The Story Grid: Shawn Doesn't Know Youth Fiction

I've heard a lot about Shawn Coyne and  The Story Grid over the last year or so, and I've been aware of Shawn for longer thanks to his occasional appearances on Steven Pressfield's blog and their collaborations. I watched the video series where Shawn goes through Silence of the Lambs and uses it to explain the Story Grid. Impressive stuff all.

So when I finally got around to listening to The Story Grid podcast, I expected great things. And it really is a great podcast, particularly for newer writers who don't know the craft or the business and who are trying to find their writing legs in the first place.

But (you could hear that coming, right?) a couple of things Shawn insists on are flat-out wrong. Not about editing or story structure in and of themselves. The problem is that he's trying to teach someone to write youth fiction when he has zero experience in the youth fiction market. In fact, he took Tim's idea for a story and practically shoved it into being middle-grade.

Shawn has a ton of experience in thriller, suspense, mystery, and nonfiction. And you can tell. Much of what he knows can be applied to a ton of stories and genres. I listened to over a year's worth of weekly episodes in just over a month, and when I reached the point where Shawn's giving advice on the supposed youth fiction genre, I found myself yelling at Shawn in my car because he was getting some things wrong.

That's where this post came from. I'll probably do other posts about some other beefs I have, but let's start with this one:

How Shawn Coyne Is Wrong about Youth Fiction

This may seem odd coming from a professed women's fiction and romance writer, and at first glance, you might think I'm utterly unqualified to talk about youth fiction.

You'd be wrong.

Here's the deal: I live in the youth fiction capital of the planet. Seriously. Some of the biggest youth fiction authors of our time live near enough to me that we could do lunch. (And in many cases, we have!) We attend the same conferences, rub shoulders at other events, and more. I call many of them friends.

To make my point, below are a few of the bigger names of local writers. I could have gone on and on with other youth fiction writers I'm friends with who aren't quite as big as these ones (all but a couple of these are New York Times bestsellers, for starters), but the list isn't the point of this post:

• James Dashner (The first chapters of The Maze Runner were read at a critique meeting around my kitchen table. We first met at a book signing in 2004.)
• Jessica Day George (We've hung out in hotel rooms at conferences late into the night. I've dropped by her house and chatted for hours. We started a Scandinavian book club. She's a ginger, just like my three daughters, so she automatically rocks.)
• Ally Condie (We shared a book signing, and a few years later were later on the same panel at a conference. Love her.)
• Shannon Hale (I spoke at a conference she arranged.)
• Brandon Sanderson (I got to be part of the anthology he edited and published to raise money for a family in need. We have tons of mutual friends, and we live minutes apart. Pretty sure he knows who I am but probably wouldn't consider me a friend.) (He's one of the massive superstars who doesn't primarily write youth fiction. He's an epic fantasy novelist, but yes, he does have some middle-grade fiction too.)
• Chad Morris (He's won national awards for middle-grade science fiction. We've been part of the same events. And oh, I edited his first book.)
• Dan Wells and Robison Wells (Brothers who are successful writers, and they're both friends.)
• Sara B. Larson (We've been at the same write-ins late at night at a mutual friend's house and other writing events, including a big launch, where we both performed.)
• Jennifer A. Nielsen (We've taught back-to-back at workshops and been part of the same promotional events. One of the sweetest people.)
• Brandon Mull (We've been at many of the same events, even sitting at the same table at an awards gala, but he never remembers who I am. That's fine. I can go hang out with Jessica and talk about Vikings!)

Many theories float around as to why the Wasatch Front in Utah has such a huge concentration of rock-star-level youth fiction writers. I'm sure a big part of it is the fact that Utah has a lot of Mormons, Mormons have a lot of children, and Mormons read TO their children a lot. Ergo, many parents (and therefore prospective writers) here are more exposed to youth fiction than anywhere else.

The writing community here is also massive, with conferences and organizations everywhere. And writing community has become very much focused on youth fiction and speculative fiction (meaning science fiction, fantasy, etc.), to the point that if you don't write youth fiction, then you'd better write spec, or you aren't really part of the "in" club. (See Sanderson, above.)

I've lived and breathed so much about the youth fiction market from picture books to early chapter books to middle grade to young adult that I know a lot more than others in the industry. I've seen friends snag big-name agents. I've seen them sell. I've seen them not sell. I've celebrated with them at launch parties. I've heard them teach at conferences. I've heard them discuss issues about their market on panels.

And on and on and on.

Hopefully you see what I mean. I am surrounded by youth fiction on all sides, to the point that it's easy to feel like the weirdo who writes for grown-ups.

OKAY. All of that said, here's the biggest thing Shawn doesn't get:

YOUTH FICTION IS A MARKET, NOT A GENRE.

That may not seem like a big deal to someone who isn't deep in the industry, but trust me; it's a huge distinction.

A genre refers to the type of story you're telling. Here are a couple of massively oversimplified descriptions two common genres:

• Romance: A couple gets together, falls apart, and somehow get back together. 
• Mystery: A detective (or some other individual, such as a PI, journalist, or doctor) solves a murder, figures out who did it, and the bad guy gets captured.

Both of those genres have a lot more to them than that, but essentially, that's what those genres are about, right? Other genres include adventures, quests, thrillers, suspense, love stories (which differ from romance), and so forth.

One classic story type/genre is the coming-of-age story, where the main character's growth arc moves from innocence to maturity, to having their eyes opened to the realities of life. That often means realizing that not everyone is good or trustworthy, having to grow up faster than expected, and so on, so they become a bit jaded.

Coming-of-age is a legitimate genre. Absolutely. Many classics fall into this category, including Great Expectations, Catcher in the Rye, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, and more. 

Now, notice that the books I just listed were never intended to be read by ten-year-olds. In fact, many high schools today still require parent permission for a student to read Rye because of content and profanity concerns. I'm quite sure that J. D. Salinger didn't imagine his audience as a bunch of 16-year-olds. 

Yet Shawn says that any story with a young protagonist must, by its very nature, have a coming-of-age story as its global genre. 

NOT SO. 

Plenty of youth fiction has nothing do with coming-of-age as the core arc. Some level of growing up and losing innocence might happen along the way (as, frankly, happens in almost any novel, even for adults). 

But I can guarantee that developing a coming-of-age arc was the thing farthest from James Dashner's mind when he wrote The Maze Runner. I've talked to him about how he wrote the book and what his inspiration was. His focus was on making the coolest, most exciting story he could come up with. 

He wrote a thriller. 

Any other story type that happened to show up is secondary (it can arguably be called dystopian). Or tirtiary (science fiction, maybe). Or even farther down the list.

If you go by Shawn's statements, then all publishers of youth fiction put out one coming-of-age story after another, and that's all they do. The books may look a little different, but at their core, ALL of their books are coming-of-age stories. Again, if you go by Shawn's definition.

But that's not true at all. Remember, youth fiction is a MARKET, not a genre. 

Market vs. Genre

Plenty of publishers specialize in a specific genre. Harlequin is probably the best-known romance publisher, for example. No matter the content (language, amount of sex, etc.), no matter the age of the protagonists, all of their books are romances. They have specific imprints for various types of romance, but the publisher is, at its core, a publisher of the romance genre.

Similarly, St. Martin's Press is one of the most famous publishers of mysteries. 

Both of those publishers serve the adult MARKET while publishing in a specific GENRE. 

Youth fiction is the same in that it specializes in a variety of genres for a youth audience, or market. 

They know what younger readers enjoy reading. They know how to sell to those readers (and to their parents, who are often the ones buying the books). 

Within a youth publisher, specific imprints (and even more often, specific editors) focus on different GENRES. One may focus on science fiction (such as Dan Wells' Bluescreen), while others focus fantasy (including popular fairy tale re-tellings, like Jessica Day George's Princess of the Midnight Ball), and still others are currently booming with the resurgence of contemporary youth fiction, like Amy Finnegan's Not in the Script.

