The BEAst
A year ago I was staring at twitter with ginormous envy at all the people attending BEA. Envy so large that I, as a Bostonian, fondly named it my Green Monstah. The Green Monstah in my belly thought it sounded like such a great experience. Meeting industry peeps, other writers, getting books!! And I wasn’t there. Living through the tweets of others wasn’t enough. So, Green Monstah started poking at my brain. “Go next year,” it said. “Promise yourself you will go next year!”
And so I did. I promised myself.
I bought my flights and got a room with some of my favorite writerly people.
Together we planned such great adventures such as touring the convention, hanging around the city and best places to eat. As I arrived I was filled with excitement and joy and….TERRIFYING FEAR. In a matter of moments, BEA had gone from the best….to the BEAst!!
Did I bring the right clothes to wear?
What if no one recognized me?
What if I made a fool of myself?
How could I speak words to people I idolized?
Could I locate the nearest table to hide beneath?
But as Eleanor Roosevelt said, “Do something everyday that scares you.” BEA was definitely intimidating and so was the thought of meeting different agents, editors and writers. But I am SO glad that I took a deep breath (read: one hundred hyperventilating breaths) and put myself out there. 
The convention floor was super busy and packed with all sorts of people. I bumped into several awesome writers from twitter, picked up a ton of great ARCs and put actual human faces to the names of several publishing rockstars. For a writing conference noob, it was all about networking and meeting people. So, as fun as the exhibit hall was, my fondest memories take place outside the convention walls.
I ate meals with twitter friends (who are now OMFG BEST FRIENDS FOREVER) 
and wandered around the city seeing the sights while we discussed publishing trends, industry news, our querying processes and our current works in progress. We also ocassionally stuffed ourselves into a cab
The entire event felt like twitter came to life Pinohico style 
and all the tweeting faces I had once seen still on my feed turned to LIFE– or as if twitter was the animated world in Enchanted and we all awoke to be REAL WRITERS. I can’t even express how attending BEA made everything in the writing that much more REAL. I mean, honestly…..look at all these amazing faces!!
By the end of the weekend, I knew 100% that I had made the right decision. BEA was an amazing, stressful, eye-opening event and was probably the best weekend of my life. Without a doubt, you can count me in for next year!
Diversity in Books
Taking a minute to get back onto my blog. I’ve been super busy, guys! The days fly by and I’ve used every minute of free time I can get to write. So, these few precious moments will be devoted to something near and dear to my heart. I thought it would be good to discuss the #WeNeedDiverseBooks feed on twitter. This movement is super important for the industry at all levels:
For Readers- Everyone deserves to feel like they can be the hero of a story. They shouldn’t have to only read about straight, white men all the time. By having the option to read about diverse settings and characters, people can not only feel empowered to be who they are but also empowered to learn about people different from themselves.
For Writers- No writer should worry they can’t write a certain story or a specific character. When writers feel free to write something they are passionate about because of the plot, the characters or theme, that passion will translate to the page. Books won’t just be books. They’ll be living stories. And a writer that can contribute something real and meaningful to the pantheon of novels is a happy writer.
For Publishers- The world is filled with unique people with differing lives. Any hesitation about publishing diverse topics or characters will negatively affect everyone involved. Agents, editors, writers, and readers. Society won’t grow by reading the same stuff. And there shouldn’t be a stigma attached to supporting something that’s viewed as different. Different is good. Without different, there are no stories. Just one story. And frankly, that’s boring.
I think we can all agree diversity is a great thing for books. Something we need. Something we should support from every level of publishing. And I believe we do. With that said, I also believe we should be cautious in this pursuit.
I’m not saying we shouldn’t have diverse books, we should. But why can’t they just be books? Not diverse books. Black books. Gay books. Disabled books. Why not just books? I’ve never been a fan of labels and while this campaign brings a great deal of attention to the necessity for diverse stories, I worry it puts too much emphasis on our differences and not our similarities.
As a reader and a writer I want to enjoy a good story. I don’t care who the main characters are or where they’re from. I just don’t. If its good, its good.
I want to pick up a book and be amazed at the story. The twists and turns. How the world-building drew me in. In awe of how everything came together, regardless of the fact that the main character is a deaf, black lesbian or an asian male in Tokyo. The story should be what inspires me. I should see some part of me, even if small, in the character, no matter how similar or different they are from me.
