By Cyn Balog
As an author of paranormal romance, I’ve introduced my share of otherworldly characters.
I based the fairies in Fairy Tale (Delacorte, 2009) partly on existing classical folklore and mythology, bending the rules and the lore when appropriate for my story.
But with the Sandmen in Sleepless (Delacorte, 2010), I had more creative leeway. Very little classical lore exists about Sandman, so I had more freedom to create the Sandmen I wanted to create. After all, this is fiction. You are only limited by the depths of your imagination.
However, you can’t let the freedom go to your head. Good fantasy is always built on a foundation of human experience and emotion. It is that which will make your reader identify with your story.
Therefore, while your creatures may be otherworldly, they must possess some human traits which will make your reader warm up to them. Maybe your character doesn’t speak; maybe it doesn’t even look human, but something about it must be human. For example, even if your main character is a gelatinous glob of goo, maybe it can quiver in fear every time a certain individual is near.
A common mistake among beginners in writing fantasy is the tendency to fill page after page with wild happenings, crazy critters, out-there worlds that are so very different from our own, the reader feels disengaged. They write a plot-driven quest fantasy where it’s just one obstacle after another until the quest is fulfilled. Things just happen to the characters; very little do the characters determine what happens.
This is because the writer has not fully fleshed out the characters. Good fantasy is equally plot and character driven. In any novel, your characters make things happen and create conflict because of who they are.
Unfortunately, with fantasy, it’s so easy to rely on archetypes, just because all those fairy tales of our youth seem to take place in fantasy worlds. It seems only natural to have clichés.
Real characters are not fully good or fully evil. It’'s fine to rely on archetypes as a start for building your characters, but can you turn them on their heads?
In Fairy Tale, I made the fairy the star football player. I'd read a dozen tales about a girl finding out she was a fairy princess, and I thought it would be interesting (and way more fun) to have the macho guy learn that he was the fairy. Imagine him trying to explain that to his friends around the locker room!
Unexpected quirks in your characters can help to keep your fantasy fresh and entertaining. Creating a character in fantasy is not unlike creating a character for a realistic novel—as with all characters, you add in weaknesses and fears, goals and motivations, and a back story. All these things will make the people in your story--as well as the creatures--come alive.
Cynsational Notes
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Cynthia Leitich Smith's "casual" blog. The blog is quirky, thoughtful, joyous, fangs-friendly musings on gothic fantasy, horror, comedy, mystery, romance, suspense, and all things life and book from an author who finds her heroes in the sunshine and in the shadows.
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By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/13/2011
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By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/13/2011
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Enter to win the Blessed grand prize giveaway from Cynsations!
Blessed is the third and latest installment in the Tantalize series, to be released by Candlewick on Jan. 25, 2011. This YA novel is a contemporary romantic thriller that offers a nod and a wink to Bram Stoker's classic Dracula (1897). Note: Sanguini's is the fictional vampire-themed restaurant featured in the series.
The prize package includes:
-Final hardcover of Blessed (Candlewick, 2011);
-Magnetic Sanguini's menu wipe board with pen that reads, "Stop in for a late-night bite" (see close-up at side);
-Sanguini's magnet;
-Laminated poster from "Dracula," starring Bela Lugosi (1931);
-Dragon finger puppet;
-Wolf finger puppet;
-Plush bat stuffed toy;
-Tantalize postcards;
-Series tie-in buttons;
-Angel wing charm;
-Dracula by Bram Stoker, illustrated by Anne Yvonne Gilbert, retold by Nicky Raven (Templar/Candlewick, 2010)(view an inside spread)(see also close-up at side).
To enter, leave a comment here! For an extra entry(s):
Post, share, tweet, whatever works:
(a) this giveaway and/or (b) the Blessed book trailer and/or a Blessed countdown widget;
and include the URL in your comment!
Also, make sure to include contact information in case you win.
Author-publisher sponsored. U.S./Canada entries only. Deadline: Jan. 31.
Here's the trailer for those that missed it yesterday:
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/11/2011
Blog: spookycyn (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Wowza! Check out this spooky-terrific book trailer for my upcoming YA Gothic fantasy, Blessed--releasing Jan. 25!
Cynsational readers: feel free to share/post/tweet this link and/or re-post the trailer itself on your own sites/blogs!