Youth Readers Read UP

Industry experts know that kids read UP in age, meaning that a 12-year-old doesn't want to read stories about a fellow 12-year-old. They'd prefer to read about characters who are older, say 14 or so. Kids wants to be older, more grown up, and reading puts readers into a position of putting on the persona of the main character. Kids don't want to escape into their same situation. They want to experience being older vicariously.

So middle-grade books tend to have main characters who are a bit older than the target readership of 9 to 12 years. 

Likewise, a 14-year-old protagonist won't appeal to 14-year-old readers, who are instead looking for stories about 16- or 17-year-old characters. So novels targeted at the YA market tend to be about older high schoolers, even though the majority of kids reading them are finishing junior high or just starting high school.

I can confirm this after watching my own kids reading. My four children range from age 14 to 21. I've been watching them read, reading to them, and tracking youth fiction trends along with my colleagues for a LONG time. Frankly, about as long as Shawn's been an editor, I've been a writer. And did I mention I'm also an editor with about 15 years of experience? Yeah.

Trends in Youth Fiction

Industry trends are incredibly influential. Insiders know that the stuff flying off shelves now is not what will be flying off shelves two years from now. In fact, youth publishers in New York have already pegged the next big thing, and alas, dystopian fiction has already had its heyday. 

For a few years now, I've been hearing many agents (and editors) say as much, that no matter how good the story is, they just can't sell a dystopian because that ship has sailed. (That ship may also return at some point; trends often resurface eventually. But for the moment, any dystopian attempt will be dead in the water.)

Other trends: Five years ago, contemporary youth fiction was almost nonexistent. Now it's flourishing. Middle-grade fiction has exploded too. The effects are clear in the Whitney Awards, where I've been a committee member several times and recently served as president: contemporary YA used to be a very small category, but it's been growing bigger every year, and so has middle-grade. YA spec is still huge, but it's not quite as big as it used to be.

Note that the Whitney Awards are split into two market segments (adult fiction and youth fiction), which are then split into eight genre categories (five for adult fiction and three for youth fiction). Market and genre are not the same thing.

If I had to peg the coming-of-age global genre, I'd probably put it into the adult market, where it shows up primarily in literary, upmarket, and book-club titles. Not usually ones aimed at youth.

Targeting Your Audience

It should go without saying that industry insiders are very aware that adults also read youth fiction, but that's a relatively new phenomenon, and it's almost entirely thanks to the crossover readership of Harry Potter, which was then followed by the crossover readership of Twilight, and then The Hunger Games.

But the point stands: 

***Adults are not the primary audience of youth fiction.*** 

Just as Shawn wisely told Tim to remember that more than half of adult readers are women, he should also remember the demographics of who primarily reads youth fiction.

That would be YOUTH. 

And remember how young readers read UP in age? 

Let's talk about the book Tim's writing that Shawn is mentoring him with. The 12-year-old protagonist is simply too young for teen readers to care about. She's too young even for many middle-grade readers. The typical age of a reader picking up a book with a twelve-year-old protagonist will be around ten. 

Content is another big issue here. Tim's story so far (based on the discussion on the podcast; I haven't read any of it) is far too mature for a kid that age. It's a way cool story but NOT something kids who are ten or so will enjoy, fully understand, or appreciate. Yet that's the age he's writing to by picking a twelve-year-old protagonist.

That's aside from whether the story would be appropriate for that age, which I can guarantee it won't be. Tim's said outright that he wants to write the kind of book he enjoys reading (wise decision, of course!), and that includes having pretty intense violence, gore, swearing, etc. All well and good, but NOT in a middle-grade novel, which is the kind of book tucked into students' backpacks on book orders.

The age the publisher decides to market the book toward determines the content that can be in the book. 

One of my rock-star writer friends (listed above, but I won't name them directly) had their first book deemed MG instead of YA by the publisher, and therefore some content had to be changed. Nothing like violence, language, or gore, however. Oh, no. The author had to remove references to alcohol and a buxom woman's chest because those things don't belong in a MG book, only in a YA. I'm not kidding.

Other things that make a book YA: if a character faces a possible marriage situation, it's automatically YA. I've had this told to me directly by agents. It often applies to stories like fairy tales, where a marriage on the horizon is very common. Graphic violence automatically makes a book YA rather than MG. So does language. So does romance of any kind beyond maybe a boy or girl having a tiny minor beginning of a crush in a MG book. Any actual kissing (or more), and it's not MG.

The Harry Potter series began as MG. The fact that he was only eleven in the first book could very well be a big reason why it was rejected out of hand by many publishers at first. (And no, don't think you're the Rowling exception to the rule.) 

As Harry aged, so did the thematic content, moving the series from MG into YA territory. The Dumbledore we see in book one, making silly puns on the first gathering at Hogwarts, isn't the same strong, serious wizard battling evil that we see in the later books.

Kids Want Many Genres

Then there's the very obvious fact that kids and teens don't want to read coming-of-age stories and nothing else. They want thrillers, adventures, mysteries, and (for YA readers) romance. Occasionally, a book may have a coming-of-age theme in the background, but most youth fiction doesn't. 

Really.

And that's because youth fiction isn't a genre. It's a market.

Publishers of youth fiction aren't filling their lines with one type of story. Their readers would get ridiculously sick and tired of it if that were the case. That would be like every publisher of adult fiction putting out one genre only.

(I mentioned the idea of all YA books being coming-of-age stories to my 14-year-old, and she about gagged.)

Industry Shifts in the Definition of YA and MG

The way the industry views and defines youth fiction has changed dramatically over the last twenty or thirty years. There was a time when a young protagonist could show up in a book intended for adults, and no one thought anything of it. Case in point: Ender's Game, by Orson Scott Card. 

Fast forward to today, in a post-Harry, post-Bella, post-Katniss publishing world, and publishers eager to buy and market youth fiction now see any story with a younger cast as automatically being youth fiction. 

One of my closest friends has several good friends of her own who work at the top of New York publishing. When she asked for suggestions on who to submit her adult paranormal thriller to, they all shrugged and gave her the bad news: even though her novel wasn't written for teenagers, the main characters were older teens, and in the current publishing climate, the book would automatically be seen as a YA title. 

Yet it read like an adult book. Which it was. Except for the ages of the main characters. 

Rock. Hard place.

The pendulum will likely swing the other direction at some point, but for now, here's the prevailing belief: 

• Young characters = youth fiction
• The dystopian ship has sailed (So sorry, Tim!) 
• The only place you'll find a twelve-year-old protagonist is in middle-grade fiction (Not gonna work, Tim.)
• Middle-grade fiction cannot have intense violence (Sorry again!)
• Middle-grade fiction needs a protagonist who is older than the target audience (Twelve is just too young . . .)

If Tim were writing his story in the mid-80s, right around the time Ender's Game came out, it would be a totally different situation. 

As I'm sure you know, Ender's Game is not intended for eight-year-old readers, even if Ender is a little kid for a good chunk of the book. He's what, only six or so when it opens? By today's industry standards, that would make Ender's Game an early reader book for kindergartners. 

Yeah, no.

Differences in Markets by Country

An interesting thing to note is that the industry shift in viewing age as defining the market is largely an American one. Take Dan Wells' I Am Not a Serial Killer series. It's horror, and the protagonist is sixteen. But it's not intended to be a kids' book. 

See the challenge? 

Yup.

In the U.S. it's largely marketed as a YA series.

But in the UK and elsewhere, it's marketed as an adult novel, which Dan always intended it to be. No surprise, it sells like hotcakes in markets outside the U.S. For whatever reason, American publishers and readers have a narrower view of what youth fiction is.

