A Taste For Red will be published in Spanish and Catalan by Macmillan Spain! Fantastico!
And a big shout out to all of the terrific students and faculty at Desoto Trail Elementary School. I had a great time. I loved seeing so many students dressed up as their favorite book characters; it was like Halloween all over again--which is a good thing.

At a recent book signing, I subjected a group of innocents to one of my poems. And now I'll do the same to you...

This week the Tallahassee Democrat printed a very nice article featuring myself and A Taste For Red. The reporter, Kathleen Laufenberg, drove out to the house and delved deep into the shallows of my writerly process. She managed make me look and sound way cooler than I actually am, but I do deserve some credit since I constantly mentioned the heights of my coolness during the interview. You can check out the piece online at this little link here as well as a short video where I'm sounding a wee bit authorly and sporting an overly round head.

I awoke after a restless night sporting particularly bad hair and dark circles under my eyes and decided to take advantage of my frightening appearance. So here's another recitation from the works of Edgar Allan Poe, an unsettling poem of the grave: The Conqueror Worm.

This is not a brand-spanking new video, but I wanted to see how Vimeo loaded on the blog.

Making Svetlana Grimm from lewis harris on Vimeo.

As a youth, I was seldom thrilled with "required reading", but I always loved Poe. Dickens and Orwell had to grow on me over time, but I loved Edgar Allan Poe from the start. Even the poetry--long before I could appreciate it, I loved it. Was it the worms? Or the coffins? Or the roiling seas sucking ships and crews into the abyss? Was it the beating of a phantom heart or the click of bricks walling away an unfortunate soul? It was all of it, every black word and syrupy sweet slice of nightmare pie. Mmmmm...

A Taste For Red scored two very nice reviews this week.

Booklist declared "In the glut of novels about vampires and other supernatural beings, it's refreshing to find such a slim, sharp tale....A tasty read indeed" while School Library Journal predicted that the book is "Sure to be a crowd-pleaser..."

I certainly hope so.

I'm receiving terrific feedback from readers at my website. I love to see the nice reviews in the press, but a note from a happy reader is the absolute best. I certainly appreciate hearing from all the students who have written to say how much they enjoyed Svetlana's adventure.

Thanks!

Here are some things (off the top of my head) that I like about Australia: Baz Luhrmann, Mel Gibson, George Miller, Nicole Kidman, Guy Pearce, David Gulpilil---and I could go on, but you get the idea: most of what I know about Australia can be rented at Blockbuster. Is this my fault? Probably. But if I try...I think I can name all the territories: Queensland, New South Wales, (um........) Victoria, (um.......) Northwest Territory, Southern Territory, (um.........) Tazmania, (um.......)(um.......)(um.......)
Okay--I can't think of anymore. So now it's time to Google and see where I went wrong!
(minutes later)
Hey--not too bad. I forgot Australian Capital Territory (it only looks as big as my little toenail), and I falsely merged Northern Territory and Western Australia into one. And misspelled Tasmania. And I called South Australia 'Southern Territory'--is that bad? So maybe I didn't do so well, either.
But I've recently discovered another nice thing about Australia: Tania McCartney. She's given my book a terrific write up on Australian Women Online. So check it out .

Vacation? Yep...I'll definitely have to call it that (South Beach and Key West--beautiful!). And what did I do on vacation? Almost nothing...so nice. Good books, great food, palm trees, bicycles, swimming pools, big hats, SPF 50 sun protection...ahhh.

But now it's time to get back to work. Only I'm not sure what that means, or even where to start.

Maybe I should write something.

I'll be in Orlando, Florida on June 11 at the Barnes and Noble Colonial for a New Writers Event featuring Florida authors Judy Lindquist, Lola Wert, Melinda Driscoll, Ginger Bryant, Doris Bloodsworth, Antone Christopher, Reg Ivory, and myself. The event is Saturday afternoon between 1-3pm, so if you're in the Orlando area please stop by and say hi. I'll be signing copies of A Taste For Red and wearing my good shoes and a brand new shirt. Maybe new pants, too. My partner and I are still arguing about the pants.

I was happy with my book advance, and would have been happy with less. Or more. The great thing about selling a first book is that IT SOLD. Everything that comes after is cream, although that's sometimes easy to forget. But cream will turn if not properly stored. And it turns anyway, eventually. It has a shelf life, after all.
For insight into advances and other less romantic features of the writing life, here are two thoughtful posts from writers John Green and Jessica Burkhart. The comments under the Green post are lengthy and worth a peek.
My own opinions about book advances, book promotion, and the book business in general are hazy at best--and may remain so. Serious consideration of all things practical eludes me; it's one of my gifts. But, if you're dabbling in writing and hoping for publication, the business end of the stick cannot be avoided.
Whack.

