Heidi Schulz's Blog, page 8

Hook’s Revenge Blog Tour, Stop 1!

In case I haven’t mentioned it more than a hundred times, Hook’s Revenge will be in stores on Tuesday! To celebrate, I’m touring the web, sharing exclusive content: excerpts, interviews, and some other fun things. That tour starts, oh, how about RIGHT NOW.

 

Come on over to Reading with ABC! You’ll get to know my pirate narrator and read an exclusive excerpt: the first few pages of Hook’s Revenge! While you are there, enter to win a copy!

Heave to!

P.S. Want more? Check out where else I’ve been this week:

I was invited to contribute to the Barnes & Noble blog. (WHAT.) Drop in and read what happens when I interview some of my own characters!

I had a really fun interview up with Rachel at Beauty and the Bookshelf. Come by and say hello!

In the Middle with Edith Cohn

This week, we are in the middle with Edith Cohn and her wonderful debut, Spirit’s Key:

By now, twelve-year-old Spirit Holden should have inherited the family gift: the ability to see the future. But when she holds a house key in her hand like her dad does to read its owner’s destiny, she can’t see anything. Maybe it’s because she can’t get over the loss of her beloved dog, Sky, who died mysteriously. Sky was Spirit’s loyal companion, one of the wild dogs that the local islanders believe possess dangerous spirits. As more dogs start dying and people become sick, too, almost everyone is convinced that these dogs and their spirits are to blame—except for Spirit. Then Sky’s ghost appears, and Spirit is shaken. But his help may be the key to unlocking her new power and finding the cause of the mysterious illness before it’s too late.

Spirit’s Key is available through Indiebound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon and at bookstores near you.

Q&A with Edith

What draws you into writing for a middle grade audience?



I think most writers favor a main character of a certain age when they sit down to write. For me that age is somewhere around twelve. In my first college creative writing class, I wrote a short story about a ten year old kid, and my teacher suggested I submit it for a local magazine contest. I won 2nd place! That was an early clue I was meant to write middle grade novels.

If you had a time machine and could visit middle-grade you, what would you tell her?



This might be a strange answer, but when I was a kid, we had dogs. I have terrible guilt, because dogs in my family were treated something like farm animals. They stayed outside always and never got walked. Our poor dog was all alone, too, because we only had one dog at a time. As kids, we played with the dog only when the whim struck. So, I would tell ignorant kid me that dogs are pack animals. They need to be a part of the family and have companionship. They also need walks–a chance to see the world, people, and other dogs–a chance to sniff new smells. A yard with a fence is just a giant kennel, and that’s not a nice enough life for your best friend.

In hindsight I think this is the seed for the animal rights theme in my book. I wrote about an island of people who discriminate against dogs. A friend of mine pointed out that it’s called speciecism.  Oh, if I had a nickel for the things I didn’t know.

Choose your own adventure: Is there an interview question you’d love to answer, but haven’t been asked?



Who is your favorite character in SPIRIT’S KEY?

I have to pick three. I’m going to pick one adult character, one kid character, and one animal character. My favorite adult character is Mrs. Borse, who is Spirit’s agoraphobic fur-wearing, gun-totting, eagle-trapping neighbor. She came into my head fully formed. My favorite kid character is Spirit’s friend Nector who wants to fly airplanes and whose family is haunted by hurricanes. He’s my favorite because I had to work so hard to birth him. I didn’t know who he was for a long time. He reminds me that if I work hard, I can turn a flat character into a rounder one. As much as I love Spirit’s dog Sky, my favorite animal character is actually the eagle that Mrs. Borse traps. Once the eagle is set free, she brings Spirit notes from her ancestors which is a lot of fun! This is something my editor helped me expand on after I sold the book, and I’m grateful the eagle gets more screen time (or page time, as it were).

Those are all such great characters! Thanks for sharing them with us, and thanks for dropping it. Congratulations on your debut!

Edith Cohn was born and raised in North Carolina where she grew up exploring the unique beaches of the Outer Banks. She currently lives in the coyote-filled hills of Los Angeles with her husband and her dog. All of these things provided inspiration for her debut middle grade novel, SPIRIT’S KEY, a mystery about a girl and her ghost dog coming in September from FSG/Macmillan. 

