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Today I read a few pages from Peter Johnston’s book, Choice Words. You know this book, right? If not, it is a small, powerful read that can change your teaching life forever. (If… Read More →

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So I was planning to try a new kind of post last Friday. And then Friday came and went. How does this happen? So right now, let’s just pretend it is Friday. Or… Read More →

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How did an 18-year-old college student in Maryland gain the trust of and get access to TV executives and anchors in New York? “By posting 10 or 15 posts a day meant that the industry knew it was a reliable consistent source,” says Brian Stelter, creator of our sister site TVNewser and now a media reporter for the New York Times and author of the just released book “Top of the Morning.”

As he neared graduation, Stelter had to make a choice: work in TV news, or cover it.

• Part I: Stelter on Being Matt Lauer’s “nemesis”

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Goodreads has created a massive William Shakespeare flowchart to celebrate the famous author’s birthday today.

We’ve embedded the complete chart below–visit AppNewser to download free copies of all these plays.

If you want all these poems and plays in a single place, you can download a free copy of The Complete Works of William Shakespeare. If you don’t feel like reading a whole play, try Shakespeare’s Sonnets.

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Philadelphia Weekly has mounted a petition to put up a historical marker plaque for Isaac Asimov‘s former home in Philadelphia.

They have already collected more than 750 signatures, petitioning the Pennsylvania Historical Marker Commission to celebrate the great science fiction writer’s time in The City of Brotherly Love. Follow this link to sign the petition:

Though he’s often thought of as a New Yorker, he spent three very important landmark years in Philadelphia. From 1942 to 1945, while living and working here during WWII as a chemist at the Philadelphia Navy Yard, Isaac Asimov wrote half a dozen of the key stories that comprise his two most influential cultural masterpieces: the Foundation series, which introduced the idea of “psychohistory,” the mathematical modeling of the future; and the Robot series, which introduced the famous Three Laws of Robotics governing how artificial intelligences should behave.

(Via Harflax)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Brian Stelter, who launched TVNewser almost 10 years ago, is now a published author. “Top of the Morning,” out today, lays bare a tumultuous year for network morning news shows which saw one anchor pack her bags, another face a serious health issue, a ratings leader fall — and lose a quarter of its audience — and an entirely new show launch.

In his first interview for the book, Stelter tells us about the secrecy behind “Top of the Morning,” the access he got, and what he thinks about being called Matt Lauer‘s nemesis.

• Part II, tomorrow: What happens when Brian Stelter Tweets something he shouldn’t?

For more videos, check out our YouTube channel and follow us on Twitter: @mediabistroTV

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Do you feel like you have failed to reach readers with your writing? Never give up.

Fight Club and Choke novelist Chuck Palahniuk answered reader questions on Reddit this week. When one reader wrote “It’s rare for a writer’s first book to be as successful as Fight Club was,” Palahniuk clarified and shared some inspiring insight into his career:

Please let me address a misperception. ‘Fight Club’ was a huge failure. Most of the hardcovers were going to be pulped. They were unsold when the movie opened… and then the movie was a flop. It has taken years ( decades ) for the story to build an audience. What’s amazing is that it still resonates for young readers; it’s never become dated. ( he shakes his head in disbelief )

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Have you ever wanted to share your life story in a memoir? To get some tips, we caught up with Jon Reiner–the author who teaches Mediabistro’s upcoming Memoir Writing course.

Reiner shared the story of his award-winning memoir, The Man Who Couldn’t Eat along with advice for writing a great memoir. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

Q: What advice do you have for others who want to write their own memoir?
A: Figure out the story first and test it with a trusted, critical reader or editor. Is the story compelling enough to keep a reader interested? That’s the first test and you can’t fudge it. If you believe the story can work, begin to write in a scene structure to avoid falling into the confessional diary pattern. If you find that it’s moving and scenes are begetting scenes, keep going.

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Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently, we spoke with award-winning children’s book author and illustrator Betsy Snyder.

In the past, Snyder (pictured, via) has published two picture books that feature haikus, Haiku Baby and I Haiku You. She has been celebrating poetry by tweeting one haiku a day all month long. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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Her website.

