Archive for the ‘Author stuff’ Category
April 29, 2013 @ 4:52 pm | Filed under: Author stuff
Three times I’ve been asked by lovely writer friends to participate in the Next Big Thing, a blog hop in which writers talk about their upcoming books. Tanita Davis and Gail Gauthier caught me in busy spells and I had to pass, with regrets—but I loved reading their posts and appreciated the invitation. This time, my SCBWI pal Andrea Zimmerman asked if she could tag me, and third time’s the charm. Gail, Tanita, Andrea—thanks, all of you, for thinking of me!
I’ll work on my answers soon, but for now, do hop over (it’s a blog hop, after all) and read about The Warthog Smoked (Andrea), Saving the Planet & Stuff (Gail), and Favorite Son (Tanita). And then you can follow their links to the other folks they tagged. Books books books books books, there is nothing better.
April 5, 2013 @ 5:16 pm | Filed under: Author stuff, Books
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Got this question in the comments yesterday, and since it’s an inquiry I get often, I thought I’d pull it up into a post here:
“Why have the Martha, Charlotte, Caroline and Rose books gone out of print? As a huge fan of Laura’s books I read all the books and the books about her family. Now being older I want to purchase them all for my own collection as the libraries are getting rid of them. It does not help that I am Canadian and have a hell of a time of even finding them! Do you know of any places that still carries them?”
When a publisher allows a book to go out of print, it pretty much always means one thing: the book isn’t selling very well anymore. Warehouse space is extremely expensive, and there’s a certain point when it becomes more costly for a publisher to store books that are selling slowly than to just remainder them.
The decision to shutter the Little House prequels and sequels happened before social media took off, so if HarperCollins ever decides to bring them back (particularly as ebooks, which has been discussed but doesn’t seem to be happening anytime soon), we’d be able to give them a nice big push and I think they’d do very well.
You can sometimes find used copies on eBay or Amazon Marketplace, but they tend to be extremely expensive in those outlets. (I don’t get royalties on used book sales, so please know those crazy prices don’t have anything to do with me!)
March 8, 2013 @ 7:48 pm | Filed under: Author stuff, Books
Don’t forget to cast your vote in this year’s SCBWI Crystal Kite Member Choice Awards! Voting ends March 15.
Here are the finalists for the California/Hawaii division:
• Katherine Applegate, The One and Only Ivan ( HarperCollins Children’s Books)
• Tina Nichols Coury, Hanging Off Jefferson’s Nose: Growing Up On Mount Rushmore (Dial Books For Young Readers, Penguin Young Readers Group)
• Katherine Longshore, Gilt (Viking Children’s Books, Penguin Young Readers Group)
• Ginger Wadsworth, First Girl Scout, the Life of Juliette Gordon Low (Clarion)
• Melissa Wiley, The Prairie Thief (Margaret K. McElderry Books, Simon & Schuster)
You can see the other division finalists here. One Crystal Kite winner will be chosen for each division.
From the SCBWI website:
To cast a vote, go to your Member Home page, click on “See what’s going on in your region,” then on the Crystal Kites tab. The list of the finalists listed below will be there and all you have to do to vote is click the button next to the desired title for your region. [Note: To get to the voting buttons, you have to scroll all the way down to the bottom of the finalist list.]
Please remember there is no campaigning of any kind for individual titles but you are encouraged to promote the awards in general using all social media! This includes but is not limited to blogging, tweeting or social networking of any kind.
Anyone participating in an individual voting campaign (promoting a specific title) will be disqualified. This is to ensure the votes are based purely on personal opinion.
February 11, 2013 @ 4:29 pm | Filed under: Author stuff
Am looking forward to tomorrow evening (Tuesday, Feb. 12th), when I’ll have the fun of being a guest on Geek & Sundry’s #parent show, a Google Hangout hosted by the awesome Kristen Rutherford. My fellow guests are authors Jenni Holm and Chris Barton, two of my family’s favorite children’s book creators and some of my all-around favorite people. Going to be fun!
