Elizabeth Wein's Blog, page 5
January 30, 2013
Printz Honor
I wanted to make this post kind of special, so I am writing it from a High Place. Which is in fact the Knock in Crieff, Scotland, and I have taken pictures of the surrounding view for you. And the fact that it is blowing a gale will maybe make me keep it brief.
It probably hasn’t escaped a lot of you that Code Name Verity was named a Printz Honor Book by the American Library Assoication in their Youth Media Awards announced on Monday for the year 2012. For those not savvy with the ins & outs of the ALA: the Printz is like the Newbery except it’s for young adult books. This is the highest literary honor ever given to anything I have ever written.
Remember back in May 2010, here, when I said this was the Best Damn Book I’ve Ever Written? Well, I have been writing and publishing under-the-radar books for twenty years - TWENTY YEARS - and it feels so very, very good to have one that is out there flying in the sunlight.
The full ALA Youth Media Awards list is here. There were a lot of surprises this year, and I feel extremely lucky and SO GRATEFUL to the Printz Committee for selecting CNV to be listed as one of this year’s honor books. The other honor books were Terry Pratchett's Dodger, Beverly Brenna's The White Bicycle, and Benjamin Alire Saenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. The winner of the Printz Award for 2013 is Nick Lake for In Darkness.
I knew that one of the perks would be SILVER STICKERS. But I didn’t realize there would be so many flowers involved!
And now my hands are frozen, so I’m hiking back down the Knock to continue revising the next book.
Love to all.
It probably hasn’t escaped a lot of you that Code Name Verity was named a Printz Honor Book by the American Library Assoication in their Youth Media Awards announced on Monday for the year 2012. For those not savvy with the ins & outs of the ALA: the Printz is like the Newbery except it’s for young adult books. This is the highest literary honor ever given to anything I have ever written.
Remember back in May 2010, here, when I said this was the Best Damn Book I’ve Ever Written? Well, I have been writing and publishing under-the-radar books for twenty years - TWENTY YEARS - and it feels so very, very good to have one that is out there flying in the sunlight.
The full ALA Youth Media Awards list is here. There were a lot of surprises this year, and I feel extremely lucky and SO GRATEFUL to the Printz Committee for selecting CNV to be listed as one of this year’s honor books. The other honor books were Terry Pratchett's Dodger, Beverly Brenna's The White Bicycle, and Benjamin Alire Saenz's Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe. The winner of the Printz Award for 2013 is Nick Lake for In Darkness.
I knew that one of the perks would be SILVER STICKERS. But I didn’t realize there would be so many flowers involved!
And now my hands are frozen, so I’m hiking back down the Knock to continue revising the next book.
Love to all.
December 24, 2012
Code Name Verity audio giveaway winner and some interview links
The winner of the CNV audio giveaway is
anderyn
. In between announcing this giveaway and announcing its results, CNV has been chosen by ALA Booklist for its 'Top of the List' award for best audiobook of 2012! CNV has made a lot of "best of 2012" lists, but this was one is a delight that really came out of left field for me.
I have done a lot of blog interviews in the past month, and although I've been tweeting them as they come up, I don't think I've mentioned most of them here. So here's a rundown of the links. With the exception of the Smugglivus post on Booksmugglers, this is mostly CNV-related chat. Yes, it is all original content, what kind of a blogger do you think I am? (Although there's probably some crossover in the answers.)
Enjoy... and have a wonderful holiday. Hope some of you are enjoying better weather than us (Perthshire is now officially the wettest place in the UK since 19 Dec.)
Interview with Ann Giles, aka Bookwitch, 12.12.12 This one is illuminated with some interesting pictures including Maddie's house in Stockport and Lysander "Pilot's Notes"!
'Me and My Kindle" - Smugglivus 2012 Guest Author post on the Booksmugglers, 8 December 2012
YA's The Word interview with Katja Weinert, 27 November 2012
anderyn
. In between announcing this giveaway and announcing its results, CNV has been chosen by ALA Booklist for its 'Top of the List' award for best audiobook of 2012! CNV has made a lot of "best of 2012" lists, but this was one is a delight that really came out of left field for me.I have done a lot of blog interviews in the past month, and although I've been tweeting them as they come up, I don't think I've mentioned most of them here. So here's a rundown of the links. With the exception of the Smugglivus post on Booksmugglers, this is mostly CNV-related chat. Yes, it is all original content, what kind of a blogger do you think I am? (Although there's probably some crossover in the answers.)
Enjoy... and have a wonderful holiday. Hope some of you are enjoying better weather than us (Perthshire is now officially the wettest place in the UK since 19 Dec.)
Interview with Ann Giles, aka Bookwitch, 12.12.12 This one is illuminated with some interesting pictures including Maddie's house in Stockport and Lysander "Pilot's Notes"!
'Me and My Kindle" - Smugglivus 2012 Guest Author post on the Booksmugglers, 8 December 2012
YA's The Word interview with Katja Weinert, 27 November 2012
December 21, 2012
christmas in scotland (attn Pl@ymobil fans)
IrnBru seems to be inextricably linked to Christmas here for some reason, and ice rinks, so my holiday photos run in an endless loop of ice and light and bubble-gum flavored soda. Or whatever the heck that flavor is.
The supermarkets are ready!!
And the ice rink at Dundee. Every. Single Item. on this menu just cracks me up.
