This week, we’re celebrating Angela Morrison’s debut! Angela Morrison grew up on the wheat farm in Washington where TAKEN BY STORM is set. She graduated from Brigham Young University and holds a Master’s of Fine Arts in Writing for Children and Young Adults from Vermont College. She and her husband recently returned to Arizona after eleven years abroad in Canada, Switzerland, and Singapore. They have four children and the most beautiful grandson in existence. Here’s a little bit about TAKEN BY STORM (Razorbill). Seventeen-year-old Leesie Hunt has rules: No making out. No sex. And definitely no falling for a non-Mormon. She pours… Continue reading

• 

  OF ALL THE STUPID THINGS by Alexandra Diaz

  Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010

• Publisher: Egmont USA
• Release Date: December 22, 2009
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-1-60684-034-4
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

When a rumor starts circulating that Tara’s boyfriend has been with one of the guy cheerleaders, the innuendo doesn’t just hurt Tara. It marks the beginning of the end for three lifelong friends.

Tara’s training for a marathon, but also running from her fear of abandonment from her father.

Whitney Blaire seems to have everything, but an empty mansion and absentee parents leave her looking for her own value in the wrong places.

And Pinkie has a compulsive need to mother everyone to make up for the mama she’s never stopped missing.

Then the new girl arrives in school and Tara starts to feel things she’s never felt for before for a girl. Can the girls’ friendship survive when all the rules have changed?

The Author: Alexandra Diaz
Location: Santa Fe, NM

Alexandra Diaz is a Cuban-American spending her time between Santa Fe and the rest of the world. As a result of being homeschooled for most of high school, she’s fascinated by teenage school life and the drama that occurs in those quarters. One of the reasons she writes is to experience life in someone else’s shoes. She is a “jenny of all trade” having worked as a nanny, teacher, film extra, tour guide, and dairy goat judge (seriously) among several other jobs. In addition to traversing the world, she enjoys hiking, swing dancing, and the prospect of flying.

Author Visit Information

Any excuse to travel is a good one! I am more than willing to go anywhere in the world you would like me to go. Honestly! Even though my book is YA, I can lead creative writing workshops suitable for any age. I’m also available for virtual visits via skype.

Example presentations and workshops

• How to come up with story plots/ideas
• Character voices and how to make them different
• “I would never do that!” Differencing from fact and fiction in creative writing
• Build your own workshop. Is there a particular topic that will be beneficial for you and your class? Run it by me and I’ll let you know if I can work with that.

Honorarium and fees

$300 is the standard charge, although that is subject to length and type of visit. Travel costs and accommodation (if necessary) are extra. If I can arrange for it to coincide with any other event or even a pleasure trip, then travel cost will be significantly less. Please contact me with any idea or proposal, even if it’s farfetched and you think it’s likely I won’t agree. I’m good at surprising people!

Contact Information:

• Official web site: www.alexandra-diaz.com

Email this author:

1. First Name(required)
2. Last Name(required)
3. Email(valid email required)
4. Regarding Please select one Booking an author visit or signing Media inquiries General comment or question
5. Message(required)

Spam Prevention

1. What color is snow?

 

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Release Date: April 15, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 978-0-823422-61-6
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

The kingdom of Ardendale has always locked its princesses in a white tower guarded by a dragon. It’s the only way to lure gallant young princes to the tiny, out-of-the-way kingdom to marry them. But Ivy is a princess who doesn’t care to be rescued, and Elridge a dragon afraid of being slain. Neither wants anything to do with Romil, a scheming prince from the frozen North who has his own less than romantic reasons for wanting Ivy’s hand in marriage. Never mind that humans and dragons… Continue reading

WHAT: Novels THE SECRET YEAR, LEAVING GEE'S BEND, and ISLAND STING, plus swag and a tote WHO: US/Canada residents at least 13 years old WHEN: Thru Feb. 14, 2010 (midnight) WHERE: Just leave a comment here, giving a shout-out to someone you love:  http://community.livejournal.com/classof2k10/6516.html…

This month's post comes to us from blogging librarian extraordinaire, Edi Campbele, whose insights and resource lists are seriously bookmark/blogroll material. This month of February is known as Black History Month in the U.S., and below, Edi has a fantastic list of ways that educators everywhere can celebrate with substance and style.

Every teacher has a curriculum to follow and for a school librarian, it’s called information literacy. Simply put, we work not only to develop a lifelong love of reading, but how to locate, access, organize and present information.

