Award of the state

Some of the 5,349 YA novelists who had their debut in 2010 might already be turning their attention, and angst, toward San Diego, where the American Library Association will soon hold their midwinter meeting. Given that the big winners (Newbery and Caldecott) will be announced, along with the list formerly known as BBYA, this can be a stressful week for new authors. This seems like a good time to remind everyone of a service business I started several years ago especially to help avoid stressful award seasons. If you've already bookmarked the YALSA blog, memorized the meeting schedule of the Quick Picks committee, and set one of your clocks to Pacific time, even though you live in the midwest, you're a good candidate for Cry-Away (tm). Check it out. You can thank me later.

For those of you who decide to forgo this service, I'll try to post some helpful tips throughout the week to help you cope with both the stress of waiting and the dismay of losing.