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Yesterday, in New York City, I joined the great cast of writers that the truly great David Levithan had gathered at Books of Wonder, a store famous and hallowed and grand. I met a student with a future, a librarian with a heart, a blogger with whom I'd corresponded, an AP English teacher, a science fiction writer, a screenplay writer, super cool Wonder staff, others. K. M. Walton and I compared war stories (we always do; this time I won). A.S. King swore she'd been practicing her salsa (but I don't know; the girl does write fiction). David revealed some of the new work on his Scholastic list, and I sort of begged, I hope that's okay, for one of the ARCs.
(David Levithan did not reveal, however, how he maintains his fresh-faced good looks after his long and uber successful week of moderating and hosting countless (all right, so someone counted them, probably even David himself) YA panels and conversations.)
And then something else amazing happened: Ed Goldberg, who wrote to me following the launch of HOUSE OF DANCE and who has remained in touch ever since—a stalwart cheerleader in times both green and fallow, a teacher, a librarian, a garden lover, a dad, a man in love with his Susan—took the train into the city and surprised me. Yes, indeed, the surprise was gonzo. And Beth Kephart, born on April Fools' Day, does not easily surprise.
After the signing, I wove through New York City. I share my quick snapshots here.
On the train there and back, I was reading Elizabeth Graver's new novel,
The End of the Point.Help me, Rhonda: I can't wait to tell you about her book. (That is, if you haven't already read about it everywhere, my friend Elizabeth now on bestseller lists everywhere.)
By: Maryann Yin,
on 3/8/2013
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The Lambda Literary Foundation revealed the finalists for the 25th Annual Lambda Literary Awards. The “Lammy” awards honor the best lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) published works from 2012.
The nominated works in the 22 categories were picked by more than 90 booksellers, book reviewers, librarians, authors, and previous Lammy Award winners. The winners will be announced on June 3, 2013 at a ceremony in New York City. We’ve listed a few of this year’s nominees below.
Here’s more from the release: “Lambda Literary Foundation set a new record in 2013 for both the number of LGBT books submitted for Lammy consideration, 687, and the number of publishers participating, 332. This beats the record-setting numbers in 2012 of 600 titles by over 250 publishers and is the fourth consecutive year of growth in submissions and publishers.”
continued…
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My house has officially succumbed to books. Bowed its head, elbowed out its own frame, said yes. Yes, Beth, you can have the newest pubbed books by David Levithan (
Every Day) and Eliot Schrefer (
Endangered) co-mingling with the galleys for
This Close (short stories by your dear friend Jessica Francis Kane), and alongside these please add a dollop of Mary McCarthy's
The Stones of Florence, a book on the history of eggs, three maps of Florence (one laminated), one old diary, several Florence guides, many tomes on domes, not to mention weather forecasts, three unread
New Yorkers (unread, save for the back pages), and while all of that is going on, please add more to your iPad Kindle because having not yet read your e-versions of
Code Name Verity (Elizabeth E. Wein),
Salvage the Bones, and
The Marriage Artist is no shame at all. Also, while you are at it, imagine A.S. King's
Ask the Passengers (not yet released) sitting near. Just do it, Kephart. Do it.
So what did I do, in the midst of this? I took a walk with my best friend from college days, Ellen. We headed out to Valley Forge National Park, where my mother is buried and where Ellen and I often meet to talk life, not books. It was a ripe September day, crisp as a green apple.
I want it all, always.
I manage it poorly, more times than not.
Today, no books again. Instead, a trip to the city, to see my glorious, happy, smart, successful son. No prize greater than his glorifying smile.
Before Catherine Stine, Nancy Viau, Alison DeLuca, and I met yesterday afternoon at Rosemont College for our Push to Publish YA/Children's Book Panel, we were invited to submit questions and answers for potential mulling during our panel. As the group's moderator, I promised the audience that I would share those very questions and answers here, to supplement the many other things we discussed during our it-flew-by-so-fast hour.
Many thanks to all of you who came, to Catherine, Nancy, and Alison, who spoke so intelligently, and to Christine Weiser, Queen of Philadelphia Stories (from which the annual Push to Publish conference springs), who took this photograph for us.
Catherine Stine:
1. How important is social media to your promo plan and when should you start to implement it?
The best advice I got from an early mentor was to start a blog way before my next big book came out, not when it came out. I started Catherine Stine’s Idea City about two years before my latest novel was published, and by that time I had over 340 followers, who helped with my book blog tour, and other promo posts such as interviews, features and giveaways, as well as me guest posting on their blogs.
I had no idea that the blogosphere would be so friendly and eager to help. Part of the fun is that it’s a mixed age-community, with everyone from savvy book reviewers, still in high school, to seasoned authors in their sixties. The key is to care about what others are posting! If you want good comments on your posts, you must return the favor.I’ve learned so much about publishing and writing from this vibrant community, and from indie authors as well as ones who are published with the Big Six. Other important social media to develop: a Goodreads author page, a Facebook author or book page, a Pinterest page and a twitter account. There are others, but this is a great place to start!
Topical online reads:
1. Publishers’ Weekly article on YA Marketing-Digital versus Physical:
http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/industry-news/bea/article/52455-bea-2012-ya-marketing-digital-vs-physical.html
2. Basic Marketing Tips from YA author, Elana Johnson:
http://elanajohnson.blogspot.com/2012/02/basic-marketing-plan-for-authors-who.html
3. What the heck is Pinterest, you ask? Check out a sampling of YA books for OCT on Pinterest! http://pinterest.com/BCSPLS/october-2012-children-teen-ebooks/
2. What are the big differences between indie and traditionally published books/authors? Between ebooks and paper copies? How do you see these trending in the future?
