Friends
May. 20th, 2013
02:00 am - Enter the Spread the Word about the PROMISE LAND Movie Premier Red Carpet Giveaway
Originally published at Kimberly Sabatini. You can comment here or there.
Not too long ago, my husband mentioned that a friend and colleague, Kevin Dalvi, had written and directed a movie and we were invited to the red carpet premier in NYC. Of course, there is nothing about this that doesn’t sound interesting to me. I love movies, red carpets and supporting underdog artists trying to put their vision out in to the world. I am so glad I went to see PROMISE LAND, a NEQUA Studios Production, because I really, really connected with the movie and it’s artists. Here’s a little bit about PROMISE LAND…
PROMISE LAND is relevant, heart wrenching, funny and hopeful. I know my sphere of influence is very limited, but I would really like to do something to help this film get the attention it deserves. So, there will be a contest!!!!!!
And here are some pics from the PROMISE LAND Premier…
If you get the chance to see PROMISED LAND on it’s Summer Tour, I highly encourage it. It was a wonderful movie!!!! A list of summer screening dates and information on how to buy tickets is available HERE. Information on how to turn your blog post comment into contest entries is available above with rafflecopter. Thanks so much for spreading the word. It really means a lot to me. Kevin Dalvi may not realize it, but he has all the makings of one of John Green’s Nerdfighters! *fist pump*
08:09 pm - How a last-minute phone call, 18 minutes and a half a million views changed my life.
http://thejjkblog.blogspot.com/2013/05/h
My TED Talk has surpassed half a million views! (This is from the ways that I can track. Aside from TED.com and various YouTube channels, TED also has a podcast download, so I have no idea how many times it's been viewed that way.) But—wow! A half a million people have now watched a talk that I gave to a room filled with 120 people. A talk that I didn't know I would give when I woke up that day.
So how have a last-minute phone call, 18 minutes and a half a million views changed my life?
Your instant reaction will be to guess that it's increased my exposure. And sure, my TED Talk certainly did help land a feature in The Boston Globe and an impending feature on NPR's All Things Considered. (Listen this Thursday! Check your local NPR affiliate!) While different sets of circumstances led to each of those PR pieces, it was the TED Talk that helped seal the deal in both cases.
But it goes much deeper than that. My story was never anything I was very open with publicly. While of course good friends knew the scope of my childhood story, the general public did not. That phone call to give a last-minute TED Talk came at a time when I was able to tell the story. Had that phone call come a few months earlier, probably not. A year earlier, definitely not. The experience taught me the power of being publicly honest and open. I have been so amazed to hear similar stories from both strangers and colleagues, and that has certainly been therapeutic for me. (And by the way, if you have emailed me, I haven't lost your email—I have a folder filled with emails that await responses concerning my TED Talk. I just want to be able to sit down and give your reply the time it deserves.)
Having had such a deep and meaningful story go viral is a funny thing. At first, it was incredibly strange to walk into a school and have everyone know such intimate details of my life, never mind the time I was recognized by a complete stranger at Dunkin Donuts. Most importantly, people have been able to share my story with children who are dealing with similar situations. Some of their stories punch you right in the gut. Others, right in the throat. I am so happy that I have been able to share my journey so directly with those kids. I can only begin to imagine what learning of such a story would have done for me as a child.
My TED experience has also taught me how to share personal information and deal with that knowledge being out there. As some of you may know, I have been working on writing a graphic novel memoir. (It would, of course be for a teen and older audience.) I would never be able to write that story so openly if it weren't for the reaction my TED Talk has received.
If you have watched the video, if you have shared it via social media or by email, I thank you endlessly. Because you are one in a half-million!
My sincerest thanks to you!
And of course thanks to my wife Gina. When I hung up the phone and said, "I was just asked to give a TED Talk in four hours and I have no idea what to talk about." Gina said, "Just be honest. Tell the story of your childhood as it happened."