If the ice rink cafe is closed (which it often is at 7.30 a.m. when we turn up for Sara's lesson), you can still get IrnBru in the vending machines:
We spent a lot of time at the Dundee ice rink in December, because the Ice Skating Club was gearing up for their winter extravaganza, Shrek on Ice (Sara was a soldier). Here's the background. I stared at it for a long time, trying to figure out which mythical country it was supposed to be, till suddenly I recognized the castle. It's EDINBURGH.
OK, moving on then? Here we are back at home. I have ordered old-fashioned glass bulb Xmas lights from Noma, the oldest worldwide distributor of Xmas lights, est. 1926. These lights are so freaking beautiful they make me cry. Not a single picture I can take does them justice. But anyway here's our tree with just the lights on:
... And here it is fully decorated:
... And here it is in daylight, with Playmobil Christmas Tree Village added by Mark (at my request):
It is a SCOTTISH Christmas Tree Village, with a CURLING POND. Surely someone is drinking an IrnBru in that chalet.
... Interior of chalet:
AND THE CURLING POND. (though the figure in the back is an ice skater):
Sara's contribution, created in Home Ec. Even our gingerbread house is Scottish - yes, that is a Saltire!
Have a happy holiday season - don't worry, we're enjoying it without IrnBru despite the pressure.
The supermarkets are ready!!
And the ice rink at Dundee. Every. Single Item. on this menu just cracks me up.
If the ice rink cafe is closed (which it often is at 7.30 a.m. when we turn up for Sara's lesson), you can still get IrnBru in the vending machines:
We spent a lot of time at the Dundee ice rink in December, because the Ice Skating Club was gearing up for their winter extravaganza, Shrek on Ice (Sara was a soldier). Here's the background. I stared at it for a long time, trying to figure out which mythical country it was supposed to be, till suddenly I recognized the castle. It's EDINBURGH.
OK, moving on then? Here we are back at home. I have ordered old-fashioned glass bulb Xmas lights from Noma, the oldest worldwide distributor of Xmas lights, est. 1926. These lights are so freaking beautiful they make me cry. Not a single picture I can take does them justice. But anyway here's our tree with just the lights on:
... And here it is fully decorated:
... And here it is in daylight, with Playmobil Christmas Tree Village added by Mark (at my request):
It is a SCOTTISH Christmas Tree Village, with a CURLING POND. Surely someone is drinking an IrnBru in that chalet.
... Interior of chalet:
AND THE CURLING POND. (though the figure in the back is an ice skater):
Sara's contribution, created in Home Ec. Even our gingerbread house is Scottish - yes, that is a Saltire!
Have a happy holiday season - don't worry, we're enjoying it without IrnBru despite the pressure.
December 13, 2012
lifetime sports
In the last week I have tried two things I never did before - gliding and curling. Yeah, I know, call me THE RANDOM WOMAN! Or maybe not so random. Tim gave me the gliding voucher as a Christmas present last year and it has taken me this long to get around to redeeming it (I have been trying, but the weather has not been cooperative). And curling… why? I don’t know. Because it is Scottish.
My gliding “mini-course” took place at the Scottish Gliding Centre at Portmoak a couple of days ago - one of the clearest, coldest most glorious winter days we can ask for in these parts, perfect for flying in a powered aircraft, but not quite windy enough for good gliding. I got to take over the controls and practice my soaring skills for about an hour but that was pretty much it (which means I get to go back and have another go!). I did get to go up twice, but the second time we had a rather interesting experience alongside this lump of rock...
... where it was pretty obvious to me that we weren’t going anywhere but down, and it also felt like we were being blown closer and closer to these crags (I don’t have my own pictures of being up-close-and-personal with these crags, because I figured at this point the pilot really didn’t need the distraction of me being a casual tourist). All was well in the end, and we even managed to land in the right place, but my instructor, Chris, willingly pointed out all the “Plan B” landing places.
This is the plane I flew:
(It is a Schleicher ASK-21, and it makes me ridiculously happy that the first glider I have ever flown is a state-of-the-art training glider from Germany.)
There was another guy on the course taking turns with me, and he got lucky with the wind, which is why I didn’t get more gliding action. So I spent most of the day on the ground working as a gopher. Which was HUGELY fun. I did the radio to the winch operator at the other end of the field, telling him when a glider was ready to be launched - the radio is in the little caravan you can see behind the plane. You can’t really see it in the photo, but there is also a 4x4 jeep-type vehicle with tractor tires parked behind the caravan, used for towing gliders from the hangar to the launch site and back. It is a measure of my supreme geekiness that the most thrilling thing I did that day was DRIVE THE 4x4 TOWING A GLIDER BEHIND ME. (The glider remained on the ground, people, on the ground. I towed it across the field-turned-ice-rink from the hangar to the launch site and back.) Actually, part of the thrill of towing the glider was the matter-of-fact way they roped me into doing it - “You need to drive, because I have to walk beside the plane and hold the wing. Just keep it in second and take your foot off the clutch and it’ll go at walking speed.” You have to hang your head out the window to watch the guy behind you in case he wants you to stop - the 4x4 is too muddy to see out the back window or in the wing mirrors. “Thanks, mate.” (“Thanks, mate.” Maddie hugged herself with pride and pleasure. I’m one of them.)
I was absolutely frozen afterward. It was actually colder flying the plane, because you’re not moving (or only moving your hands and feet), than it was running about on an open field for 4 hours in below-freezing temps. My hands, which were gloved the whole time, are chapped. If I were to do it again I would wear long underwear, snow boots, and ski gloves. Although I’d dressed warmly, of course I’d dressed as I would for powered flight in a marginally heated cockpit!
