Feast of Fools: The Morganville Vampires (Book Four) by Rachel Caine (NAL/ Jam, 2008)(sample chapter) goes on sale next week. To enter to win a copy of the book, email me with your name and snail/street mail address by midnight CST June 3! Please also type "Morganville Vampires" in the subject line. Read Rachel's LJ, visit her page at MySpace. Read a Cynsations interview with Rachel. Peek: "Read the classics. Don't just read what's out now, go back and see what used to interest (or scare) people. Some of it's still scary, some isn't."The Comic Book Legal Defense Fund: fights censorship and defends First Amendment rights of comic book professionals.
John Michael Cummings: official site of the debut author of The Night I Freed John Brown (Philomel, 2008). Includes biography, published works, and contact information. See also JMC Notes, John's blog. From the promotional copy: "Young Josh knows there is something about the tall Victorian House on the Harpers Ferry Hill, the one his father grew up in, that he can't quite put his finger on—ghosts he can't name, mysteries he can't solve. And his impossible father won’t give him any clues. He's hiding something. And then there's the famous John Brown. The one who all the tourists come to hear about. The one whose statue looms over Josh's house. Why does he seem to haunt Josh and his whole family? When the fancy Richmonds come to town and move right next door, their presence forces Josh to find the answers and stand up to the secrets of the House, to his father—and to John Brown, too! The historic village of Harpers Ferry comes alive in this young boy's brave search for answers and a place of his own in this brilliant first novel by John Michael Cummings."
"To celebrate the release of Up All Night by Peter Abrams (HarperTeen, 2008), an anthology containing short stories by Peter Abrahams, Libba Bray (author inteview), David Levithan (author interview), Patricia McCormick, Sarah Weeks, and Gene Luen Yang], HarperTeen is offering aspiring authors the chance to write their own story to be included in the paperback edition. Submit an original short story about a character that stays up all night. The story must take place in the course of a single life-changing night. All stories must be between 5,000 and 10,000 words (12 pt font, double spaced, one inch margins) and all contributing entrants must be between 14 and 19 years old as of April 2, 2008. Download the official entry form (PDF). Entries must be postmarked by October 1st and received by October 7th." Source: readergirlz.
Question of the Week Thursday: Lisa McMann from Robin Friedman's JerseyFresh Tude. Robin asks: "Did your publishing experience turn out as you expected?" Peek: "Like any new author knows, there are thousands of new books coming out every month and publishing houses have a lot of authors to tend to. So I knew that if I wanted Wake to get attention, I had to help make it happen."The Horn Book Magazine has revised the order in which it lists the books in C. S. Lewis' The Chronicles of Narnia. Read a Cynsations interview with Roger Sutton, editor of The Horn Book. See the preceding conversation.
Looking "Underneath" the Imagination Process of Kathi Appelt, author of The Underneath (Atheneum, 2008) from Lynn E. Hazen at Imaginary Blog. Peek: "For me, the key has always been faith. I simply have faith that if I sit there long enough, the words will come to me. But I've also learned (the hard way) that the words that come aren’t always beautiful and lyrical and all of that. That falls into that category called revision. So, I'm gentle with myself in a number of ways." Read Cynsations interviews with Kathi and Lynn.
Check out Rogelia's House of Magic by Jamie Martinez Wood (Delacorte, 2008).