01:52 pm - Cheap Stuff
http://scottwesterfeld.com/blog/2013/05/c
http://scottwesterfeld.com/?p=4764
If you’ve never tried the audio book of Leviathan, it’s pretty awesome. Alan Cumming does a wonderful job with all the accents and characters.
For the next day or so, you can download the audiobook for only $5.99 from Audible. (Offer only good in the US, I think.)
As a reminder, here’s one of my interviews with Alan about the books:
Also, on Monday morning, US time, there will be another low-price offer for another of my books, which I’ll announce right here. I’m not allowed to tell you till then, so come back Monday!
Last night I had a great time at the Aurealis Awards in Sydney. And I’ll be appearing at the Sydney Writer’s Festival next week. On Saturday, May 25, at 11:30AM, I’ll be on a panel with Lauren Beukes, David M. Henley, and James Bradley.
What is speculative fiction, and where do the boundaries start to blur between genres and sub-genres? Have the classic genres changed now that we live in a world where technology has caught up?
This is free and no bookings required. Event details.
Just got back from my 50th birthday vacation, and will resume normal blogging shortly. Thanks for sticking around.
08:49 am - Event Report: Joy Preble & The Sweet Dead Life
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| With Joy, modeling her bling & book! |
for Cynsations
Joy Preble spoke to Austin SCBWI about The Sweet Dead Life (SoHo Teen, 2013) at BookPeople on Saturday. From the promotional copy:
"I found out two things today: One, I think I'm dying. "And two, my brother is a perv."
So begins the diary of 14-year-old Jenna Samuels, who is having a very bad eighth-grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad vanished when she was eight. Her sixteen-year-old brother, Casey, tries to hold together what's left of the family by working two after-school jobs—difficult, as he's stoned all the time.
To make matters worse, Jenna is sick. When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in their beat-up Prius and crashes instead.
Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally. The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that Casey didn't survive the accident at all. He's an "A-word." (She can't bring herself to utter the truth.)
Soon they discover that Jenna isn't just dying; she's being poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother's mysterious depression and father's disappearance.
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| Greg Leitich Smith, E. Kristin Anderson, Nikki Loftin |
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| Joy, P.J. Hoover, Cory Putnam Oakes, me & Jessica Lee Anderson |
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| K.A. Holt, Lindsey Scheibe, Shelli Cornelison |
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| Don Tate, Varian Johnson & Greg |
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| Mari Mancusi wins Joy's angel trivia quiz |
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| Joy signs for Cory |
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| After party at Shoal Creek Saloon |
08:47 am - New Voice: Kit Grindstaff on The Flame in the Mist
By Cynthia Leitich Smith
for Cynsations
Kit Grindstaff is the first-time author of The Flame in the Mist (Delacorte, 2013). From the promotional copy:
The sun never shines in the land of Anglavia. Its people live within a sinister mist created by their rulers, the cruel Agromond family.
The Agromonds' control is absolute; no one dares defy them. But things are about to change, for the youngest of them is not like the others...
Fiery-headed Jemma has always felt like the family misfit, and is increasingly disturbed by the dark goings-on at Agromond Castle. The night before her thirteenth birthday, Jemma discovers the terrifying reason why: She is not who she thinks she is, and the Agromonds have a dreadful ritual planned for her birthday—a ritual that could kill her.
But saving her skin is just the first of Jemma's ordeals. Ghosts and outcasts, a pair of crystals, a mysterious book, an ancient Prophecy—all these gradually reveal the truth about her past, and a destiny far greater and more dangerous than any she could imagine.
With her trusted friend, Digby, and her two telepathic golden rats, Noodle and Pie, Jemma faces enemies both human and supernatural. But in the end, she and her untapped powers might be the only hope for a kingdom in peril.
How did you discover and get to know your protagonist? How about your secondary characters? Your antagonist?
I first came across the seed of my main character, Jemma, at a workshop where we were each asked to summarize the essence of our childhood as a fairy tale—quickly, without too much thinking—in one paragraph.