Then let me know--with the URL(s), if applicable--for extra chances to win the Blessed Grand Prize Giveaway! Giveaway details and photo to be posted tomorrow! (It's awesome--trust me!)
Or you can just comment here for a chance to win!
Cynsational Notes
Trailer produced in conjunction with Candlewick Press by Curtis Sponsler, Creative Director and Owner of AniMill. Thanks, Candlewick and Curtis!
See the Blessed media kit (PDF) for author interview and more!
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/7/2011
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By Janice Hardy
When I first started writing my middle grade fantasy, The Shifter: The Healing Wars (Balzer & Bray, 2009), I had no idea it was going to be a trilogy.
I’d never written a trilogy before, but halfway through the story I saw the bigger story arc that my protagonist, Nya, could be part of if I nudged her in that direction.
I made some notes, finished the book, and sent it off to agents with a little, “this story stands alone but could continue as a trilogy” statement at the bottom of the query.
Eight months later, I sold a trilogy. What the heck was I gonna do now?
I plowed into the second book, Blue Fire (Balzer & Bray, 2010) and made every mistake a sophomore writer can make.
I learned a lot about writing sequels from that and was better prepared for book three. After going through the process once, I have several things I’ll do differently the next time I try another trilogy.
1. Figure out the entire plot in advance.
Sure, I knew the story of all three books, but knowing book three is “about the war” doesn’t do squat when you’re trying to figure out the plot for books leading up to that war. Each book needed its own plot arc, and that plot arc needed to fit into the series arc.
They also couldn’t just be rehashes of the same basic plot from the first book. They needed to offer new story and raise the stakes.
I won’t need to know every little subplot, but understanding the big set pieces in advance will save me a ton of tears later.
Things like: How does each book start? What’s the core conflict and major goal? What are the stakes? How does each book end? How does each book build off the previous book?
2. Figure out my characters in advance.
This might be a toughy, but characters tend to slip in as stories go on. Adding five or six each book didn’t see like that big a deal until I got to book three, then suddenly everyone was in the same book. I had dozens and dozens of characters, each with their own small subplots, and it was way too much to deal with. Trying to wrap up all those characters and subplots was maddening.
Pre-planning some characters that I can recycle each book will help eliminate that “character creep.” It’ll also make me think twice every time I start to add another character to the story.
3. Figure out my big secrets in advance.
I had characters reveal awesome secrets to me in Blue Fire that I’d had no clue about in The Shifter. So I had to figure out how to make those delicious new secrets work with what I’d already written and couldn’t change. But if I can plan my big reveals and decide where in each book they are revealed, stuff won’t sneak up on me as much and hijack my plot. Uncovering secrets is also a great way to keep readers interested, so pre-planning those will help move the plot along as well.
Naturally, I won’t know everything before I start writing, and things are always revealed a
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/7/2011
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Enter to win an autographed copy of Night School by Mari Mancusi (Book Five in the Blood Coven vampire series)(Berkley)! From the promotional copy:
Vampires, Slayers and...fairies?
Sunny and Rayne McDonald are about to get schooled.
After their parents’ shocking revelation about their fae heritage and an attack on their lives, the McDonald twins find themselves on the run—forced to hide out at Riverdale Academy, a boarding school for vampire slayers, deep in the Swiss Alps. With no cells, no internet, and no way to contact their vampire boyfriends—the twins are on their own.
Being a vampire stuck in a school full of slayers isn’t easy. Especially with no blood substitute stocked on campus.
Soon Rayne finds herself succumbing to her bloodlust and losing control—especially around the arrogant, but devastatingly handsome Corbin Billingsworth the Third—who isn’t sure whether he wants to kiss her...or kill her.
But when Sunny starts acting strange, Rayne realizes Riverdale Academy may be hiding some deadly secrets of its own—leading to a showdown in Fairyland that may cost the twins their lives.
To enter, comment or email me (scroll and click envelope) and type "Night School" in the subject line. Deadline: Jan. 21. Sponsored by the author; U.S. entries only.
Note: Joint Launch Party: Blessed by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick) and Night School by Mari Mancusi (Berkley) presentation and signing at 2 p.m. Jan. 29 at BookPeople in Austin. See details under "Cynsational Events" below!
