Monday
Apr232012

Good news!

So, I wasn't able to continue the April A-Z Challenge, because I'm going into my finals week in grad school and things are CRAZY.

Anyway, just a cool update with some news, I am currently reading Bitterblue by Kristin Cashore. THAT'S RIGHT. I have procured an ARC. Feel free to be jealous. 

 

And in my other good news, I now have my first legit publishing industry job! I am now officially an editorial intern to Libby Murphy at Entangled Publishing. SQUEE!!!!!

Good things happening! Some things I can't even talk about at the moment. But I will keep you all posted soon, and I hope to have a preview of Bitterblue very soon.

Have fun, Ya'll!

 

CV

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Sunday
Apr012012

A is for Authors, Authors, and more Authors! (and a CONTEST)

Hey everyone!

It's april first, and APRIL FOOLS DAY! But not only that, it's the start of the April A-Z Blogging Challenge. I will be attempting to participate. 

Today I had the wonderful fortune to go into NYC for the Teen Author Festival's massive author signing. And when I say massive, I mean MASSIVE. I think there were something like 65 authors there, signing in shifts. It was crazy!*Full list of authors will appear at the bottom of the post*

So I took the train into the city, and while I was walking to the store, I ran into YA Author Kody Keplinger(Shut Out, The Duff) who's in my critique group, and her friend Rachel. We traipsed our way to the store, and then the madness began. I got there at right around One O'clock, when it began, and there were people everywhere. 

Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss, Lola and the Boy Next Door) had been moved from the first signing session to the third signing session, and there was a crazy long line to meet her. I would say probably four times as long as all of the other lines at any given time. 

After I had made the rounds gathering swag for the contest--which you'll find out about in a minute--I got in line to see Stephanie. Honestly, meeting Stephanie was one of the highlights for me. We've talked a lot on twitter, and I won a contest from her a while back, but had never met. When it was my turn in line, I said "I'm Charlee Vale." And she said "Oh my goodness, Hi!" After which she jumped up and gave me a huge hug. Pretty much made my day.

Sorry for the gigantic size of that picture. Anyway, I have a CONTEST for you all!

I have two cardstock pieces of paper, with tons of signatures from all the YA authors who were at this event. Some of them only signed one, some signed both, but they're really cool! 

Paper 1:

Side 1 

 

Side 2

Paper 2:

Side 1

 

Side 2

What you have to do: 

1 entry: Comment on this post.

1 entry: Follow me on Twitter @charleevale (if you already are, good for you!)

1 entry: Tweet about the contest

1 entry: Each for however many other places you share this contest

Then when you leave your comment link to your tweets etc, and add up your entries. This contest will be open for ONE WEEK. Good luck!

 

All the authors who were at the signing.

Jess Rothenberg

Stephanie Perkins

Leila Sales

Sarah Mlynowski

Erin Saladin

Wendy Mass

Carolyn Mackler

Micol Ostow

Terra E. McVoy

Marie Rutkoski

Michael Northrop

Larun Mclaughlin

Kiernan Scott

Andy Marino

Carly Moore

E.C. Meyers

Jennifer Smith

Margaret Stohl

John Corey Whaley

Alecia Whitaker

Jon Skovron

Victoria Schwab

Mark Schulman

Maryrose Wood

Natalie Zimmer

Charlotte Bennardo

Alyssa Sheinmel

Arliana Tibensky

Melissa Walker

Siobhan Vivian

jeri Smith-Ready

Melissa DeLa Cruz

K.M. Walton

Jennifer Barnes

Emily Danforth

Matt Blackstone

Jen Calonita

Barry Lyga

Natasha Friend

Jocelyn Davies

Anna Carey

Caroline Bock

Gayle Forman

Gina Damica

Daisy Whitney

Andrea Cremer

Susane Colasanti

Sara Beth Durst

Elizabeth Eulberg

Kim Harrington

Jenny Han

David Levithan

Melissa Kantor

jennifer Hubbard

Margie Gelbwasser

Leanna Rennee Heiber

Kody Keplinger

Stewart Lewis

Sarah D. Littman

Melissa Jensen

Kate Ellison

Jeff Hirsch

Elisa Ludwig

Anne Heltzel

PG Kain

Alissa Grosso

Lucas Klaus

 

Woo! All these authors are amazing! Be sure to check them out.

Wednesday
Mar282012

The Lucky 7 Game!

The Lucky 7 Game

So apparently there's a game going around among writers right now. it's called the Lucky 7 Game, and it's sort of like tag. I usually don't do these, but it's fun and an excuse to give you guys an excerpt. :)

If you're tagged by another author, you have to:

1. Go to page 7 or 77 of your current manuscript.
2. Go down to the seventh line and copy the 7 sentences that follow that.
3. Then, after pasting those, tag 7 other authors.
I was tagged by the Kody Keplinger (Bestselling author of The Duff, and Shut Out, and my writing group-mate) And I am so honored, because out of all the seven people she tagged, I'm the only one that is neither published nor agented (Yet!) - I was also tagged by my lovely CP Seabrooke a while back. (And I'm tagging her back, because I love tagbacks, though she probably won't do it again)
                                          
Anyway, I haven't told many people yet, but I started a new project. It's working title is 'Bet Her Life' and it's a YA thriller. And i just wrote the first two pages so here is an excerpt from page 7, 7 sentences, after the 7th line. 
I think I'll leave it a bit mysterious as to what the context is, but here you go!
                                     

--Ben laughs in my ear. “Yeah, I can see that, but you’ll have plenty of time for that when we’re rich.”