You know what’s neat about gliding? You wear a glider. It’s an accessory, like skis, not a thing you sit in and drive, like a car. You can steer it with your head under the right conditions. And you can see absolutely everywhere, all the sky above and around you. It is much more like flying than any flying I’ve ever done.
I don’t know if I will take up gliding. Everyone I talked to at the gliding club confessed to being autistic. (I think they were joking.) Hanging out with bell ringers does prepare you for this type of personality, and they were an incredibly friendly bunch of people, and I really liked the way everybody on the airfield had to jump in and help each other - when you’re flying a powered aircraft you’re very much on your own on the ground unless you pester people. But my gosh, the amount of fluffing about involved. What a time suck. You don’t just go for a buzz for an hour. I think I need to retire if I am going to get serious about this.
---------------------
Back on earth, I have now had two curling lessons at the ice rink in Perth, and I think I have finally found my winter sport. Every single bit of it is fun. Even when you aren’t doing anything, sliding around on the ice is fun. (There is an art to walking on the ice in your curling shoes - or rather, Mark’s curling shoes - that I was previously unaware of.) It is incredible how sweeping can keep a stone going. And once you figure out what is going on, it is all so strategic. I am really hoping it will enhance my shuffleboard skills for next summer...
It’s also cheap and convenient (I can walk to the curling rink); and, as winter sports go, fairly low risk. Plus it is WARMER THAN GLIDING.
My gliding “mini-course” took place at the Scottish Gliding Centre at Portmoak a couple of days ago - one of the clearest, coldest most glorious winter days we can ask for in these parts, perfect for flying in a powered aircraft, but not quite windy enough for good gliding. I got to take over the controls and practice my soaring skills for about an hour but that was pretty much it (which means I get to go back and have another go!). I did get to go up twice, but the second time we had a rather interesting experience alongside this lump of rock...
... where it was pretty obvious to me that we weren’t going anywhere but down, and it also felt like we were being blown closer and closer to these crags (I don’t have my own pictures of being up-close-and-personal with these crags, because I figured at this point the pilot really didn’t need the distraction of me being a casual tourist). All was well in the end, and we even managed to land in the right place, but my instructor, Chris, willingly pointed out all the “Plan B” landing places.
This is the plane I flew:
(It is a Schleicher ASK-21, and it makes me ridiculously happy that the first glider I have ever flown is a state-of-the-art training glider from Germany.)
There was another guy on the course taking turns with me, and he got lucky with the wind, which is why I didn’t get more gliding action. So I spent most of the day on the ground working as a gopher. Which was HUGELY fun. I did the radio to the winch operator at the other end of the field, telling him when a glider was ready to be launched - the radio is in the little caravan you can see behind the plane. You can’t really see it in the photo, but there is also a 4x4 jeep-type vehicle with tractor tires parked behind the caravan, used for towing gliders from the hangar to the launch site and back. It is a measure of my supreme geekiness that the most thrilling thing I did that day was DRIVE THE 4x4 TOWING A GLIDER BEHIND ME. (The glider remained on the ground, people, on the ground. I towed it across the field-turned-ice-rink from the hangar to the launch site and back.) Actually, part of the thrill of towing the glider was the matter-of-fact way they roped me into doing it - “You need to drive, because I have to walk beside the plane and hold the wing. Just keep it in second and take your foot off the clutch and it’ll go at walking speed.” You have to hang your head out the window to watch the guy behind you in case he wants you to stop - the 4x4 is too muddy to see out the back window or in the wing mirrors. “Thanks, mate.” (“Thanks, mate.” Maddie hugged herself with pride and pleasure. I’m one of them.)
I was absolutely frozen afterward. It was actually colder flying the plane, because you’re not moving (or only moving your hands and feet), than it was running about on an open field for 4 hours in below-freezing temps. My hands, which were gloved the whole time, are chapped. If I were to do it again I would wear long underwear, snow boots, and ski gloves. Although I’d dressed warmly, of course I’d dressed as I would for powered flight in a marginally heated cockpit!
You know what’s neat about gliding? You wear a glider. It’s an accessory, like skis, not a thing you sit in and drive, like a car. You can steer it with your head under the right conditions. And you can see absolutely everywhere, all the sky above and around you. It is much more like flying than any flying I’ve ever done.
I don’t know if I will take up gliding. Everyone I talked to at the gliding club confessed to being autistic. (I think they were joking.) Hanging out with bell ringers does prepare you for this type of personality, and they were an incredibly friendly bunch of people, and I really liked the way everybody on the airfield had to jump in and help each other - when you’re flying a powered aircraft you’re very much on your own on the ground unless you pester people. But my gosh, the amount of fluffing about involved. What a time suck. You don’t just go for a buzz for an hour. I think I need to retire if I am going to get serious about this.
---------------------
Back on earth, I have now had two curling lessons at the ice rink in Perth, and I think I have finally found my winter sport. Every single bit of it is fun. Even when you aren’t doing anything, sliding around on the ice is fun. (There is an art to walking on the ice in your curling shoes - or rather, Mark’s curling shoes - that I was previously unaware of.) It is incredible how sweeping can keep a stone going. And once you figure out what is going on, it is all so strategic. I am really hoping it will enhance my shuffleboard skills for next summer...
It’s also cheap and convenient (I can walk to the curling rink); and, as winter sports go, fairly low risk. Plus it is WARMER THAN GLIDING.
December 5, 2012
Goodreads Choice Awards are over (*phew*)... and another giveaway (audio CNV!)
