Progress on a Possible YA Hugo Award

Sasquan, the 2015 Worldcon in Spokane, has released several committee reports that will be discussed at the business meeting of the WSFS ("World Science Fiction Society") next week. Among these reports is that by the YA Hugo Committee.

Bad news first - no decision on a YA Hugo Award this year. Good news, though, the Committee recommends it be reformed for another year so that it can focus on the issues involved in having a Campbell-like YA/teen literature award.

I've blogged before about the business meeting in 2013 at LoneStarCon 3 in San Antonio and the treatment there of a YA Hugo proposal. Worldcon in 2014 was in London, where there were several standing-room-only YA panels. LonCon 3 reformed a committee to investigate a YA Hugo proposal. Meanwhile the NASFiC (Detcon1) in 2014 created the Detcon1 Award for YA and Middle Grade Speculative Fiction and was able to get nominations for both categories from its supporters and attendees. The winners were listed in Locus.

Looking at the YA Hugo Committee report for this year, I'm feeling a bit more confident. The committee has definitely done its homework. The history of the YA marketing category is covered. The usual questions/arguments about the proposal are brought up and answered. How other organizations define YA for their awards are discussed, though in the section for comparisons between other YA awards by other organizations only the Newbery (which is for children) is brought up. True, the Newbery is better known than the Golden Duck Awards/Hal Clement Award and has been around longer, so that might be why that award was used.

So, yes, I am hopeful that the committee might be able to develop some award for YA/MG. It would be nice if it was a Hugo award, but even the Campbell (Not a Hugo (standard declaimer whenever the Campbell is mentioned)) is voted on by supporting and attending members of a Worldcon. And that is good.

What are your thoughts?

Go to Your Room!

For those authors who write middle grade or YA, how much thought do you put into the character's bedroom? If the story doesn't need to focus on that part of the house, probably very little. But even then, do you, as an exercise, visualize what that room might be like?

A child's or teen's bedroom, as the only room in the house that they can be thought to 'own', usually has indicators of his or her personality. Is it messy? Very organized, with everything in its place? Totally chaotic with only a few clear spots that a parent dare step in?.

Are there bookshelves with actual books? Or are the shelves only places to put toys or trophies? What types of posters or pictures are on the walls? Are they the parents' choices (usual for children's rooms) or the teen's?

Being sent to one's room used to be a punishment, but not if the child's room also contains a tv and dvd player or computer or game system.

My youngest sister and I shared a dormer room. She was the super-neat child, with everything in its place. My bookcase was always spilling over with books, while her bookcase had some books, but more stuffed animals and dolls. The top of my dresser was where the statues of horses and my rock collection were displayed. Hers had her brush and comb, barrettes and rubber bands for her hair. The shared closet floor was tidy on her side, cluttered on mine. The room was so small we had to do our homework downstairs at the kitchen table. Our play area was down in the basement. Until our two older sisters moved out of the house and I was able to move downstairs into what had been my oldest sister's room, I felt that I wasn't able to put any personal touches into my 'space'. And yet I see that we each did.

If the story is set in a boarding school, there's probably very few options for expressions of personal taste. Dorm rooms in college used to be the same, usually containing two beds, two desks and, if you were lucky, two closets and/or chests of drawers (sometimes the chest of drawers was inside the closet). Then students were able to bring mini-fridges, microwaves and tvs. Now, with laptops and smart phones, the tv is no longer taking up space in a college dorm room, but other items are.

There would probably be even less space on a spaceship. Perhaps the bed might fold into the wall when not in use. Ditto a desk or clothespress.

How much do you plan ahead? Or do you just list each item in the room as you need to? As readers, how much do you recall of a character's room? Does it add to your understanding of the character?

Discussions on a possible YA Hugo Award

I attended WorldCon this year and specifically went to the business meeting of the WSFS ("World Science Fiction Society") as I heard that discussion of a YA Hugo was on the schedule. This has come up at least three years in a row, now, and I wanted to hear why it kept being dismissed. Yet at the preliminary meeting on Friday, the topic of the YA Hugo award was dismissed with an "Object To Consideration". Which meant it wasn't even going to be discussed. Just dropped.

