New Interview at The Day Job

penblue — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 14:25:40 +0000

Thanks, Erin, for the interview. It was interesting and fun to do. See the full thing here at The Day Job: A Writer’s Inquiry.

The Paperback Edition of Serendipity Market!

penblue — Wed, 21 Jul 2010 15:52:46 +0000

The paper edition of Serendipity Market will be coming out at the same time as Blood and Flowers — March 1, 2011 — and it will have some nifty extras in the back. Here’s the cover: SerenMark PB cvr des5-1 Just click — it’s big!

Also, I’ve had some requests from Brazil to review Blood and Flowers. That’s pretty exciting. If it were only going to be published in Portuguese as well as English.

Jacket Cover of Blood and Flowers

penblue — Thu, 01 Jul 2010 16:49:09 +0000

Finally! Here’s the jacket for the new book, due out March 1st, 2011. It’s gorgeous, it’s wonderful! I have to figure out how to make a button out of this.

And Book Smugglers said the cover was “freaky-but-beautiful”. Nice!

Serendipity Market is one of the Best Kids’ Books of 2010

penblue — Wed, 09 Jun 2010 13:07:35 +0000

Serendipity Market is linked off Oprah.com

I’m so excited! Only nine books in the ages 12 and up category and this is one of them!

Blood and Flowers update

penblue — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:40:19 +0000

I now have the first typeset copy of Blood and Flowers. It’s gorgeous, and I just finished going through it last night, making minor corrections. I hadn’t looked at it for a bit and was very pleased with how it reads. Hope to be able to post the cover soon!

Illinois Young Authors Conference

penblue — Tue, 25 May 2010 15:37:22 +0000

The Illinois Young Authors Conference was last weekend (May 14 and 15) in Normal, Illinois on the Illinois State University campus. I got to talk with about 75 8th graders about writing and publishing. I was on an open panel with Kat Falls (author of Dark Life) and we played with some amazing and interesting questions. The kids were amazing, ISU was lovely, the campus Barnes and Noble that hosted our signing was great. I handed out copies of Serendipity Market to all the 8th graders and signed for a lot of other people. I even had people ask for pictures — fun!!

A huge thanks to all the volunteers who put the conference together! I had a blast!

Shark vs Train

penblue — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 17:10:25 +0000

Okay, if you haven’t run right out to buy your copy of Shark vs Train by Chris Barton you’re really missing something. This book is brilliant and the illustrations are great. Chris also wrote the very highly acclaimed Day-Glo Brothers which has been just pulling in the awards. He’s also represented by my wonderful agent, Erin Murphy.

So get the books!!

Blood and Flowers

penblue — Tue, 23 Feb 2010 19:45:16 +0000

The new book is very definitely titled Blood and Flowers and (this is so cool) my editor just tweeted that it was one of the Winter list books that she loves! It looks like it may be out around March 2011, and since we just went through a round of copyedits that’s probably about right.

When it’s released, Serendipity Market will be re-released in paper with some extras, so it’ll be worth buying again — do it even if you’ve already got a copy!

I’m going to be speaking to 7th and 8th graders in Normal, IL in May at the Illinois Young Authors Conference. These guys have had their writing chosen in contests throughout the state — it should be fun. Perhaps pictures will even be coming.

Macmillan and Amazon

penblue — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 22:00:20 +0000

Last Friday Amazon.com removed all buy buttons from books published by Macmillan.com because Macmillan wanted to control its own e-books. Read a much better post than I could ever do about the kerfuffle at Scott Westerfeld’s blog.

This is a big deal because as we all know Amazon is pretty much the biggest bookseller anywhere and taking away an entire publishing house is just sad, bad and evil.

If there are any books you love from Macmillan, let Amazon know you want the buy buttons back! They were supposed to go back up, after a skirmish in which Macmillan refused to back down. Yes, Amazon apparently blinked, as Scott Westerfeld says. The buttons should have been back on Monday. Here it is Wednesday, and nope, no buy buttons from what I can tell.

You could tell Amazon you want those buttons back even if you don’t have a favorite Macmillan title. Better yet, go to your local independent bookstore, the places that care about authors and books, not dollars. Or, if you need to shop online, try Powells.com. Or Indie Bound.

Thanks.

Earth Hour is Coming!

penblue — Fri, 15 Jan 2010 23:11:56 +0000

Yes, it’s time again for Earth Hour (or almost time!). March 27th at 8:30 p.m. wherever you are. Play along — it’s fun to see the neighborhood go dark!