Connect with Edith on EdithCohn.com, Twitter, Facebook, and Goodreads.

Next stop, Neverland!

I’ve been doing some math.

Stop laughing.

Anyway, I’ve been doing some math, and if my numbers are correct, this month marks eight years since I had the initial idea that would grow up to become Hook’s Revenge. Eight years! And now, in less than a week, my book will be in stores. That is absolutely mind-boggling.



Thank you, dear friends, for all your support and excitement. I will be forever grateful.

If you want to hear me thank you in person and attack-hug you and cry on your shoulder about how wonderful you are, here are some opportunities (click the links for details):

9/19 Portland, Oregon

9/20 Salem, Oregon

10/1 Seattle, Washington

10/3 Salt Lake City, Utah

10/5 Denver, Colorado

10/7 Portland, Oregon

11/14 Boise, Idaho

I’m also doing a blog tour, starting this Friday! (I KNOW!)

Drop in for interviews and excerpts, DIY pirate costume ideas, fairy gardening, a recipe inspired by the book, and general piratical shenanigans.

Friday, 9/12 Reading with ABC
Monday, 9/15 Paperback Princess
Tuesday, 9/16 Irish Banana
Wednesday, 9/17 Mundie Moms
Thursday, 9/18 Jenuine Cupcakes
Friday, 9/19 Queen Ella Bee Reads
Monday, 9/22 Allodoxophobia
Tuesday, 9/23 Kissed by Ink 
Wednesday, 9/24 Who RU Blog
Thursday, 9/25 Supernatural Snark

For someone who is now writing for her career, I’m suddenly at a loss for words. Just this: thank you again, sincerely.

Next stop, Neverland!

In the Middle with Jen Malone

Today, we are in the middle with Jen Malone, chatting about her adorable middle grade debut, At Your Service.

Thirteen-year-old Chloe Turner wants nothing more than to follow in Dad’s footsteps as a respected concierge in a posh NYC hotel. After all, living at a hotel is heaven, and perks like free concert tickets and all-access passes to boutiques, restaurants, and attractions aren’t too shabby either.

When the spoiled brat child of an important guest is only placated by some quick thinking on Chloe’s part, Chloe is awarded the role of Junior Concierge. But she might be in over her head when tasked with tending to the every whim of three royal guests: a twelve-year-old princess who can’t stand Chloe, a cute fourteen year-old prince(!), and their ten-year-old sister, who has a nasty knack for getting herself lost. After the youngest princess slips Chloe’s care, Chloe and the remaining royals must embark on an event-filled hunt for her through NYC’s best tourist spots.

At Your Service is available on IndieBound, B&N, and Amazon and in bookstores near you.

Q&A with Jen

What draws you into writing for a middle grade audience?

I think I particularly love the push and pull between being a tween and maybe wanting to revel in the lack of responsibility and the magic of childhood and YET also equally wanting so badly to grow up and have real grown-up responsibilities and freedoms. To me, it’s a fascinating crossroads. Plus, I love writing totally wacky scenarios and pratfalls and those lend themselves well to middle grade stories!

If you had a time machine and could visit middle-grade you, what would you tell her?

Funny enough, I actually have an interview with my tween self on my website where I break her(my) poor little tween heart by telling her(me) that we do not, in fact, marry Craig Zimmerman. I think I would mostly like her to know that it’s perfectly okay to be a little bit awkward and a lot bit boy-crazy because those things will both influence the writing SO MUCH when the time comes!

Choose your own adventure: Is there an interview question you’d love to answer, but haven’t been asked?

I don’t know, I’ve been getting some quite crazy ones. I can mostly guarantee that no one has asked- or will ever ask- me what the square root of 4116345 is and I would like to answer with a resounding, “How the heck should I know? There’s a reason I WRITE, people!”

If I were ever asked that, I’d certainly have to google the answer. Thanks for stopping by, Jen, and congratulations on your debut!

