by Dan Gemeinhart
Scholastic, January 2015
ARC provided by the publisher
This review copy came to me packaged in an interesting way. In a heavy ziplock bag labeled "THREE THINGS YOU NEED TO READ The Honest Truth" were these items:
a postcard from Mount Rainier, a carabiner, and a package of tissues. Actually, even the ziplock bag wound up being important to the story.
This is the story of a kid named Mark, who has a best friend (who happens to be a girl but who is NOT a girlfriend) Jessie, and another best friend who is a dog named Beau. It is a story of the deep and powerful bond of friends.
Mark writes haiku in his notebook. He takes photographs with an old-school camera that uses film. This is the story about the healing power of art.
This is a story full of spirit and heart. It's a story that makes you rage at the unfairness of life and cheer for all the angels that take care of strangers every day in a million small ways.
This is a story of a boy who runs away from home to climb Mount Rainier. It's about the need for big goals so that you can prove to yourself and the world that you are still in control of your life. It's about surviving the storm so that you get a chance to glimpse the sun coming out from under the clouds at the other end of it.
I apologize for reviewing this book so far in advance of its release date. You will want to read it. It's Dan Gemeinhart's debut novel. We will all want to read more from him.
On a separate but related note, I am going to invite my students to "market" a book they've read this year using the "three things you need to read this book" idea. Once upon a time, that might have seemed like a trite way to ask students to respond to their reading. Now it's marketing. Hmm...
Today I wanted to talk about a question that people have been asking me ever since they learned that my novel, In Between Days, would be coming out this fall. Invariably, after learning of the novel's existence, someone will ask, "Was it difficult?" "Was what difficult?" I'll say. "Writing a novel," they'll say. "You know, [...]
In October, film critic Christopher Smith (pictured) self-published the thriller, Fifth Avenue. When his book cracked Amazon’s top 10 bestseller list, he faced homophobic insults and death threats in a now-deleted post on an Amazon.com discussion board.
We caught up with Smith to talk about the controversy. Our interview follows below…
Q: Did you expect to deal with controversy when you put Fifth Avenue out there?
A: I did ask friends about a few specific scenes in the book and wondered if I should censor myself from telling the truth in those scenes. I don’t believe in censorship, so I decided not to self-censor, especially after reading Stieg Larsson‘s books, which can be brutal.
continued…
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
I love hearing about the successes of other bloggers. I mean, at some point, some of their fairy dust has to rub off on me, right? One of the blogs I read on a regular basis is Inkspells, from Susan Kaye Quinn. So imagine my surprise last month when she announced that it was release day for her first novel, a YA romance. Never saw that coming!
Of course I bought the book, gobbled it up and asked if I could interview her. If you haven't already heard the amazing story of how the publisher found her and invited her to submit, do yourself a favor and check it out. Trust me. It's like porn for aspiring authors. And when you're done, come back and read this interview to learn more about former California girl, debut author Susan Kaye Quinn.
You obviously know how to keep a secret! Seriously, how hard was that not to spill on your blog about this novel?
I share so much of my writing process on my blog, it was hard to keep from blurting it out. But I respected my publisher’s wishes to keep it under wraps until we were able to launch and give people something to hold.
On Ink Spells you focus on books for boys. How did your boys feel about LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT?
They want me to write more science fiction! My boys are 7, 9, and 11, and don’t have much interest in romance. My oldest read the back cover, shrugged, and walked away. They want to know when my middle grade novel is going to be published, and I have to keep explaining that publishing is a very long process. Seems like eons to them.
Oh, trust me. I can sympathize with them there!
Are you working on anything they'd be interested in?
I’ve written a middle grade science fiction novel called Byrne Risk. It’s a story about a girl struggling to save her clone caretaker from the Peace Police, who want to arrest her for stealing secret wormhole technology to help the clone resistance. My boys like the technology and the genetically engineered pets, as well as the broader themes of slavery and standing up for what’s right. Byrne Risk is in final edits, and I hope to start querying it soon.
I’ve promised them I’ll start writing another MG book this fall.
Wow, Byrne Risk sounds like a cool story! I hope someone picks it up once you get the queries out there. I'm pretty sure my son would enjoy reading that as well.
You’ve named Eoin Colfer, one of my personal favorites, as an influence on your SF/MG writing. Who are your YA romance literary heroes?
