YA Author Charlie Higson On The Differences Between Writing For Kids, Teens, & Adults
From The Guardian: Author Charlie Higson reads from his book The Dead, and answers questions from readers. How did he start writing for children? What are the differences between writing for adults and for younger people? Higson is the author of The Enemy, The Dead: An Enemy Novel, several Young Bond novels, and...
Read MoreMonday Book News: 6 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break (4/4/11)
Good morning, book people! Some more whitewashing discussion on The Hunger Games this morning. This post by author Malinda Lo (Ash) makes some great points–Lo discusses color and class, and reading cues for racial background. Here’s the description of Katniss from early in the book: straight black hair, olive skin [and]… gray eyes That could definitely be taken as ambiguous, though with that, and the fairness of Katniss’ mother and Prim, I’ve always read her as...
Read MoreFriday Book News: 7 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break (4/1/11)
Happy April Fools’ everyone! And it feels like the universe is playing a bit of an April Fools’ joke over here–it’s been snowing on and off since last night, and there are driving warnings about the snowy conditions in effect until 2pm. Back home in Sydney, there’s a bit of a kerfuffle too–John Le Carré has tried to withdraw his name from the list of finalists for the Man Booker International Prize. The emphasis here is on “tried,” because the...
Read MoreWednesday Book News: 7 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break (3/30/11)
Good morning, book people! I have a critique group meeting this morning, and a yen for chocolate biscuits, so this will be quick–and almost painless. The interwebs exploded yesterday (the writerly corner of it, anyway) when author Jacqueline Howett responded to a critical review of her book, The Greek Seaman, at BigAl’s Books and Pal’s. Here’s a snippet of one of the comments: And please follow up now from e-mail. This is not only discusting and unprofessional on your...
Read MoreCover Notes: Black Hole Sun, by David Macinnis Gill
Cover Notes is a new series I’ll be running every Monday. Rather than focusing on covers of books I’ve read, I’ll be writing about books I’ve never read and recording my first impressions of their covers. Each book will also have an Embarrassment Factor of between zero & five, with zero meaning “a totally awesome cover I want to write fan mail about” and five meaning “I’m ashamed to be seen with this in public.” This week, I was actually on my way to the young reader...
Read MoreMonday Book News: 7 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break (Diana Wynne Jones Edition – 3/28/11)
Good morning, book people! I’m wrapping up a big writing project today & Mir & I are properly recovered now (thanks to a series of naps), so I’ll be back to some semblance of normality on the interwebs this week. Sad news this morning–children’s novelist Diana Wynne Jones died early Saturday morning (UK time). If you haven’t read one of her novels, you need to get out your kindle/nook, or head down to the bookstore today. My favorites (so...
Read More