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By: Bowie Style,
on 8/16/2012
freelance designer mel smith sent me some examples of her latest design work. mel has been busy creating designs for her etsy & folksy shops, society 6, and wallpapered. she also recently completed the design course 'the art & business of surface pattern design' and is keen to take on more commissions, so if you like the look of mel's designs find her online here.
By: Bowie Style,
on 8/16/2012
clare nicolson has a a new range of vintage cushions available in her shop. all the cushions are made from a specially selected range of vintage fabrics. starting from just £18.00, there are lots of fabrics and colours to choose from.i also enjoyed browsing through all the vintage cushion designs (below) by linda høgås of plonka on the norwegian shopping website epla.
By: jules,
on 8/16/2012
Last week at Kirkus, I talked about the Fall 2012 picture book titles I’ve seen in advance (and that I really like) and which will be released soon. (Here’s the link.) Today, I’ve got a lot of art to showcase, at least one spread from each of the books I mentioned in that column.
A few quick notes: If you like what you see here from Christian Robinson, I’ll have an interview with him relatively soon, not to mention Stephen Savage. I’ll also be showcasing Matthew Cordell’s hello! hello! later, as well as Candace Fleming’s and Eric Rohmann’s Oh, No! And, if you want to see more from Philip and Erin Stead’s Bear Has a Story to Tell, I featured it here at 7-Imp last Sunday.
Finally, I’ll also have a Q & A with Sarah Stewart and David Small within the next month, as well as a post that shows many of David’s early sketches for The Quiet Place.
I think that’s it, though there could be more. There could always be more.
Enjoy the art today … (more…)
By: Melinda Palacio,
on 8/16/2012
Melinda Palacio
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| Countdown to Publication: Two Months. Coming soon, Tía Chucha Press, October 2012 |
"Palacio’s work is expansive, physical, funeral-wet, elevated, funny, existential, woman-story, jazzy and Pachukona. She is unafraid to dive head-on into questions of death, loss and self. Into the fiery entwined spikes of father-daughter estrangements, mother-daughter intimacies and most of all, she is “insomniac” bold in this volume as an ongoing sequence on self. Melinda’s collection has Bop and “swagger,” lingo, song, denuncia, compassion and wild, unexpected turns– all the key ingredients and hard-won practices of a poet (and shaman) in command of her powers. I don’t think there is anything like this book. ¡Brillantissima!" - Juan Felipe Herrera
“Continue to fix broken things,” Melinda Palacio writes in “Ramona Street,” and the poems in How Fire Is a Story, Waiting are consumed with naming the problems of the world and trying—however provisionally—to set them right. Palacio’s verse, dense with imagery, is by turns sorrowful and sardonic, and always the voice is her own. There’s a little universe in this book: enter and learn." --David Starkey
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| Reyna Grande's publication party, August 25 |
"Grande relentlessly mines this thematically rich terrain in "The Distance Between Us." With two deeply flawed adults at its center — her embittered father and her less-than-reliable mother — it's a brutally honest book that avoids the sentimentality that permeates many Latino immigrant narratives."
Store Feature - Itsy Bitsy Spidey - http://www.etsy.com/shop/AshleyMarieBerry
Product - Diaper Covers, Photo Props, Baby Fascinators, Pettiskirts and Headbands! Great for photographers as props or as a new mom gift!
About - I started sewing at a very young age. i started a custom bathing suit business at age 17, then moved onto costuming (which i love!). I just had a baby girl 9 months ago and my new love is her (of course) but dressing her in frilly fun things! we went to a baby photographer and she had so many fun props...which got me thinking! i can unleash my creative side into baby photo props! they can be extravagant, or soft and pretty. So many ideas flowing!
Since a picture is worth a thousand words -
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By: Karen,
on 8/16/2012
A writer's life can be a lonely one so I really enjoy it when I do school visits or work with other writers. Which is why I'm so excited about a new project I'm planning with my author friend and fellow ABBA blogger, Ann Evans. We both love to inspire children and adults to write so we're getting together to run workshops together both in and out of school. We've come up the with name KAT - short for Kids and Authors together - for our theme based creative writing workshops for children. Coincidentally, the initials could also stand for Karen and Ann together!
My illustrator daughter, Naomi, designed us this logo.
By: Sonja C.,
on 8/16/2012
Flying Monsters 3-D
For tens of millions of years pterosaurs dominated the skies. Some were the size of sparrows, but others were as big as a small airplane with wingspans of up to 40 feet. If you have ever wondered what it feels like to fly with a prehistoric pterosaur, then Flying Monsters 3-D is a movie you must see! The movie brings these winged dinosaurs to life on the giant screen and you actually feel like you are right there with them. It is now showing worldwide in giant-screen theaters and digital 3-D cinemas. I saw it at the American Museum of Natural History in New York City, and oh my goodness, it was amazing!
We got the behind-the-scenes scoop about making the movie from the producer Anthony Geffen and the narrator David Attenborough.
Attenborough says, “CGI brings these creatures alive. . .You can’t tell that these creatures haven’t actually been filmed. They are totally believable in every detail and are as convincing as an image of a bird."
However,there were a lot of challenges filming the movie. The 3-D technology is extremely complex, and the camera equipment is cumbersome, weighing more than 123 pounds (56 kg), almost 10 times more than a high-definition television camera.
The team shot the rainforest scene at the Eden Project in Cornwall. The backdrop of steamy tropics replicates the exact conditions of a real rain forest, at temperatures of 95 degrees Fahrenheit and 90 percent humidity. Although vital for the shoot, conditions were brutal to the sensitive 3-D camera rig and caused one of the cameras to go down during a take. As the team worked to cool down the overheated camera with bags of ice wrapped in cloth, shooting came to a standstill.
