Saturday, September 25, 2010
Austin Teen Book Festival…AGAIN!!!! WOO!
I am so so so so ready for this festival again.
About the Festival:
Date: Saturday, October 2, 2010
Time: 10:00am – 5:00pm
Location: Westlake High School
4100 Westbank Drive
Austin, TX 78746
Keynote Author: Ellen Hopkins
Panels & Authors:
- The Dastardly Daydreamers: Fantasy – Melissa de la Cruz, Kiersten White, Sophie Jordan, Nancy Werlin, & Alexandra Adornetto
- The Mustache Twirlers: Evil Machinations – James Dashner, Pam Bachorz, S.A. Bodeen, Catherine Jinks, Ally Carter
- The Boundary Breakers: Realistic/Edgy Fiction – Ellen Hopkins, Kenneth Oppel, Susane Colasanti, and Jon Skovron
Mission: Fostering a community effort to celebrate and promote reading by connecting teens to local and award-winning authors, whose writing spans across genres and interest levels.
The festival is free and open to anyone. Seating preference will be given to teens at the author sessions.
Books and concessions will be available for purchase.
Goals of the Festival:
- Have fun!
- Connect teen readers to local and award-winning authors
- Encourage interaction between aspiring writers and established authors
- Bring together teens who enjoy reading and to encourage struggling readers
- Support, promote, and celebrate recreational teen reading
- Promote life-long reading
Festival to-do List (for teens):
- Meet all of your favorite or soon-to-be favorite authors
- Listen to music by local teen bands
- Have an author autograph your book
- Hang out with your new and old friends and others who enjoy reading
- Purchase books and ATBF t-shirts
- Get your picture taken in our super cool photo booth
- Ellen Hopkins is our key-note speaker. Attendees will want to get here on time to hear her presentation. She is amazing!
- Attendees will have the opportunity to listen to each panel of authors.
- Books will be sold throughout the day so bring cash or cc to purchase books. You will want to get them signed at the end of the day!
- Pizza slices and drinks will be sold at lunch for $1/each. Amy’s ice cream will also be sold (range $3-$5). So please bring extra cash for concessions.
- Authors will be signing books at the end of the day. Most are good about taking pictures with attendees.
- Local teen bands will be performing at lunch and during the book signing
- The UT/OU game will be televised throughout the day so that no one has to miss the game
- We will have a professional photo booth set up during the day for students to take pictures with their friends. This is free! (http://www.magbooth.com/ – to see how it all works)
Questions?
- contact Heather Schubert, festival chair: hschubert@eanesisd.net or 512-732-9224
- want to volunteer or know of volunteers? Contact Leslie Wilson, volunteer coordinator: lwilson@eanesisd.net
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
The Haunted by Jessica Verday
As soon as I discovered The Haunted was out (And, ok, BEFORE it actually was supposed to be out…), I went straight to my local bookstore…and they didn’t have it. So, I waited…a week. They didn’t have it.
I had birthday money, so I went to Amazon and had it delivered to me with 2 day shipping…money well spent!
I loved the creation Verday made in the Hollow, the characters, the places, the relationships, even the paranormal aspects. Going back to them was a sweet joy.
I wanted to delve right back in, be entranced in the world of Abbey. And I was!
The spooky town still remained, the genuine characters were more….alive (I kinda just giggled really loudly!) than ever. In The Haunted, you are taken deeper into everything. Deeper into secrets that were opened up in The Hollow, about Kristen, about Caspian, about Nikolas. Taken deeper into romance. Let me just give a GIANT compliment to Jessica…she was able to write very steamy, sexy, thrilling, moments between Abbey and Caspian…and they can’t touch. Yeah.
No touching…yet still completely smoldering and sexy.
The paranormal aspect went deeper, as well, of course. We found a bit more of what’s going on, but still have questions that will be anxiously wanting to be answered.
Kristen…the girl might be dead, but she knows how to leave a mark. Her actions, the good and the bad, still leave marks on everyone in the story, she’s not forgotten.
The town still holds the pure richness that I think it will always have, and Abbey still holds passion for it, as I think she always will.
The ending…came too soon! I am left with a lot of questions!
I actually think the ending could have had a bit more, I’m not just saying that because I want more, I’ll always want more, but it was like Abbey was slashed with a knife over and over and we’re left with her wounded and lost.
(No, that really didn’t happen.)
I did not want this book to end, I really didn’t. I’m going to miss all the characters, because they are all relatable in different ways, they are all realistic.
Congrats on the well deserved Bestseller (#10!), Jessica!
The Haunted made me read fast, regret reading so fast, but still reading on, hooked on every page. Hauntingly good, if I do say so myself!
Monday, September 13, 2010
Winners and Thanks!
Friday, September 3, 2010
Back to Books
But today we have…Judith Graves!!!
Coil Notebooks: A Writer’s Obsession
Back to school can be a dark time in my house. Not because my husband is a high school social studies teacher and I’m an elementary school library technician – and back to school means an end to summer. Nope. I’m talking about my coil notebook obsession and how it drains our bank balance every fall
As a young adult paranormal fiction author, I’ve made it my duty to scoop up any gothic notebooks I find. But I write edgy YA as well, therefore I stand in line for the tattoo-ish, doodle designs as well. And I have a few picture books I’ve been working on, so I have to nab the cutise ones too.
What do I use all these notebooks for, you ask? Well, some are for future plot ideas, character trait journals, random dialogue, nifty word diaries, flash fiction pieces, lyrics, poetry….and some are too stunning to write in at all. Those are for pure wow-ain’t-that-pretty moments of inspiration.
I found a few of my favourite notebook companies online, you can check them out here:
Ecojot (http://www.ecojot.com/) – recycled paper, cute designs and Canadian! Can’t ask for more.
Carolina Pad (http://www.carolinapad.com/) – cool notebooks, bags, you name it.
Etsy (www.etsy.com) also has an amazing selection of handmade, unusual designs. I could spend hours skimming through the online shops to find steals like these (some are more elaborate and expensive than others):
http://www.etsy.com/listing/54582093/apocalypse-xxiv-awesome-leather-journal
http://www.etsy.com/listing/34524093/wildflowers-notebook-recycled-paper
You can even go to a site like Vista Print (www.vistaprint.com) or Café Press (www.cafepress.ca) and have notebooks custom made – a great idea for a school fundraiser, art class projects, or team/club bonding thingie. 😉
I feel I’m neglecting another important facet of back to school shopping. Along with each gem of a notebook, there must be an equally fantastic pen…but that’s another post. Happy Back to School Season!
Who am I? I’m Judith Graves, YA paranormal author of Under My Skin (Leap Books, 2010) and Second Skin (Leap Books, 2011) and a member of the amazing Class of 2k10. Check out my site: www.judithgraves.com and the 2k10 site to meet 23 coolio debut authors: www.classof2k10.com
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Back to Books Post 8: Wednesday Contest
