Just finished some cute little pieces for an educational publisher.
For this kind of work, digital art makes sense, both for style reasons as well as time. The images are done to fit very exacting specifications, and sometimes changes need to be made, which are sooooooooooo much easier to do digitally than with colored pencil (or any other traditional medium). I was actually lucky this time though, and didn't have to make any changes to the final art. Yay!
These assignments exercise a whole different part of my 'art brain' than the pieces I do for myself, or even commissions to do house or building renderings. These need to be an exact size, each piece has to convey specific information, and the kids usually need to be definite ethnicities as well as ages.
Working digitally means having to use a whole different palette than what I'm used to for colored pencil work. Colors are labelled as Pantone numbers rather than "black grape" or "limepeel", for example. The nice thing though is that there is no 'sharpening' involved, and changing a color is a snap!
These pieces were all done with Photoshop 5.5, and the 'rough texture pastel' brush. I fiddle with the settings a bit to get the size of the grain just right, as well as the brush itself. I paint in layers, keeping each child, as well as portions of the backgrounds, on layers, which can be easily edited if need be. The texture doesn't really show at this scale, but its there. I sometimes leave it more 'texture-y' (like for the chalkboard), or paint it in to look more solid, depending on the object.
I also use the eyedropper tool to pick up and copy a color exactly from piece to piece, like the chalkboard, floor, walls, orange chairs, etc., for consistency.
I use a Wacom table and pen, which gives me a lot of control over line width and pressure, which is great. (I can't believe I used to try to paint like this with just the mouse! That's like trying to paint with a big rock or something.)
So that's what I've been up to. I have an architectural rendering in the works
Theatergoers at a show
Hope it is guaranteed
That reality’s suspended,
Which is all we really need.
Both the audience and actors
Enter in a silent pact:
In the seats, we block our problems;
On the stage, they grandly act.
It’s a tacit understanding
That we’re all there to escape,
Though the methods we have chosen
May assume a different shape.
When the actor is performing,
Disappearing in his role,
All his real-life issues vanish
And he’s tightly in control.
If he does his job correctly,
That’s the ticketholder’s dream;
For the world upon that stage
Is all there is, so it would seem.
We don’t need to sign a contract
For the theater’s sealed the deal:
While the curtain’s up we’re certain
What we’re witnessing is real.
When I’m speaking with another author at an event, I always try to read his or her work ahead of time if I can; it’s always more fun for me to meet fellow writers when I’m familiar with their work. So earlier this spring, when I saw on my IRA schedule that I was speaking at an event with James Dashner, I requested an ARC of A MUTINY IN TIME, the first in his INFINITY RING series with Scholastic. I was expecting a quick, entertaining read. Like THE 39 CLUES, this series has an online video game component, and I’m not much of a fan of video games, but I really fell in love with this book.
The premise is great; two kids discover a way-cool device that allows them to time travel at the same time they learn that they’re the only ones who can go back to fix “breaks” that have altered the course of history. First stop: the voyage of Columbus. It’s easy for a packaged series to rely on fast-paced action and the occasional explosion in place of solid plot and character development, but this book does a great job creating the world that its main characters inhabit (a world that’s been altered by those “Breaks,” and boy is it fun to discover the changes!). But don’t worry…there are plenty of explosions, too. Action fans won’t be disappointed.
A MUTINY IN TIME has great ties to the Age of Exploration and Columbus and should be a fun read-aloud to share for classes studying that period. Pair it with the Columbus chapter in Georgia Bragg’s HOW THEY CROAKED: THE AWFUL ENDS OF THE AWFULLY FAMOUS if you really want to gross out your students with details of life on board the ships. (More on that book soon!) This book will also make a great jumping off point for student writing projects that ask “What If…” If one thing in history changed, what difference would it make in our world today? Fun stuff, thoughtful, and great interdisciplinary connections.
INFINITY RING will grab reluctant readers & action fans, for sure, and I’ve heard that the video game is pretty amazing for kids who love to play online. But make no mistake; there’s more than a flashy video-game tie-in here, and this one will be well worth a read when it’s released in September.
.
