2013 Review, Part Two: Writing

How about that, a double post day...what is this, a flashback to my LiveJournal days?

2013, The Year In Review, Part 2: The Writing

I honestly believed in my heart of hearts that this was going to be the year that I got my deal. Obviously, it wasn't. But I'm not going to focus on that right now. Most of that is out of my hands now, so there's not much to carry on about. Anyway, let's talk about writing.

I felt like this was one of my worst years writing since I spent a good portion of time working on revisions and rewriting, so it was hard to do "word counts" for those things. And they look bloated because I may work on two chapters that only need light cleaning up in one night so it looks like I wrote 7,000 words and the next day I have a chapter that needs to be blown up and I only get 700.

I keep a writing log in Excel and I usually quit on it at some point (October this year) because I don't know exactly how to handle revisions/rewrites in my word counts.

Anyway, a review of what I wrote this year:

• SISTERS OF KHODA, YA fantasy, 2nd rewrite (112k).
• TOURNAMENT OF PRINCES, YA fantasy, plan, abandoned.
• WINTER'S SORROW, Fantasy novella, 2 rewrites (31k).
• TOURNAMENT OF PRINCES, YA scifi, 1st draft started, back burnered (~3.5 k done).
• THE WRONG PATH, Fantasy short story, 1st draft. (3k).
• THE SEVEN LABORS OF NICK JABLONSKY, YA contemp, 1st draft (~12k done).
• WINTER'S DISCORD, YA fantasy, 9th rewrite (131k).

By my count, that's about 300k, give or take....maybe I was a little more productive than I thought. I think the last draft of DISCORD is damn good and I think the TOURNAMENT and LABORS have loads of potential. SISTERS does too. I have a really thorough beta reading it right now and she's already given me amazing notes for the first three chapters and how to fix them. I'm very excited.

As for 2014, what do I have planned? Well, I haven't gotten my official 2014 notebook, so I haven't written a formal plan, but as I see it, here's what I plan on doing:

• Finish LABORS and TOURNAMENT drafts.
• Rewrite SISTERS.
• Plan the sequels and prequel novellas to DISCORD. Possibly draft one of the novels and the accompanying novella.
• Plan and draft the follow-up to SISTERS, tentatively titled THE ROAD TO STANDISH. (Part of the YOUNG WEAPONMASTER series)
• Work on a novelette or two based in the WEAPONMASTERS world.
• Work on a short story or three.
• Plan and write something that my daughter would enjoy.
• Plan and write something that my nephew would enjoy.

I've written a ton on writing routines. Now it's time to stick to that routine.

Wish me luck.

2013 Review, Part One: Reading

2013

If not for the birth of my son Cooper, I'd almost say this was a pretty crappy year. His birth actually makes up for a lot of the crappy things that happened this year.

Now, let me say, I don't generally like making blanket statements about something. (Like I just did.) But it wasn't a great year for me and I'm looking forward to 2014.

I'm going to avoid talking too much about school (2012-13 School Year: Meh, 2013-14: Worst Ever so far), personal issues (I'm really not destined to own nice things) or health (hip replacement was a miracle but tweaked back and stress have undone some of the progress I made from June 2012).

Let's focus on the things that this blog was supposed to be about: writing and reading.

Reading first.

I read 64 books this year. I intended to read 75, but such is life. I gave a "rest" to my WHEEL OF TIME read and will pick it up next year. I read a lot of graphic novels and limped my way through some good and mediocre novels. Here's my top five for the year of books released in the last 12-15 months (in no particular order):