The Goodreads Choice Award results are in! The winner in the Young Adult Category is John Green’s
The Fault in Our Stars
. Code Name Verity placed 7th as a finalist, which I think is phenomenal.
Because, well, the name of the award says it all - it’s a readers’ choice. I confess to sneaking a look at the ratios behind the number of votes the finalists got and the number of Goodreads ratings they have. I won’t list them here, but most of the finalists received between 25 and 40 percent the number of Choice Award votes in relation to their number of Goodreads ratings.
The book to watch in the Young Adult category is Never Fall Down , Patricia McCormick’s moving fictional account of the life of Arn Chorn-Pond as a survivor of the Khmer-Rouge genocide in Cambodia. It has very few Goodreads ratings, but it has MORE VOTES THAN RATINGS. A voter/rating ratio of slightly over 100 %. If you read it… I think you’re likely to love it.
Code Name Verity has a voter/rating score of 98 %.
Which is freaking awesome. CNV Special Ops ROCKS. Thank you, fierce wonderful readers. THANK YOU.
---------------------------------
There was a CNV giveaway on Goodreads connected with the Goodreads Choice Awards, and the winners are Sadie, Roselyn, and Bethany Miller.
In gratitude for putting up with all this Goodreads Choice Awards propaganda I’ve been bombarding you with for the past month or so, which is really kinda boring, I’m giving away an MP3 ready copy of the wonderful audio book of Code Name Verity (signed of course), read by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell. They are spectacular. Comment if you’d like to enter the giveaway! Ends 21 December 2012.
I do not really enjoy self-promotion, but I LOVE YOU PEOPLE.
Because, well, the name of the award says it all - it’s a readers’ choice. I confess to sneaking a look at the ratios behind the number of votes the finalists got and the number of Goodreads ratings they have. I won’t list them here, but most of the finalists received between 25 and 40 percent the number of Choice Award votes in relation to their number of Goodreads ratings.
The book to watch in the Young Adult category is Never Fall Down , Patricia McCormick’s moving fictional account of the life of Arn Chorn-Pond as a survivor of the Khmer-Rouge genocide in Cambodia. It has very few Goodreads ratings, but it has MORE VOTES THAN RATINGS. A voter/rating ratio of slightly over 100 %. If you read it… I think you’re likely to love it.
Code Name Verity has a voter/rating score of 98 %.
Which is freaking awesome. CNV Special Ops ROCKS. Thank you, fierce wonderful readers. THANK YOU.
---------------------------------
There was a CNV giveaway on Goodreads connected with the Goodreads Choice Awards, and the winners are Sadie, Roselyn, and Bethany Miller.
In gratitude for putting up with all this Goodreads Choice Awards propaganda I’ve been bombarding you with for the past month or so, which is really kinda boring, I’m giving away an MP3 ready copy of the wonderful audio book of Code Name Verity (signed of course), read by Morven Christie and Lucy Gaskell. They are spectacular. Comment if you’d like to enter the giveaway! Ends 21 December 2012.
I do not really enjoy self-promotion, but I LOVE YOU PEOPLE.
December 3, 2012
Linky linky!
Check out all the authors I’ve tagged in The Next Big Thing!
Erin Bow
Jeanette Cheney
Tanita Davis
Sarah Hilary
Rosanne Rivers
In the meantime, since not all these authors have their posts up yet, here are a couple more to check out:
Erin Johnson, who hasn’t tagged anyone herself. She has a nice rec for my Next Big Thing post on her own entry, and is a fellow SCBWI British Isles member, so I thought I’d tag her back. Erin is working on a doctorate at Oxford, researching masculinity in the works of the Brontës, and is also working on a young adult historical fantasy called Belladonna.
James Bow, who is Erin Bow’s husband and tagged in her blog post too - he’s working on a book called Icarus Down, YA sci-fi, inspired by a dream about a boy who tries to fly around the world on a kite. This is one I’m going to be reading!
I’ve also got an interview up with Katja Weinert on her blog at YA’s the Word, here, and I’ll be making a guest appearance on Saturday on the Booksmugglers to join in their Smugglivus celebration.
Erin Bow
Jeanette Cheney
Tanita Davis
Sarah Hilary
Rosanne Rivers
In the meantime, since not all these authors have their posts up yet, here are a couple more to check out:
Erin Johnson, who hasn’t tagged anyone herself. She has a nice rec for my Next Big Thing post on her own entry, and is a fellow SCBWI British Isles member, so I thought I’d tag her back. Erin is working on a doctorate at Oxford, researching masculinity in the works of the Brontës, and is also working on a young adult historical fantasy called Belladonna.
James Bow, who is Erin Bow’s husband and tagged in her blog post too - he’s working on a book called Icarus Down, YA sci-fi, inspired by a dream about a boy who tries to fly around the world on a kite. This is one I’m going to be reading!
I’ve also got an interview up with Katja Weinert on her blog at YA’s the Word, here, and I’ll be making a guest appearance on Saturday on the Booksmugglers to join in their Smugglivus celebration.
November 21, 2012
The Next Big Thing (and a sneak peek at My Next Book)
I have always been pretty jealous of debut writers' groups who get together and sing each other's praises and find solidarity in a communal marketing plan for their first books - and then continue to support each other as their careers build. I made my publishing debut in 1993, not quite before the internet (remember Genie, anyone?) - but, yeah. Not the same.
