#KwameRules

Hi everyone! I am YA author B A Binns , writer of contemporary and realistic fiction for teens. My tagline tells you what I am about - Stories of Real Boys Growing Into Real Men - and the people who love them. 

This month I'm dishing out inspiration.

On Saturday and Sunday I was privileged to be at the SCBWI winter conference.Yes, it was February in New York and the weather was atrocious. But inside the hotel things were warm, people mingled, and Kwame Alexander gave a speech entitled Dancing Naked On The Floor - How To Say Yes To The Writerly Life.

In case you don't know, Kwame Alexander just won the Newberry Medal for his novel in verse, The Crossover. And I do mean just won, the award was announced the Monday before his Sunday speech.

The SCBWI committee invited him to speak at this conference long ago, and therefore we were the privileged group who saw him  make his first speech post award. He mounted the podium in a new, berry-colored suit. His Newberry suit, he proudly announced.

He kept the audience captivated with details of his agonizing wait for the 6 am call the committee made to the winner, unable to sleep, barely able to think. He turned on TV shows he couldn't remember, eventually giving up and going to bed at seven, certain he'd lost. Just as his wife was comforting him on the loss, the phone rang.

He'd forgotten all about the time zone difference!

When he spoke he was simply awesome, inspiring, riveting...he is a poet after all. He started out writing love poems. He recited a few he used to woo his wife and that generated the kind of feelings 50 Shades only wishes it could. (She is one lucky woman.)


I could have listened to Kwame all night even though the words were meant for someone else. For those of us who write romance, consider creating a silver-tongued poetic hero. I'll be standing in line for the release of that book. Yes, I like sports figures, six pack abs and bottomless wallets. But give us a truly heartfelt poem or ballad... But for me, move over, Mr. Grey. I want a man with a Golden Voice who can woo me with the beauty of his words.


Kwame shared his philosophy of always saying "YES" to opportunity.

• YES when offered a job reading poetry to kids in an alternative school (talk about the blackboard jungle)
• YES to reciting poetry to a church congregation. The minister didn't know Kwame specialized in love poems. he was appalled, the church women demanded more.
• Most of all, he said YES when asked to write for children.

The Crossover is one of many results of that decision. Kwame spoke eloquently about the years of effort that went into that book.  He listened when editors told him it needed something more, even when they could not tell him exactly what that elusive something was. He even hired a writing coach to work with him for almost a year on the book stating that he didn't pay her nearly enough for all the work she did with him. In the end he knew he had something awesome and was preparing to self-publish if necessary. Then, a publisher said YES.

Audience members spent the time tweeting his pearls of wisdom, sending the hashtag #KWAMERULES viral.  His philosophy about saying YES, and the need for a community of people around you who will tell you the truth, even (maybe especially) when you don't want to hear it.

There were other speakers during the weekend. We had Q/A sessions with panels of Publishers, and

then Agents. I attended a late-night get-together of LGBTQ writers, illustrators and interested parties. We were treated to a talk by Kami Garcia, co-author of Beautiful Creatures who spoke on The Truth About Writing and reminded us that sometimes you have to write for yourself, not for what you think the market wants.  If she had been worried about the market Beautiful Creatures would never have happened. Instead, she took a dare from teenagers and created a book left her with emails from kids who told her the characters reminded them they weren't the only people who ever felt alone

 Even though I'm not a picture book writer or illustrator, I enjoyed the presentation by Herve Tullet on his joy at writing for young children. We ended the conference with a surprise cheer-up talk by Henry Winkler, actor, director and children's book author reminding us why we write and hope to inspire readers.


My favorite quote from the weekend conference: This writing life is not just about sitting in your room with your pencil & paper. It's about going out in the world. #kwamerules

I would love to hear any comments or words of wisdom that have helped you in any endeavor.  Leave  a comment, share with the world.

Young Adult Romance and the RWA Rita.

Hi everyone!
I am YA author B. A. Binns. For the end of 2013, I thought I would talk about being a YA writer in this time of change. 

NEBULA^® is to Science Fiction as RITA^® is to _________

If you know the answer is Romance, feel proud. Not many people outside the RWA world does, and most of those are related to romance writing, publishing or reading.  I have no trouble finding librarians who know about the Nebula or Hugo or Edgar. Seldom do I find one, even in my own library, who knows what a RITA is. Even many avid romance readers have trouble naming more than one Rita winner. But ask a mystery fan about the winners of last year's Edgars and you usually an enthusiastic list.

In a recent library display of award-winning books I saw six Hugos and eight Edgars. And one Rita. Gosh it felt good to see at least one.

My bet is that is one of the things RWA hopes to alter with their changes to the 2013 RITA contest that include a focus on romance and a the requirement of a higher number of entries for a category to proceed.