• Fortress Frontier by Myke Cole: Control Point, the first book of The Shadow Ops series made my list last year, so this was a natural. It's better than the first by far and it was my favorite treadmill read of the past summer. He ramps up the stakes while giving us a broader view of the world that he'd built. Myke is on the precipice of being one of the important voices of my generation of fantasy writers. Now, if I could just get him to appreciate team sports...
• The Republic of Thieves by Scott Lynch: Lynch is a genius and Jean Tannen is one of my favorite characters in the modern fantasy canon. (Come on, a smart, strong fat guy that wears glasses? Yes, please.) Lynch juggles three different stories here and the flashback and the play they are performing are vastly more interesting than "A" story revolving around the elections, but THIEVES returns us to what makes Lamora and Tannen tick, a rollicking con with bigger repercussions than anything they've ever done. Lynch plants some nice seeds for the bigger series in this one and I can't wait for THE THORN OF EMBERLAIN.
• Boxers & Saints by Gene Luen Yang: I am fascinated by idea of "Imperial America," in particular American foreign involvement and the conflicts created therein, so this book was a natural for me. And I loved it. Beautiful, vivid and an amazing tale that mixes history, legend and mythology while asking some pretty tough questions.
• The Red Knight by Miles Cameron: A big sweeping epic with a huge cast of POVs focusing on the siege of a keep on the border of civilization and the Wild. Great characters, great plot and talk about painting a vivid picture with words!
• Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas: A loose retelling of the Cinderella myth (very, very loose) that is absolute genius. A rollicking fantasy adventure with hints at bigger repercussions for later books. Action, romance, love triangles, elder magic, tragic backstory (read the novellas), etc...it's like Sarah put all the tropes into a giant pot and made a damn near perfect pot of sauce. 

Honorable Mentions:

• Bomb by Steven Sheinkin: A thrilling nonfiction account of the race to build the first atomic weapon.
• The False Prince by Jennifer Neilsen: Hidden heirs and succession conspiracies. Feel like the 1st person POV hurt this book. Could've been a real Game of Thrones for teens if it were 3rd person close with multi POVs would've made this book top 5.
• The Crimson Crown by Cinda Williams Chima: Good ending to a great series.

Top Older Books I Read:

• Batman: The Killing Joke and Year One: Fantastic stories that I couldn't put down. Classics.
• The Blind Side by Michael Lewis and Friday Night Lights by Buzz Bissenger: Read quite a bit of nonfiction this last year in prep for the change over to the Common Core and these two stuck out as brilliant.

Biggest Disappointments:  

• Falling Kingdoms by Morgan Rhodes: Billed as GAME OF THRONES for teens, it reads like a bad pastiche by someone that just read the Wikipedia entry on Game of Thrones and decided the most compelling thing about GOT was the incest part. It was just bad and it made me sad as someone that wrote a YA GAME OF THRONES type book.
• The Hero's Guide to Saving Your Kingdom by Christopher Healy: What could have been a fun, rollicking adventure story about the Princes in your favorite fairy tales got caught up in it's own gimmick (a real problem in YA and MG right now). Healy plays with every trope all wrong and it comes across mean and not fun or silly at all.
• Tome of the Undergates by Sam Sykes: I was really disappointed that I was so disappointed with this one. Sam is one of the coolest guys out there right now, but UNDERGATES was a big let down. I understand the appeal and there are some flashes of "what could've been" in it, but overall it didn't live up to the hype for me. 
• Kick-Ass 2 by Mark Millar: Gratuitous, pointless and over the top for the sake of being over the top. It had none of the weight or point of the first one.
•  

Books I'm looking forward to in 2014: Avalon by Mindee Arnett, Dare Me by Eric Devine, Joe the Barbarian by Grant Morrison, Landry Park by Bethany Hagen, Frostborn by Lou Anders, Breach Zone by Myke Cole, The Fell Sword by Miles Cameron, The Shadow Throne by Jennifer Nielsen, The Thorn of Emberlain by Scott Lynch and Crown of Midnight by Sarah J. Maas.

So, there's my 2013 in reading.  I'm aiming for 75 books in 2014 again. I think I can do it.

Writing post will be up a little later on.

Nose Meet Grindstone

It's hard to believe that it has been almost 3 months since the last time I wrote a blog entry. It has been one of the busiest, most frustrating starts to the school year in my career and anything beyond that realm has been pushed to a back burner. There are plenty of days where I feel like I am holding on by the tips of my fingers. And when you consider that my son's sleeping habits have changed and we're not exactly getting great sleep at the Zeleznik Compound, it's a miracle I've gotten anything done that doesn't involve planning, grading, the Common Core or APPR! But I have, somehow, managed to get some things done. A major rewrite, some new words that have been impeded by the loss of Verdell (my home computer) for a little while and some advance thinking about what I'm going to work on down the line. Unfortunately, with that comes sacrifice, meaning I haven't been blogging as frequently as I would have liked. There's something about today that makes me feel like I needed to get something on to the blog. Could have something to do with tomorrow being the anniversary of my hip surgery, it could be the holidays or it could just be I want to occupy myself in a moment of thought where I'm going to act like a little baby.

