Top 5 Dream Jobs In YA Fiction or Film

Hey, guys! Colleen, here! So, my daughter just turned sixteen and we're all set to start picking up applications at local businesses so that she can get an after school job. This rite of passage got me thinking a lot about jobs for teenagers and how they are often represented in fiction and film (and then how teen jobs usually play out in Real Life....) So, I came up with a couple of fun lists to share with you.

Here are my picks for Top 5 Dream Jobs in YA Fiction or Film

5. Barista in a Bustling, Locally-Owned Coffee-house Not Starbucks

4. Reluctant Fashion Model

3. Lifeguard

2. Used Book Store or Library Employee (Or, if you’re REALLY lucky, Records. Oh, yeah…TRAX Forever!)

Annnnnd….my pick for Best Job in YA Fiction or Film goes to:

1. Drummer in a Totally Bitchin’ Indie Rock Band!!!

Seriously, wouldn't it be (or have been) awesome to have one of these jobs as a teen? Sadly, I think most of us are (or were) relegated to the following lameness: 

Five Worst Teen Jobs Ever:

5. French Fry-Salter at McDonald’s, Burger King, or Wendy’s

4. Underpaid, Overworked Babysitter to Extremely Fussy Neighborhood Toddlers

3. Lawn Mower

2. Pizza Delivery, If You Have a Car and Insurance.

1. Doing Chores Around Your Own House (or Grandma’s) Because You Have No Car or Insurance.

What are some of your picks for Teen Dream Jobs and Worst Teen Jobs Ever?

Colleen Clayton holds an MFA from The Northeast Ohio Consortium. She teaches writing at Youngstown State University and is a mom to two teenagers. Her debut YA novel WHAT HAPPENS NEXT releases October 9th, 2012. Her first job, at sixteen, was a French Fry Salter at McDonald's. (She has a small burn scar on her arm to prove it....)

Follow her on Twitter @ColleenYA or visit her website: www.colleenclayton.com

E.M. Kokie: PERSONAL EFFECTS

BIO: E.M. Kokie writes contemporary young adult novels and is represented by Chris Richman of Upstart Crow Literary. In high school she was a band geek, played field hockey, and was active in Model Youth in Government, Mock Trial and a slew of clubs. She was rarely invited to the cool parties, which left her plenty of time to read, and to create her own stories, even if she didn’t share them with anyone or think that she could actually be a writer. Now she shares her stories—specifically, novels for teens that explore identity and self-determination, about characters on the cusp of life-changing moments. She lives in Madison, Wisconsin, with her partner. She will debate nearly any subject, and likes to have the last word. She can be found online at http://www.emkokie.com/, on Twitter, on Facebook, and hanging around the Absolute Write Forums.

DEBUT: PERSONAL EFFECTS (Candlewick Press, September 2012)

Seventeen-year-old Matt Foster thought that if he could only get his hands on his brother’s stuff from Iraq, he'd be able to make sense of T.J.’s death. He wasn’t expecting T.J.’s personal effects to raise even more questions about his brother’s life.

Now, even if it means pushing his dad over the edge . . .

even if it means losing his best friend . . .

even if it means getting expelled from school . . .

Matt will do whatever it takes to find out the truth about his brother’s past.


FIVE LESSONS FOR THE APOCALYPSE (Or, “everything I know about surviving an apocalypse I learned from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”):

1. “What's this? Sitting around watching the telly while there's evil still afoot. Not very industrious of you. I say we go out there and kick a little demon ass!” (Spike, “Doomed”, Episode 2:11);


2. “I have to believe in a better world.” (Giles, “The Wish”, Episode 3:9);


3. “…give my love to my friends. You have to take care of them now. You have to take care of each other… the hardest thing in this world… is to live in it. Be brave. Live…” (Buffy, “The Gift,” Episode 5:22);


4. “When it's something that really matters, they fight. I mean, they're lame morons for fighting, but they do! They never... they never quit. So I guess I'll keep fighting too.” (Anya, “End of Days”, Episode 7:21); and


5. Oz: “Guys. Take a moment to deal with all this. We survived.” Buffy: “It was a hell of a battle.” Oz: “Not the battle. High school.” (“Graduation Day, Part 2, Episode 3:22).

Hilary Weisman Graham - REUNITED

REUNITED - Coming from Simon & Schuster - June, 2012

REUNITED - SYNOPSIS

1 concert

2,000 miles

3 Ex-best friends

Alice, Summer, and Tiernan are ex-best friends.

Back in middle school, the three girls were inseparable. They were also the number one fans of the rock band Level3.

But when the band broke up, so did their friendship. Summer ran with the popular crowd, Tiernan was a rebellious wild-child, and Alice spent high school with her nose buried in books.

Now, just as the girls are about to graduate, Level3 announces a one-time-only reunion show.

Even though the concert’s 2000 miles away, Alice buys three tickets on impulse. And as it turns out, Summer and Tiernan have their own reasons for wanting to get out of town. Good thing Alice’s graduation gift (a pea-green 1976 VW camper van know as the Pea Pod) is just the vehicle to get them there.

