April 2010

Here's a great article by Kate Pullinger on the needs of writers that should be kept in mind as changes occur the publishing industry. And it's a measure of the way that those needs have been squeezed so far that it almost comes as a (ridiculous) shock to find her making such a statement of requirements.

So do me a favor today.Read Deb Heiligman's post about the LA Times Book Prize and Festival & the power of childrens' literature and missing her mom.Deb is one of my bestest friends, which means I am now going to call and yell at her and thank her in the same breath for making me cry.It might be one of the best blog posts of the year.::reaches for hankie and phone::

This week, the Christian Fiction Blog Alliance is introducing Spring's Renewal Avon Inspire (April 2010) by Shelley Shepherd Gray ABOUT THE AUTHOR:Since 2000, Shelley Sabga has sold twenty-six novels to numerous publishers. She has written a seven book contemporary series for Avalon books. She also published The Love Letter, a western for Avalon. Five Star Expressions published Suddenly, You in February of 2007. This novel is a historical western set in the mountains of Colorado. Shelley has written nine novels for Harlequin American Romance. Cinderella Christmas, her first novel with them, reached number six on the Waldenbooks Bestseller list. Her second book with them, Simple Gifts won RT Magazine’s Reviewer’s Choice award for best Harlequin American Romance of 2006. The Mommy Bride, was chosen by ...

Arrival
Hillary and I arrived at the Provo Marriott on Friday morning, relieved to find a parking space on the top level of the parking garage. The rain was steady and that particular level was exposed to the elements, but even sloshing through several deep puddles in sandals couldn’t dampen my excitement. (Sorry, couldn’t help myself.)
As soon as we entered the front lobby, we could feel the energy surging through the hotel. Hillary and I made our way to registration through a crowd of faces; some were familiar and greeted with an ecstatic “Hi!”; others were unfamiliar, though they wouldn’t remain that way for long.
Welcome and Introduction
I was amazed at how packed the ballroom was as I made my way to the table where Hillary was waiting for me. We flipped through the binders discovered in the handy green bags provided for us, marking the classes we wanted to take and reading syllabuses.

While we waited for the conference to begin, Hillary and I traded cards with the other ladies on our table. We all introduced ourselves and I realized that sitting next to Hillary was Paulette Inman from Pendragon’s Book Bi...

Don't get me wrong. As many of you know, I am, by no means, anti-e-book. I have an iTouch, and I have downloaded free e-book apps (including The Kindle) and have played around with (oh yeah, and read) them. I have discovered that I don't have much trouble reading a book on the small screen (something I had thought would be a problem), and I love the convenience of it: instant books (I have not yet paid for a single e-book, which probably is not good, since I work in publishing. This will change when Bob and I get an iPad -- we're waiting for the second generation), one small gizmo to carry around in my bag (on my last business trip, I only took one print book with me. That would have been unheard of in my pre-iTouch days), and the ability to quickly look stuff up online while reading a book, if I want (I know. I know. Many say that sort of thing is ruining the act of reading, but I do it anyway, because...well, I can. The novelty may wear off at some point). And, as I've always suspected, I was thrilled when I began reading my e-book version of Eothen, or Traces of Travel Brought Home from the East by Alexander William Kinglake (great book, by the way. Download it and read it if you've got the Kindle app), got to my first endnote, tapped on the number, an...

Spring is in the air. It’s been raining for the last several days, but it seems to be clearing up.While there hasn’t been much to post about, I’ve been quite busy behind the scenes. The nice thing about starting a new imprint is the lack of interruption. I can read and read and read without worrying about copyedits, covers, marketing meetings, and other interruptions. However, that also means my day looks the same day in and day out for right now, which is rather boring for blog consumption. And sometimes you like your day being a bit broken up. It’s great to have all this time to read, but it’s also nice to have books in various stages, allowing you to switch up your day when one thing becomes too fatiguing.So my days have mostly been read manuscript, write editorial letter, rinse, repeat. I’m slowly working my way through full manuscripts that I’ve requested, reading new partials, and hopefully working toward those first acquisitions. (By the way, if you haven’t heard back from me and have been wondering why, you’ll want to know that Lee & Low’s company policy is to only respond to submissions if we’re interested. I’m afraid the volume of submissions is such that it’s the only way ...

