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Happy Solstice! And thank you for all the Solstice support!

So I have lots of great signings and events coming up in the next few months. I can't wait! And if I'm coming to a city near you, I would love to see you! Seriously. It would make my day!

Q: Should you go to an author's book signing?

A: Yes! I am grateful for every single person who comes. There is nothing quite so awesome as seeing a happy face and talking books with people who love them.

Anyway, here's what's going on with me and Solstice as far as in person visits for the next few months. And please check my schedule page on my website for any new events that may arise.



*****

June 23, 2013, 2:00 pm - SOLSTICE Signing with authors Joy Preble and Mary Lindsey, The Woodlands Barnes & Noble, Houston, TX

June 28 - July 2, 2013 - ALA Annual Conference, Chicago, IL
    Saturday, June 29, 2:30-3:30 pm - SOLSTICE Signing

July 13, 2013, 3:30-5:00 pm - "Love & Legend" YA Author Panel, SOLSTICE Signing, with Diana Peterfreund, April Lindner, and Bennett Madison, Hooray for Books, Alexandria, VA

July 14, 2013, 4:00 pm - SOLSTICE Signing, Tysons Corner Barnes & Noble, McLean, VA

July 25, 2013, 5:30-6:45 pm - Teen Summer Reading Program Author Visit, Jackson Country Memorial Library, Edna, TX

July 26, 2013, 6:30 pm - SOLSTICE Signing with Joy Preble, Mary Lindsey, and Martha Wells, Murder by the Book, Houston, TX

July 27, 2013, 2:00 pm - SOLSTICE Signing, Alamosa Books, Albuquerque, NM

August 31, 2013, 11:00 - Cedar Park Library Teen Book Club, Austin, TX

September 7, 2013, 2:00 pm - SOLSTICE Release Party with author Mari Mancusi (SCORCHED, Sourcebooks), BookPeople, Austin, TX

September 14, 2013, 2:00 pm - SOLSTICE Signing with author Mari Mancusi, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, TX

September 21, 2013, 2:00 pm - SOLSTICE Signing with author Mari Mancusi, The Twig Book shop, San Antonio, TX

September 28, 2013 - Austin Teen Book Festival, Austin Convention Center, Austin, TX

October 29, 2013 - NASA Young Adult Book Club, Houston, TX

November 2, 2013 - Houston BOOKRAVE, Zotz Education Center, Houston, TX

November 9, 2013, 2:00-4:00 pm - SOLSTICE Signing with author Cynthia Leitich Smith, Barnes & Noble, Round Rock, TX

November 19, 2013 - Region 12 Library Jubilee, Waco, TX

November 22-24, 2013 - Austin Comic Con, Writing Ninjas of Texas Booth

*****

See you around I hope!

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Last year, my friend Dan Tapper wrote a guest post for Bonny Glen about the Mission of Mercy event in Connecticut—a free dental clinic people wait all year (and many hours in line) to attend. This year, I’m delighted to once again feature Dan’s recap of this remarkable event.

Connecticut Mission of Mercy: The Wait, the Line, the Need

by Dan Tapper

The rain hadn’t started quite yet around noontime in Bridgeport, CT last Thursday, but the sky was showing it could happen at any minute. There was a steely pall and a grim chill that spoke more to March than to the early summer day it actually was.

Beth Carter was ready, rain or shine. The New York resident was going to get her ailing teeth fixed, no matter what. She was here, first in line outside the Webster Bank Arena, and doors to the free Connecticut Mission of Mercy (CTMOM) dental clinic would be opening in just…18 more hours.

To Beth, it didn’t matter. She was here. And she was prepared to wait.

“I missed last year’s clinic by one day. There was no way I was missing this year’s,” the Westchester County, NY resident said with a smile. “The cost of dental work is so expensive – I’ve been planning for this since last year!”

Beth sat there, the only one in line until about 1:30 pm last Thursday. She had a chair and books and snacks and blankets. She chatted with reporters who were on-hand to cover the clinic’s setup, she talked with and charmed volunteers who stopped out frequently to check on her.

By 4 pm Beth had about 15 new friends on line with her, ranging in age from early 60s down to less than a year old. By 6 pm the number grew to 25. It was raining now, but the Webster Bank Arena has an overhang by the front door that runs about 100 feet long and 30 feet out. Organizers figured that up to 200 people could stay dry under there.

They were right – by 2 am more than 200 people were in the line, waiting for the doors to open in four hours, all keeping dry. Waiting for the free dental care that was there for them inside – free cleanings, fillings, extractions, x-rays, root canals, oral surgery; basically anything they needed. They could even get partial dentures made for their front teeth. For free.

The line was sleepy but friendly. They huddled under the overhang as the rain fell and fell. Volunteers brought them water and chatted with them. The Red Cross set up a truck to hand out free coffee and snacks. As the rain pounded the arena’s plaza and the line swelled to 350, some unfortunately standing in the rain now (all would soon be brought inside to stay dry while waiting), there was still an hour to go before the doors opened. And the line kept growing – patient and friendly, but deeply in need of dental care, of relief from tooth pain.

That line. That wait. This is the face of dental care in America. This is the picture of the need.

***

America’s Mission of Mercy began in rural Virginia in 2000. A group of dentists got together decided to set up a charity event to help people of that area receive the dental care they so badly needed. That was the first Mission of Mercy free dental clinic ever held.

