A family history journey

The more I dig into this particular generation of my family–the immigrants I’d been chasing for decades to figure out where they’d come from in East Prussia–the more I’m confused. This has been a nearly 30-year research journey, so join me on a story.

Here’s what I know:

Henry and Bertha Whitman are the immigrant generation. All we know is that Henry changed his name and that they’re from East Prussia. He came after her and stayed with her people in Chicago, so the family story goes.
Bertha and Fern were sister and brother. (We know she had other siblings, but don’t know who they were.) The story of Henry’s name change we’ll get to in a sec.

My grandpa, with his parents, visited Fern on his farm during the drought of the Great Depression at around age 10 in Red Hook, NY, where he also met Fern’s wife, Ella. Fern and Ella never had kids.


That’s all I’ve known since around 2000, when I interviewed my Grandpa Dale before he died. I’ve been researching this branch of the family since about 1993, though, and other family members before me have tried and failed to figure out Henry and Bertha’s origins.

But finding out about the brother from Grandpa was the start of a breakthrough. I was able to trace Fern’s life backward from NY throughout the US. He homesteaded for a few years in Colorado and Nebraska, which is where he met Ella.

On his marriage certificate to Ella, their parents were listed! A miracle!
Parents of Fern: August Halbroeder and Caroline Koenitzer, from East Prussia.

Upper left: record of Ferdinand A. Halbroeder’s to Ella N. Wright

These are, we presume, ALSO the parents of Bertha. Because siblings, right?

So I start probing for Halbroeder/Halbröders in the Chicago area/northern IL anytime in the neighborhood of the early 1870s, as the family story goes that Henry was avoiding the draft of Bismarck/William the 1st to get here before the unification wars. (No idea how accurate that story is, but it’s a starting point.)

Could I find them on the census in 1870? It’s a stretch, because they may have come after the census was taken. Nope, no dice.

We know Bertha and Henry’s marriage date, by the way, thanks to the Whitman Family Bible, in my uncle’s possession (5 Mar 1876).

While there’s no census, I do find them! And I find an August! Two, actually, who appear to be father and son, maybe? In various city directories, which don’t give much information, but how many Halbröders who aren’t related can there BE?

I don’t remember if this breakthrough came before or after I found Bertha’s marriage license in Cook County–which I paid $15 or so for a copy of rather than rely on records because IT GAVE ME HENRY’S ORIGINAL NAME. Henry Whitman was … well, I’m not sure if he was born Gottlieb Wittmann, because that might have been an alias to get him on the boat, but he was using the name Gottlieb Wittmann at least until the moment he married Bertha, and not much longer, because every record after this I can find is definitely Henry Whitman. And it’s definitely them—the ages are spot on and the marriage date, 5 March 1876, is correct.

Marriage license for Gottlieb Wittmann and Bertha Halbröder in Cook County, Illinois records

And at that point, Ancestry has coughed up some IMMIGRATION RECORDS, the holy grail for tracing to source country, yay!


HERE’S WHERE IT GETS WEIRD.


I find Bertha Halbröder entering the country at age 14 in 1869 alone? with a brother? maybe with an uncle? But she’s clearly with a woman sharing the same name as the name of Fern’s mother, with a different man who is not named Halbröder, but who rather shares the last name of the presumed mother’s maiden name. Maybe Fern didn’t know what a maiden name was and his parents were divorced and his mother married a guy named Konitzer?

And then Fern (full name: Ferdinand) is NOT on the boat with her. No, she’s traveling with a guy named Wilhelm Halbröder, from the same area of Prussia:

Departure manifest from Hamburg for Wilhelm and Bertha Halbröder on 5 May 1869
The same people entering the US at the Port of New York
on the Steamer Harmonia on 19 May 1869

I have no idea who Emilie Bischof is–she doesn’t appear in any Whitman/Halbröder records past this point, so they might have just been village friends who escorted her to her new life. But Carl and Caroline Konitzer are a MYSTERY. We’ll get to more on that in a minute.

Fern doesn’t arrive for TWO MORE YEARS, and he arrives with a guy whose name we know from Fern’s marriage certificate: August Halbröder, who has a whole family that we’ve never known the names of before.

