About the Author: Tamera writes picture books, middle grade novels, and poetry for children. She is a graduate of Hamline University’s MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults and she is represented by Michelle Humphrey of The Martha Kaplan Agency. Online you can find Tamera on her Website, Goodreads,  Facebook, or Twitter. In real life you may just find her fishing.

About Gone Fishing, A Novel in Verse: Nine-year-old Sam is excited about his fishing trip with his dad, so he’s not happy when his little sister Lucy wants in on the fun: “Where’s my stringer? / Something’s wrong! / This princess doll does not belong!” A wide variety of poems build the excitement of this father/son fishing adventure and humorous sibling rivalry. Black and white line drawings by Matthew Cordell accompany the poetry. The Poet’s Tackle Box at the end is for poets of any age.

We have an abbreviated Twitterview with Tamera to share! 

Pitch your book in 140 characters:  
Poetry blends excitement and humor in this illustrated fishing adventure/sibling rivalry. The Poet’s Tackle Box offers poetry-writing tips.

Who will this book appeal to: 
Children/families who like humor/adventure stories, teachers/librarians/booksellers who like sharing poetry with children, poetry writers.

Favorite moment or character in your book: 
Two favorites characters: Sam for his earnest sense of adventure and Lucy for her unwitting comic timing.

What’s your writing routine: 
Good writing day = eat, read, write, snack, write, fold laundry, write, eat, research, listen to music, write, snack, write, read, goof off.

What’s your best piece of writing advice: 
Show up and be ready to capture what comes, but also remember to play. Taking breaks, even little ones, can help get the words flowing.

What’s been the most surprising part of the publishing journey: 
More confirmation of a belief than a surprise was the huge support and care I’ve felt from my publisher and fellow writers.

What did you do when you learned your book would be published: 
Held my breath until the contract was signed, then celebrated and shared my good news.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received: 
If you want to write, then write.

What are your top three favorite books: 
Impossible to choose. I have fallen in love with so many more than three in nearly every genre.

What’s next for you: 
I work on more than one story at a time – right now I’m focused on a couple of picture books, more poetry, and a middle grade novel.

Find out more information about Tamera Will Wissnger’s Gone Fishing on Goodreads. 

About the Author: Liz Fichera writes stories about ordinary teens who do extraordinary things.  Originally from the Midwest, Liz now lives in the American Southwest among cactus and people who’ve never seen snow.  To learn more, visit www.LizFichera.com.

About Hooked: Sparks fly when a Native American girl with a killer swing joins the boys’ varsity golf team and takes on the boy with the killer smile.

We bring you an abbreviated Twitterview with Liz, though we let her cheat on character count since she had more to say than 140 characters allowed. 

Pitch your book:
Hooked is a contemporary young adult story about a Native American girl with a killer golf swing who joins the all boys’ golf team and goes after the boy with the killer smile.  It’s Catching Jordan meets Perfect Chemistry with a dash of West Side Story and has already earned a Kirkus starred review.

Who will this book appeal to:
Anyone who loves fast-paced, emotional and realistic fiction.  Ages 12 and above.

Favorite moment or character in your book:
I love the scene where Fred (short for Fredricka) shows up for golf practice for her high school boys’ golf team and blows away everyone’s low expectations with her flawless swing.  I also love her first kiss with Ryan.

What’s your writing routine:
I write every day, mostly in the afternoon and early evening.  I’ll keep going to the wee hours if I get on a roll.

What’s your best piece of writing advice:
Even if you finish a book and start the query process, always be writing your next book.

What’s been the most surprising part of the publishing journey:
The book blogging community.  I had no idea there were so many world-wide book bloggers!

What did you do when you learned your book would be published:
I screamed, then I cried, then I called my husband, sister and parents.  Then my husband and I celebrated at our favorite Italian restaurant.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received:
When my first book didn’t sell right away, my agent said, “Keep writing.”

What are your top three favorite books:
Such a tough question.  I have tons of favorites, depending on my mood.  However, books that I’ve read over and over include Gone with the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, The Boxcar Children by Gertrude Chandler Warner, and The Little House books by Laura Ingalls Wilder.

What’s next for you:
My next book with HarlequinTEEN is called Played and will publish in 2014.  This past summer, I finished another YA contemporary that is currently with my agent.  I’m currently writing another YA contemporary, this time about an adopted Hopi girl.  I’m always writing something.

Find out more about Liz Fichera’s Hooked on Goodreads. 

About the Author: Alex is a YA fantasy author, a Tamora Pierce addict, a horse rider, and paramedic. The latter two tend to hand in hand a bit more often than one would like. Alex started writing at 2 am.

About The Cadet of Tildor: There is a new king on the throne of Tildor. Currents of political unrest sweep the country as two warring crime families seek power, angling to exploit the young Crown’s inexperience. At the Academy of Tildor, the training ground for elite soldiers, Cadet Renee de Winter struggles to keep up with her male peers. But when her mentor, a notorious commander recalled from active duty to teach at the Academy, is kidnapped to fight in illegal gladiator games, Renee and her best friend Alec find themselves thrust into a world rife with crime, sorting through a maze of political intrigue, and struggling to resolve what they want, what is legal, and what is right.

We have an abbreviated Twitterview with Alex — get to know a little about The Cadet of Tildor and more: 

Who will this book appeal to:  
Tamora Pierce fans, underdog rooters, kick-ass heroine lovers

Favorite moment or character in your book: 
Fav moment would be a spoiler, but fav character is Commander Korish Savoy

What’s your writing routine: 
Go to starbucks (or panera bread)  Get coffee. Write a while with goal to send chapter to Crit Partner

What’s your best piece of writing advice: 
A good crit partner is gold. And “but it really did happen that way” counts for peanuts in fiction.

What’s been the most surprising part of the publishing journey:  
How much the book changed between acquisition and publication

What did you do when you learned your book would be published: 
Called one of my Crit Partners

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received: 
It’s ok to write crap, you can edit it later

What are your top three favorite books: 
Alanna, The Cain Mutiny, Three Musketeers

What’s next for you: 
The Cadet of Tildor II.


You can find out more about Alex Lidell’s The Cadet of Tildor by checking it out on Goodreads. 

We’re excited to be working with the Class 2K13 group of middle grade and young adult authors. These are all authors who will be making their MG or YA debuts in 2013, and they’ve each stopped by to participate in either a short Twitterview or guest post for us. We’re hoping it gets some new titles and authors on our radars (and yours!).

We’ll be running 2 to 3 posts per day from now until the end of the year, and each one will come complete with a short author bio, as well as information about their forthcoming releases (and release dates).

Don’t worry though — we’ll be chiming in from time to time through the end of the year, too, to share our regular content (including our “favorites” lists of titles from this year). But we had the opportunity to work with this group, and we thought it would benefit not just us to know what’s coming down the pipe, but also it would benefit our readers.

We hope you enjoy this! There are some great posts here, and they’ve definitely gotten us excited about their books.