The most difficult and expensive shoot of the whole project was filmed in Dorset, England. “What we did here was one of the most complicated sequences ever done in 3-D. We filmed David [Attenborough] in a real glider and later, using CGI, we superimposed a massive pterosaur, the biggest one: Quetzalcoatlus. The idea was to demonstrate the extraordinary scale of the pterosaur — a creature that was longer than a bus and could fly at 75 miles per hour — by setting it beside something from the modern day of the same size that people could relate to,” explains Geffen. The sequence was filmed using a specially designed 3-D camera rig, mounted onto a helicopter. The pilot, a filming specialist, constantly had to compensate for the extra weight at the same time as performing a complex aerial ballet.
Aerial ballet with a dinosaur! Wow! With all those challenges during the shoot, it's a good thing they were only CGI pterosaurs and not real ones!
Are you excited about Flying Monsters 3-D? Leave a Comment to tell us what you think.
Images courtesy National Geographic
Add a Comment
By: Jerry Beck,
on 8/16/2012
In the New York Times.
Cartoon Brew |
Permalink |
One comment |
Post tags: Brave, Brenda Chapman
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By: Mary Ann Scheuer,
on 8/16/2012
The end of summer is here; every time turn around, the kids I see have grown again -- sprouting up, up, up! So once again, we go through our closets trying to put away clothes they've grown out of and save them for someone else. But what do you do about that favorite dress or shirt? Can you really give it away? I Had a Favorite Dress captures this feeling with perfect zip and zing!
A young girl starts the story declaring, "I had a favorite dress that was my favoritest dress ever." Can you relate to that? I so remember those days when my daughters would ONLY wear dresses, and our friend across the street would only wear orange. Preschoolers are particular!I Had a Favorite Dress
by Boni Ashburn
pictures by Julia Denos
NY: Abrams, 2011
ages 4-8
available from your local library and on Amazon
By: Kathy Temean,
on 8/16/2012
Here is the First Page Picture Prompt for August. It is by Courtney Autumn Martin. I thought this illustration had many stories wanting to be told. I will announce our Guest Critiquer next Friday. Courtney was featured on Illustrator Saturday last January. Click here to look. Or visit her website at: http://www.slumberlandstudio.com or her blog: http://blog.slumberlandstudio.com.
WRITERS: Please attach your double spaced, 12 point font, 23 line first page to an e-mail and send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Also cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. Put “August 23rd First Page Prompt” in the subject line.
ILLUSTRATORS: You still have until August 24th to submit an illustration for August. I’m looking for illustrations where a light source illuminates something in the picture. Examples: A street light, a flashlight, light from a TV or computer, candles, the moon, the sun, etc. Use your imagination to create something new or send something that you already finished. Show off a little and send it something for August. You do not have to wait, I will post the illustrations as they come in during the month, but I will definitely post all by Aug 31st. Please make sure the illustration is at least 500 pixels wide and include a blurb about yourself and a link to see more of your work. Please send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com and put “August Illustration” in the subject box.
Editorial Consultant Sarah Cloots has agreed to critique our August Writing Picture Prompt.
Sarah Cloots is a graduate of Rice University and the Columbia Publishing Course; as well as the New York University courses MBA Fundamentals, Fundamentals of Copyediting, and Writing for Children; and MediaBistro’s YA Novel Writing. She was an editor at Greenwillow Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children’s Books, for four and a half years.
She began her publishing career as a reporter for The Kingwood Observer newspaper and as an intern at Bloomsbury Children’s Books. She has worked on books for young readers of all ages, from board books through young adult novels. Here it the link to her website: http://clootsamini.com
Talk tomorrow,
Kathy
By: Medeia Sharif,
on 8/16/2012
Today I have author C. Lee McKenzie answering some interview questions. She's the author of the YA novels SLIDING ON THE EDGE and THE PRINCESS OF LAS PULGAS. Her short stories can be found in THE FIRST TIME and TWO AND TWENTY DARK TALES: DARK RETELLINGS OF MOTHER GOOSE RHYMES. Today we'll mainly be talking about her newest release, a middle grade novel entitled ALLIGATORS OVERHEAD.
Welcome, Lee. ALLIGATORS OVERHEAD seems different than your previous books, realistic YA novels. How long have been writing MG and was it easy to switch between levels and genres?
You're right about it being very different. The truth is I started writing MG, but then became sidetracked by contemporary, realistic issues like cutting when I read an article about Ivy League students who admitted to self abuse. I couldn't imagine why successful, highly motivated, intelligent young people would succumb to inflicting such pain on themselves. I set out to write an article and wound up with a novel. By the time I'd done that and sold it, I was already onto another YA story and my MG stories were forgotten. I guess I returned to them because I wanted a break from the angst of the teen novel. It's been fun and I've enjoyed writing this book for younger readers.
Reading the description of ALLIGATORS OVERHEAD I see two primary antagonists, a witch and an alligator. I wouldn’t have put the two together. What inspired you to write this novel?
Actually, the two are quite chummy, and they don't have anything against my protagonist except they'd like for him to get his act together and stop being such a rotten kid. One of the problems in the story is that the witches are a bit rusty with their magic and the alligators are really steamed about what's happening to their swamp.
As to inspiration, it was a knotty pine ceiling I used to have that inspired the title and later the book. I could see all kinds of creatures in those dark streaks and and the knots used to stare at me like eyes. Right over my bed, there was a long dark streak that formed a perfect alligator with a knot that I was convinced was a terrible alligator eye. I didn't much care for an alligator over my head, and I wondered what would happen if it came to life and fell from the ceiling. Fortunately, it didn't, but that idea stuck with me for a long time. All I needed was a story to use the title that I loved.
I love hearing how people come up with titles and ideas. That's real interesting about the ceiling. If you had to choose a battle, with the witch or alligator, who would you choose and why?
Give me the witch any day. I've never known a real witch, but I think they've gotten a bad rap forever. When I was researching witchcraft I found so much about their ideas of living in harmony with others and respecting nature. I believe in all of that, so maybe I'm a bit witchy. Those alligators are not cozy animals. I respect them for their longevity (65 million years), but I don't want any battles with them.
