I love a good book event–and what’s not to love? You’re (usually) in a bookstore. (+10 bonus points) You’re surrounded by a crowd of booklovers so a) they’re great to talk to; and b) THEY HAVE SUCH GREAT BOOKISH ACCESSORIES! (For example, I went to an event yesterday and the people surrounding me had the cutest tote bags with quotes and library-card designs, book-related dresses and T-shirts and earrings…! I was ready to go on a shopping spree.)

And then there’s, you know, the point: the author! They often give their life story (I’m a sucker for the “how did you become an published writer?” tale!), talk passionately about craft and process, and sometimes offer sneak peak readings of upcoming books. In the past year alone I’ve had the pleasure of hearing Markus Zusak, Sarah Dessen, Scott Westerfeld, Victoria Schwab, Marissa Meyer, Julie Eshbaugh, Sarah J. Maas, Lauren Oliver, Gayle Forman, Mia Siegert, and lots others I might be forgetting off the top of my head. I used to be really into buying a book and getting it signed, but now I’ve found that the lines are sooooo long and the presentations are always so inspiring, I want to speed home and get my butt in the chair to start writing ASAP! A book event on a Saturday is a sure-fire way to inspire me for an entire weekend of dedicated writing.

I know I’m pretty lucky to be in such a well-visited area for authors, only a train ride away from New York, and going to book events to hear authors speak might not be in everyone’s cards. To be honest, as many book events I go to, I still find that it’s not enough! I supplement with Podcasts throughout the week to get myself in the writing mood. They’re also so valuable for craft ideas and plotting pointers and general writing advice. I’ve learned SO much from other MG/YA writers who have been willing to share their time on podcast interviews. Some of my current favorite subscriptions:

First Draft with Sarah Enni–74 episodes available for you to binge through! So many excellent authors!

88 Cups of Tea with Yin Chang–I just discovered this one this week! Not every episode is an interview with a YA author, there are other creatives who come on the show, so I picked through the ones I wanted, including some great conversations with Kody Kiplinger, Leigh Bardugo, Kendall Kulper, Mindee Arnett…

PubCrawl–a mix of interviews and craft-related topics with hosts S. Jae-Jones and Kelly Van Sant.

This Creative Life with Sara Zarr–hasn’t had new content in a while, but a delightful backlist to work through if you’re just digging in.

UpvoteYA–another new discovery (and in fact totally new podcast) hosted by 4 monitors for the YA Reddit threads. Enjoyed the first episode and looking forward to the next one.

As you can tell, I’m just burning through these episodes. Any you folks would recommend? I need to add some more to my playlist! I’m trying to push my way through a draft and I desperately need the encouragement of hearing others talk about how they’ve survived their own drafting efforts!

And the series continues! At the end of the month I give a few little book reviews. I focus on books that, for whatever reason, haven’t gotten the media attention and buzz other more popular books did, have less than 2,000 3,000 reviews on Goodreads as of my beginning reading them, and could use a little bit of love and attention. Also, I’m adding information for each title about how I discovered that book and/author. Mostly because I think this is interesting information, but also in case it helps any authors who have under reviewed books of their own and want to think of creative new ways of reaching new readers.

Book: The Only Thing Worse Than Witches by Lauren Magaziner

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  252 ratings

Date Published: August 2014

Publisher: Dial Books

How I Discovered this Book: I think while perusing the Internet looking for books about witches for comps for my next WIP…? I honestly can’t quite remember how I stumbled across this one.

Thoughts: Cute and funny, full of nonsense names and spells reminiscent of Roald Dahl silliness, a light-hearted middle grade for young readers.

Book: Paper Hearts by Beth Revis

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  19 ratings

Date Published: November 2015

Publisher: Scripturient Books

How I Discovered this Book: Author’s twitter account.

Thoughts: Great little craft and writing encouragement book that felt like having a coffee date with a more experienced writer who was happy to share some pointers on general knowledge writing topics. The casual/chatty tone of a blog made it an easy read and includes particularly good overview/perspective on story structure.

Book: Salt and Storm by Kendall Kulper

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  1,823 ratings

Date Published: September 2014

Publisher: Little Brown

How I Discovered this Book: Book blogs everywhere, specifically The Perpetual Page-Turner, as I recall. Folks have been chatting up this book for awhile and the description had me thinking about it until I finally got my hands on a copy.