My editor emailed me a nice review for A Taste For Red from Publishers Weekly.
Of course, I like this part:

The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books likes A TASTE FOR RED. In fact, they think "The snarky, clever mix of mystery, horror, and goth-girl humor results in a novel that will easily cross genre lines to reach a wide variety of readers."

I certainly hope so!
And another nice review is offered at MISS PRINT.

"A Taste for Red is a humorous, sometimes suspenseful, always fun book that takes the conventions of vampire stories and throws them out the window."

If you read the book, you'll find that's not the only thing that goes out the window. The reviewer even compares Svetlana to Stewie from FAMILY GUY, which probably makes me happier than it should.
But I can't help it.
Stewie's one of my favorites.

Writer and illustrator Meghan Killeen has a post about myself and A Taste for Red up at her blog. Meghan attended the Art Institute of California in San Francisco and hung out with the circus, which sounds cool. But what really sounds cool (at least to me) is that she once worked for a detective agency.

I was a huge fan of The Rockford Files when I was a kid. I wanted to grow up and wear sport coats and sideburns and cruise around town behind the wheel of a gold Firebird thwarting bad guys and tossing off clever remarks.

What person in their right mind wouldn't?

But I kinda shot myself in the foot when I bought my first car, a 1982 Toyota Tercel.

I had a sneaking suspicion that I was insignificant, but this is ridiculous...

"Powers of Ten: A film dealing with the relative size of things in the universe and the effect of adding another zero."

This is a fantastic little film from Charles and Ray Eames (just under nine minutes). I might've viewed this as a young student and then needed about 30 years to appreciate it. Or maybe I didn't see it, but it certainly reminds me of the short movies we watched in science class back in the day. Do you remember the clack-clack-clack of the projector? And the sound of the film finally tearing apart, like it always seemed to do?

Kind words for A Taste for Red can be found at The Miss Rumphius Effect!

A fellow writer asked me for advice today. Unfortunately, and surprisingly, I seem to have offered up a straight answer (for the most part). Straight answers really kill the entertainment potential, but do make for a nice break.

I dreamed about A TASTE FOR RED last night. I could relate to you the specifics of the dream--I'm sure that you can be trusted--but best not to risk it. Someone we don't know might read this post and then--wham!-- I'd find uniformed men brandishing enormous butterfly nets banging at the front door.
Best to be safe.
And best to take a break for a few days...or at least after today. Later I'm heading to a couple of bookstores and then to the Ocala Library, but after that I'll be laying low for the weekend. I'll be trapped in the Parent Zone, where nothing productive can happen anyway. I see lots of sausage and cake and baking soda in my future.
Surprisingly, it sounds just right.

I like the above title, but it's not mine --it's from Bartography where Chris Barton has a nice interview with me posted at his blog.

Svetlana Grimm is a favorite at BookPeople !
Thanks Emily for the kind words. Here are a few choice tidbits:

"...wonderful, funny read..."
"...perfect for girls and guys..."
"...not one you want to miss this summer."

Definitely not :^)
Check out the full skinny at BookKids Recommends.

I went into the wonderful Inkwood Books in Tampa and it's available there. It's at BookPeople in Austin. It appears to be in stock at most Barnes and Noble. It's available online wherever fine books are sold online. It's on my mom's coffee table. It's in the trunk of my car. It's in libraries in Arizona, Vancouver, Boston, Tallahassee, and on and on and on. It's propping up the wobbly work bench in my brother's garage.

If it's not available on the shelf at your favorite bookseller, just ask. They'll be happy to order it. Seriously...they'll be "very happy." By simply requesting A Taste For Red, you'll be spreading thick spoonfuls of joy! You can't put a price on that (although for business purposes, your local book retailer might.)

I have to thank Clarion Books and Houghton Mifflin Harcourt for doing a fantastic job getting A Taste For Red out into the world.

But mostly I have to thank my wonderful friends and family who have supported and encouraged me along the winding path to this happy moment. I thank the folks who've bought the book and the one's who will buy the book and those that will tell their friends about the book and that they must buy the book even if their children have to go without a meal to offset the cost of the book. I know...it's cruel, but really, what's one meal? Or two? A Taste For Red is distracting and oh so nutritious--they won't even notice.

