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Viewing: Blog Posts Tagged with: Ireland, Most Recent at Top [Help]
Results 1 - 7 of 7
1. Irish short fiction contest with big prize

Albedo One, Ireland's magazine of speculative fiction, invites entries for the Aeon Award 2008 short fiction contest. Open to international writers. Grand prize is €1000 and publication. Submissions: 8000 words max., in any speculative genre (e.g. fantasy, science fiction, horror, etc.). Deadline: November 30, 2008. More details...

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2. Literacy Festivals Around the World

In preparation for Kane/Miller's upcoming participation in publishing events such as IRA, BEA, and ALA (among many others) it occurred to me that I'm not aware of all of the international literary events that take place.

After some quick research (What would we do without Google?), I found a link and listing of Six of the Best Literary Festivals (according to Harper's Bazaar). I won't be attending any of them - at least not this year - but it's good to know what's happening in the literary world, nonetheless.
  1. Galle Literary Festival, Sri Lanka
  2. Hay Festival Cartagena de Indias, Columbia
  3. Wexford Book Festival, Ireland
  4. Festa Literaria Internacional de Parati, Brazil
  5. Ubud Writers & Readers Festival, Bali
  6. Hay Festival Segovia, Spain

Don't miss FLIGHT 001 - for all your travel needs.

Bon Voyage!

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3. Favorites: Part Eleven Erin Cox

To celebrate the holidays we asked some of our favorite people in publishing what their favorite book was. Let us know in the comments what your favorite book is and be sure to check back throughout the week for more “favorites”.

Erin Cox, Book Publishing Director for The New Yorker, avid reader and lover of books.

Wow, to pick just one is actually quite hard. So, I’m going to actually list a few. Some old, some new.

Evidence of Things Unseen by Marianne Wiggins is a book that I’ve long mentioned I would like to read, but never actually had. One stormy afternoon this fall, I finished a book and thought, okay, now is the time. I started reading and didn’t look up until the room was so dark I couldn’t see anything. I spent the next two evenings ditching plans and reading into the night. I had to see what happened to Fos and Opal and Flash, the main characters of the book, who live in Tennessee post-World War I and are all enchanted by light in all its many forms. (more…)

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4. Irish print magazine seeks submissions

Crannog Magazine (Ireland) seeks sharp contemporary fiction and poetry for their Spring issue. Deadline: January 1, 2008. More details...

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5. Bloodfever by Karen Marie Morning

MacKayla Lane used to be a pretty southern belle with happy thoughts of the husband and family she would one day have filling her head.  Now she is a woman changed.  Haunted by the death of her sister, Mac has changed her life of pretty in pink to punk rock so that she can avenge her sister’s death.  Oh and did I mention she can see Fae?  After coming to Ireland to find her sister’s killer, Mac has learned that her entire life is a lie and that she is blessed (or cursed) with strange abilities.  No one is her friend, and she has many enemies, but she is determined to succeed.  This is a dark, brooding book that takes the stories of the Fae and casts them in an eery modern light.  Mac is a lovable character whose whole life has been turned upside down in a short period of time.  I look forward to seeing what Moning cooks up next for our feisty heroine. 

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6. A Taste of Something Different - A Trio of Fabulous YA Novels

I usually review Chicano Kidlit or YA novels on La Bloga and I thought it would be fun to give you all a taste of some of the books I read and recommend on AmoxCalli. I've picked three of my favorite YA novels to give you a little taste of something different - The Lighthouse Land, Anahita's Woven Riddle and Castle Waiting. Enjoy!

Oh and by the way mis compadres y comadre - you've been tagged for the What Books I'm Reading meme. Check out AmoxCalli for the details.


The Lighthouse Land
Author: Adrian McKinty
Publisher: Amulet Books
ISBN-10: 081095480X
ISBN-13: 978-0810954809

Jamie O’Neill and his mother have it rough. Jamie’s lost his arm to bone cancer and since the amputation, isn’t speaking. His parents divorced while he was sick and now he and his mother live in a leaky apartment in Harlem. Things couldn’t get much worse for them but somehow Jamie and his mom are making things work.

Jamie has a friend, Thaddeus an older gentleman that he plays chess with who seems to understand his need to be silent. He’s also become quite adept at duct taping the windows to keep the snow out. Then one day a letter changes their lives. Jamie’s mother has inherited a house in Ireland along with the island it’s on and money to maintain it.

So off they go to Ireland and Thaddeus gifts him with a tablet laptop to help him communicate. Once they get to the coast of Ireland and their new home, they find that there’s also an old tower, a lighthouse on their land and that Jaime is descended from a line of Irish kings. Turns out Jamie gets a title as well, Laid Ui Neill, Lord of the Muck, Guardian of the Passage…yeah, Lord of the Muck. I thought that was hysterical.

Jamie quickly makes friends with Ramsey, a clever and mathematically brilliant boy of his own age. Together they discover a secret room in the tower and an object that takes them hurtling through a portal and into another world where they find an alien girl named Wishaway. Wishaway thinks that Jamie is the Ui Neill come to save her people from the Alkhavans, an evil pirating people who will enslave her race.

The Alkhavans travel the seas on ships made of ice that look like glaciers. It turns out that Jamie’s ancestors had saved her people before. Jamie. mysteriously in this world has both his voice and his lost arm. Now it is up to him and Ramsay to save the world and its people from destruction.

The Lighthouse Land is an astonishing tale of fantasy, sci-fi and ordinary life. I fell in love with McKinty’s writing from the very first two paragraphs. I fell in love with his way of writing a sentence. His use of language is gorgeous and lush while starkly simple.

“Through the window is the uncoiled arm of the Milky Way and the moon the color of narcissus.”

Isn’t that a great sentence? I can eat it, it’s so delicious!