I'd still caution Tim away from having a twelve-year-old protagonist even if he's counting on international markets to eat up the story as one intended for adults. Dan Wells wouldn't have had his sociopathic protagonist, John, be as young as twelve. That wouldn't have worked even outside the U.S.

Why? A character on the cusp of adulthood is much easier to sell to a broader scope of readers. That's one of several reasons why Twilight and The Hunger Games had such a big crossover readership. Remember that Harry Potter didn't explode in crossover readership until the the fourth book, when Harry was fifteen and closer to adulthood.

(Side note: Contrary to what Shawn said in one episode of the podcast, Twilight isn't horror. It's YA paranormal romance.)

All of this supports the main point of this whole post, which I'll repeat: 

Youth fiction is a market, not a genre.

So What's My  Advice for Tim?

In Tim's shoes, I'd age the protagonist so she's more of a Katniss figure in her upper teens. Or make her an adult and have the story be a full-blown adult novel as he originally imagined.

That would make the most sense, seeing as Tim is clearly more familiar with the adult market anyway, and Shawn is completely unfamiliar with the youth market. I think Shawn would do a better job mentoring Tim's project as an adult book. 

Tim may well be self-publishing this novel when it's ready. If so, he won't need an agent or a New York editor currently working in the youth fiction market, so some of the industry expectations won't necessarily apply. 

Except that reader expectations have largely formed industry expectations, and that will make marketing and selling the book trickier if we have a twelve-year-old main character in an adult-themed book. And in the self-publishing e-book world, adults do most of the buying. Kids don't have as many e-readers (yet), so selling youth fiction in e-book format is harder than adult fiction.

In addition, readers tire of trends, and currently, they're dystopian-ed out. I'd suggest that Tim make sure the story feels more futuristic so it reads like science fiction rather than dystopian.

Most of all, I'd insist he learn that youth fiction with a primary/global genre of coming-of-age is in the minority. Youth fiction readers expect so much more than coming-of-age stories. I'd tell him to read lots of speculative youth fiction to get a feel for what's out there and especially what's new in the market so he's aware of what the current trends are. Heck, I could suggest a bunch.

I can guarantee that if you do read a lot of youth speculative fiction, you won't find a ton of global coming-of-age stories. Look for the other GENRES within the youth fiction MARKET!

(Am I beating a dead horse yet?)

More Advice for Tim: Content Issues

Readers of youth fiction (and their parents) expect a certain kind of content to NOT be in youth fiction. On one hand, YA has more flexibility on content than the younger markets. You'll find YA novels dealing with sex, drugs, and many other more mature issues, and YA books can also have some language, etc. Middle-grade, though, is still pretty conservative, and a twelve-year-old protagonist screams MG or even early chapter reader. Not YA or adult. 

A book with content not in line with a MG market will be really tough to sell to readers who typically pick up a book with that age of a protagonist. And older readers probably won't pick it up because they'll think it's a little kid book. That is, unless the marketing power of the podcast gets an adult readership behind him from the get go, which I suppose is possible. But in his shoes, I wouldn't bank on it.

Why Tim Should Listen to Me

I've laid out some strong opinions and beliefs about youth fiction from a women's fiction and romance writer who happens to be intimately connected with a ton of youth fiction industry insiders. Not just writers, either. Did I mention I know several editors of youth fiction and agents who rep it? And that I've edited many novels of youth fiction? I've also read more youth fiction than most fellow middle-aged people, and I've been in the writing industry for twenty-two years.

And I've been an editor for about for about half that time. 

Oh, and here's a fun post with Dan Wells and James Dashner from a little over a year ago. Because they're hilarious and awesome. 

(And because in case you're wondering, yes, I really do know them both personally.) 

My Speech as President

The awards gala honoring the best fiction published by LDS writers in 2014 was held on Saturday, May 16. As the program's outgoing president, I gave a speech prior to the presentation of the awards. I'll share some thoughts and feelings about my year as president another time.

For now, here's a photo of that night when I asked the finalists present to join me on the stage, which was an incredibly cool moment with so much talent in one place. And below that, the speech I gave next. Being the Whitney Awards president has truly been an honor, one I did my best to live up to.

2014 Whitney Awards Gala

May 16, 2015

I have literally spent the last year pondering what to say tonight. I have a file on my computer where I dumped quotes and ideas. It’s ridiculously long, but I promise that my remarks won’t be.

Many of you have been acquainted with the Whitney Awards for a long time, while some here tonight know little about the program, so I’ll begin with a little background.

In your program, you’ll see a section called “by the numbers.” I thought it might be interesting for attendees to get a feel for the scope of the awards. A book must receive 5 reader nominations to become an official nominee. For 2014, we had nearly 400 books receive at least one nomination. The total number of nominations is the official recorded number, but the real number is higher, as some books received more than five nominations.

About half of the nominated titles became official nominees, which sent them to the judging round. Each of the 8 award categories had 5 judges who read and ranked each book in their category on a Condorcet-style ballot. The result was 5 finalists in each category, for a total of 40 finalists. Essentially, a book had a shot of one in ten of becoming a finalist.

Once the finalists were announced in early February, the voting academy gets to read them and cast their ballot. The academy has about 400 members made up of writers, editors, reviewers, judges, and other industry professionals and experts.

The academy ballots were due on April 30, and tonight, the winners will be announced.

So that’s how they function in a very large nutshell. But I thought it might be good to share how the program came into being as well.

Fellow novelist Robison Wells was on a mission to continually raise the bar on literature written by Latter-day Saints. He began that journey by creating a database of reviews, making it as comprehensive as he could. But he soon realized that criticism, while important, isn’t enough by itself.

At what I believe was the 4th annual Storymakers conference, he had the realization that honoring the best among us would naturally raise the bar, and he set to creating an awards program to do just that.

I remember talking to him at the conference and getting excited about the idea of a purely Mormon literary award. I wasn’t on the first committee, but I did get to watch pretty close by as the program was created. Robison studied the Hugos and Nebulas and many other awards programs to come up with the best mix of input and voting, wanting to include the general readership and fans as well as professionals and industry peers.

He also wanted a name for the awards that would reflect the goals of the program and would also be uniquely Mormon. One night as I made dinner, he called to brainstorm ideas for a name, as nothing quite felt right yet—the Golden Plates award and such felt a bit too cheesy.

I suggested that we name the program after a literary figure from our Church history. The first name to come to mind was Eliza R. Snow. But, I pointed out, she was primarily a poet. Who else? We wanted someone who related to fiction.

I offhandedly said that well, there’s that one really cool talk by Orson F. Whitney all about literature and fiction. You know, the one about how we will one day have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. But did Elder Whitney write fiction?

(To be honest, I hadn’t actually read the talk, but I knew that one prophecy.)

Rob latched on to idea and never let go. Today, at the 8th Whitney Awards gala, I’m honored to be president. And it’s kind of neat that I helped name the program, even if people generally think that “Whitney” refers to a 1980s cheerleader. I’ve even been called “Whitney,” and once, a bank teller who apparently didn’t read closely called me “Wendy.”

Orson F. Whitney gave his famous talk a few weeks before his 33rd birthday and about 18 years before his call as an apostle. He gave the speech at a large youth conference, and it was published the following month. On this year’s program, we used a younger photo of him than we’ve often seen, taken closer to the age he was when he gave his famous speech.

When I suggested his name, I didn’t know that Elder Whitney was a writer himself, but he was. He wrote fiction, poetry, and nonfiction, including the biography of his grandfather, Heber C. Kimball. Our modern hymnal includes two of his songs, “The Wintry Day, Descending to Its Close,” and “Savior Redeemer of My Soul.”

His father set type for the Deseret News and worked with the paper for 21 years, so in some respects, the written word was likely always part of Orson’s family life and childhood.