I was so irritated that I simply left the meeting at that point. I've since learned that later in the meeting, someone more canny with Roberts Rules of Order managed to get a committee formed to discuss the notion of a YA Hugo. I hope this means that something will come of it (though my experience in a university usually translates "there will be a committee to discuss" something as "we'll talk it to death until people give up and go away"). Maybe the Roberts Rules sticklers will format the wording in a way more acceptable to the WSFS. One can only hope.

Since this is at least the third year in a row that the topic has come up, there's already been a good deal of discussion on it. Some claim that having a YA Hugo Award will bring more young adults to WorldCon. I'm not hopeful of that, but since there are many *adult* readers of YA, maybe more of those will show up in support of YA authors in attendance. LoneStarCon 3 had at least two YA panels ("Giving Science a Boost with YA SF" and "YA Fantasy - We'll Always be 13 at Heart") that were packed, so YA is popular with WorldCon attendees.

I don't really have a horse in this race. Although I'm a YA author, I'm with a small press, and it seems that only the bigger, traditional publishing houses have the distribution to bring their YA books and authors to the notice of those who will nominate and vote on the award.

That's a major factor in this discussion.

This isn't the Mythopoeic Award, the Newbery Award or the Printz. It's not the EPIC eBook Award or the Nebulas. All of these are juried awards, all looking for particular criteria which signifies the "best" for those awards. No, instead, the Hugo Award is what is considered to be a "popular" award. For the Hugo award, works are nominated and voted on by those attending and/or supporting the WorldCon for a particular year. Those people voting for the awards are readers, watchers, authors, editors - *anyone* attending or supporting that WorldCon. Yet the arguments I've heard against a YA Hugo suggests that any book nominated would supposedly (by some objectors) have to be held to a higher standard, something that would be on reading lists for schools for years to come. I would think that would have to be left to those librarians and teachers who compose the reading lists, not voters for the Hugos.

There are those who complain that a YA Award was "tried" years ago. According to the WSFS notes, it was "tried" back in 1989 and the "nominating response was too low" to make it to the final ballot. However, this was before the rise in popularity in YA, back before the first Harry Potter book was published. (The WSFS note is from 2000, when one Harry Potter book had been nominated). The image of YA by both the publishing industry and the reading public has changed since then.

Another argument has been that it's much more prestigious for a YA book to be judged as a "Best Novel" in competition with adult novels. Indeed, one of the Harry Potter books (Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire) won the Hugo for Best Novel in 2001, after Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban made it into the nominations in 2000. In 2009, there were three books considered YA among the five nominations (The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman, Little Brother by Cory Doctorow, and Zoe’s Tale by John Scalzi) and one of them(The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman) won. John Scalzi blogged about the uproar and grumbling back then.

So, if on one hand it's okay for YA books to be in competition with adult books, but on the other hand, people have a problem with a YA book being considered the "Best of" a particular year, why can't there be a YA/Middle Grade category? This is more an age division then, rather than a "subgenre" as some claim. Jane Yolen was interviewed back in 2012 about a YA Hugo and mentioned that YA authors would welcome another award category.

Here's what bears repeating. The Andre Norton awards (part of the Nebulas) are decided upon by SFWA members and a jury. The Golden Duck Awards (for Best Children and YA Science Fiction) are decided upon by a jury and the categories only cover through twelfth grade. The Hugo Awards, as a popular award, is one chance for YA readers (adult and younger) to vote on what they consider "The Best".

Peta Freestone posted similar points on her site, along with the points that the 2009 nominations weren't exactly considered "YA". Gaiman's book also won the Newbery Award, the Carnegie Award and the Locus Award for Best Young Adult Novel, so those three groups considered it YA/Children.

So, how will YA books be identified? One person who was working on the proposal suggested that what is listed on the copyright page, what division of the publisher would be a determining point. That would work for the traditional publishers, who are big enough to have a separate division for each category of publication. It wouldn't work for small press (if it ever happened that a small press would get enough exposure to be nominated). At that point, the publisher's page should be considered - what category on the publisher's page is the book listed under. Cheryl Morgan back in 2010 recommended letting those making the nomination decide, which also sounds like a good idea, but probably not to those wanting solid rules.

