MY LIFE AS A BOOK

MY LIFE AS A BOOK by Janet Tashjian, Cartoons by Jake Tashjian (Christy Ottaviano Books/Henry Holt, July 2010, $16.99, for ages 7 to 12).

Twelve-year-old Derek Fallon hates reading, unless it's a comic book. So he's not looking forward to his summer reading assignment to read three "real" books. His parents even sign him up for Learning Camp to help him overcome his reading problems. Blech! What a lousy summer.

But the summer might just turn out to be far more eventful than Derek ever dreamed. He discovers an old newspaper story about himself as a two-year-old and vows to find out more about it. He makes some interesting new friends, including a boy with a monkey. And maybe, just maybe, he'll manage to read a book.

Diary of a Wimpy Kid fans, rejoice! Here's a story you'll love. Okay, so it doesn't have as many cartoons as Wimpy Kid, but it has a meatier plot, which I'm only hinting at here because I'm trying to avoid spoilers. And it's written by the amazing Janet Tashjian, of Gospel According to Larry fame. Here, she's reaching out to a younger audience and letting her 14-year-old son do the illustrations. A fun and fast-paced summer read.

Support your local spirit medium, er, author

WE HEAR THE DEAD by Dianne K. Salerni (Sourcebooks Fire, $9.99, pub date 5/1/10, fine for ages 12 and up). Buy it from your local indie bookstore here.

From the author's website:

In mid-nineteenth century America, mysterious knocking noises haunt Maggie and Kate Fox, two teenage girls who become famous for their apparent ability to communicate with the dead.

Do the sisters have a supernatural gift -- or is it a hoax?

I had the pleasure of meeting Dianne Salerni last Saturday. I'm a firm believer in supporting local authors when their books are published (and not just self-published).

Her book surprised me. The title and font may call to mind a gory horror story or something paranormal (Dianne herself wanted to call it High Spirits, and in fact originally self-published it under that title, but when Sourcebooks picked it up they changed the title to be more commercial). Yet this is straight historical fiction (with a slight hint of the paranormal). Thoroughly researched and well-crafted, We Hear the Dead is a book to get lost in and enjoy. It's long (448 pages) but reads quickly. The voice of Maggie is that of an authentic teen, conflicted about her unplanned role as a spirit medium, and doing her best to comfort the bereaved.

I don't think what I'm about to reveal is a spoiler because it's mentioned early on in the novel, but just in case, SPOILER ALERT: Maggie Fox was 14 years old in 1848 when she and her 11-yr-old sister Kate started spirit rapping in their small town of Hydesville, New York, as a prank to frighten a silly relative. They made the knocking sounds by cracking their ankle and toe joints! They had no idea their childish joke would later turn into a fashionable religion, with famous followers like Harry Houdini and Sir Arthur Conan Doyle.

Where Maggie and Kate treated it all as fun, their older sister Leah saw a business opportunity. By the 1850s, Spiritualism and seances were all the rage in New York society. Apparently everyone in those social circles had a dead relative they wanted to contact and the Fox sisters became well known, and well paid, for bringing forth those spirits. It's no coincidence that the publisher choose a cover that shows Maggie as a performer, about to go on stage. It was all pure entertainment. But Salerni hints that younger sister Kate may have actually had second sight and might really have known when spirits were nearby.

In short, a lively, spirited, true-to-life account.

What have you read recently?

"We can... fight off the weenuses and hosebags"

That's a direct quote from Maureen Johnson, the incredibly droll author of some amazing YA lit (including one of my personal all-time favorites, 13 Little Blue Envelopes. After attempting to wrestle the microphone away from another author who kept shouting about being "A BRAND, A BRAND," Maureen accidentally developed the following manifesto (and thanks to the inimitable Mike Jung for the heads-up):

The internet is made of people. People matter. This includes you. Stop trying to sell everything about yourself to everyone. Don’t just hammer away and repeat and talk at people—talk TO people. (Go read the rest on her blog. I'll wait.)

Oh, good, you're back.

She's right! Don't let the internet turn into one ginormous commercial! Don't let us become a mindless consumeristic society like the one in M.T. Anderson's modern classic futuristic novel, FEED.

Do you agree? Disagree? The internet is a conversation. I'm here. Let's talk.

Twitter is over capacity

I just tried to log on to Twitter to follow Harold Underdown (author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Publishing Children's Books) and received this message:

Twitter is over capacity.

