Recently in News Category

I'm running around like a crazy Daphne this morning, trying to get stuff done before my flight to NYC. Contracts to mail, manuscripts to upload to my Kindle, emails to answer, and blogs to post! So please forgive this bare bones list of links, and I promise I'll be better soon.

• Alyson Noel's Kiss And Blog is going back to press!
• Ask Daphne is being reprinted in the Children's Book Insider, and will have a quarterly column as of October.
• Registration for the 2nd Annual Kidlit Bloggers Conference in Portland, Oregon is now open. Rexroth and I will be there. Will you?
• And... um... The first act of Dr. Horrible's Sing-a-long Blog is now up! Act II follows tomorrow, Act III on Saturday, and by Sunday it will be gone. Watch now!

Some recent reviews for Miss MJ to post today. One from Sassymonkey, of Girl At Sea, and one from the official YALSA blog (the Young Adult Library Services Association) of Let It Snow, a fun new anthology featuring a story from Maureen coming out from Penguin this fall. Enjoy!

I was positively THRILLED this morning to open my inbox and find the cover design for the first book in Alyson Noel's forthcoming "Immortals" series, Evermore. It's drop dead gorgeous, if I do say so myself. Without further ado... meet Ever.

A five-star review over at Teens Read Too for Band Geek Love by Josie Bloss, as well as a very nice print review in the July issue of KLIATT, which reads, in part:

Ellie is obsessive, high-strung, and sometimes rather horrible. She's touchy and domineering, and cares too much about what people think about her. Somehow, though, her behaivor and attitude come off as refreshingly real and honest. Ellie is indecisive and makes mistakes, just like many teenagers. Her strong personality is nicely offset by Conner's kindness, and their relationship, with all its twists and turns, is interesting to watch unfold. The unusual setting of marching band, a microcosm of high school not often seen in YA novels, helps this stand out.

Today's a short work day as I have to pick a friend up from the hospital this afternoon, and I'll be away from my lappy. That being said, here's some great news on an otherwise somewhat dreary day in the front range -- Alyson Noel's Cruel Summer is another one of Seventeen's Summer Beach Reads! Go Colby!

Ellen's already shared this good news over at her blog, but The Unnameables has been picked up by the Junior Library Guild and will be featured in its catalogue as of October 2008. Woot!

It's been a busy few days around kt literary headquarters, and I have loads of news and links to share with you. So let's get to it!

• Seventeen's Summer Book Club is featuring Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson
• Teen and tween librarian Green Bean Teen Queen reviewed Alyson Noel's Cruel Summer
• The Bermudez Triangle by MJ is available as an audio download from Audible. Hear the book that was banned in Oklahoma!
• On July 13th in Hollywood, Alyson Noel will be participating in the first ever Rock n' Read Festival. More details on the website or on Alyson's blog.
• On a sad note, Tasha Tudor passed away on Wednesday. I loved her illustrations of The Secret Garden.
• The famed and fabulous dancer Cyd Charisse also passed away last week. If you're not a musical geek like me, you may know the name as the movie star the main character of Rachel Cohn's Gingerbread is named for. (Not a kt literary client, but still an awesome book.)

Cuidad Magazine shares their thoughts on Alyson Noel's Cruel Summer. In brief:

Noel convincingly captures Colby's self-transformation as the character comes full circle and realizes that perhaps instead of fighting life and all the things out of her control, she should let go and embrace them. Through the typing fingers of Colby Cavendish, Noel teaches her readers that all the years of suffering through teenage awkwardness are just a phase and, in the end, if a person allows it, she can learn more about herself than she ever thought possible

Like many agents, I regularly get email links to sites that mention my authors, my agency, or myself. Today I found this nice mention of SAVING ZOE by Alyson Noel, from author Amanda Ashby, and this review of DEVILISH by Maureen Johnson from Trashionista. But I also love to follow the references and see where they lead, hoping to find something great to post about. (Because if you think coming up with a daily post is easy, you're a wee bit insane!) So today I was thrilled to follow another mention of Maureen Johnson to this wonderful list of Reasons to Write YA, from aspiring author Mary Danielson. I'm not necessarily sure I agree with every reason she lists, but it's definite food for thought.

What about you? What are YOUR reasons to write YA? Or for any other age range or genre? The comments are open!

Something odd seems to be happening around the world in Australia, where new kt literary client Lili Wilkinson is blogging. I do hope it doesn't come here. It's all very weird.

Be safe, Lili. We're thinking of you.