Would you trade five years of your life to be beautiful?
I think a lot of us already do.
When you factor time spent on the cleansing mask, pedicure/manicure/beauty salon, lipstick, hairspray, eyeliner, exfoliant, abdominal crunches, choose shoes, five outfits on and off to find the one you're wearing, accessorizing, tweezing and teasing and straightening and curling, long-longer-longest lashes, lip-defining, blush-blending, hip-hugging-push-upping, hair coloring, sit-center "love me, love me, love me" mantra that makes up so much of so many days for both gals AND guys...well...it has to add up.

Author Janette Rallison has an essay about the role of beauty in our society included in Mind-Rain, a collection of essays centered around the Uglies series by Scott Westerfeld. Janette has an excerpt from her essay posted and is giving away a copy of Mind-Rain over at her blog.
You just have to answer the question: would you?

"It all started with a magic act and an accident at the ketchup factory..."

How can a reader walk away from a great teaser like that?

Here's the lowdown from Charlesbridge:
"Joe and Bob Switzer were very different brothers. Bob was a studious planner who wanted to grow up to be a doctor. Joe dreamed of making his fortune in show business and loved magic tricks and problem-solving. When an accident left Bob recovering in a darkened basement, the brothers began experimenting with ultraviolet light and fluorescent paints. Together they invented a whole new kind of color, one that glows with an extra-special intensity Day-Glo."

Now that sounds like a great book for young readers.

And the writer is definitely on a roll. Chris Barton's debut picture book, THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS, has just been released from Charlesbridge, his second book, the awesomely titled SHARK VS. TRAIN, is slated for a 2010 release from Little, Brown, and he is currently hard at work on a YA non-fiction project for Dial. That's almost more than I can cram into one sentence.

Thankfully, Chris slowed down long enough for five questions:

1) What book had the most influence on you as a young reader? Was there a title that inspired you, that lingers as a defining book in your life?

There wasn't a particular book, actually, but there was a magazine: Rolling Stone. By that time, it had moved from breaking the story of Patty Hearst's kidnapping to putting out things like "The Hot Issue," but it still opened up a cultural window in my pre-Web teenage small-town East Texas life. I liked the subjects it covered, and I loved the story of how the magazine had come into being through scrappiness and determination and good timing. As I got older, I became less directly inspired by it -- I no longer wanted to be a rock critic, and I no longer wanted to be the editor of Rolling Stone -- but I think it did give me a sense of what professional satisfaction and fulfillment through the written word should feel like, and when I stumbled into children's writing, I recognized that sensation immediately.

2) Your debut THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS has just been released and you have several other projects in the pipeline. What was the most unexpected discovery that you made on your road to publication, the thing that surprised you the most?

The entire world of writing and publishing books for children was an unexpected discovery. It was like lifting a big flat rock and finding this thriving, fascinating ecosystem that had been nearby all along but hidden from view. I was most surprised by the sense of community, the mere existence of an organization like SCBWI, and the lengths that children's writers and illustrators will go to in order to help and support each other.

3) You seem to do a lot of research for your books, doesn’t that drive you nuts?

I love doing research. What drives me nuts is having to stop researching and go with whatever information I've managed to accumulate. Because if I'd been able to keep going, who knows what cool fact I might have found next?

4) When I lived in New Orleans, I noticed that everyone leaving New Orleans was either going to New York City or Austin. Why Austin?

The second-most-influential publication on the teenage me was The Daily Texan, the student newspaper at the University of Texas. I happened to be in Austin each spring when the graduating seniors would publish their farewell columns, and those made the basement where the Texan staff worked seem like nirvana. So, I came to Austin to attend UT and write for the Texan, and I've been here mostly ever since. I did live in New York for a little while (interning for Rolling Stone), and in Houston and Atlanta, and my wife and I had the good sense to honeymoon in New Orleans in December when the French Quarter was pretty much empty and there was no one to get between us and the food.

5) If a picture book, a middle grade reader, and a YA novel got into a knife fight, which would emerge victorious?

The knife maker -- the weapons manufacturer always comes out ahead.

Very clever answer. I was hoping for a gory and detailed fight scene, but you've thwarted me! (Shakes fist).

Check out Chris's website and blog and join him at Facebook for all the latest news.

THE DAY-GLO BROTHERS: The True Story of Bob and Joe Switzer's Bright Ideas and Brand-New Colors is illustrated by Tony Persiani, written by Chris Barton, and available online or at your local bookseller.