I'm entrenched in this contemporary YA that I'm writing, but it's proving to be harder than I thought, especially considering I did a major rewrite of one of my fantasy books then tried to dive back into the contemp. It's not that easy and I sort of struggled getting back into the "head" of the narrator of the contemp. It's 1st person, so it's very, very different from what I'm used to writing and I have to sort of get into the mindset. Not having a computer over Thanksgiving break killed all and nay productivity...it's very difficult to write in a notebook while keeping an eye on a mobile 9 month old. Now that Verdell is up and running, I'm going to give a real run at hammering out the contemp as quickly as possible. I think it's a good story, I just need some good old fashioned butt-in-seat time. Hopefully, two weeks of Christmas break will help!

I need new words right now. I need them because I've been sort of in rewrite purgatory for the entire year...I took a break for the novella but still, I'm stuck in my own old words and I need some fresh blood in my writing because I'm looking down the barrel of some more rewriting, though it won't be as much as a rewrite as a straight up murder.

Between the rewrite and novella, I'm realizing that I need to pretty much write the second book of my SEASONS series from scratch, so I've got some planning to do. I realized that the pacing of SPRING is all wrong and I need to pretty much blow it up and rebuild. Sigh. Hashtag writer problems.

The plan, as I see it, is to spend a few days catching up on the school work I'm behind on (and there's always a truckload of that) and then sit down and do a real writing plan then get to writing.

Dreams and Sacrifice (Am I Using Parenthesis Right?)

The beginning of the school year is always a dodgy time for me. Any activity not associated with the beginning of school usually comes to a grinding halt. (If you could see my lawn, as meager as it is, you would understand what I am saying.) The last few years have been difficult too, between the switchover to the Common Core (I'm pretty fluent in it, but by no means an expert despite working with it for three years now) and the inundation of the Literacy Mafia (or by their corporate name: Pearson). Between moving and setting up a classroom (they moved me BACK to my old room), prepping for the classes and learning the new initiative, there isn't much room left in my brain for anything beyond school. Couple that with having two kids (the house looks like a tornado hit it on the inside) now, chaos reigns supreme. But with that comes some decisions about sacrifice.

I want to be a successful published novelist. That is one of my life's dreams. (Well, the whole being the starting fullback for the San Francisco 49ers didn't work out. And neither did being a Lothario of super hot, super rich celebrities. I suppose I could still try that stand up comedy thing...but, I digress.) I realized in order for any of that to happen, I would need to sacrifice a little. (My Twitter habit hasn't helped in that distraction.)

Usually, sacrificing for my writing came at the expense of sleeping. I'd stay up late (I'm something of night owl. Actually, you know how they say that you aren't a "morning person?" I'm not a middle of the afternoon person...if that makes sense) when I was really enthralled with a writing project. I can remember vividly doing a rewrite a few years back at the request of an agent and staying up consistently past 1am to work. (Everyone's in bed by then.) I also would usually shut down the mechanism from the end of August until maybe December or even the beginning the next year. I realized that if I want to be a successful writer, this was not an acceptable arrangement. I needed to sacrifice more. Even though I'm exhausted and beat down (I teach Freshman, so let's just say the number of gray hairs on my head has grown by a hundredfold in the last two years), I need to take some time to read and write. I ask my kids to do so, why shouldn't I do the same. (Modeling is a huge part of my teaching style now.)

I'm obsessed with writer's routines and long for one. (I've blogged about that before) So, I've decided to set a little time each night/day to write. Only an hour a day, if I can do more, than I do, if not, then at least I logged in an hour. It helps that I have a project I really like and am finding a groove on. I'm putting it together like a pitch to my agent to see if he likes what I am doing with it. (I'm playing with genre and the narrative style a little bit. Nothing I want to share yet, but it's...different for me.)

I'm about 5k in and grooving. (My writing tracking has fallen to shit, so I'm going to try and fix that tonight if I can so I can track my words.) It's contemporary and first person, two very different things for me, and I'm really enjoying it. (I've blogged a little about it before as well.) I abandoned the idea of writing it long hand. It's a romantic notion, but too difficult considering my circumstances.