Pete has mysterious powers. If you could choose three super powers, which would they be and how would you use them?
Flying is my first choice. I love the idea of that perspective and I envy those red tailed hawks that hunt over my garden and often mistake me for prey when I'm working there. Second, I guess it would be to travel to any time period I want to visit. I've always wanted to see what the 1200's in Europe really were like. I'd like to visit a period when the Magna Carta was signed. Then there's ancient Egypt. Was Cleopatra or Nefertiti as glam as they're made out to be? The twenties in the U.S. is another period that fascinates me. I'm jumping around in time here, just as if I could really do that, so next I'd like to be in the U.S. when Thomas Jefferson was in charge. His brilliance has always fascinated me. Oops! I got carried away. My third super power would have to be the absolute power to stop hate before it enters a heart.
Those three are great choices! What are your must-haves for writing?
I must be up early. Often way before daylight. I must sit looking out at the forest of undisturbed redwoods as the sun brushes their tops with light. I must have my cappuccino with chocolate sprinkled on top, and (old-fashioned as it may be) I need my small spiral notebook. I'm very spoiled with my setting for writing. I love it so.
Who are your favorite authors?
F. Scott Fitzgerald is one of the writers I admire. I love Hinton for her bold '70's break from all that was being written about teens at that time. I admit to being in love with Faulkner, even when his insistence on not following any of the rules about time and sequence made me want to throw his books across the room. He taught me a lot. They all did. There are more favorites, of course, but I'm not writing a tome here, right?
No, you're not. And I can also get carried away with favorite authors and books. What are you working on now?
I'm diddling around with a couple of YA books that I want to revise. One has a male protagonist, and I really like the story and the characters. The other YA is going through some overhauling. I'm not happy with parts, so I'll be taking it apart in the fall and fixing what I don't like. I'm also "playing" again with another MG fantasy adventure. Actually, it's written but needs some tweaking—probably a lot of tweaking.
Thank you for stopping by, Lee.
About the author:
A native Californian, C. Lee McKenzie lives on the edge of a redwood forest with her husband and assorted cats. When she's not writing or blogging she's hiking or practicing yoga. She usually writes young adult fiction that deals with contemporary, realistic issues. In Sliding on the Edge (2009) she dealt with cutting, and in The Princess of Las Pulgas (2010) she wrote about a family that loses almost everything and has to rebuild their lives together. Alligators Overhead is her first Middle Grade novel. Lee blogs at http://writegame.blogspot.com and her website is http://cleemckenziebooks.com.
Blurb:
Alligators, witches and a spooky mansion aren't your average neighbors unless you live at the edge of the Ornofree swamp in the backwater town of Hadleyville. The town's bad boy, Pete Riley, may only be twelve, but he's up to his eyeballs in big trouble, and this time he isn't the cause. This time the trouble arrives when a legendary hundred-year-old mansion materializes next door and the Ornofree alligators declare war to save their swamp from bulldozers. Things only get worse when Pete's guardian aunt and several of her close friends vanish while trying to restore order using outdated witchcraft. Now Pete must find the witches and stop the war. He might stand a chance if his one friend, Weasel, sticks with him, but even then, they may not have what it takes.
Links to find the author and her book:
Website
Blog
Facebook
Twitter
Amazon Author Page
Goodreads
Amazon Kindle
Amazon Paperback
B & N
Smashwords
By: Stephane Kardos,
on 8/16/2012
By: Sonja C.,
on 8/16/2012
Conor Maynard Interview
Conor Maynard is a 19-year-old British pop singer with a great YouTube discovery story. "I did a cover of Ne-Yo's 'Beautiful Monster,'" Maynard told MTV News. "[Ne-Yo] told a story where one of his friends called him [like] 'Yo man, isn't this kid singing 'Beautiful Monster' better than you singing it?' He was a bit like, 'Ah, no, I'll check that out.' And he was like, 'This kid does sing better than me!'"
Now, with his debut album, Contrast, already out abroad and the U.S. release coming in October, people are of course comparing him to Justin Bieber. I've heard 2 singles from the album so far, (OK, I admit to obsessively watching the videos for "Vegas Girl" and "Can't Say No" like a hundred times a day.) and I think he is more like Justin Timberlake. Sometimes he even reminds me of Michael Jackson. Either way, this guy's got massive talent!
Lucky Marie Morreale got to interview him. (First One Direction, then Austin Mahone, and now Conor? Some girls get all the luck!)
Q: What is the meaning of your album title Contrast?Conor: Obviously a small reason is basically that it’s a little play on my first name: Conor, Contrast. After that, there’s quite a few meanings. It might be quite a contrast from what people are expecting. It’s kind of got quite mature elements to it and it’s a quite urban sound as well. I remember my first ever album review and the first thing they said was, “Oh yea, we were really expecting a very Justin Bieber kind of pop-y album, and it really wasn’t that,” and I was like, “Well, I tried to tell you.” Also, it’s a contrast on what’s already out there. It’s quite a different sound. Not many artists or albums really sound like it right now. And finally is the contrast within the album. You know, it’s kind of a big, upbeat dance track all the way down to the slow, stripped-back piano track. So, yea, Contrast kind of fits the album I think.
Q: How would you describe your music?
Conor: I always tried to make quite a unique sound. I never wanted to copy. My motto creating the album was, “It’s better to fail in originality than it is to succeed in imitation.” So I was always trying to make it very different, very original, and I suppose I’ve definitely had influences growing up. There’s people like Michael Jackson, Stevie Wonder, and as I got a bit older, I went through quite a rock kind of period. I used to listen to Good Charlotte, Green Day, and then I went very R&B, people like Usher, Mario, Ne-Yo, Justin Timberlake, and now I listen to a lot of rap, people like Drake, Jay-Z, Kanye West. So there’s loads of different influences that have all come into one, and I think that’s really shaped my sound. I think it’s, you know, quite urban, R&B vocals kind of thing, obviously, pop elements to it as well, and yea, there’s a lot different elements gone into it.
