Lydia Kang's Blog, page 6

Crazy weather and summer writing!

Hi all!

I'm so sorry I've been neglecting my blog, but there are good reasons. I'm writing up a storm! I've been working on a new WIP and writing anywhere from 1000 to 4000 words a day, and having so much fun.

But that kind of wordage means I'm not nearly on Twitter/FB/Tumblr or blogging as I used to. But that's okay. Sometimes you just have to let things swing in a creative direction once in a while.

I'd been doing a lot of promo lately, with school visits and events (this weekend I'm teaching a writing workshop for the Teen Advisory Board at the La Vista Library in Nebraska , and in July I'm doing the Might Mississippi Book Blast tour and going to Comic Con for a diversity panel and signing books).

BUT I'm also finding that the best promo you can really do for yourself is to write more books and just get them out there if you can. So I'm writing and loving it!

I hope you all are doing well. Sooner or later, I'll get those photos of RT up here but for now, I'm following my bliss.

Also. The summer storms in Nebraska have been crazy! We've gotten hail and bad wind storms, and you may have heard of the twin twisters that hit Pilger, Nebraska. My family and house are doing fine, so thank you for those who have been worried! If you'd like to help those in need, please check out the Red Cross website to help Pilger residents.

So. How is your summer going?

(Also, meet our new pet lemon tree, Lemmy Lou. (Thanks to my hubs for the picture!)
She barely survived the hail. Here is one of her first blooms. It smelled like the sweetest perfume!)

PB Release of THIS OLD BAND by Tamera Will Wissinger!

Hello all! Today I'm celebrating a PB book release of This Old Band from Tamera Will Wissinger , whose debut book in verse, Gone Fishing , is a favorite at our house!

Hi Tamera! So glad to have you on my blog. Since this book takes place in the wild west, I have on my virtual cowboy boots just for today. :) So...when did you get the inspiration for this book? Can you tell us a little bit about the process?

Hi Lydia! Thanks for celebrating the release of This Old Band with me here at The Word is my Oyster! I have on my cowboy boots today, too. With our boots we can play scoot scoot with number six!

Inspiration for this book…that has been gathering in me since I was young. I grew up in Iowa and was lucky enough to take a couple of trips west with my family when I was a child. Once to the black hills and Mount Rushmore, and once with my grandparents all the way to Washington state. With my grandparents I got to ride a horse for the first time, hike in the Montana mountains, and pan for gold. Then as an adult I had several opportunities to travel west to Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, Montana, California, Nevada. Each trip offered unique and wonderful glimpses of ranch and cowboy life, the contrast of color and terrain between mountains, valleys, mesas, desert, and wildlife that I had heard of but had never seen before. It was on a trip to Jackson, Wyoming with my husband a few years ago when I realized I wanted to write a book that featured details of this part of the United States.

I just went to the Black Hills and Mt Rushmore a few weeks ago! It was pretty awesome. Do you also enjoy American history as well? Any favorite books to share on the topic?

Oh, that’s such an interesting part of the country and the carving is a real wonder. Did you also see the Crazy Horse Memorial? What a breathtaking sculpture!

I do enjoy American history; three of my favorite genres to read are historical nonfiction/historical biography and historical fiction. For true American history/biography, I enjoy books written by Elizabeth Partridge, Claire Rudolph Murphy, Jacqueline Briggs Martin, Jim Murphy, and Russell Freedman (among others). For American historical fiction I’ve enjoyed reading The Birchbark House by Louise Erdrich, Number the Stars by Lois Lowry, Carver by Marilyn Nelson, Lily’s Crossing by Patricia Reilly Giff, Sarah Plain and Tall by Patricia MacLachlan, Esperanza Rising by Pam Munos Ryan, Out of the Dust by Karen Hesse, Roll of Thunder Hear My Cry by Mildred D. Taylor, A Year Down Yonder by Richard Peck. And more recently May B. by Caroline Starr Rose and A Voice for Kanzas by Debra McArthur. I could go on…

We could only do a quick drive-by of Crazy Horse, but even from a distance, it was so impressive! So for this book, did you have to research anything fun or unusual?