Her blog.

Her Twitter feed.

Her Facebook page.

Titles I've written about:

It's Our Prom, So Deal With It (2012):

[Azure's voice] definitely dominates, and she's also much harder to like, mostly because her behavior is so hypocritical: she's supposedly hugely open-minded and stridently opposes People Judging Each Other, but she's very dismissive of people who have opinions different than her own, and she judges other people on the basis of their appearance on a regular basis. BUT, realizing that is a big part of her personal journey.

Between Mom and Jo (2004):

It gets ugly. Really, really ugly. The whole second half just made my jaw ache. (It didn't make me cry—it wasn't that kind of book—it was closer to rage. Nick's emotions just tunneled their way right into me. Rage, pain, frustration, betrayal, confusion. It's raw.) 

Pinterest boards: Across the USA Through YA: Colorado; YA Authors.

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Her website.

Her blog.

Her Facebook page.

Contact her.

Titles I've written about:

Savvy (2008):

To all of you Savvy-lovers: You win. Ingrid Law had me from that first sentence, and I have nothing but praise for this book. It surprised me, again and again—I'd think that I had it figured out, and then she'd throw a curveball—to the point where I realized that I really didn't know how it would all turn out, even right down to the last few pages. (And yes, I got a little weepy.)

Scumble (2010):

This is, and will be, a great story for booktalking, reading aloud, and just general recommending. Like Savvy, it's got colorful characters, an engaging plotline, and despite some hurdles to be overcome, fears to be faced, and tears to be shed, it's a pretty gentle adventure. Though there is someone trying to Do Bad Things, he's doing it out of fear and grief, not out of evil or even plain meanness. So, yes, in brief, thumbs up.

Pinterest boards: Across the USA Through YA: Colorado; YA Authors.

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Author Dave Wolverton (better known as fantasy novelist Dave Farland) is raising money to pay medical bills after his son’s tragic accident.

Over at GoFundMe, the family has already raised nearly $23,500 in four days to pay for the medical bills. Yesterday, readers and writers banded together for a book bomb, buying copies of Farland’s Nightingale (propelling the book to No. 84 on Amazon). Here’s more from the donation page:

Ben Wolverton, age 16, was in a long-boarding accident on Wednesday the 4th, 2013. After falling off his board, he suffered from severe brain trauma as well as a cracked skull, broken pelvis, broken tail bone, burnt knees, bruised lungs, broken ear drum, as well as road rash and many scars. He is currently stable, but in a coma. Ben is a straight-A student, very athletic, and is well liked by all that know him. His family has no insurance, and the bills for the hospital and treatment in this instance often exceed a million dollars, but we are starting out low, hoping that he will recover quickly. Any donations are greatly appreciated.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

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Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently, we spoke with New York Times bestselling author Ellen Hopkins.

Hopkins (pictured, via) has been writing poetry throughout her entire life. She first established her professional writing career by penning nonfiction children’s books.

After Simon & Schuster Children’s Books published Crank in 2004, she became well-known for writing novels in verse. Many of her hit titles focus on dark topics including addiction, mental illness, and prostitution. Check out the highlights from our interview below…

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Happy National Poetry Month! All throughout April, we will interview poets about working in this digital age. Recently, we spoke with J. Patrick Lewis, the United States’ current children’s poet laureate.

Lewis (pictured, via) worked as an economics professor for many years. The sighting of a moonbow (a white rainbow) inspired him to write his first children’s story.

He has since gone on to write more than eighty books and has collaborated with other respected members of the industry including prolific children’s writer Jane Yolen, illustrator Sophie Blackall, and artist Michael Slack.

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Novelist Iain M. Banks revealed today that he is battling advanced cancer. His doctors predicted he had “several months” to live.

Banks has published numerous books in a variety of genres, including his science fiction Culture series. Banks’s personal site is currently being updated to build a place “where friends, family and fans can leave messages for me and check on my progress” online during this difficult time. Here’s more from the author:

As a result, I’ve withdrawn from all planned public engagements and I’ve asked my partner Adele if she will do me the honour of becoming my widow (sorry – but we find ghoulish humour helps).  By the time this goes out we’ll be married and on a short honeymoon.  We intend to spend however much quality time I have left seeing friends and relations and visiting places that have meant a lot to us.  Meanwhile my heroic publishers are doing all they can to bring the publication date of my new novel forward by as much as four months, to give me a better chance of being around when it hits the shelves.

