One of the many awesome things about getting my book published has been discovering the on-line kidlit community. I think a lot of people know about this community before selling their first book but I lack internet savvy and so it was a wonderful surprise for me. My first discovery was the wonderful Fuse#8 , which is the perfect starting point since she is the center of everything kidlit. Her blog lead me to favorites like Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast and Bookshelves of Doom, as well as clueing me in to some great new books.
MySpace lead me to some great YA review blogs, like BookChic, And Another Book Read and the Compulsive Reader. It also lead me to a bunch of author sites. I follow a lot of author blogs now but my favorites are Meg Cabot’s and The Disco Mermaids. I also love blogs of people breaking into the business, like the wonderful Debbi Michiko Florence and Hip Writer Mama.
For years I was embarrassed to be an adult who read kid books. I thought I was the only one and I’d hide the covers of my books when I read on the subway, stuffing my latest YA favorite into my backpack so fast that no one could see that the thirty-something woman across the aisle was reading a book for teens. But now I’m part of this incredible community that loves kid books as much as I do. I know there are thousands of us around the country, reading and loving our teen and MG books. I now display my books with pride, and smile when I see that people are reading over my shoulder. Who wouldn’t want to read over my shoulder when I’m in the middle of BRALESS IN WONDERLAND or the latest Sarah Dessen?!
What I love the most about all these sites is how warm and open people are. This business could be so competitive and mean but instead it’s a group of people bound together by a love of kidlit, who are thrilled to discover another new book by another new author. Which is pretty much a dream come true for this new author!
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By: The Class of 2k8,
on 6/18/2008
Blog: 2k8: Class Notes (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: seven impossible things before breakfast, meg cabot, bookshelves of doom, braless in wonderland, sarah dessen, fuse #8, And Another Book Read, book chic, compulsive reader, disco mermaids, Add a tag
By: Neil Gaiman,
on 2/8/2008
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: steampunk keyboards, Bookends, cool but disturbing photos of giant people, Death, Spiderwick, Add a tag
2 questions that other readers of your blog may be interested in also:
I searched your site, but saw no mention of the upcoming Sandman and Death bookends. I love most of the Sandman statues, and these look really cool, so I will probably pick them up. My question is, is this replacing the large slipcase designed to hold the 4 absolute Sandman volumes that you have mentioned in the past? If the slipcase is still planned, will it be able to contain the individual slipcases as well, or just the books?
On another note, is there any truth to the rumor of an Absolute Death collection to accompany the Sandman volumes?
Thanks for the writing, and for the blog.
-Neil
Dear Neil (good name that, correctly spelled, well done)
I think we decided that a master slipcase to hold four books already each in a slipcase was a bit redundant. (Maybe we can do a master slipcase or two for the ten Sandman Library volumes one day.) So it's just the bookends, which Mark Buckingham designed and which he and the people at DC and the sculptor have been working on for many, many months now. (Click on the photo to see it a bit bigger. Each bookend is over 8 inches tall and over six inches wide)
The DEATH volume won't be an absolute. It'll be oversized, though, in the Deluxe Edition format, and probably be called THE COMPLEAT DEATH because that's what we've been calling it for the last decade.
Dear Neil,
I just found this blog and thought of you:
http://lolthulhu.com/
You probably already know it...I'm just making sure.
Also, while I don't usually like book reviews...when I was in high-school, I knew synesthesia and the Midgard serpent. I also knew Mandelbrot (if only as "that guy who makes math into freaky pictures"). Admittedly, I've always been a little weirder than most people.
Best wishes!
K.
I've never posted Lolthulhu, have I? Despite people letting me know about it as long ago as last Hallowe'en. Well, it's up now.
And yes, I wasn't sure about the logic of the "bright high school kids all know celebrity gossip from thirty years ago" line in the review. Some things don't change. The whole point of that line was to show what sorts of things Joey didn't know. (Shrugs.)
Hey Neil...since you seem to be always open to nifty, original websites, I found one that I think is splindifferously wonderful. This guy takes drawings done by children and recreates them in photographic form. It really goes to show both the photographer's ingenuity, and more importantly, the creativity of children's minds. WONDERFUL site. I hope you like it.
http://www.yeondoojung.com/wonderland.html
Oh, and you totally need one of these. If I had money to spend, I would definitely get you one as a gift. :)
http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/keyboards.htm
That first website is fascinating. And I really want to sit down at one of those keyboards and find out what it feels to type on them...
Over at http://outofthiseos.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/a-note-on-audio.html
my Harper Collins editor Jennifer's assistant Kate (who is also editing in her own write) talks about the pluses and minuses of audiobooks and driving, from her experiences with Neverwhere...
Right. On with the day. (I'm doing some overdue introductions right now. Then Chapter 8.)