My goal is to try and bang out about 20k by the end of the month. Do a little more in October so I can finish in November. It's ambitious, but doable. I'm hoping to have about 30 pages for my submission to my agent in the next week or so to see what he thinks of the stylistic thing I'm trying. I'm envisioning the project being about 75k. When I finish that, I think I may try my hand at a novelette in the Jaiman world then move on to the abandoned project I mentioned in that other blog while planning another plot monkey I have jumping around in my head that requires some research.

Then again, I may just watch a lot of college football and drink beer. 

Size Matters Not

The 800 year old Jedi Master once uttered the words, "Size matters not." As a fantasy writer that prefers epic fantasy (as a reader and a writer) these words are normally not in my vocabulary. I think epically in everything that I write. Lots of earth shaking action and consequences with unreasonably large casts of thousands. (I blogged about this in one of my tropes of the week entry, an element to my blog that is going to make a return, maybe on a monthly basis instead of weekly.) As a young adult writer, I've sort of learned to rein in my word counts while keeping the "size" of my story the same. My trunk novel THE FALLING DARK, a traditional epic fantasy, topped out somewhere around 180k, short by many epic fantasy standards but long for a first fumbling at novel writing. My two SEASONS books came in at around 130k each (interestingly enough each was close to the books that I remember reading in my youth that I sort of compared them to: the DRAGONLANCE books, which my reread/analysis will be continuing this week) and SISTERS OF KHODA came in at about 115k. Not as big as say the 300k of A GAME OF THRONES or 305k of THE EYE OF THE WORLD, but big for Young Adult.

As I toiled on these for months and months at a time, I always found the appeal of something shorter, not quite short stories (my epically wired brain struggles in that confined place) but things like novellas and novelettes intrigued me. But there's no market for them, right? So, I concentrated on writing books. But that appeal was always there. But then some things happened that changed my thinking.

First, I read the very brilliant Throne of Glass by Sarah J. Maas. Before I read them, I read the four novellas that she and her publisher released for 99 cents each before they released the book. You didn't need to read them to understand the book, but I decided to read them...and they were terrific. But I still wasn't sure what I could do and how I could do it. It came in a conversation I had with my agent about my own worlds. Why not write my own prequels for my books as a way to get people talking about me? As my agent is apt to do, he nudged me in the directions of some things to read as "research" for the project and let me do my thing. (That promised post about research is coming!) It took me about a month to write the 30k novella prequel to SEASONS OF DESTINY. (The title is in flux right now or I'd tell you.) I sent it to betas, who pounded it out in good time. I did a rewrite and sent it off to my agent, who has in turn returned it to me to do another rewrite.

Now, the plan is to release this novella on my own for a buck or two and get people talking about me, but something happened along the way....I fell in love with the format. I can't explain it. I'm a big guy. I like big things and big stories, but there's something about this method of writing that I love. And I've become a little addicted. I wrote down multiple ideas in my writer's notebook in two of my worlds: another prequel novella to SEASONS, a "sidequel" novella to WINTER'S DISCORD involving a melee team (it makes sense in context) and novelette in the SISTER'S world.

I know what some of you are thinking, why would I spend my time writing something where there so little return?

There are a lot of reasons. I'm an unknown commodity right now. I want to get people talking about it and, more importantly, me. I like writing them. It's not as constricting as a short story and it's not as sprawling as an full blown fantasy novel. It's a great way to build depth for your world. Yes, worldbuilding, the ugly stepbrother to plot, character and theme, is made clearer and deeper with a good novella. Finally, it's practice. Writing is a muscle and it needs to be worked out. Just like working out, you do big compound movements like benches and deadlifts, but you also do things like shoulder presses and rows to build up the support muscles too. That's what novellas and novelettes are.

In this day and age of being able to put something out on your own, why not? Is there a better method of self promotion than offering your writing up on the cheap/for free? I think not. 

So, keep your eyes out in the coming months as I start slowly writing and releasing some of these for your enjoyment.

Paid Hobbyist

Since all the cool kids are doing it and I'm one to fall in line with the zeitgeist, I'm going to respond to this blog post by an author I've never heard of. (And why does that ALWAYS seem to be the case when it comes to stuff like this?) According to Ms. Morton, if you don't score an 80 or better on this little quiz, you aren't a professional author, shouldn't ever consider yourself a professional author and that you are just wasting your time on trying to be a professional author.