Things have been crazy busy here (I always seem to say that with every post, don't I?) But I'm popping up here because
PrintRunner asked me if I can host a postcard printing giveaway. Nice to be giving out freebies! I'm always looking to
print postcards and
online printing companies to try out.
THE PRIZE: 100 5" x 7" POSTCARDS!
Colors: 4/0 Front Only Printing Paper: 14 PT. UV Coating on Front,
Rounded Corners: Yes
Proof: None
Ready to Ship In: 4 Business Days
*Giveaway is open to US Residents only, ages 18 years old and above.
HOW TO ENTER:
-simply like my Facebook Fan page,
Chickengirl Design, and leave a comment here
on the blog below.
That's it! Please make sure there is a way I can contact you via email.
I will pick a winner randomly on May 24, 2012. Thanks to PrintRunner for providing this giveaway, I will get a set of postcards for hosting this. If you like, follow them on Twitter and like them on Facebook. (completely optional.) Good luck everyone!
STUDS TERKEL (1912–2008)
“I love thee, infamous city!”
Baudelaire’s perverse ode to Paris is reflected in Nelson Algren’s bardic salute to Chicago. No matter how you read it, aloud or to yourself, it is indubitably a love song. It sings, Chicago style: a haunting, split-hearted ballad.
Perhaps Ross Macdonald said it best: “Algren’s hell burns with a passion for heaven.” In this slender classic, first published in 1951 and, ever since, bounced around like a ping-pong ball, Algren tells us all we need to know about passion, heaven, hell. And a city.
He recognized Chicago as Hustler Town from its first prairie morning as the city’s fathers hustled the Pottawattomies down to their last moccasin. He recognized it, too, as another place: North Star to Jane Addams as to Al Capone, to John Peter Altgeld as to Richard J. Daley, to Clarence Darrow as to Julius Hoffman. He saw it not so much as Janus-faced but as the carny freak show’s two-headed boy, one noggin Neanderthal, the other noble-browed. You see, Nelson Algren was a street-corner comic as well as a poet.
He may have been the funniest man around. Which is another way of saying he may have been the most serious. At a time when pimpery, licksplittery and picking the poor man’s pocket have become the order of the day—indeed, officially proclaimed as virtue—the poet must play the madcap to keep his balance. And ours.
Unlike Father William, Algren did not stand on his head. Nor did he balance an eel on his nose. He just shuffled along, tap dancing now and then. His appearance was that of a horse player who had just heard the news: he had bet her across the board and she’d come in a strong fourth. Yet, strangely, his was not a mournful mien. He was forever chuckling to himself and you wondered. You’d think he was the blue-eyed winner rather than the brown-eyed loser. That’s what was so funny about him. He did win.
A hunch: his writings may be read, aloud and to yourself, long after acclaimed works of Academe’s darlings, yellowed on coffee tables, have been replaced by acclaimed works of other Academe’s darlings. To call on a Lillian Hellman phrase, he was not a “a kid of the moment.” For in the spirit of a Zola or a Villon, he has captured a piece of that life behind the billboards. Some comic, that man.
At a time when our values are unprecedentedly upside-down—when Bob Hope, a humorless millionaire, is regarded as a funny man while a genuinely funny man, a tent show Toby, is regarded as our president—Algren may be remembered as something of a Gavroche, the gamin who saw through it all, with an admixture of innocence and wisdom. And indignation.
—excerpted from Terkel’s Introduction to the Sixtieth-Anniversary Edition of Nelson Algren’s Chicago: City on the Make
**
It’s impossible to pick a representative interview from the hundreds conducted by Terkel in his lifetime, but this clip from 1961 with James Baldwin, and its opening—Bessie Smith’s Back Water Blues, which Baldwin remarks inspired his “forthcoming novel” (Another Country)—is good enough to take your breath away:
All you wonderful women out there who are feminists and SF readers, have you heard about the new column at Tor, Sleeps With Monsters?
You can expect me to look at the successes and failures of media in terms of portraying women. You can expect me to occasionally mention videogames. You can expect me to touch on the history of women in the genre, riffing off the SF Mistressworks project. You can expect me to highlight discussions about women and genre in the blogosphere — if your not-so-humble correspondent fails to miss them. You can expect me to look at recurring tropes that turn up in genre, often to our detriment. And you can expect me to pop up, yelling, “Feminism WOO YAY!” once or twice a month. (Like a bad penny.)
