get to Tyche and other things (Nemesis) on later Wednesday Weirds.
Space is awesome.
So what do you think?
.
Monday, May 21, 2012
In Which I Share More Stuff Pt. 3
All right! This is my last post regarding the Children's and YA Literature Conference. This will just be covering Megan Atwood's Steps for Revising which I'm sure we're all interested in. At least I know I always am.
Fun fact. After this panel (and some thoughts from a trusted Beta Reader) I realized I was finally ready to begin querying my MS Break Free. So, officially I started querying three weeks ago. Fun times! Cross your fingers for me.
And since we're on crossing fingers - today is also the day the 8 Agents participating in the Writer's Voice Competition vote on the entries. Cross your fingers (again) that I get a vote. I would be over the moon happy if even one agent would like to see more.
OK. Sorry. Back to the revisions.
Megan Atwood was awesome. I would, hands down, take a class from her. She was also really really funny, which is always fun.
Deets on her: Megan Atwood created the Young Adult imprint Flux through Llewellyn Publications and was an acquiring editor for five years as well as an agent for one year through Firebrand Literary. She currently writes work-for-hire projects for publishers and has published 14 children's books.
OK. Her steps for revision:
So there you have it! It sounds easy, natch, but we all know it's much harder than that. Still, it's always nice to have a game plan
Fun fact. After this panel (and some thoughts from a trusted Beta Reader) I realized I was finally ready to begin querying my MS Break Free. So, officially I started querying three weeks ago. Fun times! Cross your fingers for me.
And since we're on crossing fingers - today is also the day the 8 Agents participating in the Writer's Voice Competition vote on the entries. Cross your fingers (again) that I get a vote. I would be over the moon happy if even one agent would like to see more.
OK. Sorry. Back to the revisions.
Megan Atwood was awesome. I would, hands down, take a class from her. She was also really really funny, which is always fun.
Deets on her: Megan Atwood created the Young Adult imprint Flux through Llewellyn Publications and was an acquiring editor for five years as well as an agent for one year through Firebrand Literary. She currently writes work-for-hire projects for publishers and has published 14 children's books.
OK. Her steps for revision:
- Feeling for the bones: Does your premise suit your story? Does your story start in the right place? Is your narrative Arc arcing? Can you add some more sensory language?
- Characters: Does your MC grow/does the inner journey match the outer journey? Are secondary, yet important characters growing (or not)? How often are you in your character's head - when can you ground emotion in the body (show don't tell)?
- Pacing/Suspense/Foreshadowing: What scenes need to be slowed or sped - are your important scenes given the time they deserve? Are events and emotions "earned"? Are you giving out the right info when you need to? Do your chapters end with some sort of suspense and are you zigzagging those so as not to fatigue your reader?
- Language: Are you overusing dialogue tags? Which words can you change to enhance ambiance?
- Repeat: Put it aside for at least two weeks and work on something else. Try to read for pleasure to turn off your editor brain. Then start over at step one.
So there you have it! It sounds easy, natch, but we all know it's much harder than that. Still, it's always nice to have a game plan
Friday, May 18, 2012
Friday Fun
Yvie here!
It's the beginning of the weekend again! Which means time to start the fun!
 |
| Try and pattycake me now! |
It's the beginning of the weekend again! Which means time to start the fun!
Thursday, May 17, 2012
In Which The Entries Are Posted
Woot woot! Today is the day that the Writer's Voice entries are posted!
You can find my entry along with my teamates' on Monica's Love YA blog. The other entries are on Cupid's blog, Brenda's blog and Krista's blog.
Feel free to comment on the entries and cheer the contestants on, but please no critiques!
AND! For those not yet in the know, on May 24th (a week from today) Vickie Motter and John Cusick will be reading twitter pitches under the hashtag #WVTP from 12PM - 6PM EDT. And there's rumors that there may be other agents lurking as well!
Click here for the rules and get those 140 character pitches polished!!
You can find my entry along with my teamates' on Monica's Love YA blog. The other entries are on Cupid's blog, Brenda's blog and Krista's blog.
Feel free to comment on the entries and cheer the contestants on, but please no critiques!
AND! For those not yet in the know, on May 24th (a week from today) Vickie Motter and John Cusick will be reading twitter pitches under the hashtag #WVTP from 12PM - 6PM EDT. And there's rumors that there may be other agents lurking as well!
Click here for the rules and get those 140 character pitches polished!!
Wednesday, May 16, 2012
In Which I Share More Stuff Pt. 2
So I'm back, with more deets regarding the Children's and YA Literature Conference Hannah and I hit up. The last presentation of the conference was Andrew Karre for Seizing the YA Moment.
Andrew Karre is the editorial director of Carolrhoda Books, Carolrhoda Lab & Darby Creek, imprints of the Lerner Publishing Group. He publishes books for kids & teens.
He was, imop, hands down the highlight of the conference. So totally cool and laid back.
He spent a lot of time talking about the #YAMatters Trend on Twitter, as well as the fact that YA is popping up in the media and culture more and people who were previously oblivious, or didn't pay attention, or now taking notice.
Highlights of his talk:
When he was done and there was a Q&A session, people actually ran out of questions to ask him because I think everyone was just so blown away by how awesome he was. Definitely attend a panel by him if you ever get the chance.
Andrew Karre is the editorial director of Carolrhoda Books, Carolrhoda Lab & Darby Creek, imprints of the Lerner Publishing Group. He publishes books for kids & teens.
He was, imop, hands down the highlight of the conference. So totally cool and laid back.
He spent a lot of time talking about the #YAMatters Trend on Twitter, as well as the fact that YA is popping up in the media and culture more and people who were previously oblivious, or didn't pay attention, or now taking notice.
Highlights of his talk:
- YA is now a "thing" and to be important you have to have an opinion on it, which is why we see so many articles etc talking about YA (that tend to make us angry, etc)
- He prefers fiction "about" young adults instead of fiction "for" young adults. Because he feels that fiction about YAs is a self examination of the cultural phenomenon of adolescence, which everyone goes through, and have been since the abolishment of child labor laws and since teens aren't getting married and having kids when they're 14 anymore (as a generality).
- Adolescence is a time in all our lives that we never get over. Moments of extreme emotions we experienced in adolescence we still feel just as keenly today. It changes us forever, which is why he loves fiction about adolescence because nobody moves on from it.
- Writing "for" teens isn't necessarily conducive to art, since you're too busy trying to put across a message, or deciding what's appropriate and what's not
- Nostalgia in YA lit is fatal. Nostalgia is like the song Jack and Dianne, which is all about the good times growing up, through a filter of an adult. YA fictions should be more like Smells Like Teen Spirit, with emotion felt in the now. Almost like looking through a microscope, unable to see the big picture, to see past what is happening and what the characters are feeling at that moment
- YA is in its adolescence right now. Any disapproval that comes about (think of the hullabaloo regarding Marbury Lens) is all just fuel for the YA fire. YA is kind of like rock and roll. Maybe some people don't "get" it, so then they assume it must be bad.
- He was open for submissions in April (or for a year for anyone who attended the conference) but he said by and large YA writers should get agents and that they should spend more time querying agents than querying him or other publishers
When he was done and there was a Q&A session, people actually ran out of questions to ask him because I think everyone was just so blown away by how awesome he was. Definitely attend a panel by him if you ever get the chance.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