I grab the mic back and bound back onto the stage. “Well that was fast!”The crowd cheers, a writhing mass of clapping hands and waving arms, illuminated by the light of their consoles. “I knew you could do it. The usual statistical bets are still open tonight if you’re feeling particularly lucky.”--

And there you have it! Just a little taste of what I'm working on at the moment. 

Now it's time for TAG! So I choose . . .
Enjoy!
CV
Monday
Mar262012

Piracy, protecting your work, and why it hurts everyone

Ok, so the past couple of days I've been seeing stuff about book piracy all over the internet. John Green has said people have been e-mailing him celebrating the fact that they've illegally downloaded his work. Sophie Jordan expressed her lament at seeing a blogger wishing for a free-download outlet. 

Now, before I get into why this is a bad thing, I'll tell you a story. Although I am not yet a published author, I can relate to John and Sophie.

In my offline life, one of my many jobs is that of a professional photographer. I take pictures, specifically actor headshots and performance photos. Recently, a client I worked with doing some 'pro-bono' out of the kindness of my heart work, took advantage of me. They found the photos of their shows advertising my buisness online, and flipped out, saying that since the show was their intellectual property, the photos belonged to them and I needed thier permission to use them.

(Which is absolutely UNTRUE. As an artist, you should always know the extent to which copyright covers you. MEMORIZE IT.)

I apologized for taking them by surprise, and said that I hoped we could continue working together in a professional capacity. They said they would have to think about it, and had no intention of paying me for the work I had done, and would not ask permission to use my photos in the future. As painful as that was I let it go, because I obviously did not communicate my needs as an artist clearly enough, and I wanted to continue the relationship.

I wish that was the end of the story. The next day everything broke open. When I came to work for my other job (They're in the same location) I saw that my photos had been used without permission on fliers, a website, and posters that were plastered everywhere. Not only that, but they were credited to someone else. For a photographer, this is pretty much the worst thing that can happen. When I expressed my distress, I essentially (and literally) had the door slammed in my face. 

I immediately severed the relationship. I cannot work in an environment where my art is not respected, where it is stolen and posted everywhere, I gain nothing from it. 

Here's where I bring everything together. Just like books for Sophie and John, photography is a huge part of my livelihood. If I can't get paid for my art, I won't have time to do it. I'll be busy working other jobs to keep food on the table. The same goes for authors--if you steal their work, think of it as stealing a piece of food out of their fridge. That may seem melodramatic, but it's true. If people keep stealing art, books, and music, it will eventually disappear. You don't want that to happen do you?

So please, please, don't steal from artists. We'd love to give our art away for free, but we can't if we want to live. So help us out. Don't pirate. 

 

CV

Tuesday
Mar062012

Water Wars

So my goal for this year was to try to get as close to bookshelf zero (Not owning any books I haven't read) as possible. Although that probably won't happen, I want to read at LEAST 52 books - or one a week. More if I can manage it. I just finished number 7 - The Water Wars by Cameron Stracher.

 

I was initially attracted by the stunning cover art and unique concept -- The world has begun to run low on fresh water, and now the majority of it is controlled by stealing mercenaries or greedy corporations. With the way the world is heading, I thought that this would be a great book to have on the shelves right now. 

Unfortunately, those are the two best things I can say about the book. 

As far as books go now, this one comes in a bit short at 240 pgs., and the majority of the plot takes over the course of (from what I can tell) less than a week. 

There is so much packed in to this book that characters should realistically be dead from hunger, dehydration, and injury. But one improbable rescue and lucky mishap after another saves the brother-sister pair from death again and again. Frankly it happens so much it's fairly ridiculous. 

One of the more fantastic rescue elements occurred when the Water Pirate King--who had captured the pair earlier in the story, and spent about 24-48 hours with them--shows up just in time to save them from slavery and almost certain death. Miraculously he becomes their substitiue father after knowing them for such a short time. 

I had trouble following the story at times due to major non-sequiturs in the writing. Events jumped so quickly and with so little warning, that I couldn't get a handle on what was happening, or the characters emotional reaction to it. 

Furthermore, this book seemed more like an environmentalist manifesto than a novel. It is very clearly designed to make readers aware of water and environmental waste through repeitive sections about how the world was squandering resources. (Since the book is set in the future it's talking about where we are now) I'm not saying it's a good thing to be wasteful and destroy the earth, but I don't like being neaten over the head with it either. 

Those of you who follow me know that I'm a pretty laid back reader, and I don't give negative reviews often. Also, I'm sure that many people would enjoy this book. But it definitely didn't work for me. But again, the cover art is STUNNING.

CV