Award News!
Academy 7, my second book, won the Spirit of Oregon Award this year for being “a distinguished contribution to young adult literature that engages and encourages readers' imagination, discovery, and understanding.” The Oregon Council of Teachers of English selected the book as the best young adult novel of the year by an Oregon author. Academy 7 was also chosen as a finalist for the Oregon Book Award sponsored by Literary Arts and was nominated by ALA/YALSA as a popular paperback (in the same category as The Hunger Games, no less). I am so proud of Aerin and Dane! Their starred review from VOYA is now posted on my website, as well as one from School Library Journal and reviews from several of my favorite young adult authors: Tamora Pierce, Sherwood Smith, and Sally Watson.
Portland Writing Festival
Next weekend, all my characters and I are off to present for four hundred of the best middle school student writers in the state! The Portland Writing Festival is an amazing event, encouraging imagination, creativity, and a passion for writing. Aurelia, Robert, Aerin, Dane, and I are greatly honored to be chosen as part of this incredible experience.
Author’s Thoughts
In honor of Exile’s release, I also thought you might enjoy a random, behind the scenes look at my own personal journey throughout Robert and Aurelia’s expedition. . .
Exile began with Aurelia, of course.
She has always insisted on a sequel to her first book—at least as far back as I can recall.
Though, technically, I started typing the initial draft of Exile the weekend after my first submission deadline for Academy 7.
Vroom! We were off—Robert, Aurelia, and I, thundering through their expedition.
Of course, there were certain things Aurelia didn’t inform me of in that first draft.
The forest, for example. Silly me, I thought the Asyan Forest was the setting for a single chapter. Little did I know it was going to snatch us up and refuse to let us leave. I spent an entire Christmas in the forest. The beginning of the following summer, we were still there.
And then I had to take a detour into the draft for a different book.
Ooh! Aurelia was mad! “You’ve leaving us stuck here!” she yelled at me. “How can you leave us here?!”
I used logic.
My publisher used logic.
My brand new agent, Kelly Sonnack from the Andrea Brown Literary Agency, used logic.
Guess who won?
Not anyone using logic.
By the end of the summer, Aurelia, Robert, and I were out of the forest and onto the frontier (definitely worth the struggle) with the scariest deadline I’ve ever had in my life.
Aurelia, on the other hand, was happy.
A Brief Note:
I have done my best to compile the current list of Imagination Express recipients based on the various e-mails I have received from readers, writers, librarians, reviewers, bookstore representatives, etc. If you would prefer not to receive this newsletter in the future, please respond to this e-mail, and I will be happy to remove your contact information
*GRACIAS A LA AUTORA POR LA NOTA DE PRENSA
*THANKS ANNE FOR THE NEWS
¡Qué buena pinta! Así que ya está aquí, ya está aquí ¿eh?
ResponderEliminarGracias por la info, guapa. La novela pinta muy bien (¡y es ganadora de un premio!)
Y gracias por el link de la reseña.
Besotes ^^