Podcast appearances and mentions of gabi break

Lisa shares her discussions with authors at Readercon 33. Readercon Carlos Hernández: [Website] / [Facebook] / [Instagram] Sal and Gabi Break the Universe [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Lincoln in the Bardo (Written by: George Saunders / Narrated by: Full Cast) [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] C.S.E. Cooney: [Linktree] / [Blog] / [Instagram] / [Facebook] Saint Death's Daughter [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Starlings (Written by: Jo Walton / Narrated by: C.S.E. Cooney & Rudy Sanda) [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Combat-Ready Kitchen (Written by: Anastacia Marx de Salcedo / Narrated by: C.S.E. Cooney) [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Desdemona and the Deep [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Dawn (Written by: Octavia E. Butler / Narrated by: Julienne Irons) [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Ambassador [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible] Nomad [Libro.fm] / [OverDrive/Libby] / [Audible]

Mari and the Curse of El Cocodrilo by Adrianna Cuevas Read alikes: Sal & Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez The Dream Weaver Reina Luz Alegre The Cursed Moon by Angela Cervantes

I invited the amazing C. S. E. Cooney to talk with me about her journey to publication (a journey that lasted 12 years!) for Saint Death’s Daughter. We had a long talk, and she answered a lot of questions from my patrons and subscribers, who had the chance to send in their specific questions ahead of time. Here is the first part of the interview, which you may listen to, or read a transcript below!If you have not already devoured Saint Death’s Daughter in one day, like I did, I encourage you to check it out! It’s available as a printed book, an ebook, and an audiobook, and Claire does her own narration for the audio version!JuliaHello and welcome to the OMG Julia Podcast, where we talk about creative lives and processes. I'm your host, Julia Rios, and with me today is special guest C. S. E. Cooney. Welcome!ClaireThank you Julia! It's lovely to be here.JuliaSo C. S. E. Cooney, also known as Claire, is a wonderful writer of fantasy short fiction, long fiction, and, most recently, the novel Saint Death's Daughter. Claire, do you want to introduce yourself a little bit and tell people a little bit about your writing career as a whole?ClaireI feel like I have been writing fantasy since I was pretty young—fifth or sixth grade, I would go around in circles around the playground with the two friends that I had and just tell them stories that I would then fill notebooks full of. The first ones were like, one was called My World and the sequel was Animal World. And then, in high school, I would name all my friends ridiculous, long, elven names made out of all of the words they liked the best. Like, what's your favorite color? What's your favorite jewel? What's your favorite flower? And then I would Smush them all together and then they'd get names like Erazellalzenarayneraniananamavario. And they'd come from a house and they'd have this backstory, and they all thought that one day I would write this epic trilogy called The Elven Story. But what I guess I was doing is what most people were doing: playing D&D with their friends. But I didn't know about D&D, so I was sort of doing the same thing like with my own imprimatur. It was more like out loud oral storytelling, having adventures or like parallel lives to the lives we were leading as high schoolers. But I think when my father introduced me to the person who became my mentor, I was about 18. I'd, you know, been writing and rewriting two or three different novels throughout high school, and one of the gentlemen who was in my father's congregation—my dad is a director of music and liturgy at St. Anne's church—one of his congregation members was Gene Wolfe, who was a renowned science fiction and fantasy writer. But of course me at 17 or 18, I don't know from Gene Wolfe!Actually, that's not true. You know you’ve got the stack of books your friends lend you, and my friend Lydia had let me one, and it was on the top of my book stack, and I was flying out from Phoenix to see my dad in Chicago as I did periodically summers and winters, and I grabbed the first one off my book stack, read it on the plane, and it happened to be Shadow of the Torturer by Gene Wolfe! But at that time I never paid attention to authors because they didn't matter. The stories mattered, and the only time I tried to remember an author's name was if I liked the story enough and wanted to get more of that. Then it was sort of more like a tagging system, you know, but I never thought of them as people…So he introduces me to Gene and we go to dinner with Gene and Rosemary and my dad and my stepmom, and Gene made me feel so comfortable that by the end of the evening I was like, “Can I send you my novel?” Just like you do when you're 17 or 18, and I just remember the look on his face so clearly, which was like this minor hesitation, and then this warm, “How about you send me the first three chapters? And I can't promise I'll have anything to say about it.” Just like very gentle, and it had me back pedaling, like, “Oh, no, I could just send you one chapter!” You know? Or, “You don't have to!” And he's like, “Go ahead, send three chapters.”And then I think he only ended up reading one chapter, but he wrote me a five page letter about it. Or three pages. You know, it was a significant letter, and it was typed and it was it was chock full. And that started a correspondence when I went back to Phoenix, and when I moved to Illinois eventually to go to college, our correspondence kept up. We would go to conventions. He took me to my first convention. He taught me how to write short stories. You know, he's like, “You know, novels are great, but in order to build up your byline, you have to write a lot of short fiction. You have to get some credits to your name, and then you can get an agent.” Like, it was the kind of the old fashioned trajectory that he knew that worked for him that he was teaching me.And it took just about as long as you'd imagine—about 20 years of trial and error. But, you know, in 2015, Mythic Delirium published my first short story collection. Four pieces had been previously published, and one hadn't. It was called Bone Swans, and Gene wrote the introduction for that. And that was maybe I think 15 years after I'd met him, so.I would say maybe the publication of Bone Swans and the fact that it got the World Fantasy Award was the beginning of my career as it is now, though it took 15 years of doing a lot of different stuff to get to that point. Doing a