My wonderful husband surprised me with an Amazon Kindle Fire under the Christmas tree this year. Before Christmas, I had heard some disappointing things about the Fire, but the biggest one — that Fire users can’t buy ebooks from independent bookstores — turns out to not be true. Great news for anyone who has already…
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It’s Christmastime, and that means giving. So, in the spirit of the true meaning of Christmas, here are some easy ways to give: At the Teaching Authors blog, the six writers/teachers who contribute are offering to donate up to $225 to First Book with your help. For every comment submitted to the blog through Dec.…
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Have you heard about the Library Phantom? If not, read this article on NPR. In a nutshell, an anonymous woman has been creating amazing sculptures out of old books and leaving them in libraries in the U.K. “In support of … books, words and ideas,” wrote the artist. While it seems a shame to tear…
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To celebrate the release of the trailer for her Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies book, writer/editor Deborah Halverson is giving away a critique of the first 20 pages of a manuscript. It must be fiction of any genre, but no picture books. It’s a good deal. The first few pages of a book are…
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For my last post in Random Acts of Publicity Week, I’m sending out some love to my author friends: Jaqueline Kelly‘s debut novel, The Evolution of Capurnia Tate, won the 2010 Newbury Award. The book tells the story of an 11-year-old girl who takes an interest in nature as she learns what’s it means to…
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I interviewed author Joy Preble back when her first novel, Dreaming Anastasia, was released, but I didn’t read the book until recently — and I’m glad I did. Today, it’s my entry for Random Acts of Publicity Week. The young adult book blends history with the paranormal, telling the story of Anne Michaelson. Her dreams…
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For today’s entry in Random Acts of Publicity Week, I’m recommending another book I picked up at the Texas Library Association conference, the young adult novel The Death Catchers by Jennifer Anne Kogler. Initially, I must admit, I wasn’t too interested in the book. The cover looked to me like the novel was a Hunger…
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As I continue to participate in Random Acts of Publicity Week, I’m recommending Hourglass, the debut novel of Myra McEntire. I picked up an ARC (advanced review copy, in case you’re wondering) of Hourglass from Egmont’s booth at the Texas Library Association convention this year. It was described by the lady who handed it to…
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So, it’s Random Acts of Publicity Week — an idea I love — so this week, I’ll be posting book recommendations. First up is the Zack Proton series by Brian Anderson, a writer in my local Austin area. When I moved to Austin and started attending the SCBWI meetings here, I kept hearing from people,…
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Over the last week, I’ve been exploring writing processes and outlines with some of my writer friends, and today I’ve got the final writer weighing in. Bethany Hegedus is the author of two middle-grade books, Truth With a Capital T and Between Us Baxters, both from Bank Street Books, and her next book, Grandfather Gandhi…
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