Jen Malone is the author of AT YOUR SERVICE (Simon & Schuster/Aladdin), about a tween concierge living and working in an upscale NYC hotel, as well as the forthcoming PLEASE RSVP series with co-author Gail Nall. Two YA novels are forthcoming with HarperCollins. She lives in Boston with her identical twin boys and their younger sister and bugs her husband daily for a pet hedgehog.

Connect with Jen on JenMaloneWrites.com, Twitter, and Facebook.

In the Middle with Lauren Magaziner

I was obsessed with witches and magic as a girl. Kid-me would have read today’s book ragged. Kid-me would have also told adult-me to hurry up and tell you about the book! Today, we are in the middle with Lauren Magaziner and her magical debut, The Only Thing Worse than Witches:

Roald Dahl meets Eva Ibbotson in this hilarious middle grade debut perfect for reading aloud!

Rupert Campbell is fascinated by the witches who live nearby. He dreams of broomstick tours and souvenir potions, but Rupert’s mother forbids him from even looking at that part of town. The closest he can get to a witchy experience is sitting in class with his awful teacher Mrs. Frabbleknacker, who smells like bellybutton lint and forbids Rupert’s classmates from talking to each other before, during, and after class. So when he sees an ad to become a witch’s apprentice, Rupert simply can’t resist applying.

But Witchling Two isn’t exactly what Rupert expected. With a hankering for lollipops and the magical aptitude of a toad, she needs all the help she can get to pass her exams and become a full-fledged witch. She’s determined to help Rupert stand up to dreadful Mrs. Frabbleknacker too, but the witchling’s magic will be as useful as a clump of seaweed unless Rupert can figure out a way to help her improve her spellcasting—and fast!

The Only Thing Worse than Witches is available on IndieBound, Barnes & Noble, Amazon, Book Depository, Books A Million, and in bookstores near you.

Q&A with Lauren

What draws you into writing for a middle grade audience?

Laughter, laughter, laughter. Jokes and joy. Guffaws and giggles. Chortles and snortles. My humor skews more toward silly and absurd, which is a perfect fit for middle grade stories, where funny and fantastical things often happen! I feel very lucky to write for middle grade readers, who love humor, adventure, magic, and silliness as much as I do!

If you had a time machine and could visit middle-grade you, what would you tell her?

Oh, I wouldn’t tell her ANYTHING. The repercussions of tampering with the laws of time are rather immense. Just by giving Little Lauren advice or a warning, I could unravel the very fabric of our existence! Create some sort of paradox! Get us both stuck in a time loop! Break off into alternate parallel universes in which Little Lauren never ends up becoming an author, thus the Lauren that’s sitting here answering this question doesn’t exist, thus this blog post never gets written.

And you would be very sad about that, I know.

Besides, fourth-grade Lauren doesn’t need my help. In some ways, she has a lot of things figured out: like being able to proudly and confidently dress up as one of her favorite book characters in public. (Some things will never change for her.)

Choose your own adventure: Is there an interview question you’d love to answer, but haven’t been asked?

After passing the witch Bar Exam, which witch name would you choose, and why?

The Collywobbles Witch

Why? Because collywobbles (which means stomach pain or queasiness) is the singularly most amazing sounding word in the history of time. And because I’d hope to be a fearsome enough witch to induce collywobbles in humans. *cackles*  (Though in honesty, it would probably be one of those names that’s ironic, as I’m very friendly.)

I love the word collywobbles! Thanks for stopping in today, Lauren, and congratulations on your debut!

Lauren Magaziner recently graduated from Hamilton College. She lives in Brooklyn, New York and works in children’s magazine publishing (her coworkers still think her last name is a hoax). Her debut novel, The Only Thing Worse Than Witches, has been called “a fun, frothy story” by Publishers Weekly, and Kirkus Reviews says, “Readers will banish themselves from the real world to finish this book in a flash.” Lauren continues to write humorous, whimsical, wonky children’s books. To learn more about current and upcoming projects, visit her at laurenmagaziner.com.

