The Texas Book Festival, which will take place Oct. 31 and Nov. 1 in Austin, has announced its slate of featured authors for 2009!Featured children's-YA authors include: Jessica Lee Anderson, Libba Bray, Janie Bynum, Kristin Cast, P.C. Cast, Rosemary Clement-Moore, Keith Graves, Heather Hepler, K.A. Holt, Jacqueline Kelly, Rick Riordan, Benjamin Alire Saenz, Rene Saldana, Jr., Tammi Sauer, Liz Garton Scanlon, Anita Silvey, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Samantha R. Vamos, Rosemary Wells, Kathy Whitehead, Mo Willems, and Sara Zarr. See the whole list!
Read what TBF has to say about my own featured book, Eternal (Candlewick, 2009)! Peek: "Smith's humor is in the details: an angel offers Yahoo maps as a directional aide, Dracula purchases a coffin for a reduced rate online, and Zachary gets a tattoo of a cherub on his chest while intoxicated in Austin." Read the whole recommendation.
More News
Back-to-School "Jewels" Giveaway: enter to win The Amethyst Road by Louise Spiegler (Clarion, 2005) and an ARC of The Navel of the World: The Forgotten Worlds Book 2 by P.J. Hoover (CBAY, 2009) from The Spectacle. Peek: "To enter, leave a comment on this post with your favorite thing about fall. If you can tie it to a book, so much better." Winner posted Sept. 21. Read a Cynsations interview with P.J."Deus ex Machina and Foreshadowing: Advice for Writers" by Jo Whittemore from The Spectacle. Peek: "When your reader gets to the point where the main character resolves the conflict, it must be believable. To make it believable, you must have left an impression in the reader's mind that such an event was bound to happen based on the events that preceded it." Read a Cynsations interview with Jo.
Contests: enter to win book giveaways from TeensReadToo. You can enter to win copies of Me, My Elf and I by Heather Swain (Speak, 2009), and more!
A Short Interview with Hope Larson about Editing from Dash Shaw at Comics Comics. Peek: "As for my editors being used to working on all-word books, most of them have been comics fans, and most of them have worked on picture books. It hasn't been a completely new language to them, for which I'm grateful." See also "Editor speaks: 'I yam what I yam" from Calista Brill at First Second Books--Doodles and Dailies. Source: Children's Book Biz News."Boost Your Writing Time Budget" by Sheila Wipperman from the Institute of Children's Literature. Peek: "...as a writer, I have found ways to maximize the time that is available to get down and write. Here are some tips you can use to take advantage of even the busiest moments in your life. "
Screening Room
A challenge: World's Longest Domino Rally with Children's Books. A World Record? Probably. from HarperCollins UK. Source: Alvina Ling.
More Personally
I'm happy to report that the Blessed (Candlewick, spring 2011) manuscript arrived on my Candlewick editor's desk this week!Blessed crosses over the casts of Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007) and Eternal (Candlewick, 2009), picking up at the end of Tantalize with Quincie at Sanguini's.
In the meantime, I'm catching up on everything that was put on hold while the manuscript was in its last stages of this draft. That includes sending out interview questions and formatting responses for Cynsations, sending updates for the main site to my web goddess (Lisa Firke of Hit Those Keys), critiquing manuscripts for a local pal, catching up on correspondence, etc. Long days, but it's nice to check to-dos off the list.
Amidst all of that, I took a look at my 2009-2010 speaking schedule, and--wow!--it's packed. However, I'm now open to 2010-2011 invitations. See contact information.
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.