But on the long drive cross-country, the girls hit more than a few bumps in the road. Will their friendship get an encore or is the show really over?

HILARY WEISMAN GRAHAM - BIO

Hilary Weisman Graham is a screenwriter, novelist, and director whose work spans nearly two decades.

An Emmy-nominated TV producer, her broadcast credits include WMUR's Chronicle, Wild Web (CBS/Eyemark), as well as freelance work for Discovery Health Channel, Access Hollywood, A&E Biography, and PBS's Zoom.

Having started her career as an indie filmmaker, Hilary’s two features films (Life’s Too Good and I Love My Movie) have garnered numerous awards and played in art-houses and film festivals around the world.

In the summer of 2007, Hilary was selected as a contestant on the Mark Burnett/Steven Spielberg-produced FOX reality series On the Lot: The Search for America’s Next Great Director. Out of a pool of 12,000 original applicants, Hilary stayed in the competition until only nine contestants remained, making her the longest-standing female director.

Hilary has written screenplays for Inferno Entertainment, Robert Lawrence Productions, and the Disney Channel. Her debut young adult novel, Reunited (Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers), is due out June 2012.

Hilary lives with her husband and son in a restored 1830’s barn in the Monadnock region of New Hampshire, roughly thirty minutes away from the nearest grocery store.

5 Contemporary YA Novels for the Apocalypse (not including REUNITED):

THE SISTERHOOD OF THE TRAVELING PANTS (series) by Ann Brashares

HARD LOVE by Ellen Wittlinger

THE TRUTH ABOUT FOREVER by Sarah Dessen

CUPCAKE by Rachel Cohn

SHUT OUT by Kody Keplinger

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Colleen Clayton: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

BIO: Colleen Clayton writes YA fiction for older teens and teaches writing at Youngstown State University. Originally from Cleveland, Ohio, she holds a B.A. in Criminal Justice from Kent State University and an MFA from the Northeast Ohio Consortium (NEOMFA). In former lives, she has worked as a social worker in a residential treatment center for teens, as program supervisor for Big Brothers Big Sisters of Mahoning Valley, and has tended bar at way too many dive pubs to count.

These days, she lives in Youngstown with her husband, two teenagers, a Papillion who thinks she’s a cat, and a Siamese who thinks he’s a dog. When she isn’t reading, writing, or teaching, she likes to visit relatives in West Virginia...do crazy things like chainsaw trees and 4-wheel up mountainsides.

Debut: WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

The story of a tenacious 16-year-old girl named Sid, who, after a life-altering incident on a school ski trip, is afraid to get close to anyone until an unlikely slacker teaches her to trust again. Pitched as Jennifer Weiner’s GOOD IN BED meets Sara Zarr’s STORY OF A GIRL, WHAT HAPPENS NEXT is a contemporary YA novel debuting in Fall 2012 with Poppy; an imprint of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers.

Five Heartbreaking Songs for the Apocalypse:

Never is a Promise by Fiona Apple
Empty by Ray LaMontagneThe Genius Next Door by Regina Spektor
Mad World (Gary Jules version)
Save Me by Aimee Mann

Elisa Ludwig: PRETTY CROOKED

BIO: Elisa Ludwig studied writing at Vassar College and Temple University before embarking on a career in freelance writing, and now YA fiction. She lives in Philadelphia with her husband Jesse and cat Beau a.k.a. Bread.

DEBUT: PRETTY CROOKED (Katherine Tegen/HarperCollins, March 13, 2012)
Willa’s secret plan seems all too simple: take from the rich kids at Valley Prep and give to the poor ones.

Yet Willa’s turn as Robin Hood at her ultra-exclusive high school is anything but. Bilking her “friends”—known to everyone as the Glitterati—without them suspecting a thing is far from easy. Learning how to pick pockets and break into lockers is as difficult as she’d thought it’d be. Delivering care packages to the scholarship girls, who are ostracized just for being from the “wrong” side of town, is way more fun than she’d expected.

The complication Willa didn’t expect, though, is Aidan Murphy, Valley Prep’s most notorious (and gorgeous) ace-degenerate. His mere existence is distracting Willa from what matters most to her: evening the social playing field between the haves and have-nots. There’s no time for crushes and flirting with boys, especially conceited and obnoxious trust-funders like Aidan.
But when the cops start investigating the string of thefts at Valley Prep and the Glitterati begin to seek revenge, could Aidan wind up being the person that Willa trusts most?

FIVE BEST WAYS TO SPEND THE APOCALYPSE: kissing, eating Nutella with a spoon, watching Mitchell and Webb’s The Event, reading anything by Kurt Vonnegut, dancing to Fishbone’s “Party at Ground Zero” on repeat.

K.M. Walton: CRACKED

BIO: K.M. Walton writes contemporary YA, middle grade suspense and picture books. She has also co-authored a book on the teaching of mathematics called TEACHING NUMERACY: 9 Critical Habits to Ignite Mathematical Thinking from Corwin Press. She is fortunate to be represented by the lovely Sarah LaPolla from Curtis Brown Ltd.