Q: How much of the album did you write?
Conor: I wrote 8 of the 12 tracks. I definitely wanted to get involved in the writing side of it. I really wanted to have my own stamp on the album. So there are a few tracks about experiences I’ve been through and a few tracks I’ve just written because I know me and my friends would love. At first, people didn’t really know I could write. I was my covers, so that didn’t really mean I had to write anything. But when I was going to the studio, I’d definitely get involved in the writing. I’d learned from different writers, different producers, and my writing just slowly improved. And then, as it got closer to the album, I started writing more tracks with different producers, and the label would hear them, the management would hear them, and be really impressed.
Q: How do you write your songs?
Conor: It’s completely random for me. Things just pop into my head. It’s just one of those things where sometimes you have a moment where you’re suddenly inspired by something, or you have a sudden idea and it just flows out of you. Other times, you really don’t know what to write about and it doesn’t go too smoothly. But either way, I think it’s just random. When I was writing “Can’t Say No”, the only idea I had in my head to start with was the whole, “Houston, I think we got a problem.” So we put that before the chorus, and then we thought, “Ok, how are we going to link this into an actual song? What can we say for the rest of it?” And I was thinking of how people are always saying, “Oh, you must have a lot of girls now,” and it was like, “Ok, I’m going to play on that. Oh, there’s just so many girls I just can’t say no."
Q: What was it like when Ne-Yo said he wanted to work with you?
Conor: It was crazy. He was the one that noticed me on YouTube. When I first heard from his management that he wanted to work with me, I wanted to believe it, but at the same time I was a bit skeptical. I didn’t want to get all the way out to America to have my friends back in my hometown be like, “We got you. It’s just us.” So I asked, “Is there any proof? Is Ne-Yo definitely involved here?” A few days later, I was sitting on Skype with Ne-Yo talking about music and him telling me he wanted to sign me. It was kind of crazy.
Q: What is the most surprising thing since you entered this whole forum?
Conor: It’s probably having a chance to meet some of my idols and realizing how like normal human beings they are. I got to work with people like Pharrell Williams, and I got to meet Ne-Yo, these people I’d been listening to growing up. So they were kind of my idols, and then I got to meet them, and they were just really normal, humble people that made me feel very comfortable very quickly. They’re just really cool. Sometimes you look up to an artist and think he's like some superhuman kind of person. I think when you meet them you realize they’re just really down-to-earth people, really cool. Just being considered an equal among them was definitely a cool feeling that I didn’t really expect.
Q: Did either of them give you any specific advice about the music industry?
Conor: A lot of artists that I meet definitely have had advice and it’s normally the same thing. It’s all about enjoying yourself. They always ask me, “Are you enjoying it? Are you enjoying yourself?” because a lot of people look at the music industry and think it’s all glitz and glamour, and really it isn’t. There are a lot of hardships. You have to go through a lot of difficult situations. So make sure you’re enjoying yourself. Make sure, you know, when you’re performing and in the studio you’re having as much fun as possible because, you know, if you’re not enjoying yourself, then it’s going to become a struggle. It’s going to become a bit of a massive drag.
Q: Do you feel like added pressure that you have to prove yourself compared to Justin Bieber?
Conor: Comparisons just naturally come early in a musician’s career. People are trying to guess who you’re trying to be like, what your sound is trying to be. I’d much rather people just listen to the music and make their own opinions, make their own comparisons for themselves. You know, I’m not trying to be the next anyone. I’m trying to be the first Conor Maynard. I’m just doing me and I know that that is different. I suppose sometimes it makes you think, “Well, it’s kind of difficult because if people out there don’t like Justin Bieber, they’re not going to listen to me because they think it’s the same thing when really it isn’t.” So I think that’s the only kind of downside of it, but at the same time, he’s one of the biggest artists in the world right now, and being compared to him isn’t I suppose probably a bad thing. [Laughter]
Q: Do you like to read?
Conor: I always used to get really into a lot of different books growing up. Obviously I read all the Harry Potters. I remember I used to get really tied into the whole story when I was reading it. It’s almost the same as music where you can interpret it in your own way. Like when you read a book, you can imagine the characters in your own way, what they look like, what their personalities are, and you can interpret it in your own way. It’s like a song. When you’re listening to music, one song can have a million different meanings to all different people. You can fit your own situations into it. That was also my favorite part about books, that you could interpret it in your own way. You could fill out your part of the story in your own imagination.
Q: What book would you recommend?
Conor: I used to love A Series of Unfortunate Events, those books. I used to absolutely love those books. I remember I read all 13 of them twice. Yea, I was a big fan of those books when I was growing up, so I would definitely recommend them. They’re very clever.
Q: Is there any food that you absolutely could not live without?
Conor: There is a food chain in the U.K. called Nando’s, and it is my absolute favorite. I actually have the Black Card they hand out and there’s only 100 that exist in the entire world and I have one, and it means that you get it for free. Yea, that was literally like my pinnacle success so far. That was like a massive moment for me. I also like Chipotle over in the U.S.
Q: Have you always loved music, even when you were a little kid?
Conor: I used to say “zic”, and I remember there’s a funny story behind that because my mom used to know what I meant when I said that. I’d go, “Zic on. Zic on,” and I meant I wanted to hear music. And then once my auntie was looking after me, and I was going, “Zic on. Zic on,” and she thought I was going to be sick. So she called my mom to come pick me up because she thought I was going to be sick. Then my mom got there and she was like, “No, he just wants to listen to music.”
AWWWW! “Mayniacs” out there, leave a Comment!
Interview by Marie Morreale
Photo courtesy of Capitol Records
By: emitnick,
on 8/16/2012
Every kid in our SRP received one of these highly coveted bags.