Too many tweets! Please wait a moment and try again.

And then it happened again.

And again.

Can't help but wonder: if all those people are tweeting, is anyone reading?

Grrr. Do you ever get frustrated with the internet?

I Went to BEA!

Yes, indeed. That IS Gayle Forman, the extraordinarily talented author of gorgeous fiction for young adults. And I met her this past week at BEA in New York City.
She was just one of many authors at Book Expo America. She was there because she was being honored at the Celebration of Bookselling lunch at the Jacob Javits Center on Wednesday. She received an Indies Choice honor award for her young adult novel, IF I STAY (now available in paperback from your local indie bookstore). But she's so modest, she didn't tell me that's why she was there. (That honor would be given about an hour after I took this photo). Nope. She said she was just hanging around!


Most authors were there to sign either ARCs of forthcoming books or hardcover copies of their newest book, including Rick Riordan (which we all now know is pronounced RYE-er-den, not ree-OR-den -- I actually overheard him telling several starstruck booksellers how to pronounce his name correctly. He must get really sick of people mangling his name).

Yes, that Rick Riordan, the author of the mega-selling PERCY JACKSON series. He was there to sign his new book, RED PYRAMID, first volume in the new middle grade series, THE KANE CHRONICLES.

And here's Melissa Marr,
the talented author of my favorite urban fantasy novels, the WICKED LOVELY series, concentrating as she signs a copy of RADIANT SHADOWS (Harper, pub date April 20, 2010). This is actually the third time I've met Melissa, and she's amazingly friendly.

And I now have my very own personalized copy.







This debut author is Inara Scott. She was a lot of fun to talk to. Watch for DELCROIX ACADEMY, Book One: The Candidates, coming in August from Disney/Hyperion.


And here's one of my favorite middle grade authors of all time:
Wendy Mass!


She was super sweet, and after talking to her briefly I felt as if I'd known her forever.
She's the author of FINALLY (which I reviewed here), ELEVEN BIRTHDAYS, and JEREMY FINK AND THE MEANING OF LIFE, among many others.

She was there to sign ARCs of her newest, THE CANDYMAKERS.



Last but not least, here's another debut author:

Kody Keplinger, author of the highly-anticipated YA novel, THE DUFF, coming this fall from Poppy, an imprint of Little, Brown.

I was lucky enough to attend the YA Editors' Buzz panel in the afternoon, and Kody's book was one of the five being touted by the big-name editors.

Isn't she cute? She's only 18 years old!





The other new books being talked about by their editors were PLAIN KATE by Erin Bow (Scholastic), MATCHED by Ally Condie (Dutton/Penguin), INFINITE DAYS by Rebecca Maizel (St. Martin's) and FIRELIGHT by Sophie Jordan (Harper).

Coolest cover?

MATCHED

It's a dystopian fantasy, but Julie Straus-Gabel, Associate Publisher of Dutton, described it as not the kind of world where you're dirty and sweaty and on the run (Hunger Games, ya think?), but a perfect world where everyone is healthy and happy, and everything is arranged, including marriage. Cassia is fine with this, until she falls in love with the wrong guy. Sounds intriguing and I can't wait to read my shiny new ARC.





Probably the most interesting part of the day was talking about books with other booksellers and librarians, and even some very young bloggers. I'm now following Kelsey at The Book Scout, Eleni at La Femme Readers, and Sherry from Flipping Pages For All Ages, simply because they were behind me in Inara Scott's signing line. I turned and asked them out of curiosity how they'd heard of her. These adorable girls are all book reviewers -- and they're even younger than the FNC girls. These three read a lot! I was impressed.

Feeling rather old, I headed for the train at 5:30, loaded down with free books and with my head buzzing from all the noise and excitement. The noise level inside the Javits Center was a little hard to take at times, and Wednesday was one of those 90 degree days, so I was exhausted by the time I got home to Pennsylvania. Come to think of it, I was still exhausted the next day!

Have you heard of or read any of these books? What did you think?

Nobody does it alone, Jack

Yes.

LOST fans out there will recognize that quote from last night's momentous final episode. I don't watch much television. In fact, I made a conscious decision two years ago to give it up for the sake of the writing, but I allowed myself two exceptions: Jeopardy! (because it's a brain exercise, of course) and Lost.

