Wrap Up: It's Definitely Friday Edition

Phew--what a looooong week! A heat wave and some crazy lightning storms (the thunder set off car alarms...) meant that sleep was limited in quantities, and I feel very zombie-like, lurching towards the weekend. But before I call it a week and go take an air-conditioned nap, here are this week's blog posts.

Two highly-anticipated sequels hit bookshelves this week, Kristin Cashore's Bitterblue and Veronica Roth's Insurgent. Kristin gives some tidbits about the book, and Veronica does an interview with Lord Voldemort himself.

Mary Kole at Kidlit discusses one of the biggest problems authors face: starting the story in the wrong place

Tiana Smith compares international book covers to their US versions and discusses what works and what doesn't

This week, Rachelle Gardner answered readers' questions. She talks a little about what life is like for an author, and gives her thoughts on how agents are preparing for changes in the industry. She also reminded debut authors that before they write their break out novel, they need to write a break in novel

Love this poster from the Denver library: "These are Your Kids on Books"

K.M. Weiland covers scene breaks, how to use them properly, and what not to put in breaks

Fun post at YA Confidential looking at the buzz words in this spring's YA releases

Author Marie Lu talks about villains in YA and how to flesh them out and make them memorable

Mary Keeley goes over the process of turning a manuscript into a real-life book (and, now, e-book!)

It's the start of the spring sales conference season and sales rep Vanessa DiGregorio gives a behind-the-scenes look at what she and other reps are up to

Great piece by Sara Hockler about the lack of diversity in YA and what authors can do to change that


Have a great weekend everyone!