Our Summer Reading Program ended August 11 after 9 wild weeks. Almost all the children’s librarians at our 72 branches and Central Library reported record numbers of kids registering for the club and attending events. Was it the heat? The lack of summer school? The awesomeness of our SRP?
Now is the time to evaluate the summer, reflect on our successes and lessons learned, and start planning for next year.
Here’s how we’re evaluating our SRP:
We are collecting and compiling all this data now. Imagine the thousands of surveys and prize tickets piling up in the Youth Services office! And think of the juicy data we’ll get from it all.
After we compile it, we’ll create and submit reports, meet with our 2013 Children’s Summer Reading Program Committee – and start planning next year’s program, which will be (as we vow every year) LAPL’s Best Summer Reading Program Ever!
By: Chuck Sambuchino,
on 8/16/2012
“How I Got My Agent” is a recurring feature on the GLA blog. Some tales are of long roads and many setbacks, while others are of good luck and quick signings. If you have a literary agent and would be interested in writing a short guest column for this GLA blog, e-mail me at literaryagent@fwmedia.com and we’ll talk specifics.
Jenny Milchman is a suspense writer from New Jersey. Her debut
novel, COVER OF SNOW, will be published by Ballantine in January
2013. Her short story ‘The Closet’ appears in the November 2012
issue of Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, while another short story,
‘The Very Old Man,’ has been an Amazon bestseller, and ‘Black Sun
on Tupper Lake’ is featured in the anthology ADIRONDACK MYSTERIES II.
Jenny is the Chair of International Thriller Writers’ Debut Authors Program.
She is also the founder of Take Your Child to a Bookstore Day, which
was celebrated in all 50 states and four foreign countries in its second
year. Jenny hosts the Made It Moments forum on her blog, which has
featured more than 200 international bestsellers, Edgar winners, and
independent authors. Jenny hosts the literary series Writing Matters,
which attracts guests coast-to-coast and has received national media
attention. She teaches writing and publishing for
New York Writers Workshop and Arts by the People.
I GOT MY AGENT IN A BAR FIGHT
Well, OK, that’s not true, but it sounds a lot more interesting than, “I got my agent through slow, methodical work, and years of cold querying.” That, however, is closer to the truth.
In order for me to tell you how I got my agent, I would have to tell you how I got my first agent. And my second. And my third.
When I started sending out cold queries to agents, they went by snail mail (or FedEx if you were too green to understand that nothing in publishing is done fast, and spending money on express mail will only make you look, um, new at this). I did receive my first offer of representation by e-mail. It was the first e-mail I ever got. I’d opened the account in case anyone should ever want to communicate that way.
How times change, huh?
I was lucky enough to receive another offer at the same time, and thus be
Add a CommentFor many of us, it’s the end of summer vacation and time to get back to school, work and our crazy lives. Come celebrate the last few days of freedom before the upcoming busy months steal away our time. Prizes Science Fiction Paranormal Thriller YA Paranormal Romance YA Paranormal Romance YA Science Fiction YA Fantasy [...]
By: ADK,
on 8/16/2012
Thanks for visiting my site. I appreciate your interest in my work. If you have questions regarding my books or stories, please feel free to send me a message. I enjoy hearing from you, and I’ll respond as soon as possible.
Happy reading!
Artie
Latest News
Artie’s children’s book Living Green: A Turtle’s Quest for a Cleaner Planet is now available as a free video for kids through StoryCub. A shortlist finalist for the national 2012 Green Earth Book Award, Thurman the turtle is tired of seeing the land he loves cluttered with trash and decides to take action.
To watch the Living Green video and many other books on StoryCub.org, please click on the cover below. StoryCub videos are one of the most watched programs on Apple’s iTunes Kids & Family section.
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I've heard some writers say they use a timer to keep them on track and working on one manuscript for a specified amount of time. It's supposed to help with writer's block and with meeting word count goals. Well, I have a different problem. I get lost in my manuscripts. So much so that I completely lose track of time.
A couple weekends ago, my husband had to point out the time because we were going out and I had lost the entire morning proofreading the galley for Touch of Death. I was so into the characters and story that I didn't realize the morning was over. When my daughter was in pre-K last year, I had to set the timer so I wouldn't lose track of time and wind up late to pick her up.
And the funny thing about time is there's never enough. Even when my daughter starts full-day kindergarten, I'm sure I'll fill the day with no problem. I don't know if I'll ever get past this time issue.
How about you? Do you find yourself losing track of time when you write or do you need the timer to keep you writing?
Posted on 8/16/2012
In the Guardian Zahra Gordon describes Kris Rampersad's attempts at Mapping the literary imagination in the interesting-sounding LiTTscapes: Landscapes of Fiction from Trinidad and Tobago.
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Posted on 8/16/2012
With BookFest Malaysia set to run 18 to 26 August they're also preparing for 'The Popular-The Star Readers' Choice Awards'; see the fiction nominees (warning ! jpg format ??!?), while in The Star Sharmilla Ganesan offers an overview of the awards, in Lauding local literature.
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By: catugeau,
on 8/16/2012
I’m delighted to LAUNCH a wonderful new book from Knopf/RandomHouse illustsrated by Patrice Barton… I LIKE OLD CLOTHES….and originally written by Mary Ann Hoberman many years ago. It’s just a treasure as the reviews below will confirm. Patty has been particularly creative in her clever use of fabric to further bring the reality of these wonderful old clothes to life for this unnamed happy treasure hunter. Enjoy!
Hand-me-downs gain new poetic life in this charming picture-book remake.
