In which I gank things from my flist
NaNoWriMo:
1. Both in 2007 and 2008, I submitted my final wordcount on the 25th, the date when you can start collecting the winner badges. This turns out to be a good idea since you may not be able to access the site at all on the 30th, as clueless_psycho told me. Long story short: it's always better to finish early, even if you don't want the badge.
2. Via cristin_terrill: An offer from Scrivener for NaNo - Participants can receive a 20% discount and winners will have a 50% discount on December 2.
Via
jolantru: Tu Publishing, a multicultural SFF press for children and YA.
Also from cristin_terrill: What Patrick Ness said about YA.
He said he was writing for his teenager self, trying to create what he would have wanted to read. He feels a lot of YA falls short because it tries to write for a theoretical teenager instead of a real one. It aims for the 'normal' teenager when there's no such thing; every single teenager in the world feels atypical, so writing for the popular kids is doomed to failure. He, astutely I think, theorizes that this played into the success of Harry Potter.
Writer: "Yeah, you're different. But you're a wizard."
Reader: "I KNEW IT!"