Tag Archives: So Shelly

March 27, 2011 · 6:46 pm

YA Book Review: Ty Roth’s So Shelly

So Shelly

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Life has finally eased up enough for me to write a review of So Shelly (Delacorte Press), the highly anticipated and recently released novel by Ty Roth: young-adult author, high school literature teacher and all-around good guy.

Other than the book-jacket tease about two friends swiping a drowned teen’s ashes to spread as she would have wished, and that the personas of the three main characters are based on Romantic poets Byron, Keats, Shelley and his wife Mary, I had no idea what to expect. The mention of freedom fighters and the phrase “lurid but literary,” were intriguing tidbits from the Kirkus review, but when I opened the book, I was a blank slate.

The first thing that struck me was how funny the novel is. The story is a serious one, but the way that the narrator phrases things left me rotfl. Quickly absorbed in the compelling story-line, I didn’t want to put it down while I was reading and found myself dwelling on it at odd moments after I’d finished — my favorite kind of book.

The vocabulary is enjoyably advanced, with no glaringly absent adverbs or “dumbing down” for teen readers, and I was pleased in four cases to expand my own command of the language. (It must be confessed that I’m still wondering what a “stinky pinky” is, but am pretty sure that I don’t really want to know.)

So Shelly is not for the callow, with topics such as incest (involuntary and otherwise), teen pregnancy, abortion, sexual abuse and graphic violence (not necessarily in that order). Although frequently cringe-worthy, none of it is gratuitous in nature. Some reviewers have recommended the book for ages fourteen and up, but Ty himself has said that sixteen and older is the intended readership, and I wouldn’t disagree.

Ty has mentioned a few times on his blog and in interviews that future titles might be set in the same Lake Erie locale, with a focus on minor characters from So Shelly. If so, the one I hope to see more of is Tammy Jo Hogg, the overweight but pretty girl with the good PR skills who was used and abused by Gordon. (Well, really, who wasn’t?) I want her to grow up, become successful and then leave Gordon with the broken heart.

My only concern with the novel is what seemed to be a somewhat casual view of suicide. At the time of our interview, Ty was confident that modern teens are sophisticated enough to deal with the content of the book, and that to think otherwise is an insult to the reader. I hope he’s right. Other than that, great book.

Layinda’s Blog Rating: ¶¶¶¶(But only because I’m saving the 5 for Jim and Jack. 😉 )

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Note: Although I am acquainted with Mr. Roth, this is an unsolicited review, and I paid for my own copy of So Shelly. Actually, two copies. Unwilling to sully my signed-by-the-author first edition, I also purchased the Kindle version.

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February 13, 2011 · 8:47 pm

Great Book, Great Party, Great Time

So Shelly

Ty Roth’s debut YA novel, So Shelly, hit the shelves on Tuesday. I haven’t gotten a chance to read more than the first pages of my (pre-ordered) copy from Amazon, but if the buzz online is any indication, it will be worth the wait.

Last Easter, I had the good fortune to notice a local newspaper article about Ty’s then-recent publishing deal, and invited him to do an interview for my blog. He graciously accepted, and the result was my most-popular-to-date post, Great Guy, Great Book, Great Advice (parts 1 and 2). Recently, Ty sent me an invitation to Friday night’s launch party for So Shelly, which I graciously accepted. (Well, graciously might be an overstatement, as it was “regrets only,” but I was really excited to be invited.)

 

Anyway, about the party:

First of all, never ask your eighty-year-old father for directions. The event began at seven, but I didn’t get there until about 8:10 because I got caught in a maze of darkened and somewhat bluesy side streets that Dad had forgotten to mention during the litany of underpasses and McDonalds he’d said would mark my way. After a less than informative call to him on my dying cell phone, I finally stopped at a restaurant where a kindly waitress pointed me in the right direction.

I arrived not long after Ty finished up a great speech that had lasted for about forty minutes. (This according to my husband, who had come straight from work and was waiting for me in the yacht club’s foyer the whole time.)

As I deposited my coat in the coat room, I noticed that the place was packed, the main room darkened, with dramatic music washing over the crowd in waves. In response to my raised eyebrows, my husband (let’s call him Tim) helpfully informed me that there was some form of entertainment going on.

Ty was standing just inside the doorway, but was engrossed in whatever the attraction was, so we squeezed as unobtrusively as we could into the room behind him to find a good spot to check out the action.