Originally published with illustrations by Jacqueline Chwast, here Hoberman’s 1976 poem gets a makeover courtesy of illustrator Barton. Kirkus panned the original for attempting too much with too little, finding Hoberman’s “silly rhyme” as threadbare as its theme of recycled clothing and Chwast’s “overpopulated pictures” teeming with a “freakish cast.” Thankfully, the Barton edition coheres much better. While Hoberman’s thematic insistence on the delight to be found in imagining the prior ownership of secondhand clothes is a little heavy-handed, her verse comes across as playful and light: “I like old clothes. / I really do. / Clothes with a history, / Clothes with a mystery, // Sweaters and shirts / That are brother-and-sistery….” Barton’s digitally rendered mixed-media illustrations capture well the warmth of Hoberman’s message, using wispy lines and softly accented shading to imbue these garments with such life that they actually seem capable of some determinism in their hand-me-down trajectory. Particularly effective is the final spread, in which a clothesline strung between windows displays many of the “Now-for-play clothes” featured earlier, giving the poet’s concept of a garment’s past and future a smartly literal linearity.
With Barton’s nuanced illustrations, Hoberman’s 36-year-old hand-me-down poem defines sustainability for the next generation. (Picture book. 3-7)
“I like old clothes,/ Hand-me-down clothes,/ Worn outgrown clothes,/ Not my own clothes.” Former U.S. children’s poet laureate Hoberman’s poem, first published in 1976, holds up nicely; families are still trading bags of too-small clothes, and children are still enjoying hand-me-downs (“And party dresses/ Not quite new,/ Not quite in style,/ I like them, too”). Barton’s (Mine!) spreads couldn’t be any warmer or fuzzier. Her mixed-media scenes incorporate images of patterned fabrics for the clothes, and soft pencil lines and blurry edges give the artwork a painted feel. A girl in overalls and sneakers—just the sort of girl one might imagine having a sensible attitude toward secondhand apparel—is pictured in her room with her younger brother, trying on a small marching band uniform (first spotted in a store window on the title page) and vamping in a pair of long black gloves. The poem stays in one register, exploring the theme from several angles, without any real narrative arc; it’s written more just for the joy of the rhymes and the rhythm. Ages 5–8. Agent: Christina A. Tugeau, CATugeau.
School Library Journal
«HOBERMAN, Mary Ann. I Like Old Clothes. illus. by Patrice Barton. 32p. CIP. Knopf. Aug. 2012. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-375-86951-8; PLB $19.99. ISBN 978-0-375-96951-5. LC 2010038292.
PreS-Gr 1–Hoberman’s 1976 picture book is dressed up with new illustrations. A precocious unnamed girl describes her love of vintage apparel: “I like old clothes./I really do./Clothes with a history,/Clothes with a mystery.” With rhymes that are never too sweet, the girl says how she likes to imagine who wore the items before her and how, and then make them her own through embellishments or just through use (such as wearing formerly dressy pants to play hopscotch). The imaginative child’s enthusiasm is infectious–kids might well be inspired to ask for secondhand outfits themselves. The clever, humorous illustrations show the smiling, red-haired girl modeling arm-length buttoned-up gloves, sewing a too-long yellow dress, or imagining the former owner of a school-uniform sweater. Barton uses fabriclike backgrounds in most of the illustrations (which were created with pencil, mixed media, and assembled and painted digitally), making the backdrop to the whole book look like beautifully faded fabric swatches. The overall effect is a visual celebration of old clothes.–Heather Talty, formerly at Columbia Grammar & Preparatory School, New York City
This article from Salon.com is an interesting commentary on the lack of respect YA authors enjoy in the larger culture. Wanna lack prestige? Be a female writer. Wanna really lack prestige? Be a female writer of YA. Because what the article doesn't mention is that, while relatively few men write for the genre, those that do win more awards and yes, prestige within the children's writing community. Even male authors I know comment on this, with a little shrug of apology. What can you do?
But really, what do you expect? Our culture has come a long way, but women in general (and anything that smacks of "the feminine" - jobs, behaviors, etc.) enjoy less respect and prestige then do men and the the things that are masculine. I could write an essay on this, but I have to get back to writing my un-prestigious YA fiction.
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Posted on 8/16/2012
The title of Iva-Marie Palmer's novel, The End of the World as We Know It, might make you hum a classic R.E.M. tune. The author would certainly approve.
Iva-Marie (pronounced Eye-vuh-Mah-ree) is a fan of awesome things. If you looked on her bookshelf, you'd find titles by Jane Austen, Judy Blume, and Neil Gaiman, among others. If you checked out her DVD collection, you'd find Buffy the Vampire Slayer leaning up against The Breakfast Club. She seeks out good stories in various mediums. She's been a journalist, she's been a ghostwriter, and now she has an original novel to call her very own. Let's talk about it.
The flap copy of The End of the World as We Know It describes it as The Breakfast Club meets War of the Worlds. Was it natural for you to combine realistic humor with sci-fi elements? Is it easier for you to write break-up scenes or alien attacks?
I tend toward the real, though a version of the real where people talk like they do in the movies. (Or I hope they do!) Most of my work up until now had been grounded in reality somewhat, though I have tinkered with other fantastical elements, or situations just a little left of normal. I don't think I'm so much a world-builder, so in The End of the World as We Know It, what worked for me was imagining a normalcy disrupted. I set the book in a fictionalized version of my hometown, a suburb south of Chicago, so I had that to play with (and I got to make a nod to John Hughes that way, too, since his screenplays often took place in Chicago's northern 'burbs.) The alien parts were the hardest for me to write, not so much the-thick-of-the-battle moments but keeping track of their features, size, abilities, and so on. One Barnes and Noble reviewer called my book genre-bending, which made me pretty happy. I love so many genres that to bend them sounds good to me!
I cannot read or say The End of the World as We Know It without singing the song by R.E.M. - and I feel fiiiine! How did you obtain licensing rights to quote the lyrics in your book?
I know! Once that was a lock for the title, I knew I had to work the lyrics into the book. However, the first go-round, I had too many of the lyrics included, and my editors told me I had to cut back for rights reasons. So I did, but we still managed to use some lyrics from the chorus. Luckily, I didn't have to slog through whatever legal murk stood in the way of including them. What I'd say to would-be writers who want to use lyrics is to put them in, and see what your editors say. Self-published writers probably should look for clearance, and not be discouraged, because I do think the rights you pay to use the most are full song rights, like in a film. Lyrics-only might not be as big an approval. But again, I'm speaking without any direct experience there.