The first post has loads of links to online feminist geek/SF/genre goodness to keep me busy for days. And, Bourke promises to write about lots of feminist genre writers and their books, so TBR piles beware!
One of the most amazing things about this post, however, is the comments. Usually one can expect some real trolls to turn up with stuff like this. And while there were some challenging males that did make an appearance the general tone did not degrade to name calling and mud slinging.
Sadly, it looks like it is only going to be a twice a month column but I am still pleased. Go check it out and add it to your feed reader.
And while I am on the topic of feminism, have you heard the sad news that Susan Gubar, co-author of Madwoman in the Attic and author and co-author of many other books and articles, is dying of ovarian cancer? She has managed to write a memoir, Memoir of a Debulked Woman: Enduring Ovarian Cancer, that was just published April 30th. I’m number 33 in line for it at the library so will probably find myself reading it in the middle of summer. Of course I will post about it.
Filed under:
Books,
Feminism,
Memoir/Biography,
SciFi/Fantasy 
“Darkroom stands out not only for Weaver’s lovely black and white artwork, but also for her unique perspective on the South during the upheaval of the Civil Rights movement.”~PW
title: Darkroom: a memoir in black and white
author: Lila Quintero Weaver
date: University of Alabama Press; 2012
non-fiction
Darkroom is a graphic memoir of Weaver’s childhood in Alabama. It’s an unexpected story of an Argentinean family living in Alabama in the 1960s. Through Weaver’s eyes, we see how she and her family try to fit into a society that has prescribed places defined by whiteness and blackness. I felt like Weaver was a bit naïve in assuming no racism when discussing from where her parents came in Argentina, but having spent so little time there perhaps she missed its subtleties particularly when contrasted to the overt practices in Alabama.
Using both words and images, Weaver describes the double life she led in elementary school and then the more intentional path she followed in high school. Weaver embeds her eyesight as a symbol of her changing perception of things around her.
Darkroom adds an important dimension to the documentation of the civil rights era in the south where there were other ethnicities present besides Blacks and Whites. There are things she noticed as somewhat an outside that others didn’t pay attention to and because of that, she offers details that I had never read about before. In the final chapter, the author describes her visit as an adult to visit Argentina. For me, it was an awkward transition. I think it did serve to illustrate how important her heritage is to her, but not much else.
author interview
Filed under:
Book Reviews Tagged:
book review,
Lila Q. Weaver,
nonfiction 
0 Comments on book review: Darkroom: a memoir in black and white as of 1/1/1900
By: Jennie,
on 5/16/2012
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Akata Witch Nnedi Okorafor
Sunny's parents are Nigerian, but she was born in the US and then they moved back to Nigeria when she was 9*. She's also an albino. Her classmates stare. Her father hates her.
She saw the end of the world in a candle flame.
And that's when she learns that she's a Leopard person. Leopard people work juju and have powers. They had their Leopadness from the Lambs (aka Muggles.)
And like that, Sunny enters a double life-- dutiful daughter, diligent student by day, Leopard person out to save the world by night.
Because there's a serial killer on the loose and he's been murdering children. The council knows it's a Leopard person and knows that Sunny and her friends have been chosen to deal with it...
Love.
First off, hey! It's a fantasy set in Nigeria! And the magic and magical world are ones with what I assume are Nigerian characteristics (I don't really know much about Nigeria, so I can't say for sure.)
Second of all, Sunny is awesome. She's smart and clever and nice without being too nice. She has some innate abilities and strengths but she also has to learn how to use them. She isn't instantly the bestest Leopard person ever. I think the supporting characters, especially her friend Chichi and Orlu are also really well drawn.
I like how Okorafor plays with Sunny's outsider status. In the Leopard world, she's a free agent, or one who isn't born in Leopard parents. She wasn't raised in the culture or the knowledge, which puts her at a disadvantage. In the Lamb world, she's between cultures. Her classmates call her akata which is a not-nice word for an African-American. The tensions here are played with even more when Sasha arrives from the States. Her skin color also sets her apart from her peers and family. Her in-between status makes her an excellent tour guide both to the Leopard world but also Nigeria.