Departure manifest from Hamburg on the same boat, the Steamer Harmonia, 27 Sept 1871
Arrival manifest for the Steamer Harmonia on 12 Oct 1871

Note that the Hamburg departure manifest gives us a BIG clue on the German/Prussian side: previous residence! Stettin, now known as a Polish city Szczecin. It’s likely just the region they were from—August is listed as a farmer, so it’s likely they’re from a hamlet or village near Stettin—but it gives us a place to START in German research (once I learn enough German to parse out the handwriting—I can read English journals from the 1800s like it’s nothing nowadays, but German is THE WORST for parsing once you go back in time past a certain point).

Okay, so we’ve got a point of origin, but are the Bertha and Fern in these manifests the same Bertha and Fern who we know for certain were brother and sister? I’m pretty sure–the dates match up, as do the circumstances based on what we know from later census records like the 1900 census, which lists arrival years for immigrants, and an article about Fern and Ella on their golden wedding anniversary. Not to mention that the names Bertha Halbröder and Ferdinand A. Halbröder are SUPER UNIQUE. Maybe not 100% unique, but pretty unique!

While the years aren’t exact, I expect census records to be a bit off—ages get fudged, spelling is atrocious because it’s an enumerator doing the writing, and you expect people’s math to be a little off sometimes. (Bertha cannot have been in the US for 38 years in 1900 and also have arrived in 1868. She would have been there for 32 years.)

Bertha (Halbröder) Whitman in the 1900 census for Monroe Center, Ogle County, Illinois
Fern and Ella Halbroeder in the 1900 census for Franklin Township, DeKalb County, Illinois—they didn’t move to New York until a few years later, according to the article above.
Wm Halbroder in Wisconsin Births and Christenings Index as a parent, married to Carolina Zenos, and child Emma M I Halbroder. Is this our Wilhelm?

So, I’m presuming that it’s safe to assume that Wilhelm is a likely brother or other relative (cousin?) of Bertha’s. Only once he arrives in the States, he disappears. The only mention of a Wilhelm Halbröder (or William Halbroeder, or any variation on that name) for the rest of the 19th century in any census that I can find, or any city directory, land record, marriage records, birth records for children, etc is in ONE record that I don’t have access to in a pandemic—I’ll have to go to a Family History Center to look at the film and see the record.

Carl & Caroline Konitzer in the 1880 census for Egg Harbor, Door County, Wisconsin
Children of Carl & Caroline Konitzer on the next page of the 1880 census: 30-year-old William Konitzer, 14-year-old Annie, and 3-year-old Louie Papillion, the only child born in the US, listed as adopted with parents born in France. I really want to trace Louie’s life story at some point—there has to be an interesting story there, too.

However, Carl and Caroline Konitzer show up on the 1880 census in Wisconsin. Remember how they had no children named Konitzer when they arrived on the ship with Wilhelm and Bertha? Now they have 3, one of whom is named William Konitzer, 30, who is old enough to have arrived with them on the ship, yet is absent from that record. Also note they have a 14-year-old daughter named Annie who of course would have been born after they arrived in 1869, but who is listed as having been born in Germany.

Marriage certificate for Robert Konitzer, listing his parents as William Konitzer and Anna Kuskie, Wayne County, Michigan, 4 Jan 1932

What fascinates me about this is that a few years later, William shows up in Wisconsin records married to a woman named Anna, whose maiden name is NOT Konitzer but Koschkie or Kuskie, according to her son’s marriage certificate, and whose age matches perfectly with that of Annie. Did Annie emigrate alone or perhaps with a family who passed on or got separated at some point, and she came to live with and/or be adopted by the Konitzers (who obviously are a couple who adopt kids), and she and William eventually ended up married? Or is it just a coincidence and William happens to have a sister named Annie who never shows up again (which isn’t unusual for women unless you’re working your way backward—if they get married, you don’t always know who they married because the parents aren’t always listed on the records, if you can find them at all) and also marries an Anna?

And is William Konitzer actually Wilhelm Halbroeder? Who is the Wm. Halbroder who married Carolina Zenos and had a child named Emma? Are they the same person?

