The #PitchPlus5 contest officially opens for submissions at 9:00 AM Eastern today, but remember there’s a second submission window at 9:00 PM Eastern to make it fair across multiple time zones. So get your manuscripts in. We’re taking a total of 50 entries, and you won’t believe the amazing lineup of seven agents, ten authors, and ten bloggers. Plus you get feedback at every stage!


See here for details!


And good luck!


Martina, Lisa, Alyssa, Jan, Katharyn, and Clara

Hey everyone! Clara Kensie here. A few times a month at Adventures in YA Publishing, I post a question for you and the Adventures in YA team to answer. The questions cover all topics important to writers and book lovers: craft, career, reading, books, and more. Join the discussion!

Question of the Week:

What does your writing space look like?

Source: David Goering https://flic.kr/p/6f3qGz

Lisa Green: Ha! I USED to have an awesome study with a desk and a view. Then I had our third child. Now my study belongs to my son and my workspace is wherever I can stick my laptop when number three isn’t looking!!!

Clara Kensie: I do some of my writing at the coffee shop or in a study room at my library. But I write at

Clara’s tiny, tiny writing space

home a lot, too. I don’t have a lot of private, quiet places in my house, so I put a tiny, tiny desk in our guest bedroom, in front of a mural of a bookcase. I used to paint murals professionally, and years ago, I cozied up our plain guest bedroom by painting a whimsical, cartoon-y bookcase, fireplace, grandfather clock, and window looking out onto a field of wildflowers. The walls are my favorite color, periwinkle. There is recessed lighting in the ceiling, and the light bulbs turn on and off at will. We can’t figure out what’s causing it, but I really, really hope it’s a ghost. I love the room as a guest room, but as a writing space, it’s far from ideal. One day, I plan to paint over the murals and get a big L-shaped desk, and convert our guest bedroom into my dedicated writing space. Sorry, folks: if any of you are ever an overnight guest in my house, you’ll have to sleep on the couch downstairs. The ghost will stay in my office, I promise.

Martina’s glamorous writing space

Martina Boone: So here’s my messy office. Orchid collection is on the back credenza, my stack of stuff to mail out for the blog, the green frog microwave heating pad Jan sent me for when my fingers get too numb to type, my hunk of magnetite lodestone sitting on top of a book I’m reading and a bound copy of the 2nd pass pages for Compulsion, a thesaurus dictionary to hit the fine nuances of different words, and a folklore and mythology dictionary, which is my go to for thinking through ideas. (I can also derail myself in there by getting lost of days and days and days.) An antique blue willow bowl filled with cranberry potpourri, and the books coming up on my reading list, including: Lux: Opposition by Jennifer L. Armentrout, and I’ll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. Oh, and Auggie. My loyal and impatient writing buddy. (Zoe, the cat, is on the armchair to my right as I’m taking this picture so she’s invisible.

Erin’s kitchen writing space

Erin Cashman: I don’t have a dedicated office for writing. I have 4 spots in the house, depending on if my children are home and being loud, but my favorite spot is spread out on the kitchen island with tea and chocolate (if I have no good chocolate, Ghiradelli milk chocolate chips and/or Nutella from the jar both do nicely!) I always have a binder dedicated to my WIP – including character sketches, maps, rough chapter outlines and my brainstorming notes. If I’m revising, I also have a green binder that has words/phrases/expressions/setting descriptions that I can look at when I realize I have written the same expression too much, or something that is cliche. If I’ve made a story poster for that WIP I have that too, with pictures of the main characters and settings cut out from magazines, and for my current WIP, two books on Celtic myths and legends (and my golden retriever Riley, is always curled up at my feet!)

Katharyn’s kitty, Kurosawa!

Katharyn Sinelli: I often write on my bed even though I have a desk in my room. I have to make the bed first so I don’t nap. My husband bought me this nifty lap desk and armrest pillow so I snuggle in and type. Kurosawa, my grey tabby, usually accompanies me. Fortunately, his critiques are generally supportive.

YOUR TURN: What does your writing space look like? Describe it for us!