More News & Giveaways
2010 Cybils Finalists from the Cybils 2010: Children's and Young Adult Bloggers' Literary Awards. Note: fresh, fierce picks in every category. Take a look!
The Creative Life Workshops from Children's Literature Network. Two long-time SCBWI members/children’s authors (Lisa Bullard and Laura Purdi
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/6/2011
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By Julie Berry
Write. What. You. Know.
I used to bang my head against that tired maxim. What does a frumpy suburban mom who’s lived a coddled , well-fed life know about anything worth molding into a sparkly fantasy adventure?
Peanuts. Diddly-squat.
It took reams of bad beginnings and ample reassurance from advisors at Vermont College of the Fine Arts to begin to learn what I did know. (One wise instructor, whom I won’t name to avoid obvious flattery, rhymes with Bynthia Beitich Bsmith.)
I knew a little about emotions. I remembered adolescent feelings. That carried me through my first novel, The Amaranth Enchantment (Bloomsbury, 2009).
Soon after, I thought about all the people who’d asked me why, in heaven’s name, I wrote books for girls when I had four sons at home. “Because,” I would answer, “I am a girl. I write for me. My books aren’t cupcakes I bake for my kids.”
Behind that bluster lurked a smidgen of fear. I knew how to be a girl, or at least, a Julie girl. As for boys, I only knew how to feed them and yell at them. I feared I’d fail if I tried to inhabit one.
I’ve since determined that whenever I discover a writerly fear in myself – i.e., a conscious awareness that I wouldn’t dare grapple with the artistic challenge of depicting, say, the inner life and longings of a fish, then that is exactly what I need to try next.
Fears are revelations in shabby clothes.
With my sister, illustrator Sally Faye Gardner, as a collaborator, I set out to learn what I knew about boys. What did they like to read about and think about?
A lot of the same things I enjoy. Comic books and superheroes and mayhem and monsters. We threw those ingredients into our mixing pot.
Who are the enemies in a squirmy boy’s world?
Authority figures. The people that make you sit still and eat kale and stop playing with matches. Psychotic mothers like me, in other words. Irate school principals and disgruntled teachers.
(If you’re a teacher, you’re among the chosen. I’m talking about those Other Teachers.)
Monsters. Teachers. Parents.
Step one – eliminate parents via A) bloody death or B) boarding school. We went for B, and that left monsters and teachers to reconcile.
Then the obvious answer stared us in the face. Middle school teachers are monsters who eat kids for breakfast. It’s true, isn’t it? Sally and I went to the same junior high school back in the day. We remember. Write what you know. Speak your truth.
We needed a setup, a reason for our hero to be plucked from normalcy and thrust into the monster school abyss.
At the time, I was engaged in many drawn-out discussions with my local school to help my son with behavior struggles. One option was to consider sending this son to a specialized, out-of-district school. I took a walk one night to
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/5/2011
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Get the Countdown Creator Pro widget and many other great free widgets at Widgetbox! Not seeing a widget? (More info)
Please feel free join me in counting down to Blessed, which crosses over the casts of Tantalize and Eternal. See also the Blessed media kit (PDF). Just click "Get Widget" for the code to embed.
Thanks for your support and enthusiasm!
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 1/1/2011
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2011 Books by Austinites compiled by Greg Leitich Smith from GregLSBlog. See also 2010 Books by Austinites! Note: a little love for the home team!
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/31/2010
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The Dark Side of Young Adult Fiction from The New York Times. Insights from Scott Westerfeld, Jay Parini, Andrew Clements, Michelle Ann Abate, Maggie Stiefvater, Paolo Bacigalupi, and Lisa Rowe Fraustino. Note: click author names for individual insights. Source: Jennifer Ziegler.
Scam Proofing Your Writing Career by Jan Fields from Kristi Holl at Writer's First Aid. Peek: "The Internet is like one of those ancient treasure troves you read about in stories. You can find wonderful things there. Or you can hit the booby traps and get squashed flatter than a flitter."
Use Photos on Your Blog and Articles by Kathy Temean from Writing and Illustrating. Peek: "One of the best ways to make your articles look appealing and to hold reader’s attention is to use images to illustrate your work. But where do you find images that you can use without getting into copyright trouble?"