lot of short stories, writing a lot of novellas, just going to college and going to school for writing and figuring all that out, reading a lot, failing a lot, you know. And then that small press success seven years ago. It's hardly like, hardly seems it could be seven years, on both ends, you know? Both too short or too long. But I think having having an award and having a collection was what got me, eventually, an agent who could eventually sell the novel I'd been working on for just about as long as I'd been writing anything else, and which is now Saint Death's Daughter. It wasn't then. It's too late now for Gene to read it. He passed away a few years ago, but he always liked the idea, and at one point several years ago he's like, “That's a good idea. Are you still writing it?” And I'd written a lot of things in the interim, but that one, I think partly because I started writing it as I was still teaching myself to write (which is an ongoing process), but there's a very big difference between you know, 26 and 36, or 40, as I am now.And you could write a book perpetually, but at least I think the final version of Saint Death's Daughter as it is—I just narrated it, so I now know beginning to end what it is, that it exists as a single unit and not as 16,000,000 ongoing fluid units—I thought, “Okay. This was the best I could do in all the years that I gave to it, and it constantly got better, and it's out in the world, and it is a good and fine work and I'm proud of it. Now, moving on!” So that's my career in a nutshell.JuliaI asked my patrons if they wanted to ask specific questions, if they were curious about specific things. So one of the reasons we're doing this interview is I allow my patrons to vote on the kind of content that I post and also, if I'm doing something like this, ask questions of their own. And when I asked them recently what would they like to see more of, they all said, “We would really like to see more writing process posts, and we'd love to see like you talking to other authors, or giving us your own stuff.” I had done a process post of my own recently, and they were like, “We'd like more stuff like that, and we'd love to hear you talk to other authors.” Well, I had your book pre-ordered, and I listened to it all in one day, and I was like, all right, this is clearly a good one. I'm going to see if Claire is willing to talk to me about Saint Death’s Daughter. I know that it has a long and complicated process leading up to it and this will be really interesting. So, I knew that, personally, but I was like all right, what do my patrons want to know? So one person, who doesn't know you at all, asked how you came up with the title of the novel. I thought that was fascinating because, of course, when I first read the draft of it that I read years ago that is not the final version at all, It was called Miscellaneous Stones: Necromancer [Note, after the fact: I think actually it was called Miscellaneous Stones: Assassin the first time I read a draft], and I don't know how many titles you've had, and I don't know how you landed on this one, but if you want to share the story of how this book came to have its title, I'd love to hear it.ClaireWell, originally it was called Miscellaneous Stones: Assassin, which was meant to be ironic. And the interesting thing I'm learning about ironic titles is that, well, I was never very good at irony anyway, but. I was like trying to be ironic and sophisticated, but you'd have to read the story first to know that it was ironic, and usually a title is part of what gets you to read the story in the first place. So I think that I was going about it a bit backwards in my desire to be more sophisticated and ironic. So, initially, it's the name of the character, Miscellaneous Stones, and the word assassin because she's from a family of assassins. But it's ironic because she's allergic to violence. So she thinks (this is in the early drafts) that she has to grow up and be like the rest of her family, a slick, awesome, sophisticated assassin, but really, she just projectile vomits anytime like somebody swats a fly near her. You know that was the idea like way back in the first draft the NaNoWriMo draft.In the interest of not being so obfuscating, I was like, well she actually is not an assassin and the way that the drafts turned out, everybody knows she's a necromancer from birth because of her allergy, so there's really no chance she'd ever think she'd grow up to be an assassin. So let's just call her what she is. She's a necromancer, Miscellaneous Stones: Necromancer. Of course later as I was researching the word necromancer, the mancy part of mancer is more about prophecy and oracles. And it's like it's prophesying through the dead, like you know some people scry through birds, and some people scry through cards like cartomancy. You know, there's all the mancies and it's really about like trying to tell the future. So necromancy is really about trying to tell the future through the dead, which I think she can do. It's one of her powers. But really, she's like a death magic. But in this world magic is is part of the religion. It's the more you pay attention to the gods, the more they pay attention back at you, and their attention is what magic is. It's what's called the panthauma, the all-marvel, and panthauma’s what makes good stuff happen. So there's like a give and take, so really, a really good magician is a saint, in that sense that they are devoted to their god and the god is super super devoted back. That god's just pleased somebody's paying attention, because a lot of people (like in our world) in that world, are like yeah, the gods. Whatever. We'll pay attention on the holy days, maybe. Mostly dress up and eat good food, but a true saint is as rare as it ever was, or as nonexistent. At least in this world, they actually exist. That they're devoted. It's like vocation. It's almost fanaticism in some ways. All of which to say, the truth is it went out on submission as Miscellaneous Stones: Necromancer, and I never even call her Miscellaneous! I call her Lanie because it's easier, and that was an edit that happened perhaps from my agent. It may have been either my current agent or an earlier agent who'd been looking at it was like, “These are mouthfuls. Why don't you shorten their name?” So really, Miscellaneous Stones, it's only when she's talking to herself or somebody's like being very stern who knows her very well, they might call her Miscellaneous Stones, but mostly she's talking to herself, and to everybody else in the text, she's Lanie. And I know this is a lot. Okay, but so it went out on submission when it was accepted, everybody was super excited, and the editor at the time at Rebellion. Kate Coe, who