Or is Annie in the Konitzer household in 1880 the same person as Anna Halbröder, who we haven’t even discussed yet, who was 9 in 1871 when she arrived with Fern and the other Halbröders, so in 1880 would be closer to 17 or 18 so wouldn’t have been 14, but censuses can be wrong about ages and so can ship manifests, and WHERE ARE ALL THESE ANNIE/ANNAS COMING FROM? (Yes, I know it’s a common name, but why does it have to be THIS common?)

And that brings me back to the beginning of the rabbit hole: Is Caroline Konitzer the mother of Wilhelm, Bertha, and Ferdinand Halbröder? And also Anna, given that Anna is 2 years older than Fern?

Did the parents divorce and Anna and Fern, being too young to emigrate in 1869, or because of some sort of custody arrangement, they emigrated with his father and stepmother and younger sibling baby Johannes?

Or is it just a coincidence that these names are so similar in both families and they’re not related at all? Where did Caroline disappear to? Did she die in Prussia and never emigrate, and the Caroline Konitzer who did emigrate near Bertha was just an aunt or a distant relative by marriage, and maybe Carl was an uncle or something related to her mother who died?

These are the questions that remain, and so far the records in Germany aren’t letting me figure out the answers–either because Ancestry doesn’t have access to the records (there was that big world war and all, plus the other one), or because I don’t have enough information to narrow down the potential choices. All I know is that Friedke is married to an August Halbröder in records from the same area of Prussia, and that I can’t find any records of any Caroline ever being married to an August Halbröder in that area of Prussia.

And maybe it’s all moot and Bertha and Fern were never siblings to begin with, because I have yet to find mention of the two of them in the same written record!

#DVpit, updated submission guidelines, and my #MSWL

Today is #DVpit on Twitter, which is an event in which writers post pitches for their books on the hashtag and agents who like those pitches and are requesting submissions favorite the pitches as a way to say “send that to me!” and editors who like something either retweet it to say “I like this! send it to me, agents!” or favorite it if they take unsolicited submissions. To that end, I’m linking to this post for anyone whose pitch I favorite.

Recently, Cheryl Klein joined the Lee & Low team as editorial director, and that means that we’re shifting a few things around. Tu Books continues to be the middle grade and young adult imprint publishing all genres of fiction for those age groups, but because Cheryl also is interested in novels, I won’t be the sole editor acquiring for the imprint anymore. However, Cheryl and I have different interests and tastes, and she’ll also be acquiring picture books and nonfiction for the Lee & Low imprints, and older nonfiction for Tu.

Also, I’ve tweeted my #MSWL (if you don’t know, that’s a manuscript wish list) on both my own Twitter and on @tubooks from time to time—most recently being yesterday on Tu’s account:

Also:

So if you’d like a better sense of what I’m looking for, my Twitter and the Tu Books Twitter are your best resources, as I’m terrible at keeping up my blog nowadays.

We have new submission guidelines that have not yet gone up on the Lee & Low website, so for anyone looking for whether to send a MG or YA to me vs. Cheryl, some guidelines here. Obviously your first sign is whether Cheryl or I favorited your tweet. But if you’re still not sure, this is what will be put up on the Tu Books submission guidelines when we update the site:

At TU BOOKS, an imprint of LEE & LOW BOOKS, our focus is on young adult and middle grade fiction and narrative nonfiction centering people of color. We look for fantasy set in worlds inspired by non-Western folklore or culture, contemporary mysteries and fantasy set all over the world starring POC, and science fiction that centers the possibilities for people of color in the future. We also selectively publish realism and narrative nonfiction that explores the contemporary and historical experiences of people of color. We welcome intersectional narratives that feature LGBTQIA and disabled POC as heroes in their own stories.

We are looking specifically for stories for both middle grade (ages 8-12) and young adult (ages 12-18) readers. Occasionally a manuscript might fall between those two categories; if your manuscript does, let us know.

Stacy Whitman and Cheryl Klein both acquire titles for Tu Books, and we ask that you identify which of them you wish to consider your submission. As loose rules of thumb, Cheryl has a more literary bent and does not acquire graphic novels, while Stacy takes a more commercial focus and does not acquire narrative nonfiction. You can learn more about each of them through their websites, linked above, and the interviews here.

