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books

Twitterview: Lynne Kelly (Chained)

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Lynne Kelly, author of Chained, a middle grade novel due out from FSG/Macmillan in May, is the last of our featured authors to stop by for 12 Days of Class of 2k12. She’ll share her Twitterview today and tomorrow, we’ll share her guest post, since hers comes complete with images. You can find Lynne Kelly on her website.
Pitch your book in 140 characters:
Two friends, one a boy, one an elephant, want to escape the circus and return to their homes, even if it means saying goodbye to each other.
Who will this book appeal to?
Readers who love elephants! Also anyone who’d like to read an adventure about a kid trying to find his way back home.
Favorite moment or character in your book:
I really liked writing about one of the secondary characters, Ne Min, because he has an interesting back story.
What’s your writing routine?
It varies a lot, like my work schedule, & starts when I finally convince myself to get off the Internet & write.
What’s your best piece of writing advice?
Find a good critique group you trust and listen to their advice.
What’s been the most surprising part of the publishing journey?
How everything takes so long, when everything else seems to fly by.
What did you do when you learned your book would be published?
Reminded myself that running up and down the halls screaming at work would probably get me escorted out.
What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received?
Even if you don’t feel like writing, sit down to do just 15 minutes’ worth; you’ll probably end up doing more. Works for housecleaning too.
What are your top three favorite books?
The Sky Is Everywhere, Looking for Alaska, The Hunger Games
What’s next for you?
A humorous YA mystery that’s close to home, so it requires far less research!

Guest Post: Sarvenaz Tash on her literary party

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I’m so glad Sarvenez Tash (The Mapmaker and the Ghost, Bloomsbury/Walker, April 24) chose to write about her literary guest list, dinner menu, party games, and other activities for her guest post. I promise I don’t say that only because she talks about the importance of glitter. Or handcuffs.
 
First of all, I LOVE throwing theme parties. My birthday is right before Halloween and for the past few years I’ve taken advantage of that and made my friends put those costume sales to double-use! I’ve thrown an 80s party, a 1920s murder mystery, a 90s prom, and a Beatles Rock Band party, to name just a few…

A literary party would be right up my alley. In fact, I may be getting an idea for next year [twirls imaginary mustache]…
   

 
Anyway. Guest list:

  • Elizabeth Bennet & Mr. Darcy (because the romantic banter would be killer)
  • Ron Weasley (for comic relief)
  • Hercule Poirot & Sherlock Holmes (I expect this dinner party to turn into a murder mystery and I would love to see these two butt heads over how to solve it)
  • Dolores Umbridge (well, if it’s going to be a murder mystery, someone has to die, right?)
  • Turtle Wexler from The Westing Game (I bet she could even teach Poirot and Holmes a thing or two)
  • Harriet from Harriet the Spy (I’m guessing she and Turtle would get up to some precocious shenanigans)
  • Jamie Fraser from Outlander (just for the dreaminess factor: I had to do it!)
  • Willy Wonka from Charlie and the Chocolate Factor (who I imagine will add a healthy dose of insanity)

For dinner, I expect an elegant 4-course meal of roast pheasant, etc. such that Mr. Darcy is accustomed to. Dessert will likely be a preposterous 20-course affair such that Willy Wonka is accustomed to.

Obviously, the game that we’d play would be “Who Killed Dolores Umbridge?” I imagine this would take up much of the conversation as well (barring, of course, the romantic witty banter and comic relief).

As for parting gifts, someone is leaving in handcuffs! The rest, with the knowledge that justice has been served. Oh, okay, and something glittery. In my expert opinion, all parties are more successful with glitter.

Twitterview: Sarvenaz Tash (The Mapmaker and The Ghost)

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Sarvenaz Tash is the author of the forthcoming The Mapmaker and The Ghost, a middle grade novel due out from Bloomsbury/Walker April 24. You can find her on her website here.

Pitch your book in 140 characters:
Goldenrod is an 11-year-old explorer in for an adventure of a lifetime when she decides to map the forest behind her house.

Who will this book appeal to?
Boys, girls and anyone who likes adventure stories and funny going-ons (and maybe belly button lint).

Favorite moment or character in your book?
There’s a point where “the Ghost” first appears to Goldenrod (my MC) and his dialogue makes me laugh to this day.

What’s your writing routine?
Write a few pages, do some character sketches, outline, write a terrible first draft. Revise, revise, revise.