There's so much going on here that I really hope this is a series. It stands alone, but the world is so complex and I want to spend more time in it. There's also a lot going on with Sunny's family's backstory that I'd love to explore further.
OH! And I liked that there was some super super light romance but NO instalove and NO love triangles and it was a really minor subplot that didn't hijack the story.
Overall a really excellent book. I che4cked it out when we got it in last spring, but didn't get a chance to read it before I had to turn in all my library books before going on maternity leave. Luckily, it stayed on my radar so I checked it out again and had a chance to read it this time. So glad I did.
*Usually. My one complaint with the book is that sometimes this shifted. Like, she moved back when she was 9, but at one point says she and Orlu have been going to school together since they were 5. I kinda got the sense that when she moved back changed in revisions but not all references to it were caught.
Book Provided by... my local library
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By: Jeanne Lyet Gassman,
on 5/16/2012
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Call for Submissions: Sins & Needles: Writers and Tattoos
Tattoos have been in existence for centuries, from the indigenous people of Japan to tribal people of Polynesia, Philippines, and Borneo. They are markers of time, rites of passage, symbols, remembrances, and sometimes, stupid decisions made on a drunken nights. They are everywhere—under the white sleeve of a co-worker, sneakily peaking out of a shirt collar, up and down muscled legs and arms of athletes. There has been proliferation of reality shows centered set in tattoo parlors. What once was a subculture has now emerged as mainstream.
Yet, in the literary landscape, there has been a conspicuous absence of writing about tattoos. The editors of the tentatively titled anthology, Sins & Needles—Ira Sukrungruang and Jim Miller—are looking for personal nonfiction narratives about the meaning behind the tattoo. Please send 500-3000 word essays in a PDF or Word document file via our submission manager.
The deadline for submissions is September 1, 2012. If you have any questions about the anthology, please don’t hesitate to contact, editors(at)sweetlit.com (replace (at) with @).
Are you a Master at Giving Gifts?
Whimsical Tree in Wonderland is a beautiful painting of a tree with curly branches and frosty swirls in the background. There are 2 different images, one winter blue and the other Autumn Brown. Both tree images depict the two seasons –Winder and Fall.
4 Greeting Cards come in this set, 2 brown trees and 2 blue trees as shown in the photos.
Each card is 4″ x 5 3/34″ folded with a blank insert for your message. Each card comes with its own envelop. The blue tree comes with a stark white envelope while the brown tree’s envelope is a slightly warmer off-white tone to match the image.
These are perfect little gifts for the people in your life. Practice random acts of kindness by giving your friends beautiful tree image cards. Just write your personal message inside the card and match it with another gift or just by itself to show someone how much you care.
Want to match these cards with a cute pendant? Check out this pendant gift idea: https://www.etsy.com/listing/64704614/glass-pendant-whimsical-tree-necklace
All 4 cards will come in a stack, wrapped in a pretty ribbon and shipped in a sturdy unbendable envelope.
"Sweet Wolverines!" Amazingly, I have been drawing
Harts Pass for 100 weeks - almost TWO years!
Last weekend, the ever-fantastic
Methow Arts hosted
Ten Tiny Dances at the Twisp Community Center. In today's strip, the "tiny" among us give their own rendition. Take a closer look if you can, because the devil is in the details...
The Hub has responded to yesterday’s brouhaha caused by this Care Bears press release from their pr agency, BWR Public Relations. Crystal Williams, the Hub’s manager of communications and publicity, sent me the following note this afternoon:
Hi Amid,
Last night I came across your story on Cartoon Brew titled “The Hub Hopes Men Will Start Calling Themselves “Belly Bros” and “Care Dudes.” In response, I wanted to let you know that this was an unapproved and unsanctioned pitch by our PR agency that we are completely taken aback by. Both The Hub TV Network nor American Greetings Properties had any knowledge of the pitch angle. It is not our intention to compare Care Bears to My Little Pony and/or the Brony community.