For more details on this year's attempt at the YA Hugo and some more arguments, here is a link.

Yet another complaint about a YA Hugo is that it would make the awards ceremony much longer than it already is. Sorry, but as someone who has attended both the Hugos and the EPIC eBook Awards (EPIC is an organization of *ebook* publishers and authors, so practically every category is included), the Hugo Awards ceremony was short. The biggest thing taking up time at the Hugos was all the picture taking and waiting for the nominees to come in from dinner. Has anyone considered having the formal dinner start earlier?

The Hugo Rules allow for a trial year for a category. Those categories that aren't renewed within three years get dropped. Perhaps the time has come for a trial year for the YA Hugo.

As a YA reader, there are many YA authors (small press and traditional) I would love to see recognized in the SF community.

What are your thoughts?

Should Children's or YA Books Contain Cuss Words?

So who doesn’t swear or cuss on occasion? Right? It’s part of our current culture. Everyone does it—increasingly so and harsher as we go along. Swearing has increased in movies, television shows but especially books. When I was a teen reading Lord of the Rings or anything written by Ray Bradbury there wasn’t a single cuss word anywhere. Teens then were cussing up a storm when gathered in groups and such. But it wasn’t in our literature nearly to the extent it is today.

This begs the question: Is all of that cussing really necessary?

Sarah Coyne, professor of family life at Brigham Young University analyzed the use of profanity in forty young adult books on the best seller list. Thirty-five of them had at least one swear word. On the average there were thirty-eight instances of cussing, with one book containing nearly five hundred uses of foul language.

Is that really necessary to become a best seller with teens? The argument is the author is reaching for authenticity and grit. But there are plenty of books with grit and reality that don’t make us feel like we need a shower to rinse off the stench after reading them. Look at The Hunger Games Series. Could a story get any grittier or more realistic? How much cussing did you hear from Katniss or Peta? During the final battle with Lord Voldemort, did Harry Potter let loose a stream of expletives?

In my humble opinion, cussing is a cheap way out of finding a creative way to express oneself. And it cheapens the book as well.

Here are some more interesting notes Professor Coyne discovered:

The characters doing the swearing tended to be of higher social status, better looking and have more money than their non-swearing counterparts.

So what does that say to the preteens who are forming their ideas of who they are and who they will become as adults? Everyone knows kids who read, tend to do so about three to five years above their age level. I’ve seen Fourth Graders reading the Twilight series. None of MY children would ever have read something like that at age nine, but I saw it when I was teaching. And the kids who were allowed to read material years ahead of their maturational level, refused to read age-appropriate, excellent literature, thereby missing out of a whole world of good books.

The problem with today’s young adult books is a reader doesn’t know what they’re getting into until they’re knee deep in the mire. This goes for swearing, sex and violence. Ever try to stop a teen from 'enjoying' something which contains sex, foul language or gore? Of course an allowance is made for the genre bridging the innocence of middle grade books and adult-level reading. But how much is too much? How do we protect the sanctity of innocence until a young adult is ready to become an adult if what they’re reading reveals all?

As an author of Picture Books up through Young Adult, I feel the need to protect my young readers from what they’re seeing in movies and television, hearing in the lyrics of their music and experiencing while playing their video games. Teens aren’t allowed to remain innocent and naiive anymore…and I think it’s a shame on our society.

BTW, be sure to run by my website and find the MuseItUp Christmas Tree to be entered for my blog. Under the Hat of MG/YA Fantasy Author Rebecca Ryals Russell

Writing Dark Fantasy

            If you never spent a day in bed shivering with chills while burning up with fever at the same time, throat so swollen and sore it hurt to swallow, dry eyes burning and head feeling as though it was a baby's stuffed toy, how would you be able to appreciate a day when you felt as though you could climb a mountain and have energy to spare?

            If you never sat staring at a pile of overdue bills, your heart pounding out of fear your house and car would be taken away by the bank, how could you appreciate looking at a bank account balance of at least a few bucks after all bills had been paid, including a bit into savings?