By: Jennie,
on 9/5/2007
Blog: Biblio File (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Fiction, fantasy, Juvenile, Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi, spiderwick, Add a tag
The Field Guide
The Grace parents have just gotten divorced and the former Mrs. Grace moves her 3 kids (Jared, his twin brother Simon, and their older sister Mallory) into crazy Great-Aunt Lucinda's falling down wreck of a house. Jared discovers a secret library, a book about fairies, and the fact that faeries and their ilk are real. In the process, he gets in a lot of trouble with his mother, who likes to think the worst of him.
The Seeing Stone
In which Simon is kidnapped by goblins. Mallory and Jared explore the woods behind the house and find out what being killed and eaten by a bear is really about. An enemy is made. As is a friend (or two). And now they can see goblins and things.
Lucinda's Secret
In which they visit some elves, find out the truth about Uncle Arthur, and decide that maybe it's time to pay Aunt Lucinda a visit. Because maybe she isn't crazy after all.
The Ironwood Tree
In which Jared gets expelled, we meet some dwarves, there is a bloody massacre, and Mallory is forced to do her very best impression of Snow White. Also, some of the most daring escapes to date.
The Wrath of Mulgarath
In which there are dragons. And the end.
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By: The Class of 2k8,
on 6/18/2008
Blog: 2k8: Class Notes (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: seven impossible things before breakfast, meg cabot, bookshelves of doom, braless in wonderland, sarah dessen, fuse #8, And Another Book Read, book chic, compulsive reader, disco mermaids, Add a tag
10 Comments on Day 3: Up Close and Online with Daphene Grab, last added: 6/19/2008
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By: Neil Gaiman,
on 2/8/2008
Blog: Neil Gaiman (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: steampunk keyboards, Bookends, cool but disturbing photos of giant people, Death, Spiderwick, Add a tag
Holly Black invited Maddy to a screening of The Spiderwick Chronicles last night, and I drove her and her friend Anna-Rose, and went in with them as one of Maddy's "plus two". (I skipped out on seeing Hannah Montana 3D last week when I did chauffeur duty, and sat in the next door Starbucks and wrote The Graveyard Book instead, and it was only when the girls came out that I learned that it had the 3D Coraline teaser before the movie.) Anyway, I really enjoyed TSC, much more than I thought I was going to from the teasers they showed at San Diego, and tried to get Maddy to review it here ("Da-aad. Just say Maddy really liked it.") and then to get Anna Rose to review it here ("Er. Just say that Anna Rose really liked it."). So no review, but Maddy and Anna Rose really liked it.
2 questions that other readers of your blog may be interested in also:
I searched your site, but saw no mention of the upcoming Sandman and Death bookends. I love most of the Sandman statues, and these look really cool, so I will probably pick them up. My question is, is this replacing the large slipcase designed to hold the 4 absolute Sandman volumes that you have mentioned in the past? If the slipcase is still planned, will it be able to contain the individual slipcases as well, or just the books?
On another note, is there any truth to the rumor of an Absolute Death collection to accompany the Sandman volumes?
Thanks for the writing, and for the blog.
-Neil
Dear Neil (good name that, correctly spelled, well done)
I think we decided that a master slipcase to hold four books already each in a slipcase was a bit redundant. (Maybe we can do a master slipcase or two for the ten Sandman Library volumes one day.) So it's just the bookends, which Mark Buckingham designed and which he and the people at DC and the sculptor have been working on for many, many months now. (Click on the photo to see it a bit bigger. Each bookend is over 8 inches tall and over six inches wide)
The DEATH volume won't be an absolute. It'll be oversized, though, in the Deluxe Edition format, and probably be called THE COMPLEAT DEATH because that's what we've been calling it for the last decade.
Dear Neil,
I just found this blog and thought of you:
http://lolthulhu.com/
You probably already know it...I'm just making sure.
Also, while I don't usually like book reviews...when I was in high-school, I knew synesthesia and the Midgard serpent. I also knew Mandelbrot (if only as "that guy who makes math into freaky pictures"). Admittedly, I've always been a little weirder than most people.
Best wishes!
K.
I've never posted Lolthulhu, have I? Despite people letting me know about it as long ago as last Hallowe'en. Well, it's up now.
And yes, I wasn't sure about the logic of the "bright high school kids all know celebrity gossip from thirty years ago" line in the review. Some things don't change. The whole point of that line was to show what sorts of things Joey didn't know. (Shrugs.)
Hey Neil...since you seem to be always open to nifty, original websites, I found one that I think is splindifferously wonderful. This guy takes drawings done by children and recreates them in photographic form. It really goes to show both the photographer's ingenuity, and more importantly, the creativity of children's minds. WONDERFUL site. I hope you like it.
http://www.yeondoojung.com/wonderland.html
Oh, and you totally need one of these. If I had money to spend, I would definitely get you one as a gift. :)
http://www.datamancer.net/keyboards/keyboards.htm
That first website is fascinating. And I really want to sit down at one of those keyboards and find out what it feels to type on them...