All the best,
Crystal Williams
Manager, Communications & Publicity
The Hub
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Post tags: Bronies, Brony, Care Bears: Welcome To Care-a-Lot, The Hub
By: Evil Editor,
on 5/16/2012
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I just finished reading a YA book titled
Across the Universe, by Beth Revis. Only when I finished did I realize we'd done
the query here, and only when I searched for it on the blog did I realize I'd already done a Success Story post. In any case, now that I've read it, I highly recommend it, It's up there with my other favorite YAs,
The Marbury Lens,
Anna Dressed in Blood and Anna's sequel,
Girl of Nightmares).
Animator Ken Harris becomes a meme. Via Reddit. (Ironically, Harris was one of the fastest animators at Warner Bros. and would often leave work early to play tennis. Does anybody have that luxury nowadays?)
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By:
Aline Pereira,
on 5/16/2012
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PaperTigers
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Cultures and Countries,
Global Voices,
Japan,
A Wise Mother and a Bad Fox,
APALA Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature,
Bamboo is Bamboo,
Bolormaa Baasansuren,
Fukuinkan Shoten,
Ganbaatar Ichinnorov,
Holly Thompson,
japanese picture books as a window to japan,
Kagaku no tomo,
Kodomo no tomo,
Okaasan to warui kitsune,
Ookina poketto,
Shozo Shibata,
Take wa take,
Takusan no fushigi,
YALSA 2012 Best Fiction for Young Adults,
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Japanese Picture Books as a Window to Japan ~ by Holly Thompson
Part 1 of 3
S
ome years ago, as we prepared for a second time to settle in Japan, with children ages two and seven, we were excited about the immediate access we would have to Japanese children’s literature. Japan has long had a robust children’s book market, and we were eager to be immersed in it. So after we moved into our rented home and formed our new school, work and household routines, just as we had in the U.S., we made weekly trips to our local library and brought home stacks of picture books, nature field guides, activity and art books, and, of course, manga—fiction, historical, and biography. With bookstores located at most Japanese train stations and plentiful throughout our town, we also spent hours browsing shop aisles.
Written Japanese includes three writing systems—kanji characters plus two phonetic syllabaries, and young children first learn to read the phonetic hiragana syllabary. Once children can read the hiragana symbols, reading words written in hiragana is immediate. Japanese children aged three and four are often seen reading books that are written entirely in hiragana, and our daughter could read this way in Japanese well before she could read in English.
Japanese picture books took our family deeper inside Japan. Not only were we exposed to great and quirky Japanese stories, but children’s books also provided a window into attitudes and human relations in our adopted culture. We came to better appreciate the rhythms of the language, learned dialogue for every situation, and encountered an infinite number of Japanese onomatopoeias. Japanese is such a complex language to read and write well, and children’s science and nonfiction books offered easy-to-comprehend information about the world around us—the physical world and the society to which we were adapting.
Many of our favorite Japanese children’s books from our years with younger children were published by Fukuinkan Shoten Publishers —their regular picture books, as well as their monthly series: Kodomo no tomo (Children’s Companion, in three age levels—0-2, 2-4, 5-6), Kagaku no tomo (Children’s Science Companion, in two age levels—3-5 and 5-6), Takusan no fushigi (World of Wonders, ages 8 and up) and the discontinued Ookina poketto (Big Pocket).
Fukuinkan Shoten’s monthly books (image on left) include original richly illustrated picture book stories, folktales, and outstanding and varied nonfiction. Published in sturdy paperbacks and often organized in their own sections in school and public libraries, these children’s books have endured on our shelves. I’ve often wondered if English-language publishers might benefit by considering the monthly book model that Fukuinkan Shoten has followed with great success here in Japan. Many of the most successful and popular monthly books, published initially as paperbacks with smaller print runs, are later published in hardcover, such as Taro Gomi’s Minna Unchi, famous in English as Everyone Poops.
