Children's Books: An Angelic Autumn by Karen Springen from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Like modern vampires, they can be gorgeous, immortal and otherworldly heartthrobs...' said Justin Chanda, v-p and publisher of Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers, who calls angels 'safe gothic' and 'romantic.'" Note: My Gothic fantasy universe features arch and guardian angels, vampires, shapeshifters, and ghosts. It includes Tantalize (2007), Eternal (2009), and Blessed (2011)(all Candlewick) and two short stories--"Haunted Love" from Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, edited by P.C. Cast (BenBella, 2008) and "Cat Calls" from Sideshow: Ten Original Dark Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical, edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick, 2009).Course Corrections by Kristi Holl at Writers First Aid. Peek: "What does the moon mission have to do with writing? Well, I was looking at my yearly goals over the weekend, and like the Apollo mission, my trajectory is off course-and has been most of the year." See also Kristi on Hardiness.
4 Stages of Character Development from Darcy Pattison at Fiction Notes. Peek: "Do your characters progress through similar stages? Blurry, confusing, deeper, inconsistent, exactly what I envisioned." Read a Cynsations interview with Darcy.
Getting an Idea for a Novel from Elizabeth Holmes from Crowe's Nest: An Agent and Her List Discuss Books, Publishing and Beyond. Peek: "An idea is a very personal thing. Before it can become a real, whole, completed, beautiful entity—novel, poem, whatever—it has to be nurtured, often for a very long time. And that takes love."
Of Dogs and Writing--Curb Your Enthusiasm by Susan Taylor Brown. Peek: "The children's publishing world is a small one. People move around all the time. Writers become editors and editors become agents and you never know who you will meet that will help you grow." Note: when in doubt, err on the side of graciousness and forgiveness. Everyone has the occasional bad day.
See the video below for the Tu Publishing Kickstarter Fund-raising Project. Peek: "Tu Publishing is a woman-owned small press start-up that believes in the power of books to change lives. Children's books, especially, have the ability to inform, inspire, and entertain in a way that few mediums can. Tu Publishing is dedicated to publishing fantasy, science fiction, mystery, and historical fiction for children and young adults inspired by many cultures from around the world... To be able to achieve that goal, we need to raise enough money to fund the acquisition, production, marketing, and distribution of our first two books, for which we hope--with your help--to begin acquiring in January 2010. With your help, we can make this happen. Whether or not you can donate, I'd love to see people, especially teen readers/non-readers, share their own video or blog responses to this video..." Learn more at Tu Publishing and Stacy Whitman's Grimoire: Thoughts on writing, editing, and publishing books for children and young adults.
Examining Narrative Arcs by Stephanie Greene from Through the Tollbooth. Peek: "My point is that as I was trying to think about how to talk more clearly about narrative arcs, I decided to ask the class to read several books so we can diagram their arcs and talk about them together. They needed to be short so that everyone could read them in a week."
Giveaway
Enter to win a contributor-signed copy of Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci (Little, Brown, 2009)! My short story, "The Wrath of Dawn," co-authored by Greg Leitich Smith, is included in the collection, and we are happy to sign and personalize the book, if the winner so desires. To enter this giveaway, email me (scroll and click envelope) with your name and snail/street mail address and type "Geektastic" in the subject line (Facebook, JacketFlap, and MySpace readers are welcome to just message me with the name in the header). Deadline: Sept. 30.