Novel Manuscript Submissions:

  • Please include a synopsis and first three chapters of the novel. Do not send the complete manuscript.
  • Manuscripts should be typed doubled-spaced.
  • Manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter that includes a brief biography of the author, including publishing history. The letter should be addressed to either Stacy Whitman or Cheryl Klein, and should also state if the manuscript is a simultaneous or an exclusive submission.
  • We’re looking for middle grade (ages 8-12) and young adult (ages 12 and up) books. We are not looking for chapter books (ages 6 to 9) at this time.
  • Be sure to include full contact information on the cover letter and first page of the manuscript. Page numbers and your last name/title of the book should appear on subsequent pages.

Graphic Novel Submissions:

  • Please include a synopsis and first three chapters (or equivalent—up to 20 pages of script) of the graphic novel script. Do not send the complete manuscript.
  • If you are also the illustrator, please include art samples with a sample storyboard in PDF or JPG format.
  • Do not include illustrations unless you are a professional illustrator.
  • Manuscripts should be accompanied by a cover letter that includes a brief biography of the author, including publishing history. The letter should also state if the manuscript is a simultaneous or an exclusive submission.
  • Be sure to include full contact information on the first page of the manuscript. Page numbers and your last name/title of the book should appear on subsequent pages.

Tu Books accepts submissions electronically. Please go to our Submittable page to submit your manuscript electronically.

If you would rather send your submission via snail mail, you may address it to: 

Submissions Editor, Tu Books
LEE & LOW BOOKS
95 Madison Avenue, Suite 1205
New York, NY 10016

ALSO NOTE that for new writers of color, our New Voices Award (for picture books) and New Visions Award (for MG/YA novels & graphic novels) writing contests are opening soon for submissions! If you’ve never published a picture book before, New Voices opens May 1. If you’ve never published a MG or YA novel or graphic novel, New Visions opens June 1. Information for both contests’ submission guidelines will be updated on the L&L website soon, so check back.

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Case Cracked: Editing Mystery Novels

This post was originally posted on the Lee & Low blog.

 

http://i0.wp.com/blog.leeandlow.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/05/192e8a7c5b856f76b5331623d80cf7cf.jpgI’ve long been a fan of mysteries. Trixie Belden was my BFF as a third and fourth grader. Nancy Drew was another favorite. Veronica Mars updated the teen sleuth idea, bringing the storytelling form to a new generation.

When I got the chance to work on Valynne Maetani’s Ink and Ashes, our new YA mystery which comes out in June, all of those mysteries and more were going through my mind. Claire, the main character, has the spunk and curiosity of Veronica Mars and all of her predecessors, but she’s also a little different. And to honor those differences in the editing process, I needed to refresh myself on what’s out there right now in the teen mystery/suspense genre, and the mystery genre in general.

As I was editing Ink and Ashes over the course of about a year and a half (which spans two developmental edits and a line edit), between edits I was reading mystery after mystery. I stocked up on Agatha Christie, I rewatched Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries and read the first book of the series it’s based on (Cocaine Blues by Kerry Greenwood), I read multiple YA suspense, spy, and murder mysteries.

Miss Fisher ABC
Miss Fisher from the TV show “Miss Fisher’s Murder Mysteries”

That reading reminded me that a great mystery read requires the same elements as any good read: well-paced plotting, characters the reader cares about enough to want to know what happens next; even world-building, though that’s a term we generally associate with speculative fiction, is tremendously important in setting the stage in a mystery. But my rereading of classic and contemporary mysteries also showed me that more than in any other genre, a sense of suspense and danger must permeate the mystery book, must drive the reader to breathlessly wonder what will happen next.

Ask probing questions

One of the biggest challenges in this edit—with any edit, really, especially with an author you’ve never worked with before—was discovering how to bring the author’s vision of the characters fully to life. An editor’s job is often to just ask questions: Why is this happening right now? Why would that character decide to do this? What is the goal here?

