This Week in YA — Issue #73

Welcome to the Voyage newsletter!

It’s another new week and another installment of this newsletter for you this week, my fellow YA enthusiasts. I hope you all had the chance to spend some time outdoors while observing the Memorial Day long weekend. I got to enjoy two of my favorite activities outside (reading and writing), so I’m calling my time a success. But since we’re back to the work week now, read on for all the latest updates from the publishing world!

News and Resources

First off, the deadline is coming up for our Voyage Novel Excerpt Contest and Voyage Creative Nonfiction Prize! Make sure to get your entries in by June 1. 

If you’re looking for more books to add to your TBR list, Amanda at Teen Librarian Toolbox has 39 books out between now and November.

Chris at Book Riot recently shared 12 Books that Prove Nothing Is off Limits for YA. Great choices here!

If you’re struggling with a project, check out How Screenwriting Can Help You Write Stronger Fiction over on LitHub. 

Chuck Wendig has some very apt observations in The State Of Being A Published Writer In 2023 Is Really Weird, And A Little Worrisome.

Finally, I know everyone wants to know The Secret to Winning in Publishing (me too!), and Heather at Writer Unboxed lets us in on it.

The 5 Questions Interview Series

Each week, this newsletter will include interviews with industry professionals sharing insight about the who, what, where, when, why in YA today.

Today we’ve got an interview with author Carlyn Greenwald, whose latest YA, Time Out, was co-written with Sean Hayes and Todd Milliner. It’s out today and is the perfect book to get in your hands as Pride Month celebrations get underway! 

5 Questions Interview with Carlyn Greenwald, YA and adult author

ABOUT TIME OUT

Heartstopper meets Friday Night Lights in this keenly felt coming-of-age story about a teen hometown hero who must find out who he is outside of basketball when his coming out as gay costs him his popularity and place on the team.

In his small Georgia town, Barclay Elliot is basically a legend. Here basketball is all that matters, and no one has a bigger spotlight than Barclay. Until he decides to use the biggest pep rally in the town’s history to come out to his school. And things change. Quickly. Barclay is faced with hostility he never expected. Suddenly he is at odds with his own team, and he doesn’t even have his grandfather to turn to the way he used to. But who is Barclay if he doesn’t have basketball?

His best friend, Amy, thinks she knows. She drags him to her voting rights group, believing Barclay can find a bigger purpose. And he does, but he also finds Christopher. Aggravating, fearless, undeniably handsome Christopher. He and Barclay have never been each other’s biggest fans, but as Barclay starts to explore parts of himself he’s been hiding away, they find they might have much more in common than they originally thought.

As sparks turn into something more, though, Barclay has to decide if he’s ready to confront the privilege and popularity that have shielded him his entire life. Can he take a real shot at the love he was fighting for in the first place?

ABOUT CARLYN GREENWALD

Carlyn Greenwald is a YA and Adult Romance and Thriller author and screenwriter hailing from Manhattan Beach, California. She graduated from USC in 2018 with a degree in English and Film as well as minors in Screenwriting and Forensics and Criminality. She’s worked development gigs at companies including Illumination Entertainment, Mandeville Films, Vertigo Entertainment, and 141 Entertainment. She currently works as Content Development Coordinator at boutique book packager Cake Creative/Electric Postcard Entertainment. Her Adult debut, Sizzle Reel, was published by Vintage Books earlier this year. Her YA debut, Time Out, co-written with actor and producer Sean Hayes and producer Todd Milliner, will be published by Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers May 30, 2023. When not writing, she’s scouring theme park YouTube, playing video games, and hanging with her dogs.

1. Who: Who are your instabuy, go-to YA authors? And which new talent have you discovered recently?  

My instabuy YA authors are: Rachel Lynn Solomon, Courtney Summers, Tess Sharpe, Adam Sass, Kelsey Rodkey and Tiffany D. Jackson among others. I mostly read YA thriller authors consistently – once I trust them with twists and character, I cannot stop reading them – and also have some contemporary authors I adore. Whether it’s the depth of their characters, how loud I laugh, or how hard I swoon. And this is just a small sampling; there are so many incredible writers out there.

