By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Last weekend's highlight was "Kick It Up a Notch," the 2013 regional conference of Austin SCBWI.

Authors Katherine Catmull and Greg Leitich Smith at the Friday night reception at the Austin Children's Museum

Agent Erzsi Deak of Hen & Ink Literary Studio

Illustrators Amy Farrier & Emma Virjan (Amy in the chapter's incoming illustrator chair)

Me with my fellow Cynthia -- YALSA Nonfiction Award finalist Cynthia Levinson

VCFA MFA grad Sean Petrie & my former (incredibly talented) student Vanessa Lee

Children's novelist K.A. Holt & Dear Teen Me anthologist E. Kristin Anderson

John Gonzales & Chronicle editor Tamra Tuller

Triple author photo -- Karyn Henley, me & Helen Hemphill

Children's author Bethany Hegedus, incoming ARA Samantha Clark, Sean & Vanessa

Outgoing illustrator chair Mark G. Mitchell, former RA Tim Crow & author Brian Anderson

Award-winning illustrator E.B. Lewis at registration on Saturday morning

Tween author Jo Whittemore, author-illustrator Jeff Crosby, E. Kristin, debut author Nikki Loftin & Greg

Authors Shutta Crum & Lindsey Scheibe

Jeff studies the illustrator portfolios & leaves comments

Authors Jessica Lee Anderson & P.J. Hoover

Bethany & Samantha

Authors P.J., Joy Preble, Cory Putnam Oakes & Jessica

Fresh faces -- illustrator Erin McGuire & Jillian S. Tinsley

Lester Ferguson of NEWAVE Studio & successful auction bidder Gene Brenek

Cynthia & her Peachtree editor Kathy Landwehr

H. Scott Beazley -- soon-to-debut YA novelist with Hyperion/Disney!

First pages panel with Tamra, E.B., Erzsi, literary agents Rubin Pfeffer and John Cusik & Kathy

John Cusik of Greenhouse Literary & illustrator/web guru Erik Kuntz -- kudos to Erik for coordinating gifts for the outgoing chapter leaders!

Glamorous Amy

Jo & outgoing RA Debbie Gonzales

Austin SCBWI founder Meredith Davis won a web-platform critique from me.

Newly agented Donna Bowman Bratton, author Anne Bustard (to whom Eternal: Zachary's Story is dedicated) & me

Cynsational Notes
 

Mine! author Shutta  & illustrator Patrice

Austin illustrator Patrice Barton was presented a Crystal Kite Member Choice Award. Peek: "The Crystal Kite Awards are given by the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators each year to recognize great books from 15 regional SCBWI divisions around the world. ...the Crystal Kite Awards are chosen by other children’s book writers and illustrators, making them the only peer-given awards in publishing for young readers. Each member of SCBWI is allowed to vote for their favorite book from a nominated author in their region that was published in the previous calendar year." Last two photos courtesy of Shutta.

The winners of the Betty X Davis Young Writers Award were celebrated, and children's author Liz Garton Scanlon joined me on the local author critique faculty.

National faculty also included editor Neal Porter of Neal Porter Books/Roaring Brook.

Incoming RA/author-illustrator Shelley Ann Jackson formally assumed leadership of the chapter.

Thank you to Austin's own independent bookstore, BookPeople, for handling book sales at the event!

From a fashion perspective, the colors purple, red, black and white appeared to be all the rage.Women embraced black tights, while artistic men were all about red fezzes and bowling shirts.

Don't Tweet That! by Shelli Cornelison from Shelli's Soliloquy. Peek: "...the brevity of Twitter makes it a particularly perilous place for conference presenters."

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Available April 2

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Trailer and Playlist for Robin LaFevers' follow-up to Grave Mercy, Dark Triumph from Entertainment Weekly. Peek: "'I knew I wanted to write this bigger, sort of darker, sort of epic, kind of rip-your-heart-out type of book,' she told EW over the phone. 'And I couldn’t do that for 11-year-olds.'"

Full Listing of ALA Book Award News Releases by Teri Lesesne from The Goddess of YA Literature. See also 2013 Sydney Taylor Book Awards from The Whole Megilah and Celebrate the Small Steps, Too from Donna Bowman Bratton.

Writer's First Aid: a Medicine Chest of Hope by Kristi Holl has moved! See Kristi on How to Recover Your Writing Energy -- All Day Long.

Six Things Readers Want from Your Author Website by Thomas Umstattd from Author Media. Memo to self: figure out a more effective calendar and put together some exclusive information--stat!

A Twitter View of #NY13SCBWI compiled by Lee Wind from The Official SCBWI Blog. Cyn's favorite: Kim Harrington ‏@Kim_Harrington I love this. RT @mbrockenbrough "Fail big if you have to, but go down trying." - Margaret Peterson Haddix #NY13SCBWI

Liz Waniewski: How I Got Into Publishing from CBC Diversity. Peek: "I was able to interview at Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Group, the imprint that published Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears, a book I loved and was featured on my all-time-favorite show, 'Reading Rainbow.'"

Drawing the Reader in through Character Emotion by Carolyn Kaufman from QueryTrackerBlog.net. Peek: "We were tired of our characters always shifting their feet to show nervousness and narrowing their eyes when angry. And when we started talking with other writers, it became clear that many of them also struggled in this area."

Final Sendak Book a Tribute to His Brother by Hillel Italie from Yahoo News. Peek: "Sendak died last May at age 83 after years of health problems, but had managed to finish My Brother's Book (HarperCollins), published this week. Admirers of Where the Wild Things Are and other Sendak stories will recognize its themes of danger, flight and fantasy, captured in a dreamy-scary swirl that demonstrates Sendak's debt to William Blake."

Five Ways to Add Humor by Darcy Pattison from Fiction Notes. Note: reference The Comic Toolbox by John Vorhaus (Silman-James Press, 1994), which is highly recommended.

Thoughts on Newberry: Buzz, Buzz, Buzz by Monica Edinger from educating alice. Peek: "It won the award because the Committee took a very hard look at it alongside many other books and decided it was the best this year. That there was a huge social media fandom behind it had nothing to do with it." See also ALA Midwinter 2013 and the Amelia Bloomer Project by Lalitha Nataraj from Kidlit Network and the Sydney Taylor Book Award Blog Tour by Heidi Estrin from People of the Books.

Q&A with Greg Neri by Sue LaNeve from Quirk & Quill.  Peek: "[On his toughest decision] To buy back a novel that had already sold to a major publisher because the sale went against my own gut reaction. It was a mistake and the toughest thing I had to do was to break free from that untenable situation (though it took a long time to realize it). There’s no one to blame, it just happens sometimes that things weren’t meant to be even if you really wanted it to work."

Reading List: Stories for the Chinese New Year; see also: Love Among the Ruins: Romance in YA Fiction by Shara Hardeson from The Horn Book.

Celebrate Black History Month

The Brown Bookshelf: 28 Days Later:

• Day 1: Malaika Rose Stanley
• Day 2: Christian Robinson
• Day 3: Alaya Dawn Johnson
• Day 4: Glenda Armand
• Day 5: Glennette Tilley Turner
• Day 6: Traci L. Jones
• Day 7: Brynne Barnes
• Day 8: Brian F. Walker
• and so on...

NAACP Image Awards: Winners Announced by Aaron Couch from The Hollywood Reporter. Note: scroll for "Literary Work - Children" and "Literary Work - Teens." Special cheers to VCFA alum Kekla Magoon. Source: Children's Book Council.

Andrea Davis Pinkney on Hand in Hand: Ten Black Men Who Changed America from The Horn Book.

Cynsational Giveaways

Enter to win book & a signed doodle by the author-illustrator

• Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made & signed doodle by Stephan Pastis (CB); eligibility: North America

The winners of a signed copy of Execution by Alexander Gordon Smith are Karielle and Kelly in Florida.

To enter to win a copy of Feral Nights; see shakefire.com.

Reminder! To enter to win a paperback copy of Diabolical; see Cynthia Leitich Smith Author Interview, Review & Diabolical Giveaway from JeanBookNerd.com.

This Week at Cynsations

• New Voice: Miriam Forster on City of a Thousand Dolls
• Event Report: Montgomery County Book Festival
• Maha Addasi and Yvonne Wakim Dennis on The Rest of America: The Importance of Diverse and Multicultural Nonfiction
• Book Trailer & Giveaway: Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made

More Personally

Last week's highlight was the Montgomery County Book Festival in The Woodlands, Texas.

Mari Mancusi, Cory Putnam Oakes (who graciously donated this photo to Cynsations), E. Kristin Anderson, Bethany Hegedus, Greg Leitich Smith & me; see full photo report & just for fun, Larry's Pretty Good LiveJournal.

See also Greg's, Joy's and Cory's reports on the Montgomery County Festival.

Enter to win

The Horn Book says of Feral Nights: "Smith’s blend of supernatural suspense, campy humor, and romantic tension is addictive; allusions to both pop culture ('Thriller,' Monty Python) and literature (The Island of Dr. Moreau, The Most Dangerous Game) add to the fun. Most satisfying of all, Aimee and especially unassuming, injured Clyde leave their sidekick roles behind to come into their own."

Book Review: Feral Nights from Miss Literati. Peek: "...fun and engaging read. We found ourselves constantly chuckling at Clyde and Yoshi’s sarcastic and witty commentary, while simultaneously sitting on the edge of our seats in anticipation. The mysteries surrounding Daemon Island, Ruby’s disappearance and Travis’s death were all so exciting and suspenseful that we didn’t know what to do with ourselves."

Looking for an early-release signed copy of Feral Nights (Candlewick, 2013)? Try Murder by the Book in Houston!

Reminder! Giveaway still ongoing! Cynthia Leitich Smith Author Interview, Review & Diabolical Giveaway from JeanBookNerd.com. In-depth, at times quite personal, conversation, celebrating the upcoming paperback release of Diabolical.

You can also enter to win Feral Nights at shakefire.com.

Tantalize series -- Eternal: Zachary's Story and the paperback edition of Diabolical release Feb. 12!

Thanks to Tara in Mumbai for letting me know that the Tantalize series is #2 at her local bookstore, Kitab Khana, right behind the Harry Potter series! (Not bad company!)

Quote of the Week: Cynthia Leitch Smith from Ingrid's Notes.

Personal Links

• The Author Himself Was a Cat in a Hat
• VCFA Superhero Universe  
• Does Marvel Have a Problem with Solo Female Leads?
• Mary Ingalls Blindness: Scarlet Fever Wasn't The Cause Of 'Little House' Sister's Vision Loss 
• The Financial Realities of a Genre Novelist
• Monopoly Fans Vote to Add Cat Token
• International Book Giving Day
• Children's Literature: The Movie 
• Geoffrey Rush and Emily Watson to Star in 'The Book Thief' Movie

Cynsational Events

Heads up, Chicago (Feb. 25-27) & Madison (Feb. 28)! I'll be winging your way the week of Feb. 24. Watch Cynsations for details!

Join Cynthia Leitich Smith, Jennifer Ziegler and more at Library Palooza 2013: That Author Thing! will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Feb. 23 at Brandeis High School in San Antonio.

2013 Novel Writing Retreat for Middle Grade and Young Adult Writers will be March 15 to March 17 at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Peek: "This year's retreat will feature faculty Cynthia Leitich Smith, Lauren Myracle, and Candlewick editor Andrea Tompa." 

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By Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Maha Addasi
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Yvonne Wakim Dennis and Maha Addasi are the co-authors of A Kid's Guide to Arab American History: More Than 50 Activities (Chicago Review Press, 2013). From the promotional copy:

Many Americans, educators included, mistakenly believe all Arabs share the same culture, language, and religion, and have only recently begun immigrating to the United States.

A Kid’s Guide to Arab American History dispels these and other stereotypes and provides a contemporary as well as historical look at the people and experiences that have shaped Arab American culture. Each chapter focuses on a different group of Arab Americans including those of Lebanese, Syrian, Palestinian, Jordanian, Egyptian, Iraqi, and Yemeni descent and features more than 50 fun activities that highlight their distinct arts, games, clothing, and food. 

