Oh hey, look what I found

| May 24, 2011

Pictures from a recent visit to NYC by Cynthia Leitich Smith! These were taken in Feb. 2011, but I completely forgot to post them. What’s that? You don’t know Cyn? How could you miss this unyielding advocate for children’s literature? In fact, I’m surprised you somehow managed to make it to MY site if you [...]

Workshop and conference miscellanea, other events

| April 26, 2011

Just got invited last minute to join a panel at ASJA on Saturday on “Perfecting Your Elevator Pitch” from 11 a.m. to noon this Saturday, April 30, at the Roosevelt Hotel in NYC. I believe it’s open to the public (not sure if there’s a cost) so if you’re going, see you there. Only a [...]

Tu teasers

| February 11, 2011

I find I don’t want to blog much anymore, and mostly it’s because ever since my site broke, it hasn’t been quite right. I’m seriously thinking of giving up hosting it on my own (I can figure out most things, but it takes time I no longer have) and migrating my blog over to WordPress. [...]

Meeting authors, Kitty Saturday

| November 14, 2010

I haven’t had a chance yet to post about my time at the Ventura/Santa Barbara SCBWI conference over Halloween weekend. I had a great time—the organizers, including Lee & Low author Alexis O’Neill, the V/SB SCBWI RA, were extremely organized, and it was so nice to meet so many authors and illustrators who are either [...]

Save Shannon Hale’s life

| August 19, 2010

Via Rick Walton: If you are the highest bidder, Shannon Hale will rave about you on her blog, describing in great detail how you saved her life several times. All money goes to buy books for kids who need them. To bid and to have Shannon put in writing that she is forever in your [...]

Books for NYC Schools, School Library Month, and kimbap

| April 10, 2010

Dropped in on the Books for NYC Schools event to see Scott Westerfeld and Justine Larbalestier read. But the trains were running late, so I missed their part of the reading, and forgot my copies of Leviathan and How to Ditch Your Fairy at work, so I pretty much listened to Bennet Madison and Cecily [...]

The Chosen One

| May 29, 2009

I got this ARC a couple of weeks ago, but I’ve been holding onto it because I knew from going to Carol’s reading that it would make me bawl. I had to be ready for that, and busy as I’ve been, I haven’t been ready for it. Once again tonight, as many nights, I couldn’t [...]

Provo Book Festival (& other recent events, including a reading cat)

| May 20, 2009

Well, now that I’ve gotten my camera back up (I killed the battery Saturday, forgetting to upload the pictures while it was still hooked up for hours, and now I’ve finally gotten back to it), I will share with you some of the fun things that happened at the Provo Book Festival. I was really impressed. This was the first time I’ve been to it, though I’ve heard good things about it for a few years, and I must say, it was really cool to see how the kids who came were so excited to get involved with books, to see their favorite authors speak, and to be able to get books signed by them. There had to have been twenty or so local authors involved, and several illustrators as well.

My Conduit schedule, and other interesting goings-on that weekend

| May 13, 2009

Note that Howard Tayler of Schlock Mercenary is the Guest of Honor at this year’s Conduit. Along with that, the Taylers are hosting a book launch party at the show for the latest Schlock book. Head on over to Howard’s site for all the details. For you YA-type and writer-type people, here are some interesting [...]

New class planned for early June, more local events

| May 13, 2009

I don’t have a date pinned down yet, but I’m planning to do another community seminar in early June: Worldbuilding in Fantasy and Science Fiction for Children and Young Adults. Writing fantasy and SF for children and YA is different than writing it for adults because of that added children’s/YA component: it’s a whole different [...]