Elder Whitney was a proponent for education, reading, and writing. In his famous talk, he said, “It suffices me to know … that this people are the friends, not the foes, of education; that they are seekers after wisdom, lovers of light and truth, universal Truth, which, like the waters of earth, or the sunbeams of heaven, has but one Source, let its earthly origin be what it may.”

Education is all well and good, and considering the period, he was way ahead of his time about it. But he also understood that the arts themselves are significant.

He declared that God’s people must progress; their destiny demands it. And he seemed to see that the progression would happen through the arts, saying that even as “the glory of God is intelligence,” so is “culture … the duty of man.”

Think about that. Culture is our duty. In context, it’s clear that by “culture,” he means the arts, in all their forms. Culture is our DUTY.

So much for those people who think that fiction is a waste of energy. Next time you run into someone at a book signing who is concerned for your eternal salvation, you can calmly assure them that oh, no, they’re quite mistaken—your soul is quite safe and by writing, you’re doing your eternal duty.

As fun as that would be to actually say to someone, the idea that writing can be our duty is profound. We believe that we are here on earth for a purpose, with special talents and missions.

Quoting Brother Whitney again: “It is by means of literature that much of this great work will have to be accomplished: a literature of power and purity, worthy of such a work. And a pure and powerful literature can only proceed from a pure and powerful people. Grapes are not gathered of thorns, nor figs of thistles.”

In other words, for many of us, writing is part of our mission and purpose, and God can use our words for good and for advancing His work.

And that doesn’t mean our stories must feature Mormon characters and story lines, although they may. It doesn’t mean that our stories must include sappy morals. It doesn’t mean they have to be so whitewashed to avoid offense that they’re stripped of voice and personality.

I will always remember what Dan Wells said when he accepted his Whitney Award for Best Novel by a New Author. Keep in mind that he won the award with a HORROR novel. And the sequel also won a Whitney. And so did the third book of the trilogy.

This is all paraphrasing, of course. He said that some people consider horror as a very “un-Mormon” genre. How could he consider himself a good Mormon if he wrote “bad” stuff? And now he was being honored by his peers for that very work.

But horror, he said, could arguably be the most Mormon of genres. Horror at its core is about good versus evil, and his series is especially so—a young man fighting his natural man, struggling to do the right thing when every impulse is to do the wrong one. When Nephi preached about the natural man, he might as well have been talking about John Cleaver.

Regardless of the genre or age group or market we’re writing for, the things we write matter. Our words have the potential to influence and change lives. There is power in words.

The scriptures strengthen that idea:

In the beginning was the WORD.

Alma counsels us to test our faith by planting a seed, and that seed is THE WORD.

Captain Moroni called his people to action and saved their lives through a few powerful words written on his coat and held up as a banner.

And in the New Testament, the armor of God is described with a list of DEFENSIVE items: the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, the shield of faith, and so on.

Only ONE item is OFFENSIVE, which to me means that it can have an EFFECT. It’s the one item that isn’t reactionary but can take ACTION.

What is it? The sword is the word of God.

Of course we aren’t channeling the word the God onto our keyboards. But I believe that literature has a place in the plan and that God is willing and eager to help us with our writing.

Back in 1996, way before blogs and online newspapers and e-books, at a time when we had fewer things to choose in the art and entertainment we consume, Elder M. Russell Ballard said:

With so many choices for viewers and listeners, the artistic works of the Latter-day Saint … must be excellent to set them apart from the worldly and the mediocre. People deserve alternatives of quality, the kind that Latter-day Saints are capable of providing through the influence of the Holy Spirit.

And further:

If we are determined to live by Heavenly Father’s plan … we will use the inspiring opportunities around us to increase our talents.

Brother Whitney prophesied that we would have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own. Today, those two writers are taught in the classroom as classics, but in their lifetimes, they were the poplar genre writers. They were the Stephenie Meyers, the Orson Scott Cards, the Shannon Hales, the James Dashners, the David Farlands, the Brandon Sandersons of their day.

The prophecy continued, saying, “In God’s name and by his help we will build up a literature whose top shall touch heaven, though its foundations may now be low in the earth.”

So has the prophecy been fulfilled? Do we have Miltons and Shakespeares of our own?

Some may say yes. Others say no.

I don’t think we can know, not in our lifetimes. I have a suspicion that maybe we do have Miltons and Shakespeares—and more than two—but we can’t know who they are.

And we won’t know for another 400 years, when, from the other side, we’ll take a peek through the veil to see whose books are still being read, whose words are still influencing lives long after we’ve passed.

I’ll say one more thing, and then we’ll move on to the actual awards, which is why you’re here.

After the first gala, I wrote out my impressions on my blog. Here’s a snippet from that post:

Our table was dead center at the back of the room. As a result, I had a great view of the large crowd that had gathered for the awards. A lot of amazing people were inside those four walls. Some I’d go so far as to call legends.

As the evening wore on, I felt a surging sense of awe and privilege. That night represented the beginning of something very big. And I got to be a small part of it. I even got to be involved a tiny bit in its creation. I was sitting in the middle of a piece of history. The thought was overwhelming. I felt so honored to be in the company of those around me, to bear witness to the birth of something so much bigger than myself, something meaningful, something that I believe Orson F. Whitney himself smiled down upon.

I still believe that Orson F. Whitney is aware of the program bearing his name. And I believe that he’s pleased with the program and pleased to see the literature of his people continue to grow and expand in both quantity and, more importantly, in quality every year.

It may be a small thing to most people, but my belief that he’s looking down on all of this was reinforced when I learned that tonight’s gala falls on the 84th anniversary of Orson F. Whitney’s death.

Click here to see the list of winners. 

Tips for Writers on Navigating the Whitney Awards

I've been fortunate to be a part of the Whitney Awards in some capacity for as long as the program has existed. Some years I've been a finalist. Other years I've been on the committee. (Those years don't overlap; anyone on the committee is automatically ineligible.) I've been a judge many times in a variety of categories. I was fortunate enough to win a Whitney Award in the General Fiction category for my 2010 novel Band of Sisters.

And this year, I'm (gulp) president. 

Having seen parts of the program at a distance and (this year) up close, I've learned a lot of things that I think would be useful for writers to be aware of. Hence, this post. Consider it a primer for writers who hope their books will one day be a finalist (or winner!), and that they'll take home a Whitney Award of their own. 

For those interested: The upcoming Whitney Awards will be presented at the 8th annual gala. The program honors the best fiction published by Latter-day Saint writers each year. The dinner and awards ceremony held in May will honor books published in 2014 and will be held on Saturday, May 16, 2015, at 7:00 PM at the Provo Marriott Hotel. The program is named after 19th-century Mormon Apostle Orson F. Whitney, who was a writer and proponent of literary arts.

You can buy gala tickets HERE.

And now, the advice: 

Make sure you can be both found and contacted online. Be accessible!

One of the most important steps in the Whitney Awards backstage process is contacting an author to confirm that their book is eligible in any given year. This happens after a book receives five reader nominations. A WA committee member will email the author to get some basic BUT CRUCIAL information. 

You would be surprised to find how hard it is to find any kind of contact information for some authors. You'd think that writers would have an online presence to build their platform. And that there would be contact information through that platform. In many cases you would be right, often in the cases of some very big names. But with some writers? Holy cow. We've spent weeks as a committee trying to find a way to contact a specific writer, using Facebook, Twitter, website contact forms, and more. Nothing.

Here's the problem: If the WA committee cannot confirm your book's details and eligibility with you, your book can't be considered for the awards. Seriously. That's the end of the line. So make sure we can contact you. If you have a random email address for your personal website that you check only rarely, check it regularly. Even better, have your author website forward to your regular inbox so you get messages. 

It's tragic when a book has received the required nominations but no one can reach the author, and the book ends up ineligible after all. Don't let that happen to your book. 