Kids will love dancing the dabke, constructing a derbekke drum, playing a game of senet, making hummus, creating an arabesque design, and crafting an Egyptian-style cuff bracelet. Along the way they will learn to count in Kurdish, pick up a few Syrian words for family members, learn a Yemeni saying, and speak a little Iraqi.

Short biographies of notable Arab Americans, including actor and philanthropist Danny Thomas, singer Paula Abdul, artist Helen Zughaib, and activist Ralph Nader, demonstrate a wide variety of careers and contributions.

Yvonne and her favorite reader, Luca

From Yvonne: Although there have been improvements since when I was a child, the image portrayed in history books and curriculum is basically the Myth of America: this hemisphere didn’t exist until 1492; these lands had no purpose until 1776; this country was built by and with the values of WASP men with a few other Christians thrown in. And women? Apart from fashioning the flag and fending off hordes of evil Indians, they don’t merit much space.

I’ve felt that my duty is to correct that myth and most of my books have either been about American Indians or multicultural.

I respect kids and their ability to understand so I’ve tried to create nonfiction that maintains the integrity of the oral tradition, engages with storyteller magnetism and hopefully effects long lasting and positive change in a way that’s not didactic or preachy.

Truthfully, I am just tired of the ‘hater grown-ups.’ It was time to tell the truth about Arab Americans as I had with Native peoples. I wanted a co-author, a Muslim born in Arabia. I asked the amazing writer Elsa Marston if she had any ideas. Her suggestions led me to the wonderful Maha Addasi! I learned so much from Maha and appreciate her scholarship, optimism and joyfulness.

Photo of Maha Addasi by Jama Kim Rattigan

From Maha: I spent my undergraduate years at Butler University in Indianapolis, where fellow students were interested in knowing more about life in the Middle East where I grew up. The beauty of being on a college campus is that students have this clean slate and open mind of learning about other cultures without being hung up on the baggage that comes from the political atmosphere and how it can be misconstrued. That genuine interest in the true charm of the Arab-American culture is what I hoped to capture in this book.

Working with Yvonne was a fabulous experience. Yvonne had a list of the stereotypes she wanted to combat that matched mine in length! Our discussions over extended telephone conversations were filled with laughter and were so therapeutic to the soul. This is something collaborative authors seek and rarely find. I’m so glad our paths crossed when they did.

From Maha and Yvonne: Both of us are passionate about our writing and liked each other’s style – important in a collaborative work. Maha is a naturalized citizen and speaks fluent Arabic while Yvonne is a second generation Arab American who only knows Arabic curses. Maha is Muslim; Yvonne follows her father’s traditional Native religion. Our varied experiences were never a problem, but a plus. What was a problem, however, was cramming an entire group of people with diverse cultures, histories and religions into one small book!

Luca Lanoix-Deserie making Belgha slippers

We assigned ourselves specific chapters, but had a free hand in editing and enhancing each other’s work. We read everything we could find on Arab Americans. Sadly, we had to buy most of our books as our local libraries had very little. Not only does Amazon love us, but this was yet another validation for the necessity of this book!

We interviewed dozens of people we knew about or sleuthed down while trolling the internet. Magically, art projects and fabulous people appeared, like New York City’s only remaining sidewalk artist, Hani Shihada, who has decorated the pavement in Yvonne’s very neighborhood!

We took bits and snippets and put it together with activities that would reinforce the text and make Arab American kids proud of their heritage while debunking Arab American stereotypes for all youngsters. We designed projects that are not only fun and cultural, but useful.

We did not trivialize religion by including sacred objects. The esteemed Dr. Jack Shaheen was our professional reader and gave us valuable guidance every step of the way. He is the ‘go to’ expert on Arab Americans and we were thrilled that he offered to help us.

Maha's Inspiration -- children in Petra

We highlighted notable Arab Americans we could connect to a specific activity or if they had an angle of interest or benefit to kids.

We were truthful and confronted stereotypes, racism and hard times.

It was very tough when we had to cut bios of some of our heroes. In many ways, nonfiction is easier to write as we are retelling and sometimes re-framing the truth. However, history can be challenging as we do not want to misinterpret incidents or actions as those people are not around to defend themselves.

The support from everyone, both Arab and non-Arab has been truly amazing. Our efforts and determination have filled a gap and we would like to think that the results of our labors will help publishers and booksellers want to continue to create diverse books that represent all who live in our very diverse nation. Our dedication in the book is how we truly hope this book will be perceived.

Cynsational Notes

A Kid's Guide to Arab American History from the Arab American Institute. Peek: "A Kid’s Guide to Arab American History makes us look forward to a greater Arab American presence in American literature for all ages."

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations


Enter to win Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made and a signed doodle by Stephan Pastis (Candlewick, 2013)(sample chapter)(activity kit). Publisher sponsored. Eligibility: North America.

 From the promotional copy:

Meet "detective" Timmy Failure, star of the kids' comedy of the year. Created by New York Times best-selling cartoonist Stephan Pastis.

Take eleven-year-old Timmy Failure -- the clueless, comically self-confident CEO of the best detective agency in town, perhaps even the nation. Add his impressively lazy business partner, a very large polar bear named Total. Throw in the Failuremobile -- Timmy's mom's Segway -- and what you have is Total Failure, Inc., a global enterprise destined to make Timmy so rich his mother won't have to stress out about the bills anymore.

Of course, Timmy's plan does not include the four-foot-tall female whose name shall not be uttered. And it doesn't include Rollo Tookus, who is so obsessed with getting into "Stanfurd" that he can't carry out a no-brainer spy mission.

From the offbeat creator of Pearls Before Swine comes an endearingly bumbling hero in a caper whose peerless hilarity is accompanied by a whodunit twist. With perfectly paced visual humor, Stephan Pastis gets you snorting with laughter, then slyly carries the joke a beat further -- or sweetens it with an unexpected poignant moment -- making this a comics-inspired story (the first in a new series) that truly stands apart from the pack.

Cynsational Notes

Attention Central Texans! Stephan Pastis will launch Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made at 7 p.m. Feb. 26 at BookPeople in Austin. Note: there will be cake.

Check out the book trailer for Timmy Failure: Mistakes Were Made by Stephan Pastis (Candlewick, 2013)(sample chapter)(activity kit).


Cynsational Giveaway

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Miriam Forster is the first-time author of City of a Thousand Dolls (HarperTeen, 2013)(Pinterest inspiration board). From the promotional copy:

Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a child. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. 

Nisha makes her way as Matron’s assistant, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. 

Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city’s handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die.

Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls’ deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardizes not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls—but her own life.

How did you discover and get to know your protagonist? How about your secondary characters? Your antagonist?

Nisha came about after I had the original idea for City of a Thousand Dolls. I had imagined this place where girls would be trained in all kinds of different things, where everyone had a place and a purpose. Then I asked myself what would happen if you had someone in this place who didn't have much of a purpose or place at all. What kind of person would they become?

Originally Nisha was much too passive. She reacted a lot instead of taking initiative. I had to make her more proactive without losing the emotional vulnerability and honest human frailty that I felt was so key to her character. It was a hard balance for me to find, but it was important to me that she not be "strong" in the traditional female fantasy heroine way. I wanted her to make mistakes and stumble around and need help sometimes because we all do.

There is immense strength in not giving up, there is strength in fixing your mistakes and accepting your past. And that strength isn't related to whether or not you can kick ass.

With Kona AKA "Sneaky Weasel Cat"

Also, sometimes character development can sneak up on you. The original ending was riddled with problems and I had to rewrite it quite a bit, but one thing that it had was a scene where Nisha does the classic, detective-analyzes-the-clues bit, and figures out the killer. But in the rewritten ending, she ends up more stumbling into the solution than anything else. I didn’t do that on purpose, in fact I didn’t even realize I’d done it until people started commenting on it. But I think it fits with who Nisha is in the book. She doesn’t fix things by being smarter or better than anyone else. She fixes them by refusing to give up until she does.

And then there are the cats. My favorite comment about the book so far is that it can turn anyone into a cat person. I’ve heard that quite a bit, and it makes me happy.

Cats are in my blood. I grew up with them, there were always at least two or three around when I was a kid. As much as I like dogs, there’s something about cats that just appeals to me. I like their independence, and how they ask for what they want. How they can go from cuddly and affectionate to ferocious hunters in the blink of an eye. They seemed like the perfect companions for Nisha, who is also independent and determined, and far fiercer than she realizes.

(As for the antagonist, I can't tell you anything. It's a secret.)

As a fantasy writer, going in, did you have a sense of how events/themes in your novel might parallel or speak to events/issues in our real world? Or did this evolve over the course of many drafts?

A bit of both. Originally I’d envisioned the book as being about expectations and how they shape people, but in the course of writing the first draft, I realized it was much more about different kinds of love and how they react when faced with human frailty. That part never really changed during rewrites.

Miriam's work station

But the secondary themes and the real world things, those sneaked up on me.

(Other authors have muses that come and whisper to them. My muse likes to hide behind doors and jump out at me and yell "boo!".)

The most obvious one was the idea that girls in this society were considered less valuable than boys. And that happened because I had to answer the question “Why is there a city dedicated to training orphaned and abandoned girls?”

I wish I could say that answer was hard to find, or that I had to think a lot about how to make it believable. But I didn’t.

I’d already figured out that the Bhinian Empire had been isolated by a magic catastrophe, so it made sense that there would be a restriction on the number of children people could have. And sadly, there is ample evidence in the world today that when you have to choose between having boys and having girls, girls lose out. The effects of China’s one-child policy is the most obvious example, but there are others, and I found them in my path wherever I turned.

The Bhinian Empire is a South Asian-inspired world. Specifically, I took a lot of cultural cues from the ancient Indus River valley civilization and from pre-colonization India. And unfortunately, the value of girls in India is falling. In 2006, my husband went to India and visited several orphanages. He was surprised by the overwhelming number of girls there, and was told that many of them were not orphans, but simply abandoned by parents who could not afford their dowries.

In 2011, USA today ran an article about over two hundred girls who changed their names. These girls had all been named some variation of “unwanted” by family members who’d been hoping for a boy. The New York Times ran an article in October about gender politics in India, and said that even though literacy and education for girls is getting better, the ratio of girls to boys continues to fall.

Miriam's favorite food: soup!

So it was all too believable that in a world with a two-child limit, there would be a city dedicated to orphaned and abandoned girls. There are some problematic things about the City of a Thousand Dolls that are revealed in the book, but one constant is that most of the people who work there really believe that they’re doing what they have to in order to protect the girls in their care. Because no one else will.

Honestly, my favorite secondary characters are the girls in the City. I love how they’re all different and that's okay. They have all kinds of skills and talents. Some of them love to learn and some of them love to dance. Some of them are shy and some of them are confident. Some of them match the standards of physically beauty in the society and some of them don't, but that's okay.

All of them are different, and all of them are beautiful.

I didn’t start out to write a book about a bunch of female characters who are full of secrets and brokenness and mistakes but still manage to be strong in different ways. But that was kind of what I ended up with. And I’m okay with that.

"Enough books! Pet me!"

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Last week's highlight was the Montgomery County Book Festival in The Woodlands, Texas.

Thank you to Natasha, Tabatha, their fellow planners, volunteers, the author faculty and reader-participants for making the event such a success!

Please note that a handful of signed copies of Feral Nights are now available (on a sneak preview basis) at Murder By the Book in Houston.

Thanks also to fellow Austinite Cory Putnam Oakes for driving me to the fest!

Authors gather before the reception: Mari Mancusi, Bettina Restrepo, E. Kristin Anderson, Cory Putnam Oakes.