I see a blending in the future of who is published traditionally to who is publishing on their own, or with small houses. It will be more about the quality of the fiction and the authors’ growing readership than how authors publish. I’ve published with big houses such as Random House and American Girl, and I’ve also published through my own Konjur Road Press. Many traditionally published authors are now publishing their own out-of-print-books and novels that their agents haven’t placed. As publishing houses become more gun-shy and picky (because of less physical bookstores to sell to!) and authors learn how much they can potentially earn on their own the quality of indie fiction will grow ever higher! There is also a trend toward POD printing—that means print on demand. For instance, if someone orders your POD book through Amazon, or B&N, their publishing arm will print as many paperback copies as are ordered and no more. This has an upside for a beleaguered industry: publishers will no longer have to deal with huge store returns, which lose money for the houses when they must refund that revenue. On the other hand, it means less variety on the physical bookshelves. As more and more readers get comfy with ereading devices, more and more ebooks will sell. In the Catskills, where I go on the weekends, I feel the burn of bookstore closings. There are no more bookstores within 40 or 50 miles! People won’t stop reading, they will always want stories; they will simply buy more ebooks. Some related online articles:
1. A post by indie fantasy author, Lindsay Buroker:
http://www.lindsayburoker.com/tips-and-tricks/successful-indie-authors/
2. A post by Susan Kaye Quinn, indie YA author: http://www.susankayequinn.com/2011/09/taking-road-less-traveled-redux.html
3. Trends in YA? Write to trends or to what I love?
It’s always a gamble to predict specific trends because they change from year to year. And one should never, everwrite specifically to the trends. You should write that amazing novel that only you can write! I tell my students to focus on a subject or theme that they are totally inspired by, because maintaining fuel for those entire 250 to 350 pages is something only fierce interest and passion can drive. That said, there do seem to be trends for 2013/14: realistic YA is making a comeback, after a paranormal and fantasy-saturated market. Vamps are trending out, but there will probably always be room for that unique, geeky or charismatic vamp! Historical fantasy is in with novels such as Revolution by Jennifer Donnelly. Magical realism is growing, as is confidence in YA sci-fi like Black Hole Sun by Gill and space opera, such as A. Ryan’s Glow. Horror and unusual blends are growing in popularity as seen in novels like Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children by R. Riggs. There is also a trend toward sci-fi romance, as in novels like V. Rossi’s Under the Never Sky. And then, there are the trend-busters whose mind-bending novels start entirely new trends! Will you write one of these?
Nancy Viau
How do I avoid the slush pile?
It's the "kiss of death" to address your submission to Dear Editor, Agent, or To Whom It May Concern. Research a name and target your manuscript to a real person, one who is acquiring work in the genre in which you write. There's a wealth of info to be found on websites such as www.publishersmarketplace.com http://www.publishersmarketplace.com/> (monthly subscription is about 20 bucks), www.agentquery.com <http://www.agentquery.com/> , www.querytracker.net <http://www.querytracker.net/> , and www.scbwi.org <http://www.scbwi.org/> . Bloggers like Casey McCormick, www.literaryrambles.com <http://www.literaryrambles.com/> , often feature authors and agents, and many editors and agents have blogs and are on Twitter or Facebook. But, instead of relying only on info found on the Internet (where everything's always correct, right? Ha!), find a better, more personal connection by going to conferences and/or getting one-on-one critiques at conferences. Strike up a conversation, exchange business cards, and schmooze your way to success.
What is in a query letter to an agent? How about a cover letter to an editor?
The best way for me to answer this is to give each person copies of letters I wrote to the above people. I'll dissect what I've included and why, and tell the group if it was a successful or not. I feel that the best "takeaway" is something someone can actually take away. : )
What types of picture books are children's book editors looking for?
This is the million dollar question! Who really knows? Many agents and editors say they want a story based on a marketable character. (Ex: FANCY NANCY, LADYBUG GIRL, DON'T LET THE PIGEON DRIVE THE BUS). In additon, they want short over long (less than 800 words), loud over quiet, and non-rhyming over rhyming. They'd also like you to be a celebrity! (*Smirk*) That being said, there are plenty of recently acquired books that break all these rules. (Ex: LOOK WHAT I CAN DO! and STORM SONG, my two picture books due out this spring. They are not character-based, they're considerably quiet, and they rhyme. And yes, I'm still shocked that they sold.)
Beth Kephart
What is the most surprising—or affirming—aspect of the YA writing community?
Although I’ve taught teens for years, I never planned to write books that were specifically set aside for that age group. It seemed, to me, like an entirely different language, a world that I would never effectively penetrate. Now with my eighth and ninth YA novels set for release, I have learned important things about the generosity of the YA writing community, the fervor of librarians and teachers, and the wide open heart of teen readers. Power—sometimes chaotic, sometimes strange, but nearly always mesmerizing—abides in the YA community. And that is why, I think, adults increasingly lean in our direction. That is also why so many teen books increasingly refuse to stay within set boundaries. We writers of teen books want everyone to share in the magic.