This is a tough one, as I haven’t actually read a lot of YA romance. My niece was enamored with Twilight, and I wrote LIFE, LIBERTY AND PURSUIT as a love story for her that was grounded in reality and didn’t require magical creatures to create the compelling tensions of the love story. Not that I have anything against fantasy – far from it. But life is epic all by itself.
You read and write a lot of different types of books, from MG sci-fi to YA romance. Do you think it will be a challenge to reach such varied groups of readers?
There are definitely different paths for different markets. Cynthia Leitich Smith is my hero for crossing genres and showing it to be acceptable (she writes picture books, MG, and YA). It’s easier to reach YA readers because they are online, and there are a gr
This week Vermont grad Jandy Nelson joins us with an honest look at writing, agenting, and the story behind her poetic new young adult novel The Sky is Everywhere (Dial, March 2010).
Jandy has a BA from Cornell, an MFA in poetry from Brown, and her MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College of Fine Arts.
She’s also a literary agent, a published poet and a devout romantic. She lives in San Francisco.
The Sky Is Everywhere is her first novel. It has been translated into nine languages, and will be published this year in twelve countries.
A little about The Sky is Everywhere…
Seventeen-year-old Lennie Walker, bookworm and band geek, plays second clarinet and spends her time tucked safely and happily in the shadow of her fiery sister Bailey. But when Bailey dies suddenly, Lennie is catapulted to center stage of her own life—and, despite her nonexistent history with boys, finds herself struggling to balance two.
Toby was Bailey’s boyfriend; his grief mirrors Lennie’s own. Joe is the new boy in town, a transplant from Paris whose nearly magical grin is matched only by his musical talent.
For Lennie, they’re the sun and the moon; one boy takes her out of her sorrow, the other comforts her in it. But just like their celestial counterparts, they can’t collide without the whole wide world exploding.
“…Grief is an experience that throws you headfirst into life’s deepest questions,” says Jandy about Lennie's emotional journey in the novel. “No matter how old you are, no matter if you’re prepared to deal with those questions or not. I think it kind of just overhauls the heart and soul. Same with falling deeply in love…”
See you tomorrow for Day One with Jandy Nelson!
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Great interview! Your book sounds wonderful Susan, definitely on my list to read! I wish you every success with it and also with your MG work which sounds very cool, too.
Porn for writers? I'm in! Great interview and now I'm curious. I love stories like this.
Great interview!
"But life is epic all by itself."
LOVE. IT! That's rather my philosophy too, although sometimes it's just plain fun to introduce magic or fantasy.
Also love the mission statement, perhaps because I have one (somewhere...) as well. My boyfriend made me write it up, and I kind of rolled my eyes at the idea, but after we did it, I thought it was fabulous and really motivating!
Thanks for a great interview, y'all!
Great interview! Can't wait to hear more good news in the future about Susan!
@Laura I definitely won't be keeping quiet if I have any success in the future! Thanks for the well wishing. :)
@KarenG Thanks so much! And also for all you do helping other authors! You should definitely join our Author Blog Hop on Monday (see my post today about it - coming up at noon, with the contest winners!).
@Candyland I about choked on my spit when Sherrie described it that way! I love it!!
@Lisa Thanks!
@Kristan Considering I mostly write SF and Fantasy, I am leagues away from not liking it. I LOVE it. In a way, it was a departure for me to write a real life story. But I simply fell in love with it - that happens sometimes! :) And I would love to see your mission statement, if you'd care to share on your blog sometime? Let me know...(you're the first person I know that did it too!)
As always, you produce great interviews!
Thanks, Beth! I love learning about people and interviewing is just one way to find out more :)
wow! So awesome! what an inspiration. I love debut stories. Thnx for sharing! :0)
You do the most intriguing interviews. I love them.
I don't think I've ever read any MG sci fi (unless Ender's Game counts???) but I'm really curious about it. I love sci fi but adult-level novels are sometimes really hard to get into. The worldbuilding can be overwhelming! It's gotta be tricky to write sci fi for kids, making science accessible. Very cool! Loved this interview. Reminded me I want to work on my mission statement, too.
@Margo Ender's game is classic SF, but it's really YA not middle grade (in spite of the age of the characters). There is a dearth of SF in middle grade, which is part of why I'm writing one! But I'm going to do a post soon about the resurgence of kidlit SF(or surgence? Because I'm not sure there ever was kidlit SF before). And it IS tricky to write. :)