Bettina, Bethany Hegedus & E. Kristin

E. Kristin & Anna Myers at the Friday night reception

Mari & Suzanne Crowley

Krissi Dallas & Cory

Mary Lindsey & Diana Lopez

Lisa McMann & David Macinnis Gill

Tracy Deebs

Me with Kimberley Griffiths Little & Carolee Dean

Dom Testa & Kimberley

Jill S. Alexander & Bethany

Best shoes: Cari Soto

Victoria Scott & Cory

Jo Whittemore in the author green room

David & Kathi Appelt

Sophie Jordan & Mari

Janni Lee Simner & origami triceratops

Krissi in the teen room

Montgomery County goddesses Natasha & Tabatha at Louie's Bar, after the festival

Jo & Nikki Loftin

Me with fellow Walker Books Australia author Brian Falkner

Victoria Scott & Cory

Suzanne, Janet S. Fox & Greg Leitich Smith

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Congratulations to all the winners, honorees and list makers of the current awards season!

Cheers to the hardworking committee members, and the entire children's-YA literature and publishing community, including young readers, for making 2012 such a success!

A few personal shout outs:

Hooray to my fellow former VCFA faculty member Leda Schubert, whose Monsieur Marceau: Artist Without Words (Roaring Brook, 2012) won the Orbis Pictus Award for Outstanding Nonfiction for Children!

See Leda Schubert on Monsieur Marceau: Artist Without Words from Cynsations.


Congratulations to fellow Austinite Cynthia Levinson on the recognition for YALSA Nonfiction Award finalist We've Got a Job: The 1963 Birmingham Children's March (Peachtree, 2012)!

See a new voice interview with Cynthia and guest post with Cynthia about the book!


Likewise, huge cheers to Toni Buzzeo on the Caldecott Honor for One Cool Friend, illustrated by David Small (Dial, 2012)! Toni and I were critique partners early in our careers. I absolutely love this picture book (my favorite of the year!), and I couldn't be more thrilled by her success.

See From Urban Legend to the Boy in the Tuxedo by Toni Buzzeo from Hunger Mountain: A VCFA Journal of the Arts.


Brava, Kelly Starling Lyons, whose Ellen’s Broom, snagged a Coretta Scott King Illustrator Award for Daniel Minter (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2012)! Kelly is one of the terrific people behind The Brown Bookshelf: United in Story, highlighting African American children's-YA authors and illustrators.

See also Kelly Starling Lyon's on Ellen's Broom from Cynsations.


Way to go, fellow Texan Benjamin Alire Sáenz, the Belpré Author Award winner for Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (Simon & Schuster, 2012)! The book also was the Stonewall Book Award - Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award winner ("given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender experience") and--wait for it--a Printz Honor Book! Learn more about this novel from NPR books! Note: Ben had me at Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood (Cinco Puntos, 2004) one of my all-time favorite YA books.

More Award News

• American Library Association Announces 2013 Youth Media Awards
• ALA Youth Media Awards 2013 -- a Post-Game Recap
• 2013 Best Fiction for Young Adults 
• 2013 Rainbow List (GLBTQ)
• Amelia Bloomer List (feminist)
• Orbis Pictus (Nonfiction)
• 2013 Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature 
• No H8, Please

More Links

Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Paul Schmid from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Peek: "Finding myself unemployed with no clear direction, one day my lovely, brilliant wife suggested I call Steven Malk, a literary agent whom I had made contact with a number of years before. Steve took me on, and we floated out a postcard."

Laura Ellen on Using Criticism from Adventures in YA & Children's Literature. Peek: "Writing is extremely personal. Often we see it as an extension of ourselves and so anything said against it seems like a personal attack. It’s hard to do, but try to take ‘you’ out of the book."

Time Saving Tips When Writing Series by Elizabeth S. Craig from Mystery Writing is Murder. Peek: "The style sheets are emailed in a separate attachment from my edits, and sometimes include the email address of the copyeditor on them, in case I want to make changes to the document."

What We've Learned about Writing Fantasy by Anna Staniszewski from The Enchanted Inkpot. Peek: "The characters, plot, world, etc. might feel flimsy at first, but every round of revisions will make them stronger."

So You Want to Read Your Reviews by Elizabeth S. Craig from Writing Mystery is Murder. Peek: "In general, we should probably stay away. Your time is better spent writing the next book."

Malín Alegría: A Road Map for Bicultural Youth from CBC Diversity. Peek: "Latinos have lived in the United States for over 500 years. However, mainstream literature rarely portrays strong brown characters as the protagonists. It’s liberating to have the opportunity to write a teen drama that teens across the world can relate to because they speak to typical experiences."

Success: Is It Happening to You, Only You Don't Realize It? by Angela Ackerman from The Bookstore Muse. Peek: "The truth is, there are many indicators of emerging success, not just these biggies. They are smaller, more subtle. Many of us don’t realize what they mean when they happen."

No Crystal Stair: An Interview with Vaundra Nelson by J.L. Powers from The Pirate Tree: Social Justice & Children's Literature. Peek: "I’m no expert on the Pan-African movement. I’m just a storyteller who enjoys history. My understanding is that Lewis (like his father) found inspiration in Garvey’s commitment to blacks building their own businesses, creating their own communities, becoming self-sufficient."

Three Simple Ways to Engage on Your Author Facebook Page by Caitlin Muir from Author Media.  Peek: "Think of each photo as a digital ambassador. Choose them carefully."

Help! Unromantic Me Can't Write Romantic Scenes from DearEditor.com. Peek: " This isn’t about you, it’s about the characters. A great romantic scene grows out of the characters’ emotional connection with each other across all preceding scenes."

Cynsational Giveaways

• Signed copy of Execution by Alexander Gordon Smith (YA). Author sponsored. Eligibility: international.

Enter to win a paperback copy of Diabolical by Cynthia Leitich Smith from Jean's Book Nerd.

Don't miss New YA Releases & Eight Giveaways (Including Homeland by Cory Doctorow) from Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing.

This Week at Cynsations

• Follow ALA Youth Media Award Results Live
• Anna Olswanger on Greenhorn
• Book Trailer & Demo Video: Flora and the Flamingo
• Launch Event Case Studies: Liz Garton Scanlon's Happy Birthday, Bunny! & Janet Fox's Sirens
• Interview with Cynthia Leitich Smith, Giveaway & Review of Diabolical

More Personally


Highlights of the week included Liz Garton Scanlon's launch of Happy Birthday, Bunny! (Beach Lane, 2013) at BookPeople in Austin! See photo report.


Just as jazzy! The release of Janet Fox's Sirens (Speak/Penguin, 2012), likewise at BookPeople. See photo report.

With Bethany Hegedus, agent Alexandra Penfold & Greg Leitich Smith at The Driskill Hotel.

Coming soon in paperback!

Cynthia Leitich Smith Author Interview, Review & Diabolical Giveaway from JeanBookNerd.com. In-depth, at times quite personal, conversation, celebrating the upcoming paperback release of Diabolical.

Girl Meets Boy, edited by Kelly Milner Halls from Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children's Literature. Peek: "Joe (Joseph Bruchac) and Cyn are two of my favorite writers. I recognize the places they write about, and as a Native kid/teen who grew up at Nambe Pueblo, I recognize the characters they developed for their stories in Girl Meets Boy. I know/knew guys like Bobby Wildcat and girls like Nancy Whitepath..."

Thanks to readergirlz for the shout outs for my upcoming releases, Feral Nights and Eternal: Zachary's Story (both Candlewick, Feb. 2013)!

As for new books, a Feral Nights sighting at ALA (photo by Stephanie Light Eames)

Personal Links:

• Casting Call! Children's Literature: The Movie

From Greg Leitich Smith:

• Wild Boy: The Real Life of the Savage of Aveyron

Cynsational Events

Join Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith (and many more!) Feb. 2 at Montgomery County Book Festival. Check out the art contest; deadline: Jan. 18.

Join Cynthia Leitich Smith, Jennifer Ziegler and more at Library Palooza 2013: That Author Thing! will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Brandeis High School in San Antonio.

2013 Novel Writing Retreat for Middle Grade and Young Adult Writers will be March 15 to March 17 at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Peek: "This year's retreat will feature faculty Cynthia Leitich Smith, Lauren Myracle, and Candlewick editor Andrea Tompa."

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Highlights of this week included two book launch parties, featuring Liz Garton Scanlon with Happy Birthday, Bunny! (Beach Lane, 2013) and Janet Fox with Sirens (Speak, 2012). Both events were hosted by BookPeople in Austin. The former featured a picture book. The latter featured a YA novel. Each modeled great ideas for authors/booksellers planning an in-store launch event.

First, let's peek in on Liz:

Modeling Happy Birthday, Bunny! (Beach Lane, 2013) with Lindsey Scheibe and Carmen Oliver

Author Liz Garton Scanlon talks about the book!

Making bunny ears at BookPeople in Austin!

In-store display

Liz and her mom decorate the food table

Takeaway Strategies for a Picture Book Bookstore Launch

• A prominent display of the books as customers first walked into the store
• Economic, but colorful costuming provided in the form of paper "bunny" ear hats
• Tie-in refreshments--sweets (a birthday cake for bunny), healthy celery and tie-in decorations (carrots in a vase) 
• A presentation/reading with participation opportunities, geared to the youngest fans
• A chance to move around -- "The Bunny Hop"
• Takeaways: the tie-in elements offered unity; the kid-friendly approach offered fun

Now, let's check in on Janet:

Learn more about Janet's books!

Janet models her new novel.

Swag, my pretties! Swag!

Dolled up with Janet, 1920s -- style!

Janet in a Q&A with Austin's own Bethany Hegedus

Sean Petrie, Anne Bustard, Janet, Bethany and Greg Leitich Smith at Opal Divine's Freehouse.

Takeaway Strategies for a YA Novel Bookstore Launch

• A prominent display of the books as customers arrived at the YA department/event area
• Tasty refreshments--sweets and drinks
• Thematic 1920s costuming (and contest)
• Tie-in prize swag
• Giveaway bookmarks (don't forget the backlist books)
• Conversational presentation (local-draw author, plus out-of-state author)
• A more intimate after-party with personal friends
• Takeaways: embrace the fun; don't forget the grown-ups (who're a big part of the YA fan base)

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Cynthia Leitich Smith Author Interview, Review & Diabolical Giveaway from JeanBookNerd.com. In-depth, at times quite personal, conversation, celebrating the upcoming paperback release of Diabolical.

Peek from the interview:

"Zachary is hands-down the most gorgeous, popular and charmingly flawed of all of my characters. He has the best of intentions, always acts out of love, mostly for his girl, Miranda, and usually ends up in ever more trouble because of it. I can’t imagine a more entertaining date or devoted lover than the guardian angel Zachary."

Peek from Jean's Review:

"The twists that Cynthia laced the finale with will have readers on the edge of their seats. There are moments that are simply stunning that will leave readers’ mouths hanging open. The creepiness is sometimes difficult to bear but Cynthia’s writing style is so addictive that no matter what she throws at you, you will continue to read on."

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Check out the book trailer and demo video for Flora the Flamingo by Molly Idle (Chronicle, 2012). From the promotional copy:

In this innovative wordless picture book with interactive flaps, Flora and her graceful flamingo friend explore the trials and joys of friendship through an elaborate synchronized dance.

With a twist, a turn, and even a flop, these unlikely friends learn at last how to dance together in perfect harmony.

Full of humor and heart, this stunning performance (and splashy ending!) will have readers clapping for more!

Cynsational Notes

Molly Idle began her career as an artist working for DreamWorks Feature Animation, and from there she leapt into the world of children’s books. She lives in Tempe, Arizona.

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By Anna Olswanger
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

I heard the real story of Greenhorn thirty years ago in Israel. The rabbi of my synagogue stood in the front of our tour bus as we approached Jerusalem and told us about a little boy who had lost his parents in the Holocaust, who wouldn't speak when he came to live at the Brooklyn yeshiva where the rabbi was in the sixth grade, and who wouldn't let a tin box out of his sight.

I knew as soon as the rabbi began talking that the story was important and that I wanted to write it, but what I didn't know was how I could make the story mine.

