E.C. Myers's Blog, page 10
August 15, 2014
confessions of a male YA author
When my first YA novel,Fair Coin, was published in 2012, and I started participating in author panels, library visits, and book store events, it seemed that I was usually the only guy on the program. This wasn’t too surprising — I know that more YA books are written by women than men, so statistically speaking, it made perfect sense. For my first few panels, I even introduced myself as the “Y chromosome,” which got some laughs. But I’ve stopped using that line, because a) I don’t want to keep...
August 14, 2014
“Atlantic Rim”: A GISHWHES Story
I wrote this 140-word drabble for a friend’s GISHWHES team, to fulfill scavenger hunt item #78:“Get a previously published Sci-Fi author to write an original story (140 words max) about , the Queen of England and an Elopus.”
There was no room for a title in my submission, but I’m calling it “Atlantic Rim”, for reasons which may soon be obvious. Enjoy!
“Atlantic Rim” by E.C. Myers
Misha didn’t know why the Queen of England summoned him for an audience, but when a queen calls, you don’t let i...
August 4, 2014
new short story available today!
My short story “Kiss and Kiss and Kiss and Tell” is available today inthe anthology Kaleidoscope: Diverse YA Science Fiction and Fantasy Stories!
I’m honored to be in this collection with amazing authors Garth Nix, Karen Healey, Sean Williams, Ken Liu, Sofia Samatar, Vylar Kaftan, Amal El-Mohtar, William Alexander, Shveta Thakrar, and many more. From the flap copy:
What do a disabled superhero, a time-traveling Chinese-American figure skater, and a transgendered animal shifter have in common? T...
July 29, 2014
space camp: the final frontier
A couple of weeks ago, I was thrilled to participate in one of the most exciting and memorablethings I’ve ever done: the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop. Dubbed a “space camp for writers,” it brings together established writers, editors, and creators for an intensive, week-long crash course in astronomy: basically a semester’s worth of Astronomy 101 classes in seven days. It was breathtaking (literally—it takes place in Laramie, Wyoming, about 7,100 feet above sea level),mind-blowing, and, most...
July 3, 2014
The Silence of Six
June 20, 2014
book birthdays
Hey, today’s my birthday! It’s also the birthday of one Edward Cullen (June 20, 1901), from a little-known series called Twilight by Stephenie Meyer, as well as Jackson Meyer (June 20, 1990), the time-traveling protagonist of Julie Cross’ Tempest Trilogy.
What other book birthdays do you know? What characters do you share a birthday with?
May 23, 2014
new book deal!
The big news broke yesterday that my next novel isThe Silence of Six for Adaptive Books! Here’s the announcement from Publisher’s Weekly Children’s Bookshelf:
Appropriately enough, I’ve been silent on this for the last six months. ;) They say you should challenge yourself with each book, and I really have been pushing myself with this one. It’s so different from Fair Coin and Quantum Coin, which is fantastic because one of the things I love about YA is I can write pretty much anything I want....
May 22, 2014
the stars my destination
I have exciting news! I’m going to the Launch Pad Astronomy Workshop this summer!
Launch Pad is a “crash course” in astronomy for professional writers and editors. By learning about modern science from guest lectures and observing the stars through telescopes at the University of Wyoming, we can share that knowledge with others through our own work. I was first introduced to a lot of the science I love through books I read as a kid, like William Sleator’s Singularity and Madeline L’Engle’s A W...
May 1, 2014
we need diverse books
We need diverse books because the only book character that looked like me when I was a kid was Claudia Kishi, who admittedly is awesome.
Happy May Day, everyone!
Today is the first of three days of online campaigning for more diverse books! It seems appropriate to begin this on May 1, because May Day has become known in the U.S. as a day for promoting change. “Mayday” is also an internationally recognized distress signal, and we do need help. Mayday. Mayday. Mayday.
The call for diversity in boo...
April 26, 2014
Diversity in YA
Photo by I.W. Gregorio
Today, I was honored to speak to some amazing teen writers and readers at the Little Flower Teen Writers Festival about the importance of diversity and how to approach writing from perspectives other than their own. I promised to post some links to read more about this topic, and I hope these are useful to anyone interested in reading and writing more diverse books, even without the context of my presentation.
Art by Tina Kugler/ tinakuglerstudio.com
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