Connecticut was just the 7th state to jump on board when it held its first CTMOM in April 2008. It was held in the quiet middle class town of Tolland, 25 miles east of Hartford and one town over from the University of Connecticut’s main campus. It’s not exactly the middle of nowhere, but it’s indeed a stop on the way. That year, in pouring rain that dwarfed even what was seen this year in Bridgeport, hundreds of people lined up overnight to get in. All told that first two-day clinic treated 1,200 people with about 75 dental chairs. It was a big start.

The next year in New Haven (home of Yale University but also filled with, like this year’s host city of Bridgeport, much poverty) that number swelled to more than 1,800 and the number of dental chairs to more than 100 and more than 1,000 volunteers on-hand.

By the time the 5th annual CTMOM rolled around last year in Danbury in the far southwestern corner of Connecticut, just across the border from New York, the picture was a familiar one. That line. All those dental chairs. More than 1,500 volunteers. The need. The need remained as visible as ever.

And it’s growing nationally. By this year 26 states now host them. America’s Mission of Mercy, based in Kansas, is the organization that sends support and materials to the states in the form of four tractor-trailers, filled with dental chairs, pumping and filtration systems and everything else needed to create the infrastructure of a full functioning dental office.

It takes one full truck to outfit the Connecticut Mission of Mercy. Setup happens in a day – really in about eight hours. We watched with amazement while the empty floor of an 8,000-seat sports/concert arena was transformed, bit by bit, into a 120-chair dental office. Rows and rows of chairs for general dentistry popped up. Pipe and drape cordoned off special areas for numbing, oral surgery and children’s dentistry. This was an operation as technologically advanced as an dental office in the country – there was nothing makeshift or temporary looking about it. And it literally went up before our eyes.

***

The numbers generated by the Connecticut Mission of Mercy are staggering. A quick glance:

2,100 – The number patients served this year
1,500 – The number of volunteers on-hand (Fifteen hundred – think about that number for a minute)
120 – The number of dental chairs
300 – The number of dentists working on-site, taking the day off as well as donating their Saturday.
$1.35 million – The amount in free dental care given out
2 – The number of days in which this all takes place
365 – The number of days it takes to plan the Connecticut Mission of Mercy

The Connecticut Mission of Mercy is a wonderful event, an inspiring event. Every Mission of Mercy held around the country is. But when all is said and done, it’s charity. And charity, as we all know, is no substitute for a comprehensive dental health care policy.

Dental health is general health – the two are inextricably linked. Dental decay is preventable, but it is also prevalent. Heart disease, diabetes, low birth-weight among babies – this are byproducts of poor dental health. Conversely, good dental care makes a healthier body. It also adds to a person’s confidence and demeanor. Who wants to go to a job interview afraid to smile, or in pain? Who wants to exist like that for even five minutes? But people do, year-round.

That’s why beyond the MOM clinics, when the trucks are loaded back up and the chairs and pipes and equipment are all off to their next destination, the dialogue must continue on how to find a more permanent solution for the dental crisis currently hitting our nation. Connecticut is the richest state in the richest nation in the world. Yet hundreds of thousands of people here lack access to adequate dental care. Lawmakers, the dental community, insurers, businesspeople, health advocates, community leaders – they all need to be at the table, working on a long-term solution.

Until then, we wait for charitable clinics such as CTMOM to roll around. Like Beth Carter and her hundreds of new friends sitting in that line, we wait. We wait with hope, with patience and maybe even with a smile on our faces.

But still, we wait.

Dan Tapper is a public relations professional in Connecticut with the firm Sullivan & LeShane Public Relations, Inc.. CTMOM has been a client of his firm since 2008.

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SIGGRAPH attendees, mark your calendars for Monday, July 22. 11:30am. The SIGGRAPH 2013 Keynote Session is titled “Giants’ First Steps” and the ‘giants’ are all animation directors. The panel, which is co-presented with the Academy of Motion Picture Arts & Sciences, will feature eight animation directors—all male, by the way—who will “share their experiences along complex paths to filmmaking success.”

A ninety-minute session hardly seems long enough to contain the stories and thoughts of the distinguished group of filmmakers who will participate: Pete Docter (Monsters, Inc., Up), Eric Goldberg (Pocahontas, Fantasia/2000), Kevin Lima (Tarzan), Mike Mitchell (Shrek Forever After, Alvin and the Chipmunks: Chipwrecked), Chris Sanders (Lilo & Stitch, How to Train Your Dragon), Henry Selick (Nightmare Before Christmas, Coraline), David Silverman (The Simpsons Movie), and Kirk Wise (Beauty and the Beast, Atlantis: The Lost Empire).

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This past Sunday we kicked off our participation in the Valley Cultural Center’s Concerts on the Green in Woodland Hills. It’s a funtastic series of free concerts every Sunday from June 2 – August 25. We’re all tingly about it because not only is it our primo retail location for the summer, we get to see some live music.

This past Sunday was the music of Earth, Wind & Fire lead by their founder, Al McKay. I grew up with these dudes, having listened to their funky funkadelic funktasms since birth. After the show on Sunday, I got to tell Al McKay that “September” is my official song (born on the 21st of September). Righteous. How often does that happen?

If you’re in Southern California, we informally invite you (because we don’t do formal anything) to come see us every Sunday. Or one Sunday. Whatever works. Come on out and dig some free music. Say hi.

By the way, we are also having a Summer T-shirt Giveaway. There are several ways to enter, one of which is at the shows. If you want to win a free Sparky Firepants t-shirt (and why wouldn’t you), check out the many ways to enter right here: http://www.sparkyfirepants.com/summer-giveaway.