Is there room for the quiet YA book? I wasn’t sure there would be one, when I first started writing. In fact, my kind of book was a bit of an experiment for Laura Geringer, my first YA editor, then at HarperCollins. What would happen, she wondered, to teen books that were deliberately focused on emotion and mood, setting and ideas, language and light, in the age of Twilight? Would they find an audience? The good news is that there is an audience. Not a rip-roaring, I’m-going-to-be-rich-and-famous audience. But enough of an audience to enable me to keep writing my kind of book, to keep finding my kind of teen (and adult) reader. And for that I am hugely grateful.
What is the hottest trend in YA fiction?
I have been saying for a while now that we are at long last shedding categories with YA fiction. We are celebrating individuals who write books that break rules and boundaries. The Book Thief freed us, in that way. Writers like Patricia McCormick and A.S. King continue to remind us how powerful the unexpected is. And of course I still believe, as I wrote last year, that illustrated YA books, along with well-written, engaging historical novels, will find firmer marketing footholds.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 11/30/2012
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I was so grateful for the opportunity to give the keynote address at the Publishing Perspectives Conference, YA: What's Next, held at the hospitable Scholastic auditorium in New York City this past Wednesday.
Today the fine folks at
Publishing Perspectives share
the text in full, along with the illustrations by William R. Sulit. These illustrations were modeled with 3D software, all with the exception of the beautiful face and hands, which belong to my niece
(daughter of my famous I Triple E brother), Miranda.
In her keynote address from the YA: What’s Next? publishing conference, author Beth Kephart makes an impassioned case for YA books that are heartfelt, authentic and empowering.......(Just added: gratitude for a week of kindness toward Small Damages.)
By: Maryann Yin,
on 2/21/2013
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The finalists for the 33rd annual Los Angeles Times Book Prize have been revealed, and we’ve collected free samples of all their books below–some of the best books released in 2012. Here’s more about the awards:
“The winners of the L.A. Times book prizes will be announced at an awards ceremony April 19, the evening before the L.A. Times Festival of Books, April 20-21. Held on USC’s campus in Bovard Auditorium, the awards are open to the public; tickets will be made available in late March.”
continued…
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I was shocked and of course deeply saddened when I learned last week that
Chester County Book and Music Company—the grand lady of independents in my part of the world, a vast store, encyclopedic in scope, and intimate in nature—was now occupying its West Chester store
on a month-to-month basis. It will remain active, we are told, at least through the fall. But the future beyond that is cloudy, unsure. And we readers and writers are devastated.
Chester County is where it always happened. It's where the big-name authors came, the celebrities, the locals, the book clubs, the university students from down the road, the mothers on an afternoon out. It's where the staff, many of them long-timers, read passionately and recommended enthusiastically—in person and by way of placards all around the store. A.S. King was there on a rainy night, and we gathered around. K.M. Walton threw her launch party there and hundreds, I mean hundreds, rallied. Kate Moses and I once sat in the near dark on a very rainy night and met the likes of Kathye Fetsko Petrie. I met Ilene Wong, thanks to CCBM. I met a band of students from West Chester University, saw again old teachers and city friends.
What will we do without our store? How many nights did I come home with a bag of books that I had bought strictly and solely on staff recommendations (and they were almost always right)? How many books in this book-crowded house of mine first lived at CCBM?
And what can we say to thank those who made CCBM what it is, those who must now look for new jobs to do, new ways to channel their passion for stories?
Joanne Fritz, who spent many years behind the desk and in the aisles of CCBM, was the first to get in touch with me about
Small Damages, months and months ago. It is thanks to her that I will be at CCBM this coming Saturday, fitting, I think, that my first event for
Small Damages be held here. Perhaps I'll see you there, but more importantly, perhaps you'll find time, between now and this fall, to make your way to this great store and thank it for all it has given to all of us throughout these many years.
SMALL DAMAGES signing
Chester County Book and Music Company
975 Paoli Pike West Chester, PA 19380
West Chester, PA
2 PM
Thanks to Joanne Fritz for being our hostess with the mostest this afternoon at your beautiful, please-tell-us-it-will-be there-forever store. Where else can we sit like we did and laugh long and hard, long after we stopped talking about
Small Damages? And how lucky am I that A.S. King (we'll call her Amy) and K.M. Walton (we'll call her Kate) spent this afternoon with me?
Right answer: Extremely lucky.
And what about Julia—our teen reader? She's something else.
I wore orange pants, just so none of us could forget this afternoon. I know that I never will.
I'm going to be downright honest with you. Launching a book prickles me over. I hail from failed Girl Scout Cookies sales roots, after all. I ripple with panic (more than a pebble's toss worth) every time I have to price a corporate project (and that's my business, my family's livelihood). I send announcement e-mails out about my books in full-force cringe. I am graciously invited into bookstores and then apologize to any friend who might want to come.
I'm sure you're busy, I'll say.
Don't feel you have to come.It's an itchy enterprise, this book thing. I
want my books to succeed, and I especially want
Small Damages to succeed because I am working with such exceptional people at Philomel and I cannot let them down. I worry about unhappy reviews and reviewers for their sake. I worry about sales because people I love have believed in me, and I want to deliver for them.
Still, I struggle with self-promotion. I struggle to find balance. I want to look out, beyond myself— reporting on the books of others (only the books I love, obviously, for I am not quite sure what any blogger gains from reporting on books that were not loved), reflecting on the world at large, honoring neighbors, children, family, friends. I want to connect in a very real way with people. I want to generate positivity against the dark clouds of 2012—the heat of summer, the terror in a theater, the buried secrets of a certain university and an assistant football coach, the final ebbing away of loved ones.
