By: girlreading,
on 1/6/2008
We read Sharon Draper’s Coretta Scott King Award Winner Copper Sun for the January book. A good, but tough, read. [reading group guide]
For February we chose Boy Toy by Barry Lyga. The group agreed on this book from two other very excellent choices: P.C. Cast and Kristen Cast’s book Marked and Perry Moore’s Hero. [reading group guide]
By: girlreading,
on 8/17/2007
By: Mark Peter Hughes,
on 6/23/2007
I'm a writer. I write novels for teens. Three months ago I quit my day job as a healthcare data cruncher to become a full-time writer, and now I'm doing my best to get the word out about my recent novel, LEMONADE MOUTH. And this is what my family and I came up with...
LEMONADE MOUTH ACROSS AMERICA! is my family's audacious attempt to make a writer's dream come true with a road-trip adventure and a shoestring budget. It's a summer-long, 26-city, 9,000 mile book tour across the USA and back--two adults, three small children and a pile of books all crammed into a minivan! For the story behind the story, click here. My website is www.markpeterhughes.com.
The Route: For a list of cities and dates, click here. If you're nearby, come see us--we'd love to meet you!
National Public Radio: NPR recently ran a commentary about me, my books, and how I quit my job to write full time. To hear it click here.
THE STORY BEHIND THE STORY
It all started as just a little idea...
After recently (March 30, 2007) quitting my day-job to become a full-time writer--a big financial risk that my wife and I decided to take (carpe diem!) – Karen and I talked about ways to make the most of our summer. It started as a just little idea: Let’s take the family on a fun road-trip in our rusty minivan and stop at some bookstores along the way...but it quickly grew into something much larger. Now it’s a summer-long, 26-city, 9,000 mile adventure across the USA and back!
Our friends think we’re crazy, but we’re doing it anyway. Thing is, we probably have only a narrow window of time in our lives when this is even possible: Karen’s starting back as a Spanish teacher in September, the kids are young (Evan 9, Lucy 8, and Zoe 5) and still want to be with us (that surely won’t last forever!), and I have a new YA novel out. So the timing seems perfect, right? Except...t we have no money, and our mechanic wonders whether our 1996 Honda Odyssey, which has close to 200,000 miles on it already, will make it--not to mention that this is the summer of the final Harry Potter, so Lemonade Mouth is going to have a tough time attracting any notice at all in Harry's shadow.
But...we decided to do it anyway! (carpe diem again!)
Brace yourselves! We’re setting off on June 27!
We'll be stopping in cities all over the country, dealing with heat, kid issues, and close quarters while doing our best to make a writer's dream happen on a shoestring budget--all while discovering America!
-- Mark
LEMONADE MOUTH (Delacorte Press, 2007)
I AM THE WALLPAPER (Delacorte Press, 2005)
<http://www.markpeterhughes.com>
<http://www.lemonademouth.com>
By: girlreading,
on 5/1/2007
Okay, so here we go….
May: Uglies - Meeting this Saturday, usual place and time.
June: Prom Dates from Hell
July: Twelve Kingdoms vol. 1: Sea of Shadow by Fuyumi Ono
August: tba
September: Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows
October - December: tba
I’ve been listening to music out of SXSW 2007. KEXP, KCRW and NPR had excellent coverage with lots of live music and interviews. All available in podcasts or mp3 downloads. My favs so far:
