Baltimore Book Festival

This was a lot of fun. Lots of people, books and some great YA authors. I stood in a gaggle of teen-aged girls (feeling extremely out of place) and listened to a debate:

Team Zombie: Justine Larbalestier, Scott Westerfeld and Carrie Ryan vs Team Unicorn: Holly Black, Kathleen Duey, Diana Peterfreund.

It was, um, interesting. All of the authors had some funny things to say. I don't really know who won the debate. I got tired.

MT Anderson was very cool and funny. I wish there had been more people there to hear him speak. Then again, it wasn't an SCBWI conference, so most of the people were just book lovers and locals wandering around. I wanted to go grab people and shake them. "Don't you know one of the most talented writers on earth is right over there!?"



(A not very good pic of MT Anderson)

He has a middle-grade book based in Delaware and as he signed my copy of Octavian Nothing, I told him I was from there and we had a laugh.







All in all, a fun event.

Mockingjay

Any Hunger Games fans out there waiting with bated breath for the final book in the trilogy? I came to the party late, and am only just now finishing Catching Fire. Don't like it as much as the first one, but I'm curious to see what the fate of these characters will be.

I'll support my local indy kid's bookstore and pick it up tomorrow. So who's looking forward to this release?

Wow

My friend K.M Walton has some HUGE news today.

Great post on never giving up

I found this on Corrine Jackson's blog. She has a great blog and I encourage you to take a look. This post by author Jodi Meadows is certainly worth reading.

Hey, I write like Ursula K. LeGuin

Who do you write like?

And be sure to check out the blog.

online writing contests

Writing is a solitary craft and we often hold our work close to the vest, sharing only with trusted critique partners.

I only share work when I feel it is worthy enough to be critiqued, free of the early blunders of those first few attempts.

That said, how do you feel about entering online contests? Miss Snark's First Victim offers quite a few and they're usually judged by a guest agent or editor. Nathan Bransford has also offered some.

The prize is usually a critique of your full manuscript. I like the idea of these contests but have never entered one.

It seems like a free-for-all or a huge casting call, with writers coming out of the woodwork with their first pages and lines, hoping they can make an impact, be the one to rise above the others. I know they can do some good, and the winners, I imagine, get a great ego boost and possibly even a match with an agent.

Ever entered one?

Game of Thrones

It's only a short peek but it's exciting. A Song of Fire and Ice is one of my favorite series. So excited to see HBO pick this up.

Winter Is Coming