was a darling and just like would respond to me in all caps in her emails, which was exactly how I think so I was like, “Ooh all caps. We're best friends!” But one of her suggestions was like, “We're super on board. We like the title, but you really have to know what you're reading in order to understand it. Do you have anything else?” And I think that I probably had been prepared in some way, like, I had a notion for years possibly that this wasn't exactly the right title. But maybe I was too lazy, or you get really attached, so I had the title almost right away. Knowing that Lanie is a devotee of the goddess of death, Doédenna, and her nickname is Saint Death, and their relationship is that of like best friends, or acolyte and divine, or mother and daughter.Lanie has a very complicated relationship with mother figures. So. In this grand scheme of the idea of Lanie and her arc that hopefully will have other books in it. But even if it was just this one book, I wanted to give her in this book: she's a daughter. And when you're the daughter of a celebrity, like a god, for example, who you are is defined by who you come from. So it's like, “You’re Saint Death's daughter.” That's how people think of you. That's why you're important.And I feel like, in that sense, it defines her. It's also something to chafe against, like what else is she besides a necromancer? This is one of the questions. You know, who are you when you're not your vocation? But the the whole arc lends itself to the title. Saint Death's Daughter, Saint Death's Herald, Saint Death's Doorway is a progression of character and duties and power, I think, until you become the doorway through which the dead have passage basically into the god. That's her trajectory in my head, even if she never gets there on the page, which I hope she will. At least I know, and it makes sense, and I proposed that as a series of titles for a proposed trilogy and they leapt on it. And so there might have been even more titles out there, but that was the first thing that I thought, “Oh I think they'll like this.” And they did! And I didn't have to think about it anymore.JuliaOkay, so you said you have already future titles planned. Do you actually have book deals for those, or is it something that you're hoping might happen sometime?ClaireI don't have book deals. I think a few things are just up in the air and I kind of talk to my agent about it a little and he's like let's just see what happens, so it's sort of that. Also, Kate, who was the one who acquired Saint Death's Daughter, has since moved on from Rebellion to do her own thing. I think that I'm just going to see where this book goes. If Rebellion doesn't end up wanting it for whatever reason, and I'm not sure, I haven't written them yet, then I probably will still write them because I want to. And thanks to you, Julia, you have taught me of the wonderful wide world of self-publishing, which I have dabbled in mostly because of you. Also I have some really great connections with small presses that maybe if I made really big eyes at them and came like a small mouse skeleton with, you know, shiny, dead, undead eyes and blinked my bony eyelashes… Maybe they'd be like, “Okay, Claire I could just maybe do this for you.” Or at least or at least help me package it somehow. I'd probably hire a team or do a Kickstarter or something you know, um maybe not Kickstarter. Whatever is the least evil at the time. If it comes to that, I feel like I want to tell the story and so… but until I know I'm just going to wait a few months and then I'll ping my agent again see what he thinks. I'm also working on so many other things so it's sort of like, “But I've made a promise in Saint Death's Daughter. I've tried to do two things. 1) I've tried to give a full complete book that stands alone and that, if it leaves you wanting more, it also leaves you satisfied which is a trick, you know. Like, did I pull it off? Did I not? But I feel like I've told a whole story, and left enough threads that, if I never write them, then hopefully there's a team of like fan fiction writers who could take it and run with it. You know? But if I do write it, I've given myself a lot of threads into the future, which, in my head, I have followed out to many different conclusions.JuliaYeah, I mean, I think I definitely felt like the ending did tie everything up that really needed to be tied up, in that there weren't so many burning questions that I had at the end that I was like, “Oh no, and now I'm at the end of the book and there's nothing I can do!” Which I feel like happens when you have books that are a series that end in Cliff hangers a lot of the time. ClaireYeah I don't like cliffhangers because you know many of our beloved fantasy writers have had these long book deals and then life got in the way and people get bitterly bitterly angry. But there's nothing —you can't force somebody to write, and this one took, you know, twelve years. I don't think the other two will take twelve years, but how many more sets of twelve years do I even have, you know? And at what point will this story not be pertinent anymore? You know, as far as the one I need to be telling as a writer.JuliaGreat questions. So, you mentioned that you're working on a lot of other things, and I know that you're always working on a lot of things. Ah, but this is interesting. I don't know how you're going to answer this one. It's another Patron question. They ask, “What do you do when you're low on ideas?” and I was like I don't know that I've ever known Claire to be low on ideas… But do you get low on ideas? And if so, what do you do?ClaireI can answer that because up until 2019, I would say, maybe 2015 to 2019, I don't know if I was low on ideas, but it felt… it was that burnt out, like charcoal in the back of the mouth feeling that writing feels like sharpening your teeth on cement, you know? Like that terrible feeling of, “I don't want to, but if I don't, then all of my life to this point has been wasted.” That’s just a terrible place to write in. You know like the burnt out thing. Um, but once Saint Death's Daughter, which was not Saint Death's Daughter at the time, had been drafted to the fullness of its ability and turned into my agent... So, after eight drafts I sent it to an agent who finally liked it enough to say sure, asked me for two more drafts, took me another year and a half to do… So, that was turned in. And it was also at the end of 2019 when my novella, Desdemona and the Deep, came out. It always ends up that no matter how you try to space them, all your deadlines end up in the same week for projects you've been working on for a decade and a half, or five years, the last three years. It's like it doesn't matter. They just all