What’s your best piece of writing advice?
Don’t worry if you feel your first draft is rubbish: ALL first drafts are.

What’s been the most surprising part of the publishing journey?
How much waiting is involved even after your book is accepted for publication!

What did you do when you learned your book would be published?
I went to Barnes & Noble and took a picture of the spot it would occupy on a shelf there.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received?
From one of my fave screenwriting teachers: the ending needs to be inevitable yet unpredictable. (Very hard to do!)

What are your top three favorite books?
So hard! I’ll say Pride and Prejudice, the Harry Potter books (cheating, I know) and Roald Dahl’s The Witches.

What’s next for you?
Working on a couple more MG books. One is a fantasy adventure and one is a contemporary mystery.

Guest Post: J Anderson Coats on her best library memory

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Talking about favorite library memories is apparently a popular topic, as J. Anderson Coats (The Wicked and the Just, Houghton Mifflin, April 17) chose to talk about hers today.
At Linwood Elementary, you looked forward to the fourth grade. That’s when you could apply to be an after-school library helper. Everyone – even the cool kids, among whom I definitely did not number – wanted to be a library helper. Being a library helper meant you got to hang out with Miss Wagner.

Miss Wagner was the kind of librarian who remembered not just your name, but what book you read last, what grade your brother was in and the color of your cat. She could identify any book ever written from the vaguest description. (“Umm. . . there’s a girl in it. . . I think she has blond hair. . . and there’s a pirate ship. . .”) And she had a way of listening when you talked that made it seem like the two of you were the only people on the planet.

When you were accepted to be a library helper, you chose the day you wanted to come in. And choosing “every day” wasn’t allowed. But there was something quietly magical about coming into the school library when everyone had gone home for the day. It was like a staging area for a hundred different little plays, waiting but not empty. Just being there made you a part of it.

I was too young to snicker at the mangy orange carpet or the chipped formica counter. I only saw the stuffed dragon presiding over the paperback corner and the bulletin board crammed full of book reviews written by kids. And there was Miss Wagner, surrounded by a crowd of eager library helpers, showing us how to shelve books, how to use the card catalog (the old-school one with honest-to-dog cards), and how to stamp due dates in those little boxes.

Mundane little tasks, true, but to fourth-grade me they were evidence of a world beyond the books themselves as artifacts, a way in which you could make a living surrounded by words and readers and stories.

I’d always loved visiting the library, but after three years as a library helper for Miss Wagner, the library became a place I belonged.

Twitterview: J. Anderson Coats (The Wicked and the Just)

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J. Anderson Coats stops by today to talk a bit about The Wicked and the Just, due out April 17 from Houghton Mifflin. You can find her on her website.

Pitch your book in 140 characters:

1293. English girl unwillingly moves to a walled town in north Wales. Welsh servants are fun to torment. Life is good. If you’re English.

Who will this book appeal to?

People who like secondary worlds (including the past), snarky girls, power struggles, justice, cruelty, comeuppance, and a body count.

Favorite moment or character in your book:

At the end, there’s a scene where Cecily realizes the consequences of her actions. It’s gripping, abrupt and devastating, and it changes her completely.

What’s your writing routine?

Alarm goes off at 5 am. Shower. Write till 6:30. Daydream about the middle ages while at the day job. Daydream while doing dishes and laundry. Write between the cracks.

What’s your best piece of writing advice?

Don’t be afraid to write crap. You can fix weak plot, infodump and transparent motivation in the next draft. You can’t fix what isn’t there.

What’s been the most surprising part of the publishing journey?

Copyedits. I thought they’d be a breeze since I’m a big grammar nerd and took four years of Latin, but I ended up getting taken to school.

What did you do when you learned your book would be published?

Enjoyed the moment. Honestly, I always knew I’d get here. I worked too hard not to. I just didn’t know when.

What’s the best piece of writing advice you’ve received?

Learn to write this book. Don’t get hung up on rules and formulas. Every book is different. Write it the way it wants to be written.

What are your top three favorite books?

THE NAME OF THE ROSE by Umberto Eco. The LITTLE HOUSE series by Laura Ingalls Wilder. SPEAK by Laurie Halse Anderson.

What’s next for you?

More snarky girls in the middle ages. A curse. Some battlefield medicine. A higher body count. Maybe a boy or two.