The details: 8-9pm Pacific time. I’ll post the direct link when we have one. You can watch the Hangout live (and ask questions in the chat window) or catch it later on video.
Got any questions for us? Fire away!
There is nothing quite like the feeling of clicking to one of your favorite book blogs and discovering your own book is the day’s entry.
Dad: Tell me about the “Thief” part of the title…
Lily: The girl’s dad was accused of theft-ing.
Gracie: You’re not even saying it right. It’s “thievering.”
The Prairie Thief at Bookie Woogie. I’m thrilled. And that art! ASTOUNDING.
P.S. Gracie really is the Blurb Master.
A wonderful review of The Prairie Thief at Writing on the Sidewalk:
And then, the must of all musts for reading a story aloud… the language. The Prairie Thief is rich with gorgeous, evocative language that begs to be heard as well as read. We feel as though we’ve been transported back in time when we listen to expressions like, “He was wailing loud enough to curdle milk,” or “Ye look like last year’s scarecrow.” Even the simple “Balderdash!” sounds better out loud. Wiley uses big words too – words that some kids will latch on to and roll around in their minds and mouths – like audacious, gesticulations, rapscallion, scrutinizing – they add to the mood and help us sink into this world.
via Book Thoughts: The Prairie Thief by Melissa Wiley « Writing on the sidewalk.
(See more reviews here.)
October 31, 2012 @ 7:53 am | Filed under: Author stuff
Julianna Baggott has a set of interview questions for writers (I’ve owed her my answers for a while now), and one of them is: “What’s your advice to a writer who’s looking for a lifelong partner?”
Easy: Find someone like this.
Such fun visiting with lots of authors, teachers, and librarians at this weekend’s California Reading Association Professional Development Institute! Here are some of the lovely authors I spent the day with:
With Edith Hope Fine, Judith Josephson, and Lori Mitchell, some of my SCBWI author pals.
The awesome Cindy Pon.
Of course Edith, Judith, and I insisted on a photo with Betty Birney, author of the Humphrey novels, The Seven Wonders of Sassafras Springs, and a zillion other books.
I had the fun of sitting next to Shelley Moore Thomas, who writes the delightful Good Knight early reader series. Her new middle-grade novel, The Seven Tales of Trinket, sounds extremely enticing. Nested stories, Celtic lore: yeah, she had me at hello.
Farther down the table was Amanda Noll—unfortunately I flubbed my photo of her, so you get her book cover instead. Doesn’t it just GRAB you? Looking forward to enjoying this one with my small fry.
My photo of Barrie Summy came out blurry too. I loved getting to know her and I love these book titles!
These guys were charming and I’ll be writing more about them for GeekMom: Adam Glendon Sidwell and his brother Jarom. Cool animation background, a ton of creative ideas for teaching story structure to kids, and a book called Evertaster. (Speaking of amazing covers.)
The SCBWI gang. Andrea Zimmerman (author of many books including a Huck favorite, Trashy Town), Judith, Edith, me, Erin Dealey (author of, among other books, the supercute Little Bo Peep Can’t Get to Sleep—this one has Rillabook written all over it, and the art is so cute I’m tempted to buy a second copy for print-framing), Suzanne Santillan (author of Grandma’s Pear Tree, a really lovely picture book), and Shelley.
Same group, except Andrea has left and we’ve added the great Milly Lee!
Here’s my corner of the table. 
Fox and Crow missed the photo op! It sold out before I remembered to get a picture. Speaking of photo ops, I love the Betty Birney/Erin Dealey picture happening behind me.
Many thanks to the fine folks of the California Reading Association for having us, and thanks to The Yellow Book Road children’s bookstore for stocking our books!
Tags: Adam Sidwell, Amanda Noll, Andrea Zimmerman, author events, Barrie Summey, Betty Birney, Cindy Pon, CRA, Edith Hope Fine, Erin Dealey, Jarom Sidwell, Judith Josephson, Milly Lee, Shelley Moore Thomas, Suzanne Santillan
Bee art by