In that way, figuring out the goal allows the editor to ask further probing questions on what the solution might be—figuring out how current plot points and character decisions hamper the desired effect.

“The plot thickens” turns out to be trueink and ashes cover

The biggest thing I learned while editing Ink and Ashes and reading all these mysteries is the importance of plot escalation. In the original draft, clues did of course build up into a frenzied final few pages of conflict that were very enjoyable—that’s one of the reasons the book won our New Visions Award. But comparing the early manuscript to mysteries I enjoyed the most, I realized that there were so many ways that the narrative could be complicated. (Valynne was on the same page. As she waited for the results of the contest, she was also already thinking of ways to improve the manuscript. That kind of editor-writer synergy makes a huge difference in any book project like this.)

We looked at the end goal, and discussed the plot points that got Claire and her friends to that point. In particular, we discussed how the inciting incident—the moment that gets Claire to veer her course to investigating whether her father and her stepdad ever knew each other—might be complicated and how those complications would have a ripple effect that would improve multiple other plot points, and increase the pacing.

In other words, escalation. If the reader didn’t feel the suspense at every page turn, we had work to do.

Valynne worked very hard on making that happen, and I’m very happy with the results! In answer to all my probing questions, Valynne improved on an already-well written manuscript to bring what was an interesting read to the level of an exciting page-turner that’s getting readers hooked. That’s the end goal for any editor and author: Creating a final book that readers can’t put down. I’m happy to say, we succeeded with Ink and Ashes.

Submit your manuscript to the New Visions Award

NVAL_WinnerLogoIn case you missed it, I’m open again for submissions to the New Visions Award. Details can be found on this blog post.

This is the first year we’re taking only electronic submissions. You can submit via our Submittable site. There is no charge for any of our submissions, including the New Visions Award.

Please note that the New Visions Award is open only to authors of color resident of the United States (including non-citizens, but you must be a resident). This includes Asian Americans and other people of Asian descent, African Americans and other people of African descent, Pacific Islanders, South Asians, Native Americans and other indigenous peoples, Middle Easterners, Latino/as, and mixed race people.

If you are a white American, or any author who does not reside in the United States, you are welcome to submit to our regular submissions, guidelines for which can be found here.

TV math

Inspired by my recent marathoning of season 1 of Hawaii Five-O, in which the characters handed over a medium-sized backpack supposedly full of $10 million, I had to wonder if that was physically possible. Ten million dollars seemed a bit far-fetched to fit into just one backpack, even if it is in $100 bills. So I googled.

If Google’s right, a dollar bill is 6.14″ long, 2.61″ wide, and .0043″ thick. So, if a $100 bill is roughly the same dimensions (Wikipedia says that I’m right at least as far as length and width go), that would mean that a stack of $100 bills would be 35.8′ tall, or 430″. The volume of that stack would be 6890.922 in3, and weigh about 100kg, or 220 lbs.

Why does this matter?

Either he's pretty strong or he's not holding 220 lbs
Either he’s pretty strong or he’s not holding 220 lbs

Because they were handling that backpack as if it were full of a few books, not 220 lbs of money. Even the buffest Navy Seal (which, of course, Our Hero is!) probably wouldn’t be tossing around 220 lbs as if it were a sack of groceries.

And would that much money fit in a medium-sized backpack? Even a relatively thick one like the one that James Marsters is holding right here? The volume of a backpack that size, according to REI, is probably in the neighborhood of 50-80 liters. 50 liters is roughly 3051 in3. If we’re saying the pack has the high end of volume, it’s more like 4882 in3. And that’s assuming that you could fit the bills in without extra awkward space left over.

So, let’s break it down:

 

Capacity of pack that size Actual dimensions of $10 million
50-80 liters or 3051-4882 in3 6891 in3 (about 113 liters)
As much weight as the volume allows plus about 2.5 to 5 lbs for the weight of the pack 220 lbs plus weight of pack

You’d need another pack to fit that much money–not to mention to be able to lift that much money.

So if your characters are pulling off a heist, perhaps you might have to factor in the complication of how much that money actually weighs. Even paper can only fit so much in one pack.