The travel itself was a great deal of fun and helped inform my setting quite a bit, although I didn’t travel explicitly to conduct research for the book. I did research the specific flora and fauna that I mention in the book to ensure that I hadn’t made mistakes about their authenticity to this part of the country.

I think I just saw a tumbleweed roll by! So...did you have any kids beta read your book? If so, what kind of reactions did you get?

Whoosh! There goes another one! I might need to grab my harmonica and play a tune.

Years ago I would periodically read my poetry and stories to children and we always had a wonderful time and they always loved my stories. This made me very happy, of course, but then I realized that they were reacting as dear readers, not as writers. These days I refine my stories as much as possible and then ask trusted author friends to provide me with constructive and positive feedback to help strengthen it even more. That’s what I did with This Old Band.

This is your first PB, right? What was the hardest part of the creative process?

Yes, this is my first picture book. The first thing that comes to mind with a picture book, especially a rhyming concept picture book, is that there are many constraints – a limited number of pages (normally 32), limited word count (in the case of This Old Band less than 400), limited word choices to fit the rhyme and rhythm pattern that I had established. All of these restrictions balanced against a desire to convey this large outdoor western world and these boisterous cowboys and cowgirl who are having fun, kicking up dust, counting down from ten to one and playing and singing their music. In the end, it became a process of boiling down everything into the most essential elements, letting the rest go, and trusting that the illustrator would fill in any gaps, which Matt Loveridge did beautifully.
Thanks Tamera, and congratulations!
Well, I have to say, this book makes it irresistible NOT to sing it while you read, and my six year-old was both mesmerized and laughing while I did. She loved it. If that can't sell a book, then I don't know what else can!
Find THIS OLD BAND on:Amazon / IndieBound / Barnes and Noble / BAM Visit Tamera on her website / Twitter / Facebook! And keep an eye on her website, where she'll be hosting a book release "party" and offering prizes!

Philly Recap, #WeNeedDiverseBooks, and RT!

Last weekend, I went to the Philadelphia Science Festival as a speaker.
The Franklin Institue, all festooned with helix balloons!I kind of felt like I was giving a TED talk, with the secret microphone pack in the back of my pants and all. I felt very Beyoncé. About as Beyoncé as I'll ever get, probably!
This was the only acceptable photograph of dozens that my family took.
Man, I make some really goofy faces when I talk. I also got to teach a few high school classes at the Science Leadership Academy, on science fiction character creation, which was so fun! Go STEM students!
Two lessons I learned as an author? That teens still love the idea of merfolk. And also, they love it when teen main characters are outcasts, but have that one BFF to rely on. ;)

I may have spent an entire evening making Shrinky Dinks with my family. Talk about a blast from the past! It was super fun.

We also witnessed a gorgeous rainbow while we were visiting. I'd never seen such vivid colors before. The indigo and violet stripes were really there!

And finally, though I wasn't able to participate as much as I would have liked since I was at the Festival, the #WeNeedDiverseBooks campaign happened last week. It was such a necessary and wonderful grassroots effort to raise awareness of the need for diverse books in children's and YA literature, as well pull those diverse books that are already out there into the spotlight.

Here's my contribution that day:

To read more about #WeNeedDiverseBooks, read here and here .

And also, see how the campaign helped add a Diversity panel to BookCon!

If you want to know how I feel about diversity as a POC author, I wrote this very honest post at the Diversity in YA blog. And I'll also be speaking about it upcoming at RT.

Speaking of which...RT is this week!

I'm pretty excited. I'll be on a bunch of panels and signing books, so if you're there, please tweet me @LydiaYKang  #RT2014 so we can say hello!
Tuesday May 13, 10:55 PM-11:55 PM: YA Spooky Sleepover PartyWednesday, May 14, 1:15 PM -2:15 PM: YA: "The Total Experience: Diversity in YA" PanelWednesday, May 14, 3:45 PM-4:45 PM: InterGalactic Bar and GrilleThursday, May 15, 11:15 AM-12:15 PM: SCI-FI: It's Not Easy Being Green: Writing Non-Human CharactersFriday, May 16th, 10:00 AM-11:00 PM: Mind, Bodies and Believability: Turning Science into FictionSaturday May 17, 10:00 AM-2:00 PM: Book signing in YA AlleySaturday May 17, 6:45 PM- 8:00 PM: Teen Day Party For more details, click here for my full RT schedule.  Hope to see some of you there! Have a great week!