What leapt to my mind was the isolation I’d felt as a small child living in a large house outside a village and having very little daily contact with non-family kids until I went to school.
So the Once Upon a Time that splurged onto my page was about this castle on a hill miles from anywhere and the girl who dreamed of escaping…
Fast forward several years, and that castle morphed into Agromond Castle, the opening setting of The Flame in the Mist, where Jemma is effectively held prisoner—isolated, and longing to see the world beyond its walls. To flesh her out, I used an exercise learned in my first ever writing class (with Gotham Writers Workshop in New York City): scribbling down a list of characteristics as quickly as possible, with no forethought or editing. A lot of that list became part of who Jemma is, including: headstrong, stubborn, loves anagrams, loves food, has prophetic dreams, can communicate with animals, has pet rats. A mix of myself (I adore playing word games, and food…), and some not. (Rats? I hated them—that is, until I created Noodle and Pie.)
Later, it amazed me how much that list also fed the book’s themes. Jemma’s prophetic dreams, for example, became central. A more obscure one was her love of anagrams. At first, it was a quirk that offered some fun opportunities for foreshadowing (at one point, seeing her family’s motto, Agromondus Supremus, her head spins out the words grand, groan, mouse, demons . . . ), but I had no idea how important it would become until toward the very end, when an idea emerged about solving anagrams being vital to her mission—and survival.
Who’d have thought….anagrams, as integral to the plot? Not me.
To begin with, though, they were too one-dimensionally evil, so my editor suggested I write back stories for them. Each was like a mini-novella of about 10 pages long, written much like those first lists of traits, with no forethought, no editing. I did, however, start with the question “What ghosts haunt this character?”—literally, and/or psychologically. (Not my idea, but I’m afraid I don’t remember where I got it from, so can’t credit its origin.)
That gave the stories a sharp and delicious focus, and the details that surged up from my subconscious surprised and thrilled me. I’d literally gasp and say things like, “So that’s why Nox has such a soft spot for Jemma!” and “That’s why Shade is afraid of rats!” Until then, I’d had no idea—though evidently the dark corners of my mind did.
How have you approached the task of promoting your debut book? What online or real-space efforts are you making? Where did you get your ideas? To whom did you turn for support? Are you enjoying the process, or does it feel like a chore? What advice do you have on this front for your fellow debut authors and for those in the years to come?
Around January of last year, my book deal was signed and I knew it was time to get my online chops together. I had a personal profile on Facebook, but that was about it. I didn’t get Twitter at all. So, where to begin?
Fortunately for me, last year’s New York SCBWI conference offered a one-day marketing workshop. Thank you, SCBWI! That workshop truly kick-started my efforts.
I turned up knowing practically nothing. By the end of the day, my head was bulging with new concepts. It would take time and patience to absorb what I’d learned, but I’d made a start.
The workshop covered a number of aspects: social media—mainly Twitter (@kitgrindstaff) and Facebook—as well as blogging, branding, making book trailers (I’d never heard of them, but now have one on YouTube (see below)), and the importance of a killer website—for middle grade authors, the most important hub of online presence.
The latter was easiest to wrap my head around. One of the workshop presenters was a website designer whose work I loved: Maddee James of Xuni.com. I already knew I wanted to work with her, so I introduced myself. Step one, taken. Not so bad.
About social media and blogging, every presenter stressed only to take it on if you enjoy it—a duff online presence being worse than none at all. That was comforting. I immediately let myself off the blogging hook for the moment; but I loved Facebook, so could easily conceive of creating a page for my author presence in addition to my personal profile—a distinction I hadn’t yet made.
Twitter was still mind-boggling to me: more narcissistic garbage and tiresome self-promotion polluting the cyber-waves, I thought. But the Twitter presenter reframed it completely. Self-promotion should be the least of it, she said. We should follow people who genuinely interested us, and engage in conversations. Be authentic. Promote others, who would in turn promote us.
