Friday Book News: 6 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break
Good morning, book people–or good ridiculously late night, as we’re thinking of it here this morning. A certain munchkin woke up a little after one and did not go back to sleep until 5:47 this morning…apologies for today’s lateness! The big news today is that Jennifer Lawrence, the blonde-haired, blue-eyed beauty from Winter’s Bone will be playing Katniss in the upcoming Hunger Games movie. And fans are not happy. The folks at Galleycat point out that Robert...
Read MoreWhen Series Grow Up: Transitioning From Middle Grade to YA
Sometimes, when I’m between books–i.e., I have too many projects and don’t trust myself to not be sucked into a new story to the exclusion of all else–I re-read snippets of my favorite series. One of the things I love about long series is how they grow with the reader. It’s not just that Percy or Harry, or Alanna, or any of the others grow up. It’s that their voices, and their authors’ tone grows up, too. Consider the Percy Jackson books. At the...
Read MoreCover Notes: Blood Ninja, by Nick Lake
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.” Picking covers for the series is fun–I wander about...
Read MoreMonday Book News: 6 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break
Good morning, book people! It’s daylight savings in Massachusetts now – and this is the second day we’ve slept in! Of course, it can’t all be blamed on daylight savings–there were several hours’ worth of screaming toddler, too. And now for something completely different… Author Maureen Johnson ran a hugely successful campaign–over $14,000 worth of successful–to raise money for disaster relief in Japan this weekend. Although her campaign is...
Read MoreFriday Book News: 6 Links For Your Morning Coffee Break
Good morning, book people! After yesterday’s mini freakout and fiction-related writerly indecision, I’m feeling much calmer (in great part due to the excellent comment-love). For those who asked, yesterday’s interview went well, I think. It was definitely kind of fun, and I spent a lot of time in my writer’s garb, chatting about voice (one of my favorite topics). And I have some most-excellent news this morning! Back home, in the great (though often cold) state of...
Read MoreWriterly Indecision: to revise, or not to revise
Lately, I’ve been thinking a lot about trip-trapping – tripping myself up, then getting caught in the fall. Sure, trip-trapping might sound like something billy goats do when crossing bridges, but it’s something writers–and readers–are excellent at, too. Actually, for readers and writers it’s worse, because the trapping is rather insidious, and often something we bring upon ourselves. One unfortunate part of writing, we’re told, is that it’s a...
Read More