How's Your Query Letter IQ? an interview with Jessica Greene of J.R. Professional Writing Services by Dianne Ochiltree from Kathy Temean at Writing and Illustrating. Peek: "Number one, absolutely no contest, is spelling and punctuation. Surprised?"
Tenners in Eleven: a round-up of 2010-2011 new releases from this dynamic group of new voices by Teri Hall from the Tenners. See also Fall 2010 Flying Starts from Publishers Weekly.
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/30/2010
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Greg van Eekhout is the first-time author of Kid vs. Squid (Bloomsbury, 2010). From the promotional copy:
The citizens of Atlantis are stuck selling cotton candy on the boardwalk, and only our hero can help.
Thatcher Hill is bored stiff of his summer job dusting the fake mermaids and shrunken heads at his uncle's seaside Museum of Curiosities. But when a mysterious girl steals an artifact from the museum, Thatcher's summer becomes an adventure that takes him from the top of the Ferris wheel to the depths of the sea.
Following the thief, he learns that she is a princess of the lost Atlantis. Her people have been cursed by an evil witch to drift at sea all winter and wash up on shore each summer to an even more terrible fate—working the midway games and food stands on the boardwalk.
Can Thatcher help save them before he, too, succumbs to the witch's curse?
With sharp, witty writing that reads like a middle-grade Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Greg van Eekhout's first book for young readers is a wild ride packed with as many laughs as it has thrills.
How did you discover and get to know your protagonist? How about your secondary characters?
Of all the characters I've written about in various stories, Thatcher, the boy in Kid vs. Squid, was probably the easiest to discover. I actually didn't feel like I was discovering him. It was more like he showed up on the page, already talking, and I just had to listen to him.
His best weapon is his smart alec mouth, and my biggest challenge writing him was getting him to shut up.
But Trudy McGee, who started out as Thatcher's sidekick, kind of threatened to take over the book. She's sort of a detective/superhero, and she's all about solving problems, taking action, throwing fire crackers, whatever it takes to get the job done.
Both characters could dominate a scene, Thatcher with his wisecracks and Trudy with her backpack full of crime-fighting gear. And whenever I had the two of them on the page together, it felt like watching a pair of actors improvise. All I had to do was nudge them along to keep the story moving.
Most of the time, writing doesn't work like that for me, but these two characters made it easy.
Most of the other characters in Kid vs. Squid came about just by imagining who would live in a town cursed by the severed head of a witch from Atlantis. It just made sense that there'd be jellyfish boys riding bikes, and that the king of Atlantis would be working the popcorn stand.
A couple of characters, though, fell in my lap out of real life. I was on the beach one day when this guy walked out of the surf, completely draped in kelp. So much kelp that it looked as if he was made of kelp! So I took that image and made up the evil witch's henchmen, the kelp guys.
Real life is weird!
As a fantasy writer, what first attracted you to that literary tradition? Have you been a long-time fantasy reader? Did a particular book or books inspire you?
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/29/2010
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Ilsa J. Bick is the first-time author of Draw the Dark (Carolrhoda Lab; 2010). From the promotional copy:
There are things the people of Winter, Wisconsin, would rather forget. The year the Nazis came to town, for one. That fire, for another. But what they'd really like to forget is Christian Cage.
Seventeen-year-old Christian's parents disappeared when he was a little boy. Ever since, he's drawn obsessively: his mother's face...her eyes...and what he calls "the sideways place," where he says his parents are trapped. Christian figures if he can just see through his mother's eyes, maybe he can get there somehow and save them.
But Christian also draws other things. Ugly things. Evil things. Dark things. Things like other people's fears and nightmares. Their pasts. Their destiny.
And some things the people of Winter would rather forget—like murder.
But Winter won't be able to forget the truth, no matter how hard it tries. Not as long as Christian draws the dark...
How did you approach the research for your story? What resources did you turn to? What roadblocks did you encounter? How did you overcome them? What was your greatest coup, and how did it inform your manuscript?
I’m going to turn this question around a bit because I think that the research process for any story is reflexive and reflective of history (personal and otherwise) and imagination.
As a child psychiatrist, I’ve always been interested in the sideways place in people’s minds: that hole down cellar where darkness lives. So, for me, researching a story means digging deep, personally and otherwise.
