Walled Cities
Certaldo, Italy, is my favorite walled city because of its peaceful scale and its position on a lovely hillside. I spent a day there when my family was living in Ferrara, a larger walled city, for several months. Standing on ramparts at dusk, with swallows flying against the fading sky like bats, but prettier, takes me through a portal.
On the blog tour today at The Book Monsters, Kristen asks me to say what’s hardest and easiest about writing, and she gets me thinking.
Chat with Nan
Nancy Mercado at Girls Write Now
Two weeks from now, when Prized is released, I’ll be having a live chat on Goodreads, and my editor Nancy Mercado will be there, too! I’m so pleased. Here’s a photo of Nan I swiped from a Girls Write Now mailing in February 2011 (she’s a mentor with the program) because it seems to capture a bit of who she is—focused, intense, and nice. Look: she’s all about the editing, but she also has her punch glass in hand. Rumor… Continue reading
Swings
Sometimes, when my brain is crawling around between my ears, it’s best to take a walk. Sometimes, like yesterday evening, that includes a visit to the swings.
Katie will be posting a review of Prized and asking me a few question on Mundie Moms today if you’d care to drop by.
The Prized Blog Tour!
We’re introducing the Prized Blog Tour on MacTeenBooks today! I can hardly believe it’s starting! Pulling this together with sixteen of the coolest bloggers ever has been really fun in a surprisingly low-key, laid-back kind of way. We have a stealth interview with one of the Prized characters and discussion of favorite books, along with a range of silly interview questions and philosophical ones. Plus there’s the code and the upcoming chat. Check it out!
Date Blog
Friday, October 21 MacTeenBooks… Continue reading
Codes, Making and Breaking
A Letter from Dad
When I was a kid, my family routinely played with codes. My dad had been a cryptanalyst in the U.S. Army, and when I was at summer camp, he often wrote letters to me in code, with a key along one edge so I could decipher his message, letter by letter. During the summer, when my family spent weeks in the northern woods of Minnesota in a log cabin with minimal plumbing and no TV, any rainy day could find us kids writing secret… Continue reading
Birthmarked Is Out in Paperback
(These remarks are cross-posted on the MacKids site.)
The moment of Birthmarked’s paperback release gives me a portal into a little time travel. It invites me to leap forward because, for any readers who are about to discover Gaia’s story, the paperback is now the real thing. This is the gritty version you’ll read at the beach or squish at the bottom of your backpack, while the hardcover will shortly become a quaint artifact from an earlier time, a sturdy tome you might find on your… Continue reading
Ari & Milo, my serial novel, is now up on Wattpad! I drew illustrations to go with each chapter, and best of all, it’s free! Because of problematic themes, this novel is for mature readers age 17+.
Book Trailer for Promised