Yesterday, as you know from the identical picture in the previous-to-this-one post, I launched
Small Damages at Chester County Book and Music Company, a store that brought us all so much for three full decades but is now on a month-to-month lease. It is the Kindle, not the economy in general, that some believe hurt this gigantic independent. The Kindle, a machine. Bookstores are about community. Machines most often aren't. We writers and readers are losing, in CCBM, a glowing, active hearth, and we will be so much the poorer for this.
Yesterday was a Saturday in mid-summer. I am who I am, no actual rock star (despite my pumpkin-dashed-with-paprika pants). Nonetheless, A.S. King drove all the way from where she lives (I call it a castle, she swears that it isn't) and K.M. Walton flew in from down the road (on fairy wings, with sparkle), and Joanne Fritz sat among us, and we talked, until a teen reader and her mom and, then, two friends joined in. Maybe some people would want to be surrounded by crowds at a book launch. I could not have been happier than this—the intimacy of the conversation, the honest exchange, the talk that went on and on until Amy and Kate and I looked at our respective time-announcing gadgets and realized that dinner in our households was about to begin. Amy, Kate, and I are writers first. We live the writing life. We had stories to tell, no bravada behind which to hide, no desire to be anything but ourselves. We loved our teen reader and her mom for encouraging a life with books. We loved Joanne and CCBM for making room for us there. We loved the two best friends who went home armed with their own piles of books. We loved spending time not wanting to be, but being.
I signed my very first copy of
Small Damages to a teen reader named Julia. I laughed until I ached with Kate and Amy. I went home counting my luck for being in this odd but beautiful business of publishing.
How much do any of us need to know about a book before we decide to make it our own? I cannot predict myself. I'll buy a book on a whim, or because I like the cover. I'll buy it because a blogger I respect suggested that maybe I should, or because it got a rave review, or because someone I know is on the fence and I want to know how I'd decide. I buy books in an instant, and I've been known to take my time. But eventually I get around to buying books.
Where Things Come Back, John Corey Whaley's book, has been on my radar screen for a very long time. It won the 2012 Printz Award and the William C. Morris YA Award. My friend Ruta Sepetys loved it, and she doesn't go wrong.
Publishers Weekly, in its starred review, called it a "taut and well-constructed thriller."
I need to read more thrillers.
And so this weekend, while at the Chester County Book and Music Company
with my friends Kate Walton, Amy King, and Joanne Fritz, I asked Joanne (who happens to work at CCBM) if she could locate a copy of Whaley's famous book. There are more than 28,000 square feet at CCBM, but Joanne, being a whiz, returned in a second, book in hand. Yesterday I lay on a couch and read.
Everyone knows how happy I am when authors take risk. When they write outside category, defy logic, or dare to craft something we have not quite seen before.
Where Things Come Back is one of those books—nearly uncategorize-able (I'm not sure I'd call it a thriller), never super eager to broadcast its ambitions, willing to take some time and to confuse readers, even, so that it can eventually make its point and (this is important) have its fun. This is a story in which many seemingly disparate parts do ultimately make a whole. A brand of religion is involved, a probably extinct bird, a kidnapping, some insanity, best friends, young divorce, misdirected prosleytizing, and the angel Gabriel. Gabriel is also the kid brother of our narrator. Some people (in the novel) get the two confused.
I admire the time Whaley takes with this book, the no-hurry he is in to explain all these parts, or to promise us cohesion. His narrator is so likable that we're going for this ride. The story is so unusual that we stay. The suspense here—the thrill—is seeing if Whaley is actually going to full this off.
No spoiler here: he does.
There are words today, for all of us. I quote them here. Then I encourage you to go to my friend Kate Walton's blog and read
her plea for greater kindness, for less aloneness. We should all print her piece and keep it near.
From Whaley:
... I wanted to be offered help from people because they cared about me, not because they felt some strange social obligation to do so. I wanted the world to sit back, listen up, and let me explain to it that when someone is sad and hopeless, the last thing they need to feel is that they are the only ones in the world with that feeling.
I don't know what it is about lately.
Truly.
Ask A.S. King, that famous writer, She. She is the one took the photo here. Snapped it at Chester County Book and Music a few weeks ago, where I had gone to sign
Small Damages, and where A.S. King and K.M. Walton and I practically shut down the little restaurant hours later. Or, at least, we shut down the lunch shift at 5 PM.
Minutes after striking this hot little pose I was informed by a quite polite but anxious management team that this very table had collapsed beneath another's weight, a few signings back. I wanted to ask if the other author had been a former Rockette, just like me, but decided to heed the caution and hopped off, pledging myself to adult behavior.
But here, forever, thanks to A.S. King, is me being me.
I will get back to my regularly scheduled seriousness on the morrow.
