Monday, June 30, 2008

Richelle Mead on LAMENT

LamentRichelle Mead, author of the bestselling Vampire Academy and its sequel, Frostbite, just sent a nice blurb for Maggie Stiefvater's forthcoming debut: Lament.

"With her lyrical writing, Maggie Stiefvater reimagines myth and legend to bring the world of Faerie to our own."

Compulsory Reading

This strip at comic artist Alison Bechdel's blog is genius (Thanks Leila).

Carrie Jones in the Bangor newspaper and on Teensreadtoo.com

Girl, Hero"Maine people inspire novelist Carrie Jones" declares an article in today's Bangor Daily News. Check it out and then hit Teens Read Too and see Tasha's starred review of the book. Highlights:

"How to tell you about this book??... It is powerful, hardcore, and utterly breathtaking. It made me cry and laugh and scream. Carrie Jones doesn’t hold back and makes us realize how lucky we are to have a life that isn’t infiltrated with hardship. This was one of the few books that actually made me cry."

Saturday, June 28, 2008

Finally!

Girl, Hero"Saddle up."

Carrie Jones' third novel, Girl, Hero is here. I first read this in manuscript over two years ago, when it was called The John Wayne Letters (and every character had a different name). It seems like this one has been a long time coming, but having it in hand now, it's clearly worth the wait. The early reviews confirm this and now you can find out for yourself.

Of course, Carrie hasn't exactly been sitting around in the meantime. She has a book this winter with Bloomsbury called Need and it's available for pre-order on Amazon now.

Friday, June 27, 2008

Heading into the weekend on a positive note . . .

The Edge of the Forest has fantastic dueling reviews of Carrie Jones' Girl, Hero. I'm not sure how they're dueling, since they're both very positive, but it's cool all the same.



From Melissa Fox, Book Nut



".... The real success of the book is the letter form it's written in. Because each letter has Lili pouring her heart out to John Wayne, telling him her deepest thoughts, fears, and secrets, the reader feels a connection to Lili, sympathizes with her in a way that otherwise they wouldn't be able to. In addition, starting each chapter with a classic quote from John Wayne, Jones captures the essence of the great movie star, and one girl's idolization of him. It seems a bit odd, given the young-hip-new culture of today's teenagers, that one girl would idolize a western movie star from the 1940s, but it works, and works well. "



And Tanita S. Davis, Finding Wonderland



".... Carrie Jones' third novel Girl, Hero, is both painfully realistic and, peopled as it is with an endearingly bizarre cast of characters, a touch surreal. John Wayne casts a long shadow in this novel (as he does on the very cool cover), but he's not nearly as memorable as Liliana herself, whose scary, sad and funny Freshman year is a testament to the power of acceptance, hope and perseverance, and touches the hero within all of us. ..."


Girl, Hero


And don't miss Carrie's interview with Dar Williams in the same issue.

Fashion Friday

The New York Times has discovered that young men wear their "trousers" peculiarly these days. Apparently it has something to do with the stockmarket. Glad that's cleared up.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Flux Twitter.

Look to the right. Andrew's playing with another Web 2.0 thingee. I'm going to try a Twitter feed for a bit. It's here as well as in the corner of this blog. We'll see how this goes.

Saturday, June 21, 2008

Heading into the weekend on a positive note . . .

The Edge of the Forest has fantastic dueling reviews of Carrie Jones' Girl, Hero. I'm not sure how they're dueling, since they're both very positive, but it's cool all the same.

From Melissa Fox, Book Nut

".... The real success of the book is the letter form it's written in. Because each letter has Lili pouring her heart out to John Wayne, telling him her deepest thoughts, fears, and secrets, the reader feels a connection to Lili, sympathizes with her in a way that otherwise they wouldn't be able to. In addition, starting each chapter with a classic quote from John Wayne, Jones captures the essence of the great movie star, and one girl's idolization of him. It seems a bit odd, given the young-hip-new culture of today's teenagers, that one girl would idolize a western movie star from the 1940s, but it works, and works well. "

And Tanita S. Davis, Finding Wonderland

".... Carrie Jones' third novel Girl, Hero, is both painfully realistic and, peopled as it is with an endearingly bizarre cast of characters, a touch surreal. John Wayne casts a long shadow in this novel (as he does on the very cool cover), but he's not nearly as memorable as Liliana herself, whose scary, sad and funny Freshman year is a testament to the power of acceptance, hope and perseverance, and touches the hero within all of us. ..."


