#young adult books
Anticipated Releases: April-June
Some releases coming up in the next few months that I’m pumped about, some I’ve already purchased…
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Favorite YA Books of 2021
Favorite YA Books of 2021
Yes, there are a lot of books and yes, I do have another post with even more picks. I’m a very indecisive person…
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Jenny Han “To all the boys I`ve loved before” & “P.S. I still love” (more…)
Give me a story that takes me away from this world.
There is refuge found in the pages of a book.
“Writing stories is a kind of magic, too.” - Cornelia Funke, Inkheart
7 reviews! Woohoo! Go check them out and read the book!
Trying to invent an ask game!
Send an ask with one or more symbols below for a snippet of my WIP that shows…
something heartwarming
sadness
fury
nausea
fear or anxiety
humor
a turning point
discovery
injury
a secret
☠️ death
a fight or explosion
fire or heat
a kiss or romance
embarrassment…or, bonus, send an emoji for me to interpret!
Tagging a few people to maybe help get this ask game off the ground? Feel free to skip out if this isn’t your thing, I totally get it!
@space-arcanist@livvywrites@alittlewarlord@notquitenovelist@ruth-lund@jayuswrites@lonbergwrites@ownworldresident@ladytauria@cadewrites
Ask away.
I could write a hell of an essay about love interests in YA and how they are described, but it wouldn’t have a point because I honestly don’t know WHY it’s like this
okay so my brain felt very tired at the thought of digging up specific examples so this isn’t going to include them BUT
Recent YA love interests are…the first word coming to my brain is “sexless,” but this transcends the sexual. Many of them are completely featureless outside of a couple specific non-details that serve to tell us that this is supposed to be the love interest.
When a character in a YA book is supposed to be The Love Interest, you can tell because he will immediately be described using one of the following:
- The curve of [his] muscle[s]
- The [ripple/flex/curve] of muscle under [adjective, usually tanned] skin
- muscle curv[ing] underneath [clothing]
I want to scream and cry. Both Cold the Night, Fast the WolvesandChildren of Blood and Bone had one of these exact phrases in the very SENTENCE where the narrator meets the Love Interest. These are far from being the only ones.
Both of those books also barely physically described the Hot Boy outside of his muscles curving, which seems to be more and more common.
What gets me is that this doesn’t read as attraction. “Muscle” and “curve” feel like code words that let me know that This Is The Hot Boy. I don’t know what people are getting out of these books. I, the reader, am doing so fucking much of the work in imagining this boy as hot that I might as well just ditch the book and make up a guy in my head.
“Muscle” being the one (1) and only trait that is attractive in male characters is so fucking weird. Every single YA author writes like they’re not actually attracted to men, they’re just imagining what it might be like based on advertisements and TV.
Hell, the way muscle is described makes it seem so abstract. Do you not know that muscle is soft when it isn’t flexed? Do you not know that everyone has muscles???
I don’t believe that the POV character is actually attracted to the guy when I read shit like this. Attraction involves noticing, being aware of the physicality of a person and the details of them. Any given “curve of muscle” description is totally interchangeable with any other, if you swap hair and eye colors here and there, and it’s so…the opposite of what being attracted to a human is like.
I think it must have been Ella Enchanted that includes the line “I loved the hairs on the nape of his neck” (the protagonist talking about the love interest) and honestly…that. That actually authentically reads as attraction, and not a low-effort attempt to “code” the character as hot
Isn’t that intentional, though?
Musclesare universal, after all.
I thought the blank-slate-ness of the typical YA love interest was specifically cultivated so the reader can more easily insert their own preferences into their mental image of the character. Sort of like how early Disney princes were basically a piece of cardboard wearing tights and a sword.
¡Qué bonita bandera! AKA what heritage(s) do you claim?
Mexican, Xicanx
When was the first time you saw yourself represented?
I read a poem by Lorna Dee Cervantez in speech class as a 10th grader. When I went to the library to look for it on the shelves, I stumbled upon Sandra Cisneros. Lorna was from California and Sandra from Chicago, even so they are Chicanas chignonas. As a kid growing up on the Texas border, I really connected.
How do you connect to your heritage through your books (if at all)?
I write about Xicanx kids in Chicago in Pig Park (Cinco Puntos, 2014) and also kids on the Texas border in The Smell of Old Lady Perfume (Cinco Puntos, 2008). Not a Bean (Charlesbridge, 2019) is a culturally relevant picture book about the lifecycle of a jumping bean.
What do you hope for the future of Latinx books?
There are so many stories that still need to be told. I meet a ton of kids who are budding writers. I can’t wait to read their stories one day.
