“Won’t Stock a Book with the Word ‘Gay’ in the Title” from Carrie Jones. She’s the author of Tips on Having a Gay (ex) Boyfriend (Flux, 2007). Read an excerpt.

The Acquisition Process: From Submission to Contract by Harold Underdown at The Purple Crayon. Read a Cynsations interview with Harold.

Chad Beckerman: Associate Art Director, Book Publishing by Paul Maniaci from the Career Cookbook. Source: Book Moot.

CBC Showcase: May/June: Fiction on the Edge: “includes both light and serious fiction on the many and varied issues facing teens and pre-teens.” Highlights include Powers by Deborah Lynn Jacobs (Roaring Brook, 2006)(author interview) and Gone by Kathleen Jeffrie Johnson (Roaring Brook, 2007)(author interview). See also the CBC Summer Reading Extravaganza.

Charlesbridge Open House from Unabridge. Highlights include a photo of the lovely Mitali Perkins and editor Judy O’Malley in a sari.

Repossessed by A.M. Jenkins: recommendation and Q&A interview at the YA Authors Cafe. Here’s a sneak peek: “My feeling has always been that religion, the supernatural and the afterlife are *the* most important issues any human has to face. We’re alive on this earth for less than 100 years (most of us, anyway), and then there’s the question of what happens to us for the rest of eternity. I’d say the answer to that question is crucial. And the answer–or lack of an answer–that each of us comes up with is what provides us with a moral system to live by.”

Jon Scieszka Worldwide: new official site is bright, entertaining, everything you’d expect. Source: A Fuse #8 Production (congratulations to Fuse #8 on moving to SLJ).

Interview: Sonya Sones by Little Willow at Bildungsroman. Here’s a sneak peek: “I’d been taking a class at UCLA on writing poetry for children, taught by the great Myra Cohn Livingston. I’d been concentrating on writing funny poems. But one day Myra asked us to write a poem using dactyl and trochee rhythms, which are these really somber rhythms. When I sat down to do the assignment, something very unexpected happened: I ended up writing a poem about having to visit my older sister in the mental hospital on my thirteenth birthday, and about how sad and scary that had been for me.”

Seven Impossible Interviews Before Breakfast #28: Author and blogger and all-around rocker, Cecil Castellucci. Read a Cynsations interview with Cecil.