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2-4 April, Forever My Lady by Jeff Rivera is free to download on Amazon. Please take the time to download it. Please!! Take the time to download and have your friends download it, too! You don’t have to have a Kindle or plan to read the book. You do have to take the time to show your support for books by Latinos. Download free here.

A synopsis of the book from Amazon:

Dio Rodriguez grew up on the streets and knew all too well the hard, cool feeling of the barrel of a gun tucked down the back of his jeans. But his hard exterior softened when he met Jennifer. Jennifer understands Dio like no one else and makes him want to be a better man. Suddenly a drive-by shooting lands Dio in a prison boot camp and sends Jennifer to the hospital. When Dio learns that Jennifer is pregnant, he realizes that he must find a way to turn his life around and return to his lady. But can trainee Rodriguez get his act together among the hardcases in prison? And will Jennifer be waiting for him if and when he does?

Literature by authors of color is definitely worth supporting. Have you read any of Benjamin Alire Saenz’s books yet? His YA novels include Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood, Last Night I Sang to the Monster and Aristotle and Donte Discover the Secrets of the Universe. I loved Aristotle and Dante and was not surprised after it won so many awards at ALA Midwinter. I was able to speak with Saenz at ALAN last November and when our conversation was done, he actually offered me the copy of Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club which he had been carrying with him. I should have had him autograph it.

Benjamin Alire Sáenz has been awarded the prestigious 2013 PEN/Faulkner Award for Fiction for his book Everything Begins and Ends at the Kentucky Club!The PEN/Faulkner Award is America’s largest peer-juried prize for fiction, and past winners have included Phillip Roth, Sherman Alexie, John Updike, Julie Otsuka, Ha Jin and others. As winner, Sáenz receives $15,000. Each of the four finalists—Amelia Gray for Threats (FSG); Laird Hunt for Kind One (Coffee House); T. Geronimo Johnson for Hold It ‘Til It Hurts (Coffee House); and, Thomas Mallon for Watergate (Pantheon)—receives $5,000. Sáenz is the first Mexican-American and the first Texan to win the award. It’s been 15 years since a small press published a PEN/Faulkner Award Winner. Cinco Puntos is wonderfully happy for Ben and extremely proud to have published his book.
Read more about the award in the El Paso Times.

(quoted from email from Cinco Puntos Press)

Yes, I should have had it autographed!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Filed under: Authors, awards Tagged: Benjamin Alire Saenz, Jeff Rivera, latino

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As Women’s History mMonth draws to a close, we wanted to be sure that you haven’t missed BRAVE GIRL: CLARA AND THE SHIRTWAIST MAKERS’ STRIKE OF 1909 by Michelle Markel and illustrated by Melissa Sweet.

BRAVE GIRL tells the story of Clara Lemlich, a young immigrant girl who led the biggest strike of women workers in U.S. history. The book has received four (!) starred reviews and big praise in the New York Times Book Review, in which they say: “Many schoolchildren today learn about the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, but they don’t often learn about what precipitated the disaster. Markel’s sympathetic, fact-filled and moving story of a garment worker with gumption rounds out the lesson.”  And we completely agree with their compliments for Melissa Sweet’s artwork: “With her distinctive mixed-media collages, she may have surpassed herself here. And with an inspiration like Lemlich — smart, ambitious, gutsy — it’s easy to see why.”

There are so many terrific topics, themes, and curricular tie-ins in this fantastic picture book. We created an educator guide aligned to the Common Core designed to help you start the discussion, available here.

And starting next week… April is Poetry Month!

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No matter what you have planned for Friday, April 12, get ready to DROP EVERYTHING AND READ! April 12 is Beverly Cleary’s birthday and National D.E.A.R Day, and we’ve got just the thing to help you celebrate: classroom activities for the RAMONA books. They’re aligned to the Common Core State Standards, AND they contain fun suggestions and writing prompts to get your students’ creativity flowing.

