Just wondering what everyone is tired of seeing in urban fantasy (both for adults and young adults)?

I'm pretty certain that the word "vampire" is going to come up, so I'm going to put it out there first. I think a lot of people are tired of vampires and vampire romances.

Surfing through the internet I find that many people are not fans of the "Oh, I'm so plain and boring, but yet everybody loves me and thinks I'm beautiful" heroine, or the "Gosh, I'm really good looking and the author spends five pages out of every ten showing just how gorgeous I am" hero.

But anyway, what are your pet peeve hate UF cliches, and have you ever been pleasantly surprised by someone who took something you thought was way cliche and made it fresh and interesting?

i've just been randomly googling some of my favorite and some other popular authors, and all (and I do mean ALL) of them have either an English degree or some sort of English related degree.

JRR Tolkien (well, duh)
Jk Rowling-BA in French and Classics
Cassandra Clare
Susan Cooper (The Dark is Rising)
Jim Butcher
Stephenie Meyer
Melissa Marr
Stephen King
Simon R Green

And that's just for starters. Am I missing something here? Is an English degree a "must" for an author? Or is it more that people who love to read/write often go on to study English?

I'd better start by saying that I'm not planning to actually make or use or do anything remotely bomb related with the information gathered here (nowadays, the question, "do you know how to make a bomb" can trigger some strange and extreme reactions... , so I thought I'd better make that clear from the start....)

Anyways, I've got a scene in my YA work that requires some description of the making of a bomb. The main character is a high school student, so the main ingredients of said bomb would have to be household items and stuff he might be able to borrow (aka steal) from his high school chem lab. The bomb made is meant to make a loud noise rather than cause real damage (it's going to be used as a distraction tool more than anything else).

It's got to be something that can be remotely triggered as well, for various plot reasons. I seem to remember from watching cop shows that now it's possible to trigger a bomb with something like a cell phone? Or is that a misconception?

Does anyone know something of this craft? I don't need a recipe, just some keywords that would help the description.

Thanks! 

In all of the "craft" books i've read, conflict seems to be the number one rule of any book. My problem is that I'm not quite sure how I would define "conflict" as such. There are examples in the books, but some of them are confusing.

Would a fight with a friend be conflict? Would giving someone the cold shoulder be conflict? Is holding a gun to someone's head conflict? Is there some kind of conflict that does not include weapons and/or fighting?

Often when I'm writing I don't think of conflict first. I write out the scene as it plays in my head and then sort of go back and try to find the conflict (this is pretty much the method of the detective who thinks he knows who the murderer is, finding clues to said person's guilt in every shadow and speck of dust: I really have no idea if what I call conflict is really conflict or just me thinking it's conflict)

This brings me a bit to scenes and sequels (Hello, JB!) I don't think of my stories in terms of scenes and sequels either. I don't, for example, think: someone crashed into Harry's car just as he was running away from the cops<end of scene--(denied!!), start of sequel> Harry felt shock jolt through his body as he began to feel pain in his head <emotion part of sequel>...<reasoning part of sequel>....etc etc. I usually just think, "someone hit his car, and he felt shocked, and then he realized he still had to run from the police" without all the <> bits.

Is there something I should change with my story thinking process? Any tips or advice?

I'm working on an urban fantasy with wizards, where the ability of magic is passed on from wizard to wizard (think JB's summer/winter knights method of passing on power), and I've been writing the story with everyone using wands, for no particular reason I can remember, but I guess it must have made sense at the time.

Now I've had time to read back, I wonder if wands are too Harry Potterish? Should I go for a different item to focus power? A staff or chains or something like that for example? Or should I skip the item altogether and just let them have fireballs in their hands or do what they did on Charmed?

Any thoughts, advice, or personal preferences?

I'm writing a story about a shapeshifter who is genderless but can take on the shapes of men and women as he/she/it chooses. I've been using the pronoun it to refer to the shapeshifter, but I was wondering if this is a good idea? Should I stick to it, or use he and she  as the shapeshifter's outer shape changes?

So...I'm working on a sci-fi tale at the moment, and it's set in San Francisco (why set it in a city I have never been to? No idea. But Muse says San Francisco, and when Muse talks, I do )

I'm hoping that someone who lives in the city or has been there many times can help me out with this. My questions are:

1) which area of San Fran would clubs (night clubs) be likely to be located in?

2) which is an area where the poorer people live (one of the characters is unemployed, where would he be likely to live?)

3) which is an area that you would NEVER walk through after dark, even if someone PAID you, because chances are you would get mugged. And re-mugged. And maybe mugged some more. Like rough neighborhoods are what I'm after.

4) which is a more suburban-y place where you see nice houses with four floors and an attic, and a nice front yard, and driveway and all. I'm hoping for somewhere slightly secluded, too. Don't worry about the price range--the characters are rich, they can afford it

5) a nice coffee shop that most people would know and go to (and please not $tarbucks. Please)

6) a mall or shopping area located close to the place where the poorer people live (I know, why would someone build a mall near people who don't have the cash to buy stuff? But just close-ish would be good enough. Maybe biking distance?)

7) and, not really a location question, more of a culture question--is Wiccan/magic type of stuff widely accepted in San Francisco?

I know that's a lot of questions!! It would be cool if you could answer just one; you don't have to answer all of them in one go!!

Deepest thanks in advance to anyone who can help ^^