Amazing News! In celebration of 10 years of www.cynthialeitichsmith.com, the lovely Angela L. Fox is sponsoring a giveaway at Pickled Pixel Toe.Enter to win a T-shirt!
Here's how: go to one of the following categories: The Muses (see design sample); The Inner Critics; or Writing, Illustrating, and Conference.
Pick a T-shirt design. Then email me (scroll and click on the envelope) with your design choice, the color you prefer, your shirt size, your name, and your snail/street mail address by 10 p.m. CST Sept. 22! OR, if you're on MySpace or Facebook, you can message me on that network by 10 p.m. CST Sept. 22! But DON'T send in your contact information on MySpace or Facebook. I'll contact you for it if you win.
REMINDER: Enter to win one of four ARCs of Dead is the New Black by Marlene Perez (Harcourt, 2008)! To enter the giveaway, email me (scroll and click on the envelope) with your name and snail/street mail address by 10 p.m. CST Sept. 15! OR, if you're on MySpace or Facebook, you can message me on that network by 10 p.m. CST Sept. 15! But DON'T send in your contact information on MySpace or Facebook. I'll contact you for it if you win.One ARC will go to a teacher, librarian, or university professor of youth literature (please indicate), two will go to any Cynsational readers, and one will go to a member of Tantalize Fans Unite! at MySpace. Please indicate status. Please also type "Dead is the New Black" in the subject line.
Winners of the ARC giveaway of The Devouring: Sorry Night by Simon Holt (Little Brown, 2008) were: Mandy in Pennsylvania; Jaden in Texas; and Kate, a teacher in Pennsylvania! UPDATE: At Blue Rose Girls, Devouring editor Alvina Ling offers an interesting look at the U.S. versus U.K. covers for this novel with related commentary.
More Giveaways
Fangtastic Contest: sponsored by author Heather Brewer. To enter, "create a piece of artwork that is a tribute to your favorite scene from any book in the Chronicles of Vladimir Tod [(Dutton, 2007-)]." From Heather: "Grand Prize: a character named after winner in the fourth Vlad Tod book, Eleventh Grade Burns (as well as your name in the book's acknowledgments), a vampire smiley t-shirt (as featured on the cover of Ninth Grade Slays), ten (10) temporary tattoos of Vlad's name in Elysian Code (his Mark), and autographed copies of Eighth Grade Bites (paperback) and Ninth Grade Slays (hardcover)." Note: there's also a spooky-cool first and second prize. See deadline and details!
Enter to win from the Texas Book Festival! Grand prize: VIP Trip for two to the Texas Book Festival in Austin from Oct. 30 to Nov. 3. Second prize: Fort Worth Arts and Culture Tour. Third prize: Barnes & Noble and BN.com Gift Basket & Gift Card. Check out the amazing details (airline tickets, spa resort, and much more)!UPDATE: authors to be featured at the 2008 festival include: Kathi Appelt; Shana Burg; Melissa de la Cruz; Heather Vogel Frederick; Shannon Hale; Varian Johnson; Laurie Keller; Christopher S. Jennings; Marisa Montes; Yuyi Morales; Lauren Myracle; Margo Rabb; Tanya Lee Stone; Philip Yates; Paula Yoo; and Jennifer Ziegler. See the complete list.
More News
Futuristic, Speculative, Science Fiction and Dystopian Fiction for Young Adults: newly updated from Jen Robinson's Book Page.
Query Letter Project from Janni Lee Simner at Desert Dispatches. Janni shares the query letter to Bones of Faerie (Random House, 2009). Note: this is part of a larger series of posts by various authors in which various they share their query letters.
Fresh New Voice of YA- Terri Clark Interview from Book Chic. Peek: "Sleepless [(HarperTeen, 2008)] came from my own fascination with dreams and a series of Denver Post articles that ran on violent criminals who pretended insanity so they would get sentenced to a mental hospital instead of jail. At some point I put the two ideas together and Sleepless was born."Cool enough for the New York Times bestseller list: an interview with Lisa McMann from Calvin College. Peek: "Some folks believe that authors who write about real issues are in fact endorsing bad behavior and teens will believe that it's okay for them to do drugs or get pregnant too because they read about it in a book. ...give yourself some credit for teaching your child morals, and more importantly, give your teen some credit—if she's reading books for fun, she's not a dunderhead."
