For this week’s Road Trip Wednesday, YA Highway asks If you could wander anywhere in the world, where would it be, and why? I have to ask: does it have to be in this world? Today? Let me go back a bit. I write middle grade, I write YA. I write fantasy and sci fi and YA … More ROAD TRIP WEDNESDAY : Leaving Earth
Seriously, what can I say about this awesome teen? Just out of curiosity, in grade nine, Angela Zhang started reading Post Doc level chemistry research papers. But she didn’t stop there. She wanted to try some of these things out, so she sweet talked her way into a professional research laboratory. But that wasn’t enough. … More Terrific Teen Tuesday: High School Student + Treatment For Cancer = WIN!
Normally with Middle Grade Monday I do classics, or at least books from my past that I recall fondly. Sometimes I might do something more recent that I feel is destined to become a classic or that fills a particular niche. This week I’m looking at a book my agent gave me. I was written … More Marvelous Middle Grade Monday – LUCY UNSTRUNG
Can I tell you how much I love agent and editors “wish-lists”? It’s not because I’m trying to get an agent or editor interested in my work necessarily. I have an agent, Kris Rothstein and HER job is getting editors interested in my work. It’s just fun to get an insight into what other people … More EDITOR AND AGENT WISHLISTS: Be Gruesome. Be Dark. Be Original
Don’t get me wrong. The books I refer to below are all great reads. But what the hell is going on with names in YA these days? I’m pretty sure it started in earnest with The Hunger Games – Katniss? Really? Gale (for a boy) and Peeta? Still, there’s something so sincerely whackadoodle about the … More A Modest Proposal to Solve the YA Hero/Heroine Naming Crisis and GIVEAWAY
When I meet new people and we have that awkward “So, what do you do?” moment and I tell them “I’m a writer” am usually then faced with one of a small selection of follow up questions. Many of them are described very well by Wendy over at YAtopia, along with a few others added in … More ROAD TRIP WEDNESDAY: My Memoir or My Life
Sometimes it’s the little things that kids do that need celebrating. Not every teenager is going to write a book or launch something into space. Sometimes just finally getting down to doing your chores is a victory. That is one of the reasons I love this story about a UK teen who found a winning … More TERRFIC TEEN TUESDAY: CLEAN YOUR ROOM!
For this week’s Marvelous Middle Grade Monday I’m doing something a little different. My daughter and my niece came into my office so I thought I would interview them about their favorite book series. My daughter, L is 7 and my niece B is 11. What is your favorite book series? L (7) – My favorite book series is, um, … More Marvelous Middle Grade Monday : Readers Interviewed about PERCY JACKSON and MAGIC TREEHOUSE
So just after I arrived in back in Canada, after fifteen years in Australia and the USA, my husband and I went for dinner with some people he had started playing cricket with. Now I didn’t have very high hopes for the evening, to be honest. The best I could hope for was that they … More Books for Atheist Teens: GODLESS by Pete Hautman
In honor of my upcoming book, WICKET SEASON, which features Harrison Ambrose, a cricket mad Canadian kid of Jamaican descent, his Jamaican family and friends Oscar and Jordan, his Indo-Canadian almost girl-friend, the lethal spin bowler Deepa Singh and assorted other cricket crazy Canucks of color (or not), I’m signing up for the 2012 POC … More People of Color Reading Challenge
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