 

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On Thursday, May 30th, the Museum of of Contemporary Art in downtown LA will present a screening of Aboveground Animation featuring new commissions by Kathleen Daniel, Barry Doupe, Erin Dunn, Casey Jane Ellison, Lauren Gregory, Jacolby Satterwhite, Katie Torn, and the premiere of a video work by Ben Jones (Paper Rad, The Problem Solverz). The screening will be followed by a conversation with Aboveground Animation curator Casey Jane Ellison and Ben Jones, moderated by MOCAtv creative director Emma Reeves.

The screening will take place at MOCA Grand Avenue’s Ahmanson Auditorium (250 South Grand Avenue, LA, CA 90012). Doors open at 7pm, screening at 8pm. RSVP at rsvp.mocatv@gmail.com.

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On Thursday, May 30, the Filmpodium Zurich in Switzerland will present a screening of nine Warner Bros. shorts directed by the legendary Bob Clampett. The show is being presented in honor of his centennial, which was earlier this month. Clampett’s work isn’t well known in Switzerland and the film lineup is a solid primer to his work:

• Porky in Wackyland (1938)
  
• A Tale of Two Kitties (1942)
  
• A Corny Concerto (1943)
  
• Coal Black and de Sebben Dwarfs (1943)
  
• Draftee Daffy (1945)
  
• Book Revue (1946)
  
• Baby Bottleneck (1946)
  
• Kitty Kornered (1946)
  
• The Great Piggy Bank Robbery (1946)
  

Better yet, each film will be introduced by Swiss animator and historian Oswald Iten, who will discuss different facets of Clampett’s visual style. Iten runs one of my favorite animation blogs Colorful Animation Expressions, where he has recently been writing some fantastically informative posts about Clampett’s art. Ticket and screening details are available on the Filmpodium Zurich website.

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Cartoonist Dash Shaw, who has been working on a feature-length animated film of his own, will present a selection of his recent animation work tomorrow night at Light Industry (155 Freeman Street in Greenpoint, Brooklyn). In addition to his own work, Shaw will screen the rare 1980s anime biker drama Bobby’s Girl, a film that has inspired his own approach to animation.

The screening will be followed by a conversation with Shaw. Doors open at 7pm, and tickets are $7. More details at LightIndustry.org.

Here’s a clip from Bobby’s Girl:

(Illustration at top by Dash Shaw)

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Woop-dee-do and yippy-kay-ayy, we’ll be at WorldFest this coming weekend!

So if you’re in the Los Angeles area, come out and join us on Sunday, May 19th. This is us officially inviting you to hang out in a beautiful park for a day listening to live music, sampling tons of vegan food, plus a beer and wine garden hosted by Lagunitas Brewing Company. Um, beer. Yes? Beer. Yes. The event is all about promoting health, environmental, humanitarian and animal welfare issues. No reason we can’t have some fun doing it!

Since we run an environmentally sustainable screen print shop – not to mention being vegan – we couldn’t think of a better way to participate than with our goofy vegan t-shirt designs. Naturally, we’ll be exhibiting our super soft vegan t-shirts at our booth. We’ll also have stickers, window decals, tote bags, and prizes to give away. So aside from the beer, food, and Ed Begley, Jr., you can score some very cool stuff from us!

We’ll also be educating people on what it means to run an environmentally-conscious business. Especially in the screen printing industry, there are a lot of chemicals that are used for preparing and cleaning screens. We only use drain safe, biodegradable, citrus and soy-based cleaners in our tiny little shop. There are a lot of things we plan to do as we grow (we’d love to be 100% solar-powered), and we’ll be learning about some options at WorldFest.

We hope to see you there!

David & Jenni

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It’s the time of year again when the East Coast animation community gathers to recognize its own. This Sunday in Manhattan, ASIFA-East will present the 44th annual ASIFA-East Animation Festival awards ceremony. Awards will be presented across a variety of categories including independent and student film, as well as commissioned/advertising projects.

The festivities will begin at 6pm in the New School’s Tishman Auditorium (66 West 12th St) followed by a reception. The event is free and open to the public, though non-members are encouraged to donate $5. More details can be found on the ASIFA-East website.

(Award show illustration by Dagan Moriarty)

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Hey, Everyone! Happy Wednesday.


I am so excited to announce that I am going to be a participating author in the Austin Teen Book Fest! Woot woot!

In case you haven't heard of the Austin Teen Book Festival, it is amazing, and you find out all the details here. So far, besides me, the keynotes have been announced and are Maggie Stiefvater, Holly Black, Sarah Dessen, and Rob Thomas. Right? I know. I am totally going to fangirl.


Quick festival details so you can mark it on your calendar NOW!

WHEN: Saturday, September 28, 2013

WHERE: Austin Convention Center (different than last year)

WHAT: A day filled with author and book awesomeness



There's an exclusive interview up with me today on the book festival blog in which I talk about how many Star Trek shirts I own, what my favorite myth is, and the song that best encompasses SOLSTICE!


Thank you for all your support, and I can't wait to see you there!

* please forgive my severe overuse of the exclamation point.

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I returned a few days ago from the Czech Republic where I judged the feature film categories at Anifilm, a fun festival filled with great people and positive energy that is situated in the quaint lakeside resort town of Trebon. The three-person feature film jury consisted of Portuguese filmmaker Regina Pessoa (Tragic Story with Happy Ending, Kali the Little Vampire), Slovenian festival director Igor Prassel (Animateka International Animated Film Festival) and myself. (That’s us in the photo above.)