Look out for the new Ramona Quimby Journal, jam-packed with writing and drawing prompts, quizzes, puzzles, and stickers galore!

Also, keep an eye out for the newly-updated Ramona books with fantastic new cover art and black-and-white interior illustrations!

Visit www.dropeverythingandread.com for more activities, videos, ideas for your D.E.A.R. Day celebration, and much more.

Happy D.E.A.R. Day to you!

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Next in our Winter 2013 New Voices series is teen debut novel CRASH AND BURN, by Michael Hassan, a book that quite literally stopped us all in our tracks the first time we heard Michael’s editor, Jordan Brown, formally present it.  Today I’ll let Jordan’s powerful words speak for themselves…

Of all the qualities of a manuscript that get me interested in working with an author, one of the most exciting is when I feel like I’m reading the work of  someone who looks for untold stories in places where we don’t expect to find them.  Of course, the most prominent plot elements of Michael Hassan’s debut novel Crash and Burn—the story of a profoundly troubled senior who takes his school hostage at gunpoint, and the profoundly untroubled student who stops him—are, sadly, not unusual or unobvious ones.  But what is unique and unexpected about Mike’s story is the perspective from which he chooses to tell it.

Steven “Crash” Crashinsky is unlike any of the teen male characters one finds in contemporary teen literature.  He is not the brooding, complicated, brilliant outcast; he’s not the bad boy with a heart of gold; he’s not the irredeemable jerk; he’s not the heartthrob who can distill his interior struggles in a moment but is still paralyzed by indecision.  He is all of these things, and none of them.  He is the kind of male character who is remarkable only for being so typical: a teen whose self-image has been defined by his learning disabilities, whose behavior has been shaped by society’s indulgent “boys will be boys” attitude, who has realized that life’s a lot easier when you just don’t care.  He’s the kind of teen we all know, and yet the kind we don’t often find populating teen books—perhaps because he’s the kind we don’t often find reading teen books.

But he is not unreachable, as Mike’s knockout of a first novel shows us.  This is a book—one of the first I’ve seen—that speaks directly to these young men, telling a story they need to hear.  The element of the book that was paramount to both Mike and me in the editing process was keeping Crash’s voice and experiences as authentic as possible.  And thus we have a story that doesn’t pull any punches, that reads more like a chronicle than a novel, that speaks to these readers in a language they can understand.

Crash and Burn is not a book for everyone.  The truths it draws out and elucidates don’t provide many answers for the desperate struggles today’s teens experience.  But I’m a big believer in the idea that the process always starts with asking the right questions.  And Mike asks these big questions while writing a story that is hilarious and frightening and touching in turn; one about friendship and tragedy, first love and first hate; one that shows us that the untold stories can sometimes be the most important.

Thanks Jordan! And don’t forget to visit us again tomorrow for an interview with the author, Michael Hassan.

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If you checked in with us yesterday, you read the behind the scenes editorial perspective of Michael Hassan’s debut teen novel, CRASH AND BURN.  Today Michael responds to our notoriously strenuous, sweat-inducing Opening the Book questions…

Which was your favorite book from childhood, and what are you reading right now?

I was always into books and a real sucker for the Dr. Suess stuff, can probably still recite Green Eggs and Ham by heart, but the first book that made me want to be a writer was Les Miserables, which I would probably have  named as my favorite book, except for the Princess Bride by William Goldman, who is primarily known as a screenwriter, but has written some incredible novels.

I am currently re-reading several William Goldman novels, including Marathon Man and the Color of Light.  You can learn a lot as a writer from reading his books. .

More importantly, I am back to reading hardcovers and paperbacks after spending too long  with e-books.  While I’m a techno nut, the truth is there is nothing better than holding a real book, being able to thumb back and forth through the pages and knowing exactly where you are at any given point.

 What is your secret talent?

I play keyboards.  I am, in fact, really bad musician and have been fired from some pretty talentless bands when I was younger.  Thankfully I record nothing so no one has to know.  Until now.