end up due that same week.And so Desdemona had gone through its rewrites and its copy edits and it was coming out that July, and for a little bit, there was nothing impending on my plate that needed to be done that anybody wanted and that I had been working on for years already. So I was like, “I am not going to write again until I can do it in joy.” And I was seriously, like it had been so long since I'd felt joy or had been allowed to work on a new thing. “Allowed” you know in quotes, right? Because you have to finish what you started or else, again, you've —well this is for me; this is my voice in my head— you've wasted the last twenty years of your life and all of the money you spent on college. But it was a firm like, “I'm not going to sit down every day and try to be disciplined and try to write for the sake of writing. You know? just I don't want to do it. I don't. I don't want to waste my life in that way anymore.” And so I just kind of like didn't for a few weeks. You know, I can't remember how long, but I stared out a lot of windows, and I read romance novels and mysteries. And, you know, I alarmed a lot of my family who are like, “You can't stop writing! What will you do?”And I'm like, “Well, something that makes me happy, hopefully!” And then on the way to an event for Carlos —Carlos is my husband, and it was that was the year Sal and Gabi Break the Universe came out, I think. Either Break or Fix. I think it was Break came out in 2019 and Fix came out in 2020 because it was a pandemic book— it was a Disney event, and it was in the Bronx, it was the Bronx is Reading Book Festival, and I was staring out the window in this car that had been called up for him, very fancy-like, and we were passing rows and rows of houses and the thought came to me. It was a random thought. It was just like, “What if houses were people?” Like just very random, very gentle. And it was that what if moment that I hadn't felt it in so long. I was so surprised by it. I was so delighted. My brain, it was in that feeling of it was so hard to concentrate on anything else with the story that was building almost like a dam behind my eyelids.I went to bed, wide-eyed in the dark that night, fell asleep, woke up. We were getting coffee and tea in the kitchen, and I was like, “And then this happens in the buh buh buh buh…” But I told Carlos the whole story that had just occurred to me in the last twelve hours or so, and he asked me a lot of questions, and then I sat down and I started writing it longhand, which I hadn't done again for years. And took the time I wanted to. Stopped when my hand got tired. And in a few months, I had a whole novella drafted.Then I was like, “I'll type that when I feel like it.” And so was like, again, “I'm not going to write anything till I feel like it.” A few weeks later I had a really cool, funny romcom dream where a girl who was a severe introvert had to go to three different weddings in a single day, and she had to like change into a different bridesmaid outfit for each of them and they were all across town from each other, and I was like, “That would be a really fun plot for a novel if I could manage it.”And of course me being me, I write fantasy more than romance, though I often have romance elements. And so I was like, “Oh, I could set it in the world of Desdemona and the Deep and Dark Breakers! Ooh, but what if it wasn't in the gilded age equivalent that those stories are in? What if it was like in their 1980s? So what if there are like boomboxes and like space travel? But she's a goblin!” And then it just went on, and she's a severe introvert, and goblins are sort of —in that world— have a lot of spider-like attributes. So, it's like what if she's like a brown recluse? But like she's super, super introverted. She'll bite you if you come up on her unexpectedly. She's kind of a computer nerd. She grinds lenses. Like you look through the lenses and each lens does different things. So anyway, I just fell in love with her and I wrote this RomCom. Again, just typed it out. It was supposed to be very light and funny, and I did the first draft, and it was done in like two months or so. And that was 2019.So I guess that what I do now, if I'm feeling low energy —well, then the pandemic happened and a whole different thing happened— but I try to do a couple things, like 1) write when it feels joyful, but 2) since I often want to write but have low energy, what has worked for me lately is making writing dates with other writers to do a silent Zoom together, like a cafe. There are whole cafe kind of —like my friends in Chicago have this virtual cafe where people go and they are kind of like hosting for hour sessions and on the the top of the hour everybody chats for about 15 minutes, then they do a timed sprint for 45 minutes that's quiet, and then they'll do that. Maybe that will last 3 hours. And there's another one that some playwriting friends started, but it starts very rigidly 9:00 every morning and very rigidly closes at noon. And when I need more pressure than I give myself, just like constraint and pressure, I set my alarm for 5 minutes before 9:00, check my email for the link (it comes every day regardless of whether I sign in), and get my butt in the chair so that I'm kind of responsible to somebody. And then I sit and write for that time because those constraints, nobody's making me but the constraints in place, or this kind of social aspect, even though there's not a lot of interaction, have really given me the little energetic boost to get my butt in the chair —sitzfleisch— and to do to do some of that work.JuliaOkay, so I feel like all of this was amazing and fascinating. But if I boil it down to bullet points, what I've got is if you are feeling overwhelmed because everything has become too much and you can't find joy in your writing, the best thing to do is to actively take a break and not write. And then your ideas will start flowing again once you've actually allowed yourself to relax. ClaireThat's the hope, sure. JuliaBut that seems to be what happened for you?ClaireYes.JuliaBecause rest is part of the cycle, I think. I mean, that sort of goes along with the theory of fallow fields and crops. You need to not harvest every single season because if you do your field will just run completely out of rich minerals in the soil.ClaireYes, my father called it fertile boredom.JuliaOkay, so there's that, and then the second thing is: it helps you to have community accountability, and so having friends that are also writing at the same time as you is helpful.ClaireYeah, and that's a recent development. That was a pandemic development. I think it started a little bit before, but I didn't notice. It was when Carlos and I both had drafts due at the same