The Anifilm organizers smartly divided features into two categories: adult and children’s films. We watched five films in each category. In the Adult category, we awarded the top prize to Chris Sullivan’s sweeping and uncompromising Southern Gothic tale Consuming Spirits, and also gave special mention to Don Hertzfeldt’s feature It’s Such a Beautiful Day. These two films alone don’t make a trend, but add Paul and Sandra Fierlinger’s My Dog Tulip and Nina Paley’s Sita Sings the Blues to the list, and you could argue that American indie feature animation is experiencing a renaissance right now. All of these films utilize animation effectively to express deeply personal visions.

The other three features in the Adult category—O Apóstolo from Spain, A Liar’s Autobiography from the United Kingdom and Fat Bald Short Man from Colombia—each had positive qualities and exhibited the kind of maturity and narrative ambition that is often lacking in mainstream feature animation fare.

The children’s category was less impressive. The five features were European co-productions that relied on cliches borrowed from popular American films. Three of the films featured hot air balloons (UP, of course), and a number of them used the ‘dead parents’ trope that is an all-too-common fallback for lazy animation scriptwriters. We awarded the children’s prize to The Day of Crows (Le jour des corneilles) which was unquestionably the most interesting film of the bunch. The hand-drawn animated film featured appealing (if inconsistent) animation and character designs, along with gorgeous backgrounds. It reached for Miyazaki-style mysticism before attempting to hamhandedly explain everything in the last act. Imperfect, but worth a look.

Animation director Bill Plympton wrote about his recent experience judging the feature animation categories at the Stuttgart Animation Festival in Germany. He watched eight features at that festival, and it’s interesting to note that not a single one of those films was in competition at Anifilm. It’s a reminder that feature animation is a flourishing art form today. The handful of mega-budget corporate-studio films that dominate American multiplexes barely scratch the surface of what’s available in the marketplace.

The good news is that institutional support is growing for more diverse types of feature animation. Most major animation festivals now have feature film categories, and of course, there’s the Oscars, which hands out an Academy Award specifically for animated features. The American distributor GKIDS has made a commitment to distributing foreign animated features, and this site you’re reading attempts to cover independent and foreign animated features as few other major animation media outlets have in the past.

More and more companies are turning their attention to the rich world of feature animation, but there is still plenty of room for others to join. For example, when will Criterion begin releasing art house animated features? When will distributors bring foreign animated features into multiplexes across the country? Exciting times are ahead in the feature animation field.

(Jury photo by Jan Hromádko)

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Illustrator Gregory Myers from Syndey, Australia sent in this illustration. He is a freelance illustrator. Studied under Czech artist Petr Herel at Canberra School of Art, and Akira Kurosaki at Kyoto Seika University. Hand-coloured scraperboard artworks like this has proven to be popular with his clients. www.gregorymyers.me

Mt. Airy Kids’ Literary Festival

Friday, May 17, through Sunday, May 19, 2013

Big Blue Marble Bookstore is proud to present its seventh annual Mt. Airy Kids’ Literary Festival! All events are FREE and open to the public!

This year, our festival includes events at the Color Book Gallery, 6353 Germantown Avenue (215-844-4200).

All Weekend

The Craft Table! Big Blue Marble Bookstore will have our special craft table open all weekend, stocked with brightly colored paper, collage materials, and all kinds of other supplies to create your own books! (In our Community Room, All Ages. Adult Supervision Required.)

Special Door Prizes! Winners will be randomly selected throughout the entire weekend to win free books, promotional goodies, and more. Stop by with your family and get a chance to go home with all kinds of special treats. (All Ages)

Friday, May 17

10:30am – Big Blue Marble Story Time with Amanda Hendricks. Join us for our regular Friday morning story time! (Ages 18m-4y)

6:30pm – Philadelphia Youth Poetry Slam. Share your words in a welcoming literary environment in the Big Blue Marble Bookstore cafe! Light refreshments will be served, and local poets will be invited to help decide the winners. Prizes include bookstore gift certificates for an overall winner, a middle school winner, and one runner-up. (Ages 12-18) Special Guest Judge/Host: Ms. Alyesha Wise

Alyesha Wise was raised in the city of Camden, N.J. She began writing at the age of 11 and eventually developed a passion 4 Poetry. The founder of “Love, Us,” she is on a mission 2 spark a LOVE REVOLUTION, holding a strong belief that unity and compassion is the healing force to all that exists. She’s the co-host of the longest running weekly open mic in Philadelphia, “Jus’ Words.” In addition, she’s the co-founder & co-host of “The Pigeon Presents: The Philadelphia Poetry Slam,” voted “Best of Philly” for Literary Activity in 2012, by Philadelphia Magazine.

Saturday, May 18

10:30am – Nature Yoga for Kids with Deirdre Vezirov-Kilkenny. Join yoga teacher Deirdre Vezirov Kilkenny as she reads from The Yoga Game, and incorporates yoga postures. (Ages 3-7)

Deirdre Vezirov-Kilkenny trained with the Radiant Child Yoga Program at Karma Kids NYC. She is also certified in Storytime Yoga levels 1 & 2 and Yoga4Teens, and has been teaching kids yoga since 2004.

Deirdre’s classes at Springboard Studio are 45 minutes on Tuesdays: Nature Yoga for 4-7 year-olds takes place from 4:00pm–4:45pm, and for 8-12 year-olds from 5:00pm–5:45pm. Spring classes will be April 2nd–June 4th. Nature Yoga for Teens and Tweens (10+) on Fridays from 4pm-4:45 pm this Spring will be April 4th–June 7th. The 10 session cost is $100; drop-ins are $12 per session. For information, call 267-241-4810 or e-mail natureyoga@comcast.net. Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/NatureYogaforKids.