So, some things you need to know:
a) I’m Jewish and the daughter of a Holocaust survivor;
b) I live in rural Wisconsin about a stone’s throw away from an old Hebrew cemetery—which is weird because we’re the only Jewish family in town;
c) A German PW camp once stood about four miles from my house, and was only one of thirty-eight such camps in the state;
d) I think all art tells a story.
A somewhat longer version:
Being Jewish and a survivor’s daughter, I’ve always felt the Holocaust as a kind of background music. Couple that with my move from the East Coast to Wisconsin almost a decade ago—to a place where we are, literally, the only Jews in town. Virtually no one in my village has ever met a Jew.
I remember the first time this older guy found out I was Jewish. First thing out of his mouth: "Hey, I heard Jewish people get buried standing up."
I’m not making this up. To put this in perspective, there used to be about a thousand Jews and several synagogues as late as the 1950s--so many Jews, they called this area, “Little Jerusalem."
But . . . wait a minute. There’s that Hebrew Cemetery just spitting distance from my house. So what’s with that?
So I got curious
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/24/2010
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By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/23/2010
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Cat Calls by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick, 2010) is now available for free as an e-book from Amazon.com!
Cat Calls is set in the Tantalize series universe and features entirely new characters. Here's a peek:
Tiffany's grandma sees something wild in her future -- but is Tiffany prepared for the powerful shape it will take?
I’m what people call “a late bloomer.”
This May, not long after my sixteenth birthday, I finally started my period for the first time and shifted from blah to bombshell overnight.
For me, it was a relief.
My mom, on the other hand, had a full-scale panic attack. Before you could say “Xanax,” she packed me up and shipped me off to my grandmother, who at the time was predicting the future in Missouri off I-35.
Cynsational Notes
Tiff is claws-down the sassiest point-of-view character I've ever written, and this story radiates "animal" in a fierce, sexy, mind-bending kind of way.
Amazon.com tends to be the first online retailer to roll out new e-releases, but as the book becomes available at other outlets, I'll update you on that information. If you want it now, though, you should order here.
"Cat Calls" was originally published as a short story in Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists and Other Matters Odd and Magical, edited by Deborah Noyes (Candlewick, 2009).
It also will be featured at the back of the Blessed (Candlewick, Jan. 25, 2011) e-book.
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/23/2010
Blog: spookycyn (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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2010 Trends and Industry Predictions by Jennifer Lynn Barnes and Ally Carter from Jennifer. Peek: "High concept historical fiction might be poised to make a move if, like paranormal, it has a mix of commercial elements. From crime-fighting flappers to Austenian assassins, historical might be a very interesting place to be in 2011 and beyond."
I Got the Call! Um, Now What? by Jennifer Laughran from Jennifer Represents. Peek: "Let the other agents who are considering your work know that you have an offer. Give them a few days or a week to read and respond."
Should You Post Your Writing Online? by Mary Kole from Kidlit.com. Peek: "Even though most editors and agents don’t like to work with previously published material, whether posted online or self-published, a short sample on your blog may not be enough to put them off your project. (Careful, though, as individual policies here do vary greatly.)"
Listen. Listen. by Jane Lebak from QueryTracker.net Blog. Peek: "For Christmas or whatever holiday you celebrate, give yourself the gift of believing you have something important to say."
Triaging Rejection Pain by Laurie Halse Anderson from The Debutante Ball. Peek: "Maybe you say prayers, or light candles, or visit shrines like Mark Twain’s house and leave small offerings of cigars and pots of ink. And then you wait."
Interview with Robin Wasserman by Debbi Michiko Florence from One Writer's Journey. Peek: "...you just have to keep reminding yourself that you have no control over how a book is received by the world. The only part of the publishing process that writers actually have control over is the writing. And I've found that focusing on that makes for a much saner Robin."
Dealing with Rejection by Mary Kole from Kidlit.com. Peek: "...cast off your unsuccessful projects and work on something else. Focus on your craft. Plod along toward mastery."
A Case for Villains by Danyelle from QueryTracker.net Blog. Peek: "No villain=no conflict=no plot=no point."