I was childless, born in America after the Holocaust, and my grandparents and great-grandparents had left Eastern Europe in the 1890s, years before the Holocaust.

What did I know about what this little boy had gone through?

But my rabbi, a witness to the story, was preoccupied with leading his large congregation and couldn't write the story. I had no idea where the little boy was forty years after the Holocaust, so I couldn't ask him to write the story.

I knew if I didn't write the story, it would be lost. I had to write it.

Anna Olswanger

This was what I heard that day on the bus:

When the school principal came into my rabbi's class to announce that the yeshiva would take in fifty boys, he introduced "Daniel," a young boy who had no possessions, except for a small, tin box that he never let out of his sight.

The class later discovered that inside the box was a bar of soap. Daniel believed that the soap, manufactured by the Nazis, was made from the body fat of Jews murdered in the death camps.

And he believed that maybe, just maybe, that bar of soap contained his parents' remains. He said he didn't have anything else from his parents, not even a photograph.

It was, and sometimes still is, difficult for me to articulate why I thought the story was important, but as I began to write Greenhorn, through all the succeeding drafts of what became a middle grade novel based on the real story, I discovered more clearly what I was writing about.

The little boy, who wouldn't speak when he came to America, who wouldn't let the tin box out of his sight, made a friend in my rabbi. Later, the little boy agreed to live with his friend's family. And in the actual scene that I described in the Afterword, the little boy, who had grown up to marry and have his own family, was finally able to bury the soap in the backyard of his house in Jerusalem.

I discovered through all those successive drafts that I was writing about family.

My grandparents' cousins and their children who never left Eastern Europe died in the Holocaust. I am still childless. I have no children to discuss my cousins with, or even the Holocaust that wiped out not just them, but two thirds of Europe's Jews.

I wrote my first children's book Shlemiel Crooks because I wanted to recapture the family stories my father told me before he died. Through the publication of Shlemiel Crooks, I discovered that I could share my father's stories with other children, even though I had none of my own.

Now, it's the same with Greenhorn. Through the book, I can take part in discussions between children, parents, and teachers about the Holocaust. The publisher has even made free guides available for parents and teachers to facilitate discussions. So, although I don't have my own children, I can share something I consider important with any child who reads Greenhorn.

Like the little boy who finally found his family, I have also found mine.

Illustrator Miriam Nerlove

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From the American Library Association:

CHICAGO — Thousands of webcast viewers will join more than 1,300 onsite audience members for the 2013 announcement of the American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Awards at 8 a.m. Pacific time on Jan. 28. The announcements are part of the ALA Midwinter Meeting, held from Jan. 25 to Jan. 29 at the Washington State Convention Center in Seattle.

The ALA Youth Media Awards honor children’s and young adult authors and illustrators, as well as producers of children’s audio and video materials. Known worldwide for the high quality they represent, the awards are selected under a cloak of secrecy by national judging committees composed of librarians and other children’s literature experts. Award selections serve as a guide for parents, educators, librarians and those interested in providing children and teens with the very best reading and viewing materials.

In 2013 the announcements will consist of 19 awards, including the 75th anniversary year of the Randolph Caldecott Medal, John Newbery Medal, Coretta Scott King Book Awards and Michael L. Printz Award.

Those that are not able to join the webcast can still follow results in real-time by logging on to the ALA Youth Media Awards Facebook page, or via Twitter by following hashtag #ALAyma.

After the announcements, videos from winning authors will be available on the ALA Youth Media Awards YouTube Channel, and a press release announcing 2013 selections will be available on the ALA.org home page at 10 a.m. Pacific time.

For more information regarding the ALA Youth Media Awards, please visit www.ala.org/yma.

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Find out Helen's misconception!

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Author Insight: Publishing Misconceptions from Wastepaper Prose. Peek: "What was the biggest misconception you had about publishing before you got a book deal?"

What Every Middle Grade Writer Should Know About Middle Graders by Lee Wardlaw from Project Mayhem. Peek: "Young middle graders have a strong sense of moral justice, hence their indignation when bedtime for them is 9 p.m. p.m. and older siblings get to stay up till 10 p.m."

Three Ways Cause & Effect Can Help Build Your Story by Martina from Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing.

Researching Your Novel: Dos and Don'ts by Carolyn Kaufman from QueryTracker.netBlog. Peek: "The reality is that when you keep researching far beyond the things that you needed to know, you’re not doing it for your story anymore." See also Updating Ideas to Create Something New by Celia Rees from Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing.

Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Your Art by Kristin Briana Otts from YA Highway. Peek: "I lost my job, when I looked into freelance writing; but I decided to stick with waiting tables, because that was what I knew. I was afraid to try - afraid to fail - so I stuck with work that was safe even though it made me unhappy." See also When It Feels Like You've Given Up the Dream by Kaitlin Ward from YA Highway.

Shining the Spotlight: 2013 Honorees from The Brown Bookshelf. Peek: "...we are proud to announce the honorees for our sixth annual 28 Days Later campaign, a Black History Month celebration of emerging and established children’s book creators of color. As is tradition, a stand-out author or illustrator will be saluted each day during February."

Author Interview: Liz Garton Scanlon by Carmen Oliver from One Word at a Time. Peek: "We bring so much energy to birthdays, but little ones – turning 1 or 2 or 4 or 5 – must be so confused. They don’t know the traditions, the rituals, the rules. What would happen, I wondered, if one of them just asked? And we answered?" Note: Central Texans! Join Liz for the launch of Happy Birthday, Bunny! (Beach Lane, 2013) at 2 p.m. Jan. 26 at BookPeople in Austin.

Amazon Children's Publishing Names Two Imprints by Shannon Maughan from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Two Lions will be home to picture books, chapter books and middle-grade fiction, and Skyscape will be devoted to titles for young adults, encompassing works from both established authors and new voices. Margery Cuyler is editorial manager for Two Lions, and Tim Ditlow is editorial manager for Skyscape."

Cynsational Author Tip: Lift up! Lift up! Lift up your craft, your books, yourself as well as those around you and their efforts, too. Don't fall victim to the temptation to dismiss, minimize, sneer or cast aside what is yours or what springs from someone else. Don't push others down to raise yourself; rise on the strength of your own spirit and take others with you to new heights!

What's Hindering You? by Kristi Holl from Writer's First Aid. Peek: "Are there things (activities, hobbies, interests, bad habits) that you need to dump if you’re going to make a successful journey as a writer in 2013?"

2013 Advanced Writing Workshop: Sara Zarr -- Emotional Pacing from April 19 to April 21 at The Writing Barn in Austin. The weekend, a combination of lecture, exercises and workshop will address these questions: How do we get characters to grow and change in ways that make readers forget they’re reading a book, and instead draw them into inhabiting a world full of people as real as themselves? How do we take characters on the emotional part of their journey and not only the physical one? Application deadline: Feb. 7. From the Writing Barn's operations manager Bethany Hegedus: "The goal of the Advanced Writer Weekend Workshop Season is for dedicated and productive writers to continue to study craft, read and analyze current books, have in-depth conversation, and to come away from the intensives with insights into works-in-progress and to renew and reinvigorate writing inspiration. Led by award-winning authors, editors, and agents, these application-only workshops with limited attendance will be on par with MFA-level programming." See a report on the previous WB workshop, featuring agent Alexandra Penfold and check out the upcoming November workshop with Francisco X. Stork.

More on the workshop with Alexandra Penfold.

Award News

• Louise Erdrich's Chickadee Wins the 2013 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction by Debbie Reese from American Indians in Children's Literature.
• Morris (YA) Finalists
• Sydney Taylor (Jewish Themes) Book Awards
• YALSA ENYA (YA Nonfiction) Finalists 
• SLJ's Battle of the Books: the 2013 Contenders

Cynsational Giveaways

• Signed copy of Execution by Alexander Gordon Smith (YA). Author sponsored. Eligibility: international.

The winners of Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor (Little Brown, 2012) are Lauren in North Carolina, Jenn in Wyoming, and Lillian in Ohio.

See also New YA Releases & Giveaways from Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing.

Cynsational Screening Room

Check out the Snuggle Mountain children's book app trailer; story by Lindsey Lane, art by Melissa Iwai, book trailer by Erik Kuntz.



This Week at Cynsations

• Day by Day Diversity
• Book Trailer: Splintered by A.G. Howard
• Event Photo Report: YAK Fest
• Author Interview & Giveaway: Alexander Gordon Smith

More Personally

Last weekend's highlight was YAK Fest in Keller, Texas! Huge thanks to the dynamic planners, volunteers, attendees, and everyone who contributed to making it such a success! See my event photo report from earlier this week!

With Cory Putnam Oakes, Krissi Dallas and Greg Leitich Smith

Cynthia Leitich Smith's Great Resources for Writers and Illustrators by Lee Wind from The Official SCBWI Blog. Peek: "Cynthia Leitich Smith is a powerhouse." Note: Jeepers. Thanks, Lee!

What I'm Reading Feral Nights by Cynthia Leitich Smith from P.J. Hoover at Roots in Myth. Peek: "The wit and humor that Cynthia manages to pull off each and every time she writes a book amazes me. I find myself laughing out loud in the most unexpected places as a perfectly placed bit of humor slips into her story."

Personal Links

• 2013 Books by Austinites (updated)
• Rhyme Weaver
• Owl City -- Shooting Star
• Fast vs. Slow (Writing)
• This Is Why We Need More Books Featuring People of Color 

Cynsational Events


Join Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith (and many more!) Feb. 2 at Montgomery County Book Festival. Check out the art contest; deadline: Jan. 18.

Join Cynthia Leitich Smith, Jennifer Ziegler and more at Library Palooza 2013: That Author Thing! will be from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at Brandeis High School in San Antonio.

2013 Novel Writing Retreat for Middle Grade and Young Adult Writers will be March 15 to March 17 at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Peek: "This year's retreat will feature faculty Cynthia Leitich Smith, Lauren Myracle, and Candlewick editor Andrea Tompa."

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Check out the book trailer for Splintered by A. G. Howard (Amulet, 2013). From the promotional copy:

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By Karen Rock
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Award-winning, international bestselling YA author, Alexander Gordon Smith is best known for his Escape From Furnace Series, comprised of Lockdown, Solitary, Death Sentence, Fugitives and Execution. 

His latest series, The Fury, is eagerly anticipated for its stateside arrival in 2013. His creative writing handbooks, Inspired Creative Writing and Writing Bestselling Children’s Books are a must read for writers. 

But his creative reach stretches beyond the page and into publishing and film as the founder of Egg Box Publishing, an independent, non-profit imprint designed to publish and promote talented new writers and poets, and his the co-ownership of Fear Driven Films, a production company filming its first feature in 2011.

Your ground-breaking YA series Furnace and latest series, Fury, are terrifying in the best way. What do you enjoy the most about writing horror fiction? What is the real magic of horror?

Thanks! It's great to know that they're terrifying, as that's the kind of story I set out to tell. I love horror. I always have, ever since I wrote my first book – The Little Monster Book – when I was six. That one wasn't exactly scary, but it did show me what I wanted to be when I was older. I understood the power of horror.

You've hit the nail on the head there, describing horror as magic. Because it is. I honestly don't think there's a more magical genre out there. That magic comes from childhood. When you're six years old and somebody tells you there's a monster under the bed, you absolutely believe it with every fiber of your being. When you get older you learn to analyze things, you apply logic and science and common sense to them. And that takes away the magic.

Alexander with Wheezer

But horror lets us believe again. For the time that you're reading a terrifying book or watching a scary movie, you completely and utterly believe that the horror is real. Horror opens up our imaginations, lets us be kids again, open to limitless possibilities.

For readers, it's a wonderful feeling, because if anything is possible, then maybe you're capable of believing the impossible of yourself too, suddenly you're capable of achieving anything you put your mind to.

The other reason I love horror is that I don't think you ever see heroism, humanity and hope like you do in a horror story. When things are at their worst, you really do see people at their best.

