Alisa M. Libby's Blog, page 29

the Bodleian, dulcimers, and Conchords…all in one day

Yesterday was terrific and I’m still weary and recovering. First, there was Alumni Day at GSLIS, a whole day of programming geared toward grads of the program. In the morning, the speaker was Sarah Thomas, a GSLIS graduate who is the librarian at the Bodley Library at the University of Oxford. She told us this story about a set of books gifted to the library by King Henry V (yes, a long time ago) and in the religious upheaval during the time of King Edward VI the library was destroyed (purged of

a mind like a clean sheet of paper

I had a reading/book talk last night at the Ames Free Library in Easton, Mass. The crowd was pretty small, but very engaged and asked great questions. The alarming thing about this talk was that I totally blanked out for a very long moment, unsure of how to start talking. It was quite an off-putting experience, considering I have another book talk this Saturday at the Ashland Public Library and then a presentation I’m doing at the New England SCBWI (Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustr

presentation; book talk this Tuesday eve in Easton, MA

Today I’m working on a presentation I’ll be giving at the NE SCBWI conference in a couple weeks. It’s called “The Flesh and Bones of History” and it’s all about writing historical fiction for young adults. I’m pretty nervous about this presentation. Historical fiction is something I’m truly excited about, and I want to share my enthusiasm with my audience. They are probably already interested, or they wouldn’t have signed up for my talk. In theory I’ve got a room full of like minds–the perfect a

Spring

It’s Thursday and this week has overwhelmed me with the realities of my dual lives: one as Communications Assistant at GSLIS, the other as a “fancy book writer” (as Tom has dubbed me) who fears that she is lagging behind on her self-promotion. But how to tend to all of these tasks and still find time for sleep? Not that I’ve been doing that very well, either.

But enough of my belly-aching. My dears, it is Spring. No matter that I scraped frost off of my car window this morning - the lights are on

back to work tomorrow…

Well my dears, it’s the end of my three weeks off from work for my little book tour and writing excursion. It seems impossible to get through the last Sunday of a vacation without wondering what I have accomplished.

So how did I do? The book launch at Simmons was a great success, thank goodness, as were the other events I’ve had since March 19: two book-signings, one library visit, one book group, one visit to a writing class. I’ve done some publicity, I was in the local paper and did some blog i

today’s excitement!

The King’s Rose was nominated for YALSA’s Best Books for Young Adults list. Exciting, eh? Here is the full list of nominees. I’m in some pretty amazing company!http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/yalsa/booklistsawards/bestbooksya/titlesnominated.cfm

In other publicity news, I’ve got an interview posted on the blog of author Kris Waldherr. Kris wrote up a really interesting and insightful interview after reading the book; it was a pleasure to answer her questions. Check it out here: http://kriswaldh

Emerson visit; writing

I went to visit a fiction writing class at Emerson on Tuesday, which was fun. I took that very same class with that very same professor when I was at Emerson, so it’s pretty cool to get the chance to go back and share my experiences. It makes me wonder what I would have asked as a writing student, or what misconceptions I had about writing.

I think one misconception I had was that writing would eventually be easy. I’m not saying it doesn’t get easier, because I think it has. I have an agent and a

Art is magic: a post in honor of Bertram Moskowitz

My father was an artist. He had a den where he did his work, which was always filled with sawdust and curls of wood, tubes of paint and canvases and all kinds of other messy stuff that naturally I found fascinating as a kid. He found lots of things fascinating, and therein lies why we got along so well. We were like two peas in a pod…a sort of dorky, artsy pod.

One day he took me (not on his own or my volition, I’m quite certain) to soccer tryouts. We showed up and watched a few of my sporty frie

The Journey of The King’s Rose, continued

My first draft of Catherine’s story started from the time her mother died and she was first shipped off to live with her step-grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk. It told the story of the years she lived in the Duchess’s residencies at Horsham and Lambeth, of her first secret kisses with her music tutor, and later her first illicit love affair with the young Francis Dereham. All of this, and she hadn’t even arrived at court, yet. So I shouldn’t have been surprised when this first full dr

Boston Latin Rocks; YA Cafe also Rocks

Yesterday I met with a reading/writing group at Boston Latin; my academic neighbor, right next door to Simmons College. It was a great mix of students ranging from 8th grade to high school seniors, and all were incredibly engaged and enthusiastic about writing, which was wonderful. It’s fun for me to talk to the next generation of writers. I hope that my tales of writing and re-writing will encourage them in their endeavors, and not scare them off. Many thanks to Kerry, Sahar, Chelsea, Nora, Zar