Last night I participated in a “Pre-Publication Publicity Roundtable,” sponsored by the Author’s Guild. Essentially, you call in and have a workshop over the phone. It was my first one, and I thought it was fun and worth doing.
That said, I have a strong PR/media background already. It probably would’ve been even more helpful to someone who didn’t have the same pro background or was a beginner in publishing.
Otherwise, I was feeling rather blue yesterday, but I did receive a check from Scott Foresman/Pearson Education for the audio rights to Jingle Dancer, illustrated by Cornelius Van Wright and Ying-Hwa Hu (Morrow/Harper, 2000)(ages 4-up), which cheered me up.
During my “blue period,” though, I took this quiz on “Guess The Dictator Or Television Sit-Com Character,” which revealed I’m Paula Abdul from “American Idol.” Hysterical, yes?
When I taught a writing class one summer with Kathi Appelt and Debbie Leland in College Station, the students made the same comparison. That’s cool. I’m a Paula fan!
I also finished Missing May by Lee Weatherly (David Fickling, 2004)(ages 10-up), which is one of the Edgar finalists this year, and liked it very much (read my thoughts).
In addition, reading YA author Libba Bray’s blog (Jan. 20 blog), I found out that she became a vegan for two years after watching the movie “Babe.” It made me feel more normal for giving up mammals after reading Greg’s Tofu & T.Rex (Little Brown, 2004) a kajillion times in manuscript form. We’re all from BBQ country, you know.
And as some of you may know, my 18-pound alpha cat, Mercury Boo Leitich Smith, is smitten with Haemi Balgassi’s Eliza. As it happens, news from Eliza includes a new kitten in the virtual kitty condo, named Ramona.
Cynsational Links
The YA Novel and Me: a new blog from author Gail Giles, whose titles include Breath of the Dragon (Clarion, 1997)(Gail on “How I Wrote It”), Shattering Glass (Roaring Brook, 2002)(Gail on “How I Wrote It”)(reader guide), Dead Girls Don’t Write Letters (Roaring Brook, 2003)(Gail On “How I Wrote It”)(PDF teacher guide), and Playing In Traffic (Roaring Brook, 2004)(Gail on “How I Wrote It”).
Remember how I was talking about Laurie Halse Anderson’s wonderful new novel, Prom (Viking, 2005)? You can read an excerpt online.