What is the book that inspired you to write for kids/teens?
Pat Mora’s picture books are a big inspiration. As far as teens, I was really inspired by Benjamin Alire Saenz’ Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood. He writes about kids in the Southwest and does it beautifully. Reading his books doesn’t just make me want to write, it makes me want to write something beautiful.
What are you writing now?
I’m working on a couple of picture books now. My first picture book, Not a Bean, will be published by Charlesbridge in 2018. My 2008 middle grade,The Smell of Old Lady Perfume, will be available as an ebook and Spanish translation for the first time this year. It is very exciting to think my family abroad will be able to read.
Claudia Guadalupe Martinez grew up in sunny El Paso, Texas where she learned that letters form words from reading the subtitles of old westerns with her father. She now lives and writes in Chicago.
Website*Twitter*BuyPig Park!
Newsletter Is Ago!
To get this information out of the way: I now have a newsletter!
Follow this link to sign up: http://eepurl.com/zuIDj
Remember to confirm your subscription, and you’ll get the latest updates on The Academy and other books coming out first.
The Academy - Family vs. Friends - Book 3
While I’m trying to write Academy 5 and wrapping up on the rewrite of book 3, I wanted to share some exciting news.
First, Book 3 is a big book. Like double the size of the first book. Book two and three were originally planned to be a single book, but the story got really big, and there was no way I could fit it all in one book.
That said, and while I know I just released book two less than a month ago, I still foresee the release of book three happening no later than the end of the summer.
This will be a really big push to get this out the door, because there’s a lot that goes into formatting, cover art and some background set up for publishing.
So if you were wondering when to expect it, you can set your calendars. For more specific updates when I figure out when the release date will be, do sign up for the newsletter. Sometimes GoodReads or Tumblr notices can get lost in the shuffle. With an email (and I promise to only email when it comes to releases and important book details) it goes right to your inbox and you’ll be sure not to miss it.
Other Book Releases
I know waiting for books in a series to release can be a pain. Some people have looked at Smoking Gun, the first title I’ve ever released.
Smoking Gun is soon to get a makeover. It is getting a new cover and a fresh edit. (I haven’t looked at it closely in a long time.)
The re-release is slated to be soon. It will also stay 99 cents, but ONLY for about a week. After that point, the price will rise to $3.99.
If you’d like to get the re-release, I’ll let you know when it is happening. I am pretty sure it’ll be within the next week.
While it isn’t The Academy, it’s still a very funny, new adult mystery romance story based in Charleston, where the Academy boys are located.
Also, coming soon after that in mid-June is…
Spice God
This is a contemporary fantasy book about Melody, who runs into an Aztec spice god, Tonac.
Yes, there’s mystery.
Yes, there’s adventure.
Yes, there’s awkward. I tend to write a lot of awkward.
This has been whispered about, because I keep planning a release and I keep putting it off. (Blame Gabriel.) (He’s distracting.) (He also hides my hair clips.)
I am planning some major promotional things happening for this book. For your continued support, I’d like to ask that those interested: If you would like an Advanced Readers Copy, please contact me! clstone at arcatopublishing.com
Anyone can ask for this. I don’t care if you’re a regular reviewer, or if you just want something extra to read.
In exchange, I will ask that you review the title on Amazon. ARCs are being released via email around June 1st. I will provide a further link June 15th (slated to be the release date) via email on the upload.
I’ll ask that if you’ve read the book, to please leave a review. Reviews are A BIG DEAL. It helps me and it helps other readers figure out if they want the book or not.
With that said:
The Boys Need Your Help!
If you’re reading this far, I’m going to assume you’re interested in supporting the boys and the continuance of The Academy series.
I love the boys. Right now, I’m gearing up to do heavy promotions of the series during the summer for the planned release of Academy 3.
If you’ve loved the series so far and want to show further support, there’s a couple of things that you can do.
1. Review! Click this to review on Amazon.
2. Start a discussion! Under the same Amazon web page for the series, there’s also a section where you can start talking about the book below. If you have questions, love a particular guy, want to talk about anything, please, please talk there. :)
3. Share the book! Pass it to a friend. I don’t mind. Seriously. I love the guys, and the more support we can get, it just make the series better.
And if you have Shelfari, the boys are there, too! Help me fill in the details. We can create a great page working together.
So thanks again for the ongoing support, sign up for the newsletter, review, and keep an eye out for updates.
♥
Sincerely,
C. L. Stone
PS Luke says hi.
the sexual tension between me and unread books on my bookshelf
Happy Halloween, you ghouls.