When things turn bad, people fight tooth and nail for everything they believe in. They fight for their family, for their friends, for their loved ones; they fight for what is right, and what is just. They fight because they know they must.

People sometimes accuse horror books of "corrupting" young minds, but I believe the opposite.

I believe that horror makes teenage readers aware of their own powers, their own strengths and abilities, their own priorities too. In the same way that fairy tales unconsciously bolster the confidence of young children, horror teaches teenagers that whatever challenges and obstacles they may meet in their teenage years – and there are many of them – they can overcome them.

It teaches them, without explicitly teaching them, that they have what it takes to survive.

It teaches them about friendship, too; the kind of friendship that keeps you standing shoulder to shoulder with someone even when the world is falling apart around you.

I honestly believe that horror makes better people of us, it makes heroes of us, even if that heroism is just facing up to our everyday lives. It gives us hope when things seem lost. It makes us human, and all the better for it.

Like Furnace, you’re trapped in an underground, nightmare of a jail with no hope of escape. However, unlike your novel, you’re allowed to bring books and movies. What three books and three movies would you bring? What three television shows would you watch?

Wow, great question! It's a tough one too, though, because I don't know if I could ever really narrow it down.

For the books, it would have to be something long and totally absorbing. Something I could get lost in.

I'd probably go for some good fantasy. Maybe Game of Thrones, or The Lord of the Rings, or The Wheel of Time (but only if I could have every volume, including the ones that haven't been written yet, or is that cheating...?). They would certainly keep me going for a while!

 Oh, and maybe my SAS survival guide (which I use for book research), as it might give me some clues on how to escape.

As for movies and television shows, I'd probably pick my two favorite films of all time, "The Goonies" and "Labyrinth," plus "The Wire," "Breaking Bad" and "Prison Break."

I do watch far too much telly...

If you could raise the dead, who would you talk to and what would you ask? 

Another great question, but just as hard to answer. There are so many cool dead people!

I'd love to talk to Ernest Hemingway, just because I think he would tell some incredible stories. Lovecraft, Stoker, Mary Shelley and Poe would be on the list too, but I'd worry that they wouldn't be great dinner guests because they all seemed a little morose...

So yeah, Hemingway, and I'd ask him what his greatest adventure was.

What influences did you draw from in creating such menacing, gruesome, secondary characters and monsters? If you could enter one of these creatures in a battle against another author’s fictional fiend, who would you choose as your entrant and who would you like to see as its opponent?

I drew from so many different influences. Books, films, television shows and video games. Everything from Manga to "Resident Evil" to "Prison Break" to One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich. It's far too long a list to write down here.

But that's one of the best parts of being a writer – part of your job is literally sitting down and reading books, watching movies and playing video games. You let all those images and atmospheres and characters and story lines mix around in your head and they metamorphose into something completely different and unique. That's what I always tell people, anyway, when they ask why I'm playing video games in the middle of the afternoon...

As for the battle...

Well, I'd have to pick a Berserker, and I'd love to see one in action against something traditional and ancient, like Grendel, or the Balrog.

Wait, actually maybe a face-off between the Stranger in Execution (who is one of the most terrifying creatures I have ever created) and Pennywise the Clown. That would be epic!

There should totally be a television show where literary monsters try to kill each other.

What is the worst nightmare or fear you had as a child and did any of these frights find their way into your books?

Definitely! I always say that if you're writing a scary book then write about something you're scared of. That way the fear will be genuine, and will help fuel the story. Readers will sense that there is something real there, and they will respond to it.

Luckily for me I'm scared of everything! But especially being accused of a crime I didn't commit, being buried alive, being chased by huge dogs, being beaten up. You can see why I decided to write about a terrifying prison! Many of these fears have existed from childhood. I vividly remember watching a friend get their ear chewed off by an Alsatian when I was about ten.

When I was very little (like six), my gran let me watch some really terrifying films, including "Texas Chainsaw Massacre," which filled me full of fears.

Oh, and when I was eleven I tried to spend the night in a haunted house so that I could write the scariest story ever written. I lasted seven minutes before running out puking – literally running and puking at the same time – because I was so scared.

It taught me an important lesson, though, because after that I knew the kind of writer I wanted to be. I didn't want to be the kind of writer that just sat down and wrote. I wanted to be the kind that went out and experienced the world of the story, that tried to get inside the heads of my characters, that tried to make their lives real in my own.

I still do that, try to make the story real in as many ways as possible (though I don't puke over myself quite as much these days).

The other thing it showed me is that you need to use your emotions in your work, as much as possible. It's why everyone can be a writer, because everyone experiences life in a slightly different way. It's what I tell students when I go into schools: that nobody has experienced life in the same way as you, nobody has experienced the same emotions as you, so nobody can ever tell the same stories as you.

My biggest fears now... Porcelain dolls and slugs. So there might be a very weird book coming along one of these days...

Mutated, disease-ravaged beings roam the pages of your novels. What would a mutant version of Alexander Gordon Smith be like? What modifications would you make for yourself?

What an awesome idea! People are always telling me that my laugh is deafening, and I do laugh a lot. My girlfriend often claims that I've made her ears ring by laughing.

So a mutant sonic boom laugh would be a cool power – so loud that it can demolish buildings and make heads explode! I could have a lot of fun with that...

From the apocalyptic world in your latest YA series, Fury, to the subterranean horror of an inescapable prison, Lockdown, in Furnace, your terrifying worlds boggle the imagination. How did you conceive of these unforgettable worlds and how does your world-building process work from inception to realization? 

I'm a really, really impatient writer. As soon as I have an idea I want to sit down and write it. There's no right or wrong way to write a book, everybody does it slightly differently.

But for me it feels more honest not to plan the story. I don't want to know what's going to happen in the story, because if I know then the characters will know, and then there will be a kind of safety net in the writing. They'll always know that come hell or high water they'll survive. That sense of security will be built into the book, invisible but unmissable. It strips away some of the tension.

Alex, in Furnace, is based on me as a teenager (I went off the rails, got into some trouble), he's the version of me who didn't get steered back on track, whose life got worse and worse and who ended up in Furnace. I was him, the same person, the ghost in his cell.

The only thing I knew when I started these books is that he was going to Furnace. Everything that happened after that we discovered together.

I know I'm straying from the question here, but it does tie in. I write very quickly. I call it writing at the speed of life because you're almost at speed with the characters. You experience things at the same time they do, which means you have to react in a very instinctive, immediate way. You don't always have time to think things through, so some of the decisions you make are wrong, but you have to live with them the same way you do in real life.

The only "world building" I really do is with the characters. I get to know them as well as I possibly can – every like, every dislike, every fear, every good and bad memory. They're more real to me than my own friends and family. Once you know your characters as well as this, everything else is easy because you see it through their eyes.

So I saw Furnace Penitentiary at the same time as Alex, and just described what he was seeing. Likewise with the wheezers, the rats, the berserkers, Alfred Furnace – I just felt like I was seeing it all first hand. The story played out in front of me, the world built itself. All I had to do was keep up!

What advice would you give other writers of horror fiction or YA fiction in general? 

Midge and Grub

There's so many hints and tips I have learned along the way from amazing writers – way too many to list here. The one that has been most useful to me, though, is what I was talking about above.

Get to know your characters. You can start writing a book without plotting past the first line, but I don't think you can write a good novel without knowing everything there is to know about at least your main character. Ask them questions, about everything. Make them write a diary, a journal, about their worst memories, their favorite people, their relationships with their parents and friends and enemies. Know them better than you know yourself and they'll write most of the book for you.

But there's only one really, really important piece of advice, and this one is essential. Never give up. It's the most essential thing in life. It doesn't matter what you want to do – writer, actor, musician, scientist, doctor, bank robber, anything. Human Beings are amazing, every single one of us. We are capable of doing absolutely anything with our lives, accomplishing any dream, I honestly believe that. The only thing that can stop us, the only thing that can keep us from achieving our goals, is if we stop trying.

If anyone tells you that you're not good enough, or that you can't do it, then ignore them. If that little voice in your head tries to convince you that you're not special, then ignore it. You can do anything you want to do (even if you don't know what that is yet). The only difference between people who live their dreams and those who don't is that the ones who do just didn't stop fighting for it.

If everyone gave up then we'd still be living in caves, and the world would be a very dull place. Everyone gets setbacks and rejections, just pick yourself up and try again. Never, ever give up.

If you had to chose, what writer would you consider your mentor? How has that writer inspired and influenced you?

Every book you read teaches you something, and every author has something to offer, even if it's teaching you how not to write!

George Orwell has probably taught me the most about the actual craft of writing, because he's an absolute master. I love his books, and Nineteen Eighty-Four will always be my favorite book.

But you know I think I'm going to pick Stephen King as a mentor, because it was his books that really inspired me to write, and which taught me the most about how to craft characters. He's a master at creating realistic, believable, three dimensional people. It's what he's best at. Opening one of his books is like walking into a crowded room, because you're actually there with those people. And when the horror starts, you have no choice but to see it through, because these guys are your friends, your neighbors. You're right there with them whether you want to be or not. He's a genius!

And his books still fill me with that sense of nervous excitement that I felt when I first discovered him when I was a teenager. It's an incredible feeling, the knowledge that absolutely anything can happen, that you're in for an incredible ride. You're standing on the lip of a waterfall ready to jump. It's why I started writing horror, because of that freedom, that incredible sense of limitless possibility.

What can we look forward to seeing from you in the future?

The Fury is my next book, and it comes out in the U.S. next July. I can't wait! It's two books over here in the U.K., but my U.S. publisher has actually put them both together into one huge behemoth of a book.

It's a real monster. It tells the story of what would happen if one day, without warning, the whole world tries to kill you – your mum and dad, brothers and sisters, friends, teachers, neighbors, stranger in the street, they come after you and tear you to pieces. The weird thing is that as soon as they have, or as soon as you escape, they go back to their lives as if nothing has happened. They completely forget that you even existed. It's about a group of teenage characters trying to work out what's going on, and why the world has the Fury.

After that there should be a new series, another fast-paced, explosive, gory action/horror roller coaster ride which is tentatively called M.E.R.C. (you're the first to hear about it)! I can't say too much about it yet, as I haven't quite finished the first book. But it's wild!

And after that... Well, I'll always write. I love it. It seriously is the best job in the world, and I'm so lucky to be able to do it. And remember, for the writers out there amongst you, just never give up!

Cynsational Screening Room



Cynsational Giveaway

Enter to win a signed copy of Execution by Alexander Gordon Smith. Author sponsored. Eligibility: international.

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Cynsational Notes

More on Karen Rock

In a quest to provide her eighth grade students with quality reading material, English teacher Karen Rock read everything out there and couldn’t wait to add her voice to the conversation of books.

Now a debut YA series author, Karen is thrilled to pen stories that teens can relate to. When she’s not busy reading and writing, Karen is downloading live versions of favorite songs, watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" marathons, obsessing over reality TV contestants (Adam Lambert you were robbed!), cooking her family’s delizioso Italian recipes, and occasionally rescuing local wildlife from neighborhood cats.

She lives in the Adirondack Mountain region with her husband, her very appreciated beta-reader daughter and two King Charles Cavalier Cocker Spaniels who have yet to understand the concept of “fetch,” though they’ve managed to teach her the trick!

Check out her website, her co-author website, her Facebook page, and follow her on twitter @karenrock5. Then check out Camp Boyfriend.
 

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Last weekend's highlight was YAK Fest in Keller, Texas! Huge thanks to the dynamic planners, volunteers, attendees, and everyone who contributed to making it such a success!

Fellow Austin road trippers, Greg Leitich Smith, Cory Putnam Oakes & Jessica Lee Anderson at Chuy's in Waco.

Music at the author-planner reception at The Book Carriage and Coffee Shop in Roanoke.

With rock-star librarian-moderator Jen Bigheart.

With Cory, Greg & Krissi Dallas

With Tim Tingle

With Jason Henderson

Lori Aurelia Williams & Jessica

Krissi is color-coordinated with me, clothes-wise, but her hair is way cooler.