time, and we started working together. So, suddenly to have two people and a deadline, it's almost like being in college where right after college it was really hard to write for a little while because there was no expectation of turning anything in, or a certain page number, but before college I wrote all the time! 8 to 10 hours, just for fun, and it was really hard. Like, how do you do that again? How do you want to do that again?And I never have gotten back to that level of desire and losing myself, except for moments, but like once you have the pressure and the deadline and the expectation. It's really hard to do it just for fun for me. But and with Carlos and I both writing together, it was so pleasurable and so much easier. And I recently learned a friend, not a friend, an acquaintance. A friendly acquaintance, who I was doing a podcast with through Rebellion, was telling me that she has ADHD and that when she sits with her partner and he's working and very focused and she's writing, she suddenly can focus a lot easier, and that her therapist called it body doubling. And I realized that's probably what was happening with me and Carlos. We were body doubling. And it seems to be what has been helping me the most now, in that kind of… this scattered, like, what day is it? What even is time? Who am I? I was like, “Oh. Other writers are in the world! Dee dee dee dee dee!” You know?JuliaThat's really interesting I find it's this is sort of the opposite for me, and I bring this up because I know that people listening to this are wondering about different processes, and I'm just here to tell you there are so many different processes! And the correct trick is just finding whatever works for you, and it might be different from time to time, but like don't feel like anything is how it always works and has to work that way and if it doesn't you're wrong. ClaireYeah.JuliaBut for me, I find that when I try to do group writing type things where it's, you know, 45 minutes of writing and fifteen minutes of chat, whether it's in person or in video or whatever, I am usually way less productive. It's hard hard for me to get into a good zone for work, and I kind of have to do stuff being on my own.ClaireThat's historically been true for me too.JuliaBefore the pandemic, I used to go to my local coffee shop, and I was a regular! The entire staff knew me. They all knew what drinks I liked! Like, I could walk in the door and they'd start making me a drink because they already knew what I wanted. That is how much I was in there. And I would just spend all day.ClaireI Love that.JuliaBut I would do it on my own, and I just kind of let the the roar of people chatting and drinking coffee around me be background, but I wouldn't have to pay attention to any of it. If I'm there with other people who are there for the same purpose, all of my focus goes out the window. And I don't know why. That's just always been the way it is. So like the body doubling thing doesn't—it's like a distraction instead of a.ClaireWell, it's so interesting because historically I never could write in a cafe or a library. Carlos is really good at that. But I look at too many people. It's really like I could do it if I put earphones on and made like ocean sounds and almost a shade over my eyes. It's too much and and generally, historically, I've always written alone, so this new development during the pandemic, like something else was happening that was even bigger than my need to isolate and focus, which was always a big need for me. So the other thing that I do, when I don't want people, is make it beautiful. So, like, light a candle, sometimes I do essential oils, or a smell, or like clear off my desk. Right? Handwrite, use a different ink, you know. Or like just something that makes it different. And make it beautiful. To make it ritual, almost, so that it's a different space. So that it's pleasurable, or sensual, to do the thing rather than drudgery.JuliaThat's really interesting. Do you find that the environment that you create for your writing affects what you put on the page?ClaireI don't know, but I would say that it's harder or easier depending on the environment to write at all. I like having a window to look out of. It's harder for me to pay attention if I'm looking at a wall. So, I would say all of the things that make it easier to get my butt in the chair. It's sort of like if it's attractive to be in the chair, then it's easier. But if it's sort of like, ehhh, I have to settle, and I have to be here, and I have to like shade my eyes and hide my ears, and like not pay attention to all the people around me. You know, I can get stuff done, but historically, I would say it's easier to do nonfiction blogging administrative work in that situation. Like, I can do administrative work at a cafe but fiction really really hard to do. I am audience motivated just like I'm food motivated. So if I know like my mom has heard the last chapter and she's like, “What's going to happen next?” That also motivates me to write because I've always read aloud my work. The instant I've written a sentence, I'm like, “Listen to this, guys!” So that's another thing that works for me, but some people would be… like I think for you, the idea of somebody immediately listening to your first draft would be so horrifying that it would stop you from writing, so that's where we're different, too. JuliaI'm a “not sharer” so I did the recent process post about one of the stories that I had written, and that was a really big step for me, because it was, “Okay, well, you want to know about what I was thinking, and I'm going to share with you things that feel very close and personal about like my process and my life.” ClaireYeah. Yeah.JuliaAnd my first drafts feel that way. I'm like, “What, you want to see… you want to like open up my insides and look at them? I don't think that sounds comfortable.”ClaireAnd for me, it's like, “Look at me! It's all sequins in here!”And that is where we’re leaving off for this episode. Next time we’ll get into how many drafts Claire typically writes for a project, what her agent search was like, how the final version of the book changed over time, and what it was like to narrate the audiobook version. Thanks so much for listening. If you want to have the chance to ask your own questions, or request specific kinds of posts from me, consider joining my patreon which is at patreon.com/juliarios, or my substack, which is at omgjulia.substack.com All patrons and subscribers get early access to every piece of creative work I commission from other creators in my Worlds of Possibility project, and your pledges and subscriber fees go directly to help pay for those stories and poems and things. I just wrapped up my first open submission period for that project, and there are SO MANY cool stories in my second round consideration pile. It’s going to be really hard to choose which ones I can actually accept, and I can’t wait to share them with you!Thanks for listening, and I’ll catch you next time. This is a public episode. If you’d like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit omgjulia.substack.com/subscribe

