Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 12

The Scar Boys

Next in our ongoing series of Morris finalist interviews, John Corey Whaley talks to Len Vlahos about his debut novel, The Scar Boys.Go forth, ye admirers of awesome, and check it out!

The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender

And here we are with Morris interview #2 already! Elizabeth C Bunce interviews nominee Leslye Walton about her debut, The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender. Another one for your ever-growing to-read list. Congrats to Leslye!

It’s Appreciate a Dragon Day!

So I’ve been thinking how best to appreciate dragons today. If I were any kind of baker, I’d have made a cake, but since I’m a writer, I fear you’re going to have to settle for words. They’re less fattening, certainly, but maybe not quite as tasty.

Over at Suvudu, they’re celebrating by excerpting the first chapter of Shadow Scale. I know some of you are being patient and won’t go for that, since it will just leave you hungry for more (hm! Maybe words are tastier than I give them credit for)....

News flashes

* Tomorrow is Appreciate a Dragon Day! No, really, I wouldn’t lie about something that important. I’m still figuring out my best course of action. I think I’m going to take mine out to dinner and then spend a relaxing evening watching Constantine. Maybe we’ll play Munchkin with the little dragon. How about you?

* Bay Area friends! This one’s really happening: I’m going to be speaking, reading, or maybe even singing at Not Your Mother’s Book Club in Palo Alto on February 2nd at 7pm! Full info h...

Gabi, A Girl in Pieces

And the first of our Morris nominee interviews is live! Today, Steph Kuehn (last year’s winner, who I interviewed here) talks to Isabel Quintero about her debut novel,Gabi, A Girl in Pieces.

The interview atSteph’s site

Isabel Quintero’s site

Coming soon: this year’s Morris interviews

ALA Midwinter is coming up, friends, and bringing with it many fabulous book awards. The William C. Morris Award is for the year’s best YA debut. Seraphina won it a few years ago, you may recall. Every year, in a lovely tradition begun by the first Morris winner, Elizabeth C. Bunce, past winners interview this year’s crop of nominees. Here’s the schedule for this year’s interviews, and where they will be posted. If you haven’t read any of the nominees, I encourage you to check them out. These...

2015 event updates

So my Appearances page, which was apparently stuck in 2012, has now been updated to reflect the Near Future. There’s still some vagueness to it all, unfortunately, but I’ll be sharpening things up as soon as I can.

My soonest jaunt will be to Toronto for the Ontario Library Association’s Superconference. Whee! Librarians are awesome. I doubt that’s open to the public, however. Will there be a public event? Not sure yet. Like I said: we’re still a little vague around the edges.

The first week of...

Perish perfectionism

I’m sick today, but well enough to write. In fact, I particularly wanted to write to see whether being sick helps keep my occasionalceaseless perfectionism in check. Indeed, it does, although maybe a bit too much. The end result was an exploratory exercise, wherein I write in a slow circle around a subject and learn a lot about it as a result. These aren’t usually suited for inclusion in the book, but they give me a good view of what I might write that would be. It’s like a spyglass fashioned...

To Shorten Winter’s Sadnesse

Here’s another of my favourite wintertime songs. Sorry the visuals aren’t much; there were surprisingly few versions to choose from on the old YouTubes.

That’s by Thomas Weelkes, whom you may know as the composer of such popular hits as “Hark, All Ye Lovely Saints Above,” and “O Care, Thou Wilt Dispatch Me.”

I don’t have much to tie this one in with writing, except to say that the Madrigalians sing it sometimes, and singing helps keep me writing happily and well. Singing is Old Nappy to my writ...

Summer-in-Winter

I know it’s not winter everywhere now. My sister, who spent a couple years in Australia, never fails to chide me for being northern-hemisphere-centric. This song, however, is about summer, and if you could use a little bit of warmth right now, this is for you:

It’s an ancient and famous Irish song, and the title as given means “Summer, Summer.” It is more commonly named after its refrain, “Thugamar Féin An Samhradh Linn,” which means “We bring the summer with us.” The song is traditionally sun...