Hi folks!
Hope all is going well with everyone. Haven't posted much news lately (not that there hasn't been lots in the last month or two!), so I thought I'd offer up a few links/posts that you may or may not have discovered. Hope they help!
) The National Book Award Finalists have been announced! As reported by Publishers Weekly, the nominees in the Young People's Literature category are:
Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins' Leap of Faith (Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice (Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
Davd Small, Stitches (W.W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen)
Congratulations to all!
Click here to see the complete list of nominees
I've got JUMPED in my to-be-read pile . . . just wondering, has anyone read any of the others (in the Young People's category)?
2) Yesterday, Casey McCormick over at Literary Rambles, shone the Agent Spotlight on Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary.
And in case you missed it, here are a few more that were "spotlighted" these past few weeks:
Beth Fleisher, Barry Goldblatt Literary
Brenda Bowen, Sanford J. Greenburger Associates, Inc.
Eddie Schneider, JABberwocky Literary Agency
Joe Monti, Barry Goldblatt Literary
Merrilee Heifetz, Senior VP, Writers House
Rosemary Stimola, Stimola Literary Studio, LLC
Bill Contardi, Brandt and Hochman Literary Agents, Inc.
3) In the mood for a contest or two?
New Associate Agent Mary Kole, of the Andrea Brown Literary Agency is running a QUERY Contest at Kidlit.com. The query must be for a finished children's book manuscript (YA, MG, or picture book) and must be under 500 words. It must be either pasted in the comments field (she explains how on her blog) or emailed to her by October 31st at 11:59 p.m. Pacific Time.
The prize? --- A critique of the first 30 pages of your manuscript
GOOD LUCK!
For the next contest, hop on over to new blogger and aspiring author Sheri Rosen's blog, The Worries and Triumphs of an Unpublished Author. Sheri's giving away a FREE, SIGNED COPY of Michael Grant's GONE. What do you have to do? Become a follower of her blog and/or refer someone to her blog. That's it! Click here for more info on this contest. Oh yes, it ends on December 1st!
AND, while you're there, check out her notes from a talk given by AnnMarie Harris, series editor at Scholastic Trade Paperback, at an Editor's Day event sponsored by the Orange County chapter of SCBWI. AnnMarie's topic: middle grade paperback series for boys & girls. Sheri took some awesome notes, folks!
Also (yeah, she's got more!), for all you aspiring historical fiction writers (myself included), be sure to check out Sheri's Editor's Day Part 2 post on a very interesting talk by Alexandria LaFayette, winner of the 2005 Scott O'Dell Award for Historical Fiction for her novel, Worth.
4) Ooooh, just remembered! Debut author Cynthia Jaynes Omololu is giving away postcards, bookmarks, & business cards celebrating her YA novel, Dirty Little Secrets (Walker, February 2010). Check it out here!
She also recently published a delightful, multicultural picture book entitled When It's Six O'Clock in San Francisco (Clarion).
5) Want the last word on Word Count for Novels and Children's Books? Peep this definitive post by Guide to Literary Agents' blog editor Chuck Sambuchino.
6) Are vampires on their way out? Check out this article on the presumed rise (or fall, depending on the story) of angels posted last month on the Publishers Weekly website!
7) Lastly, for those debut authors coming out with books in the next year or two, and even for us aspiring authors, you may want to take heed of these New Rules for Authors courtesy of Stet!, the Backspace writers' blog. I guess it's never too early to start planning . . . :)
And for a cozier, more personal take, Kristin Tubb, author of Autumn Winifred Oliver Does Things Different (Delacorte) shared, earlier this week on her blog, Do Things Different, what she's learned in her first year as a published author.
Happy Writing!
thanks for all the links :) If you find any memoir comps let us know :)
Hi Crystal! very helpful post you've put together here..thanks.
this is the first year in a while when the NBA list came out and I hadn't read any of the nominees. I need to get with it, I guess.
Thanks for taking the time to compile all of these great links and tips, Crystal! I'm going to check a few of them out right now. I haven't read any of the NBA nominee books.
Thanks for the links,Crystal. I'll check them out.
Wow! You have lots of great stuff here. I heart Michael Stearn and can't wait to query UPSTART CROW.
Tabitha, Tess, MG, Corey, Anita--glad you all found the links helpful . . . I'm going to do a post soon with links I found over the summer . . . :)
Thanks for the links, they were super helpful! I've added a couple agents to my To-Be-Queried list that I wouldn't otherwise have known about. Thank you! :-)
Hi Joana!
Glad this post was so helpful! Thanks for stopping by! :)