11:15am – Festival Storytime with Lauren Grace. Come join us for a special Mt. Airy Kids’ Literary Festival storytime! Together we will sing songs, play games, and read some books, of course!  (Ages toddler to 4)

Lauren Grace is a local mom who enjoys knitting, sitting outside, laughing with her two daughters, and reading!

12:00pm – Harry Potter fun with Grace Gordon.

1:00pm – Afternoon Drawing Workshop with Mark Mattson. (Ages 6 and up)

Mark Mattson is a Philadelphia-based artist, writer, illustrator, and designer. A graduate of Columbus College of Art and Design, he also makes video games and kids’ products; and is a member of The Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators. He’s made everything from books based on famous red monster puppets, to Easter baskets starring martial-arts mutant turtles, to educational games prominently featuring deep-voiced tooth fairies. It is all true.

2:00pm – Reading and crafts with Ame Dyckman, author of Boy + Bot and Tea Party Rules. Join author Ame Dyckman for a cool Boy + Bot reading, with robot crafts and giveaways, and a special sneak peek into her forthcoming book, Tea Party Rules.  (Ages 4 and up)

Ame Dyckman

3:00pm – Creating Graphic Novels/Comic Books with Marta Rose and Judy McCoubry. Text (Ages 7 and up)

Festival Events at Color Book Gallery

All day – Face painting and activity table!

12:00pm – C. Getti, author of Bear’s Prayer

1:00pm – Melissa Conroy, author of Poppy’s Pants

2:00pm – Baba Abiodun, Storyteller

3:00pm – Rhiannon Richardson, author of Model Friendship

4:00pm – A. R. Bey, author of Netherworld of Kemet

Sunday, May 19

1:00pm – Reading with , author of .

10:30am – Music with Gina Ferragame! Join local musician Gina Ferragame for a fun-filled round of kid music and interactive fun. (Ages toddler to 5)

Gina Ferragame is a trained Music Therapist who has extensive experience working with children, special needs children, hospice care, and in-patient hospital care with emotionally disturbed adolescents. Gina is also a preschool Music Teacher in Mt. Airy, Philadelphia. “Music With Gina” is a class designed for babies/toddlers (ages 6mo to 3yrs) and caregivers. The intention for each class is to allow your little one the freedom to express themselves in a positive and compassionate setting through the use of movement, playing, and singing. Music classes are meant to enrich, enliven, and entertain your little ones! it’s just fun! 10:30am Tuesdays, Mt. Airy Yoga: 610 Carpenter Lane Philadelphia, 19119. $12 drop in $100 for 11 classes. Contact musicwithgina@gmail.com.

11:00am-12:00pm – Free Creative Writing Games Workshop with Cordelia Jensen. This workshop is for any kid who wants to get creative. We will play four or five writing games that focus on different aspects of the storytelling process, such as dialogue and character development. So, come and get wild with words! (Ages 7 and up)

Cordelia Jensen is a YA Writer; her novel in verse SKYSCRAPING is forthcoming from Philomel/Penguin. Cordelia graduated in 2012 with a MFA in Writing for Children & Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts. Cordelia graduated from Kenyon College where she majored in English, with a Concentration in Creative Writing. Cordelia was Poet Laureate of Perry County in 2006 & 2007. She has also had nonfiction work appear in Literary Mama. Cordelia has worked with young people for most of her career; with a Masters of Education in Counseling, she has worked as a counselor, teacher and spent ten summers as a camp counselor in Central PA. She works at The Big Blue Marble Bookstore and loves being surrounded by books and people who love stories and language. Cordelia lives in West Mt. Airy with her husband, Jon, and twin seven-year-olds, Tate and Lily.

12:15pm – Reading with Kit Grindstaff, author of The Flame in the Mist. Join Kit for themed refreshments and a special reading from her new book The Flame in the Mist, a fantasy-adventure for fans of Philip Pullman’s The Golden Compass. (Ages 9 and up)

Kit Grindstaff was born near London and grew up in the rolling countryside of England. After a brush with pop stardom (under her maiden name, Hain) she moved to New York and embarked on her career as a pop song writer. Kit now lives with her husband in the rolling countryside of Pennsylvania. She is a member of the SCBWI. The Flame In The Mist is her first novel. You can also find her at http://www.kitgrindstaff.com , http://www.facebook.com/kitgrindstaff  and on Twitter: @kitgrindstaff.

Check the Big Blue Marble Bookstore for additions and changes: http://bigbluemarblebooks.com/kidslit13.html

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Filed under: Events, News, opportunity, picture books Tagged: Ame Dyckman, Big Blue Marble Bookstore, Fun, Kid's Literary Festival, Kit Grindstaff, Mt. Airy Phildelphia PA

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Today kicks of the 94th annual Children's Book Week, May 13-19, hosted by the Children's Book Council. The lovely poster is illustrated by Brian Selznick and is free to schools and libraries. CLICK HERE for more information!

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In more YAB Fest awesomeness, the very cool Sharon Bayliss has put together an amazing giveaway of signed books by some of the participating YAB Fest authors!

(And if you missed it, you can read my post on YAB Fest here.)

About YAB Fest:

"The Young Adult Book Festival (or YAB Fest) is a brand new book festival designed to promote reading among teens in the suburbs and surrounding areas of North Austin and northern Central Texas. Our goal is to provide students with a phenomenal experience to meet and interact with a wide variety of authors writing in different genres." - from yabfest.com

****

About the Giveaway:

Sign up on the Rafflecopter form below for a chance to win. Signed paperbacks must be picked up from the authors at the festival!



a Rafflecopter giveaway

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Happy Monday, everyone! For you Austinites or Texans who love to drive to author events, the first annual YAB Fest is this Saturday!!!!! Come for part of the day. Come for all of the day. Just be there!