Thoughts: Perfect for readers who want witches, historical fiction, and seaside lore. With a New England island setting, whaling romanticism, and a dark family curse, this YA was a perfect brew of my favorite things.

 

 

Book: Hattie Ever After by Kirby Larson

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  2,082 ratings

Date Published: February 2013

Publisher: Delacorte Press

How I Discovered this Book: Read the first one earlier this year and liked it a lot, so hunted down the second on Scribd audio.

Thoughts: It was fun to catch up with the character I had come to care for in book 1 and follow her new adventure. Historical fiction set in early 20th century San Francisco as Hattie pursues her dream of becoming a reporter, much of the story is conveyed in the form of letter correspondence.

Book: Velvet Undercover by Teri Brown

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  292 ratings

Date Published: October 2015

Publisher: Balzer & Bray

How I Discovered this Book: While perusing the bookshelves at work.

Thoughts: Loved this–If you’re in the mood for YA, historical fiction, spies, codebreaking, WWI, and are particularly interested in a setting beyond Allied territory (specifically, the German palace and its secret tunnels!!!), this book is absolutely going to be your cup of tea. Found it to be a well-paced and plotted thriller.

Book: Anyone But Ivy Pocket by Caleb Krisp

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  190 ratings

Date Published: April 2015

Publisher: HarperCollins

How I Discovered this Book: While perusing the bookshelves at work.

Thoughts: Spunky and plucky MG character–young orphan Ivy Pocket is a terrible British housemaid and on her adventure she leaves chaos in her wake. Bit reminiscent of the charmingly bumbling antics of Amelia Bedelia, now that I think on it.

Book: Seriously Wicked by Tina Connolly

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:   383 ratings

Date Published: May 2015

Publisher: TOR Teen

How I Discovered this Book: My book club voted on reading it for the month of August.

Thoughts: Contemporary teenage witch trying to balance high school, a new crush, and the impossible demands and never-ending chores set by her evil witch guardian, it was a fun and funny read with some charming things like a dragon who lives in the garage and spellwork being a combination of algebra homework and dipping wands in spices stuffed in a fannypack. Would appeal to fans of Sabrina the Teenage Witch. Just my cup of tea, honestly.

Book: Ophelia and the Marvelous Boy by Karen Foxlee

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  3,663 ratings

Date Published: January 2014

Publisher: Knopf

How I Discovered this Book: I kept seeing this mentioned as a favorite MG fantasy book on several agent’s blogs so I decided to see what the buzz was all about.

Thoughts: Bit like The Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler, in that is an adventure set in a museum after hours and in forbidden hallways (mostly) but add in an evil witch and an in-prisoned little boy from another magical world.

Book: Pip Bartlette’s Guide to Magical Creatures by Jackson Pearce and Maggie Stiefvater

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  780 ratings

Date Published: April 2015

Publisher: Scholastic Press

How I Discovered this Book: A gift from a friend, though this was on my radar for a while because I read everything Maggie Stievfater writes.

Thoughts: Funny, spunky, and chock full, as promised, of magical creatures like unicorns (who are actually quite vain and ill-tempered) and other fluffy and fierce creatures with unexpected personalities. Includes diagrams of the animals, reminded me a bit of a younger-audience Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find them.

Book: Lily’s Ghosts by Laura Ruby

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  703 ratings

Date Published: August 2003

Publisher: HarperCollins

How I Discovered this Book: After reading and loving Bone Gap, I started digging into this author’s backlist. (Nothing sells backlist like front list!) And I was delighted to find a MG ghost story set in Cape May, one of my favorite places in the world!

Thoughts: Set in Cape May, NJ (one of my favorite places in the world!) with a full cast of quirky ghosts, a haunted Victorian mansion, and a girl with a chip on her shoulder, every single character in this story was charming and fun to follow.

Book: The Night We Said Yes by Lauren Gibaldi

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  2,661 ratings

Date Published: June 2015

Publisher: HarperTeen

How I Discovered this Book: I’ve been following the lovely Lauren Gibaldi’s blog since I was a brand new blogger in 2011 and I’ve been waiting for this book ever since she announced the deal!

Thoughts: I love contemporary YA books set in summer and I particularly liked that this one was set in that strange, tense, nostalgic summer after high school graduation and before everyone leaves to start their new lives. A book about friendships and forgiveness, taking chances and making tough choices, enjoyed this one.