Even without small children now, I still like 
to purchase Fukuinkan Shot
By: Jeanne Lyet Gassman,
on 5/16/2012
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2012 First Book Award ~ $3500 and publication
final judge: Chad Davidson
Below are the guidelines for the 2012 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award, which will be open for entries on May 10, 2012 and close on July 7, 2012 (postmark and online submission deadline):
A first book of poems will be selected for publication from an open competition of manuscripts, in English, by a U.S. citizen or permanent resident who has neither published, nor committed to publish, a volume of poetry 48 pages or more in length in an edition of over 500 copies* (individual poems may have been previously published; for the purposes of the Crab Orchard Series in Poetry, a manuscript which was in whole or in part submitted as a thesis or dissertation as a requirement for the completion of a degree is considered unpublished and is eligible). Current or former students, colleagues, and close friends of the final judge, and current and former students and employees of Southern Illinois University and authors published by Southern Illinois University Press are not eligible.
The winner will receive a publication contract with Southern Illinois University Press, and will be awarded a $2000 prize. The winner will also receive $1500 as an honorarium for a reading at Southern Illinois University at Carbondale.
SUBMISSION PERIOD / DEADLINE: All entries must be postmarked or submitted online between May 10, 2012 and the end of July 7, 2012 (online entries will be accepted until 11:59:59 PM (CDT) on July 7, 2012). (For postal submissions since this is a postmark deadline, there is no need to send Express Mail, Fedex, or UPS. First Class or Priority Mail are preferred.) Please do not send revisions of either postal or online submissions; the winner will be given an opportunity to work with the series editor before the manuscript is delivered to SIU Press.
ENTRY FEE: $25.00 per entry for postal submissions; $28.00 per entry for online submissions through Submittable ($25.00 plus $3.00 online processing fee). Entry fees will not be refunded for manuscripts withdrawn by the author. All entrants will receive a year's subscription to CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW, beginning with the 2013 Winter/Spring CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW.
PAGE LENGTH: Manuscripts are recommended to be a minimum of 50 pages to a recommended maximum of 75 pages of original poetry.
INSTRUCTIONS FOR POSTAL SUBMISSIONS: Manuscripts should be typewritten, single-spaced. Include a Table of Contents. No more than one poem should appear on a page. Submit two title pages for the collection. The author's name, address, and daytime phone number should appear on the first title page only. The author's name should appear nowhere else in the manuscript. An acknowledgments page listing poems previously published in magazines, journals, or anthologies should be placed after the second title page. A clean photocopy is recommended, bound with a spring clip or placed in a plain file folder (no paper clips or staples please). Please do not send your only copy of the manuscript since manuscripts will not be returned, and please do not include illustrations. CRAB ORCHARD REVIEW and Southern Illinois University Press assume no responsibility for damaged or lost manuscripts.
All postal submissions must be accompanied by a $25 entry fee (check or money order). Please make your check out to "Crab Orchard Series in Poetry."
Please address postal submissions to:
Jon Tribble, Series Editor, First Book Award
Dept. of English, Mail Code 4503
Southern Illinois University Carbondale
1000 Faner Drive
Carbondale, IL 62901
Include a self-addressed, stamped envelope for notification of contest results. If you would like confirmation that the manuscript has been received, please include a self-addressed, stamped postcard as well.
INSTR
By: Genevieve Petrillo,
on 5/16/2012
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Cupcake Speaks
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Today, on an actual Wednesday, Mom and I are counting down facts about learning new things.
What I Know About Learning New Things
3. It’s tough. I’m trying to learn bowling, but I still need Mom to point to each pin (which is really a water bottle) and say, “Touch it.”
2. It’s fun. When I try to learn something, it makes Mom laugh a lot, because of my tiny brain. Plus I get to eat a lot of Cheerios to help me.
1. There’s always something new to learn. Mom is planning to buy a hula hoop and teach me to jump through it. She better pick up a couple of extra boxes of Cheerios. This may take a while.
What Mom Knows About Learning New Things.
3. It’s tough. That’s why Mom has her writing group named DavidLaurieandOtherDavid. They help her figure out the toughest stuff. The rest, she figures out by typing on the computer and talking to herself.
2. It’s fun. The best fun is putting a submission in the mail or pressing Send. Waiting is fun, and Mom never loses hope that good news is on the way. If bad news comes instead, she says, “We can work on this.” and “Better luck next time.” and “It’s time to practice bowling!”
