Shaken & Stirred

Saturday Hangovers

• Catching up on LJ friendslist after a few days edition.
• Just read this Jeff Ford gem; it is to laugh.
• Cyn has an affecting remembrance of Norma Fox Mazer (there are so many out there). I had no idea that Norma Fox Mazer wrote the novelization of the Supergirl movie.
• Jo gives an update on the Montgomery County book censorship situation, which is just enraging on every level. And speaking of censorship, Adam Selzer's How to Get Suspended and Influence People* is now getting the enraging treatment.
• The subjectivity of reviews by way of the subjectivity of how Tessa Gratton feels about Kenneth Branagh. Heart this post.
• Karen rounds up some compelling stuff about communication and discourse from here and there.
• Alana Joli interviews Stacy Whitman about Tu Publishing, her new press that will focus on multicultural fantasy and science fiction for young adults.
• And now I'm off to attack the fiction, assuming the cat stops stepping on the keyboard.

*That totally would have been my high school memoir title.

Monday Hangovers

• Laurie Halse Anderson on the basics of writing picture books. 
• The sad news began circulating over the weekend that Norma Fox Mazer had passed on after battling invasive brain cancer. She will be remembered and celebrated throughout the week over at the VCFA children's/YA alum blog, Through the Tollbooth.
• Meghan has some great writing quotes.
• More love for Whip It! Which you really must see if you haven't. And, semi-related at least, Betsy tosses out some children's lit-themed roller derby names and asks for more. (See also: The more general ones in the comments on this post. My fave's OLIVIA NEUTRON BOMB.)
• Carolyn has a great profile/interview of Sherman Alexie in the LA Times.
• N.K. Jemisin offers wise words about southern racism.
• Kate Messner has more fun with Scrivener. What a great idea on the color coding of the index cards.
• Liz has a must-read summary of the FTC's clarification of its new "guidelines" at KidLitCon (oh, wish I could have gone). Sounds practically, gasp, sensible.
• Excellent news from Cat Valente--she sold Fairyland to Feiwel and Friends. Huzzah!
• The thoroughly awesome Bill Schafer gets interviewed about what nefarious and amazing hijincks Subterranean Press is up to over at Omnivoracious.

The Lessons of Despair

Junot Diaz has an excellent short essay in Oprah Magazine about the trials and tribulations of writing The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao for ten years:

That's my tale in a nutshell. Not the tale of how I came to write my novel but rather of how I became a writer. Because, in truth, I didn't become a writer the first time I put pen to paper or when I finished my first book (easy) or my second one (hard). You see, in my view a writer is a writer not because she writes well and easily, because she has amazing talent, because everything she does is golden. In my view a writer is a writer because even when there is no hope, even when nothing you do shows any sign of promise, you keep writing anyway. Wasn't until that night when I was faced with all those lousy pages that I realized, really realized, what it was exactly that I am. 

Nationally Booked

The NBA nominations are out and the Young People's Literature category is rocking it:

Deborah Heiligman, Charles and Emma: The Darwins’ Leap of Faith
(Henry Holt)
Phillip Hoose, Claudette Colvin: Twice Toward Justice
(Farrar, Straus and Giroux)
David Small, Stitches (W. W. Norton & Co.)
Laini Taylor, Lips Touch: Three Times (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic)
Rita Williams-Garcia, Jumped (HarperTeen/HarperCollins)

LAINI! WOOT! RITA! WOOT!

I actually haven't gotten to Lips Touch: Three Times (Amazon | Indiebound), but I know I will love it because Laini Taylor is an amazing person and a seriously amazing writer--her Blackbringer and Silksinger quickly became two of my favorite middle grade fantasies EVER.

And Rita William-Garcia is yet another awesome Vermont College faculty member to nab a much-deserved NBA nomination; Jumped (Amazon| Indiebound) is absolutely brilliant and it makes me wriggle with joy to see it get this kind of attention.

The rest of the nommed books look great, too, actually*. What an awesome job the judging panel did; kudos: Kathi Appelt, Coe Booth, Carolyn Coman, Nancy Werlin, and Gene Luen Yang.

Oh, and, yeah, the rest of the categories are interesting too.

*Seeing from Twitter that David Small's Stitches may not actually be a children's/YA title. WEIRD. Updated: Aha! Ron Hogan investigates and finds out that Norton considers it a cross-over title and entered it for contention in this category.

Hearted

Whip It is such a fun movie, and with a heart as big as Drew Barrymore's seems to be. What's not to like? I am sad that our local team's season just ended.

But, hey, let's come up with derby girl names anyway. I'm liking Candy Carnage and Erin Breakovitch at the moment.

Sunday Hangovers

• Maggie Stiefvater with a butt-kicking post about questions that writers can only answer for themselves.
• Someone has reposted the entire Sci Fiction archive without permission. Ellen Datlow has links and contact info for writers who would like their stories removed.
• The real missing link? Her name is Ardi.
• Both Colleen Mondor and Sara Zarr offer some perspective on banned books week and crimes involving young women. (If you are defending Roman Polanski, just UGH. What is wrong with you? You like rich people's privilege that much?)
• Alana Joli offers some interesting thoughts about urban fantasy, and then about literature and genre fiction and the Great Divide.
• That New York Times' essay by Arthur Krystal--in case you missed it--about the differences in thinking when writing vs. speaking.
• Jeff Ford recently asked for his blog readers' favorite ghost stories (short story length) for a top ten he's compiling for a class he's teaching this semester. You could do worse than reading any of the resulting stories. Any you'd add?
• Speaking of which, Ron Charles gives a good review to Audrey Niffenegger's just-out Her Fearful Symmetry, and offers a round-up of this year's best creepy, literary-flavored reads so far.
• The Elizabeth Taylor biography sounds like the chronicle of an absolute nutcaseSPLENDID.

Copious Reading

Because I have such vast swathes of free time these days, I agreed to be on the first round judging panel for the YA science fiction and fantasy division in this year's Cybils, the children's and young adult bloggers' literary awards. (You may laugh at me now.) I'm excited to be involved with the Cybils again; they seem to just keep improving the process every year. For instance, you should go over there--when you're entering your nominations, perhaps, due by midnight Oct. 15--and check out the constantly updating, attractively-displayed lists of what's been nominated so far in each category. These awards take truly amazing, cooperative feats of love and admin, not to mention vast amounts of work. Kudos to all involved.

My fellow first-round judges on the YA SFF panel are:

Panelists (Round I Judges), Teen/YA:

Steve Berman, Guys Lit Wire
Tanita S. Davis, Finding Wonderland
Nettle, The Muse, Amused
Sheila Ruth (see panel organizer)
Angie Thompson, Angieville
Samantha Wheat, Twisted Quill

This is going to be FUN. And, as I hoped, I already see several books I've been meaning to read but haven't gotten around to on our nom list. Go add your suggestions.