And just a small note of excitement. Although SOLSTICE isn't yet available, it will be available for pre-order through the sponsoring bookstore, The Book Spot.



When: Saturday, May 11, 2013, 9-6
Where: Round Rock High School, Austin, TX

David Levithan (keynote)	Andrea Cremer (keynote)
E. Kristin Anderson	Jessica Lee Anderson
Sharon Bayliss	Kiera Cass
Ernest Cline	Krissi Dallas
Jordan Dane	Tracy Deebs
Beth Fehlbaum	Rachel Harris
PJ Hoover	CC Hunter
Greg Leitich Smith	Mary Lindsey
Mari Mancusi	Emily McKay
Cory Oakes	Lindsay Scheibe
Victoria Scott	Amy Tinterra

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Currently on display at the Museum of the Moving Image in Astoria, Queens, Spectacle: The Music Video is the first ever exhibition to celebrate the artform that was once the bread and butter of MTV. Curators Jonathan Wells and Meg Grey Wells put together an impressive spread of 300 music videos in beautifully designed exhibition.

While most music videos in the exhibition were featured in looped groupings on wall-mounted monitors, the videos that received their own, stand-alone installations were ones that had accompanying props or assets left over from production. For example, the four jumpsuits worn in the video for OK GO’s “This Too Shall Pass” are hung on the wall next to a video monitor. Another corner is filled with a giant model of the anthropomorphic milk carton from Blur’s “Coffee and Tea.” Also on display are a few pieces from “Tonight, Tonight,” the Smashing Pumpkins’ homage to Georges Méliès’ “A Trip to the Moon.”

Stop motion and 2-D animation are heavily represented in the show. Piles of colorful yarn and original storyboards comprise an installation for Steriogram’s “Walkie Talkie Man,” directed by Michel Gondry. As one of the most prolific and creative music video directors in the past two decades, Gondry’s work received the most gallery space by far. Another corner is accented with bold LEGO pieces while an accompanying monitor plays “Fell in Love With A Girl,” the iconic music video that pulled The White Stripes into the mainstream.

Original drawings from “Take On Me” by A-ha are on display as a reminder of the video’s landmark status in pop culture. Director Steve Barron combined pencil-sketch animation, rotoscoping and live action for a total of 3,000 frames that took four months to complete. It is still one of the most memorable music videos of all time, and was the first to push a song to number one one the charts.

Several monitors around the gallery space display curated lumps of animated music videos, but there were a few notably absent or barely mentioned: Kanye’s Bakshi-inspired video for “Heartless,” Peter Gabriel’s “Sledgehammer,” and anything by The Gorillaz. Of course it’s impossible to satisfy everyone’s expectations, so the curators devised a lounge provided by Vevo where patrons can select and watch their favorite music videos.

Approaching this exhibit, I wondered how the curators, who are self-proclaimed products of the MTV generation, could keep their nostalgia in check. At times they can’t, and the exhibition is more celebratory than critical. The present and future of the music video is never fully confronted, specifically in the context of a digital era with services like YouTube and Vimeo. A small installation of Arcade Fire’s ventures into interactive music videos was perhaps the most current exploration of the medium on display.

Where the exhibition shines, however, is establishing the history of music videos, tracing their roots back to the earliest sound films of the 1920s. Included was a mention of “Colour Box” by Len Lye, a 1935 experimental animated short set to a Cuban dance beat. The narrative thread continues on, showing how The Beatles, Queen, David Bowie and several experimental artists contributed to the establishment of the music video as a definitive medium.

The exhibition, which is absolutely worth seeing, is currently on loan from Contemporary Arts Center in Cinnicinnati. With any hope, the show will become even more accessible and take part in a national tour. And now that Billboard has decided to include YouTube views in its rankings, the music video could once again be a driving force worth rediscovering.

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For all you Jerry Spinelli and STARGIRL fans, don’t miss out seeing STARGIRL on stage.

Stargirl

April 20—May 12, 2013

By Y York

Adapted from the novel by Jerry Spinelli

Directed by Samantha Bellomo

When an eccentric homeschooler arrives at Mica Area High School, hallways buzz with texts, whispers fill the air, and 11th grader Leo Borlock’s life is changed forever. Based on the critically-acclaimed young adult novel by Jerry Spinelli, the author of everyone’s favorite Maniac Magee, Stargirl celebrates first love, non-conformity, and the similarities that connect us all.  Best appreciated by ages 12 and up.

Join the actors after every performance to discuss the making of the production.

Meet Author Jerry Spinelli!

Jerry is the author of more than 30 books including Stargirl, Crash, Loser, Milkweed, Knots in My Yo-Yo String, and has recently released a new novel, Hokey Pokey.  In 1991 he received the Newbery Medal for Maniac Magee and was awarded the Newbery Honor in 1998 for Wringer.

Join us for book signings with Jerry Spinelli before these performances of Stargirl:

May 11 at 1pm

There are 5 shows still available from Thursday May 9th – May 12th and Jerry Spinelli will be signing books at 1 pm, before the 2 pm Saturday matinee.

Mother’s Day: The theatre is having a buffet brunch or prix fixe dinner with a performance of Stargirl on Sunday, May 12th! Experience their award-winning gardens and the charming, historic setting of the 18th-century farmhouse. What a nice way to celebrate Mom’s Day. Reserve your table and tickets now!