            If you never laid in bed during the wee hours of the night, startled out of a deep sleep by some noise you couldn’t identify, watching the shadows move across the walls while your skin literally felt as though it was crawling up your back, your heart racing like you’d been running, how could you appreciate a bright sunny day full of laughter and joy or a night filled with pleasant dreams?

            Reading stories that scare us allows us to construct safety nets in our imagination so when something truly horrible occurs in our lives we can better deal with it, having already thought our way through something similar. This is why people watch Reality Shows on television, hoping to see someone get injured or experience hurt feelings. It makes the viewer feel like their own life is more exciting and worthwhile than they might otherwise have thought.

            It’s long been known Middle Graders devour scary stories like candy. Look at popular series like Goosebumps, with hundreds of books each devoured by tweens. Or even the Lemony Snicket series A Series of Unfortunate Events which portrayed a set of siblings experiencing horrendous things no child would ever wish to experience. By reading about ‘the scary’ and seeing how someone experienced and survived it kids discover they can deal with daily life, which is truly frightening at that age.

            Horror explores and probes the shadows when we are afraid to do so in life. Battling demons or ghosts in a book is a lot easier when you know you will survive. Often making it all the way through a truly horrifying book becomes a badge of courage. And the more terrifying the story, the braver you feel.

            This same phenomena happens with teens and slasher films. Teens need to feel courageous and brave after being bullied at school or worrying about the haircut they just got. By ‘surviving’ a slasher film, even though the heroine or hero may not, provides that rush of adrenaline that builds bravery in a viewer’s imagination. Whether they could actually be as courageous as they feel if the real situation occurred is irrelevant.

            As a writer of Dark Fantasy my goal is to reveal through fiction the reality of the horrors which occur daily in our world. After reading any of the books in my Seraphym Wars series, you may research the horrific events depicted and pull up the actual news stories from years back. My fiction is only partly imagination. 

Harpies, Book Two Seraphym Wars Series (out soon)

Transported to a planet he'd never heard of was the least of fifteen-year-old Griffen's problems. Learning to control his suddenly increasing strength and new ability to pull lightning from the sky takes some getting used to.  Angry preteen Seth joins the quest; meanwhile discovering his combusting ability as a fire-starter. Driven to find the last Vigorio, a young girl able to experience others' emotions, they journey together toward their destinies as warriors against Narciss, Ruler of Tartarus and his Legio of demon-dragons. But Belial, a power-hungry demon determined to win Narciss’s approval makes their trip miserable while Narciss’s Harpy henchmen take matters into their own hands.

Odessa Blurb

17-year-old Myrna is drawn into the middle of an epic battle between Seraphym and Demons. An average High School student from Florida, struggling with inner demons resulting from an attack when she was 15, she wakes one morning on the Steampunk planet of Dracwald, home of the demon-dragons responsible for her brother’s recent murder as well as many other atrocities in the news. She meets sweet and sensitive Michael, who explains that according to prophecy, Myrna must gather the remaining six Vigorios (teen warriors with special talents) then train with the Majikals on an enchanted island. He accompanies her on the quest, but harbors a secret past that ironically would destroy all the faith she has placed in him. A handsomely roguish Scientist with suspect motives haunts her dreams and makes sudden appearances in unlikely places, while a sensual dragon warrior defends her against her will.

Will love and lust, jealousy, greed, deceit and distrust break the delicate tie that binds these teen warriors called The Vigorios? Can a troupe of teens help the Seraphym finally defeat the massive empire of evil dominated for eons by the demon-dragons of Dracwald?

Available in eBook formats and as paperback.

http://tinyurl.com/rebeccaryalsrussell-amazon

Prophecy Blurb

For centuries the residents of Solsyl lived in peace and harmony with the planet. Then the dragon-demons arrived, causing the Great Shuddering. Majikals from everywhere scurried to find shelter from the evil while humans hid. Laud regretted his rash decision of exiling the demons on Solsyl and asked one of his advisors, a member of The Conscientia, to protect his people. Jeremiah Holyfield agreed to leave the peaceful world of Revrum Natura for a life of constant strife and fear on the newly renamed planet of Dracwald. But Narciss, ruler of Tartarus and King of the demons, desperately wants what Jeremiah has sworn to protect—a Prophecy of Narciss’s future doom. And Narciss refuses to take no for an answer. But Jeremiah discovers allies along his path and even true love, which he never dreamed possible.

