On Writing Boy Heartbreak

I am deep in revisions right now, about half way through my first round of RADIO STATIONS ARE FOR LOSERS.  (Yes betas, it will be coming to you soon!)  It has kept me from blogging because I am trying to save all my wit for my dj boy Kyle.

I have fallen a little in love with Kyle.  I hope Julio doesn't think I am cheating on him.

The great thing about writing YA books is that you can create the people that should have been in your life in high school.  The ones that you wish you had known or met.  I re-read Stephanie Perkins' ANNA AND THE FRENCH KISS last night.  I almost never re-read books but it is such a lovely one and handles YA romance so well that I wanted to revisit it.

My boy Kyle had his heart broken today.  It was difficult to write.  And pretty great at the same time.  I sort of like writing boy heartbreak.   It remains to be seen if I got it right.

Today's blurb from Kyle:

"I was pretty excited when Mr. Sherwin pulled the “work in pairs” thing until Olivia pretended like she barely knew me.  Like she hadn’t been sitting on my lap with her hands all over me in the control room.  I felt kind of sick really.  Because Olivia had learned the secret language of girls quickly and I was the fool who had been sucked in by her awesome irreverence only to be later skewered by her inevitable rejection." 

On Music and Soundtracks For Books

So it only takes listening to one top 30 Countdown on Radio Disney for its music to change from the "soundtrack of my current YA novel" to the "soundtrack that moves me to stick my tongue into an electrical outlet."

Just saying.

I know that a lot of writers have soundtracks for their books.  It kind of makes sense if you are delving into your characters to figure out what they might listen to.  For me, I prefer to write with silence.  Don't get me wrong, I love music and I am so grateful for it (especially when I have to wait 13 years in the carpool line while they try to match kids with cars).  I just don't think about my characters in terms of music.  Maybe it is because their voices are so strong in my head that I don't want them drowned out by music.

Not including music in a book about radio stations is like not including food in a book about a culinary school.  It's ridiculous to try to avoid it.  But I am wary of dating the book with popular music references and honestly, Radio Disney and the Glee soundtracks are pretty much all my kids are listening to these days (yes, Butter is 3 but he still sings "I Bust the Windows Out Your Car" right along with my 6 & 8 year old).  Bottom line:  Unless someone can wrestle the kitchen radio and CDs from Butter's chubby fingers, I am going to be getting pretty familiar with the Pinkett-Smith kids.  

Luckily, I have gotten around these aural limitations by choosing music for my book that is either classic (Billy Holiday) or slightly obscure (Lou Reed).  I am sure that my CPs will tell me to do some research on music but really, what happens when this isn't published until 2014?  Is it better to just make up bands/songs all together?  It probably is but I also think that it is sort of corny when bands are made up.

Thoughts?

P.S.  Think I may have to read NICK AND NORAH'S INFINITE PLAYLIST to see how the pros handle the issue.  Dang, there goes the last of my Amazon gift cards.  Crap.    

Expecting Awesome and Getting Suck

So my visit to the high school radio station was in a word AWESOME.  I did leave realizing that I had to do some major rewriting based on new technology but other than that, it was exactly what I expected it to be, even the 37 boy to 4 girl ratio of the staff.  Perfect.  Truly.  And everyone was SUPER nice and accommodating and they even sent me home with SWAG.

I would like to think that my book will do for high school radio stations what Glee has done for show choirs.  Carrie assures me that once it comes out, those 37 boys will not know what hits them because the girls will come a'running.  I hope that is true.  But in the back of my mind, I can't help but think of scenarios where things did not turn out so well.

Which leads me to today's blog post topic:  TOP 5 PISSED-OFF TEXTS FROM PEOPLE WHO ENDED UP WITH SUCK INSTEAD OF AWESOME

1.    Dear Tiger Mom:  Your citizenship has been revoked.  That shit was supposed to remain on the down low.  Regards, China

2.  Dear Lady Gaga:  You told us you were having a bbq.  Your credit is no longer good here.  Regretfully, The LA Butcher

3.  Dear Judd Nelson:  I thought you said that you had kicked the meth habit?  Sincerely, The Breakfast Club

4.  Dear Tiger Woods:  We told you to stick with TGIFriday's or at the very least, Applebee's.  Perkins is notoriously indiscreet.  Looks like you'll be screwed twice, Your Sponsors

5.  Dear Kesha, We will sadly not be able to recycle this glitter.  Rolling around in it naked puts it a smidge beyond the "gently used" category in our minds.  Hope you find another method of disposal, Every Nursery School In America