And don't miss Carrie's interview with Dar Williams in the same issue.

Friday, June 20, 2008

Flux on Facebook

Yep, we're there. If you're so inclined, please check us out, become a "Fan," etc.

(Massive kudos to summer intern Helen for making it happen.)

Thursday, June 19, 2008

Varian on Authorial Intrusion

My blogospheric tentacles take a long time to penetrate LiveJournal's fortifications, so this is a little late, but still interesting. Check out Varian's quickie interview over on L.K. Madigan's blog. (Sneak peak: Varian's got ink!)

Wednesday, June 18, 2008

Last one, I promise

Read the GalleyCat entry on the Glenn Beck "emasculation" thing if for no other reason than to giggle at the Dr. Strangelove reference.

Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Anne Spollen on Anne Spollen, and More Emasculation

The Shape of Water author Anne Spollen has a blog at Amazon.com where she's discussing some of the details behind her novel. Check it out.

Also, though I was reduced to incoherent sputtering by the Glenn Beck interview with Ted Bell, Colleen at Guys' Lit Wire was not. Check out the post and the abundant comments.

Monday, June 16, 2008

Oh my . . .

Watch the CNN video on the home page.

I don't know where to begin.

Happy Bloomsday!

"Mr Leopold Bloom ate with relish the inner organs of beasts and fowls. He liked thick giblet soup, nutty gizzards, a stuffed roast heart, liverslices fried with crustcrumbs, fried hencods' roes. Most of all he liked grilled mutton kidneys which gave to his palate a fine tang of faintly scented urine."

Bloomsday, June 16, 1904, is the day in which all of James Joyce's masterpiece Ulysses takes place, and it's cause for celebration in Ireland and around the world. There are innumerable ways to celebrate the occasion--from readings, to tracing Leopold and Stephen's routes, to consumption of delicacies like the aforementioned mutton kidneys or, for the less offal inclined, Gorgonzola sandwiches and Burgundy. I think authors, though, would do well to commemorate also the landmark US court ruling handed down by John M. Woolsey that paved the way not only for the publication of Ulysses in this country but for all sorts of works of art with content some might judge offensive.* So, raise a pint of stout for James Joyce, and be grateful.


* I have read all of Ulysses exactly once, and it boggles my mind that anyone bothered to get exercised over the "scandalous" passages. First, they're incredibly tame by today's standards and second, you have to get through passages like chapter three (which begins “Ineluctable modality of the visible” and only gets less clear from there). Anyone who reads Ulysses for titillation deserves what jollies he or she can find.

UPDATE: Oh, I guess we're not entirely over obscenity in Ulysses.

Friday, June 13, 2008

Here comes Maggie


Maggie Stiefvater's Lament is still a couple months off, but ARCs went out into the world at BEA and Maggie herself is hitting the kidlitosphere. There's a great interview over at writingforchildrenandteens.com. Do have a look.




Thursday, June 12, 2008

A good review for The Tree Shepherd's Daughter

Bookshelves of Doom just posted a great review for The Tree Shepherd's Daughter, book one of The Faire Folk Trilogy. Do check it out, and, as always, I suggest you make Leila's blog a regular stop.

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

From the Blogs

Check out this post over at Cynthia Leitich Smith's blog for the latest on Varian Johnson and Jo Whittemore.

Confessions of a Bibliovore read and reviewed a number of Flux books in her 48-hour Book Challenge, including Into the Wildewood, The Shape of Water, Jump the Cracks, Band Geek Love, and Love (and Other Uses for Duct Tape). I particularly love her comment about Anne Spollen's wonderful The Shape of Water : "I kept reading this novel not because I wanted to find out what happened, but because I couldn't pull myself out of Magda's surreal inner life." We've heard a lot this from readers (one teen reader wrote on BN.com that "You sort of can't stop thinking about the girl in this book").

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Skype?

Are there any Flux authors out there who are using Skype? If so, shoot me an email. I've got a project in the works . . .

Thanks,
AK

Thursday, June 5, 2008

Confederate Flag Controversy

This story caught my eye this morning. Three seniors in the Twin Cities suburb of Bloomington were suspended from their graduation for displaying Confederate flags on campus. They said the flags did not signify any sort of racism, rather a fondness for "Southern lifestyle." Do click the link, at least to see the picture. I have mixed feelings about whether it was right for the newspaper to print that photo. Did the photographer encourage them to pose like that?