It's the last episode in the series for parents of T1D teens and today's guest is Bob Weishar, founder of the Invincible Kids Network. Listen in as Bob tells us all about the AMAZING resources Invincible has to offer the T1D community and what it was like to be diagnosed with type 1 diabetes as a freshman in college. Yikes! Make sure to check out the links below so you can easily find the Invincible kids network on the web and on social media! Invincible Kids Website! Invincible Kids on Instagram! Invincible Kids on Facebook!Invincible Kids on YouTube! PRODUCT FEATURE OF THE WEEKBook #1 Sal and Gabi Break the Universe Book #2 Sal and Gabi Fix the UniverseSUPPORT THE SHOWBuy Me a CoffeeWrite a ReviewSupport the show (https://www.buymeacoffee.com/sugarmama)

I met librarian Lauren Regenhardt when I participated in my local “Book Connect” program, and I was thrilled to get a chance to ask so many questions without getting shushed! The Children/YA Librarian told me about how she abandoned her first career for the library and the different types of libraries for different industries. Or, as she puts it, “Libraries in unsuspecting places.” We also talked about why she specializes in Children's/YA books, how a book can ease anxiety and depression, and the delicious perfection of Casey McQuiston's hilarious, sexy, and sweet romance, “Red, White & Royal Blue.” Support the Best Book Ever Podcast on Patreon Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website   Host: Julie Strauss Website/Instagram   Guest: Lauren Regenhardt Podcast/Twitter/Instagram   Do you know a young person who'd like to appear on the 2nd Annual Kids/YA Gift Guide Episode? GO HERE!   Discussed in this episode:   The Mission Viejo Library Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston The Baby Sitters Club Series by Ann M. Martin The Baby Sitters Little Sisters Series by Ann. M. Martin The Dog Man Series by Dav Pilkey Lauren uses NoveList to find readalikes – check to see if your local library offers this service, and if not, you can go directly to the NoveList site to request it. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Fresh off the Boat by Eddie Huang A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles The Long Call by Ann Cleves A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston The Selection Series by Kiera Cass Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (great news! This is part of a 3-book series!) Damaged Like Us by Krista and Becca Ritchie (this is the first in the 10-book “Like Us” series; the books can be read in any order.) The Failed Audition: Book 1 in A Circus is Family Series by Becca and Christy Ritchie Libra by Don Delillo   Discussed in our Patreon Exclusive Clip:   Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Book 1 of the the Lightning Thief Series) by Rick Riordan Rick Riordan Presents This is a series of middle grade books centering on mythology from around the world. Lauren particularly called out these two: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia   (Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning I get a few bucks off your purchase at no extra expense to you. Anytime you shop for books, you can use my affiliate link on Bookshop, which also supports Indie Bookstores around the country. If you're shopping for everything else – clothes, office supplies, gluten-free pasta, couches – you can use my affiliate link for Amazon. Thank you for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)

I met librarian Lauren Regenhardt when I participated in my local “Book Connect” program, and I was thrilled to get a chance to ask so many questions without getting shushed! The Children/YA Librarian told me about how she abandoned her first career for the library and the different types of libraries for different industries. Or, as she puts it, “Libraries in unsuspecting places.” We also talked about why she specializes in Children's/YA books, how a book can ease anxiety and depression, and the delicious perfection of Casey McQuiston's hilarious, sexy, and sweet romance, “Red, White & Royal Blue.” Support the Best Book Ever Podcast on Patreon Follow the Best Book Ever Podcast on Instagram or on the Best Book Ever Website   Host: Julie Strauss Website/Instagram   Guest: Lauren Regenhardt Podcast/Twitter/Instagram   Do you know a young person who'd like to appear on the 2nd Annual Kids/YA Gift Guide Episode? GO HERE!   Discussed in this episode:   The Mission Viejo Library Red White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuiston The Baby Sitters Club Series by Ann M. Martin The Baby Sitters Little Sisters Series by Ann. M. Martin The Dog Man Series by Dav Pilkey Lauren uses NoveList to find readalikes – check to see if your local library offers this service, and if not, you can go directly to the NoveList site to request it. Crying in H Mart by Michelle Zauner Fresh off the Boat by Eddie Huang A Gentleman in Moscow by Amor Towles The Long Call by Ann Cleves A Duty to the Dead by Charles Todd The Care and Feeding of Ravenously Hungry Girls by Anissa Gray The House in the Cerulean Sea by TJ Klune One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston The Selection Series by Kiera Cass Clockwork Angel by Cassandra Clare (great news! This is part of a 3-book series!) Damaged Like Us by Krista and Becca Ritchie (this is the first in the 10-book “Like Us” series; the books can be read in any order.) The Failed Audition: Book 1 in A Circus is Family Series by Becca and Christy Ritchie Libra by Don Delillo   Discussed in our Patreon Exclusive Clip:   Percy Jackson and the Olympians (Book 1 of the the Lightning Thief Series) by Rick Riordan Rick Riordan Presents This is a series of middle grade books centering on mythology from around the world. Lauren particularly called out these two: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia   (Note: Some of the above links are affiliate links, meaning I get a few bucks off your purchase at no extra expense to you. Anytime you shop for books, you can use my affiliate link on Bookshop, which also supports Indie Bookstores around the country. If you're shopping for everything else – clothes, office supplies, gluten-free pasta, couches – you can use my affiliate link for Amazon. Thank you for helping to keep the Best Book Ever Podcast in business!)