#diversityinSFF is not superficial

Over the weekend, a discussion of diversity in SFF magazines has been brewing in SFF circles. I don’t read many SFF magazines, so I hadn’t been aware of the discussions until Janni Lee Simner pointed someone in the discussion to Tu as an answer for finding diversity in genre. So I won’t address the specifics of a need for diversity in SFF magazines, except to say, yes, it’s important.

Rather, I feel I need to address an article, and a tweet from the author of that article, who takes the position that diversity is “superficial” and therefore unnecessary.

Summer of the MariposasI couldn’t disagree more that diversity in SFF is superficial. In fact, it is at the root of some of the deepest, well-told stories I’ve read. Take Guadalupe Garcia McCall’s Andre Norton–nominated Summer of the Mariposas. It would be an entirely different story if it were set in a Midwestern town starring white girls of European descent, or set in Vancouver or Maine and crossed the U.S.-Canadian border. The entire weave of the worldbuilding is centered around the girls’ identities as both Mexican and American, and the multiple identities that “Mexican” entails—that of both Aztec ancestry and Spanish-influenced Catholicism. The magical people and goddesses the girls meet are straight out of Mexican folklore. There is nothing superficial about anything regarding the Mexican influences within the book.

Simply changing the color of a character to “blackwash” them for diversity’s sake is far from what anyone who truly advocates for “mirrors, windows, and sliding glass doors” is looking for when we seek more characters of color, LGBT characters, etc. We’re looking for the heart-deep diversity of experiences that so seldom are reflected in science fiction and fantasy. We’re asking for the genre to deepen its idea of “what it means to be human”—a question that SFF excels at asking. Yes, we’re all human and we have common experiences, but how we answer the deepest questions of humanity’s existence vary with culture, ethnicity, religion, country, community. (Are we communal or do we seek individuality? To whom are people loyal? Who is in control? How do we judge goodness?) It has to do with power dynamics and experiences of privilege and the lack thereof, and how privilege is intersectional. And the genre is richer when we explore that full breadth, even when we have dragons and aliens as part of the mix.

Diversity in SFF is about human protagonists that not only welcome readers who might not feel welcome in the genre, but about opening up the world of the reader who isn’t familiar with the culture or personality of a protagonist from a community that hasn’t been as well represented in the past. It’s about awesome worldbuilding, excellent storytelling, and finding inspiration in places that aren’t the same old Western European tropes—tropes we love, sure, but they’ve been overplayed. There are fresh ideas and characters to be found from authors with different perspectives, in places and cultures that haven’t been as well represented.

What those of us advocating for diversity want is simply to see the world as it is reflected in our literature.

So for anyone who thinks that diversity is superficial—that the only thing it has to do with is the color of one’s skin—you’re the one missing the point.

Diversity is one of the most important things this genre needs right now, for the sake of great storytelling.

New books!

The Monster in the Mudball by S. P. GatesJust in case you haven’t been paying attention in every other social media stream, Tu’s fall 2013 books are OUT in the WILD, just in time for Halloween!

For anyone with a young reader in your life, be sure to check out The Monster in the Mudball by S.P. Gatesthe perfect read for your third and fourth graders, and any reader looking for his or her first real middle grade book now that they’ve mastered chapter books. It’s a Junior Library Guild selection, as well—funny with a lot of heart, about a boy who teams up with an artifact inspector to save his baby brother from the monster Zilombo. It’s kind of like Warehouse 13 for the very young middle grade set.

For older readers, check out Joseph Bruchac’s postapocalyptic Apache steampunk Killer of Enemies—it’s been getting a lot of great buzz, and you need to pick it up.

The books are orderable on the Lee & Low website right now, and should be available for order from Amazon and BN.com and other online vendors within a few days to a week (it takes some time for the books to get from our warehouse to theirs and to be processed, so just keep pre-ordering until it’s available via your preferred vendor).

Killer of Enemies by Joseph BruchacE-books will be available in another couple of weeks. We always try to time version releases to be close to each other, but it’s not always perfectly aligned. Keep an eye on your favorite e-book vendor, and I’ll post here with links when they’re up.