Book Things and My Face in a Shark

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Hook’s Revenge is out in less than a month! This is your last chance to read it early and lord it over all your friends and loved ones. Disney•Hyperion is giving away ten advance copies on Goodreads. Enter below or click here.

Goodreads Book Giveaway


Hook’s Revenge, Book 1 Hook’s Revenge
by Heidi Schulz
Giveaway ends September 04, 2014. See the giveaway details at Goodreads.

Enter to win

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If you prefer a free hardcover (or you are hoping to win everything, and why not, don’t you deserve it?), go sign up for my newsletter, here or on the right sidebar. One person who signs up in August will win a signed hardcover and a $25 Powells.com gift card.

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A few words I think should be compound words:

Giftcard
Nevermind (Thanks to Nirvana)
Everytime (I have no excuse for this one. But I do it almost everytime every time.

four

 

Let’s Take This Show on the Road

Hook’s Revenge comes out in little more than a month! Can you believe it?

I’d love to celebrate with you. Here is a listing of where you can find me. (Additional details on my events page.)

If you are local to me (or in the mood to travel), please consider coming to one of my launch parties:

Cedar Hills Powell’s in Beaverton, September 19 (International Talk Like a Pirate Day), 7:00 pm

Salem Oregon Public Library, September 20, 3:00 pm

In early October I’m going on tour with my lovely friend Emma Trevayne, author of one of my favorite middle grade books ever, Flights, Chimes, and Mysterious Times!

Along the way, we’ll be meeting up with some other fantastic writers and celebrating all things middle grade. Come see us in:

Seattle with Kevin Emerson, Wednesday, October 1 (Panel moderated by Martha Brockenbrough) Details

Salt Lake City with Matthew J. Kirby and Jennifer Nielsen, Friday, October 3 Details

Denver with Lindsay Eland, Sunday, October 5 Details

Portland with Shelby Bach, Tuesday, October 7 (Panel moderated by Kari Luna) Details

And in November, some of my favorite local writers and I will be taking a road trip to:

Boise with Miriam Forster, April Tucholke, and Robin Herrera, Friday, November 14th Details

I have a couple other appearances in the works. I’ll be sure to update you as soon as I can!

Hope to see you soon!

On My Mind: August 11, 2014 (and a giveaway)

If you are impatient super excited for the giveaway, scroll down to the bonus item.

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Road trip! My family and I just got home from an awesome summer road trip. Here are a few photos:

We drove about a thousand miles and had about a thousand little adventures. Ocean, mountains, caves, a jet boat ride up a river, ATVs, and yes, I fed a giraffe. (It was scary.) We had a really lovely time.

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My debut book comes out next month! Last week, I got my first copies. You guys, they are so beautiful. Look!

two-point-two-five

Want to see more? Hook’s Revenge has an amazingly good illustrator, John Hendrix. He just posted pictures of the interior art. Here’s one:

Isn’t it gorgeous?! The rest can be seen here, on his tumblr.

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You all know my history with terrible selfies, right? Well, I accidentally took a good one. How did this happen?

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Mind if I talk about my book some more? Because it really is on my mind.

four-point-three

School Library Journal gave Hook’s Revenge a starred review!

Among other really nice things, they said, “The evocative language moves beyond simple description and engages the audience’s imagination. Most notable, however, is the wickedly funny narrator who doesn’t hesitate to add his amusing commentary and pointed dislike for the audience to the narrative.”

Read the full review here.

four-point-six-two-five

I was also just interviewed on Riffle. Swing by to hear about books kid-me would have loved and why I am over the moon for Atticus Finch.

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Pie. I’m thinking about pie.

Bonus Item

Want to be among the first to hear about events, giveaways, and book news?

No? Okay.

Well, do you want to win stuff?

Yes? Good!

I’m giving away a signed hardcover of Hook’s Revenge and a $25 Powells.com gift card (maybe to you?)! Enter by signing up for my newsletter in the month of August. I promise not to email you too often and to always try to be entertaining.

Sign up in my sidebar, over there on the right, under where it says “I also have a newsletter,” or sign up on my Facebook page.

Good luck!