Disney+ Day —with new content and experiences— just announced, Marvel Studios' Victoria Alonso big promotion, final trailer for West Side Story has been released, guest voices announced for The Proud Family: Louder and Prouder, details on Disney+ and Pixar Animation Studios' A Spark Story, Sal & Gabi Break the Universe is in development as a comedy series, a baby white rhino was born at Disney's Animal Kingdom, The Art of Star Wars: The Mandalorian Season 2 book is coming this December, Marvel's Hit-Monkey to premiere exclusively on Hulu, and Hamilton's big Emmy win. Plus, Star Wars: Visions star Bobby Moynihan on Ducktales, Disneyland pranks, kissing Miss Piggy, and playing Jabba the Hutt's cousin.

Place: India/Texas, USA & Texas, USA Topic: The roles teenagers get to play in life Book Recommendations: The Lightning Thief - Rick Riordan Sal & Gabi Break the Universe - Carlos Hernandez Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard by Rick Riordan Not Quite Strangers & Time to Come Alive interviews: Anagha's Mom Meet Inna & Lavanya Motherhood Raises the Vibe – Lavanya Challa - Carly's Dad Meet Ricardo & Casey Doing What it Takes – Ricardo Hope Subscribe to my YouTube channel and access new and past episodes! To receive episodes and personal 'Connection Challenges' in your inbox, subscribe at www.NotQuiteStrangers.com. #NotQuiteStrangers #ConnectToJoy #Inspiration #Diversity #Inclusion #Teenager #Creativity #Leadership

On this week's episode of Currently Reading, Kaytee and Mindy are discussing: Bookish Moments: early morning reading and something to look forward to Current Reads: under-the-radar books and back and frontlist gems Deep Dive: a rundown of summer reading guides plus what it takes to put one together Book Presses: a book that takes you to Japan and one more Pride Month gem As per usual, time-stamped show notes are below with references to every book and resource we mentioned in this episode. If you'd like to listen first and not spoil the surprise, don't scroll down!  New: we are now including transcripts of the episode (this link only works on the main site). These are generated by AI, so they may not be perfectly accurate, but we want to increase accessibility for our fans! *Please note that all book titles linked below are Amazon affiliate links. Your cost is the same, but a small portion of your purchase will come back to us to help offset the costs of the show. Thanks for your support!*   . . . . Current Reads: 4:48 - The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein (Mindy) 5:12 - The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon 8:10 - Finlay Donovan is Killing It by Elle Cosimano (Kaytee) 10:18 - Finlay Donovan Knocks ‘Em Dead by Elle Cosimano (Pre-order link) 11:34 - Spoonbenders by Daryl Gregory (Mindy) 15:21 - The Black Count by Tom Reiss (Kaytee) 17:03 - The Count of Monte Cristo by Alexandre Dumas  17:53 - Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis (Mindy) 17:56 - Circe by Madeline Miller  17:58 - A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes 18:19 - Disfigured: Fairy Tales, Disability, and Making Space by Amanda Leduc 18:56 - The Lost Queen by Signe Pike 20:28 - Lovely War by Julie Berry 20:29 - Olympus, Texas by Stacey Swann 20:50 - One Last Stop by Casey McQuiston (Kaytee) 21:45 - Red, White and Royal Blue by Casey McQuistion Deep Dive - Summer Reading Guides 24:32 - Modern Mrs. Darcy's Summer Reading Guide 25:31 - Sarah's Bookshelves Summer Reading Guide 26:07 - Sarah's Bookshelves Live podcast 26:20 - Kelly Hook's Instagram @kellyhook.readsbooks 26:54 - Janssen Bradshaw's instagram @everydayreading 27:18 - Bookend Homeschoolers Summer Reading Guide pt.1 Episode 38 27:18 - Bookend Homeschoolers Summer Reading Guide pt.2 Episode 39 31:52 - Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez 32:18 - Warrior Cats #1: Into the Wild by Erin Hunter 32:52 - Cinder by Marissa Meyer 34:53 - Shogun by James Clavell 36:08 - Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 36:34 - Wings of Fire #1: The Dragonet Prophecy by Tui T. Sutherland Books We Want to Press Into Your Hands: 39:39 - All The Ways Home by Elsie Chapman (Mindy) 41:47 - You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson (Kaytee) Connect With Us: Meredith is @meredith.reads on Instagram Kaytee is @notesonbookmarks on Instagram Mindy is @gratefulforgrace on Instagram Mary is @maryreadsandsips on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast.com @currentlyreadingpodcast on Instagram currentlyreadingpodcast@gmail.com Support us at patreon.com/currentlyreadingpodcast