As teachers begin to plan special projects to celebrate Black… Continue reading

What inspires you? Is it the scent of freshly mown grass, the sight of raindrops perched on a spider's web, the sound of the ocean rolling to shore or your favorite song? We are moved by what touches our six senses. And I say six because I think we have to include the sense of emotion; we’re inspired when something touches our hearts. Authors include the senses in their writing to bring the reader into the story, to make the story come alive. The senses also serve the deeper purpose, which is to inspire both the reader and the writer. We want… Continue reading

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Lee & Low Books
• Release Date:  05-31-2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 160060367X,  9781600603679
• ISBN (paperback):                                

SEEDS OF CHANGE is  picture book biography of scientist Wangari Maathai, the first African womanand first environmentalist to win a Nobel Peace Prize (in 2004), for her work planting trees in her native Kenya. The Author: Jen Cullerton Johnson Location: Chicago, IL Author Visit Information Jen Cullerton Johnson has contributed to Seeds of Change: Wangari's Gift to the World as an author. JEN CULLERTON JOHNSON is a writer, educator, and environmentalist with an MFA in Nonfiction Writing and an MEd in Curriculum Development… Continue reading

• Publication Season/Year: Spring 2010
• Publisher: Holiday House
• Release Date: March 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): 9780823419685
• ISBN (paperback): TBD                         

TIME FOR BED, BABY TED is a sweet bedtime story done in rhyme.  With vibrant, lively illustrations by Kay Chorao. It’s time for bed, but where is baby Ted?  He’s not baby Ted!  Try and guess what he is instead.  With a quack, a snack, a cluck and a tuck, a loving father prepares his child for bedtime in this charming story. The Author: Debra Sartell Location: Bay Area, California This is Debra’s bio: In college I studied child psychology, art and theatre.  Which somehow led down a crooked path of… Continue reading

I typically write New Year’s resolutions and the beginning of 2010 was no exception.  When it came to the topic of writing, one thought repeatedly came to mind: how could I “pay it forward” with my picture book.  Donations to literacy foundations,  offering as an auction item to raise money for charities and individuals, but what else?  How have you paid it forward?…

Who: Anyone What: Win one of two copies of The Secrets of the Cheese Syndicate by Donna St. Cyr When: TODAY How: Leave a comment or question on St. Cyr's interview with the Teens Read Too Book Club Blog

This week, we’re celebrating Jen Nadol’s debut! Jen Nadol grew up in Reading, PA, the hometown of John Updike, Taylor Swift and the now-defunct Monopoly railroad. She has a BA in literature from American University and has lived in Washington DC, Boston, NYC and, now resides in Westchester County, NY with her husband and three young sons. Here’s a little bit about THE MARK (Bloomsbury). Cassandra Renfield has always seen the mark – a glow around certain people reminiscent of candlelight. The one time she pointed it out, it was dismissed as a trick of the light. Cassie starts… Continue reading

• Publication Season/Year: Fall 2010
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster’s Aladdin M!x
• Release Date: Fall, 2010
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD                         

The Author: Cindy Callaghan Location: Wilmington, DE While cleaning the attic one day, Kelly Quinn, a curious sixth grader with a passion for cooking, finds a book of secret recipes bearing a warning: Beware of the Law of Returns. Using the book, Kelly starts a cooking club with her best friends, clumsy roller-skating Darbie and fashionista soccer star Hannah. The dishes from the book are delish, but they seem linked to strange occurrences at home, at school and on the soccer field. Coincidence? Kelly Quinn’s theory: There… Continue reading

• Publication Season/Year: Summer 2011
• Publisher: Flux
• Release Date: TBD
• ISBN (hardcover): TBD
• ISBN (paperback): TBD

Almira Abdul, a Middle Eastern mutt of Syrian and Iranian origins, is fifteen going on sixteen and she’s fasting for Ramadan for the first time ever.  She has to redeem herself after the disastrous events of the previous Ramadan, so she forges ahead when she’s surrounded by the temptations of food and the negativity of a cranky grandfather.  Coinciding with the holy month is her first major crush with a boy named Peter, whom her best friend Lisa is also in love with.  Peter ambiguously cozies up to her as… Continue reading

I just finished reading The Road to Tater Hill by fellow debut author Edie Hemingway and the word that keeps pulsing through my brain is "redemption".  I know it's kind of a worn-out word, but it's how I felt after reading her story. Tater Hill is a historical fiction midgrade set in the Carolina mountain country in the early 1960's. It isn't terribly fast paced, doesn't have wildly mystical elements, and doesn't take place in a fantasy world - in other words, it's not a book I would pick up at first glance. But I felt so good when I… Continue reading

Deadline is a word that always pushes my heart to maximum velocity. "Dead" conveys severe penalties, perhaps ultimate ones. "Line," an invisible mark of  digital clocks that if watched click, click, click away the day, the week, the . . .  I've made my point. The problem is most of our lives are controlled by this word. I'm thinking "taxes" at the moment. Writers work on deadlines all the time: submissions, revisions, galleys, contests, conferences, blog posts. Then there's the "other part of life:" family birthdays, home maintenance, groceries, hair. Last year with my debut novel, my calendar looked a lot… Continue reading