Fellow fangtastic panelists Rachel Caine and Jason

Keynoter Simone Elkeles signing books and posters -- her speech was excellent!

With the yak! Yes, the yak!

Cynsational Notes 

Special thanks to YAK Fest's own Lucy Smith Kubo! Check out additional YAK Fest photo reports from Cory Putnam Oakes and Greg Leitich Smith.

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Martin's Big Words by Doreen Rappaport, illustrated by Bryan Collier

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

As of last year, babies from so-called “minority” communities became the majority born in the United States, and it's by no means the only nation with a diverse population.

At the same time, representation of books by and about people of color, citizens of Native nations and those from the LGBT community are slim to statistically insignificant in the body of youth literature.

That’s a problem because it suggests to kids from those communities that people like them don’t belong in the world of books, because it suggests to everyone else that they don’t matter, and because we’re losing out on some amazing stories. It's also discouraging to writers and artists who hail from those same backgrounds. It says to them that their artistic talents are not needed, possibly even that they're not welcome.

All of us in the conversation of children's-YA books are responsible for that reality. 

We have to own it. 

And here’s the harder part: we have to do something about it?

Me.

You.

Everybody.

It’s personal to each of us and all of us. These are all our kids, these are the stories we’re producing and supporting and passing on. How are we doing? How can we do a better job?

Let’s take stock.

Move to your closest bookshelf. Start pulling relatively recent books by and/or about people from the underrepresented communities. How does that stack look? Should it be taller?

Here are the five books at the top of my stack:

Bronxwood by Coe Booth (YA)

The Grand Plan to Fix Everything by Uma Krishnaswami (MG)

Chained by Lynne Kelly (MG)

The Agency: The Traitor in the Tunnel (A Mary Quinn Mystery) by Y.S. Lee (YA)

Summer of the Mariposas by Guadalupe Garcia McCall (YA)

What are the five books at the top of yours?

Could you share the titles in the comments to help raise awareness?

Is your stack looking a bit short? You don't have (at least) five?

Hit your local bookstore or buy online. On a budget? Try the public library. If the books aren’t on the shelf, by all means, request them. Requests prove interest and audience.

Are you a children’s/YA book blogger or author blogger? Scroll through your posts—a few months of them. Do the books you feature include those with African-American protagonists? Those illustrated by Asian-American artists? Or is it a sea of white?

Meet Yoshi Kitahara in Feral Nights

If the latter, are you sincerely interested in changing that? What practical day-by-day steps will you take?

Then start thinking bigger picture – in terms of diversity of region, socio-economics, factor in protagonists with physical or mental challenges, or from other countries other than your own.

You know what best connects “multicultural” books to young readers?

Word of mouth.  

We think of effecting change through big words, and those do have a tremendous impact. But everyday, consistent speech can make a huge difference, too.

Am I making enough noise?

Are you?

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Looking for ALA Award Predictions? Try Fuse #8 at School Library Journal and Educating Alice. See also Notable Children's Books, 2013 Discussion List from ALSC Blog.

Children's-YA Book Awards: A Demographic Survey by Mitali Perkins from Mitali's Fire Escape. Peek: "...to generalize, last year's award-winning books were mostly about white people and created by white people."

Fantasy and Originality or Tolkien Stole My Idea by Katherine Catmull from The Enchanted Inkpot. Peek: "I want you. Not your surface politeness or charm, not your bland social gestures, not what you think I want to hear. I want your meat. I want your juice. I want your weirdness, your voice, your truest thing."

Find Someone Who Is a Stakeholder in Your Writing Life: Find a Few Someones by Kate Gale from Glimmer Train. Peek: "Find someone who believes in you. The kind of stakeholders you need fall into three categories..." Source: Jane Friedman.

Marketing Strategies: Who? Access? Willing by Darcy Pattison from Fiction Notes. Peek: "Basically, the agent–and ultimately the publisher–want to know a couple simple things. Who do you know, what access do you have to potential readers (online or offline), and what are you willing to do?"

Why You Should Critique Other People's Queries by Sarah Pinneo from QueryTracker.netBlog.  Peek: "It is the rare query which contains only mistakes I’m past making for myself. There’s always something to learn." See also Query Letters from Mette Ivie Harrison.

Top Ten Things One Writer Learned About Social Media by Colby Marshall from Mystery Writing Is Murder. Peek: "Social media doesn't create a fan base--it keeps one."

Dramatic Point of View in Historical Fiction Picture Books from Donna Bowman Bratton. Peek: "Whereas most picture books are written in close third person point of view, allowing the reader to get inside a character's head, dramatic point of view is more from the narrator's vantage point, as if he/she is telling a story as it unfolds, and taking us along for the ride."

Outside Author Control from Wastepaper Prose. Peek: "What behind the scenes process that authors don't usually have a hand in but affects how your novel is represented, such as audiobook narration, cover design or marketing, scares you most?"

Diversity 101: Not Injun Joe by Joseph Bruchac from CBC Diversity. Peek: "You can also turn to well-prepared Native American people themselves, teachers, librarians and writers, tribal leaders and respected representatives of their own nations. (But do not make the mistake of assuming that any random Native American will know everything about Indians or even about his or her tribal nation.)"

The Children's Digital Market: Still Uncharted Territory by Gale Habash from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "The Bowker study had some surprises, most notably: 84% of YA books were purchased by consumers 18 or older – and a full 35% of YA books were bought by consumers aged 18-29, by far the largest demographic."

Embrace the Naked by Robin LaFevers from Writer Unboxed. Peek: "...if you think that it’s scary to intentionally put more and more of yourself on the page, to become more and more vulnerable, you’re right."

International Book Giving Day is Feb. 14. Get ready!

SCBWI

The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is announcing the publication of The Book: The Essential Guide to Publishing for Children.

Formerly known as the SCBWI Publications Guide, the new book is a completely revamped and updated edition, with a new look, new name and a full complement of current, essential articles on all aspects of the children’s book publishing industry.

New and relevant articles feature such topics as maximizing social media, creating book trailers, best practices in independent publishing, and grassroots promotion.

A highlight of The Book is the up-to-the-minute Market Survey, which includes a comprehensive house by house listing of editors, art directors and key personnel. Other useful surveys are The International Market Survey, The Book Reviewers Directory, The Agents Directory, and a unique feature called Edited By, in which editors have been personally surveyed to provide a history of their recent acquisitions. Key resources include an annotated bibliography of essential reference books for any aspiring children’s book author or illustrator, as well as a current listing of bloggers, reviewers, grants and awards.

The 300-page comprehensive, hands-on tool is designed to guide children’s book writers and illustrators through their publishing careers. The Book is available in hard copy and online to SCBWI members.

Egmont U.S.A.

Egmont U.S.A. this week announced the appointment, effective immediately, of Andrea Cascardi to the new combined role of Managing Director and Publisher.

Andrea joins Egmont U.S.A. from the Transatlantic Literary Agency, where she has represented many bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators, including Newbery winner Clare Vanderpool, Mary Casanova and Mary Nethery. Prior to that, Andrea was a highly respected children’s publisher, beginning in the editorial department at Houghton Mifflin and most recently as Associate Publishing Director at Random House Children’s Books for the Knopf and Crown imprints.

Cally Poplak, Managing Director of Egmont Press, who has been managing the U.S. business from London, said: “I’m delighted that Andrea is joining us to take on this new combined role. She has the strategic vision, business experience and creative background to accelerate Egmont’s growth in the US, and I’m very much looking forward to working with her to build on our first few years.”

As this role encompasses the M.D. and Publisher, there will no longer be a separate Publisher role, and Elizabeth Law is therefore leaving after five years with the company.

“Elizabeth has made a tremendous contribution to building Egmont’s list, and we are enormously grateful for the passion she has put into the business,” said Poplak.

This Week at Cynsations

• Signed Books Giveaway: Keeping Up with the Smiths (enter to win Diabolical & Chronal Engine)
• New Voice: Lenore Appelhans/Jennewein on Level 2 & Chick-o-Saurus Rex
• In Memory: Gerald McDermott
• New Voice: Erica Lorraine Scheidt on Uses for Boys  

Austin SCBWI

Newly agented Meredith Davis spoke on "Holding Onto the Heart of Your Story" at the Austin SCBWI monthly meeting last week at BookPeople. Meredith is the founder of the chapter and a graduate of Vermont College of Fine Arts.

Me with Meredith Davis & Betty X Davis (no relation)

Austin SCBWI members hard at work on a writing exercise.

Incoming RA Shelley Ann Jackson and illustration chair Amy Farrier.

Writers and illustrators gather at Lucy's Retired Surfer Bar after the meeting.

With outgoing ARA Carmen Oliver

Celebrating Meredith signing with Alyssa Eisner Heinken of Trident Media Group.

Personal Links

• Writing Tragedy
• The Theology of "Angel" in the City of Demons; source Gwenda Bond
• Betty X Davis Young Writers Award of Merit logo
• The Sweet Dead Life ARC Contest from Joy Preble
• 2013 Movies for Book, Film & Spec Fic Fans

Cynsational Events

Study with me in snowy Vermont!

Join Cynthia (and many more!) Jan. 19 at Young Adult Keller (Texas) Book Festival (YAK Fest) in Keller, Texas. See more information from I Read Banned Books.

Join Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith (and many more!) Feb. 2 at Montgomery County Book Festival. Check out the art contest; deadline: Jan. 18.

2013 Novel Writing Retreat for Middle Grade and Young Adult Writers will be March 15 to March 17 at Vermont College of Fine Arts in Montpelier. Peek: "This year's retreat will feature faculty Cynthia Leitich Smith, Lauren Myracle, and Candlewick editor Andrea Tompa."

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Austin children's-YA literary luminaries shone bright at the New Year's Eve party at The Writing Barn. It also was my birthday.

My hair & makeup by Barbara Morin of Sirens Salon in Austin.

Because every semi-formal needs cowboy boots.

Cory and Mark Oakes, Nikki Loftin and Dave Wilson

Brian Anderson & Greg Leitich Smith

Samantha Clark & Bethany Hegedus

Gene Brenek

Cory & Shelli Cornelison

Don and Tammy Tate

Frances Hill Yansky & Brian Yansky

Samantha & Salima Alikhan

Mark G. Mitchell & Julie Lake

Is it Greg or James Bond? Who can tell?

Collage by Shelley Ann Jackson, a birthday gift to me from my children's-YA writing-illustrating community.

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By Karen Rock
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations

Laini Taylor, author of the bestselling YA fantasy series Daughter of Smoke & Bone, has been busy touring the country promoting the second book in the trilogy, Days of Blood & Starlight. 

In between attending themed parties thrown by students and packed book signings, she took the time to answer a few questions for us.

Daughter of Smoke & Bone and the recently released sequel Days of Blood & Starlight raise the bar in fantasy fiction series writing. What do you enjoy most about this genre?

First, thank you so much! And the answer is: I enjoy everything the most about fantasy, that is, about fantasy versus non-fantasy. I read all kinds of books, but fantasy in all its forms and sub-genres is by far my favorite, and what I always return to.

When I write, even if I were to set out to write something mainstream and realistic, I feel sure that magic would creep in. I can’t help it. I relish the imaginative possibilities of fantasy, where anything can happen. I love creatures and mythology and folklore and the idea of these things crossing over into “reality.” I love thinking about magic, and what it would be like if it were really part of our lives.

And one of the biggest things about fantasy that I appreciate is its ability to universalize themes in a way that lets us look at Big Ideas like war and honor and sacrifice and love in a resonant way, as human themes that are deeply meaningful in our lives, free from the allegiances and prejudices we bring to stories that happen in our real world.

Laini on book tour at BookPeople in Austin, Texas

I think that fantasy serves a very important function as an allegory for everything we contend with in reality, and best of all: it is empowering. I personally think that the biggest appeal of fantasy is in the vicarious experience of heroism, and acting in the world in a larger way than most of us get to in real life. In books, living through the characters, we get to affect change in major ways. We get to save the world! Besides all that, it is just the most fun!