“Would you like some wine or something?” Tim had apparently also had time to scope out the place during his wait, knowing the exact location of both bar and buffet. I nodded and peered between the heads of the people in front of me to see what was going on.

A spotlight shone on an artist who was furiously rendering a large colored-chalk interpretation of So Shelly’s cover. Gypsum dust swirled like lake mist in the beam of light as the artist added depth and shadow to rocks and created a lighthouse out of thin air. The guests oohed and aahed as the scene morphed into a view of Shelly’s silhouette on the pier, and then special effect lighting flashed a beacon of impending doom. It really was impressive. Different gels changed the palette from light to dark, and the mood went from intense to lighthearted as images of Ty in earlier years were superimposed over it. The performance ended to hearty applause a few moments later.

Once the lights were up, people swarmed the bar and Tim pointed out a table with nearly depleted stacks of So Shelly. My copy from Amazon was safely in my purse, but I snagged two of the complimentary bookmarks before the man in charge put everything away.

After cruising the buffet, our plates loaded with assorted appetizers including teriyaki chicken kabobs, Swedish meatballs, raw veggies and dip, we found a side room with a few open tables and sat down to stuff our faces. At each of our places was a CD tied with a black ribbon, a So Shelly mix tape.

I’m not sure if the songs are significant in the book, or if the music was inspirational while Ty wrote, but the list is a good one, including classics by REM and Journey as well as more contemporary tunes by Better Than Ezra and 30 Seconds to Mars. At the event itself, there was a two piece band (that somehow sounded at times like a four piece band), and I wondered if some of their playlist might be the same. I added the disks to my purse — one for posterity, the other to listen to in the car.

As Tim enjoyed a second helping of chicken, I scouted the dessert tables and saw two cakes being served, one chocolate and one vanilla, both with white frosting. Charmed to see that each had a sugar image of the So Shelly cover on top, which had been moved away from the area being cut, I had an errant desire to roll one up and stick it into my purse along with the CDs, but maturely chose to take a photo of it, instead.

Nearby was a table overflowing with fresh fruit that surrounded a large bowl of creamy white dip, which was delicious. Two trips were sufficient to ease my sweet tooth, and then, camera in hand, I took a few more snaps of the festivities, including a long view of Ty signing books and a shot of the chalk drawing and it’s artist, which became part of a silent auction benefitting Sandusky Artisans.

It occurred to me that my husband might be getting pretty bored sitting alone at our table, but when I returned to it, I found him engrossed in So Shelly (which is quite an endorsement, because Tim NEVER reads fiction).

A crowd of well-wishers surrounded Ty all evening, but I eventually decided to brave the line and ended up having a very pleasant conversation with a man who informed me he that he had been Ty’s principal. When I inquired if he meant when Ty was a student, or as a teacher, he replied that in a way, it was both. He’d been the principal of the school Ty attended as a youth, and then had gone on to become superintendent of the system that hired Ty out of college.

Finally, it was my turn, and Ty was just as friendly and genuine as I remembered. Signing my book, he confided that he’s not wild about that part of the job, but it can’t be because he doesn’t know what to say – mine was perfect.

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April 16, 2010 · 9:38 am

Great Guy, Great Book, Great Advice: Part 2

When Ty Roth started to query his fourth manuscript, So Shelly, he wasn’t expecting instant success. He’d been writing for five years, and had queried three previous novels without securing an agent. The third had gotten close, generating requests for six fulls, but nothing had come of it. 

In August 2009, Ty joined AQConnect to utilize their agent database. Ten queries later, he had an agent. Only 2% of querying writers will actually land an agent, and only fifty percent of those writers will ever be published, but just a few weeks after getting repped, Ty beat the odds again. His agent contacted several publishers about the manuscript, and all but one wanted to look at it. There ended up being so much interest that his agent thought they would need to have an auction. Then Random House (Delacorte Press) made him an offer he couldn’t refuse, and in September, Ty ended up with a two book deal and a healthy advance.

So Shelly will be available at bookstores in February, 2011. Although considered the ‘off season,’ (the holidays and summer being the peak times for blockbuster releases), late winter is actually a good time for an author to debut. There is only so much space devoted to reviews, and established authors are going to get the lion’s share. In February, the competition is lighter, and a book released at that time will get more attention.