Be reachable online and reply to communications! Which leads us to the next point:

When you are contacted by the Whitney Awards committee informing you that your book is an official nominee, reply ASAP.

The committee spends months and months all year long tracking down books and getting them into the hands of the 40 judges who cover 8 different categories. Inevitably, due to many factors, but in part due to writers taking forever to get back to us (which then delays all of the other steps in getting books from publishers), the judges typically end up with a ton of books to read in just a few weeks during January before their ballots are due early February. 

Truth: The earlier a judge gets your book, the more time they have to spend reading it and really appreciating your awesomeness as a writer. 

Consider this: If a judge is thrown twenty books to read in two weeks, that's more than a book a day that they have to somehow get through. Remember, judges have regular lives: jobs, families, and more. And they don't get paid for being judges. Plus, they aren't necessarily super-fast readers. Instead, they're excellent readers. That's why they have the assignment. But fast and excellent are different things. 

If a judge doesn't get your book until January (or worse, the second week of January), along with a bunch of others, they simply won't have time to sit down and truly enjoy your book. Instead, through no fault of their own, they're racing through each book, making mental notes as to how to rate it, and then moving on to the next one. It's almost like cramming for a big test. (Did you enjoy studying for university finals? Didn't think so.)

Judges do their very best to be objective and fair. Yet they're human, not computers. If they get to spend a whole week or more on your book, chances are, they will remember details and cool stuff far better than if they raced through it in a matter of hours on one day. 

I'm giving this advice as someone who has been a judge many times, but I've heard the same thing from many judges over the years: they wish they'd had more books earlier so they could have devoted more time to each book. 

Speaking as a writer, I want judges to have a great, leisurely experience with my book, not some stressful, holy-crap-how-can-I-get-this-read-in-time freak-out. If I have the power to get my book to judges with months to spare instead of weeks or days, I'll do it.

SO: If you have the fortune to receive the committee's confirmation email, answer it IMMEDIATELY. 

AND, if you know who best can send over an electronic file of the book, even better. (Hard copies are fine too, but shipping takes time. E-books are preferred.)

For those who have self-published, go ahead and reply with your book file attached to the email. That cuts out several steps and gets your book to judges even faster.

Mention the Whitney Awards to your readers.

A lot of books don't necessarily get the required five nominations for the simple fact that the book's readers were unaware of the program. 

On the flip side, some very popular books take forever to get the nominations because readers incorrectly assume that a book must have already been nominated plenty of times. In this case, it's not a bad idea to reach out to the author to find out if their book is an official nominee yet. They'll know within a day or two of the fifth nomination coming in. (That is, assuming they're accessible online!)

If you self-publish, consider adding a line in the back of your book asking readers who enjoyed it to nominate it. (For e-books, please take out that line after the December 31 deadline of the publication year. For printed books, be sure to include the December 31 deadline with the year so the committee doesn't keep getting nominations for it years past its eligibility.)

Spread the word about the Whitney Awards! That helps writers as well as the committee and judges. Follow the Whitney Awards on Twitter, like the Facebook page, and follow the Pinterest page. Then re-tweet/favorite/like/share/re-pin things from the awards' social media. That spreads the word among readers, and in turn, will likely nudge your readers toward nominating your book.

THAT SAID: Please don't launch big campaigns with your readers to get a ton of nominations. 
Once a book reaches five, further ones aren't even recorded; they're irrelevant. The book already moves to the judging round. A flood of nominations just wastes the committee's time and clogs up the president's inbox. 

To clarify: A book with a hundred nominations is at no advantage in becoming a finalist over a book that received only five nominations. Both books go on to the judges, who cast their ballots while being completely unaware of how many nominations any of the books in their category received. 

For that matter, only the president will ever know. And, if they're anything like me, the president will quickly lose track of the number of nominations a book got past the magic number of five. (Except they may want to put a pox on the house of authors who do launch big campaigns, glutting the president's inbox and adding pointless hours to their duties. We can totally tell when you do that. Please don't.) (For the last four months, I've spent an average of two hours on awards-related email every single day. Seriously.)

Let your readers know when your book is an official nominee.

It's a moment to celebrate anyway, so spread the word! Even better, put the information somewhere that readers can find it, such as on your website's ABOUT page or in your Facebook bio description. That way readers can know that they don't need to nominate the book, which saves the president's time. (This is no longer an issue for my term, but I thank you on behalf of future presidents.)

Be hyper aware of your publication date and what it means for your book's eligibility.

The most common place to find the eligibility date for your book is on the copyright page in the front. Granted, a book even in rough-draft form is legally protected by copyright, but traditionally, the copyright year in the front is the publication date. 

If your book is listed as having been published late in December, then that is the year it's eligible. Late-year releases do make getting nominations a bit trickier, but it happens quite frequently. You can help the process along. For example, you could send out review copies a few months in advance, then ask reviewers to nominate the book if they enjoyed it. 

If your book was technically eligible at the end of a previous year, it cannot be eligible the following year. That's not fair to anyone. One possible exception exists, but it's an incredibly rare case that's unlikely to happen to anyone living in the U.S. And it's happened once in eight years.

Advice: Talk to your publisher about release dates. If you're thinking a book will come out in January, and you don't give a thought to the Whitneys until the following spring, but the copyright and sale date are December, you're up a creek. Your book was eligible but isn't anymore. 

The rule: Books are eligible only during the year they were published in. The upcoming gala will present awards for books published during 2014 only. 

The website nomination page is still open, and here's why: Readers can already start nominating books they loved with 2015 publication dates. Any nominations that come in between now and the gala in May will count for the next Whitney Awards gala. I'll keep track of those nominations as I have the ones for 2014, and then I'll pass along that information to the next president. 

In short: Be sure you know when your book is eligible!

Place your book into the correct category.

The Whitneys recognize books in two age categories (youth and adult) and eight genre categories. Authors decide in which category to place their book. 

That's very useful for the committee, because sometimes a book blurb makes a book sound like one genre, but it's another (e.g. it sounds like a romance, but while it has romantic elements, it's not really a romance and would really fit better under General Fiction). Or maybe a writer typically known for one genre switched genres for a new book, and the committee was unaware of the change. 

However, sometimes authors think that trying to play the system is a good idea, so they put their book into a category where it doesn't really belong, usually in a category that's known to have fewer books and therefore, they think, less competition. 

This type of thinking inevitably backfires. Why? Because judges are consciously judging books based on the category they've been assigned. If a book doesn't fit the category, it won't fare well in the rankings, no matter how brilliant it is. 

Don't over think this one; it's nothing to be paranoid over. Just familiarize yourself with the genres (I blogged about them a couple of years ago HERE) and be honest in picking the one that best suits your book. You're doing yourself a favor.

Here's a hypothetical example: If your book is similar in content and tone to an Encyclopedia Brown book, don't put it into the adult Mystery/Suspense category. It'll be up against books with complex plots and a level of suspense intended for grown-up audiences. Such a book may be downright excellent, but that doesn't mean it fits in the adult category. It probably belongs in one of the youth categories, but if it's in the adult one, it'll be judged as an adult book. 

(As of this year, the best fit for this hypothetical book would be the Middle Grade category; there is no youth mystery category, at least not yet.)

If you're unsure about what categories exist for the awards, visit the website and check out the finalists and winners from recent years to get a feel for what books fit into which categories.

All of the categories are listed on the Program Overview page.

Or wait until you get the confirmation email; they'll all be listed there for you to choose from. 

Remember that the first version of your book is the eligible one. 

With e-books and self-publishing becoming more common, this issue is a bigger problem than ever. For those self-publishing, here's the thing to remember: Don't hit PUBLISH until you're sure that the books is as good as you can get it. 

Here's why: If you're informed that your book is an official nominee, you're not allowed to go back to do another revision before sending the new, shinier version to be judged. You need to send the original version. (And soon, too. See above.)