The imaginative worlds and the creatures that inhabit them in your YA trilogy, Daughter of Smoke & Bone, are stunning. What inspires you creatively?

Thank you! Folklore is a big inspiration. The books that I keep in my writing room versus the downstairs library are chiefly my folklore books: fairy tales, superstitions, myth and legend, creatures, and also books about warfare and battle.

Reading folklore from a particular culture is a great way to go about devising a fantasy culture: within the framework of folklore, you get at a sense of what makes a culture feel cohesive and real, what gives it a unique flavor. Sometimes I draw specific ideas, other times I might just make note of what I think contributes to the overall pervasive sense of a real culture. I make notes in notebooks and end up finding these tidbits later and using them in a kind of patchwork quilt of ideas, just taking my favorite parts and reforming them into some new whole, with additions of my own.

Some great books on creatures are A Field Guide to Demons by Mack & Mack, and Spirits, Fairies, Leprechauns & Goblins by Carol Rose.

I can’t say that either of these informed the specific characters and beings in Daughter of Smoke & Bone, but they have definitely been ingested by me and become part of the general imaginative well that I draw from. Weird science and history are also big sources of inspiration.

Neither of your protagonists, Karou, a human raised by Chimera, or Akiva, a Misbegotten angel, fit neatly into their worlds, nor do they seem wholly comfortable with their lives. Were there times, growing up, when you felt as though you didn’t fit in? How might such experiences have shaped you as an author and your work?

Sure, I think that the fantasy trope of the outsider is a great metaphor for adolescence in general. As I said earlier about fantasy serving as allegory for the real concerns in our lives, here’s a great example. There are certain tropes that have huge universal appeal, for the very reason that they are such a part of the human psyche, and this is one of them: the outsider searching for connection, for meaning, for belonging. It’s rooted in basic human needs, and is hugely powerful.

Personally, I moved a lot as a kid, having been a Navy brat, and I had to learn to make friends swiftly. I was lucky for the most part to live in communities where everyone was used to this swift friend-making and reforming of social groups (other military kids), but it was a lot harder when I moved to a civilian community at age 15, where this was not the case.

It turned out all right, but I absolutely remember that time in my life as a powerless one, and not my favorite. I literally fled the country it the day after high school graduation. I couldn’t get on a plane fast enough, back to Europe, to another group of people who swiftly and easily reform social groups: travelers.

Laini with students

It is no coincidence, I think, that travelers and journeys are another powerful fantasy trope. I’m very grateful for my upbringing moving around and living in cool places, for giving me a taste for the exotic and mysterious, which I love in books as both a reader and a writer.

Zuzana and her boyfriend Mik are two of my favorite characters! They bring humor to grim, dark moments such as when Zuzana calls the diabolical, white-mane wolf, Thiago “The other white meat.” Is it important to make readers laugh, even during high-stakes, dire moments?

Absolutely. There were some books that served as my “cautionary tales” while writing Days of Blood & Starlight: books I’d read where things became so unrelentingly bleak for the characters that I just didn’t want to be there. I found myself reluctant to open them back up; sometimes I didn’t open them back up.

When I was writing Days, I knew it would take the characters to a grim place, but I didn’t want it to ever be too much for the reader. I wanted to keep some of the levity and whimsy and rich fun of the first book, and Zuzana and Mik were definitely a big part of the plan for accomplishing this. I love writing them, and I’m glad to hear that readers love reading them.

Their purpose isn’t just comic relief though: they are a reminder to Karou of her old “normal”, and of another way of living besides war and deprivation, and of the possibility of love. They are a living, breathing, kissing exhibit A of a life worth fighting for.

Like another great fantasy writer, J.R.R. Tolkien, war is a major component of your series. In Days of Blood & Starlight, a young soldier asks Akiva a heart-wrenching question. “What is it all for?... I can’t remember. I… I don’t think I ever knew.” What do your characters come to learn about war? Or what do you wish they’d learn? How does your portrayal of war differ from Tolkien’s?

Cake is served at a school visit!

Hm. It seems like this could be a question for serious study!

I love Tolkien, and am mindful that he experienced war in a very real way, as a soldier in WWI, and was drawing on personal experience in a way I never could (and thank goodness for that!).

I did not feel in any way equal to the task of depicting war, and I was a little slow in admitting to myself that I had set myself up to try to do that. I was afraid of it, because in some YA novels the wars come across as contrived and unbelievable and I hoped I could do justice to the gravity of the subject matter without taking my readers farther into a realistic depiction than any of us really want to go.

As horrific as some of the events in Days are, they don’t come close to the true horror of war. I went as far as I felt I could (and even that was uncomfortable) for the kind of book I wanted to write, and for the audience I was reaching for.

What I think my characters are coming to grips with is the fact that this isn’t a matter of good versus evil (as is more the case in Tolkien). It’s people killing people, and neither side is in the right. It’s all senseless, this ceaseless cycle of attacks and reprisals.

The thing that interests me is: how do you begin to end something like this? Can enemies learn to see each other in a new way? It has happened, in human history. It clearly can happen, and that gives me hope. The idea was to show how it might happen, where and how it might begin — with a few characters — and how it might take hold and spread. That’s where we are in the series, right in the middle of that sea change. It will remain for book 3 to see them through — hopefully!

How much of the series was planned in advance before you wrote the first novel, Daughter of Smoke & Bone? Did any of those plans change and if so, can you share any of those differences with us? How flexible are you in allowing such changes to your overall plan?

Ha, well, nothing was planned before I wrote Daughter. It all began as a freewriting exercise, and grew very organically out of what appeared in one day’s writing. That said, it took a lot of brainstorming after the initial concept to get the plot to take shape.

For a long time, I tried to make it be a stand-alone novel, but after a while it had clearly become too big for that, so I grudgingly considered two books, and then finally, after finishing Daughter, accepted that it was a trilogy. (As with taking on war, I was afraid to take on a trilogy. It’s all very daunting!)

My plans for the series arc have been fairly loose since then though. I like to leave myself a lot of room to explore, and tend to not think too far beyond the ending of the book at hand. I leave my future-self to contend with future books, and I suppose I have a degree of faith that I’ll figure it out as I go.

There is fear, too, of course, but outlining the whole series in detail just wasn’t ever an option for me. I really have only a shadowy plan, and a hoped-for outcome. The way I write, so much of the plot needs to come out of the characters’ emotional arcs, and that just is something that arising through writing, and never through outlining.

In the past I tried to do detailed outlining up front, and I found that I couldn’t know what the characters would do so far ahead of time, and also that it killed the excitement for me. There were a few moments I was writing toward the entire time, that were the carrots I was chasing, and that don’t happen until close to the end. I knew I wanted to get to them, and the whole book was a way of making it happen in a way that felt natural and—this is what I’m always shooting for—inevitable.

If you were a Chimaera in one of your novels, what would you look like?

Definitely a Kirin. In creating Madrigal, I created the chimaera I would want to be!

Thanks so much for answering our questions, Laini! We’ll look forward to the amazing conclusion of your trilogy.

Cynsational Notes

More on Karen Rock

In a quest to provide her eighth grade students with quality reading material, English teacher Karen Rock read everything out there and couldn’t wait to add her voice to the conversation of books.

Now a debut YA series author, Karen is thrilled to pen stories that teens can relate to. When she’s not busy reading and writing, Karen is downloading live versions of favorite songs, watching "Buffy the Vampire Slayer" marathons, obsessing over reality TV contestants (Adam Lambert you were robbed!), cooking her family’s delizioso Italian recipes, and occasionally rescuing local wildlife from neighborhood cats.

She lives in the Adirondack Mountain region with her husband, her very appreciated beta-reader daughter and two King Charles Cavalier Cocker Spaniels who have yet to understand the concept of “fetch,” though they’ve managed to teach her the trick!

Check out her website, her co-author website, her Facebook page, and follow her on twitter @karenrock5. Then check out Camp Boyfriend.

Cynsational Giveaway

Enter to win one of three bookplate-autographed copies of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor (Little Brown, 2012). Author sponsored. Eligibility: U.S. only.

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Author Insight: Writerly Conveniences from Wastepaper Prose. Peek: "Outside of the internet, what's your biggest writerly convenience?"

Seven Questions Over Breakfast with Stephen Savage by Jules from Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast. Peek: "Linoleum block printing and the computer. Sketchbooks are an integral part of my process, too, and I usually have a pocket sketchbook with me at all times. I find that my best ideas start as thumbnails in those books." See also Laying a Foundation for a Great Picture Book.

Five Bad Things Radio Guests Do (& Seven Ways to Rock on Radio) from Jane Friedman. Peek: "Although many experienced hosts are adept at 'plugging' whatever you want promoted, some aren’t. So it’s up to you to mention that information a few times throughout the interview."

Three Vs of Fiction: Vision by Darcy Pattison from Fiction Notes. Peek: "Three things are essential in today’s crowded marketplace: vision, voice and vulnerability. In this three-part series, we will examine these essentials." See also Three Vs of Fiction: Voice.

How's the Weather in Your Middle Grade? by Dawn Lairamore from Project Mayhem. Peek: "As a lover of stories...I embrace tempestuous weather and all the exciting and mysterious possibilities that come with it."

Resolved: Writing Is a Job by Ann Patchett from The Washington Post. Peek: "I don't know why this struck me as such a radical concept, but it did -- time spent working equals output of work. Amazing!" See also A Real Job by Cory McCarthy from Through the Tollbooth.

Are You Listening? by Jeanette Larson from ALSC Blog. Peek: "...following a pretty thorough and interesting history of children’s audiobooks, Burkey deals with the question, Why Listen?, before moving on to an overview of the path written material follows as it becomes an audiobook."

Ask About the Numbers by Kristi Holl from Writer's First Aid. Peek: "...if the stories you are given to write are longer or take more thought, your 'production' quotas will look lower to others. Find a way to be okay with this, or it will plague you throughout your career."

Writers and Resolutions by Ash Krafton from QueryTracker.netBlog. Peek: "While promoting gets my stories out, it does seem like I spent more time on promoting than I did on writing new ones."

What Makes a Strong Author's Visit -- A Teacher's Perspective by Jillian Terry from Angela Ackerman at The Bookshelf Muse. Peek: "Let's take a look at some of the ways how an author could make their visit to a classroom benefit students."

Bringing the Past Into the Future by Mary Kole from Kidlit.com. Peek: "If an event or relationship doesn’t progress from what has already been established, you are not using it to its full potential."

Lalicki to Retire from HarperCollins by Diane Roback from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Executive editor Rosemary Brosnan has been promoted to editorial director."

Jacqueline Woodson Wins 2013 Charlotte Zolotow Award by Professor Nana from The Goddess of YA Literature. Peek: "Each Kindness, written by Jacqueline Woodson and illustrated by E. B. Lewis, is the winner of the sixteenth annual Charlotte Zolotow Award for outstanding writing in a picture book. The award is given by the Cooperative Children's Book Center, a library of the School of Education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and will be formally presented on April 6, 2013 in Madison..."

Anneographies: Picture Book Biographies from Anne Bustard: celebrating the subjects' birthdays with books. Highly recommended, especially to teachers, school librarians, and writing students of the picture book and/or picture book biography.

Power Writing: Strategies to Help You Reach Your Goals and Watch More Bravo TV by Karen Rock from Harlequin Heartwarming. Peek: "Hide. Seriously. Find a spot in the house where you won’t be located, sniffed out, or hollered to. I’ve even written in the backseat of my garage-parked car during NFL playoffs."

John Cusick joins Greenhouse Literary. Peek: "John Cusick joins us from Jan 14 as a new U.S. agent, developing his own client list in middle grade and young adult, both fiction and nonfiction. John was previously an agent with Scott Treimel in New York. And Greenhouse is now moving strongly into picture books for the first time...open to submissions from both U.S. and U.K. picture book authors from next week."