Now, before we get the the quiz, I need to put up this qualifier: I am an as yet published author still struggling to make a name for himself. So on to the quiz, here are Ms. Morton's questions:

1. Is your home/work place messy because that time you’d put into cleaning it is better spent writing?

Yes, but not for that reason.

My home and work places are messy because I'm lazy and I don't like cleaning, not because I'm too busy writing. I spent a good part of today actually attempting to clean up my house a bit(and failing miserably at it). My classroom is usually disorganized because I'm busy during my free periods grading or planning or making copies or attending meetings, so there's that.

2. Do you routinely turn down evenings out with friends because you need to be home writing instead?

Uhm, no....sort of.

I don't have friends.

Okay, that's harsh. I have friends, it's just that, generally speaking, I don't LIKE going out as much as I used to. I'm sure that there's some psychological reason for this self imposed exile. It could be that I just love being around my kids a lot too. And I often rue the time I spent screwing around when I was younger going out. But this makes me think of Patrick Rothfuss's quote about writing: "Sitting at home all the time reading and writing is not awful, but go hiking, have disastrous relationships, go to the sort of parties that people end up kissing each other.. Because you know, those are useful experiences. They will lead to you being a more experienced human being, and the more you experience in life, the more you have to draw from in your writing."

But even now, I won't turn down some time with friends just to get some writing done...that may change when I get a real deadline.

3. Do you turn off the television in order to write?

No.

I keep the TV on almost all the time when I write. I'm a background noise kind of guy, so it's usually something inane. I've written hundreds of pages with The Food Network on in the background. Seriously, there is something about The Food Network and writing that just go together. If not The Food Network, there is probably a game on in that background. The few times when I do turn the tv off, music's playing. 

4. Would you rather receive useful criticism than praise?

Yes.

Here would be my place to rant about people who really don't want to hear what is wrong with their writing....but I don't want to do that today.

5. Do you plan vacations around writing opportunites (either research or networking potential)?

No.

Vacations are vacations. Get aways. That doesn't mean that I won't work during one. I bring my writer's notebook everywhere. My last major vacation was to Disney World a few years ago and I had my notebook with me. I was still unagented at the time and was thinking about scrapping the project to prep another MS for seeking out an agent. I was in line to take the safari at Animal Kingdom when my phone buzzed with an email. It was from my present agent asking if I'd done an outline he requested. I went home from the park that night and scribbled in my writers notebook like a maniac to get moving, but it wasn't part of a writing opportunity.

I've always wanted to attend a con, but it's not in my immediate future. I'd rather spend time with my family.

6. Would you rather be chatting about the business of writing with another writer than exchanging small talk with a good friend?

No, sort of. (See the post about friends above.)

A lot of my friends are writers and teachers, so we naturally talk about writing all the time. I'm sort of the "writer guy" at school, so I'm always talking about writing.

But quite frankly, I'd rather talk to my friends about other things: something we read, saw on TV, a big game, something we ate, etc.


7. Have you ever taken a day job that paid less money because it would give you more time/energy/material to write?

No.

Providing for my family is my number one priority, bar none. I'm a teacher with a pretty stable job that I won't be leaving for "my writing." I make other sacrifices for my writing (sleep mostly). Providing for my family is a non-negotiable. Natalie, Cooper and Kim are more important than my writing.

8. Are you willing to give up the nice home you know you could have if you devoted that time you spend writing to a more lucrative career?

What? I'm not sure what she means by this question. Does she work for the people that write out state assessments?

If seems like she's repeating question 7...and you know my answer to that...so moving on.

9. Have you done all these things for at least five years?

Another terrible question, since I answered no to so many of those, then my answer here is no.

But I've been writing as long as I can remember.

10. Are you willing to live knowing that you will likely never meet your ambitions, but you hold to those ambitions nonetheless?

What?

What kind of a writer is she? This question makes no sense. At all. In the least. Is she asking me if I'm ever going to give up my dream? Again, I'm convinced she has a day job with Pearson writing state exams.

I write. I am a writer. I will always be a writer. My ambition is for my books to be as big as George RR Martin. Am I ever going to achieve that level? Highly, highly doubtful. Doesn't mean I'm going to stop writing. So I guess my answer is yes.

