Rachel Hartman's Blog, page 3

More Morris!

You lucky folks, here are all the rest of our finalists at once!

Isabel Quintero interviews S. F. Henson about Devils Within.

Jeff Zentner talks to Nic Stone about Dear Martin.

And finally, Becky Albertalli’s conversation with Angie Thomas about The Hate U Give.

So many great contenders this year. I don’t envy the committee at all, I have to say. The winner will be announced as part of the ALA Youth Media Awards on Monday, Feb. 12th at 8am MT.

Congrats again to all the finalists!

Morris Award Finalist: Akemi Dawn Bowman

Time for our second Morris interview! Hop on over to Steph Keuhn’s blog, where she talks to Akemi Dawn Bowman about her debut novel, Starfish.

Morris Award Finalist: S. K. Ali

Hello darlings! It’s that time of year again, when we old Morris winners interview the new crop of up-and-comers. This year it is my distinct privilege to talk to S. K. Ali, my fellow Canadian and author of Saints and Misfits. Not only is her book up for the Morris, it also made the Canada Reads Longlist (click the link, non-Canadians, and learn).

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The fabulous cover!

I enjoyed the book very much — and it’s sometimes hard for non-fantasy to hold my attention, as most of you know. Here’s the Go...

Promo, then music

TESS got a nice write up in Bustle yesterday: The 17 Best Books Coming in February that Make the Perfect Valentines Day Dates. The mention is down at the bottom of the page, since it’s coming out at the end of February — not quite in time for Valentines. The book is also a little more heartbreaking than I personally would want for Valentines, but that’s just me. Maybe it would be well-suited for when you’re crawling out of the rubble a couple weeks later, though.

All right, whew! It’s hard ma...

Finally: February!

*blows dust off blog*

*sneezes*

Hello friends! I know it’s been a ridiculously long time. Allow me to make it up to you with flowers:

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Snowdrops!

I know they’re not the showiest, but they’re always one of the earliest, and they remind me that winter always ends. I’ve lived in this neighbourhood long enough that I know exactly which snowdrops bloom first; if you didn’t know to look behind a little low hedge, you might easily miss them.

I feel very lucky that they were there today when I went lo...

TESS OF THE ROAD: the gorgeous cover!

No long preamble, except to say I keep looking at this in close-up views because I’m madly in love with the pencil textures.

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This is not a specific scene from the book, and yet it encapsulates the book so very well. Look at her down there, my Tess, small, strong, and stubborn, staring back at the abyss.

The abyss is going to blink first.

Edited to add: Of course, like a doofus, I forgot to mention it’s available for pre-order from your local indy bookstore, as well as from Amazon and Indigo....

Tune in tomorrow

… for the TESS OF THE ROAD cover reveal!

I was originally going to show you the new SERAPHINA and SHADOW SCALE covers at the same time, but apparently those require a bit more awesomeness before they’re ready for general consumption. Which is kind of bizarre, to me, because I really liked them already. However, I trust that the publishers know their business on this, and hey, who am I to complain about having two cover reveal dates? It’s like spreading your birthday out over a whole month.

St...

Anxiety dream

I was supposed to give a talk about Tess of the Road at a library (which was also a piano bar, as is so often the case). The place was full of friends from high school (who were also construction workers, because of course they were). I entered the witness box, next to the piano, and the piano asked me, “Why, exactly, did you write this book?”

And I couldn’t remember.

I woke up in a panic, utterly convinced that this was a sign of impending Alzheimer’s disease. I managed to settle down again...

Eclipse viewing for the cautious astronomer

Super excited about the eclipse tomorrow, but worried about your eyeballs? You’re not alone. My physicist husband wouldn’t trust anything short of a welder’s glasses with a suitably high rating, and even then he’d merely feel reassured that he could quantify the damage, nothing else.

In 1994, we witnessed a partial eclipse in St. Louis, outside the physics department at Washington University. My husband said, “You can tell the theorists from the astronomers. The theorists are looking at the s...

Coming soon: cover reveal!

Thursday, August 24th, I will finally have the privilege of sharing the TESS OF THE ROAD cover with you, along with new covers for the re-release of SERAPHINA and SHADOW SCALE.

I’m so excited, y’all, and I’m glad it’s coming soon because it’s hard to keep my mouth shut. I’m really happy with these, especially TESS, and I hope you’ll enjoy them, too.

In other news: a few nice reviews are already trickling in at Goodreads. I read ALL the reviews for my first book, and none of them for my second...