Et voila! The crux of Twitter’s potential: a community of like-minded individuals reaching out to connect with each other, rather than a cacophonous, competitive squabble. I loved that idea.
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After that, I took to it like a bird to the sky. Honing to 140 characters was awkward at first, but that soon came. Not knowing what to tweet, I signed up for Google feeds about kidlit, posting links to articles I enjoyed reading—which, evidently, others did too, as that always brought new followers. I soon grasped how many people out there are ready and willing to help.I love supporting others, and receiving it back. Book bloggers, fellow writers, readers…we’re a community. And for me, community is key.
Once I was out there, things began to happen.
For example, about a month into tweeting, I received a tweet from an author belonging to a group called The Lucky 13s—kidlit authors debuting in 2013. She’d come across my profile, and saw that I was also debuting in ’13.
“Hop on over to the blog and join us!” she said.
So I did.
That one tweet changed my life. The sense of companionship and support in the Luckies is terrific. We share concerns and excitement, and our (private) proboards are a fabulous resource for ideas—swag, cover reveals, attending conferences and fairs, you name it. There’s a Luckies blog, with group blogs—perfect for a not-quite-blogging-yet person like me. I can’t imagine what navigating the road to publication would have been like without them. More scary, for sure, and not nearly as much fun, with a fraction of the opportunities.
So to new and upcoming authors, I’d say, Connect, connect, connect. If you need to learn the ropes, go to workshops, or research online. With social media, there’s many to choose from: Tumblr, Pinterest and Goodreads are other options.
Go with what feels right; if you don’t enjoy it, it’s hard to put the time in. But if something feels a little awkward or difficult at first, at least try it, stay with it for a while and see what happens. Take it slowly, find a way to approach it playfully. “The web” is a great image to keep in mind, with its mass of interconnections. You never know where following one thread can lead.
07:21 pm - Indian-spiced spinach with yogurt
I improvised this to use up some ginger and spinach that needed to be used up:
Ingredients
1 tsp. mustard seeds
thumb-sized piece of minced ginger
1 tsp. cumin seeds
1 tsp. curry powder
1/4 tsp. ground cloves
1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg
1 pound baby spinach
~3/4 cup plain greek yogurt
1. Heat some oil in a pan to medium-high heat. Add the mustard seeds and the ginger and sauté for a couple of minutes. (I get the impression that you're supposed to cook mustard seeds until they "pop". I never quite manage to get mine to pop, but they seem tasty any way.)
2. Add the other spices and cook and stir for about 30 seconds.
3. Add the spinach and cook until it's done.
4. Turn off the heat and let the pan cool for a bit. Then fold in the yogurt.
It was quite tasty. Next time, I think I'll squeeze a bit of fresh lemon juice on it, or, if I can find some, substitute some sorrel for a bit of the spinach.
08:30 am - All About THE PATH OF NAMES: Behind the Book, Q&A, & Giveaway!
http://chavelaque.blogspot.com/2013/05/a
- Some of the realest kid characters I've ever read in a novel, with dialogue that exactly captures the way kids can switch from snarkiness to sensitivity in a turn.
- With that, a terrific sense of humor and jokes that made me laugh out loud more than once.
- A 12-year-old heroine -- Dahlia Sherman -- who loves performance magic and math more than popularity and fashion, and who holds herself a little apart from her peers in part because of that lack of shared interests, and in part because she fears their rejection. (This was probably my real point of identification with the book, I do confess it.)
- A totally original combination of elements: A contemporary Jewish summer camp story set in Pennsylvania and starring Dahlia, crossed with a story about a yeshiva student named David in the Lower East Side of New York City in the 1930s, both shot through with fantasy and mystery.
- This completely lives up to the definition of "new" I offered a couple weeks ago.
- A terrific title.
- A kind of magic I had never seen before in a fantasy novel -- and when you've read as many fantasy novels as I have, that's saying something.
I'm delighted to welcome Ari Goelman to my blog for a Q&A.
