Just got my preview copy of Neil Gaiman's The Graveyard Book yesterday and it is burning a hole in my carpet, next to the bed, just begging to be finished. It's a YA or middle grader, can't tell which. With Gaiman, everything is, well, aimed in your general direction anyway and my oh, my is it fabulous.

Don't want to give too much away, but its about a little boy with a sort of price on his head who is saved from the murderer of his family by some kindly ghosts and other undead types. Gaiman's range of historical knowledge is staggering, and he delivers it with such casual ease, it slips into the narrative without the reader noticing. With his usual dry wit, there are many levels to the story, and moments that will have you double-taking and LOLing, or giggle-snorting as quietly as possible, depending on your age, gender and if your spouse is asleep beside you.

I finally got help on this miserable synopsis. My professor sent me this link... http://www.institutechildrenslit.com/rx/ws05/panicfree.shtml

I see Cassandra Clare signed a new deal with S&S for a YA fantasy set in Victorian London. Awesome. Love the era, love the horror/fantasy mix.

I am really pleased to recommend Word Painting: A Guide to Writing More Descriptively, by Rebecca McClanahan. It is entertaining reading as well as being packed with excellent examples and exercises. McClanahan rewrites examples to show how the text might have been written and how the emphasis is changed and the life stolen by good but not stellar discription. Often less is more, and a variety of tools breathes life into even the blandest environment.

The YA fantasy market is saturated, so I am told. But I wonder how saturated the appetite of YA readers is. I think YAs want what they always have wanted, a story about somebody that could be them, not to be talked down to, with plenty of pace and lots of heart. YAs are feeling their responsibility and their ability to make a difference. Those are not fantasies but realities, and novels that make them feel in control of a wild universe feed that reality.

What not to do when you are supposed to be...

writing a novel synopsis. What a drag. No matter how many times I wrote a synopsis while writing the novel, all jittery with excitement, like when you finally figure out the murky bits on a jigsaw puzzle. When it comes to writing THE SYNOPSIS after the last page has been written, well its kind of like watching reruns of Star Trek.