Unless another odd photo surfaces.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 8/25/2012
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Plenty of wild things happened at Skyanne Fisher's PAYA Festival today. A.S. King hand sold Beth Kephart books, because somebody had to. Beth Kephart signed her books with A.S. King's name, because every tit deserves a tat. Kate Walton looked gorgeous (nothing wild about that one, happens all the time). Skyanne spoke of traveling to humdrum places like Ghana (Sure, Ghana. Of course, Ghana. Who doesn't yawn at Ghana?) Elisa Ludwig showed up in a dress Beth Kephart wanted but Elisa (oddly) wouldn't give it to Beth. Ilene Wong revealed deep secrets. Margie Gelbwasser was adorable. Heather of Children's Book World talked about how much she loves Jessica Shoffel (
My Jessica Shoffel? I said. My. Very. Own??) And Beth Kephart got to sit beside the beloved Jennifer Hubbard, a full month shy of her
Children's Book World event with Jennifer, David Levithan, and Ellen Hopkins.And as if that were not enough? There stood this delightful man. Okay, so he could have used a little meat on his bones. Sure, his hat wasn't as vintage as I'd have liked. He was also (sorry!) on the tad short side. But he was upright, strong, and he had a spine, and he could hold his own around three majestic authoresses. Jennifer, A.S., and I fought over him—with the best vocabulary in the land, I can assure you. Then he—not defeated, but slightly bored—suggested that we share.
We're big girls now. Adults. We did.
Thank you, Skyanne and PAYA!
By:
Bianca Schulze,
on 9/8/2012
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By Nicki Richesin, The Children’s Book Review
Published: September 8, 2012
Thanks to Lori Lawson of Pure Imagination for her stellar new fall picks for YA readers. So come along with her and you’ll be in a world of pure imagination. Take a look and you’ll see into your imagination….
By Michelle Hodkin
The Unbecoming of Mara Dyer was my favorite book in 2011. I’ve been dying for the sequel ever since then. The Unbecoming was a crazy thrill ride of twists and turns. It was hard to know what was real or not and I loved that! Luckily, I’ve had the chance to read The Evolution of Mara Dyer already and I must say that it was a worthy sequel. These are must reads.
Ages 14 and up | Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers | October 23, 2012
By A.S. King
A.S. King is one of my favorite authors. She’s on my auto buy list because I know I will love anything she writes. I first fell in love with her writing with The Dust of 100 Dogs. Then she blew me away with Please Ignore Vera Dietz. Her books continue to amaze me and I can’t wait to see what she has in store for us with Ask the Passengers.
Ages 15-18| Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | October 23, 2012
By Laini Taylor
Daughter of Smoke and Bone left everyone I know in awe last year. Laini Taylor is an amazing talent in the YA world. Her writing and world building are breathtaking. Days of Blood and Starlight is a highly anticipated read for me. I have no doubt that Taylor will amaze again.
Ages 14-17 | Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers | November 6, 2012
By Lauren Morrill
I’m a huge fan of fun YA romance novels. Throw in a London backdrop and I’m definitely going to read it! I can’t wait to dive in to this debut novel form Lauren Morrill.
Ages 12 and up | Publisher: Random House Children’s Books | November 13, 2012
By Laura Buzo
I’ve been hearing some very positive buzz about this book. The story sounds great, a 15-year-old with a crush on a 21-year-old. I’m very anxious to see how that plays out.
Ages 14 and up | Publisher: Random House Children’s Books | December 11, 2012
Nicki Richesin is the editor of four anthologies The May Queen, Because I Love Her, What I Would Tell Her, and Crush. She is a regular contributor to Huffington Post, Daily Candy, 7×7, Red Tricycle, and San Francisco Book Review. Nicki has been reading to her daughter every day since she was born. For more information, visit: www.nickirichesin.com.
Original article: Best Young Adult Books with Pure Imagination
©2012 The Childrens Book Review. All Rights Reserved.
We think it's pretty special out here when generosity, talent, humility, spark, and through-and-through writerliness live within one person. The fact that all that (and more) defines David Levithan—Scholastic editor, mold-smithering author, and genuine conversationalist—explains, at least in part, his ricocheting popularity.
Last evening, at Children's Book World in Haverford, PA, David shared his stage with the wildly popular Ellen Hopkins, the delightful Eliot Schrefer, my new and powerfully talented friend Jennifer R. Hubbard, and me. We each read briefly. Eliot took our breaths away with baby bonobo photos. A very generous CBW plied us with special treats, even customized cookies. And writerly/readerly teens do what they do so well—let us into their world with questions and thoughts.
A.S. King, we're all coming right back there for you on
October 30, to celebrate your much-anticipated new book,
Ask the Passengers. Please bring your duplicate. We love her. K.M. Walton, we are indebted, always, to your immaculate kindness and talent (and your photographs; thank you for the last one!). To my many friends (and client/friend!) who slipped into the crowd, thank you.
I have come home with some glorious new books to read. I'll start with
Every Day, David Levithan's newest. Many times in the past few weeks I have had to stop myself from buying the book. Sometimes waiting for
that moment is worth it.
By:
Betsy Bird,
on 4/22/2011
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Previews, previews! Lovely little previews!
And we find ourselves back at the Yale Club, across the street from Grand Central Station, and a whopping 10 minutes away, on foot, from my library. There are advantages to living on a tiny island, I tell ya.
As per usual, Little Brown pulled out all the stops for the average children’s and YA librarian, in order to showcase their upcoming season. There were white tablecloths and sandwiches consisting of brie and ham and apples. The strange result of these previews is that I now seem to be under the mistaken understanding that Little Brown’s offices are located at the Yale Club. They aren’t. That would make no sense. But that’s how my mind looks at things. When I am 95 and senile I will insist that this was the case. Be warned.