I think this Northern adolescent fixation with Ol' Dixie is not unique. When I was a sophomore in high school in Michigan at a overwhelmingly white high school, the Confederate flag enjoyed a period of popularity with a certain population, particularly football players, who wore it as a bandanna under their helmets as well as in school. There was no policy--at least not that was enforced--against this, but I do remember an English teacher telling my mother that she was very worried about teaching Huck Finn (in practice, I don't remember there being any problem).

Another great review for The Shape of Water


I loved The Shape of Water immoderately and immediately, but I know it's not necessarily an easy book, which is why I am so thrilled that reviewers and bloggers are loving it and recognizing its rewards. Here's a bit of the latest from SLJ:

"... this story is riveting, and Spollen's incredibly descriptive prose creates images as clear and alive as those of a master painter."

The whole thing is as positive as the earlier Kirkus review.


Wednesday, June 4, 2008

Something for Nothing


Robin Friedman's next novel, Nothing, is due out soon, but it's already getting some excellent notice, particulalry in this review from Little Willow.



From the Blogs

Leaving Paradise: "Come to think of it Leaving Paradise is a super nice book . . . ." --Cheesepluscrackers.blogspot.com

The Shape of Water: "This is probably one of my favorite books that I read this year (so far). It was so well-written and really captivating."--Sukiarareader.livejournal.com

Tuesday, June 3, 2008

More Good News for Barbara Shoup

Leila Roy of Bookshelves of Doom just a posted a fine review of Shoup's Everything You Want. Head on over for the full review (and add her to your feed reader. It's one of my favorite blogs and sources for shamelessly literate T-shirts). Here's the gist: "I really enjoyed this one . . . . Definitely recommended to older fans of Sarah Dessen and other contemporary realistic fiction."


Monday, June 2, 2008

A.S. King on Writing Pissed

A.S. King, author of The Dust of 100 Dogs has a great post on writing over at the Mystic-Lit blog. Do have a look.

"Frankly, I learned to write with my middle finger up. I'd had it with the changing fads I never fit into. I didn't want to do what the how-to books told me to do. I didn't aim or outline. I didn't learn a formula for fiction. I didn't read the right books for pleasure. I didn't join internet writing groups. I stayed away from advice and articles and books about writing. This wasn't about selling. It was about learning. So I wrote – what I wanted to write – with my middle finger extended."

And, for anyone who's interested in seeing what Ms. King's writing looks like when she's got her central digit fully extended, here's a tiny bit Dust.

7 – The Invasion of Doctor Lambert


The psychologist my mother sent me to was a nice guy, I guess. He was about six foot three with a soft, rounded plump in the middle, and he wore a pair of round framed glasses that he would occasionally push up with his middle finger.

My first visit was the slowest fifty minutes I ever lived through. I didn't want to say too much, so I let him ask the usual questions between bouts of silence.

"Saffron, why do you think you're here?"

"Because my mother is worried about me." Short and sweet – try not to show too much angst while already popping his fingernails off, one by one, with an awl.

"Why?"

"Because she wants me to be a doctor."

"And you don't want that?"

"No."

"What do you want to be?" he asked, realizing how condescending he sounded a second too late. "I mean, what are you interested in?"

"Lots of stuff."

"Like what?"

I listed a few things. I talked about my favorite classes, history and advanced chemistry, but didn't name any one thing, then said, "I know what I want to do. I just want to do it, that's all. I don't want to talk about it for months and months before I do it."

"But you can't just go to college without planning," he said quite seriously. "You have to talk about it with someone."

"It's not college."

He smiled at me. He had trustworthy eyes, a brown sort of hazel, with a twinkle. They nearly made me want to stop seeing myself whipping him with his own severed forearm.

"Let's talk about school for a minute."

"What about it?"

"Your mother says you do very well."

"I do. It's easy."

"So, you're bored, then?"

"Yeah. You could say that," I said, looking around his disheveled office. "What's that?"

He turned around to see what I was looking at, and explained, "It's an eighteenth-century chest brought from Europe by my great grandfather."

"Are those brass?" Brass catches like Emer's chest.

"I believe so. Have you seen one before?"

"In museums and stuff," I lied.