Calling all Star-people! Only today to work on this:

Enter to win tickets to a performance of Stargirl at People’s Light and Theater, along with a chance to meet Stargirl and receive a copy of the book, signed by Jerry Spinelli!

Simply send us a 250-word essay or link to a 2-min video describing to us the person you are, just like Stargirl does in her “The Person I Am” speech.

Essays and videos can be sent via email to artsdiscovery@peopleslight.org and MUST be received by Monday, May 6th.  Winners will be contacted directly so please be sure to include your name, age, and contact information (email and home phone).

(Note: If any of the pictures in this post or other posts are squished, refresh your screen and it will correct.)

Hope you live close enough to take advantage of this.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Filed under: Author, Contest, Events, opportunity, Young Adult Novel Tagged: book signing, Jerry Spinelli, Malvern PA, Stargirl play, The People's Light Theatre

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Hey, peeps! For those around and about the Austin, Texas area (and for those who aren't, you should move here), there are three fabulous places I'll be where I would love to see you.

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 6:30 pm
BOOKPEOPLE

It's the Writer's League of Texas Third Thursday meeting and panel, and this month, I am thrilled to be on a panel with Stephanie Barko and Rhiannon Frater. We'll be talking about all things marketing and giving tips on nurturing relationships with readers! It's free and open to the public, and sure to be a blast!

*****

THURSDAY, APRIL 18, 8:00 pm
BAR 96

If you do come to the meeting, or even if you don't, later Thursday evening at 8:00 pm is the CLAWstin event downtown at Bar 96 on Rainey Street. Head out and cheer on my pal Gina Tonic as she arm wrestles her way to helping charity!

*****

FRIDAY, APRIL 19, 7:30 pm
BOOKPEOPLE

BookPeople is holding an event to celebrate the release of POISON by Bridget Zinn (Hyperion, March 12, 2013). I am honored to be reading from the novel along with Austin authors Nikki Loftin and Cory Putman Oakes. (And I picked such a fun passage to read). So please come support the book that Bridget would have loved to have seen published. Buy a copy for yourself. Buy a copy for a friend. And if you haven't read this book, you are in for a true delight!



See you there!

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The L Magazine will host four reading events for this year’s Literary Upstart writing contest.

You can submit your short fiction until May 28th; submissions must be no longer than 1,300-words. The grand prize winner will get a $500 award and be published in the annual Summer Fiction Issue.

The top writers will be invited to one of three semi-final round readings on April 17th, May 1st or May 22nd. All the contestants who place first in the semi-final rounds will move on to perform one more time at the grand finale reading on June 4th.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Since registration for the New Jersey SCBWI June Conference is closing April 30th (Here is the link: http://tinyurl.com/ch7sean) I thought I would announce the Guest Critiquer for May.

MELISSA FAULNER, Editorial Assistant, ABRAMS Books for Young Readers and Amulet has agreed to share her expertise with us. I am looking forward to meeting her at the conference and I will be sharing more information about her during May.

Just a heads-up: May’s submission deadline will be May 22nd, due to the Memorial Day.

Here is Melissa’s bio:

Melissa received her B.A. from Sarah Lawrence College with a concentration in Literature and Visual Arts. She worked in Consumer Products and Licensing for Penguin Young Readers Group before coming to ABRAMS, and now works on a variety of children’s books including both fiction and nonfiction picture books and middle grade and YA fiction. She’s the editor for an upcoming Cinderella picture book in Fall 2013, and has worked as part of the editorial team for the upcoming picture books The Twelve Days of New York by award-winning author Tonya Bolden and illustrator Gilbert Ford, the sequel to the award-winning early middle-grade novel Like Pickle Juice on a Cookie by Julie Sternberg, and the adult graphic fairy tale Raven Girl by Audrey Niffenegger.

This is the first time the New Jersey SCBWI Chapter has been able to get anyone from Abrams to come out to one of our conferences, so this presents a big opportunity for the attendees.

MEREDITH MUNDY, Executive Editor, Sterling Children’s Books has agreed to being April’s Guest Critiquer. If you haven’t met Meredith, you can meet her at the New Jersey SCBWI Conference in Princeton, NJ this June. She is a wonderful editor and a lovely person. She knows her stuff.

Meredith Mundy has been with Sterling Children’s Books for 8 years, following 11 years at Dutton Children’s Books. She is nuts about character-centered picture books (recent projects include The Big Bad Wolf Goes on Vacation by Delphine Perret, A Pirate’s Twelve Days of Christmas by Philip Yates, and Ten on the Sled by Kim Norman), but she is also seeking everything from funny, original board books to unforgettable middle grade novels to YA fiction. (No vampires, angels, mermaids, or werewolves, please, and she doesn’t usually acquire historical fiction.) While she enjoys editing nonfiction, she wouldn’t be the right editor for poetry collections or a project geared primarily toward the school and library market.

WRITERS Sending in a First Page: Please attach your double spaced, 12 point font, 23 line first page to an e-mail and send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com. Also cut and paste it into the body of the e-mail. Put “April First Page Critique” or “April First Page Picture Prompt Critique” in the subject line. Make sure you have your name on the submission, a title, and indicate the genre. Also let me know if you were able to post of facebook or Tweet. That will get your name in the basket an additional time, when I am choosing the four pages. If you don’t have either of these, just leave a comment and let me know. If you end up doing more things to get additional entries, then e-mail me a note by April 20th. The four chosen and their critiques will be posted on April 26th.

This first page picture prompt was done by Susan Detwiler. Susan was feature on March 9th. You can use this link http://wp.me/pss2W-6jt to view her artwork.