Did you go through various working titles while you were working on the story, or was that the title from the get-go?
I'd proposed several others. A few I liked were Are You There Ray Bradbury? It's Me, We're Screwed, Party Crashers, and Aliens and Other Party Fouls.
It's also fun to shorten your title to TEotWaWKI. It sounds like an island. Would you fare better on a desert island or in the circumstances you created in your book?
Does the island have wi-fi? No, really, I think it sounds like a luxury to say, "Desert Island me now, please!" and imagine I'd suddenly be a billion times more productive. But in truth, I wrote this and have done all my writing while holding a day job, and balancing all the hecticness of life. (For me, that now includes a toddler. A really fast-moving toddler with a penchant for dangerous objects.) So, I think it would be great to check out to an island here or there, and write a bunch while drinking out of a coconut and living in a thatched roof hut high up in a tree. But, for me personally, I probably need at least some inputs to achieve any output. And inputs can mean anything from random people I overhear at the grocery store, odd conversations with co-workers, and the I-couldn't-make-this-up people you sometimes see bopping around Los Angeles.
The other thing a little bit of craziness lends me is that I always seem to have a flash of an idea that I'm so excited about I can't wait to have a chance to write it down. (I get some good ones in boring work meetings and start to squirm in my chair, though I'm pretty sure my coworkers think I just have to go to the bathroom.)
Ha! Which of the characters in TEotWaWKI most closely resembles a teenage Iva-Marie?
There are bits and pieces of all of them in me, but I think if Leo and Sarabeth had a baby (and they are way too young for that), I would be their offspring.
Your influences range from John Hughes to Judy Blume, and everything in-between. Be it on screen or in print, what do you think the best coming-of-age stories have in common?
Confusion and inner turmoil. I think as we grow up, all of us try to present one face to the world (or just ARE one face to the world) but maybe have something else bubbling underneath. Not every character in a coming-of-age tale knows that there's more to them at the start, but in a good one, I think even the most confident characters need to have their world rocked a little. Also, I'm a firm believer you need at least one swoony romance in a good teen/coming-of-age story. John Hughes did that really well.
What are your favorite alien stories? I personally enjoy Doctor Who, The X-Files, and classic episodes of The Twilight Zone.
I've been meaning to get around to Dr. Who and the X-Files. They are all queued up on Netflix, but I need time to dig in. I've always liked the Mars Attacks! aliens, for their sense of humor and their mythology, however limited it is. But I honestly haven't seen a lot of alien stuff, which helped me on this because I wasn't comparing my aliens to everything that had gone before them. Whereas if I had done vampires, I'd have been stuck in Sunnydale. And now we get to your next question...
Rumor has it you enjoyed the TV show Buffy the Vampire Slayer.
(Readers, this is the part where Iva-Marie and I virtually high-five.)
Can we double high-five? Is that a thing?
Oh, yeah!
(A double high-five occurs.)
I could go on and on about Buffy.
What are your favorite episodes? Favorite characters?
I have many favorite episodes, and all for different reasons, but, to limit myself, I went season-by-season and plucked out the ones I'd say are my favorites, though this list is by no means complete.
Season 1 - Nightmares, partly because the creepy young villain, Billy Palmer, has the same name as my brother
Season 2 - Becoming 1 and Becoming 2 (for the obvious reasons, as well as for Spike's awesome speech about why he doesn't want Angel to end the world)
Season 3 - Doppelgangland, for the awesome glimpse of bad Willow, and because alternate universes are fun
Season 4 - Hush gets points for sheer creativity but I really loved The Yoko Factor - I think Spike proves his humanity despite his soullessness by being so excellent at deciphering all of the Scooby Gang's secrets before they even do
Season 5 - Fool For Love, Spike's origin tale - can you guess who one of my favorite characters is?
Season 6 - Tabula Rasa is pure fun, but the Buffy-Willow face-off in Grave, the finale, and Zander's eventual heroics, are such huge moments that I have to rank it highly
Season 7 - I loved Buffy's spotlight moment (and the telepathy triangle between Willow-Xander-Buffy) in Showtime, but Chosen kind of nails it for me, tears-falling-wise.
My favorite characters are, sort of, all of them because I can't imagine the show working without any one of them. But absolute favorites are Spike -- I love his backstory and, as I mentioned, his flawed humanity even when soulless, plus, HOT; Willow, for her bookishness, for her growth, for her sheer willed-into-being power; Buffy, because she's the chosen one and quippy, and Giles, because he's just a wonderful man, and at least once a season there are moments when I wish I could hug him.
Back to the write stuff. How did you get your publishing deal with Alloy Entertainment? Was the deal for a single title, or do you have other books in the works with them?
Well, I ghostwrote several titles with them before The End of the World came about. EoW actually started as a different project for the publisher who was releasing my ghostwritten titles. Then, that didn't work out and it morphed, kind of delightfully, into this action-adventure/sci-fi/comedy/coming of age/teen romance book we have today. Now that it's out, I've been talking to my Alloy editor, Emilia Rhodes, about what's next and I think we're cooking up something good. I also have been working on a few projects of my own, and having EoW come out has made me think about putting up some of my older fiction on Figment or Wattpad, just to see what kind of feedback I might get.
You've been a writer and a journalist since you were a child, first creating (and selling) newspapers to your parents, then working on school and community papers and beyond. What moved you to create those first papers?
Gosh, the newspapers sprung from just liking to make things up. I loved to read, and I loved MAD magazine, which had an M.O. of delivering humor based on real world stuff. So, I came up with the papers, like a kids' version of The Onion, or the Daily Show. (Though with stories about why Santa Claus wanted to move Christmas to July, so maybe not cutting-edge humor.) I also think the papers, and journalism in general, came to me out of a disbelief that a person could just write fiction. It's not like my parents were ever the types to say, "you can't write books" or "you need to be more realistic about your goals." They always encouraged our creativity. But I held my books and their authors in such esteem, I guess I thought it would take magic to become one. So, I actually never pursued fiction until after college. I'm working on an essay about my late-blooming fiction-writing aspirations right now, so maybe I'll figure out why I hesitated for so long.
