Linda Joy Singleton's Blog, page 622

Carrie NEEDS your vote!

Carrie Jones, author of NEED and Flux YA's wrote on her blog:

"Kelly Fineman informed me yesterday that there is a March Madness sort of book face off over at the Smart Bitches blog[image error] and NEED (my book) is in it.  PEOPLE ARE VOTING! (Yes, I voted) AND IT LOOKS BAD FOR ME. REALLY, REALLY BAD!!!!"

I've already voted for Carrie. Anyone else?

HUGO Nominations

Just heard via Twitter that some favorites of mine have been nominated for the HUGO Awards (Science Fiction)

For the novels, two books I've read and really enjoyed:

THE GRAVEYARD BOOK by Neil Gaiman
LITTLE BROTHER by Cory Doctrow

And the nomination that pleases me the most because I watched this short film online
over and over and over, loved the actors and thrilled with the musical numbers:

DR. HORRIBLE was nominated for the Best Dramatic Presentation, Short Form.

I am now a big fan of the new TV show

What to blog about? Choices...

CHOICES, CHOICES...how to decide???

I wasn't sure what to blog about today.  Here are some things I considered but decided not to use:

* My cool review from VAMPIRE DIARIES author L.J. Smith...but you can read about that over on my blogger site (I only have 13 friends there, so if you're on blogger, friend me under LindaJoySingleton).

* The hour I was able to spend with my over-worked husband where we rode on paddle boats on our pond.

* How I wrote two new pages today on SEER #6. Small progress but

Galt Library

Headed to the Galt Library (Northern CA) today  at 2PM to show a slide presentation titled GIRL POWER IN BOOKS, following heroines from Anne of Green Gables to Nancy Drew to Zanballer (the only Z I have in my collection). Should be fun!

I'd love to give this at SCBWI events. Let me know if you're looking for speakers.

"Can't Sleep" Musing...

Since my hubby is on this horrible, terrible, no-good work schedule, leaving me alone at night and most of the day, my sleep has been uneasy.

Last night  I woke up around 2AM and kept thinking about ALL kinds of promotion ideas and other things I can do for my career.
 
I was reminded of the 3 short stories I wrote for TEEN Magazine in the 90's and the ten chiller stories I wrote for a (now gone) website that might appeal to my readers. The YA romances include ANYTHING FOR LOVE (lies & a gun), I D

Reality Show Heaven

Reality shows, how I love thee...let me count the shows:

1. American Idol -- on tonight!!  My faves are Danny and Allison.

2. Survivor -- on tomorrow. Good season with some twisty intrigue and fiction-worthy characters.

3. Amazing Race -- beautiful settings, interesting people and creative competitions. My favorite show.

My only lament...when is Project Runway coming back? I heard there's law suit drama between Bravo/Lifetime.

So what's your favorite show?

Paper or Text?

Grocery store clerks ask, "Paper or plastic?"

Readers might ask, "Paper or electronic text?" .

In the 90's I went to a castle (a converted hotel in WA) for a writing conference and became an e-book author.
 
I was already published by large publishers, packagers and small publishers. So the next frontier to experience was e-books. Editors from Hardshell Word Factory, an electronic publisher, invited authors to submit, and I did, which led to my first e-book sales, two magical YA romances, LOVE POTI

A Conversation With 6th Graders

Yesterday I drove Verla Kay to a school talk in Folsom, CA. This was an event she'd been planning for months, creating three wonderful Power Point presentations for 3 auditoriums of K-6th graders. When the organizer found out I was driving Verla (since she's been staying at my house and I'm used to driving to the Sacramento area), I was invited to speak to a 6th grade class.

I sat in on Verla's presentations, and she did AMAZING!! If you know of a school looking for an excellent speaker, ask Verl

Sharing some Asilomar SCBWI moments

Last weekend I traveled to the Monterey area for a SCBWI retreat at Asilomar. This was my 18th year of going and as always it was wonderful. Here are some highlights:

*  I shared the 4-hour drive there with Verla Kay, Linda Whalen and Danna Smith. Verla worked on her laptop and there was lots of conversation. When Verla showed her Power Point presentation, a picture of her in the snow inspired me and I came up with a picture book idea (so not usual for me!) 
 
* Beautiful weather, sunny and clear,