But now! The internet is my friend. And at the moment there's a great meme going around among authors' blogs called 'The Next Big Thing,' where everybody promotes everybody else. You Reveal All (or a bit, anyway!) about your next book, and then you tag five other authors (whose work you like, and whom you think might be The Next Big Thing) to Reveal All about their own WIP the following week.
Teresa Flavin tagged me. We met at a reception given by Teen Titles during the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. I was delighted to meet her because she'd designed the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators British Isles (SCBWI BI) logo:
We originally requested it for our masthead for Words & Pictures, the SCBWI BI newsletter which was my baby and brainchild in 1996. Teresa, like me, is an American ex-pat living in Scotland. She's the illustrator of a number of picture books, but now has headed into YA territory - her second novel, The Crimson Shard , is just out from Candlewick Press in the US. Here's her website; and here’s her 'Next Big Thing' post.
And now, my own 'Next Big Thing' question time!
• 1) What is the working title of your next book?
It didn't have a title for a long time and everybody just called it 'Rose's book.' But the real title will probably be Rose Under Fire.
• 2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
The book is about a young American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot, Rose Justice, who is delivering planes and taxiing pilots for the RAF in the UK just after D-Day (summer 1944). For one reason and another she ends up 'uncertain of position' over enemy lines and is forced to land at a German airfield - she's then sent to the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück.
I give this background before answering the question because the answer is, a book about Ravensbrück has been simmering in me for most of my life. Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place was my first introduction to World War II, when I was about eight. I had a Ravensbrück plot line going when I was 12. When I read Mary Ann Shaffer's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the memory of what I knew about Ravensbrück rose to the surface and grabbed me by the throat.
Nabokov talks about how a short story can grow 'the wings and fangs of a novel.' I think it is fair to say that my early story (what might be called 'juvenilia') has 'grown wings.'
• 3) What genre does your book fall under?
'Historical Fiction.' Ptbbbb ptbbb ptbbbb :P
• 4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Ohhhh…. Who could play Rose?
Katharine Hepburn, maybe? Rose is supposed to look a little like Katharine Hepburn, a cross between Hepburn and Amelia Earhart, tall and freckled and wholesome, well-heeled but from a small town in Pennsylvania.
• 5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
See question 2, above? 'Young American ATA pilot Rose Justice ends up in a concentration camp in Germany.' Hmm, I might have to work on that - it sounds dire. And Rose is very resilient and determined.
• 6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
My book is under contract with the same editors who published Code Name Verity, namely Stella Paskins at Egmont UK (with the Electric Monkey imprint), Catherine Onder at Disney Hyperion in the US, and Janice Weaver (filling in for Amy Black on maternity leave) at Doubleday in Canada.
• 7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Two years. One thing I haven't mentioned is that Rose is a budding poet - so the manuscript includes several of her poems. These actually stalled me quite a bit and were the hardest part of the book to write.
They were also wonderful to write, because they were such hard work. Rose is not as accomplished a poet as me, not as experienced a reader as me, and has a different writing style to mine anyway. So I had to make Rose's poems sound like Rose's poems, not E. Wein's, and this was a real challenge.
I actually wrote several of her Ravensbrück poems on site at Ravensbrück. I would go back in a minute just to be able to be that productive again.
• 8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Dudes. I am unique.
Haha. I am only half kidding. I don't know any other books about girl pilots in concentration camps. I don't know any other books, other than non-fiction, about a women's concentration camp. I confess that most of my concentration camp reading has been non-fiction, so I can't really compare Rose's book to other books within my 'genre.' It's probably more like Micheline Maurel's An Ordinary Camp than anything else ('An Ordinary Camp' is a title I really, really like - it means, 'not a death camp'), right down to the poetry she includes. I am pretty sure Rose's book is not like The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne or Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, but I have not read those, so I may be wrong. It is nothing like Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic, which I have read.
Remember I said the sort-of working title was 'Rose's book'? Not 'the Ravensbrück book,' but 'Rose's book.' Like everything I write, it is character driven. How this character, how Rose deals with the setting is what I'm interested in.
• 9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
It was partly because while I was researching Code Name Verity I discovered that about 20 per cent of the female Special Operations Executive agents sent into occupied France ended up in Ravensbrück. It was partly that the Shaffer book reawakened my interest in Ravensbrück. But if I had to name one person, I think it would have to be Wanda Półtawska. Her book, And I Am Afraid of My Dreams, chronicles her own imprisonment in Ravensbrück. She was subjected to horrific experimentation and eventually, she, along with her fellow experimental 'Rabbits,' staged a quiet revolt against the camp administration which I've attempted to recreate in fictional form.
Wanda Półtawska's Wikipedia page, translated from Polish)
Wanda Półtawska speaking in a report about Pope John Paul II
• 10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
EXPLOSIONS. Because, seriously, what thriller doesn't have explosions?
There are a couple of themes that weave throughout the text of Rose's book, and one of these is the flying bomb - otherwise known as buzz bomb, doodlebug, pilotless plane, or V-1 retaliation weapon. These were essentially the first 'guided missiles' and were launched at London throughout the summer of 1944. They figure significantly in the plot - first because they are a threat to Rose on the ground in England, later as a threat to her in the air over France, and finally because as a prisoner she finds herself put to work making flying bomb fuses.
So, the book has a lot of flying in it, too (and seriously, the miracle of flight ought to rock your world a little).
---------------------------------------------
There!
And now, in alphabetical order, here are five other writers you should check out, who are going to answer the same questions NEXT week. Check back and see what they have to say about The Next Big Thing.