A single day after my return from overseas I was able to feast my eyes on the feet of Victoria Stapleton (the Director of School and Library Marketing), bedecked in red sparkly shoes. I would have taken a picture but my camera got busted in Bologna. I was also slightly jet lagged, but was so grateful for the free water on the table (Europe, I love you, but you have to learn the wonders of ample FREE water) that it didn’t even matter. Megan Tingley, fearless leader/publisher, began the festivities with a memory that involved a child’s story called “The Day I Wanted to Punch Daddy In the Face”. Sounds like a companion piece to The Day Leo Said “I Hate You”, does it not?
But enough of that. You didn’t come here for the name dropping. You can for the books that are so ludicrously far away in terms of publication (some of these are January/February/March 2012 releases) that you just can’t resist giving them a peek. To that end, the following:
Liza Baker
At these previews, each editor moves from table to table of librarians, hawking their wares. In the case of the fabulous Ms. Baker (I tried to come up with a “Baker Street Irregulars” pun but it just wasn’t coming to me) the list could start with no one else but Nancy Tafuri. Tafuri’s often a preschool storytime staple for me, all thanks to her Spots, Feathers and Curly Tails. There’s a consistency to her work that a librarian can appreciate. She’s also apparently the newest Little Brown “get”. With a Caldecott Honor to her name (Have You Seen My Duckling?) the newest addition is All Kinds of Kisses. It’s pretty cute. Each animals gets kisses from parent to child with the animal sound accompanying. You know what that means? We’re in readaloud territory here, people. There’s also a little bug or critter on each page that is identified on the copyright page for parents who have inquisitive children.
Next up, a treat for all you Grace Lin fans out there. If you loved Year of the Dog and Year of the Rat then you’ll probably be pleased as punch to hear that there’s a third
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 8/19/2011
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I first met Susan in Orlando, FL, last November, on this very (photographed) day. We were scheduled to speak on an ALAN panel—Susan about her wildly brilliant
They Called Themselves the K.K.K, me about the Centennial era that had inspired
Dangerous Neighbors (Egmont USA). My PDF presentation had not, I discovered minutes before I was to take the stage, been imported to the proper conference techno places, and, in the crazy
Oh no buzz that followed that fine finding, Susan stepped in. She fixed the problem. The crisis was no more.
Susan spoke before I did to the gathered YA crowd. She was so smart, so funny, so wise that if I had not just been saved by her in the excruciating moments leading up to the panel, I might have been jealous. No, that's not true. I'm never jealous when a real talent is in my midst. I'm just proud, as a human being, that she exists.
Ever since Orlando, Susan and I have been trying to see each other again. This past Wednesday, as some of you know, I put the corporate pressures aside, threw caution to the wind, and trained down to the University of Pennsylvania. Susan and I would spend the next several hours walking the campus, sitting in one of my former classrooms, taking charge of an unhappy soda machine, exclaiming over
Please Ignore Vera Dietz, and munching through a tossed salad (but not the peaches we had jointly hoped for). We talked about the things we love. Truly great writing—"crunchy" she calls sentences she celebrates. Landscape as story. Honest and earned research—the kind that digs beneath whatever a Google search can deliver. Reconstruction America. The history of Pennsylvania. Smart, kind editors. Course design. Teaching. Students. Our children. Judging book contests (we both chaired a Young People's Literature Jury for the National Book Awards, we discovered.) We were walking to Susan's car when she mentioned that she had recently been talking with Markus Zusak as part of a
PEN American Center PENpal program. The Markus Zusak? I asked. Mr.
The Book Thief?But of course that was the one, for Susan, too, has written of that Nazi Germany in her widely praised (go to
her website and find out more for yourself)
Hitler Youth.
I have so many things I want to ask Susan. So much I can learn from her. But for now I am and always will be grateful for our day together. For locating, in this turbulent, unstable world of ours, such a fully engaged, deeply seeking mind.
I look back on my portraits of Miss Eva.
Come on, now. Tell me you are smiling, too. I know you are. Could a child be more joyful?
Today I worked very hard with my gimpy arm in this ugly half-cast. Corporate work, mostly. Emails here and there. Lots of things to do, plenty of them. And then, at one point, I stood up. I had just spelled Frankfurt as Frankford and decided enough was enough. I walked the first 80 pages of my adult novel out of this room (the novel that had been 270 pages, before I tossed it entire). Went to another room. Sat on the couch inside gray, rainy shadows.
I did not know if my skinny 80 pages, 19,000 words, would work. I sat for two hours holding my breath.
I am breathing now.
And so my mood improves, and Miss Eva improves it even more, and in precisely an hour from now I'm going to get even happier, because I'll be where A.S. King will be, reading from her brand-new novel,
Everybody Sees the Ants.We have challenged each other to a game of ping pong, Mrs. King and me. Right now, though, the ball is in her court.
Find her there, Chester County Book and Music Company. West Chester. 7 PM.
I try not to let things get beyond me in this life, but the last few weeks were dense with work and pressure. I paid no attention to clocks, working as much as I could to complete a corporate project that has meant a lot to me. I wrote a few talks, prepared a workshop session, took care of some magazine work for clients.