Cynsational Giveaways

• Three bookplate-autographed copies of Days of Blood & Starlight by Laini Taylor (Little Brown, 2012)(YA). Eligibility: U.S. only.

Don't miss Retrospective Headdesk from Laini Taylor; source: Gwenda Bond.

See also New YA Lit Releases and Five Giveaways from Adventures in YA & Children's Publishing.

This Week at Cynsations

• Author Interview: Lauren Oliver
• New Voice: Lisa Jenn Bigelow on Starting from Here
• Jo Knowles (& Maurice Sendak) on Living Your Life
• Open Love Note to Debut Authors About Hurtful Online Reviews

More Personally

This week's highlight was a Twelfth Night Party for the Austin children's-YA writer community at Nikki Loftin's house in Dripping Springs, Texas.

With Frances Yansky.

With Nikki, Salima Alikhan & Donna Bowman Bratton

Congratulations to my dear friend Meredith Davis, VCFA grad and founder of Austin SCBWI, for signing with signed with literary agent Alyssa Eisner Henkin at Trident Media Group, and congratulations to Alyssa for signing Meredith!

Congratulations to Alex Brown, Mary Louise Sanchez, and Sandra Headen, winners of the On-the-Verge Emerging Voices Award from SCBWI!

Congratulations to fellow Austin YA author Varian Johnson, celebrating five years in print for My Life as a Rhombus (Flux, 2008)!

Personal Links

• If the World Were a Children's Novel; source: Jeanette Larson
• Sickness & Storytime
• Authors of Color to Big Publishing: Where's the Love? 
• Deepak Chopra: Secrets to a Better Brain
• David E. Kelley Would Go Back to Wonder Woman
• Little Superman Takes Off
• William Shatner: Kirk Would Beat Picard
• Stephanie Hearts Vintage
• Making Fitness Goals for the New Year 
• Cooking with a Toddler & The Five Stages of Grieving (Cory Putnam Oakes)
• In Memoriam 2012 from School Library Journal

Cynsational Events

Watch the Chronal Engine LEGO Trailer

Join Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith Jan. 19 at Young Adult Keller (Texas) Book Festival (YAK Fest). See more information from I Read Banned Books.

Join E.B. Lewis at 4 p.m. Feb. 10 at BookPeople from Austin SCBWI. Note: "food, drinks, and conversation." Space is limited, RSVP required. See link for more information.

Highlights Foundation's Whole Novel Workshop: applications are being accepted for the workshop from March 3 to March 9 with Candlewick editor Kaylan Adair, and writers Alan Gratz, Alexandria LaFaye, and Tami Lewis Brown. Special guest is editor Molly O'Neill, with Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Children's Books. For more information about the Whole Novel Workshop, contact Jo Lloyd at 570.253.1192, email jo.lloyd@highlightsfoundation.org or visit www.highlightsfoundation.org to request an application.

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(2003)

By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Obituary: Gerald McDermott from Publisher's Weekly:

"Author, illustrator, and filmmaker Gerald McDermott died on December 26 at age 71. McDermott was a devoted, lifelong artist and was avidly interested in world mythologies.

"Early in his career, he created animated short films based on folklore and was a friend and colleague of mythologist and writer Joseph Campbell, becoming the first fellow of the Joseph Campbell Foundation."

‘Anansi the Spider’ Author/Illustrator Gerald McDermott Dies at 71 from School Library Journal:

"His first children’s book, the Caldecott Honor Anansi the Spider (Holt, 1972), based upon his animated film, retold the traditional West African tale of the clever and mischievous trickster..."

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Lenore Jennewein is the author of Chick-o-Saurus Rex, illustrated by Daniel Jennewein (Simon & Schuster, 2013). From the promotional copy: 

The humorous story of a little chick who proves his mettle to the farm's big bullies when he discovers he has a very mighty lineage. 

Lenore Appelhans is the author of Level 2 (Simon & Schuster, 2013)(teacher's guide). From the promotional copy:

In Level 2, the liminal place between our world (Level 1) and heaven, seventeen-year-old Felicia Ward spends her days in her pod reliving her favorite memories - until she gets broken out by Julian, a boy she knew when she was still alive. 

There’s about to be an uprising in Level Two, and Julian wants to recruit her to the cause. 

But unsure whether she can trust Julian, and still in love with her boyfriend Neil on Earth, she finds herself torn between two loves—and two worlds.

In case you haven't guessed, Lenore and Lenore are the same person.

Looking back, are you surprised to debut in 2013, or did that seem inevitable? How long was your journey, what were the significant events, and how did you keep the faith?

Not only am I debuting a novel (Level 2) in January, I am also debuting a picture book Chick-o-Saurus Rex (under the name Lenore Jennewein) with my illustrator-husband Daniel Jennewein.

The novel has somewhat of a charmed history, but the picture book was a long time in coming.

Daniel and I started working on our first picture all the way back in 2004. It was our learning book, and we tinkered with it for years (on weekends since we both had demanding full-time jobs) before we discovered SCBWI.

It was through SCBWI that I discovered I could submit this picture book for a professional manuscript critique. The critique stung because it showed us that we needed to do another complete overhaul on it before we could submit it to editors.

Eventually, we realized that as much as we loved this first book, we had to move on. Some books are never meant to be published, and this was one of them. We began developing a second project, one that got some good feedback from art directors at several publishers, but unfortunately never sold.

It was the SCBWI Bologna conference that put things in motion for us. Daniel’s artwork caught the eye of HarperCollins Art Director Martha Rago which eventually led to his first book contract for Is Your Buffalo Ready for Kindergarten? written by Audrey Vernick (Balzer+Bray/HarperCollins, 2010).

As for me, the conference got me interested in YA and I started blogging about books at Presenting Lenore. For the next few years, I read hundreds of YA novels – which gave me a sense for what works and what doesn’t. I also met many authors, several of whom became like mentors to me, and were very encouraging when I started writing Level 2.

The next pivotal event was the SCBWI New York conference 2011. I participated in the round table event, which led to an agent offering rep for the picture book Daniel and I were collaborating on (our third project together).

We ended up signing with a different agent, one who knew I was also working on a novel. He read it, loved it and sold it by the end of March. Meanwhile, Daniel and I had developed our fourth picture book and he sold that too.

So here I am with two debut books coming out in 2013 and I couldn’t be more thrilled, surprised and grateful.

As a paranormal writer, what first attracted you to that literary tradition? Have you been a long-time paranormal reader? Did a particular book or books inspire you?

Teacher's guide to Level 2

My novel, Level 2, is set in the afterlife, so that automatically classifies it as paranormal, though I never really thought of it that way. It’s a bit of a mash-up actually, because about one-third takes place in this sort of sci-fi afterlife and the other two-thirds take place within the main character’s memories – her contemporary life back on earth.

I do tend to prefer novels with paranormal elements rather than those with full-blown paranormal universes. I enjoy that twist on the familiar – the examination of a world similar to ours except for “the thing that (subtlety or not) changes everything”.

I think that’s why I’m so drawn to high-concept dystopian novels.

What would our society look like if love were outlawed? (Delirium by Lauren Oliver (HarperCollins 2011)).

What would be important to us if we knew we’d die by 20 years old? (Wither by Lauren DeStefano (Simon & Schuster BFYR, 2011)).

How would our relationships change if only teen girls could get pregnant? (Bumped by Megan McCafferty (Balzer + Bray, 20110).

The afterlife world of Level 2 was inspired by my love of dystopian literature (I’ve dedicated six entire months on my blog to dystopian novels). I’d been playing with an idea for awhile that incorporated memories as currency in the afterlife, but I was stumped as to how to implement it.

My a-ha moment was the thought: “What would a dystopian afterlife look like?”, and everything developed from there.

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Keeping Up with the Smiths Book Giveaway!

The Montgomery County (Texas) Book Festival (Feb. 2) is giving away a signed copy of Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Diabolical (Candlewick, 2012) and Greg Leitich Smith’s Chronal Engine (Clarion, 2012)! One set of entries per person. Eligibility: U.S. only. Deadline: Jan. 20.

Enter here!

About the Montgomery County Book Festival

Listen and speak with more than 40 authors. There will be an opening keynote speaker and a closing keynote, with a special presentation during the lunch hour. Ten different panels will each repeat twice during three breakout sessions.

There will be a Teen Zone where teens can go to mingle with authors, make crafts and pick up prizes and freebies.

The event also will include concessions, pizza lunch, book vendor, and D.J.

Closer to Dallas?

Reminder: Join Cynthia and Greg Leitich Smith Jan. 19 at Young Adult Keller (Texas) Book Festival (YAK Fest). See more information from I Read Banned Books.

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By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations

Erica Lorraine Scheidtis the first-time author of Uses for Boys (St. Martin's Press, 2013)(blog; see also). From the promotional copy:

Anna remembers a time before boys, when she was little and everything made sense. When she and her mom were a family, just the two of them against the world. But now her mom is gone most of the time, chasing the next marriage, bringing home the next stepfather. Anna is left on her own—until she discovers that she can make boys her family. 

From Desmond to Joey, Todd to Sam, Anna learns that if you give boys what they want, you can get what you need. But the price is high—the other kids make fun of her; the girls call her a slut. 

Anna's new friend, Toy, seems to have found a way around the loneliness, but Toy has her own secrets that even Anna can't know.

Then comes Sam. When Anna actually meets a boy who is more than just useful, whose family eats dinner together, laughs, and tells stories, the truth about love becomes clear. And she finally learns how it feels to have something to lose—and something to offer. 

Real, shocking, uplifting, and stunningly lyrical, Uses for Boys by Erica Lorraine Scheidt is a story of breaking down and growing up.

Who has been your most influential writing/art teacher or mentor and why?

Pam Houston. Hands down. She’s the most generous reader I’ve ever known. Listening to her read from an essay or a story or a novel she admires is powerful. It makes you lean in and listen. It’s in how she reads a sentence. The attention she brings to it. Absolutely.

Pam Houston taught me how to read.

I spent two years in the graduate writing program she runs at University of California at Davis and I think it was no one thing, no particular workshop or piece of writing. It was watching her work on Contents May Have Shifted (W. W. Norton & Company, 2012) and teach and make her life and be an artist in the world that had such a profound impact on me.

And even now, four or five years later, she says things that speak directly to my own struggles. She recently posted this:

I just sent this to one of my favorite writing students who has been wrestling hard with a novel this summer and is getting a little beat up: “You are in the vertiginous, vomit-inducing forest of not knowing. It is supposed to suck in there. But you already know that. You also know it is the good news.” I realized I was writing to myself, as well as him, as I begin the terrifying next project.

And I think about that all the time. I think about it every time I get to the vertiginous, vomit-inducing forest of not knowing. But I know it’s the good news. That’s what I learned from Pam.

As a teacher-author, how do your two identities inform one another? What about being a teacher has been a blessing to your writing?

I’m not a teacher but a teaching artist and I feel exceptionally fortunate to work with young writers. The six years or so that I spent volunteering at 826 Valencia have changed what I believe is possible—both in terms of writing and in creating community. Every day a young writer shares his or her writing for the first time and that moment changes everything. 

Imagine! Things start tumbling out after that. You are not alone! You made a beautiful thing! You put language together in surprising and truthful ways!

I’m awed by it every time.

And then, young writers surprise themselves. They’ll fight against rewriting, they’ll think it’s impossible to come up with anything else, but once they do, they’re amazed by what they can create.

What comes from working on a piece of writing is always so much more than either of us could have foreseen.

I get a lot out of preparing for a workshop. It pushes me to read closer and think about why a story works. What is it about the first sentence? What promise is made about the story? Why did the writer end it there? What can we learn from this?

And selfishly, an hour with a group of teens—who unlike adults often write to write, not to get published—is the perfect antidote for my myriad writer’s insecurities and worries and my little library of hurts. I always come out of a workshop like, hell yeah, let’s go write a sentence!

Downtown High School Students from 826 Valencia

Cynsational Notes

Erica has a studio at Headlands Center for the Arts.

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