Some of my favorite newer authors are Andrew Joseph White, Justine Pucella Winans, Edward Underhill, Jenna Miller, and Page Powars. They’re all actually LGBTQ+ authors across YA horror, thriller, and contemporary. Queer lit is having such an amazing, freeing moment of expression when it comes to the emotions of queer teens, whether that’s rage reflecting the state of the world or the joy we’re always desperate to escape into. I’m so excited for all the art coming onto the scene lately.

2. What: What was the most joyful moment in preparing to bring Time Out into the world?

I’d have to go with Sean Hayes appearing on Colbert to promote the book. For some reason it was still such a surprise to me to hear my name said out loud with Todd’s, as if I still hadn’t fully processed that this book and the collaborative process was real. But it was really an incredible feeling to watch faces you’ve seen all your life and suddenly hear them saying your name within that format. I had a similar giddy, out of body feeling when I saw the announcement for Time Out in The Hollywood Reporter. Like, that’s my name! In a major entertainment industry magazine! On TV!

3. Where: Where is the state of YA right now, from where you sit? Where do you hope to see it go next? 

I actually touched on this a bit above, but I think YA, beyond any minute discussions of which genre is trending and what tropes are doing well, has really exploded with raw, honest, desperate-to-be-seen emotion. It really reflects the audience in an incredible way. Teenagers have been feeling huge feelings since the beginning of time, but more and more, I think they’re looking for mirrors back into their own intense, high-stakes experiences and emotions. I love how you can pick up a YA book and it can transport you so thoroughly into a love story, a horror story, a fantastical world of wonder and terror. And I feel like the books are continuing to push boundaries and expectations, which I also love. Taking different angles, showcasing voices we haven’t heard before, making the themes louder.

As for the future, I guess I hope that it continues to do that—to invite and keep new voices, to find a balance that allows every kind of story in every genre whether trendy or not to be invited to the table, to keep options open for teen readers, especially marginalized ones. Personally, there was an era in YA in the early 2010s where books were just weird, like bizarre plots that often felt like someone came up with them while high but were still utterly honest and delightful. I’d love to see books like that make a resurgence!

4. When: Looking ahead to next year (or beyond), what exciting things are next on the horizon for you? 

Next year, so far I have my second adult book with Vintage/Anchor, which will be another sapphic rom com that I’m working on edits for now and am super excited about. I can’t say too much about it now, but it takes place in film school, one of the more formative locations in my own life. Otherwise, I have a couple projects that I’m hoping manifest into something I can talk about, but that’s all up to the universe right now. But I am hoping to break into thriller one way or another.

5. Why: Why YA? What drew you to writing this book for this age group? 

I really love that precipice of adult time period—where people have some idea of who they are, have some amount of autonomy but often aren’t given the full power to exercise it, how many firsts and how big those firsts feel. It creates this playground for stories where the characters are at their most insolent, most plucky, most creative, and to some extent, their most unguarded. I can write characters making huge mistakes, being their most selfish and unlikable, having the biggest drama and it all feels perfectly at home within the experience of being a teenager. I love letting those flawed, growing characters get the spotlight in stories across genre. And hopefully the teens who feel as flawed and unfinished yet passionate can find those books and feel a little less alone. There really is no other age category like it.

Writing Inspiration from Kip

As you might have noticed from some of the above links this week, the state of publishing continues to be very strange. I found myself nodding furiously while reading both Chuck’s and Heather’s pieces, because everything seems to be in question these days—from what sorts of projects publishers are picking up to how published books are marketed and sold (or not). 

In the past, one piece of advice had been pretty consistent: keep your eyes on your own paper and write what you love and eventually you’ll find your readers. But these days that doesn’t really seem like enough. So I’ve recently found myself thinking of another consistent piece of advice that goes really well with Heather’s piece about pivoting: write something new.  

You might not know Heather Webb because she writes historical fiction for adults, but as a YA historical fiction fan, I’ve personally loved her books about intriguing women from history. So first of all, I’m certainly curious to see which way she pivots in her career herself! Will she try out a different genre or age category next? Time will tell …

In any case, just the fact that someone I consider a successful author with quite a following writing about being open to pivoting to something else tells me that all of us should be open to it as well. Time to get pivoting!

Thank you for joining me on this voyage!