So, I wasn't even close. Now, to be fair other authors fared worse than I did. Neil Gaiman pretty much said he was 0 for 10. Awesome.

I'm not quite sure what was the purpose of Ms. Morton's post. Many others have written extensively on this and I'm not going to rehash what they've written, but I have some questions. Was it some sense of superiority to writers that do any of the things on the list above? What lesson is to be learned? I'm going to be honest, if that's the life of a writer that Ms. Morton lives (and from what I can tell she's maybe slightly successful which makes her considerably more successful than me right now), then I don't know if that's the life I want to live. Seriously. Her life sounds incredibly dull. Sorry.

I'm okay with her calling me a hobbyist, because, to be honest, that's what writing is. I often tell my wife this if she scoffs at me for "writing." At best, writing will more than likely be a part time career for me. (I know, I know, doesn't this become something of a self-fulfilling prophecy and I'm setting myself up to fail...but again, look back at my answer for question 7.) For many reasons, I can't imagine a day where I am not teaching. (Okay, that's a little bit of a stretch of the truth, because I could, but I genuinely do love teaching.) Could writing have been a full time career for me? I'm sure in some quantum universe I am a writer...actually in many of them I'm sure I am a full time writer. But in this universe, I am not.

For now, I just want to be a paid hobbyist, at least by Ms. Morton's standards.

Young Adult Property Wish List

I really wanted to write a blog post on research in writing and what that means, but I had another idea that uprooted that one this morning. I was hanging out with my son (he's five months old) and I decided to indulge on an activity I haven't honestly indulged on in some time: watching cartoons. Now with a five year old, I get my fill of cartoons between Disney and Nick Jr, but they aren't necessarily entertaining to me. Granted, there is a prolonged series of blog posts about Disney Junior's Sofia the First, but that's not this post. (Seriously, between the world building, succession drama and magic system there's plenty for an aspiring fantasy novelist to comment on.) This is about something else.

I watched a few different shows: Ben 10 Omniverse (I talked about Ben 10 in my Hugo post), Justice League Unlimited and Beware the Batman! It was the last show that got me thinking. It depicts a younger version of Batman figuring out his way fighting crime. It was okay, but I was left wanting. I'm not an expert on the canon of Batman, but it felt as if it were trying to hard to be "different" than any other version of Batman and that bothered me. It got me thinking (and I tweeted a little about this) about what existing properties in media today deserve a YA makeover/prequel. Here's my list:

1. BATMAN
I know that Beware the Batman is being billed as a "younger" Batman, but if there's a hero in the DC universe that deserves a YA version, it's Batsy. It has all the hallmarks of what's in YA right now: a dark loner orphan trying to fit in while trying to seek justice for his parent's murder. I know there was a "Gotham High" thing circulating around a few years ago and there's a very Smallville Bruce Wayne TV script out there too and both of those were attempts to make the Dark Knight YA-ish. There are a lot of different approaches one could make. One is a straight up, as close to the canon prequel with hints and clues about who would become what in the future. This would be your Smallville route. Another could be similar to "Gotham High," just completely de-age the villains and make them fit within the new setting that is created for the YA audience. A third way could be a straight up "younger" Batman facing the villains we know and love.

My Pitch: Bruce Wayne appears to be a spoiled rich kid with no parents and a Lamborghini in the student parking lot. What his classmates don't know is that Wayne is a vigilante in training even though he doesn't realize it yet, surrounding himself with allies like former NFL player and technology genius Lucius Fox, rookie cop Jim Gordon, quirky, Sherlock Holmes obsessed English teacher Maggie Adler and a mysterious martial arts master, all unknowingly teaching him everything he needs to know for his future career as the Batman.

NOTE ABOUT SUPERHEROES: I'm sure I could do several pitches for superhero themed YA concepts, but I won't. I'll give you the two that I think almost NEED any kind of quality project dedicated to them: Wonder Woman and Luke Cage. I'll say this as well: ENOUGH WOLVERINE ALREADY.

2. STAR WARS
I know there are already YA Star Wars books, but those all seem to focus on EU characters and mostly are about the Jedi. Let's face it the Jedi are boring and the EU canon has gotten as convoluted as that of the Transformers or Godzilla. So why not focus on the original stories and the Holy Trinity of characters: Luke, Han and Leia. They are the more interesting than any of the Clones or Madalorians or whoever else is out there.