Educate yourself on the rest of the awards process.
The nomination process and judging round don't make up the whole program. The judges' ballots lead to the selection of five finalists in each category. (This year, finalists will be announced on February 9.) From there, the Whitney Awards academy, which is made up of hundreds of industry experts, reads the finalists and casts their ballots. The awards are announced at the gala, which immediately follows the annual LDStorymakers conference each spring.

You can read the rules and FAQ page on the awards website, but the Program Overview is a quick guide for understanding the basics.

There you go! My best advice for navigating the Whitney Awards and making sure your book has a shot. These suggestions will also make life so much easier for the committee: seven people who volunteer an untold number of hours throughout the year simply because they believe in the program and want it to succeed.

I Found My Writing Home

Publishing this post scares me, because the subject is so personal. I'm going ahead with it anyway with the hope that I can get across my meaning. Deep breath.

From my first attempt at writing in second grade, I began my journey making up fantasy stories. Many long-time readers will know that those early plots were largely inspired by Beverly Cleary and her mouse Ralph, resulting in several stories involving rodents.

Even in high school, when I co-wrote an entire novel with a friend, it was a re-telling of a fairy tale (this was waaaay before doing that was cool or commonplace).

The first novel I tried my hand at by myself as an adult: also a fantasy.

So it came as a surprise to me when I began getting ideas for books with a specifically Mormon angle to them. Of course, those ideas turned into the books that got published.

I did two contemporary novels that you could call romance, and I generally do, but I've never been entirely happy with that label. Not because I don't like romance; I absolutely do, as evidenced by THIS and THIS and the fact that we're doing more of Timeless Romance Anthologies and having a ball with it. Not to mention that I went on to do historical LDS novels, and every single one of them has a romantic element.

But those first two books especially had something else in them too, something I couldn't put my finger on, but which made me hesitant to classify them strictly as romances.

So there was Lost Without You, and then At the Water's Edge (although they were written in the opposite order). Then came the four historicals: House on the Hill, At the Journey's End, Spires of Stone, and Tower of Strength. Each of my historicals, with the exception of Spires, which is a romantic comedy in spite of the serious-looking cover, had that same "other" quality.

Then I was told not to write any more historicals. And I wondered what in the world I'd do next. I'd already started researching my next one, and I had to set it aside and find something else to write about.

Enter my childhood friend Chris and her husband's deployment, which in a roundabout way led to me deciding that I had to write about what it's like to be home with a soldier gone and in the line of fire. In categorizing that book, romance never entered my mind, because, well, it's totally not. Band of Sisters is clearly women's fiction.

Some people think romance and women's fiction are the same thing, but they're not. Not even remotely. Women's fiction doesn't have a love story as the primary arc, and it deals with issues and conflicts that wouldn't normally appear in a romance. I loved writing that book, and it even took the Whitney Award in its category that year.

Yet I still thought that one day, I'd return to my fantasy roots and write books for kids. That feeling was strengthened by the fact that here in Utah, we have more successful writers of youth fiction than probably any other state in the nation. Tons of New York Times bestsellers, a Newbery honoree, and more. Youth writers here are rock stars. It's the market and genre that are most respected in these parts, likely because Utah has a lot of kids, families are serious about literacy, and we tend to like clean books, which often means youth fiction. Take this piece in the news, for example. (In case you don't click over: a launch party for Brandon Mull with Tyler Whitesides, Richard Paul Evans, Chad Morris, and Christopher Paolini. NOT KIDDING.)

Then I had a good chunk of my critique group also writing youth fiction, and this one and this one have had significant success with it (young adult and middle grade, respectively) on the national stage.

Yet I also loved mysteries, and I had a bunch of cool ideas for some. I loved romance, and could see myself writing that. I loved historicals, and would be happy doing more. And so on. What on earth should I focus on?!

My publisher couldn't/wouldn't give me direction on what they wanted next besides no more historicals even after I handed over a list of ideas and asked which they'd be most interested in.

I floundered like a boat without a rudder. I had a total and utter writer identity crisis that lasted two and a half miserable years.

The go-to advice for this kind of situation is to write the kind of book you like to read. Problem: I read all kinds of books, and I enjoy just about every genre. So that suggestion was no help.

Then one year for NaNoWriMo, I decided to write something totally wacky and weird and fun to shake myself out of the awful funk I was in. I drafted 50,000 words of a futuristic, science fiction-type young adult story. And it was a lot of fun. But contrary to my hopes going in, the experience didn't make my future writing path any clearer. (And no, that book will never see the light of day.)

Yet I knew I needed a clear path, something to sink my teeth into and identify as my own. I needed a map to plan my writing future.

I ended up deciding to write the sequel to Band of Sisters even though I had no assurance that my publisher would take it. They did (yay!), and Coming Home was released in January.

During the last year or so, a few things happened to cement my writer identity. One was researching and writing Coming Home. Another was being part of The Newport Ladies Book Club series with my novel Paige and the forthcoming Ilana. 

And then during the 2012 LTUE conference, Luisa and I went out to dinner to brainstorm. She knew of my identity crisis and suggested we hash it out over food. I brought along a notebook with ideas that included young adult fantasy, historical, romance, and everything in between. We picked a story with a really cool premise, and by the time we paid our tabs, we had a rough plot sketched out.

In writing that book, which I'll begin major revisions on soon, I finally came to realize that this was the genre I belonged in. It was women's fiction. And women's fiction is my home.

I realized that my first two books were women's fiction in disguise. That was the element I could never quite wrap up tidily in the romance bow. Women's issues popped up in my historicals too.

While I was thrilled to finally latch on to my writer identity, it came with a price. Remember, I live in the land where writers of youth fiction are rock stars and are most respected by colleagues. Even my own daughter recently asked if I could please write a cool book like the fantasy we were reading together, and it broke my heart to say that I'm writing for grown-ups.

Then there are those packed, celebrity-style launch parties like the one I linked to above. It seems that most writer events for fans tends to lean more toward youth fiction as well. There was one a few years ago that included my friend Janette Rallison (who writes YA), and at the same event was Scott Westerfeld and Stephenie Meyer, among others. Really.

I've had to come to terms with the side of my ego that would like acclaim. The reality is that if I become very successful with women's fiction, it will be with limitations. In some ways, I'd like my youngest to look at me like her hero, but that can't happen if I'm not writing kids' fantasy books. Which I'm not.

Plus, youth fiction has a crossover readership from kids to grandparents, while women's fiction is read almost entirely by, well, adult women. So the numbers are different: simply put, the sales potential for youth fiction is much greater. Unless someone waves a magic wand and I become the next Jodi Piccoult, I won't be getting rich writing women's fiction. (I wouldn't mind becoming the next Kristen Hannah, though... Seriously. Her interview in Writer's Digest pretty much blew my socks off and confirmed my writer identity.)

While I'm not greedy, I am a professional, and I do rely on the money I make through my writing. Making a conscious choice to essentially limit my potential income was hard.

I also had to choose to basically walk away from earning the respect of certain peers who almost look at youth fiction as the one and only true market. Would I like my ego to be stroked a bit? Sure. Could I write youth fiction? Sure. I love the genre, and I've developed  the chops over the gazillion years I've been writing to do it.

But when push comes to shove, I believe that I'm supposed to be writing women's fiction now. When I look at my list of story and research ideas, it's all women's fiction now.

I've wondered why, and why now. Why didn't I figure this out 18 years ago when I first started submitting? There may be several reasons, but I think a major one is the fact that while youth fiction isn't any easier to write than grown-up fiction (they're both hard to do well, and anyone who tells you differently is lying), in order to write good women's fiction, I simply had to be older. I had to experience more, see more of the world, encounter more situations, gain more maturity. On the other side, I've already been an adolescent. As long as I can write well and tap into that part of my brain, I could write youth fiction.