The Lighthouse Land
is the first in a planned trilogy and I for one, can’t wait till the next.

About the author:
Adrian McKinty, now a U.S. citizen, was born and grew up in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland. Educated at Oxford University, he then immigrated to New York City, where he lived in Harlem for five years, working in bars and on construction crews, and enjoying a stint as a bookseller. The author of highly acclaimed crime novels that have earned starred reviews and universal praise, he currently lives in Denver, where he teaches high school.





Anahita’s Woven Riddle
Author: Meghan Nuttall Sayres
Publisher: Amulet
ISBN-10: 0810954818
ISBN-13: 978-0810954816

Anahita is a nomad teen aged girl living in early 20th century Iran who loves riddles. She’s also just a little too independent and innovative for her time and culture which causes dissent and trouble within her tribe. One day her father tells her that the Khan, an older man who’s had three wives all of whom have died under mysterious circumstances. Anahita is horrified and has absolutely no interest in marrying this man, but her father is under pressure by the Khan.

Anahita manages to convince her father and the mullah of the tribe to allow her to have a contest in which she will weave a riddle into her wedding carpet. The man to guess the riddle will have her as his bride. This causes more trouble within the tribe as well as jealousy. Why does Anahita get to choose her husband? Why is she so willful? The angry and overbearing Khan is determined to have Anahita and threatens the tribe with one thing after another, even going so far as to block their water which they desperately need. Anahita’s contest goes on however and the suitors start trying for her hand. There are three interesting men in particular vying for Anahita’s hand in marriage – a schoolteacher, a shepherd, and a prince.

Anahita’s Woven Riddle
is an incredibly beautiful story rich with Persian culture. The descriptions of Anahita’s everyday life are so detailed and colorful. You can feel yourself on those mountains and hillsides, see the carpet she is weaving, smell the sheep and feel the wind.

I’m fascinated by the art of weaving so I loved the descriptions of her traveling with a caravan into the markets and picking out dyes for the dyemaster of her tribe.

Anahita’s Woven Riddle is a completely engrossing, different and fantastic tale. Highly recommended for anyone who is interested in expanding their world, learning about the history and culture of another land or anyone who just loves a good story.




Castle Waiting
Author: Linda Medley
Publisher: Fantagraphics
ISBN-10: 1560977477
ISBN-13: 978-1560977476

This wonderful graphic novel brings together the first twelve issues of the Eisner Award winning comic. It opens with Brambly Hedge, a tale of a Sleeping Beauty with a twist. After Sleeping Beauty leaves with the prince the castle is left waiting. Her three ladies in waiting stay there and open it to people in need. The castle is infested with hobgoblins and is a little beat up but it welcomes the needy with open arms.
>


Among its inhabitants are a pregnant woman on the run, Sir Destrier, a horse-headed knight who wants a place to rest between adventures; and Sister Peace, a bearded nun with a wild past. The women of the castle seem to love telling the stories of their lives and it is these stories that are the meat of Castle Waiting.

Linda Medley has created a masterpiece of fantasy, fairytale and just plain good storytelling. Castle Waiting is light-hearted, fun and different. The stories within stories are wonderful and the characters are multi-faceted and interesting. For me, Jain’s story was the most interesting. Jain was the pregnant woman on the run from an abusive nobleman husband and her tale was riveting and so different from the typical fairy tale.


The artwork is as light-hearted and fun as the story. The bearded nuns are a riot and really made me smile. Through the whole book with the intersecting stories is a thread of kindness and caring that really makes me smile. I love that Sleeping Beauty’s left behind castle is used to help those in need. I love the fact the women who remain have so much love to give to those who show up at the castle door and are willing to share whatever they have. I would have loved this book anyway but that just made it so much more special. Highly recommended.

1 Comments on A Taste of Something Different - A Trio of Fabulous YA Novels, last added: 5/9/2007
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7. The Summer King


The Summer King
Author: O.R. Melling
Publisher: Amulet Books
ISBN-10: 0810959690
ISBN-13: 978-0810959699

The Summer King is a haunting, absorbing and lavishly told tale set both in present day Ireland and the world of Fairy.

Laurel, an 18 year old girl who is grieving the death of her twin sister Honor, returns to Ireland and the scene of her twin’s death to try and find out who killed her sister. While the devastated family thinks it was an accident, Laurel, armed with her sister’s puzzling journals believes her sister was led into something unsavory. She finds odd references of little people, in particular one little man and other more disturbing entries. She’s also starting to be plagued with dreams.

Upon arrival in Ireland, Laurel finds her old boyfriend Ian Grey with whom she was with the day her sister died still nursing hurt that she had left him, blamed him for her not being there to save her sister. These young people have lots of angst and passion to work out and that alone could fill a book.

But wait. There’s the small matter of a cluricaun, something like a leprechaun but a little darker. This little guy reminds me of a small Bacchus, always toting around his poteen and pissing drunk when he’s not lying through his teeth. There are ravens that turn to warriors, scary sea fairies called the boctogai, a wild Irish pirate named Grace O’Malley, eagles that talk and worlds within worlds.

There is also the possibility that Laurel’s sister isn’t dead but sleeping somewhere in Fairy and if Laurel can complete the quest of freeing the Summer King, then her sister will be freed. The quest isn’t all that it seems though and neither is Ireland, the Summer King himself, Laurel’s grandparents or Ian who may just have the darkest secret of all.

I loved The Summer King and was completely swept away by it. I discovered that it is the sequel to Hunter’s Moon which I haven’t read (now I will). It stands as a single novel though. You really don’t need to read Hunter’s Moon although you like me after reading this, will most probably want to read it and everything else Melling writes. The Summer King is romance, magic, mystery, betrayal, legend, lore, history and simply marvelous, engaging storytelling. It’s wonderful.

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