AUTHORS: If you have a new book coming out and want to be considered for a post, please e-mail me at: Kathy.temean (at) gmail.com

Call for illustrations for April: You can send anything, but I am especially looking for illustrations that reflect the month. I hope you will send something in. Last month, I did not receive very many. This is a good way to get your work seen. Don’t wait, I will post the illustrations as they come in. Please make sure the illustration is at least 500 pixels wide and include a blurb about yourself and a link to see more of your work. Please send it to kathy(dot)temean(at)gmail(dot)com and put “April Illustration” in the subject box.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

Filed under: Conferences and Workshops, Editor & Agent Info, Events, opportunity, Writing Tips Tagged: Abrams BFYR, editor Meredith Mundy, First Page Critique, Melissa Faulner, Sterling Publishing

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Here are some literary events to pencil in your calendar. To get your event posted on our calendar, visit our Facebook Your Literary Event page. Please post your event at least one week prior to its date.

The 3rd Annual Shakespeare’s Birthday Sonnet Slam will take place at the Naumburg Bandshell in Central Park. Join in on Tuesday, April 23rd starting 1:00 p.m. (New York, NY)

New York Times bestselling author Michael Pollan will appear at Barnes & Noble (Union Square branch) to talk about his new book, Cooked. Hear him on  Tuesday, April 23rd starting 7:00 p.m. (New York, NY)

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Annecy, the longest-running and largest animation fesival, has announced the feature film selections for their upcoming festival in June. Nine films were chosen to compete for the Cristal award for feature film, which will be decided by a jury consisting of producer Didier Brunner (Les Armateurs), Cartoon Network exec Brian Miller and director Robert Morgan (The Cat with Hands, The Man in the Lower-Left Hand Corner of the Photograph). An additional fourteen features will screen out of competition.

Marcel Jean, the festival’s artistic director, said of this year’s feature selections:

“Many films have been created in a totally independent way, using traditional means, which illustrates the change in production habits that is opening the way for smaller companies and happening at the same moment as the production of digital 3D features is becoming more accessible. Japanese production has also particularly stood out through the number and quality of science fiction, horror or genre films.”

Feature Films—In Competition

• Arjun, The Warrior Prince
  Directed by Arnab Chaudhuri (India)

Berserk Golden Age Arc II: The Battle for Doldrey
Directed by Toshiyuki Kubooka (Japan)

Jasmine
Directed by Alain Ughetto (France)

Khumba
Directed by Anthony Silverston (South Africa)

Legends of Oz: Dorothy’s Return
Directed by Daniel St. Pierre and Will Finn (U.S.)

My Mommy is in America and She Met Buffalo Bill
Directed by Marc Boréal and Thibaut Chatel (France)

O Apóstolo
Directed by Fernando Cortizo (Spain)

Pinocchio
Directed by Enzo D’Alo (Italy, Luxembourg, France, Belgium)

Rio 2096: A Story of Love and Fury
Directed by Luiz Bolognesi (Brazil)

Feature Films—Out of Competition

• After School Midnighters
  Directed by Hitoshi Takekiyo (Japan)

Aya de Yopougon
Directed by Marguerite Abouet and Clément Oubrerie (France)

Blood-C: The Last Dark
Directed by Naoyoshi Shiotani (Japan)

Buratino’s Return
Directed by Ekaterina Mikhailova (Russia)

Consuming Spirits
Directed by Christopher Sullivan (U.S.)

El Santos vs la Tetona Mendoza
Directed by Alejandro Lozano (Mexico)

Gusuko-Budori no Denki
Directed by Gisaburo Sugii (Japan)

It’s Such a Beautiful Day
Directed by Don Hertzfeldt (U.S.)

One Piece Film Z
Directed by Tatsuya Nagamine (Japan)

Persistence of Vision
Directed by Kevin Schreck (U.S.)

Sakasama no Patema
Directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura (Japan)

The Legend of Sarila
Directed by Nancy Savard (Canada)

The Snow Queen
Directed by Maxim Sveshnikov and Vladlen Barbe (Russia)

Tito on Ice
Directed by Max Andersson and Helena Ahonen (Sweden)

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Hollywood animation studios seem to think that 2D animation is dead so we may as well go ahead and make it official. Former Walt Disney Feature Animation artist Raul Aguirre Jr. is organizing a mock-memorial service for hand-drawn animation that will take place this summer at the San Diego Comic-Con. He put out a call for participation on Cartoon Brew’s Facebook page:

I am putting together a panel discussion which I want to do a tongue in cheek Memorial Service for 2D traditional animation” Everyone on the panel would give a little speech in honor of the dearly departed. I’m hoping to get a little casket with an animation disc in it and some flowers. I would love to have some ladies in shawls crying hysterically the whole time. I want to end it with a positive note and revive the departed with audience participation. Like clapping your hands to revive Tinkerbell in the Peter Pan shows.

On Aguirre’s personal Facebook, a couple women have already volunteered to perform the crying-ladies-in-shawls role. This should be fun if he can make it happen.

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Can I mention how wonderful this past week's Texas Library Association Conference was? Seriously, the state of Texas rocks and so do all the people in it! I seem to do best summarizing these things with pictures, so here we go!


A huge thank you to Tor for having me be a part of the conference!

First up was a Young Adult Round Table panel talking about the appeal of dystopian stories to teens.





One of the best things about TLA and conferences in general is running into so many awesome people!












My time was packed with fun activities including:






On a final note, I want to mention the breakfast because it was so delicious!








So that's a wrap. 
TLA, I miss you already, but I will see you again next year!

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