Any journalists, living or sadly no longer with us, whose investigations and style have influenced yours?
My dad always read Mike Royko, a columnist for the Chicago Sun Times, who blended humor with that true reporter grit. I actually did a paper on his book Boss, about Chicago's first mayor Daley, for my English class and I remember the teacher thinking maybe I was an odd bird for liking this columnist who was such a guy's guy reporter. I also love Roger Ebert, because he possesses so much sheer writing ability, and is so curious and passionate about so many things, even beyond film. His blog is great.
How did you become a ghostwriter? What was the experience like for you? Did you find it freeing or limiting in any way?
Well, I was lucky enough that, at my day job, I worked with someone who used to work with Alloy, and when she found out I wrote fiction, she offered to put me in touch with one of her former co-workers, who, lucky for me, was Josh Bank. Alloy offered me a try-out on a series they were casting (I don't think I can name it) and I ended up getting the part, as it were. So I did three of those before TEotWaWKI. I think ghostwriting was good for me in that I learned more about the mechanics of plotting, at which Alloy's team is masterful, and the rapidity of the books' releases really gets you in the habit of sitting down and knowing you have to clear a certain word count to make deadline.
As for whether it's freeing, I think it might be for some people, but what ended up on the page for me was a lot of me, and I was just as neurotic about the reaction to the books as if they'd had my name on them. To a point, there were a few stylistic things in the series that maybe weren't things I'd do, but Alloy was great about letting me chip in on plotting sessions, and making the characters my own, so I never felt like I was purely someone else.
And finally: What are your ten favorite books of all time?
Oh my. Neil Gaiman has a quote, "Picking five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to lose." This is likewise a hard one for me. I love books. As a kid, I couldn't go anywhere without taking at least one book in the car because I'd imagine getting stranded and my greatest fear would be having nothing to read. To this day, I still bring a bag filled with reading material almost everywhere with me.
Also, it's hard for me to think of books I don't like, because usually I'm pretty good at picking what I want to read, and then I love whatever world I'm in at a given time.
Like, right now, I'm reading Chad Harbach's The Art of Fielding, and it is SOOOOOO good, and I'm so amazed by it, I want to include it. But then I'd be down to nine. Still, for the sake of my own discipline, I really want to try, but people should please know this list is subject to change or, really, be added to at any point in time. What I'm going to try to do here is cover a number of genres, so as to feel like I've achieved some balance with my list.
American Gods by Neil Gaiman
Good Omens by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett
Jane Eyre by Charlotte Bronte
Bridget Jones' Diary by Helen Fielding
Pride and Prejudice by Jane Austen
Salem's Lot by Stephen King
Hairstyles of the Damned by Joe Meno
A Long Way Down by Nick Hornby
The Harry Potter series by J.K. Rowling
Are You There God? It's Me, Margaret by Judy Blume
Honorable Mention to Kids' Reads I've Just Discovered Recently:
I finally read From the Mixed-Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler by E.L. Konigsburg to my son and loved it. Also, the picture books of William Joyce are beautiful and transport you in less than 40 pages.
Thank you so much for interviewing me, and for the amazing questions!
Thanks for chatting with me!
TEoTWAWKI is available as an e-book on Nook, iPad, Kindle, and other such devices.
Read an excerpt from the book on Scribd.
Visit Iva-Marie Palmer's website.
By: Scott Westerfeld,
on 8/16/2012
Welcome to FAF(FF), my sorta-weekly series of fan art, farinaceous treats, and fun.
But before we start, next Tuesday (August 21) is when The Manual of Aeronautics comes out! On that day I’ll be doing one last art reveal. As per tradition, it will be the endpapers from the Manual, which I think you’ll find quite fabulous.
And now for FAF(FF)!
Let us begin with cake, because the world needs more cake.
This edible artistry comes from the tumblr feed of jaberwockyx, and was made for a school project. (It won first prize, obviously.)
I like that it has both a walker and a whale on it, which brings to mind the book’s tagline: “Do you oil your war machines, or eat them?”
Not to be outdone, Uglies fandom also has a cake this week:
And just in case you think this is a cake with the words “special” and “extra” randomly on it, i have proof of its Uglies-relatedness:
Thanks for sending me the pix, Bea-la!
And now some whale love from Catherine P.
Not cake, but very kawaii.
And here’s some cosplay (and photoshop-play) from both series. First Jennifer B being a Special . . .
And Lauren being Deryn:
Two pencil works from peanutbuttergoddess, of Lilit and Deryn:
I like their half-smiling expressions a lot.
And to round out the lurve triangle, here’s Alek as drawn by sleepy pilot:
He’s not smiling, but he means you no harm!
That’s it for FAFFFFF. See you Tuesday for the book birthday of The Manual of Aeronautics! I am excited to hear what you guys think of the many arts in it.
To pre-order the Manual online, go to Powell’s, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or IndieBound.
By: Adventures in YA Publishing,
on 8/16/2012
THIS WEEK'S GIVEAWAY
Let me make it in time. Let me meet Shadow. The guy who paints in the dark. Paints birds trapped on brick walls and people lost in ghost forests. Paints guys with grass growing from their hearts and girls with buzzing lawn mowers."It’s the end of Year 12. Lucy’s looking for Shadow, the graffiti artist everyone talks about.
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gorgeous mel! :)
lovely work :)
I love Mel's work and also her supportive personality and her great enthusiasm!<br />Go Mel!
What beautiful designs!! This designer is insanely talented! I want these designs on some wallpaper! <br /><br />http://lynnandlou.blogspot.com/
yeah Mel! looking great!