Cynsations is celebrating its 20th anniversary by switching to a quarterly publishing schedule, featuring in-depth interviews and articles. Thank you for your ongoing support and enthusiasm!
Don Tate is a successful children’s-YA creator with a long, distinguished career.
In children’s-YA writing, maintaining an active publishing career is arguably an even bigger challenge than breaking into the field.
Today I’m thrilled to welcome fellow Austin author and friend Jennifer Ziegler to the Cynsations blog for a chat about writing and teaching. Her latest middle grade novel, Worser (Margaret Ferguson Books/Holiday House, 2022) has received several starred reviews and lots of positive buzz.
Tell us about your new release,
Continue Reading Author Interview: Jennifer Ziegler on Word Play and Developing Characters »
By Chris Barton and Jennifer Ziegler
Time is everything.
We know that’s not quite how the old saying goes. But time — the scarcity of it, the abundance of it, the passage of it, how we choose to fill ours or ask others to spend theirs — has shaped all aspects of our new kidkit video series,
Our deepest sympathies to the friends, family, colleagues and readers of fellow Texas author Karen Blumenthal.
From Karen’s website bio:
“As a long-time journalist, Karen writes nonfiction for young people with the belief that nonfiction brings context to a complicated world.
“She is particularly fascinated by social change,
Sometimes a book can take you back to a particular time or place. When I read All of a Sudden and Forever: Help and Healing after the Oklahoma City Bombing by Chris Barton, illustrated by Nicole Xu (Carolrhoda, February 2020), I remembered a day that book would’ve made a big difference.
Continue Reading Author Interview: Chris Barton on Writing Stories That Heal »
Today we’re chatting with Austin author and Vermont College MFA alumnx Cate Berry about her new picture book Chicken Break, illustrated by Charlotte Alder (Feiwel & Friends, 2019) and her creative marketing efforts to promote the book.
Congratulations on the release of Chicken Break!
Continue Reading Author Interview: Cate Berry on Making Connections »
Today we welcome author Jennifer Ziegler to discuss the third book in her MG series featuring the Brewster triplets, Revenge of the Happy Campers (Scholastic, 2017). From the promotional copy:
Mother Nature Meets Sister Nature
Dawn,
Over the summer, the children’s-YA book community has continued discussing diversity, decolonization, authenticity and representation both throughout the body of literature and the industry. Here are highlights; look for more in quickly upcoming, additional update posts.
Mirrors? Windows? How about Prisms? from Uma Krishnaswami. Peek: “…cultural content in children’s books needs to be woven into the story so the authors intention is not stamped all over it.”
Continue Reading Summer Children’s-YA Lit Diversity Conversations »
“BookPeople, the leading independent bookstore in Texas since 1970, is proud to announce the BookPeople Modern First Library initiative. This initiative is all about pairing beloved picture books that will never go out of style along with other favorites that reflect the diverse, global society of the 21st century.
By Chris Barton
There’s never an answer I that I find quick, simple, and faithful to the full truth when someone asks what inspired one of my books.
Take Shark Vs. Train (Little Brown, 2010), for instance.
Yes, I’m sure the seed was planted by my now 15-year-old son’s love of sharks and trains.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Chris Barton on Writing & Cross-Generational Interests »