I had to keep watching Lost. So for six seasons I've been a faithful, if sometimes frustrated, fan. And yes, I will relate this post to children's books because everything, everything, my friend, relates to children's books in the end. That's one goal I've always had with this blog.

Lost was one of the most literate and intelligent TV shows ever created. What other show could include references to Watership Down by Richard Adams, The Stand by Stephen King, Ulysses by James Joyce, Catch-22 by Joseph Heller, Steinbeck's Of Mice and Men? Along with numerous other masterpieces by the likes of Shakespeare, Homer, Ayn Rand, Vonnegut, Flannery O'Connor. And of course, let's not forget The Bible.

But, wait! None of those are children's books! Ah...

So this is where we reach the good part. In a recent L.A. Times article, Damon Lindelof, one of the show's creators and producers (along with Carlton Cuse) said:

If one book was most influential on the show, it was probably “Alice in Wonderland.” "To say there is only one is unfair," said Lindelof, "but we keep coming back to 'Alice in Wonderland' thematically. That was a book that both Carlton and I remember very specifically as children. It was a gateway drug to sci-fi and fantasy in many ways."

They also reference the Narnia books by C.S. Lewis, and Madeleine L'Engle's A Wrinkle In Time.

So there, my friends, was one good reason to watch Lost.

Here's another. A lesson for aspiring writers of children's books:

Create memorable characters and the audience (i.e., your readers) will go along for the ride, no matter how bumpy or far-fetched the story occasionally seems.

Goodbye, Lost. It's been a fascinating ride.

Anyone else out there a Lost fan? What did you think?

The Utter Silence of the Non-Rejection

As a bookseller, I post a lot of book recommendations. And then, on occasion, I've written about brain aneurysms (and also in this rather odd Valentine's Day post -- hey I'm a brain aneurysm survivor; I'm entitled).

But I don't often write about being a struggling writer of children's books. There are a lot of wonderful blogs out there about trying to get published. Read Mike Jung's hilarious blog, for instance, especially if you're interested in writing for middle grades. Or the First Novels Club. Or Frankie Diane's blog. Or Shannon's, if you're writing young adult. For picture book authors, you can't do better than Tara Lazar's blog. And there are others too numerous to mention. Thousands of us are on the same journey and it's a rocky one. Congrats to those, like Frankie and Shannon, who've recently found agents, and to Tara, who not only found an agent but got a contract for her picture book, THE MONSTORE, due in 2012 from Aladdin.

Being an aspiring writer, I've been submitting (mostly picture book) manuscripts to editors over the past few years. I currently have 5 different stories out with 12 different editors. And I've been waiting and hoping to hear something. Anything. Even a rejection letter is better than silence. But there's a disturbing new trend among publishers. What trend is that? The one in which you receive no response at all.

Nothing.

Nada.

Zip.

After a few months, you look back at your submissions log and realize, hey, I never heard from them. And if it's more than 3 or 4 months, you realize that means they don't want your manuscript (*sniff*) and that they've recycled it. While I'm all for the green initiative of recycling unwanted paper (and I would actually prefer email submissions -- it's greener and cheaper), I'm dejected by this new trend. There's more closure to receiving an actual rejection. Even a form email rejection would be an improvement.


Here's what one publisher says:

Charlesbridge accepts unsolicited manuscripts submitted exclusively to us for a period of three months. “Exclusive Submission” should be written on all envelopes and cover letters.

Due to the high volume of submissions, we respond only to manuscripts of interest to us.

All other manuscripts will be recycled. If you have not heard back from us after three months, you may assume we do not have a place for your project and submit it elsewhere.

Exclusive is something else that's quickly falling by the wayside. I'm surprised they're still expecting that.


Here's another:
As of January 1, 2007, Penguin Young Readers Group imprints will no longer respond to your unsolicited submission unless interested in publishing it.


And another, from Marshall Cavendish:
Please keep in mind that we receive many unsolicited manuscripts, and that we do read all manuscripts. For this reason, we will not send out a response unless we’re interested in publication. Therefore, if an author has not heard from us within eight to nine months of submitting a manuscript, it means there is no interest. Authors may submit to other publishers simultaneously.

Eight to nine months is unusual. At least they let you submit to other publishers simultaneously.

What do you think about this trend? Have you been dejected by the non-rejection? How do you cope?