But forever is a long time to protect something without ever letting down one’s guard.

Available as eBook.

http://tinyurl.com/rebeccaryalsrussell-amazon

Libraries I Have Known & Loved

Libraries I Have Known & Loved

Many of our blog entries here are about reading YA books, writing YA books, popular YA books past & present, reviews & lists of suggestions, etc. Oh, and television, just this week! I thought I’d try something new. At least I think it’s new—I may have missed a blog entry or two focusing on the treasure troves of books--libraries.

I would be seriously freaked out if any YAAYNHO contributor or reader claimed to have no favorite library or not remember one fondly from back when they were children. Probably the first library we all loved was that little stack of picture books with our favorites on top, ready for Mom or Dad to read them to us ten times over—even though we already knew every word. A new addition to the stack--filled with fairy tales, or starring our favorite character from TV or film or the next book written by Dr. Seuss--was a big deal.

But as we got a bit older, we learned that there were whole places with shelves and shelves of books! Shelves nice and low too. We could sit in front of them, reach straight over and pull out something that looked interesting. Never mind that three other books came out of the row as well. Maybe one of the others would look even better.

The best, the magic part, was that we could choose a whole bunch—not like in a store—and Mom or Dad and the strange lady way up behind the counter would let us take them home! Yes, there was the sad part of bringing them back. However, sometimes we could just go to the library and take the same ones home all over again.

As I often remind you all, I’m an old fogy. I probably have library memories from before your time, you young chickens and roosters, you. Here’s what I remember:

The first library I can remember was a New Castle (DE) Mobile Library when our family lived in Woodlawn Park Apartments. This camper-like truck chock full of books came by once a week and parked briefly in our neighborhood, so that residents could stop by and return or check out books. I don’t remember much about it except—unlike my description earlier—most of the books were way up in the air. Once in a while, we missed the mobile library when it went by. Major tragedy!

When I was in second grade, I started attending the brand new Brookside Elementary School. Someone must have forgotten to put a library in the plans. All we had was what I recall as the “Closet Library” – rather like a coat check room with the top half of the door open when the library was open. I have no idea how we knew what books to ask for. I don’t think we could see them. Hands down, the worst library I can remember.

Newark Free Library #1. I used to love the original Newark Free Library when it was squeezed into an old white church building at the end of Elkton Road. Our family went to it at the same time I was in early elementary school, so the inconvenience of the Closet Library wasn’t that much of a concern to me. Technically, the renovated church’s altar area was still there but a wooden platform had been built over it. If I remember correctly, different parts of the library had wooden flooring at different levels, each reflecting their original functions: altar, seating, aisle. I found my first horse books there. J

When I was in mid-elementary school, my mother began working in the Memorial Library, at that time the main library of the University of Delaware. You’ve heard of “army brats”? Well, I was a “library brat”. My mom frequently had no babysitter for me, so she would bring me along to work and drop me in the Reference Room under the watchful eyes of reference librarians. I assume I was supposed to stay in there but I’m quite sure that I didn’t always. At least once, I wandered off to the Bookstore, which was in the same building—just down a flight. I came back with a slightly damaged slide rule that had been on sale. Paid my whole allowance for it. I didn’t know what it was for but I loved its white matte finish.

My family went up to Delaware’s “big city” of Wilmington for shopping, back in the day when there were actual department stores, bakeries, jewelers and such on Market Street. While we were in town, we stopped at the Wilmington Public Library, opposite tiny Caesar Rodney Square in the heart of the city. (Both are still there, and looking pretty much as they always did.) Adult books were on the first floor. To reach children’s books, I had to walk down what seemed like a very creepy dark staircase. The creepiness didn’t stop me. Not once. I really hated it when my parents would call to me from the top of the stairs and say it was time to go home.

