A.M. Jenkins blog: “The reasons for this blog: 1. To provide basic author information (for students, teachers, librarians etc.), without me having to maintain a website. 2. I think out loud a lot as I work through writing projects, so I’m going to try dumping those thoughts here rather than on my friends.” Read a Cynsations interview with A.M. Jenkins.

“Lessons from the Berry Patch” by Liana Mahoney from the Institute of Children’s Literature. Peek: “While he picked around the perimeter of the berry patch, I chose to go straight into it, allowing the thorns to slice my skin, and entangle themselves in the laces of my sneakers. Why? Because picking berries, like writing for children, involves a certain amount of risk-taking, pain, and adventure.”

Monthly Feature: Careers from The Horn Book. See a thesis question for MFA students, also from The Horn Book. Read a Cynsations interview with Horn Book editor Roger Sutton.

Moral Compasses from Eric Luper’s Random Musings. Peek: “A moral compass seems like a fairly individual thing, as you note, that will change from character to character. Also, if all main characters had black-and-white morality rules to follow, we’d be without a lot of fantastic books.” Read a Cynsations interview with Eric. Source: Editorial Ass.

Requesting Partials: You’ve Got 30 Pages, Pal! by Nathan Bransford — Literary Agent. Read a Cynsations interview with Nathan.

My favorite book is out-of-print! from Brian Unbound at School Library Journal. Peek: “Marshall Cavendish has announced a new line of books, Marshall Cavendish Classics, that will ‘bring a select number of out-of-print titles from all publishers back into print. We are interested in titles that have received awards, have enjoyed starred reviews, or have with stood the test of time in story hour.'”

Mrs. Magoo Reads: You are What You Read: offers book reviews, movie reviews, and more! Authors are invited to submit books for review consideration.

When Life is Hard by Darcy Pattison from Dary Pattison’s Revision Notes. Peek: “When life is hard, how do you keep on working? We got back from vacation to find our house had been broken into, our computers stolen…. Then, yesterday, in a sudden summer rainstorm….” Read a Cynsations interview with Darcy.

BookKids Blog: from the children’s-YA department at Austin’s amazing independent bookstore, BookPeople. According to Madeline Smoot at Buried in the Slushpile, “event postings and the like that will most likely be interesting only to the people who live in Austin. But, there will also be book reviews and book talk about kid and teen books over there as well.” Check out A Thousand Rounds of Applause, celebrating author Shana Burg‘s release party for her acclaimed debut A Thousand Never Evers (Delacorte, 2008).

Permanent Ink: Tattoos for Readers from Alison Morris from Shelftalker: A Children’s Bookseller’s Blog at Publishers Weekly.

Check out this book trailer for Dead Girl Walking (Flux, September 2008)(excerpt), the first novel in a new paranormal series by Linda Joy Singleton! Read a Cynsations interview with LJS!

More Personally

Congratulations to the Austin Public Library‘s Bibliofiles book cart drill team on its second place finish at ALA! Here’s another look at their Texas win!

Awesome Austin Writers Roll Up Their T-shirt Sleeves by Mark G. Mitchell at How to be a Children’s Book Illustrator. Peek: “Like the other dazed and AAWW’ed patients after their operations, I got my copies back scribbled with thoughts, kudos, suggestions for fixes, often accompanied by typed notes. We clutched our precious stacks like they were our medical charts, and we were on our gurneys in the recovery room.” Read a Cynsations interview with Mark.

This and That by Lindsey Lane: a new blog from the author of Snuggle Mountain (Clarion, 2003). See Lindsey’s report on the recent Awesome Austin Writers Workshop; peek: “By the end of the three days, I was wrung out. But I was energized, thrilled and deeply grateful to be a part of this community. I mean, down-on-my-knees thrilled and grateful.” Read a Cynsations interview with Lindsey.

Learn more about the Awesome Austin Writers Workshop!

Attention: Tantalize fans! A teen YA reader known as “Miss Quincie” has started a brand new Tantalize Fan Forum. For those of you on MySpace, see also Tantalize Fans Unite!

Reminders

Here’s a quick recap for those who may have missed the July 4 post!

Vladimir Tod’s Best Nighttime Photo: win an iPod nano and great prizes from Heather Brewer‘s The Chronicles of Vladimir Todd at Sugarloot: Sweet Contests. Deadline: Aug. 11. Learn more here!

Are you a YA reader? Check out the bounty of giveaways at TeensReadToo!

“Create Your Own Future with Goals and Time Management” with P. J. Hoover from Austin SCBWI on July 19 at Barnes and Noble Westlake. P.J. is the debut author of The Emerald Tablet (Blooming Tree, Oct. 2008). The Emerald Tablet is the first book in her middle grade science-fiction trilogy, The Forgotten Worlds Books.

Author Claudia Gray is now fielding character interview questions! Peek: “What do I mean by that? You send in questions for Bianca, and she will answer. Although you’re interviewing Bianca right after Evernight, when she has no idea what will happen in future books, feel free to ask her absolutely anything. I don’t promise that she will answer every question asked, but we’ll post a good interview with her here and on the website August 1.” Learn more!

The Cynsations grand prize giveaways for July are two signed copies of Wake by Lisa McMann (Simon Pulse, 2008). To enter the giveaway, email me (scroll for address) with your name and snail/street mail address by 10 p.m. CST July 31! Please also type “Wake” in the subject line. Note: one autographed copy will be awarded to a YA public librarian (please specify library with entry) and one autographed copy will be awarded to any Cynsations YA reader.

And that’s not all! Enter to win a copy of Black Pearls: A Faerie Strand by Louise Hawes (Houghton Mifflin, 2008)! Read a Cynsations interview with Louise. To enter the giveaway, email me (scroll for address) with your name and snail/street mail address by 10 p.m. CST July 14! Please also type “Black Pearls” in the subject line.