Teach Me (to write like you) -- Eve

I just finished reading Teach Me by R.A. Nelson, and I need to just say, WOW! It’s an extraordinary exploration of how obsessive love affects the teen psyche and how arrested development affects the adult psyche. The second I put the book down, I emailed R.A, thinking he was a woman, don’t know why. Maybe because he seemed so cozy inside Carolina’s head, so at ease, so…girly. Turns out, he’s a guy, like a manly-guy, who’s like a rocket scientist or something at NASA. Man, that dude seriously scored in the talent genes department. I want to be him in my next life.

What I love most about Teach Me:

• It’s intelligent and profound without being pretentious.
• Nailed the yearning, angsty teen girl perfectly.
• Infuses science in a natural and compelling way.
• Language is poetic and pretty without being flowery or contrived.
• The suspense captured me from the first sentence and I could not put the book down or exhale until the final sentence.
• Funny, funny, funny! Teen funny, not too grown-up funny. (Beezle-Bob. They call their boss at “The Ground-Up Cow Face Burgers” Beezle-Bob. Hilarious!)
• Easy to read. There’s not one unnecessary word in the entire 264 pages.
• Kid-friendly, kid-friendly, kid-friendly. The teens speak like teens, act like teens, and have real teen emotions.
• Symbolism at every turn, but effortless, natural, not hit-you-over-the-head metaphors.

When I first heard about the book, I was concerned that a “passionate romance between student and teacher” would boil down to a yucky soft-soft-core porn blend of Lolita, Wild Things and the Mary Kay Letourneau story. Fortunately, it was neither yucky nor soft-soft-core porn-y. In fact, the relationship seemed quite tender and natural. At first. Then, of course, it turns into something else completely.

Teach Me is my new go-to book for learning how to write effectively. Talk about power-verbs and avoiding adjectives and adverbs to pump up descriptions! Geez! The man is a genius. When I wrote to him, my first question was, “How on earth did you learn to write like this?” His answer: Nothing. Nada. He never wrote back. Seems that R.A. is keeping his secret safely locked up somewhere at NASA. Probably in the same vault clutching all the mysteries of the universe, like what the alien autopsies revealed and which planets have intelligent life.

Ironically, I just got word that Jay will be speaking with my new literary crush next weekend at the Alabama Book Festival!!! Guess Jay will have to liquor the guy up with pink drinks until he spills all his writing secrets (and, of course, everything he knows about aliens, too).

- Eve