Spring is in the air. It’s been raining for the last several days, but it seems to be clearing up.While there hasn’t been much to post about, I’ve been quite busy behind the scenes. The nice thing about starting a new imprint is the lack of interruption. I can read and read and read without worrying about copyedits, covers, marketing meetings, and other interruptions. However, that also means my day looks the same day in and day out for right now, which is rather boring for blog consumption. And sometimes you like your day being a bit broken up. It’s great to have all this time to read, but it’s also nice to have books in various stages, allowing you to switch up your day when one thing becomes too fatiguing.So my days have mostly been read manuscript, write editorial letter, rinse, repeat. I’m slowly working my way through full manuscripts that I’ve requested, reading new partials, and hopefully working toward those first acquisitions. (By the way, if you haven’t heard back from me and have been wondering why, you’ll want to know that Lee & Low’s company policy is to only respond to submissions if we’re interested. I’m afraid the volume of submissions is such that it’s the only way ...

Spring is in the air. It’s been raining for the last several days, but it seems to be clearing up.While there hasn’t been much to post about, I’ve been quite busy behind the scenes. The nice thing about starting a new imprint is the lack of interruption. I can read and read and read without worrying about copyedits, covers, marketing meetings, and other interruptions. However, that also means my day looks the same day in and day out for right now, which is rather boring for blog consumption. And sometimes you like your day being a bit broken up. It’s great to have all this time to read, but it’s also nice to have books in various stages, allowing you to switch up your day when one thing becomes too fatiguing.So my days have mostly been read manuscript, write editorial letter, rinse, repeat. I’m slowly working my way through full manuscripts that I’ve requested, reading new partials, and hopefully working toward those first acquisitions. (By the way, if you haven’t heard back from me and have been wondering why, you’ll want to know that Lee & Low’s company policy is to only respond to submissions if we’re interested. I’m afraid the volume of submissions is such that it’s the only way ...

GUARDIAN OF THE GATE, Michelle Zink

Reading Level:              Young Adult
Hardcover:                     340 pages
Publisher:                       Little, Brown for Young Readers, 8/1/10
Bookmarks:                   4

• This book starts with a bang.  It takes place directly after the events of Prophecy of the Sisters.  Lia has traveled to England with Sonia in search for the missing pages of Book of Chaos to hopefully bring an end to a deadly prophecy that is tearing her family apart.
• From stately country manors to ethereal mystical places, Zink keeps our blood pumping with this installment.  One thing I noticed was her growth as a storyteller.  This book is tightly wound and you go though all the bumps and bruises with Lia.  Alice is a terrifying figure.  This book  is stuff of nightmares.
• You have everything in this book-- intrigue, betrayal, romance (and oh, the roman...

Uma Krishnaswami is a former child writer who now writes for children, and teaches writing in the MFA/Writing for Children and Young Adults program, Vermont College of Fine Arts.Her blog name says it all: Writing with a Broken TuskShe interviewed me.Check it out.Thanks, Uma.

~by Kage BakerKage Baker is a name in speculative fiction that I've only recently come across. I've been meaning to pick up something of hers to read for some time now, so it was fortunate for me that her novel Sky Coyote was chosen as the fourth book for the io9 book club. Sky Coyote is actually the second book in her Company series which worried me a bit at first since I haven't read the previous volume, In the Garden of Iden. However, I was able to gather that most people didn't think it was necessary to have read the first book before starting the second and that Sky Coyote can be approached as a stand-alone novel. While I generally like to read the first book in a series even in such cases, I decided to go ahead and start in with Sky Coyote.Time travel works. Granted, you can only travel between the past and the time-point of origin. And things get iffy if you try to change written history. Fortunately, there's plenty of unwritten history left to be exploited for various purposes and commercial gain. That's where the company Dr. Zeus comes in with its genetically and cybernetically enhanced race of immortals. Joseph is on of Dr. Zeus...

It is snowing outside right now.No, I'm not kidding.This is why I haven't transplanted my seedlings yet.

Title : The Laughing OnionAuthor : Arun ElasseryIllustrator : Anita VarmaPublisher : EklavyaWhat happens when a little boy of 2-1/2 years decides to replace his Naana in telling a story one night against the protests of his elder sister? What story will his innocent mind weave?A Laughing Onion that eats a Deer - becomes the first character in the story !!? Do you think this is a little confusing? So did his Naana. But the little child explains that a Laughing Onion lives in the forest and looks like a dog and says - Huh Huh Huh. Can you guess who it could be?Let me help you a little here, he meant a laughing hyena. The laughing "Onion" eats the deer. After having made his Naana and sister understand, the relieved boy moves the story forward - 'Thhen' there is a monkey who gets angry. 'Thhen' there is a bird. 'Thhen' there is an angry lion and 'Thhen' back to their home. I think you got a glimpse of the flight of the budding story teller's mind.While reading this book, I was reminded of the phase when my kids had their unique nomenclature for some things and we used to wonder how on earth do they relate the seemingly unrelated words to those thin...

, by recovering Christian Atheist Craig Groeschel, is an honest, hard-hitting and eye-opening look into the ways people believe in God but live as if he doesn't exist. Groeschel's own journey will immerse you and challenge you into a deeper, Christ-filled life. Read an excerpt.