Happy Book Birthday to Kristin Rae's WISH YOU WERE ITALIAN!

Have some espresso. (Or gelato. Your choice.) And help celebrate the release of Kristin Rae's WISH YOU WERE ITALIAN, releasing today from Bloomsbury!

I've known Kristin through blogging for a few years, and am her "big sis" since she's in the Class of 2k14 and I was in the Class of 2K13. :) So happy to see her book out in the world now!


Pippa has always wanted to go to Italy … but not by herself. And certainly not to sit in art school the entire summer learning about dead guys’ paintings. When she steps off the plane in Rome, she realizes that traveling solo gives her the freedom to do whatever she wants. So it’s arrivederci, boring art program and ciao, hot Italian guys!

Charming, daring, and romantic, Bruno is just the Italian Pippa’s looking for—except she keeps running into cute American archeology student Darren everywhere she goes. Pippa may be determined to fall in love with an Italian guy … but the electricity she feels with Darren says her heart might have other plans. Can Pippa figure out her feelings before her parents discover she left the program and—even worse—she loses her chance at love?

Congratulazioni, Kristin! 
Add to Goodreads
Amazon / IndieBound

Interview with EMMA PASS, author of THE FEARLESS and ACID!

Hello everyone! Today, I'm happy to be interviewing Emma Pass, author of ACID and her newest post-apocalyptic YA novel, THE FEARLESS.

I thought I'd take you directly to where most of THE FEARLESS takes place, Hope Island, a haven from the frightening, deadly humans that have turned fierce and fearless. It's kind of cold and we're hoping the Fearless won't be sneaking up on us while we chat. Eep!

Hi Emma! Let's sit on the rock here and have some post-apocalyptic tea while we chat about THE FEARLESS. In this world you've created, the Fearless, a frighteningly strong and fearless brand of humans have driven a small group of survivors onto an Island for survival. Many necessities must be traded for in order to survive. What item would you trade for that you absolutely couldn't live without?
Hmm, I think it would have to be good boots, a bit like the ones Cass wears on the book's cover. I'm prone to getting cold feet, especially in winter, and it's miserable. So sturdy footwear would be a must!

I'm a boots girl, too! I love Cass's picture on the cover. Did you have any say on the cover design?
I didn't, but the photographer, Larry Rostant, also did ACID's cover so I knew that I was in safe hands, and the design team at Random House UK did an amazing job too! I absolutely love that cover.

So there are a lot of rules about living on the Island. For example, "All Islanders aged 17 and over are expected to contribute to the community on Hope Island by working in the roles chosen for them by the HIGC." I see the Patrol people giving us dirty looks for being out here! So, if you lived on the island, which role do you think they'd pick you for?
I don't think I'd be in the Patrol - I'm not brave enough (and standing on the sea wall in all weathers does not appeal to me!). I'd quite like to do something practical to keep me occupied – and tell stories, of course.

Me too. I can't stand cold, blowsy weather. :) So who is your favorite non-main character in THE FEARLESS, and why?
Am I allowed 3? I really like Ben, Gina and Cy, because they are all coping with the same dilemma in different ways and are strong, empathetic characters. I'd definitely want them on my side during the apocalypse! And Cy's tattoos are cool.

I have a Cy in my book with tattoos, too! *fist bumps Emma* My Cy is short for Cyrad. How about yours? Hooray! What a great name. My Cy is just Cy… he's a bit of a mystery to be honest!

Mysterious characters are always welcome! Ugh, we're out of tea. Have some filtered water instead? Okay, last question for the writers out there. What was the hardest part of writing THE FEARLESS, and how did you overcome your obstacle?
The beginning was tricky to get right, because it's told from the POV of the main character when she's just 10 years old – not a very conventional thing to do in a book aimed at older teens! I could have skimmed over this part and just had Cass remembering it in a few pages or so, but when I tried it this way it came across as rushed and shallow. I felt by making the part with 10-year-old Cass a section in its own right (the story then skips 7 years later to her present life on the island), it really showed the impact of the Invasion on her life, and what she (and a lot of other people) had lost, and why her little brother is so important to her. In the end, I had to trust my gut instinct and go with what felt right – and luckily, my editor agreed that this was exactly the right way to tell this part of the story.