Now that all of the editing has been completed, Ty is in the process of developing a webpage, has started a blog (tyroth.wordpress.com), and is working on a Facebook Fan Page. He has no plans to quit his day job as a high school literature teacher, which he loves. Being around students all day keeps him informed about the likes and dislikes of his target audience. He knows what teens are talking and thinking about, and it helps guide his writing.

Some things about Ty’s publishing journey surprised me, such as the fact that he has never met his agent or his editor in person. Other than email exchanges, he has only actually spoken with each of them three times. Also, he was able to keep his manuscript’s original title, and has had some say on the cover.

When I asked if he plans to devote any of his advance to marketing, he said that he doesn’t know yet what the publisher will provide, but he is more than willing to invest. He believed in the agenting system and the editorial system, and it served him well. He believes in the marketing system, too. “If it’s good, it will sell.” He also has confidence in word of mouth, which is highly influential in the reading choices of Young Adults.

Ty thinks that he was really lucky, but is happy to share what he may have done right. About writing a query, he says, “A good hook is crucial.” After that, “it’s all about the story.” It’s fine to briefly mention yourself, but that’s not what agents care most about. He has great faith in the querying process, generally believing that if a book is well written and interesting, an agent is going to respond. 

What Ty really wants people to know is, if it could happen to him, it could happen to anyone. He just followed protocol, and everything worked out. 

Sometimes, you just get lucky, but this time, I’d say that the system worked.

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April 14, 2010 · 8:55 pm

Great Guy, Great Book, Great Advice: Part 1

Yesterday, I had the distinct pleasure of interviewing Ty Roth, debut author of So Shelly, a novel for mature young adults, due to be released by Delacorte Press (a division of Random House) in February of 2011.

So Shelly is based on the actual lives and personalities of romantic poets Lord Byron, John Keats, Percy Shelley and his wife Mary (author of Frankenstein). The twist is that in So Shelly, they are all modern day teenagers, and the title character, Shelly, is a feminine compilation of Mary and Percy. Although the setting is completely different, the author has taken pains to bring facts to the fore, incorporating actual events from the lives of the poets into their modern day counterparts’. 

The action begins with Shelly’s death, and the theft by her friends of her ashes. The story goes “back and forth” between the present and the recent past, shedding light on what brought the characters to this point.

“Entertaining” and “sexy” are adjectives used by in-house readers to describe the story, and after some consideration, that’s okay with Ty. (See Ty’s blog post to read his perspective on including sex in YA novels.)

When asked about his writing process, Ty says that he always starts his books knowing the beginning and the end. Then he writes his way through, always keeping in mind where the plot is headed. He writes in short spurts, 45 minutes or so at a time, and likes to “layer” his themes.

I asked him what writing manuals he uses, if any. Ty said that he owns Elmore Leonard’s 10 Rules of Writing, which he likes a lot, but he was quick to mention that he doesn’t only use “said” for his dialogue tags. He refers to “The Rules” as a guideline, but he’s not afraid to go with whatever seems right at the time. How does he feel about adverbs? “I tell my students that adjectives and adverbs are like salt and pepper. If  you don’t use them, your story will be bland, but too much isn’t good, either.” 

As for developing a network from which to glean writerly advice, he didn’t. Although Ty joined AQConnect to get the benefit of the agent database, he never actually posted anything on the forum. He didn’t have any critique partners, either. In fact, he says that he has never even printed his manuscript out, and no one besides himself (other than people at the literary agency and the editors) has read it to this day, not even his wife.

Contrary to popular writing-forum wisdom, he doesn’t feel that having a perfectly polished manuscript is as important as some people seem to think. He describes his completed manuscript as “rough.” It’s important to make one’s work presentable, but “having a great hook” is really the key. “It’s the story.” Even the most flawless manuscript is going to go through several edits with the publisher, and Ty thinks that every author is going to have a better product by the end of it, no matter how perfect he/she thought it was.

When I asked if it was painful to go through editing, he told me that he did have to part with a few of his darlings, but he didn’t make the mistake of thinking that the manuscript was “his baby.” He had faith in the editing process, and heeded almost all of their “suggestions.” “They know what they’re doing,” he said.


Tomorrow: Great Guy, Great Story, Great Advice Part 2: How Ty got an agent and landed a healthy publishing contract for a two book deal.

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