But I couldn't have written good women's fiction at 21, because back then I was barely a woman.

A bit of irony: Turns out that the old piece of advice was right after all. While I do read all kinds of books and love almost all genres, if I had to list my top books of all time, most of them are, yep, women's fiction.

Photographic Evidence

Not sure how I ended up with two weeks between posts (unless I think back over the crazy busy that has been the last two weeks, and then I go, "Oh, yeah.").

When I wrote about the Whitney gala last time, I didn't have any pictures yet. Here are a few. I'd planned to post pictures when I had more, since flashes were all over the place, and I know there are more out there I don't have access to right now, but it's been long enough, so here's what I have.

First, the award itself. It's lying flat here, but it stands up and opens and closes like a real book:

Isn't it purdy?

Below: Before the gala, with critique group member (and 2-time Whitney winner) Heather Moore along with novelist and Deseret Book editor Lisa Mangum. We thought the red theme would be fun for a picture.

Tristi Pinkston and Danyelle Ferguson presented the award to me. Here I am, right after I got onto the stage, with Tristi, hugger extraordinaire:

The pics above and below were taken by dear friend Kimberly. I won't post the one where I'm totally blubbering, but you can tell here that I was emotional.

(No worries; these were happy tears.)

After the gala, with the amazing THREE-time Whitney winner, Stephanie Black. You can just make out the gold box that has the award inside:

I'll be back to my regular posting schedule soon, including Word Nerd Wednesday and other fun stuff.

Promise!

Unforgettable

I've had Blogger up all day—blank—because this last weekend was just so . . . big. How to encapsulate it in a single post? (Or at all, for that matter?)

It began with the chance to go out to dinner with several writer friends and Marcia Markland, an editor at Thomas Dunne books. Marcia was an absolute delight to talk with and get to know, one of the sweetest women I've ever met.

That night I briefly met up with two of my cousins to celebrate one's university graduation, something she's done with finesse and great courage against huge obstacles. (So proud of you, Jamie!)

Friday morning began the 8th annual LDStorymakers Writers Conference. It was the biggest and best one so far (which is saying a lot). Friday morning while walking through the halls, I immediately recognized agent Sara Megibow from her Twitter avatar and said hello after yelling out her name (and probably taking her off-guard. Sorry about that, Sara!)

Later I attended classes and got to rub shoulders with the other two agents attending, Sara Crowe (I don't think she ever stopped smiling all weekend) and Becca Stumpf (one of the cutest people on the planet).

Over the two-day conference, I taught three times, coordinated the meet-and-greet for the local LDS publishers and attendees, and moderated the panel with the national agents and editor.

At one point during the conference, as I headed up some stairs, an attendee said, "You're so awesome!"

Never one to turn down a compliment (but having no idea who she was or what she meant), I said thanks. She went to say that she had an MFA, but that my class taught her more than any lecture she'd attended. SCORE! (Memory has totally failed me; I don't remember her name. But she has my eternal gratitude.)

I attended several classes, talked to lots of friends (not nearly enough time for that!), and had lots of fun chatting with buddies and eating chocolate late into the night at the hotel.

AND THEN

Then there was the Whitney Awards gala. Ever since Robison Wells, Whitney founder, first told me about the idea of the awards program (as in, the day he came up with the idea, years ago), I've wanted one. Like really, really, wanted one. It's become a goal and an ache.

The first year, I was a finalist. So, yay. But I didn't win.

The ache intensified as the years went on and I didn't get anywhere near an award. I've watched and celebrated as many friends received Whitneys, and I've been genuinely happy for them.

And yet.

This year I was a finalist for the second time. Saturday night, I sat at the gala, all dressed up, hardly able to eat my steak dinner and cheesecake dessert (I didn't finish either, which is very unlike me).

When it was time for them to announce my category, I drew into myself, refusing to hope. I'd read someone else's blog post about the finalists (and that post's comments) and had pretty much convinced myself that the awesome Gregg Luke, who has been a finalist every single year, would take the award. I chanted his name in my head, just waiting for it to be read.

Instead, I heard, "Band of Sisters, by Annette Lyon."

Whoa. The next few hours were pretty much a blur of hugs and lots and lots of happy tears. (Thank you, waterproof mascara.) (Great. I'm crying again.) So many friends and colleagues gave me genuine wishes of congratulations; the outpouring was nothing short of amazing. I've never experienced anything remotely like it before.

The gala was filmed, and if it ends up online, I'll link over so everyone can see me all blubbery at the microphone.

Many people asked if I had a spot picked out for the award at home. I hadn't. I wasn't about to think that far ahead, assume anything, and jinx myself. I have a spot now, though. My Whitney sits right above my computer, where I can see it as I write.

When my husband and I walked in the door, the kids were asleep. But their dad had texted them from the gala that Mom won, and they'd cobbled together a sign, taping several sheets of paper together and then attaching it to the wall: "Congratulations, Mom." (It's still up.)

This last year or so has been particularly difficult on my writing front, for many reasons which I won't go into here (no one really knows all the ins and outs, so whatever you're thinking, that's not it, or at least not all of it).

More than once I've wondered whether I was just done, because often the obstacles have been big, and the emotional side of this writing gig can be so intense. I've been at this since 1994. It was a good run.

Besides, why was I doing this to myself? (Willingly and on purpose?) Maybe, I thought, it was time to hang up the fiction hat and just work on freelance stuff to help pay for the kids' school fees and the like.

Then I got to hold a Whitney award in my hands. MY award, with my name and my book's title engraved into it saying it was the best in its category for that year.

And I felt like I could fly.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me, to everyone in the academy who voted, and (yet again) thanks to the military wives who opened their hearts to me so I could write Band of Sisters.

The fiction hat is back on my head where it belongs.

A Genre Primer

I hear a lot of discussion about book genres and debate on what they mean or where a certain book belongs. With the Whitneys around the corner, I've heard even more discussion on it (why is this book in this category instead of that one?).

So here it is: a primer on some basic literary genres.

Romance

This is by far one of the most misunderstood genres. If a story is romantic, it may or may not be a romance. A true romance must fit a specific formula (but, we hope, will find fresh, new ways of doing so): the bulk of the story revolves around the relationship, and by the end of the story, the hero and heroine are together in a committed relationship.

Sometimes it's boiled down to: boy meets girl, boy gets girl, boy loses girl, boy gets girl for good.

But can't you write a story where they don't get together? Sure you can. But then you need a different label. Romeo and Juliet is romantic, but ultimately, it's a tragedy, not a romance.

Another example of a genre that requires a formula is a mystery. If you were to pick up an Agatha Christie book and Miss Marple didn't figure out who done it, you'd feel cheated. And rightly so. A mystery, by definition, requires the murder to be solved.

Many genres add romance to them, so the trick with those is determining whether a story is primarily a romance or a "romantic [fill in the blank]," such as romantic suspense. Or, the flip side: a suspenseful romance.

Young Adult & Middle Grade

These are books targeted at younger people. YA tends to be targeted at older teens, and MG at tweens and early teens.

Note that I said targeted. That means the book is written and marketed with a young age group in mind as the audience. That doesn't necessarily mean that a book with a 16-year-old hero is going to be YA. By character age standards, To Kill a Mockingbird would belong in Middle Grade or younger (Scout's what, 10 or so?), but it's clearly not targeted at fourth graders. Not that there's inappropriate content for young kids, but they're aren't the target audience. Grown-ups are.

Modern examples of books with younger characters that are not YA books include Orson Scott Card's Ender's Game, Ender's Shadow, and his new (Whitney finalist) Pathfinder. All of those have some young lead characters, but the books aren't written to please young readers, and Pathfinder in particular (which I loved) would likely confuse the bejeebers out of them. And Dan Wells' I Am Not a Serial Killer is most definitely not targeted at youth, even though the main character is 16.