Alain Pierrot gave us permission to repost this:

Martyn Daniel's remark about Ether Books' move into the digital short story, which can be "read as installments" (thanks to Virginie Clayssen for the link) rang a bell for me about the way many kinds of readings compete for chunks of my attention.

Can I read the next chapter of this essay, study or novel before I'm called to board the plane, before my train comes to the station, or should I pick a shorter magazine article or a short story from Ether Books, etc.?

On a more professional field, can I spare the time to read the full version of the report, or should I restrain to the executive summary, plus the most relevant divisions of the report before the meeting?  

Or in academic situations, what amount of reading time should I plan to spend on the textbook, on the recommended readings and extra relevant titles before I sit term/final examinations?

Cross this with the last remarks in the excellent post from Information Architects, about their work on Average Reading Time (ART): 

Well, after the discussion under my last post, here's an interesting article on the Huffington Post claiming that there's anti-male bias in publishing. Thanks to Sam Jordison via Twitter.

I love life simply because I live it.  oh yes... people can make this so much more complicated, but I am spending my life learning how to just do this with simplicity...Grace in your own explorations...Namaste
Always Dream Even When Awake
It Creates a New World and Lets You Defy Gravity

I left State College on Saturday afternoon with a warm glow. Sounds cheesy, I know, but that's the right way to characterize it...I was there to give a talk in a lecture series to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the American Indian Leadership Program in Penn State's College of Education. I spent most of my time with students and faculty in the program, and thank them here (publicly) for that warm glow: Heather, Peter, Connie, Arlene, Rose Mary, Kari, and Jane; and, professors John Tippeconnic and Susan Faircloth. I also spent some time with a handful of professors in the College of Education: Gail Boldt, Dan Hade, Lisa Hopkins and Jacqueline Reid-Walsh. Dan's work on the commodification of children's literature is excellent, and I encourage people to look for it. You can listen to him via a podcast here. The podcast link is on the left side of the page under MULTIMEDIA.Tippeconnic and Faircloth recently released findings from their study of graduation rates of American Indians. Titled

The final meeting between the hero and his opponent must be more intense than any other battle before, and to be the winner, the hero must risk everything and lose something of inestimable value in order to win. It is not only a physical battle, but an emotional one as well. The hero's special skill here should make the story stronger, not make the hero invincible. Think of Superman, Kryptonite, and the danger of invincibility to a story. Here's two story final confrontations -- STORY A: Several world leaders are held hostage by Lex Luthor who has tied them to Kryptonite poles. Though weak, Superman manages to rescue them and gets far enough away from the Kryptonite to regain his strength to defeat Luthor. OR STORY B: Several world leaders are held hostage by Lex Luthor who has tied them to Kryptonite poles. They are surrounded by cameras so the whole world watches. Luthor wants Clark Kent to act as hostage negotiator, and if anyone else including Superman comes near them, an explosion will kill both leaders. Clark approaches but sees the Kryptonite in the poles. If he goes forward and becomes weak, Luthor and the world will know he's Superman. If he backs away, Luthor will kill them immediately. Here's his dilemma -- save two important leaders or lose his identity as...

The fear you greet at every major threshold of your life is simply based on a fantasy of a danger that has not happened. Rather than stay frozen on the future, get out of your head. Stay in your body. Seize this moment and write something, anything. Keep moving. Write through the fear. Today, detach from the outcome and concentrate on putting one world after another on the page. Forget the duality of good versus bad. Marvel at the miracle of words appearing out of nowhere and you writing them on the page.Replace fear with blind trust that you will be supported and that all is well.Make the act of writing or whatever you do an act of love...

Hi guys, more blog talk today.   THIS IS not final!!! I know it's been up for a while, but I HATE this sickly, mintish green color.  I've been looking at color palettes and just haven't found anything that screams at me.  Plus, I worked just about all weekend so I haven't had a chance to really do anything with the blog.  My husband just used this as a place holder.

I will be working on this blog this week, so expect craziness.  As usual.

Thanks for bearing with me while this process is taking forever.

Laura

Today I'm talking with novelist Tony Hays about writing his Arthurian mystery series, walking the landscapes of post-Roman Britain, one self-important monk's incomplete version of history, and that annoyingly persistent new religion known as Christianity. The Killing Way introduces Malgwyn ap Cuneglas, a hardened soldier who lost his sword arm fighting alongside Arthur in battle against the Saxons in the mid-5th century AD. In this first novel in the series, Malgwyn is pulled away from his favorite pastimes of drinking and wenching when Arthur needs him to investigate the brutal murder of a beautiful young woman — the sister of Malgwyn's late wife. The Divine Sacrifice, book two, takes Malgwyn to the fabled Ynys-witrin, otherwise known as Glastonbury, where he looks into the suspicious death of an elderly monk. He quickly learns that the abbey there is no peaceful refuge. A renowned priest, the future St. Patrick, has just arrived from Hibernia to investigate rumors of Pelagian heresy; the abbot seems to be hiding something; and the dangerously attractive new abbess is stirring up trouble with her unorthodox Gaulish beliefs about women's roles ...

