Livejournal fixed

| October 24, 2011

Apologies to those of you on LJ who just got 10 or 12 posts in a row from me. Those are from the last three months, in which my LJ importer hadn’t been working. I figured for those of you who haven’t been going to my main site from an RSS reader, some of you [...]

Win a critique from me

| October 21, 2011

And by the way, if you haven’t seen me talk about it on Twitter or Facebook, you should check out this post on Cynthia Leitich Smith’s blog in which I interview Tankborn author Karen Sandler—and at the end you’ll see ways to enter to win a critique from me. Deadline is Oct. 24!   Edited [...]

Simmons alums unite!

| October 21, 2011

In celebration of my Simmons classmate Anna Staniszewski’s new book release, I thought perhaps we could make a list of children’s and young adult books by Simmons College children’s lit program alumnae. (The women’s college is open to guys in the grad programs, but I think most of the alums who have been published are [...]

What have you read lately?

| October 20, 2011

I’m currently splitting my time between two favorite authors’ newest books: James Dashner’s The Death Cure and Tamora Pierce’s Mastiff. I’m a HUGE Tamora Pierce fan. As she often says when she introduces herself at conventions, she writes about girls who kick butt. You can see a really interesting progression of feminist thought from second [...]

New York Comic Con

| October 11, 2011

Who’s going to New York Comic Con? We’re excited to be there for the first year, featuring Tu’s first three books! Make sure you stop by booth 2846 and say hi on your way to ogling slave Leias or taking pictures with Stormtrooper Elvis (or both). (Does Stormtrooper Elvis come to NYCC, or is he [...]

FAQ: Muslim protagonists

| October 11, 2011

A writer asks: I recently submitted the first three chapters of my manuscript to Tu Books as per your guidelines, and I am a ball of anxiety. My MC is a Muslim girl, and while the story itself is pure historical fantasy, I am worried that you will feel a Muslim protagonist is not relatable [...]

Another ebook update

| October 7, 2011

Nook readers, you can now find almost all of our books there. Tankborn and Wolf Mark are up now, and Galaxy Games: The Challengers will be up soon. Also, for those of you on iPads or other Apple devices, all three books are up (I linked Galaxy Games: The Challengers before). Here are your links! [...]

Tu launch roundup

| October 4, 2011

Let’s take a look at all the things happening online for the launch of Tu’s first three books. First of all, see what our publisher Jason Low would do if we had a million dollars to promote our first three books. Too bad we’re not millionaires! The Challengers First up, The Challengers, book 1 of [...]

On beginnings in speculative fiction

| October 3, 2011

Reader reactions are so subjective. One person might think there’s not nearly enough worldbuilding in a book (“give me more! MORE!”) and another might say of the exact same book that what worldbuilding there is was way too confusing (“I couldn’t keep all those made-up words straight!”). So how do you, as the author, balance [...]

Koreafest and parade

| October 1, 2011

My cousin is in town this weekend, and we have a tradition of walking around wherever we are with our fancy cameras and seeing who can get a great shot. Not so much a competition as just a way of sharing our interest in photography (me: semi-pro hobbyist who used to think about photography as [...]