Over at http://outofthiseos.typepad.com/blog/2008/02/a-note-on-audio.html
my Harper Collins editor Jennifer's assistant Kate (who is also editing in her own write) talks about the pluses and minuses of audiobooks and driving, from her experiences with Neverwhere...
Right. On with the day. (I'm doing some overdue introductions right now. Then Chapter 8.)
0 Comments on Spiderwick Green as of 2/8/2008 10:56:00 AM
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By: Jennie,
on 9/5/2007
Blog: Biblio File (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Fiction, fantasy, Juvenile, Holly Black, Tony DiTerlizzi, spiderwick, Add a tag
I'm going on vacation on Friday. To China. I can't wait. My productivity has plummeted. And there won't be any updating next week, because China blocks Blogger. Plus, that whole vacation thing.
Also, school started this week.
First things first (except this isn't first. Ah Well.) The Biblio File store has been updated with my top picks/current favorites for September, so check it out.
Um... next things next? Some book reviews, because that's what we do here.
Anyway, I finally got around to reading The Spiderwick Chronicles by Tony DiTerlizzi and Holly Black.
5 books make up one overarching story-arc. But really, each book is like a mini-episode. There's not much in ways of subplot or character development. Overall, they're fun. They're short enough that even thought I really wasn't drawn in at all to the story, I still wanted to finish them all.
The Grace parents have just gotten divorced and the former Mrs. Grace moves her 3 kids (Jared, his twin brother Simon, and their older sister Mallory) into crazy Great-Aunt Lucinda's falling down wreck of a house. Jared discovers a secret library, a book about fairies, and the fact that faeries and their ilk are real. In the process, he gets in a lot of trouble with his mother, who likes to think the worst of him.
In which Simon is kidnapped by goblins. Mallory and Jared explore the woods behind the house and find out what being killed and eaten by a bear is really about. An enemy is made. As is a friend (or two). And now they can see goblins and things.
In which they visit some elves, find out the truth about Uncle Arthur, and decide that maybe it's time to pay Aunt Lucinda a visit. Because maybe she isn't crazy after all.
In which Jared gets expelled, we meet some dwarves, there is a bloody massacre, and Mallory is forced to do her very best impression of Snow White. Also, some of the most daring escapes to date.
In which there are dragons. And the end.
4 Comments on Countdown to Vacation, last added: 9/18/2007
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Daphne you are the sweetest for mentioning me!!
I do love the kidlit community. Even though I am a teen I know that I will always enjoy YA and MG books, because I honestly feel like they have more to offer. I definitely think more adults should be open to reading YA books instead of thinking they're just for kids.
I agree, Tasha! If I read adult fiction, it usually has a coming of age theme or younger characters--like say White Oleander. I've turned many adult onto really great YA fiction (and some onto Gossip Girls as well, LOL)
I'm so proud to be part of the community.
I'm also one who reads my MG/YA books proudly in public places. It opens up a lot of conversations...one businessman on a train saw me reading a book with a very pink cover and asked in all seriousness, "Good book?" I said it was and recommended that he buy it for his daughter. Bet she was surprised when he showed up with that as a gift!
Thanks so much for the mention, Daphne!! :) You are awesome.
And I've noticed the exact same thing as you- the kidlit community is just so open and friendly, and it's great to chat with other MG/YA lovers, whether they be readers or authors. I love this community and am so glad to be a part of it.
Also, I used to shy around the fact that I still read YA books. I came very late to them, as I didn't start until I was 18, lol. But now I'm very open about it, and I'll tell people about the books I'm reading without shame. I'll even tell people about my site too.
YA is becoming so much bigger and limitless these days that I do believe that anyone, teen or adult, can pick up at least one YA book (if not more) and identify with it and love it. This genre is one of the best out there, and I'm so proud to be a part of it all.
tasha, i love your blog! and i agree with you and brooke that more adults should read ya and mg books- i think that's where the most exciting literature is.
courtney, i feel the same!
nina, i love that you read proudly and give recommendations!
book chic, YOU are the awesome one! and i agree 100% that this is the best genre out there. and your site rocks so i'm glad you proudly tell people about it!
Daphne- How about this? We're both awesome. :P hehe. Thanks for the compliment about my site too- it's much appreciated!! :)
Yeah, the kidlit community pretty much rocks!
Teri
Thank you, Daphne! Love your book!
I agree, the kidlit community is incredibly supportive. There's even a kidlit conference coming up soon!
Thank you so much for the mention, Daphne! So true about having that little secret YA reading habit, although now, as Book Chic pointed out, there is no shame in being a kid lit lover! Great post. :)