That part really stuck out for me in the best way. You did young Cass's voice so well, I just wanted to hug her the whole time. Think you may ever venture into middle grade books someday, or other genres, for that matter?
Thank you - I'm so happy that you liked it! Actually, I would love to write for younger readers, but I'm still trying to muster up the courage to try it… maybe one day!

Thanks for interviewing me, Lydia! *clinks beaker of filtered water* D'you think we should go inside? It's kinda cold out here, and the Patrol are definitely giving us dirty looks now…
Yes, I'm freezing too! Let's go into the Meeting Hall before we get in trouble. :)

Thanks Emma, and everybody for joining us!  Keep your sturdy boots on, and order Emma's THE FEARLESS on Amazon UK,  or add to your Goodreads list! 

Write Club!

Hey guys! DL Hammons is having his annual Write Club event where you get to pit your own writing against other talented writers out there. I'm honored to be one of the judges for the finalists this year.

Learn more about the contest rules and schedule right here!

And I WON!

So C2E2 is over, and I'm happy to announce that I won the Geek Geek Revolution panel against three major SF/Fantasy authors, Seth Fishman, Patrick Rothfuss, and Kevin Hearne.) Woot! I got some awesome Star Wars notepads as the prize!

Some of my favorite questions that got asked and I was able to answer:

What are the names of the Dire Wolves in Game of Thrones? Greywind, Ghost, Summer, Shaggydog, Lady, and Nymerion.

What phrase is repeated in all six Star Wars movies? "I've got a bad feeling about this."

What is Star Wars Day? May the fourth.

How many siblings does Ron Weasley have, and can you name them? Charlie, Bill, Percy, Fred and George, and Ginny.

What is the best selling SF novel of all time? Dune.

What movie does this quote come from? "I'm sorry Dave, I can't do that." 2001, A Space Odyssey

The YA book panel was also really fun. We answered a lot of questions to novel writers, and about the state of YA literature today. Great discussions!

And here are some fun pictures from C2E2:

It was cool to see this in the C2E2 program! The audience at the Geek Geek Revolution panel I bumped into Demitria Lunetta there!
Seth Fishman (doing his "I IS STRONG" pose), me, April Tucholke, Kendare Blake, and E.C. Blake And here I am snuggling with a Storm Trooper. I was kind of star struck!All in all, a really fun weekend! It was my first convention of this sort, and hopefully not my last!

This Saturday, May 3rd, I'll be at the Great Gigs event at the Philadelphia Science Festival . Any Philly friends, come out and say hi!

Geek Musings and Nutschell Blog Visit!

Yes, that is "Geek Musings" and not "Greek Muses." My brain is all on geek trivia and how much I (gulp) don't know. You'll see why, below. :)

I had a few calm weeks, but crazy book-related stuff n' traveling is re-commencing!

If you're in Omaha, I'll be at Bennington Library on Tuesday evening at 7 PM for a book signing and talk! This weekend, I'm going to C2E2 (Chicago Comic & Entertainment Expo). This is my first comic-con of any kind, so I'm totally psyched! I'll be on two panels on Saturday:
In Defense of YA, with April Tucholke, E.C. Blake, Kendare Blake, Seth Fishman and Shannon Stoker, followed by a book sale and signing.Geek Geek Revolution, with Patrick Rothfuss, Seth Fishman, John Scalzi, and Kevin Hearne. This is where we battle over geekish trivia and I get my butt kicked in public, proving that instead of watching Star Wars over and over again, I should have been watching reruns of Firefly  and Buffy the Vampire Slayer instead. Ha! And also this week, Nutschell Windsor is having me over on her blog for an book review on Monday , interview on Wednesday, and book giveaway on Friday. I've known Nutschell since I started blogging way back, so it is such a treat to be featured on her blog. Please come and stop by! 
So...am I writing? I'm trying to! I have edits due soon but I'm also trying to work on a new book that's a mix of contemporary and magical realism. So far, it's so fun! 
And finally, it's SPRING! We just did our Easter egg thing and I never get tired of watching the hunt! This magnolia is blooming in my front yard and I look forward to saying hello to these flowers every April. 