If you love Tu Books and want us to publish even more awesome diverse science fiction and fantasy, one of the best ways you can support us (or any small press you favor) is to be sure to walk into your local indie bookshop and ask for the book by name. If they don’t have a copy, ask them to order it. Indies are very happy to be sure their customers have the books they’re looking for, and the more demand they see for a particular book, the more they’ll pay attention to ordering stock to keep in the store. And at the same time, you’ll be supporting a local business that works to serve your community.

Great new review for Killer of Enemies

koe_cover_FNLFrom Kirkus Reviews:

This near future dystopia starring an Apache female superhero has the soul of a graphic novel, if not the art.

Like her famous Chiracahua ancestor, Lozen too is a warrior, but unlike her namesake, it’s by coercion. Her masters are four semihuman rulers of Haven, a walled fortress in what was once Arizona. Much of humanity perished when the Cloud, a mysterious force that’s rendered human technology useless, arrived from beyond Jupiter. Although their bio-enhancements no longer work, the despotic overlords that survive rule. Holding Lozen’s family as hostages, Haven’s rulers send her out to battle gemods, genetically modified monsters left over from pre-C days. Lozen complies while working toward her family’s escape. On each trip, she caches supplies, food, weapons. Allies—natural and supernatural, known and hidden, at Haven and in the wild—offer guidance but not rescue. For that, Lozen must rely on her wits, tracking skills and weaponry (guns have survived the Cloud), drawing strength from her warrior heritage to dispatch monstrous birds of prey, a giant anaconda and more (the cartoonish tone helps mute the graphic violence). Lozen’s tactics and weaponry are detailed at length but within a cultural framework that fosters respect for the planet and its surviving natural inhabitants.

A good bet for fans of superhero fiction and graphic novels and readers in search of superpowered female warriors.

And if you didn’t see it, here’s a post on how that great cover came to be.

Change of title

You might notice some changes happening in my bio below my posts, on my About Me page, and on my social media sites. I’ve already mentioned it on Facebook, but I thought I’d better note it here, as well. For the last three years, I’ve been editorial director of Tu Books, focusing on the editorial side. Now my responsibilities have expanded to include marketing and sales, and so my title has changed to publisher to reflect that change in duties.

What this means for writers: I won’t have as much time to accept new submissions, so from time to time our submissions guidelines will reflect that we’ve closed to unagented submissions. We did this over the holidays, and haven’t yet reopened those submissions; I need time to catch up on what we’ve already received, including a nice large number of New Visions Award submissions. So keep writing, and watch for when we open for submissions periodically. This will allow me to concentrate my editorial time on the books we’ve already contracted, with concentrated windows during which I’ll seek new voices.

While this is a big change for me, for the purpose of writers things shouldn’t change too much.

New Visions extension announcement

As I was talking about yesterday, Hurricane Sandy has affected us at Lee & Low—our office is still currently without power—o we understand that it has made it hard especially for those in the path of the storm to get your New Visions entry into the mail. After all, in the middle of all this, a lot of us have more important things to worry about, like electricity and food. Subway and train service is also still a problem, which might be essential for someone trying to get to the post office, and I’m not sure if many affected post offices are back up and running yet.

In light of that, we’re announcing today that we’re going to grant a 2-week extension to the New Visions contest. Our new deadline is Nov. 14. Like the original deadline, that is a postmark deadline. As long as your entry is postmarked by Nov. 14, your entry has hit the deadline. We hope this extension particularly helps those in the path of the storm, but it applies across the board.

All the other guidelines remain in effect. The contest page will be updated when we are able to do so—can’t change it myself and those who can don’t have access right now.

Given that those who need this deadline most might not even have electricity right now, please share this far and wide and please retweet, Facebook, and share on your blogs and other social networks today and perhaps a few times later this week. Please get the word out. Thanks, and for those who are hardest hit by this storm, our thoughts are with you.

P.S. If you’re in another area and wondering how you can help with the hurricane, I’ve heard that they have had to cancel several local blood drives due to the infrastructure damage. If you can donate blood, that might be the best thing you can do, particularly because on the night of the storm they had to evacuate an entire hospital down at NYU. You might also consider donating money to the Red Cross.