Jan/2012 Torkidlit Meetup at the Bedford Academy
Had fun with the Toronto Middle Grade And YA Authors group at the Bedford Academy last night. I continue to be grateful to Claudia Osmond for founding the group. I always come away so inspired and motivated!
I asked the attendees of last night's get together what they were working on, if they had any news to share, or just brief bio info and here's what they told me:
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Helaine Becker
http://www.helainebecker.com/ - Twitter: @helainebecker
Trouble in the Hills YA launched this past fall; non fic called The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Ocean will be out from Kids Can Press this winter, and then a second YA contemp called How to Survive Absolutely Anything will be out from Fitzhenry and Whiteside in March. Currently writing two new Quiz Books for Scholastic and season 3 of Planet Echo, a science tv show. More news on new contracts next month!
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Jo Karaplis
http://www.joannakaraplis.com/ - Twitter: @JoKaraplis
"Found one of my NaNoWriMo mauscripts from 2010 and it's better than I remember, so I've revived the project. It's been rattling around in my head for a while so I'm excited to dive back in."
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Maureen McGowan
http://www.maureenmcgowan.com - Twitter: @maureenmcgowan
"Signed a three book contract with Amazon Publishing for a YA trilogy. The first book (Deviant) will be released in 2012."
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Rob Weston
http://www.robertpaulweston.com/ - Twitter: @robertpweston
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Joanne Levy
http://www.joannelevy.com/ - Twitter: @JoanneLevy
Posting every Monday at http://www.thedebutanteball.com/
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Jo Swartz
http://www.littlejolit.com/ - Twitter: @littlejolit
"First chapter of a graphic novel is almost complete and will be ready for submission in a month."
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Karen Krossing
Karen has a draft of her middle grade fantasy novel complete and ready for reading.
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Megan Crewe
http://www.megancrewe.com - Twitter: @megancrewe
Megan's contemporary dystopian YA, THE WAY WE FALL, comes out from Disney-Hyperion on January 24th! Here's the book trailer:
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Patricia Storms
http://www.patriciastorms.com/ - Twitter: @stormsy
"My illustrated book, Winter Science, is out (Scholastic) and my non-fiction humor middle grade book (which I also illustrated) will be out in the spring, called Kid Confidential (Bloomsbury)."
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Derek Molata
http://www.derekmolata.com/ - Twitter: @derekmolata
Derek is a YA/adult sf/f writer. "Scorpio. Tripping down the rabbit hole. Represented by the sharkly Janet Reid."
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Jennifer Gordon
https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1129160996&sk=info
"JOIN CANSCAIP!"
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Jordan Hageman
http://jordanhageman.blogspot.com/ - Twitter: @ABookLongEnough
"Got my book back from a pro editor I hired and am revising, revising, revising!"
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Ricki Schulz
http://rickischultz.com/ - Twitter: @rickischultz
It was Ricki's first Torkidlit meetup! Ricki is a freelance writer and editor, and coordinator of the Write-Brained Network.
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Jeff Szpirglas
https://twitter.com/#!/jeffszpirglas - Twitter: @jeffszpirglas
Jeff is shopping some novels around and in theory, one is coming out soon. "It's called Evil Eye, about a disembodied floating eye that's totally EVIL." It was Jeff's first Torkidlit tweetup!
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Debbie Ridpath Ohi
http://DebbieOhi.com - Twitter: @inkyelbows
Excited to be able to say that I'M BORED comes out THIS YEAR (woohoo!). I'M BORED is a new picture book by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by yours truly, coming out from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers in Sept/2012. Also looking forward to the March/2012 launch of TOMO: Friendship Through Fiction - An Anthology Of Japan Teen Stories. I have an illustrated short story in this collection. Proceeds from the sales of Tomo will go to organizations that assist teens in the quake and tsunami hit areas.
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If you're a middle grade or young adult author and would like to find out about upcoming meetups, please join our group on Facebook:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/127433455731/
To find out more about what Torkidlit members are up to, please visit (and Like!) our Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/TorKidLitNews
On Twitter, follow the #torkidlit hashtag.