'Potter' Author Wins Copyright Ruling by The Associated Press from The New York Times. Peek: "The author of the Harry Potter series, J. K. Rowling, has won her claim that a fan violated her copyright with his plans to publish a Potter encyclopedia." Source: The Horn Book.
Imaginary Friends: You're Never Quite Alone with this Accomplished Artist and Storyteller: an article about Tony DiTerlizzi from Mary Engelbreit's Home Companion. Peek: "What I’ve found to be crucial is something that no one teaches in art school. Learning your craft and creating a good story is certainly half of your challenge, but a big portion of your success has to do with your people skills."
Heinlein's Fan Mail Solution from Conceptual Trends and Current Topics. Peek: "In the days before the Internet, Heinlein's solution was fabulous. He created a one page FAQ answer sheet--minus the questions. Then he, or rather his wife Ginny, checked off the appropriate answer and mailed it back." Source: Editorial Ass.
Censorship and The Right to Read from my main site. Note: feel free to suggest a resource. I'm going to feature the various pages from CYALR in order for the next several weeks and request link submissions. Note: ALA Banned Books Week: Celebrating the Freedom to Read is Sept. 27 to Oct. 4.
Writers and Depression by Nancy Etchemendy from the Horror Writers Association. A frank discussion of warning signs and why writers are so vulnerable. Be good to each other out there. Take care of yourselves. Note: I run this link a couple of times a year.
Check out the book trailer for Skinned by Robin Wasserman (Simon Pulse, 2008):
Mark Your Calendars
YA Author Justine Larbalestier is touring in celebration of her wonderful new novel How To Ditch Your Fairy (Bloomsbury, 2008)!
From Scott Westerfeld: "Next week, she'll be in northern California, then doing a couple of dates near home. In October, she'll be in Ohio and Michigan, and in Texas for November. (I'll be traveling with her some of the time, and maybe popping in to say 'hi' in a few places, but this is her tour, not mine. I will be officially appearing at BookPeople in Austin, though...)." UPDATE: see Justine's page for the latest additions/corrections/changes!
See the schedule for details.
Note: I want a doubles-my-writing-time fairy.
Online Events
Reminder: I'll be appearing twice to discuss Tantalize and related forthcoming books in October on the Eye4You Alliance Island at Second Life. From School Library Journal: "There will be two appearances, the first on the main grid of Second Life (for those 18 and over) on Oct. 14, and again on Oct. 28 on the teen grid of Teen Second." See more information.
More Personally
I thought y'all might enjoy seeing the gorgeous roses Greg sent in celebration of our 14th wedding anniversary, which was last week!
This week has been a quiet one, largely spent revising my graphic novel adaptation of Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007, 2008). It's told from Kieren's point of view and includes many new scenes.
My thoughts also have been with the victims of 9-11, their surviving loved ones, and others affected by the tragedy.
Austin SCBWI's Day with an Editor, scheduled for Sept. 13, has been postponed due to Hurricane Ike. I'll keep y'all posted on that.
To folks from Houston-Galveston and surrounding areas, stay safe! To the evacuees headed this way (or already here), welcome to Austin! Note: for Saturday, according to News 8, we're expecting "wind gusts up to 25-40 mph by noon" and "briefly heavy rain bands, mostly east of I-35."
Thanks so much to everyone who sent cheers regarding the 10th anniversary of www.cynthialeitichsmith.com, and a special thanks to author Kimberly Griffiths Little, who blogged about it, to author Sara Zarr, who blogged about it, to illustrator Gail Maki Wilson, who blogged about it, and to author-illustrator Don Tate, who blogged about it, too! Note: if I missed your cheers, please send the URL!
Thank you to Debbi Michiko Florence for highlighting the Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007, 2008) sighting at her local Borders! Read a Cynsations interview with Debbi.