My Pitch Luke: Luke Skywalker lives on a moisture farm on the backwater planet of Tattooine where he stares at the stars waiting for his chance to leave the sandy rock and fulfill his imaginary destiny. Time whittles away slowly and Luke falls in with a group of racers and scamps trying to find the next challenging race in this "Fast and the Furious" meets "Buck Rogers" YA scifi adventure.  

My Pitch Han: Han Solo is a grease monkey building starships out of spare parts. After winning several sublight races between the various planets of the Corellian system, Han runs afoul with the local authorities and reluctantly agrees to take his skills to the Imperial Military Academy on Cadria. Han's cockiness and lack of respect of authority makes him a target for his commanders and fellow cadets. Everything changes when he is sent as part of a support crew for a mission to Kashyyyk and he meets a wookiee named Chewbacca.

My Pitch Leia: Princess Leia Organa is the youngest human to ever serve in the Imperial Senate and hates every moment of it. She can sense the rot in the place and is disgusted by it. With the help of her father, Bail Organa, she becomes a member of the Rebel Alliance and becomes a leader to the younger people of the galaxy with a message of hope in dark times. (Okay, that's the weakest of the three, but I'm imagining it as a very political/courtly drama kind of thing.)

3. THE SOPRANOS
Okay, this one might be a stretch, but the more I thought about this one, the more I liked it. Who doesn't like a decent gangster story? And has there been a better gangster story than The Sopranos? It's soap opera like situations are perfect for a YA story.

According to Wikipedia, Tony Soprano was born in 1959, meaning he'd be a teen in the late 70s. Perfect. You could play in the wilderness that is the late 70s in NYC/NJ and maybe pull some adults in with a nostalgia for that time period. Plus, how great an adult foil would Tony's mother make?

My Pitch: Anthony Soprano worships his father, renown gangster Johnny Boy Soprano. So it only makes sense that Tony pretty much runs his high school the same way his father runs northern New Jersey with his friends Silvio, Ralph and Jackie. Desperate to be noticed, Tony cooks up a scheme that is as crazy as it is dangerous: rob a card game being run by one of the most dangerous men in northern New Jersey: Feetch LaManna.

4. DISNEY PRINCESSES
I know that Disney is sort of covering this for a younger audience with Sofia the First and that the source material they mine for their stories are the same ones that a lot of YA authors are also mining but the Disney Princesses are iconic and there's some room to play with some of the more contemporary ones. I'm thinking of Belle for the most part. My daughter adores her and there's lots of room for something to be done with her. You could go an adventure route or a prequel route, focusing on either Belle or Prince Adam/The Beast. But again, the problem with this one is that the "rewritten fairy tale" niche is really, really crowded.

My Pitch: The people of her village consider her eccentric but Belle could care less. She seeks adventure and excitement where most girls her age jockey for position for the attention of Gaston. The problem is that Gaston is in love with Belle. The woods that surround the village are filled with dangerous creatures and the only two people in the village that seem to notice are Belle and Gaston, who have different methods of dealing with them: Belle with compassion, Gaston with the end of a musket.

NOTE ABOUT DISNEY PRINCESSES: There are a lot of different combinations. A Snow White sequel with Snow White and the dwarves becoming witch hunters is another. An aged up Sofia the First in some kind of succession conflict/war would be harsh but interesting to me. But again, the problem comes with a crowded market.

5. DORA THE EXPLORER
Nick has sort of tried this already a few years ago and they haven't done anything with it since, but an adventure series focusing on her adventures could be very interesting if done right. Now, I'm not going to write a pitch, instead I'm going to let you watch this video:

CollegeHumor's Favorite Funny Videos

There's plenty of other ones that I'm leaving out. Sherlock Holmes and James Bond almost instantly come to mind, but they've been done are being done. I contemplated a pitch for Conan, but decided not to, as appealing as he is, I wonder if he'd work as a YA character. Superman was done, and done well in Smallville, so despite the popularity of the character, I think it's still too soon for there to be a rehash of his character.

Are there any other characters for pop culture, television, comics, movies, etc that deserve a YA makeover?

Also, any publishers/owners of the above characters that like my pitches, please contact my agent Bob Mecoy.