Happy birthday to my husband, Greg Leitich Smith! Visit GregLSBlog to offer him cheers! Read an interview with Greg at Young Adult (+ Kids) Books Central.
This week Bookshelves of Doom offers a rousing recommendation of my upcoming YA gothic fantasy, Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007). She concludes: “I suspect that there will be a pretty serious clamor for a sequel.” Thanks so much; I’m honored!
Thanks to Debbie Reese at American Indians in Children’s Literature for encouraging folks to read my Native-themed books and also for pointing out the importance of supporting Native writers and literature. More authors to know: Joseph Bruchac; Louise Erdrich; Joy Harjo; Richard Van Camp; LaVera Rose, and Tim Tingle (among others!).
More News & Links
Laura Atkins has recently set-up a website and blog. Laura, who was a children’s book editor (working at Children’s Book Press, Orchard Books, and Lee & Low Books), is now offering manuscript critiquing to aspiring children’s book writers, and consulting services to publishers in the area of diversity. On her blog, Tockla’s World of Children’s Literature, she ruminates about children’s books, the children’s publishing world, and her attempts at becoming a freelance children’s book specialist. See her recent post, Increasing Diversity within the Children’s Publishing World.
Children’s Author Kelly Bennett: newly redesigned site from the author of 11 books, including Not Norman: A Goldfish Story, illustrated by (Candlewick, 2005)(author interview), which won Texas Institute of Letters Friends of the Austin Public Library Award for Best Children’s Book for 2005 and recently received a 2006 Oppenheimer Toy Award Gold Medal Award. She recently has sold to Candlewick a picture book manuscript, Dad and Pop, “in which a young boy introduces readers to his two dads and shows that even though they may be very different, in the most important way they are exactly the same!” Congratulations, Kelly! Note: Kelly’s site was redesigned by Lisa Firke of Hit Those Keys. Lisa also is the wonderful designer of my own author website.
Congratulations to fellow Austinite Varian Johnson on the sale of his first YA novel, My Life As A Rhombus, to Flux/Llewellyn. Read all about it and send Varian cheers here.
A Cybervisit With Gail Gauthier: official author site includes biography, book information, classroom materials, material on appearances, and a weblog titled Original Content. Gauthier’s books include Happy Kid! (G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 2006), Saving the Planet & Stuff (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2003), and The Hero of Ticonderoga (G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2001).
“Secrets of the Savanna by Mark & Delia Owens, One Kingdom: Our Lives with Animals by Deborah Noyes:” an article on non-fiction by Colleen Mondor of Bookslut.com. Learn more about Secrets of the Savanna and One Kingdom (both Houghton Mifflin, 2006).
“A Tiny Portion of What I Learned at the [National] SCBWI Conference” from D.L. Garfinkle’s LJ. D.L. Garfinkle is the author of Storky: How I Lost My Nickname and Won the Girl (Putnam, 2005)(author interview), Stuck in the Seventies (Putnam, 2007), and The Band (Berkley, 2007). Read a recent interview with D.L. Garfinkle from Pop Goes the Library. See also “Conference Confidential” from Lisa Yee, read a recent Cynsations interview with Lisa.