In between was a certain book stock crisis, Google's announcement that my account (translation: my blog) had been violated and was no longer accessible, a lost camera, and lost glasses. Piles grew tidal around me (which is not a happy thing for a neat freak). The refrigerator emptied (save for a bottle of milk and a quarter stick of butter, perhaps a square of cheese, jello made in a moment of hunger). Bills sat unpaid. I wore clothes from another era because the right-era clothes were, shall we say, indisposed. I answered emails many days late, with what, I am sure, was an humiliating array of mistakes. There should be a book:
Beth's Email Mistakes. The sequel:
Beth's Blog Mistakes. And books—at least a dozen books—came into the house and were placed in a growing teeter on the living room table. Julian Barnes'
The Sense of an Ending. Diana Abu-Jaber's
Birds of Paradise. A.S. King's
Everybody Sees the Ants. Peter Spiegelman's
Thick as Thieves. Philip Schultz's
My Dyslexia. Benjamin Markovits's
Childish Loves. Marc Schuster's
The Grievers. Ann Hite's
Ghost on Black Mountain. Anna Lefler's
Chicktionary. More.
Can I just tell you how much I have missed reading books?
Today, on this freakishly autumnal snowy day, I will join my family of dance friends in the city to celebrate the joint 70 year old birthdays of a still-swinging couple. We'll stay overnight and brunch the next day with beloved friends in a white city, then head to a museum. I'm going to take one of these books with me. And then, come Sunday night, leaning into Monday morning, I am going to lie on a couch and do nothing but turn pages and return to the reader I am.
Thank you for putting up with all the recent launch news of
You Are My Only. I'm eager to once again spend my time here talking about the books of others. That is why I created this space. That is what makes me happy.
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 11/6/2011
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Just a few things, should they be of interest:
Tomorrow evening, November 7, beginning at 6:30 PM, I'll be at the Haub Executive Center of St. Joseph's University talking about the future of young adult literature, reading from
You Are My Only, and convening (and cavorting) with some early readers of the book. A huge thank you to April Lindner and Ann Green, as well as to Jane Satterfield, who introduced me to April more than a year ago.
On Wednesday, November 9, starting at 7:00 PM, I'll be in West Chester, at the fabulous Chester County Book & Music Company (West Goshen Center) for a
You Are My Only reading. Last week I read from Emmy's chapters. That night I plan to read from Sophie's. Whatever happens, I'll be grateful to be inside this fantastaic independent bookstores. A big thank you to Thea Kotroba.
Finally—and this won't happen for a few months yet, but I'm so excited about it that I want to share early word—some of the very best in the business will be gathering at
The Spiral Bookcase, another indie!, in Manayunk, PA, next March 24 for an afternoon extravaganza of teen literature. We're still working out the details, but know this: Susan Campbell Bartoletti, A.S. King, April Lindner, Keri Mikulski, Elizabeth Mosier, and I will join together for an afternoon that promises to be all kinds of wonderful.
Last summer I began to forge a theory about the what-next in young adult books. In time the 2011 National Book Award finalists were named, the 2011 Best Of lists were put forward, and the 2011 Printz and Newbery slates were unveiled. Throughout it all, the theory held. Today I am grateful to
Shelf Awareness for sharing my thoughts in a story that begins like this:
For reasons both maddeningly obvious and impossibly elusive, young adult literature is particularly prone to categorization and trends--fenced in by labels, discriminated for or against, sold according to headline. Teeth sink. Wings ascend. Murderous games hold court. Landscapes are annihilated, and then annihilated again. It's a package deal.
Please read the whole
here. I'm interested in your thoughts, of course. Where do you think the future lies?
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 2/21/2012
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Many months ago, I received an invitation to read from
You Are My Only at The Spiral Bookcase, a new independent bookstore in Manayunk, PA. I was, of course, keen to meet the store's very dear owner, Ann. And I was thrilled to have a chance to support a
new independent (how many new independent bookstores do you know?) But how much more fun would be had, I thought, if I could be joined in the event by some of the best young adult writers around.
And so Ann and I talked. And so one thing led to another. And so it is with a great sense of anticipation and pleasure that I am sharing news of the inaugural
Teen Day in Manayunk, to be held during the afternoon of
March 24th. There will be writing workshops for teen authors. There will be a writing contest with winning entries (judged by Elizabeth Mosier and yours truly) appearing in the extraordinary teen-lit magazine
Philadelphia Stories, Jr. and on The Spiral Bookcase web; I'll also be excerpting winning work here. There will be marching bands and media coverage and appearances by some very special souls.
I encourage teachers, parents, and young writers in the Philadelphia area to find out more about the writing contest, workshop, and meet-and-greet by contacting Ann at
The Spiral Bookcase. I encourage the rest of you to consider spending time with some truly fine writers along the canal.
Here we all are. There we all will be.
Susan Campbell Bartoletti is best known for her nonfiction books, including the Newbery Honor-winning Hitler Youth: Growing Up in Hitler's Shadow (Scholastic) and the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction Honor-winning They Called Themselves the K.K.K.: The Birth of An American Terrorist Group (Houghton Mifflin). Her most recent titles include the novel The Boy Who Dared (Scholastic) and a picture book Naamah and the Ark at Night (Candlewick 2011), illustrated by the amazing Holly Meade. www.scbartoletti.com <http://www.scbartoletti.com> <http://www.scbartoletti.com>
Beth Kephart is the National Book Award-nominated author of thirteen books, including the teen novels Undercover, House of Dance, Nothing but Ghosts, The Heart Is Not a Size, Dangerous Neighbors, and You Are My Only; Small Damages is due out from Philomel in July. Beth, who is an adjunct faculty member of the University of Pennsylvania, blogs at http://beth-kephart.blogspot.com/.