What novels were the biggest influence on you when you were a young reader (ages 8-18)? As a middle-grade reader I loved the Susan Cooper ‘The Dark is Rising’ series, especially the novel The Dark Os Rising. I also loved the book The Silver Crown, and (as I got older) pretty much any high fantasy I could get my hands on, starting with The Lord of the Rings trilogy and ending with ... whatever the latest high fantasy was. As a slightly older teen reader I discovered Steven Brust and Roger Zelazny – especially loving Brust’s To Reign In Hell and Zelazny’s Lord of Light. Which, now that I think about it, were both pretty centrally concerned with magic and religion, albeit in a totally different way than The Path of Names.
There are so many interesting ideas packed into this book -- summer camp, Kabbala, magic (real-world and fantasy), mazes, Lower East Side history. . . . Where did it start for you? How did these other elements develop in it? I think it started with a summer camp story, and evolved from there. Once I decided to set the story in a Jewish summer camp, I thought, “Hmm. Jewish summer camp – Jewish magic. That seems to make sense.”
Then, once I started thinking about Jewish magic, that naturally led to Kabbala and the rest. I’ve always been interested in the somewhat forgotten elements of Jewish folklore. I was raised as a conservative Jew where the party line was, ‘We don’t believe in magic. Or the afterlife. Or demons. Or witches...’ I was a young adult before I started to come across references to all the Jewish superstitions that saturated the Jewish world for centuries before the Enlightenment.
Described in that way, it might make me seem a little smarter than I am. Here is the way it actually worked: I’d be in synagogue for a cousin’s bar mitzvah or such, and there’d be a mention of an anecdote in the Talmud about a rabbi hurling lightning at another rabbi. The lesson would supposedly be something about tolerance or arrogance. But I would sit there thinking, ‘A rabbi hurling lightning? That is so cool! I would love to read a fantasy story about that.’
As far as the parts set in the Lower East Side, my grandfather grew up in the 1930s Lower East Side, and I always loved the stories that he and my great uncles would tell about their boyhoods in the tenements. When I was older I discovered that he had visited the spot in rural Pennsylvania which ultimately became my summer camp some fifty years before I was a camper there. I loved the thought of somehow combining those two milieus.
The fantasy magic in the book is based in what I understand to be a very esoteric Jewish religious practice – the Kabbala – but the book isn’t religious at all. Dahlia and the other kids spend very little time contemplating God. You also have a provocative epigraph where you quote Bernie Cloud: “Religion is just magic, but with more words.” How do your own relationships with religion and magic emerge in The Path of Names?I think I very much share the ambivalence towards Judaism (and organized religion in general) that is evidenced in The Path of Names. It was fun to write a story where all the Jewish magic works. The world would be so much simpler if you could verify religious belief systems with some sort of physical manifestation ... say, calling down lightning on your enemies. Religion aside, I find magic and the supernatural creeps into most everything I write. I’m not totally sure why this is. Like I mentioned before, I’ve always been an avid reader of fantasy literature. Maybe it comes from my general interest in ideas of power and resistance, especially when they’re operating in ways that are secret, or at least hard to see. I have this sense (which I think is pretty broadly shared in contemporary society) that power is increasingly concentrated in the hands of the few in ways that are hard for the rest of us to see, let alone to resist. Also -- let’s face it -- magic is fun. It would be fun to be a thirteen-year-old with the power to change things, even if the odds seemed stacked against you.
May. 18th, 2013
01:14 pm - Upcoming reading in Belmar, NJ
On Wednesday, Belmar, New Jersey, is opening its brand-new, rebuilt-after-Sandy boardwalk.
The Belmar Public Library invited me to attend so I could read my book to school kids as part of the event. Of course, I said "yes".
Turns out that there's going to be a BIG to-do on Wednesday, including the schools closing early (or at least running field trips) so that the kids can all be there for the grand (re)opening, and a visit from New Jersey Governor Chris Christie. And sometime after he's done speaking, I'm supposed to read AT THE BOARDWALK to some subset of the school kids.