RWA established the RITA awards to promote excellence in the romance genre. I belong to a number of writers groups and email loops that have voiced their dismay about changes in various award categories to ensure alignment with that purpose. RWA did not understand YA, many said. There was talk of a growing alienation between RWA and it's YA writing members.

Those protests grew especially loud last week when word came that the Young Adult category of the Rita awards was cancelled due to lack of entries.  Many complain that this proves the RWA was wrong to require the YA novels entered in the Rita to have romance as the primary focus.  Many of those protesters also admit they chose not to enter their books in the 2013 Rita and somehow the cancellation of the category because too few books were entered is proof they were right.


While I am sorry the category had to be cancelled this year for lack of entries, I applaud RWA for saying that all categories, including Young Adult, must make romance a preeminent ingredient to be eligible for a romance based award.  As someone said, many great books will be excluded from consideration because of this.  That is possible, even likely. But many deserving YA romances will win awards here where they could not anywhere else. And that is RWA's mission, to enhance the romance genre, in Adult and in YA.

I think it is fitting that the 2014 RWA RITA Awards ceremony Emcee is Simone Elkeles, winner of a Young Adult RITA for her teen romance, Perfect Chemistry.  

RWA wants to specialize in Romance, just as the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America and the Mystery Writers of America hand out juvenile and/or young adult awards to novels that have those genres as their main core  while being designed to appeal to teen and young adult readers. 

Here's the good news. There are other awards out there for YA books that do not require a heavy dose of science fiction or fantasy or mystery or even romance. My 2013 novel, Being God, was nominated for the 2012-13 Eliot Rosewater Indiana High School Book Award by some of my favorite people, Indiana readers.   It has also been nominated for the 2013 Cybils Award, the Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards and in the Young Adult category of the SPARK Award created by the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators to recognize "excellence in a children’s book published through a non-traditional publishing route.".

I have discovered that I have to play to have a hope of winning, but I also need to carefully select the games, and contests, I enter. 

Celebrating Black Romance at Romance Slam Jam

Hi everyone.
B. A. Binns here, hoping you will join me in a story of celebration at  Romancing The Genres!


I spent the first weekend in May celebrating of black and multi-cultural romance books, authors and readers in Milwaukee, Wisconsin at the annual Romance Slam Jam Conference. Attendees had three fun-filled days of workshops, lectures and keynotes, culminating in a banquet and the presentation of the Emma awards, named after Emma Rodgers, the co-founder of Romance Slam Jam. I got a slew of new books, made a ton of new friends, and got a chance to meet people from around the country that I only get to see at this annual conference.  
The conference theme was Melt in Milwaukee, and although the temperature was unseasonably cold for the first week in May, we were all hot, hot, HOT! Especially during the Friday night Murder Mystery event, a “wedding” that included the murder of the groom’s best friend and a frantic attempt by participants to discover clues and uncover the murderer.

No, my table did not win, and many of the best romantic suspense authors came up with nothing. But in the end, the murderer was actually sitting at my table. Author Earl Sewell, who played the groom, was unmasked as the killer.

Groom and his best friend, a.k.a future VICTIM

Wedding party, a.k.a. SUSPECTS



Bridzilla and the Wedding Planner



The conference is a reader and author get-together, with separate workshop tracks for readers, writers and books clubs. There were also author sessions designed to allow attendees to meet and ask questions from their favorite authors. I learned a lot from sessions on creating audio books, the business of writing, and turning books into plays from authors who have been there and done that.  I participated by giving a workshop about ways independent authors and libraries can partner to the benefit of both.

 

A friend I first met at the 2009 RSJ in Chicago, author Yvette Hines (I know her better as Monique Lamont) won the Emma award for Author of the Year at the 2013 Romance Slam Jam conference.

 

Other awards –
 

Hero of the year to A. C. Arthur for creating Sean Donovan in the book Surrender to a Donovan

Heroine of the year to Iris Bolling for creating Diamond Lassiter in the book Teach Me

Suspense of the year to A. C. Arthur for Temptation Rising

Sequel of the year to A. C. Arthur for Seduction’s Shift

Steamy Romance of the year to Maureen Smith for Any Way You Want

Cover of the year to Just One Taste by Celeste O. Norfleet

Book of the year was Just One Taste by Celeste O. Norfleet

Debut Author of the year went to Harmony Evans

Naturally the fun continued long after the awards banquet – I had the salmon and there was some kind of white chocolate mousse for desert. Farrah Rochon (author of sexy, sassy, contemporary romance) is setting up the 2014 Slam Jam conference in New Orleans for May 7-11, 2014. Like many other authors and readers, I am already planning a trip that will span both conferences.