Book: Zero to Hero by Henry Winkler and Lin Oliver

Total Current Reviews on Goodreads:  326 ratings

Date Published: January 2012

Publisher: Scholastic

How I Discovered this Book: While searching for MG ghost story comps for my book, lots of Googling lead me to this series.

Thoughts: Listened to the audiobook read by Henry Winkler and, as a result, the ghost character came off as sounding a lot like the Fonz (he used a lot of the same slang and presentation and obsessive hair-combing) but all the same it was a fun little MG about a boy who moves into a haunted house and makes friends with a ghost.

Maybe you all already have a stable full of writing friends and critique partners who read your work at lightening speed and give the most amazing life-changing feedback and offer book recommendations that are in perfect line with your tastes. 

Lucky you.

It’s taken me years. 

It hasn’t been for lack of trying. Since 2013, I’ve done it all, multiple times in multiple ways, for multiple WIPs. I’ve:

1.  Attended MeetUp groups;
2. Attended SCWBI regional conferences;
3. Emailed people on the boards on Absolute Write;
4. Emailed people who commented on Maggie Stievfater’s critique partner hookup blog post;
5. Emailed folks who commented on Susan Dennard’s CP hookup blog post;
6. Reached out to already existing groups listed on the local SCBWI writing group boards;
7. Co-hosted a writing social through SCBWI;
8. Shouted from the rooftops on Twitter, putting out an open call 

In the past three years I’ve swapped partial or full manuscripts with more than 18 people, poured hours of my own limited writing time into reading other people’s work in the hopes I might make a connection, find a writer with a like mind, with a WIP that suits my taste so I want to read every word in slow-motion (this might be a poor way to explain what it feels like to give detailed feedback, but let’s just go with it), who opens my eyes to problems I was blind to in my own manuscript. 

And I’m happy to report that finally–FINALLY–I think I’ve found a small handful of people who are my people. People I trust, who’s opinions I respect, who’s writing talent I totally admire, who wrote books that are just my cup of tea, who I want to be friends with. To be clear, this isn’t a knock on those other folks who I haven’t continued to swap pages with. None of the writers were untalented or anything like that, nor was I alone in ending these critique partner relationships; sometimes someone didn’t work for me, sometimes I didn’t work for them. Not everyone in the world is your people, which is why it’s important for writers to test each other out, try each other on for size before going all-in and investing the time to read each other’s full manuscripts. 

As frustrating as it may sound, from what I’ve gathered from other writers this isn’t an uncommon experience. Finding a critique partner takes time and patience. 

If you’re currently hunting for a critique partner, a few general guidelines I’d offer from my own experience:

1. Only swap a sample to begin with, a few pages, a few chapters. Remember, you two are (probably) total strangers! If you don’t end up liking their writing enough, or their feedback doesn’t resonate with you, no hard feelings if you decide not to go all-in. Less wasted time and disappointment on both ends.
2. Agree on firm deadlines. There’s nothing worse than swapping chapters and then not hearing back for three months from the other person. This puts your revision on hold for months, unnecessarily! Or maybe you move ahead without their feedback and by the time it arrives, it’s worthless. 
3. Communicate. If you’re going to miss the deadline, tell the other person. If you’re not enjoying their chapters and feel like you have nothing valuable to offer, tell them (nicely!). If you’re decided to quit writing and have abandoned your manuscript, shoot them an email! I lied earlier–there is something worse than not hearing back for months and that’s not hearing back at all. It’s a horrible feeling when you send something you created to someone else in the world and you take the time to read their work and then…they disappear into the void like a phantom.
4. Don’t settle. I promise you, the right writing friend/critique partner is out there! Don’t agree to read someone else’s manuscript if you dread working through it and are just doing it for their feedback. That’s not fair to either of you. You both could have spent all that time working on your own books or looking for your ideal critique partner instead! 
5. Be kind. The purpose of a critique partner is to build someone up, to help, to offer a new perspective on their writing. Don’t tear someone or their craft down. All feedback should be constructive. No matter what. 
6. Be respectful. A critique partner does not work for you. It’s an equal partnership and you should maintain that balance. 

While a critique partner is an incredibly valuable thing and I truly believe it can help you get your writing to the next level (certainly has for me!) just having a critique partner won’t fit the bill. Make sure you do your due diligence and find a critique partner who you’re compatible with for the long-haul, all 50,000-120,000 words of it.