On My Mind: September 11, 2014 (and a giveaway)

If you are impatient super excited for the giveaway, scroll down to the bonus item.

one

Road trip! My family and I just got home from an awesome summer road trip. Here are a few photos:

We drove about a thousand miles and had about a thousand little adventures. Ocean, mountains, caves, a jet boat ride up a river, ATVs, and yes, I fed a giraffe. (It was scary.) We had a really lovely time.

two

My debut book comes out next month! Last week, I got my first copies. You guys, they are so beautiful. Look!

two-point-two-five

Want to see more? Hook’s Revenge has an amazingly good illustrator, John Hendrix. He just posted pictures of the interior art. Here’s one:

Isn’t it gorgeous?! The rest can be seen here, on his tumblr.

three

You all know my history with terrible selfies, right? Well, I accidentally took a good one. How did this happen?

four

Mind if I talk about my book some more? Because it really is on my mind.

four-point-three

School Library Journal gave Hook’s Revenge a starred review!

Among other really nice things, they said, “The evocative language moves beyond simple description and engages the audience’s imagination. Most notable, however, is the wickedly funny narrator who doesn’t hesitate to add his amusing commentary and pointed dislike for the audience to the narrative.”

Read the full review here.

four-point-six-two-five

I was also just interviewed on Riffle. Swing by to hear about books kid-me would have loved and why I am over the moon for Atticus Finch.

five

Pie. I’m thinking about pie.

Bonus Item

Want to be among the first to hear about events, giveaways, and book news?

No? Okay.

Well, do you want to win stuff?

Yes? Good!

I’m giving away a signed hardcover of Hook’s Revenge and a $25 Powells.com gift card (maybe to you?)! Enter by signing up for my newsletter in the month of August. I promise not to email you too often and to always try to be entertaining.

Sign up in my sidebar, over there on the right, under where it says “I also have a newsletter,” or sign up on my Facebook page.

Good luck!

#PirateFace

Thank you to everyone who participated in my #PirateFace giveaway! There were entries on tumblr, twitter, Facebook, instagram, and even a blog post. After looking at them all, one thing is clear:

Your pirate faces are amazing!



Here is a sample (unless you want to skip to the winner—in which case, scroll on):

Post by Sistah Sellers.

Kaydence’s best pirate face! #PirateFace #HooksRevenge pic.twitter.com/M0RQqb4fUv

— Katie Wallace (@hazy999) August 3, 2014

Arghh, these be me swashbuckingling mateys an’ deck moppin’ crew. #PirateFace #HooksRevenge pic.twitter.com/uTurh3a3bu

— Rachel Patrick (@RachelllRaeee) August 3, 2014

 

@HeidiSchulz #hooksrevenge #pirateface Aarrgh! Get me onto the high seas! (My paper eye-patch was a fail) pic.twitter.com/T3CWOSF0QY

— TheSmitlyJotter (@TheSmitlyJotter) August 1, 2014

Arrr!! #CutlassColt is a-comin’ to claim his booty! #PirateFace #HooksRevenge @HeidiSchulz pic.twitter.com/v6coeaLyb5

— Colten Hibbs (@Colten_Hibbs) July 28, 2014

 

@HeidiSchulz #PirateFace #HooksRevenge ARRR! pic.twitter.com/xNCWPHbnnl

— Alana C. (@AlanaofOz) July 28, 2014

@HeidiSchulz #PirateFace #HooksRevenge pic.twitter.com/uIbgbc3eSj

— Brianna Shrum (@BriannaShrum) July 28, 2014

But now for the winning entry! The honor goes to a Facebook entrant, Rachel Maughan, and her adorable daughter terrifying young pirate offspring!

 

Rachel and her family win:

Peg-leg pirate pencil sharpener
Pirate stencil kit
Loot (a fun pirate card game)
An annotated advance copy of Hook’s Revenge!
And signed Hook’s Revenge swag!

A special mention to Stephanie Barth who posed with a chicken, of sorts. I’ll be sending her a signed Hook’s Revenge poster!

Thanks again for playing along, mateys! Glad to have ye on my crew!