Erin Bow (blog here) is the lyrical author of the young adult novel Plain Kate, which won the Canadian Children's Literature Award in 2011. Her eagerly awaited second YA novel, Sorrow's Knot, is due out any moment now, and she's got a truly tantalizing list of works-in-progress. Erin has also published collections of poetry for adults.
Jeanette Cheney (who is exactly 17 days younger than me) has an impressive list of short fiction to her name in various science fiction and fantasy publications - her persistence is about to pay off, with novels Of Blood and Brandy and The Seat of Magic to be published by Penguin Books in Autumn 2013 and Spring 2014. We met at Worldcon in Glasgow in 2005 and clicked on a writerly and emotional level. She has Airedales.
Tanita Davis and I met through Finding Wonderland: The Writing YA Blog, which Tanita writes in conjuction with two other bloggers, aquafortis and citysmartgirl. I'm pretty sure
sdn
(Viking and Firebirds editor Sharyn November) introduced us. When Tanita and I discovered we were both ex-pats living in Scotland (do you sense a theme?), we became friends, and remain a Mutual Admiration Society in terms of books. My favorite of Tanita's is still her Coretta Scott King Award Honor Book Mare's War, about the only black women's regiment to be stationed in Europe during World War II. Her most recent young adult book is Happy Families.
Sarah Hilary and I met online because I commented on an achingly lovely Rebecca fanfic she'd written. It turned out that we both started school in Wilmslow, Cheshire, within a couple of years of each other, and were both lifetime Alan Garner fans. Sarah is a virtuoso flash fiction and short story writer, hugely versatile and prolific, with a singing prose style which is quirky and gritty and brilliant all at the same time. She won the Sense Creative Award in 2010 and was the Most Read Author at Every Day Fiction during their inaugural year. I am pretty well convinced she has a runaway hit crime novel waiting in the wings.
Rosanne Rivers is a fellow SCBWI BI member and the author of the Young Adult romance/thriller After the Fear, which debuts in December 2012. She's also got a blog focused on topics of interest to writers and readers. We met via the SCBWI BI online discussion group where 'The Next Big Thing' has been doing the rounds like a game of tag!
If you want to click around and read what other writers' 'Next Big Thing' entries are NOW, check back to Teresa's blog - or do a google search and see what turns up! The nice thing about this meme is that you don't need to be tagged to start your own chain, so get to work, kids!
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And finally, I thot I'd stick these in for color. Um, pun intended. Taken yesterday about 3.30 pm. Can't possibly do this rainbow justice, as I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture - two complete arches. Also, I am not good at adjusting the light on my camera. It was all MUCH MORE INTENSE in reality.
The first two pics were taken at the back of our house, and the last two in the front garden.
But now! The internet is my friend. And at the moment there's a great meme going around among authors' blogs called 'The Next Big Thing,' where everybody promotes everybody else. You Reveal All (or a bit, anyway!) about your next book, and then you tag five other authors (whose work you like, and whom you think might be The Next Big Thing) to Reveal All about their own WIP the following week.
Teresa Flavin tagged me. We met at a reception given by Teen Titles during the Edinburgh International Book Festival in August. I was delighted to meet her because she'd designed the Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators British Isles (SCBWI BI) logo:
We originally requested it for our masthead for Words & Pictures, the SCBWI BI newsletter which was my baby and brainchild in 1996. Teresa, like me, is an American ex-pat living in Scotland. She's the illustrator of a number of picture books, but now has headed into YA territory - her second novel, The Crimson Shard , is just out from Candlewick Press in the US. Here's her website; and here’s her 'Next Big Thing' post.
And now, my own 'Next Big Thing' question time!
• 1) What is the working title of your next book?
It didn't have a title for a long time and everybody just called it 'Rose's book.' But the real title will probably be Rose Under Fire.
• 2) Where did the idea come from for the book?
The book is about a young American Air Transport Auxiliary pilot, Rose Justice, who is delivering planes and taxiing pilots for the RAF in the UK just after D-Day (summer 1944). For one reason and another she ends up 'uncertain of position' over enemy lines and is forced to land at a German airfield - she's then sent to the women's concentration camp at Ravensbrück.
I give this background before answering the question because the answer is, a book about Ravensbrück has been simmering in me for most of my life. Corrie Ten Boom's The Hiding Place was my first introduction to World War II, when I was about eight. I had a Ravensbrück plot line going when I was 12. When I read Mary Ann Shaffer's The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, the memory of what I knew about Ravensbrück rose to the surface and grabbed me by the throat.
Nabokov talks about how a short story can grow 'the wings and fangs of a novel.' I think it is fair to say that my early story (what might be called 'juvenilia') has 'grown wings.'
• 3) What genre does your book fall under?
'Historical Fiction.' Ptbbbb ptbbb ptbbbb :P
• 4) What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?
Ohhhh…. Who could play Rose?
Katharine Hepburn, maybe? Rose is supposed to look a little like Katharine Hepburn, a cross between Hepburn and Amelia Earhart, tall and freckled and wholesome, well-heeled but from a small town in Pennsylvania.
• 5) What is the one sentence synopsis of your book?
See question 2, above? 'Young American ATA pilot Rose Justice ends up in a concentration camp in Germany.' Hmm, I might have to work on that - it sounds dire. And Rose is very resilient and determined.
• 6) Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?
My book is under contract with the same editors who published Code Name Verity, namely Stella Paskins at Egmont UK (with the Electric Monkey imprint), Catherine Onder at Disney Hyperion in the US, and Janice Weaver (filling in for Amy Black on maternity leave) at Doubleday in Canada.