I am going with "Chris Christie is my opening act." Also, I am wishing I had someone to tag along with me to take photos during the event. My sweetheart is teaching classes, and can't make it, and Maggie has a full school day. Anyone? . . . Buehler?
nervous08:11 am - Canada’s Forest of Reading Winners
for Cynthia Leitich Smith's Cynsations
This week 6000 people attended Canada’s largest children’s literature event, the Forest of Reading, Festival of Trees—two days of award ceremonies, writing workshops, author signings, and other exciting activities that celebrate the shared experience of reading.
Child readers from participating schools across the province of Ontario chose the winning books. The awards in each age category are named for a different Canadian tree, and the winner plaques feature original art by a child reader.
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| Blue Spruce award winner Martin Springett |
2013 Blue Spruce™ Award Winner (K-grade 2): Kate and Pippin by Martin Springett and Isobel Springett (Puffin Canada/Penguin Group)
2013 Silver Birch® Express Award Winner (grades 3-4): Margaret and the Moth Tree by Brit Trogen and Kari Trogen (Kids Can Press)
2013 Silver Birch® Fiction Award Winner (grades 5-6): Making Bombs for Hitler by Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch (Scholastic Canada)
2013 Silver Birch® Non-Fiction Award Winner (grades 3-6): No Shelter Here: Making the World a Kinder Place for Dogs by Rob Laidlaw (Pajama Press)
2013 Red Maple™ Fiction Award Winner (grades 7-8): The Vindico by Wesley King (G.P. Putnam’s Sons/ Penguin Group)
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| Red Maple Non Fiction winner Bill Swan |
2013 Red Maple™ Non-Fiction Award Winner (grades 7-8): Real Justice: Fourteen and Sentenced to Death by Bill Swan (James Lorimer & Company)
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| White Pine winner Jeyn Roberts and nominee Lena Coakley |
2013 White Pine™ Award Winner (grades 9-12): Dark Inside by Jeyn Roberts (Simon & Schuster BFYR)
Le Prix Tamarac 2013 (French language fiction, grades 5-6): Le mystère des jumelles Barnes by Carole Tremblay (Bayard Canada Livres)
Le Prix Tamarac Express 2013 (French language fiction, grades 3-4): Billy Stuart: 1. Les Zintrépides by Alain M. Bergeron and Sampar (Éditions Michel Quintin)
Le Prix Peuplier 2013 (French language fiction, grades K-2): Le zoo de Yayaho by Geneviève Lemieux and Bruno St-Aubin (Bayard Canada Livres)
Cynsational Notes
She became interested in young adult literature when she moved to Toronto, Canada, and began working for CANSCAIP, the Canadian Society of Children’s Authors, Illustrators and Performers, where she eventually became the Administrative Director. She is now a full-time writer living in Toronto.
Witchlanders, her debut novel, was called “a stunning teen debut” by Kirkus Reviews. It is a Junior Library Guild selection and an ABC new voices selection.
See also New Voice: Lena Coakley on Witchlanders.
08:09 am - Movie Trailer: "The Hunger Games: Catching Fire"
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| Read the novel by Suzanne Collins |
for Cynsations
From the promotional copy:
"'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' begins as Katniss Everdeen has returned home safe after winning the 74th Annual Hunger Games along with fellow tribute Peeta Mellark. Winning means that they must turn around and leave their family and close friends, embarking on a 'Victor's Tour' of the districts.
Along the way Katniss senses that a rebellion is simmering, but the Capitol is still very much in control as President Snow prepares the 75th Annual Hunger Games (The Quarter Quell) - a competition that could change Panem forever.
"'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' is directed by Francis Lawrence, and produced by Nina Jacobson's Color Force in tandem with producer Jon Kilik. The novel on which the film is based is the second in a trilogy that has over 50 million copies in print in the U.S. alone. 'The Hunger Games: Catching Fire' opens Nov. 21."
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