Another factor: kids tend to enjoy reading about other kids slightly older than they are. So a true YA book won't have a 13-year-old protagonist. More like 15+. Sometimes the difference between YA and Middle Grade is content. Older characters plus "darker" or "heavier" content makes a book lean toward YA (quote marks because those terms are hard to define . . . and they don't necessarily mean "bad stuff") .

Examples: The Fablehaven series is Middle Grade. The Maze Runner series is Young Adult. Dragon Slippers is Middle Grade. My Double Life is Young Adult.

Speculative Fiction

This is a catch-all term that lumps science fiction, fantasy, and others together (paranormal, horror, etc.). If it's not real-world stuff, it's speculative. This year, the Youth Fiction category of the Whitneys was split into General and Speculative. With so many youth books being published, I think that was a great move. (Also because comparing general fiction with speculative is very much like apples and oranges.)

Mystery/Suspense

That's the Whitney category, and I could also add thriller. They're all slightly different, but similar enough that they compete together in many awards programs. In mysteries, the question is "who did it?" In a thriller or suspense novel, the reader often knows who did it (or who is going to set off the bomb/kill the victim/whatever) and the story is about the protagonist trying to catch or stop them (and maybe not get killed in the process).

This year, Gregg Luke's Blink of an Eye is a finalist in the General category. His previous books have been in Mystery/Suspense category. Why General this time? I agree with where it's placed (even though it means I'm up against him . . .), because while Blink does have many suspenseful and mysterious elements, at its core, the book is about one man's journey toward healing and the family dynamics he faces along the way rather than the mystery.

General

This is sort of the Whitney catch-all for books aimed at adults that don't fit another category. It includes Women's Fiction (like Band of Sisters), literary fiction (like Bound on Earth), and more.

Plenty of other genres exist, but these are the ones that seem to get confused the most often. Have more questions? Fire away in the comments.

Whitney Awards: Behind the Scenes

The reading is done, and the ballots are in. I'm writing this the night before the finalists are announced, and by the time you're reading this, we should be within a couple of hours of knowing who the finalists are.

Being part of the awards has been a fascinating and rewarding experience, especially since I was able to part of the growth of the program from early on. Robison Wells, the founder of the awards, bounced the idea off me the day he came up with it (I consider myself lucky to have been in the right place at the right time). I landed on a name for the program that he liked. The second year of the awards I served on the committee, and I've been a judge for three years.

At the first gala, I felt overwhelmed with the potential for the program and where it was headed, and honored that I'd been part of something so amazing. (You can read more on that and my teary reaction HERE.)

Enough people ask about the Whitney Awards that I thought I'd explain a bit about how they work. This post will already be long enough without explaining my personal judging philosophy and process, so those things may have to wait for another post.

I will say, though, that I try hard to judge each book by the same criteria and to judge as objectively as possible, so that even if a particular novel isn't my personal taste, I can still acknowledge whether it is well-crafted and accomplishes what the author set out to do.

Michele Paige Holmes blogged about her job as a Romance judge this year in two posts, HERE and HERE. Read them. They're excellent and insightful . . . and good lessons on writing, too.

How the Whitney Awards Work

For the full list of rules and such, see the site's ABOUT page, but this post should give you the basics.

In essence, the Whitneys aim to recognize the best LDS fiction writers, regardless of genre or market. They're named after Orson F. Whitney, an early apostle who gave an inspiring talk about the arts and literature, saying that one day we'll have "Miltons and Shakespeares of our own." We're seeking to move toward greater and greater excellence, to one day fulfill that prophesy.

For a book to win a Whitney, it goes through three phases:

1) Reader Nomination

To be an official nominee, a book must be nominated by at least 5 people who do not have a financial interest in the book (such as the publisher, the author, etc.). Nominations are accepted throughout the year for books published during that calendar year, so the upcoming awards will honor books published in 2010. Nominations closed on December 31.

(Note: Keep in mind that you can already nominate 2011 titles. Nominations for the current year are open all the time.)

2) Genre Judging

The Whitneys include 7 genre categories: General, Historical, Romance, Mystery/Suspense, Speculative (Sci-Fi/Fantasy), YA General, and YA Speculative (a new category this year). Each genre category has 5 judges assigned to it by the Whitney president and committee. Judges are selected based on their qualifications, and while they are often writers in the field, sometimes they're editors or other industry professionals. Judges read every nominee in their category/categories.

The current Whitney president and committee are not eligible for awards (too bad, really, for current president Josi S. Kilpack, who has won a Whitney in the past but also has two books out this year that could have easily been finalists). Writers serving as judges are eligible for an award; they just can't judge a category in which they're eligible. For example, one year I judged General and Romance when I had a Historical novel eligible.

When they've read all the nominees assigned in their genre, the judges cast a complex ballot online that uses a point system to give each book the fairest rank possible. It's a Condorcet-style ballot, where every book is pitted against every other book in its category.

So instead of just ranking the books a judge liked ("this one is my favorite"), the ballot creates every possible pairing of titles and asks the judges, one pair at a time, to say which book of the two is most deserving of the award. Each vote for a book in any pairing creates a specific weight in that book's favor.

This is where we are right now. The judges' ballots were due yesterday at midnight, January 31. The points have been tallied (using some fancy computer formula that's beyond me).

Now 5 titles in each genre are finalists.

(The list should be up on the Whitney site by noon today.)

3) Academy Votes

Where do we go from here? Once the finalists are announced, the Whitney Academy members will get busy reading them. The Academy is made up of literally hundreds of industry professionals: writers, editors, reviewers, publishers, and so on. The Academy keeps growing. Just the LDStorymakers guild itself has doubled in membership since the inception of the awards four years ago.

Academy members will cast their ballots a week or two before the Whitney Gala, which takes place immediately following the annual LDStorymakers conference. In the past the Academy has had about 2 months to read finalists; this year, the conference and gala will be held a bit later, giving us almost 3 months. Yay!

Voting rules for Academy members are simple: Vote in as many, or as few, genre categories as you wish, provided you have read all of the finalists in any category you're voting in.

In other words, an Academy member could read just the Historical finalists and cast a ballot for only that award. Or a member could read finalists in two or three categories and vote in just those areas. They cannot vote in any category where they haven't read every finalist.

To cast a vote for the two overall awards (Best Novel by a New Author and Best Novel of the Year), the Academy member must read every book eligible for those awards. That means reading several titles to vote for Best Novel by a New Author and reading every single finalist to vote for Best Novel of the Year.

(That's a lot of books, but I did it last year. Barely, but I did it.)

The Whitney Gala

The genre and overall awards are announced at the Whitney Gala, as well as special awards that the committee decides on, given to people who have had big achievements in their work and/or been instrumental in serving LDS writers. Previous award-winners include Orson Scott Card, Gerald Lund, Kerry Blair, Dean Hughes, and Dave Wolverton, among others.

One rule change this year could be fun to see unfold: In the past, one book could win one award. If it won in its genre (say, Speculative) but and also won New Author and Best Novel, it would take just the highest award (Best Novel). The next highest-ranking book in New Author would take that award, and the same with the genre award. Spreading the love, acknowledging more books.

Now, a book can win any award it's eligible for. That means one book could take its genre award as well as Best Novel.

Or we could see a 3-award sweep with 1 book taking its genre award, New Author, and Best Novel. (Wouldn't that be wild?)

I make a point to read widely during the year, especially writers who I know are good at what they do and who have been previous finalists or winners. That way when the finalists are announced, there's a decent chance I've read at least a few of them and don't have 35 books to read in a short span.

Of course, I can't predict every finalist; there are always surprises: underdogs I've never heard of, self-published books that are gems, and so on. It's exciting to see the list each year. I really hope I've made some decent guesses.

After all, I must have read every finalist if I'm going to vote for Best Novel again.

And I plan to.