K. M. had a dream when she was a little girl. Actually she had a gazillion dreams, and she spent a large amount of her childhood wondering what her future would hold. Her biggest dream was to be a teacher. Teaching became a reality for K. M. and she taught for twelve glorious years – some of it in Osteen, Florida and most of it in Springfield, Pennsylvania (Hi, Osteen Elementary and ETR Middle School!!). But, it turns out writing is K. M. Walton’s favorite thing to do in the whole world. Even the hard parts – and there are a lot of hard parts. She even sang about the hard parts.

She lives in Pennsylvania with her husband/best friend and their two ridiculously incredible sons (and she’s not one speck biased). They dance in their dining room and sing in their hot tub. A lot.

DEBUT: CRACKED (Simon Pulse ~ Simon & Schuster, March 6, 2012)

Victor hates his life. He's relentlessly bullied at school and his parents ridicule him for not being perfect. He's tired of being weak, so he takes a bottle of his mother's sleeping pills -- only to wake up in the hospital.

Bull is angry, and takes all of his rage out on Victor. He's the opposite of weak. And he's tired of his grandfather's drunken beatings, so he tries to defend himself with a loaded gun.

When Victor and Bull end up as roommates in the same psych ward, things go from bad to worse. Until they discover they just might have something in common: a reason to live.
 
5 BOOKS FOR THE APOCALYPSE: The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho, The Red Tent by Anita Diamante, The Sky is Everywhere by Jandy Nelson, The Deathly Hallows by J.K. Rowling, The Stand by Stephen King

Shelley Coriell: WELCOME CALLER, THIS IS CHLOE

BIO: Young adult author Shelley Coriell writes stories about teens on the edge of love, life-changing moments, and a little bit of crazy. She is represented by Jill Corcoran of the Herman Agency, and her debut novel, Welcome, Caller, This is Chloe, will be released May, 2012 by Amulet Books/Abrams. A six-time Romance Writers of America Golden Heart finalist, Shelley lives in Arizona with her family and the world’s neediest rescue Weimaraner. When she’s not writing, she bakes high-calorie, high-fat desserts and gives speeches and workshops about the joys and business of writing. You can find her online at shelleycoriell.com.


DEBUT: WELCOME CALLER, THIS IS CHLOE(Amulet Books, Spring 2012)
Big-hearted Chloe Camden is the queen of her universe and loved by all until winter break of her junior year. That’s when her BF shreds her reputation and her school counselor axes her junior independent study project. Forced to take on a “more meaningful” project in order to pass her junior year, Chloe joins her school’s struggling radio station where she must team up with a group of misfits who don’t find her too queenly. Ostracized by her former BFs and the target of a vicious gossip campaign, lonely Chloe throws herself into the radio station where she ends up hosting a late-night call-in show that gets the station much needed publicity. And in the end, trouble. She also befriends radio techie and loner Duncan Moore. On and off the air, Chloe and Duncan learn sometimes funny, sometimes painful lessons about life, love, and what it means to be alone…and lonely.

5 COMFORT FOODS FOR THE APOCALYPSE

1. Warm buttermilk-crusted blackberry cobbler over vanilla ice cream
2. Mashed potatoes with butter, heavy cream, and a dash of sea salt
3. A perfectly ripe peach
4. Scrambled eggs and goat cheese on lightly browned toast
5. Fresh-from-the-oven chocolate chip cookies with a frosty glass of milk

Lauren Morrill: MEANT TO BE

Bio

Lauren Morrill is many things, including, but not limited to, a writer, an educator, a badass roller derby skater, a former band nerd, an aggressive driver, and a die-hard Mac person. She also watches a lot of TV, eats a lot of junk food, and drinks a lot of Coke. It's a wonder her brain and teeth haven't rotted out of her head.

Lauren lives in Cambridge, MA with her husband Adam (a public radio reporter and producer) and their dog Lucy (who she taught to give high fives). When she's not writing, she works at Harvard and plays roller derby with the Boston Derby Dames.

Debut

Meant to Be (Delacorte, October 9, 2012)

Cyrano de Bergerac meets YA in a Shakespearean comedy of errors in which one mysterious, romantic text messages sets off a wild good chase full of mistaken identity, misdirected chemistry, and misguided heartache.

Five Snacks for the Apocalypse

1. Coke. Best if purchased in a large quantity from the nearest McDonalds. Barring that, cans or glass bottles are sufficient. Skip the plastic bottles. Ew.
2. Grande Nonfat Iced Chai. Starbucks survives the apocalypse, right? Roaches and Starbucks. That's what we'll have.
3. Cheetos. Regular, baked, or puffed. All other cheetos are not recognized by the apocalypse.
4. Chili cheese fries. No fork. Lick your fingers.
5. Pez. Skip the dispenser. Devour several packages in mere minutes.

(in case you're wondering, I'm definitely going to survive the Apocalypse ... my insides are fortified with preservatives from a lifetime of processed food. Suck it, health nuts.)

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