Cynsations

Cynsational News & Links

Books for Military Children: annotated bibliography (with cover art) of more than fifty books portraying children with parents in the U.S. military. Divided by picture books, middle grade, teen, and teen/adult. Highly recommended.

Even More Long-Winded and Practical Writing Advice from Whatever: The online home of writer John Scalzi. Taunting the Tauntable Since 1998.

The Do’s and Don’ts of Books Cover Design from Midwest Book Review. Thanks to illustrator Don Tate, whose posting of this link on Devas T. Rants and Raves! led me to it.

Holiday Book List for 2005 by Shari Lyle-Soffe from Margot Finke. (Scroll to read). Listing of books by members of the childrens-writer mailing list at yahoogroups.

How To Fire Your Agent from Fiction Writer’s Connection. See also the Tips Sheets on revising, pre-writing, attending conferences, contracting with an agent, finding and working with an agent, manuscript formatting, novel writing, query letter writing, submissions, writing a novel synopsis and more.

Tayshas Reading List 2006-2007: recommended YAs from the Texas Library Association. See recent cynsational interviews with Dorian Cirrone, author of Dancing In Red Shoes Will Kill You (HarperCollins, 2005), Alex Flinn, author of Fade To Black (HarperCollins, 2005), Jennifer Richard Jacobson, author of Stained (HarperCollins, 2005), Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson, author of A Fast And Brutal Wing (Roaring Brook, 2004), David Lubar, author of Sleeping Freshmen Never Lie (Dutton, 2005), Mary E. Pearson, author of A Room on Lorelei Street (Henry Holt, 2005), and cynsational recommendations of Prom by Laurie Halse Anderson (Viking, 2005). I’d also like to congratulate Deborah Noyes, anthologist of Gothic! Ten Original Dark Tales (Candlewick, 2004) and Texas author Lori Aurelia Williams, author of Broken China (Simon & Schuster, 2005).

Writing a Painting by Josephine Nobisso from CBC Magazine. Don’t miss Hot Off The Press: New Books (which include Spacer and Rat by Margaret Bechard (Roaring Brook, 2005) and Where The Great Hawk Flies by Liza Ketchum (Clarion, 2005)–both authors being fellow Vermont College faculty) and a Teacher Movie Review of “Chicken Little” by Sandra Kitain, also from CBC Magazine.