Have a great week, you guys! Are you enjoying spring? What are you writing this week?

Blog Musings and Seward, NE signing

Hi guys! Well, I'm finding that I'm blogging rather sporadically (whoa, I'm having flashbacks of the movie Clueless and Cher's vocabulary lessons).

When I started blogging in 2010, I decided the best way to blog was regularly and often. I think I started blogging M, W, and F. I'd do Medical Mondays on Mondays, Sister of the Traveling Blog on Wednesdays, and random stuff on Fridays. But as my book release drew closer, I went to twice a week. And then after my book came out, I was so busy with deadlines and promo events, I ratcheted down to once a week.

I've been really stressed about blogging the last few months. Is blogging dead? Am I bringing anything worthy into the world when I blog? Is it taking away from my writing time? I'm also on Twitter, Facebook,Tumblr, Instagram, and occasionally blogging for the League of Extraordinary Writers. I'm as out there as possible without completely going nuts.

I love the community in blogging--you guys were my first cheerleaders when I first started writing. And I miss visiting with you guys. But I'm also finding that blogging is not a static entity. Like people and like life, it changes and morphs. Sometimes it winks out, and several good friends of mine stopped blogging a while ago. Sometimes it blossoms into multiple blogs, or changes tone altogether.

So in the end, I've just decided to stop thinking so hard about it. I'll blog when I feel like it, without any regrets. So yeah, I'll be around--but it's going to be random! 

So...if you're a blogger, do you blog to a set schedule? Or do you blog when you feel like it? 


**If you're in Nebraska, I'll be at a signing in Seward, NE at Chapters Books & Gifts tomorrow. If you're NOT going to the Spring Huskers game, please stop by to say hi! I'm signing with a few other indie authors including Carol Bicak, who is a journalist at the Omaha World Herald and wrote this wonderful picture book on Omaha's Henry Doorly Zoo's baby lions. My kids love that book!

A Good Badlands Trip and more

Hi guys! My family and I went offline for a week while we drove to South Dakota and visited the Badlands, the Black Hills, and Mt. Rushmore. We stopped by Wall Drug and adopted this adorable Jackalope.  We also ate a lot of food that wasn't exactly healthy (I'm talking to you, deep fried Hershey's bar) but was fun to consume. Exercise and clean eating has commenced since I returned!
Here are a few photos. They're off my Instagram account, so they show up very tiny and insignificant here, but come find me on Instagram and see them in their full glory. 
This is Badlands National Park. It was seriously gorgeous and unreal, like being on the moon on earth. And yes, the color was real, since we drove by in the late afternoon with all that goldy sun everywhere.
These are real, wild billy goats at the edge of a huge bluff in the Badlands. We actually saw them walk down a hill with an incline as steep as a backslash!
Here are some mule deer in the Black Hills. They were adorable. Fuzzier than white tailed deer, with long rabbit ears. 
This frightened me. As do any large, "whimsical" statues of supposedly cute things. Whimsy scares the bejeebers out of me. There were actually little prairie dogs here and we fed them peanuts. They made noises like a bubbles popping. 
And here are the plains. The one thing I love about the midwest is the wealth of sky. I never get tired of that huge bowl of blue sky.
And here is Mt. Rushmore. This photo doesn't do it justice. The artist who created it was Gutzon Borglem. The whole process was pretty amazing. Did you know that he started carving Jefferson's face to the left of Washington, only to find the granite wasn't good quality? So he blasted it off. Talk about killing your darlings! And then when he started carving Jefferson's face to the right, he found a crack going through his nose. So he changed the angle of the face, set it four feet deeper into the stone so the crack went through his cheek instead of the more delicate nose. I mean, my goodness. AND I THOUGHT REVISING A BOOK WAS HARD.
I haven't been to many national parks, but now I'm psyched to go to more!
I hope you're all having a great week! Have you visited a National Park? Which one was your favorite? Where should my family go to next?