Mario here:As a preview to Romantic Times, I was on a radio interview on The Funky Writer Radio Show with Brad Park, Eden Bradley, Joseph Finder, and Kayla Perrin.   Witty guys these writers.I'm leaving Wednesday for RT 2010, joining the posse from the League of Reluctant Adults.  Much high jinx expected.May 12, the release date for issue #1 of my comic book, Killing the Cobra: Chinatown Trollop.  Thought I'd give you an inside look at the creative process since producing a comic is a lot different than for a novel.  For one, the process is a lot more collaborative.  I write the scripts and one artist pencils, inks, and colors the panels.  Another artist, in this case Pintu, from Spain, does the covers.  Someone else does the lettering.  And we have an editor tweaking the work as it progresses from script to finished copy.I submit the script and the artists create panels and cover concepts.Here are the first two concepts for the cover for issue #1.We li...

It is my absolute pleasure to introduce debut paranormal romance author Gabi Stevens as my guest author this week! Gabi is here to talk about her new book The Wish List and the fish-out-of- water scenario. I recently reviewed her book here and found it such fun to read. If you're looking for something romantic and magical you should definitely check out The Wish List.  Please welcome Gabi Stevens!The fish-out-of-water is one of my favorite types of stories. A character stumbles into a situation where they don’t know the rules or culture and has to learn to exist in a new situation. That’s the premise of THE WISH LIST. Kristin Montgomery is a CPA in San Diego. When she discovers her three aunts are fairy godmothers and she’s next in line for the job, her orderly world disappears like magic. No, not like magic; it is magic. Kristin not only has to cope with burgeoning powers, but also a whole new world that she never knew existed. And when a threat to that world emerges, she...

A few weeks ago, I met a woman whose work inspires me on many levels. That woman is Marcie R. Rendon, an enrolled member of the White Earth Anishinabe Nation. That's her in the image to the left, and isn't that an awesome poem overlaid on the pic?As regular readers of American Indians in Children's Literature know, I am highly critical of the uncritical use of stories collected in the late 1800s and early 1900s by people who thought we (American Indians) were about to go the way of the dinosaurs. By that I mean vanish from the face of the earth. Go extinct. Cease to exist.The people doing the collecting were not Native. The collectors worked for the Smithsonian. Some (most?) of them didn't know much about what they were looking at when they turned their non-Native eyes on Native people going about our lives. The result of that was a whole lot of misinterpretation.And, in the name of research...

Jackie Brighton was a frumpy museum guide until a drunken night out with a blue eyed stranger left her waking up in a dumpster. All she remembers is being bitten and then having wild passionate sex with a blue eyed man , but apparently a tall, dark haired man deposited her into this dumpster like yesterday’s garbage. Now Jackie’s body has completely transformed into a sexy succubus that men constantly are lusting after. The only problem is that she constantly needs sex to feed ‘the itch’ and it’s not easy to convince her to constantly hook up with strangers. Jackie meets a fallen angel named Noah and a porn star succubus named Remy and the two of them guide her through her new life as a succubus. Romance blooms between Noah and Jackie since she needs to get her fix somewhere. Remy adds tons of humor to the story with her outrageous antics. Everything is going fine until Noah somehow ends up captured by a vampire queen who is insisting on Jackie bringing her a halo that she knows nothing about. The vampire queen’s main man Zane becomes Jackie’s shadow while she searches for the one item that will set Noa...

Deon Meyer's new South African crime novel is in a genre more or less invented by Paul Cain in his only novel, A Fast One. The compression of time and action is so condensed (as in the title of Meyer's book) that the narrative is propulsive and addictive. Meyer's novel is not quite so bleak as Cain's, but it's pretty dark. Benny Griessel, who has been a major and a minor character in previous Meyer stories, is now an official "mentor" to a group of young black and mixed race police detectives (the new wave of police in the new South Africa), and is tiptoeing around his mandate to guide them without taking over their cases. One of the cases begins almost before the beginning of the book: a young American woman is on the run (literally, she's on foot) from a gang of thugs that we know little about except that they have killed another American, whose body is discovered and reported to the police. The other case begins with a corpse of a man shot to death and discovered by a housemaid, lying next to his drunken wife. As Griessel oversees both cases, shuffling his limited resources between them and dealing with the anxious police hierarchy, ...