Developing Your Writer's Intuition by Angela Ackerman from Adv
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/21/2010
Blog: spookycyn (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Shaun David Hutchinson is the first-time author of The Deathday Letter (Simon Pulse, 2010). From the promotional copy:
Carpe Mortediem!
Ollie can’t be bothered to care about anything but food, girls, and games until he gets his Deathday Letter and learns he’s going to die in twenty-four hours. Bummer.
Ollie does what he does best: nothing.
Then his best friend convinces him to live a little, and go after Ronnie, the girl who recently trampled his about-to-expire heart. Ollie turns to carloads of pudding and over-the-top declarations, but even playing the death card doesn’t work. All he wants is to set things right with the girl of his dreams.
It’s now or never....
Are you a plotter or a plunger? Do you outline first, write to explore first, or engage some combination of the two? Then where do you go from there? What about this approach appeals to you? What advice do you have for beginning writers struggling with plot?
I'll tell you a secret: I suck at plot. Maybe that's not the sort of thing a writer should admit. It's like an accountant admitting that he sucks at math. But it's the truth. Plots are my weak point.
I don't think writers are either plotters or plungers. Instead I think we all fall on a spectrum somewhere. We all begin in the same place, groping about in the dark with naught but a lamp to guide our way. The only real difference is that some people have a much brighter light. Some writers can see a story from beginning to end before they write a single word, whereas some writers' lights are barely bright enough to illuminate their shoes.
My light is pretty dim. Generally, when an idea comes to me, I know two things: the beginning and the end. For instance, with The Deathday Letter, I began with Ollie. I knew his story began in bed on the last day of his life, and I knew that it ended 24 hours later with his death.
The rest of the story had to be uncovered one slow step at a time.
For me, it's like exploring. Like a Chose Your Own Adventure book. Sometimes I take a left when I should have taken a right and I end up having to delete huge chunks of work, but that's the fun of it for me. Not knowing what's coming next is how I stay engaged for so long.
I do have a notebook where I'll write scene ideas, but that doesn't necessarily mean I'll ever use them. I let every scene inform the ones that come after. I find that if I outline first, it traps me, boxes me in and takes away my ability to explore. If something unexpected happens, I like having the freedom to follow that new event to its logical conclusion.
The downside to this is that, if you're like me and suck at plotting, you can end up with a story that doesn't quite work. One that you have to heavily revise. This is where the plotters with their bright flashlights have the advantage. They have the ability to see those inconsistencies prior to writing the first draft. But hey, that's what revising is for.
After my first draft, I become an outlining fiend. I have this crazy spreadsheet a friend gave me, that I use to break down every scene by character and location. It's crazy but allows me to get into the nuts and bolts of the story.
To beginning writers who are maybe struggling with these issues: listen to what works, ignore the rest. You heard
By: Cynthia Leitich Smith,
on 12/17/2010
Blog: spookycyn (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
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Enter today to win the Cynthia Leitich Smith Grand Prize Giveaway from Book Club as part of Book Club's 31 Days of Giveaways!
The prize is:
a signed Blessed (Candlewick, Jan. 2011) ARC;
Quincie's Chicago-themed road trip journal (lined for your own notes);
and a plush toy bat with purple ears and bow tie!
To enter, you'll need to surf to the immediately preceding link answer the following questions:
(1) In the 2003 movie "Elf," what are the four main food groups that elves stick to?
(2) What did I give you last Christmas, that the very next day, you gave it away? (Hint: The name of of the carol is in the question.)
(3) Rudolf the red nose reindeer was made fun of by the other reindeer until what happened?
Surf over to answer in the comments section of today's prize post at Crissi's Blog. The winner will be randomly selected from the correct answers and awarded within 24 hours.
Good luck, and happy holidays!
See also a Cynsations interview with Cristina Brandao on Book Club at facebook. Note: Book Club is currently 12,516 members strong.
More News & Giveaways
What Children's Publishers Are Doing in the Apps Space: Houses Are Testing, Experimenting by Rachel Deahl from Publishers Weekly. Peek: "Bloomsbury is creating its first app this season, based on Carrie Jones’s YA paranormal romance series Need. A spokesperson for the house said the planned release date for the app is December, to coincide with the publication of the third book in the series, Entice (2010)." Source: Alice Pope's SCBWI Blog.
Congratulations to Paul B. Janeczko on the success of