• 7) How long did it take you to write the first draft of the manuscript?
Two years. One thing I haven't mentioned is that Rose is a budding poet - so the manuscript includes several of her poems. These actually stalled me quite a bit and were the hardest part of the book to write.
They were also wonderful to write, because they were such hard work. Rose is not as accomplished a poet as me, not as experienced a reader as me, and has a different writing style to mine anyway. So I had to make Rose's poems sound like Rose's poems, not E. Wein's, and this was a real challenge.
I actually wrote several of her Ravensbrück poems on site at Ravensbrück. I would go back in a minute just to be able to be that productive again.
• 8) What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?
Dudes. I am unique.
Haha. I am only half kidding. I don't know any other books about girl pilots in concentration camps. I don't know any other books, other than non-fiction, about a women's concentration camp. I confess that most of my concentration camp reading has been non-fiction, so I can't really compare Rose's book to other books within my 'genre.' It's probably more like Micheline Maurel's An Ordinary Camp than anything else ('An Ordinary Camp' is a title I really, really like - it means, 'not a death camp'), right down to the poetry she includes. I am pretty sure Rose's book is not like The Boy in Striped Pajamas by John Boyne or Briar Rose by Jane Yolen, but I have not read those, so I may be wrong. It is nothing like Jane Yolen's The Devil's Arithmetic, which I have read.
Remember I said the sort-of working title was 'Rose's book'? Not 'the Ravensbrück book,' but 'Rose's book.' Like everything I write, it is character driven. How this character, how Rose deals with the setting is what I'm interested in.
• 9) Who or what inspired you to write this book?
It was partly because while I was researching Code Name Verity I discovered that about 20 per cent of the female Special Operations Executive agents sent into occupied France ended up in Ravensbrück. It was partly that the Shaffer book reawakened my interest in Ravensbrück. But if I had to name one person, I think it would have to be Wanda Półtawska. Her book, And I Am Afraid of My Dreams, chronicles her own imprisonment in Ravensbrück. She was subjected to horrific experimentation and eventually, she, along with her fellow experimental 'Rabbits,' staged a quiet revolt against the camp administration which I've attempted to recreate in fictional form.
Wanda Półtawska's Wikipedia page, translated from Polish)
Wanda Półtawska speaking in a report about Pope John Paul II
• 10) What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?
EXPLOSIONS. Because, seriously, what thriller doesn't have explosions?
There are a couple of themes that weave throughout the text of Rose's book, and one of these is the flying bomb - otherwise known as buzz bomb, doodlebug, pilotless plane, or V-1 retaliation weapon. These were essentially the first 'guided missiles' and were launched at London throughout the summer of 1944. They figure significantly in the plot - first because they are a threat to Rose on the ground in England, later as a threat to her in the air over France, and finally because as a prisoner she finds herself put to work making flying bomb fuses.
So, the book has a lot of flying in it, too (and seriously, the miracle of flight ought to rock your world a little).
---------------------------------------------
There!
And now, in alphabetical order, here are five other writers you should check out, who are going to answer the same questions NEXT week. Check back and see what they have to say about The Next Big Thing.
Erin Bow (blog here) is the lyrical author of the young adult novel Plain Kate, which won the Canadian Children's Literature Award in 2011. Her eagerly awaited second YA novel, Sorrow's Knot, is due out any moment now, and she's got a truly tantalizing list of works-in-progress. Erin has also published collections of poetry for adults.
Jeanette Cheney (who is exactly 17 days younger than me) has an impressive list of short fiction to her name in various science fiction and fantasy publications - her persistence is about to pay off, with novels Of Blood and Brandy and The Seat of Magic to be published by Penguin Books in Autumn 2013 and Spring 2014. We met at Worldcon in Glasgow in 2005 and clicked on a writerly and emotional level. She has Airedales.
Tanita Davis and I met through Finding Wonderland: The Writing YA Blog, which Tanita writes in conjuction with two other bloggers, aquafortis and citysmartgirl. I'm pretty sure
sdn
(Viking and Firebirds editor Sharyn November) introduced us. When Tanita and I discovered we were both ex-pats living in Scotland (do you sense a theme?), we became friends, and remain a Mutual Admiration Society in terms of books. My favorite of Tanita's is still her Coretta Scott King Award Honor Book Mare's War, about the only black women's regiment to be stationed in Europe during World War II. Her most recent young adult book is Happy Families.Sarah Hilary and I met online because I commented on an achingly lovely Rebecca fanfic she'd written. It turned out that we both started school in Wilmslow, Cheshire, within a couple of years of each other, and were both lifetime Alan Garner fans. Sarah is a virtuoso flash fiction and short story writer, hugely versatile and prolific, with a singing prose style which is quirky and gritty and brilliant all at the same time. She won the Sense Creative Award in 2010 and was the Most Read Author at Every Day Fiction during their inaugural year. I am pretty well convinced she has a runaway hit crime novel waiting in the wings.
Rosanne Rivers is a fellow SCBWI BI member and the author of the Young Adult romance/thriller After the Fear, which debuts in December 2012. She's also got a blog focused on topics of interest to writers and readers. We met via the SCBWI BI online discussion group where 'The Next Big Thing' has been doing the rounds like a game of tag!
If you want to click around and read what other writers' 'Next Big Thing' entries are NOW, check back to Teresa's blog - or do a google search and see what turns up! The nice thing about this meme is that you don't need to be tagged to start your own chain, so get to work, kids!