Fill in the blank: _______ always makes me laugh.

Mean Girls.  I could watch this movie constantly and still laugh at every line.

Also, fart noises and Gilbert Gottfried, not necessarily in that order.

My current obsessions are…

Headphones, I have like 20 pairs.  I need loud music when I’m working.

Also, Uncharted 3D, in fact almost every videogame, movie and documentary in 3D.

Any gem of advice for aspiring writers?

Know where you are going before you start.  Make an outline and stick to it and then keep on going without looking back until you hit THE END. And then, take whatever you’ve done and put it on the highest shelf in your room for 6 weeks without looking at it.

And then make a new outline and start over with the brightest red pen you can find.

And don’t, under any circumstances, get stuck playing Uncharted 3D or watching anything else in 3D.  In fact, disconnect your television and your internet and throw away your iPads, playstations and smartphones.

Finish this sentence: I hope a person who reads my book…

Forgets that they are reading;

misses a train stop because they need to finish a chapter;

recognizes the characters so much that they find it difficult to believe that its fiction;

Buys another book the second they finish this one;

Or is inspired to write one themselves.

Tell us more about how CRASH AND BURN was born.

I was challenged by my son, who has ADD to write something that he would be willing to read.  Spending time with him and his friends, playing videogames and watching movies, I wanted to come up with a form of entertainment that they would consider to be as fast paced and captivating, something that would make them think differently, more deeply  about themselves and their world.   Using him and his friends as models, I went back in time and thoroughly researched the everyday occurrences in the world they lived in, the language they used,  the legal and illegal drugs they were experimenting with and the social interactions between them and the adults in their world.   When I realized how difficult the struggle was for most kids, I knew that I had something that I wanted to write about.

 

Thanks Michael!  CRASH AND BURN (which has received 2 starred reviews– from Booklist and BCCB!) is on sale in stores now.

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I am very excited today to be part of the Hilary McKay Blog Tour! Today she is stopping by for an interview focused mainly on her books Lulu and the Duck in the Park and Lulu and the Dog by the Sea. These two endearing early chapter books are a delight to read. I will be giving away copies to two lucky commentors on today's post, so make sure you stick around and put in your two cents at the

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Do you remember when you thought you might be able to fly,
if you just jumped high enough?
Do you remember when anything was possible?

 
On Monday, I helped at a young writer's conference.
I was surrounded with small writers
belly-full pleased with their writing,

oblivious to that dreaded taskmaster Revision,
unconcerned about snagging a publishing deal,
purely finding joy in their words.

All that youthful buoyancy
made me want to climb out of my writing slump
and grow some wings!

How do we as writers return
to that weightless pleasure in our words

without losing
the wisdom earned
from critiques and rejection slips,
writing groups and how-to books...

How do we find both our feet AND our wings?

As soon as we returned from our very long day,
the girls embarked on a writing project:
to send letters
to 100 authors and illustrators
of some of their favorite books.

Think we can do it?

If you're an author or illustrator friend and a crooked little envelope comes to you,

would you be kind and write back?

Please!

 
We have two hopeful writers, who think anything is possible. 

In Need of Some Snail Mail?

Leave us a comment, and we'll put you on our snail letter list - whether you're published or not.

 

Happy writing!


Books:



A Letter to Amy - Ezra Jack Keats
The Gardener, by Sarah Stewart, ill. by David Small
Toot and Puddle - Holly Hobbie
Click, Clack, Moo! Cows That Type - by Doreen Cronin, ill. by Betsy Lewin
Mailing May, by Michael O. Tunnell, ill. by Ted Rand

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Authors Of The World Of Ink Network : Authors of World Of Ink Network: Visit us at our site. the authors and  hosts of World Of Ink Network and their work.  Here's a sneak peak of our blog.

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We love listening to Chris Crutcher. He always has the most interesting things to say. Luckily his new novel, PERIOD 8, is full of things to talk about!

Watch Chris Crutcher discuss the truth and when to tell it, what it means to live a good life, and PERIOD 8. Make sure you stick around until the end for a special message to teachers and librarians!

Download the PERIOD 8 discussion guide and get talking . . .

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