3. There’s always something new to learn. Just when Mom learns that she needs more conflict in her storis, she needs to learn about point of view and voice and a million other things. DavidLaurieandOtherDavid better pick up a box of Cheerios!
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Countdown Wednesday as of 1/1/1900
“Is it me, or is this ghost talking like the Fonz from Happy Days?” I wondered, the whole time I was reading GHOST BUDDY: ZERO TO HERO. When I spent a little time with Henry Winkler at a Scholastic dinner during the International Reading Association Convention recently, he assured me that I wasn’t imagining things. In fact, when he and his co-author Lin Oliver were working on the book, Winkler says, he spent much of his time walking around the room talking in his Fonzie voice, channeling one of television’s most famous cool guys to create a great, fun voice for his super-cool ghost. As a total writing-process geek, I was delighted with this tidbit of information and loved the book all the more for it.
GHOST BUDDY: ZERO TO HERO is about a kid who moves into a new house in a new neighborhood and discovers all the usual challenges waiting for him — being the new kid at school, facing a bully, finding his way around, and… a ghost living in his closet. At first, the uber-cool ghost doesn’t have much patience for uncool Billy, but the kid gets under his skin after a while, and before long, they’re as close as two friends living in different dimensions can be. Mix in a little baseball, and you’ve got a delightful, funny book. This is a quick read with loads of appeal for readers in grades 2-5 and great potential to hook those reluctant boy readers in older grades, too. Book two in the series, GHOST BUDDY: MIND IF I READ YOUR MIND, shares a book-birthday with my upcoming mystery, CAPTURE THE FLAG – both will be available July 1st.
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I've always detested having to speak on the phone, particularly for work and particularly when I don't know the other person. It's no coincidence that I ended up as an editor, in which communication focuses on the written word. My favourite part of working freelance was the fact that my main client was in Australia so I almost never had to speak with them (and they were really quite nice). Editor/writer is listed as the top job for introverts (second is a surgeon, so I'll make that my fallback career) and I'm very happy with my quiet, self-contained daily routine.
But needs must and when you work for a small company like ours, there's no room to be precious. So I've spent all day on the phone, calling independent bookshops around the country to chat about a new exciting project (of which more later this week).
Arghh - pitching an idea to strangers over the phone is my idea of very hard work.
But you know what? It was fine - it turns out, as I might have known, independent booksellers are a very nice bunch and very happy to chat to independent publishers. And working my way through the database, I was green with envy after hearing about some of their shops. The lovely people at
Mr & Mrs Doak's Bumper Bookshop in Eastborne (how inviting does that sounds? And it has a tea-room!) had me wanting to pack my bags for the seaside pronto. Or Thatcham's
Family Bookshop, who are currently offering special deal on hardback children's classics. And next time I'm in East Anglia, I'm definitely making a detour to visit the
Norfolk Children's Book Centre, set up in a garden in rural north Norfolk (there's a nice article
here in
Books for Keeps on how NCBC is a great example of how children's bookshops can encourage children to become keen readers).
And the exciting part is that the bookshops I spoke with were really enthusiastic about taking part in our new project, more of which I'll reveal at the end of the week. Sometimes it is worth stepping out of that comfort zone...
Start: 05/20/2012 - 4:00pm
End: 05/20/2012 - 4:00pm
Basketball Hall of Fame Legend and three-term US Senator Bill Bradley will be here on Sunday, May 20th at 4:00 to sign copies of his new book We Can All Do Better.
You can pre-order a copy to reserve your place in line. The earlier you order the better your place in line will be. If you can't make it to the event, be sure to pre-order, and we will ship your signed copy, or hold it for you in the store.
The eighteen-year New Jersey Senator, financial and investment adviser, Olympic and NBA athlete, national radio host, and bestselling author's varied experiences help to inform his unique and much-sought-after point of view on Washington and the country at large.
In "We Can All Do Better," for the first time since the financial meltdown and since the worst of the intensifying political gridlock, Bradley offers his own concise, powerful, and highly personal review of the state of the nation. Bradley argues that government is not the problem. He criticizes the role of money and politics, explains how continuing on our existing foreign policy, electoral, and economic paths will mean a diminished future, and lays out exactly what needs to be done to reverse course.
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