----------------------
And finally, I thot I'd stick these in for color. Um, pun intended. Taken yesterday about 3.30 pm. Can't possibly do this rainbow justice, as I couldn't fit the whole thing in the picture - two complete arches. Also, I am not good at adjusting the light on my camera. It was all MUCH MORE INTENSE in reality.
The first two pics were taken at the back of our house, and the last two in the front garden.
November 20, 2012
Goodreads Choice Awards again... just so you know...
Code Name Verity has made it to the finals. The finals! THANK YOU.
I am cross with myself for not having read any of the other finalists except for The Fault in Our Stars. Which I loved.
I am cross with myself for not having read any of the other finalists except for The Fault in Our Stars. Which I loved.
November 14, 2012
Goodreads Choice Awards Redux and Giveaway winners!
Code Name Verity has made it to the semifinals of the Goodreads Choice Awards!
So now if you voted, I think you all get to vote again. And I get to do some more preening. So what the heck. I am preening, I will do it properly. Here’s a list.
Code Name Verity is:
A School Library Journal Best Books title, 2012
A Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice, 2012
An Amazon Best Teen Books 2012 title
A Barnes & Noble Best Teen Books of 2012 title
Longlisted for the UKLA Book Award 2013
That’s not the full list. That’s just what’s turned up in the last two days. That and the Goodreads Choice Awards Semifinals. Sooooo….
The semifinal round ends 18 November 2012. I have let the timing of the announcement run away with me because… I didn’t actually realize CNV was through to the semifinals till people on my Twitter feed started tweeting that they’d voted for it.
The winners of the giveaway are
jillheather
,
carihunter
and Lauren (who commented on the Goodreads link to this blog). Please send me your snail mail addresses at ewein2412 [AT] yahoo [dot] co [dot] uk
There’s a Goodreads giveaway ending 4 Dec. 2012 for three more copies running at:
‘Next Big Thing’ post and more details about the next book coming up next week!
----------------------------------
CNV Special Ops, you rock. my. world.
So now if you voted, I think you all get to vote again. And I get to do some more preening. So what the heck. I am preening, I will do it properly. Here’s a list.
Code Name Verity is:
A School Library Journal Best Books title, 2012
A Booklist Books for Youth Editors’ Choice, 2012
An Amazon Best Teen Books 2012 title
A Barnes & Noble Best Teen Books of 2012 title
Longlisted for the UKLA Book Award 2013
That’s not the full list. That’s just what’s turned up in the last two days. That and the Goodreads Choice Awards Semifinals. Sooooo….
The semifinal round ends 18 November 2012. I have let the timing of the announcement run away with me because… I didn’t actually realize CNV was through to the semifinals till people on my Twitter feed started tweeting that they’d voted for it.
The winners of the giveaway are
jillheather
,
carihunter
and Lauren (who commented on the Goodreads link to this blog). Please send me your snail mail addresses at ewein2412 [AT] yahoo [dot] co [dot] ukThere’s a Goodreads giveaway ending 4 Dec. 2012 for three more copies running at:
‘Next Big Thing’ post and more details about the next book coming up next week!
----------------------------------
CNV Special Ops, you rock. my. world.
November 4, 2012
Goodreads Choice Award Nomination and CNV Giveaway
Code Name Verity has been nominated for a Goodreads Choice Award! THANK YOU, incredibly loyal readers, especially those who frequent Goodreads! I have never had a year like this in my 20 years of publishing, for real. It’s a little overwhelming but feels so good. "Thanks for reading" doesn’t really do you guys justice. "Thanks for enrolling in the CNV Special Ops" is more like it.
So, this Goodreads Choice Award is a particularly flattering achievement because it's chosen by readers, and if you've got a Goodreads account, you can vote in the awards process yourself. There are 15 nominees each in 20 different categories - CNV is nominated in "Young Adult Fiction." Click through the link above, or the badge on the sidebar, to vote. (I've got the links connected to the YA Fiction category but you can get to all the other categories through there too.)
The opening round ends 11 November 2012. Just a week! Please spread the word.
To celebrate I'm throwing another CNV giveaway: three autographed and inscribed copies, one British, one American and one Canadian. Comment if you want to be included in the draw for any of them. If you've already got one, comment if you want me to send one to a friend! Giveaway closes 12 November 2012.
You all know there's another book on the way, right? The contract is signed and it's all official and everything. The title is still under discussion (sigh sigh sigh). But the book is finished. Publication planned for Autumn 2013!
Lots of love to you all from E Wein.
So, this Goodreads Choice Award is a particularly flattering achievement because it's chosen by readers, and if you've got a Goodreads account, you can vote in the awards process yourself. There are 15 nominees each in 20 different categories - CNV is nominated in "Young Adult Fiction." Click through the link above, or the badge on the sidebar, to vote. (I've got the links connected to the YA Fiction category but you can get to all the other categories through there too.)
The opening round ends 11 November 2012. Just a week! Please spread the word.
To celebrate I'm throwing another CNV giveaway: three autographed and inscribed copies, one British, one American and one Canadian. Comment if you want to be included in the draw for any of them. If you've already got one, comment if you want me to send one to a friend! Giveaway closes 12 November 2012.
You all know there's another book on the way, right? The contract is signed and it's all official and everything. The title is still under discussion (sigh sigh sigh). But the book is finished. Publication planned for Autumn 2013!
Lots of love to you all from E Wein.