I want to write a book and have people enjoy the journey of my characters. To relate to them as people, laugh and cry with them, and root for them to succeed. I want readers to be happy with the love story and maybe a little unhappy, too. Not focus on the fact that my main character was bipolar, or that she was in a F-F-F love triangle, or born without lower legs.
My latest story features a cast of people of color. But I didn’t say that in the query. I honestly never thought of saying it. Maybe that was wrong of me. Maybe I should have pointed that out. But that was never my intention. Their story was about who they were as people, the struggles they faced and how they overcame them. It wasn’t about them being latino, or black or mixed race.
Yes, I know people seek out specific storylines with specific characters. And I believe that’s why no writer should be afraid to write them–so that no reader is afraid to read them. But I also want books to be about the story. The character’s journey. Their growth as a person and what they do to shape the world around them. Not what labels society chooses to define them by.
#WeNeedDiverseBook is certainly something I can get behind. I hope it encourages writers to write these stories and for more readers to pick up something new. What’s more important to me is the fact that we need to ask for them at all.
Why I believe in Love At First Sight: Guest Post
I’m so pleased to have S. M. Johnston guest post today as part of her blog tour. It’s great to have her share her thoughts on love and tease you with a bit of her new novel, SLEEPER.
There was a party. An eighteen-year-old girl looked across the room and spotted a guy with red hair. The moment she saw him, she knew: “That’s the guy I’m going to marry.” It was love at first sight. They were soul mates and it was a love that lasted until he died, forty years later.
That is the story of my parents.
They never had a fight and they loved each other dearly every day of their lives.
I know a lot of people scoff that love at first sight, or insta love. But it can happen.
In SLEEPER, the main character, Mishca Richardson, gets a bad case of love at first sight when she sees her university professor, Collin Read. But this is no fairytale love story like my parents, and the reasoning behind this attraction has much more to it than girl meets boy.
It was this moment that was the catalyst for the whole story. The notion of these two people meeting, the “what if” factor is what drove me to write the manuscript. From this initial idea I had to come up with how these two characters would meet, the events that lead up to that point and the fall out afterwards.
To complicate things, Mishca already has a boyfriend, Ryder (bad Mishca! – no seriously, it’s beyond her control). I remember how mad one of my beta editors were when she came to this part, not realizing that when I first came up with this story, Ryder didn’t exist. He appeared as I fleshed out the plot.
Even though Mishca had no control over falling in love with Colin, she does have control over the guy she ends up with – the reluctant hot university professor or the tattooed beau who is already smitten with her. Who would you choose?
SLEEPER is an upper YA/NA speculative fiction
Blurb: A new heart should mean new life, not a living nightmare.
Mishca Richardson’s life is at an all-time high after her heart transplant. With new boyfriend, Ryder, the two of them have the perfect summer romance. Even the nightmares that have been plaguing her sleep since her operation can’t dull the high she’s on.
Things start to unravel as Mishca develops superhuman abilities. She does her best to hide them so as not to end up a science experiment in a lab. But she can’t ignore the instant attraction she experiences when she meets her university professor, Colin Reed.
Torn between the blossoming love and the obsession, Mishca must decide if she wants Ryder or Colin. But the organization responsible for her changes and her connection to Colin, is moving to secure Mishca for himself so that she can be the weapon he always intended her to be. If Mishca can’t resist her programming she’ll have a lot more to worry about than romance.
TADA Diversity
It’s been a really fun year posting for There And Draft Again, the fantasy blog I’ve been a part of. I’ve enjoyed reading fellow contributers posts very much as we’ve explored books, movies, television, old classics, new stories and all sorts of plot and theme concepts inbetween. Much like I must break from my own blog, I must break from the TADA blog 🙁 Although I will no longer be posting regularly to the fantasy blog, just as I will post interesting blogs here to stay connected with all you wonderful writerly people, I will post to TADA as well if there’s a topic I simply must share.
With that said, check out the latest and last (for now) post by yours truly for TADA about diversity in fantasy and how it is time to move forward.
Pitch Wars Mentee 2014
Awards