I might have been in high school when Kirkwood Public Library was built. Brand new and shiny, it had no books. Okay, it had –some- books. The librarians were waiting for the rest to arrive from somewhere or other. In the meantime, we would look up titles in the card catalog, not find most of them on the shelf, and be given interlibrary loan forms at the Circulation Desk. Interlibrary Loan. Little did I know…

I have only vague memories of my high school library. I did use it. Really. I remember one book in particular, but I’m not telling…

Years earlier, my parents went on vacation to Ocean City, New Jersey for the first time, leaving my brother and me in the care of our maternal grandparents. The whole family went there the following summer. That was the beginning of the family love affair with Ocean City. My grandmother and I were particularly enamored of the little town and its long boardwalk. Any time my parents chose not to go to the shore in the summer, MaMa and I did so alone.

During one of those excursions, I discovered the Ocean City Free Public Library in a rather ordinary two-story house on Simpson near the bay side of the island. I was flabbergasted that they lent books to vacationers. I mean all you had to do was show a driver’s license, a hotel/motel room key, give a quart of blood….

While writing this article, I checked the web, and found a picture of the current OC Library. Part of it is still that house but wrapped around almost half of it now is a very modern addition. It looks like a Star Trek transporter accident. (See the picture at the top of the blog.)

By the time I began college, the old Memorial Library on the UD campus had become a classroom building. Taking its place was the much, much larger rectangular mass of the University of Delaware’s Hugh Morris Library. In one of my first college classes, a professor told us to go visit the Reserved Book Room and get familiar with it, since we would be using it a lot. A friend and I strolled over to the building and found the room. We went so far as to check out an article. Who knows what it was—I don’t think we had any assignments from there yet. The lady behind the counter told us that the article was for two hours. We thought that meant we had to stay there—in the room--for two hours. So we did. Bored. Only able to talk in a whisper. With an article between us that neither of us needed to read.

By the following spring, I was working at the library, in the reserve room as a student assistant. I would end up working somewhere or other in the building for more than thirty five years. During the first decade, I discovered the children’s and young adult collection tucked in the middle of the second floor stacks. It was meant for the use of school of education students but they never used. I did.

Newark Free Library #2. I can’t remember when they did it, but eventually the Newark Library pulled up roots and moved to the other side of Newark, planting itself quite conveniently on Library Avenue. Library Avenue. Hmm. Shouldn’t they have realized that that was where they were supposed to be from the beginning? J Bigger, shiny and new, the library housed more books and other facilities than the librarians in the original building could ever have dreamed about. I liked the original better, but I worked in the new version part time for a couple of years.

University of Delaware Library, Version 2.0, 2.1 … By the time, I retired from Morris, it had gone through two expansions and a lot of re-arranging. I had gone through a bit of re-arranging too. Before I quit, I had worked in the Reserve Room, Circulation, Cataloguing (during our change-over from Dewey to LC), and finally Interlibrary Loan (during our changeover from manual charges and a card catalog to complete automation).

In the meantime, I mutated from a reader into a writer of YA/adult books. The first bits and pieces of my first manuscript, “Seabird”, were written in the library on index cards using a golf pencil—both of which could be tucked into a pocket.

And my library today? Just a month ago, I joined LibraryThing on the web:

( http://www.librarything.com/home/SherryThompson )

( http://www.librarything.com/profile/SherryThompson )

So far, I’ve input data on seven hundred books from my collection. Given that my books fill maybe eight to ten bookcases, with more tucked into cabinets and such, I guess I still have a half to two thirds of my collection to add. Lots of them are young adult and/or speculative fiction. A very few--greatly treasured--are very old children’s books.

Please tell us about your favorite library!

Question for authors: Are any of your books in libraries? And, if you don't mind saying, were you the one to put them there? ("Seabird" is in the Newark Free Library YA collection because I gave them a copy.)

Readers & authors: Have you ever wondered if a "hidden treasure" young adult or children's book is in a library somewhere? Maybe one close by? You can find out by checking WorldCat--a database that thousands of libraries use. Don't forget, if you find that title, you can have it sent to your local library, via interlibrary loan.

http://www.worldcat.org/advancedsearch