A.S. King is the author of the highly acclaimed Everybody Sees the Ants, a YALSA 2012 Top Ten Fiction for Young Adults book, the 2011 Michael L. Printz Honor book Please Ignore Vera Dietz, ALA Best Book for Young Adults The Dust of 100 Dogs, and the forthcoming Ask the Passengers. Since returning from Ireland where she spent over a decade living off the land, te
By:
Beth Kephart ,
on 2/29/2012
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This morning
Shelf Awareness serves up this
quote of the day, and it stops me. I think I might just move on, but I can't.
Because Parks' assertion that reading the e-book frees us from "everything extraneous and distracting" ... "to focus on the pleasure of the words themselves" in no way jibes with my experience. Yes, I have downloaded dozens of books onto my iPad. Sadly, I've left many of them stranded. Unable to scribble in the margins, dog-ear the pages, underline emphatically—unable, in other words, to engage in a physical way with the text—I grew distracted, disinterested, bored. Yes, Michael Ondaatje will always keep me reading. And so will the work of my friend Kelly Simmons, and the words of Julie Otsuka, Leah Hager Cohen, A.S. King, Timothy Schaffert, Paula Fox, and Justin Torres—though I wish I owned all of that work on paper. But here on my iPad—stranded, unfinished—sit Jesmyn Ward's
Salvage the Bones, Andrew Winer's
The Marriage Artist, Margaret Drabble's complete short stories, and many other tales. These are, most likely, extremely good books, and yet, I find myself incapable of focusing on them in their e-format. I need to interact—physically—with the texts before me. I can't do that, in the ways I'd like to do that, with a screen.
I am also, as a footnote, intrigued by Tim Parks' final lines, when he speaks of moving on from illustrated children's books. With the rise of the graphic novel and the increasing insertion of images back into teen books (and I suspect we'll see that illustration encroachment continue), I wonder if we have really moved away from illustrated texts. I wonder, too, if we should. Art is not just for juveniles, after all.
Here is the quote at length, as excerpted by
Shelf Awareness."The e-book, by eliminating all variations in the appearance and weight of the material object we hold in our hand and by discouraging anything but our focus on where we are in the sequence of words (the page once read disappears, the page to come has yet to appear) would seem to bring us closer than the paper book to the essence of the literary experience. Certainly it offers a more austere, direct engagement with the words appearing before us and disappearing behind us than the traditional paper book offers, giving no fetishistic gratification as we cover our walls with famous names. It is as if one had been freed from everything extraneous and distracting surrounding the text to focus on the pleasure of the words themselves. In this sense the passage from paper to e-book is not unlike the moment when we passed from illustrated children's books to the adult version of the page that is only text. This is a medium for grown-ups."
--
Tim Parks in his post headlined "E-books Can't Burn" at the
New York Review of Books blog
Young Writers Take the Park — I kind of like the sound of that.
For the initiative and the daring and the perseverance, we have The Spiral Bookcase to thank—that new independent in Manayunk, PA.
We'll be joined that day by the greats—Susan Campbell Bartoletti, A.S. King, April Lindner, and Elizabeth Mosier. We'll be serenaded by local bands Melrose Q and Evan's Orphanage. And we'll have teen writers from throughout the area on hand for a special writing workshop, not to mention a special celebration of the winners of a teen writing contest.
(I'll be there, too, moseying around.)
Please click on the poster above and consider joining us. Please feel free to spread the news.
As many of you know, we have been hard at work on Young Writers Take the Park—an opportunity for Philadelphia-area teens to submit their work for consideration for publication (and a public reading), to work with authors in an intimate workshop setting, to meet some of the best young adult authors living and working in Pennsylvania today, and to get to know the brand-new independent bookstore, The Spiral Bookcase.
Elizabeth Mosier, who has one of the best pairs of lit eyes on the planet (and a sophisticated critique vocabulary, I might add) helped me judge the many semi-finalists that were presented by the teachers (and friends) of Conestoga High School, T/E Middle School, Villa Maria Academy, Little Flower Catholic High School for Girls, and Penn Alexander. To all those who took the time to submit, and to all those who encouraged participation, we thank you.
We were unanimous in our selections. The winners are:
Celeste Flahaven “Untitled,” Villa Maria Academy
"Breeze rippled the tall grass and the flaxen heads of wheat bent to reveal golden undersides...."
Maria Dulin, “Prodigy,” Villa Maria Academy
"Take away anything, but you take away my music, my hearing, then you may as well take away my life."
Calamity Rose Jung-Allen, Penn Alexander
"Pudgy cats yowl in alleyways, deserted..."
Olivia McCloskey, “Goodbye,” Villa Maria Academy
"Will remembered sliding down onto the floor, his back against the wall, the phone clutched to his ear by his white-knuckled hand. That was the phone call that had changed his life forever."
Lauren Harris, “The Confessions of a Not-So-Only Child,” T/E Middle School
<
my camera was found.
This, then, is how it looked on Saturday inside the very cool indie, The Spiral Bookcase.
This is also how it looked as teen writers leaned forward, toward their stories.
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Although it’s lovely that we have a chance to receive a galley from Little Brown. “FuseNumberEight is Great” is certainly true!
I'm about to start Elizabeth Graver's book too! It's my spring break treat (next week). Sounds like a fabulous experience in NYC.