How excited are we? Pretty dang excited! Today, Mindy & Rachel present the first Bookend Homeschoolers Summer Reading Guide! We have so many fantastic books for you: Middle Grade and Young Adult! As usual, we start with our Homeschooling Moments of the Week… this week has a gross one to lead off. You've been warned. In our Make It Personal section, we give the teachers their summer books! Episode 38 ends with some encouragement and a hack! Don't forget to download your Summer Reading Guide Part 1 PDF! 1:19 Homeschooling Moments of the Week 3:38 (skip Rachel's gross HSMotW) 5:12 Topic Talk: Summer Reading Guide (Part 1) Middle Grade 6:05 Amari and the Night Brothers by B.B. Alston 7: 10 Warrior Cats #1 Into the Wild by Erin Hunter 8:08 Detectives in Togas by Henry Winterfeld 8:58 Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez 9:15 Percy Jackson series by Rick Riordan 11:25 Hand in Hand by Katie Proctor 12: 40 Book Scavenger by Jennifer Bertram 14: 27 High School/Young Adult 14:31 Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald 15:46 Dreamland Burning by Jennifer Latham 17:21 Cinder by Marissa Meyer 18:56 Scarlet by Marissa Meyer   19:23 Wizard for Hire by Obert Skye 20:38 The Story of Beautiful Girl by Rachel Simon 24:10 Project Hail Mary by Andy Weir 25: 20 Synopsis of Project Hail Mary… we think you should skip this, but… your call 25:46 Back to Project Hail Mary raving 26:02 Make It Personal 26:13 Near Bookends 26:28 Marley and Me by John Grogan 26: 56 The Time Traveler's Wife by Audrey Niffenegger 28:19 Far Bookends 28:39 The Chosen by Chaim Potek 30:25 What Alice Forgot by Liane Moriarty 32:00 Part 2… of our Summer Reading Guide in Ep 39! 32:20 Take This With You Bookend Homeschoolers on Instagram Mindy at gratefulforgrace Rachel at colemountainhomeschool Get your PDF Bookend Homeschoolers site Come back for Episode 39 for our Part 2 Summer Reading Guide! (Amazon links are affiliate links to help cover the cost of producing the show. We are grateful for EVERY click!)

Gil and Sen welcome Calvin Wong Tze Loon 黃子倫 to the show to discuss narrative in games. How can we improve a game's narrative through its mechanisms, its components, and even its box size? SHOW NOTES 0m46s: Calvin played P.T. Goh in the film Crazy Rich Asians. Also, info on Twilight Imperium's expansion Prophecy of Kings that Calvin did some writing for, and forthcoming RPG Embers of the Imperium. 3m16s: "Mayfair" in UK-based editions of Monopoly is equivalent to "Boardwalk" in US-based editions of the game.  7m39s: Android: Netrunner 10m18s: The fan organization NISEI, currently supporting organized Netrunner play, releasing new cards, and keeping the game alive. 11m28s: Here's what Gil wrote about flavor text on Twitter. 14m44s: Pasaraya Supermarket Manager. Gil also regrets not bringing up diegesis in games (making the components, graphic design, and form of a game match its narrative) like in Inhuman Conditions. 19m22s: The Tiny Epic series of games. 23m31s: Gil accidentally gave out the name of the game series with this puzzle, so we bleeped it out! 26m04s: Crisis 28m13s: Ryan and Geoff discussed the magic circle in Ludology 79. 28m22s: The story game Fiasco, and the strategy game Barrage. 32m47s: Memoir '44 35m26s: Millennium Blades, Falsche FuFFziger, Descent: Legends of the Dark 41m17s: Here's the essay Crimes Against Mimesis. Also, here's Gil's talk on merging theme and mechanism. 49m45s: The Rick Riordan Presents line of books. The book Gil mentioned is Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, by Carlos Hernandez.  53m40s: More info about the Prison Architect: Cardboard County Penitentiary board game. 55m32s: An Infamous Traffic 1h00m51s: Hollandspiele, This Guilty Land 1h02m07s: Hub Games 1h04m12s: The Typing of the Dead, Unspeakable Words 1h07m51s: Half-Life Alyx 1h09m51s: The wonderful Crystal Dax! 1h11m31s: Calvin's Twitter.

In this Unabridged Podcast episode, we discuss author imprints and the way that those can help readers discover new authors to love. We specifically discuss the Rick Riordan Presents imprint and share books we've read from it including Kwame Mbalia’s Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky, Yoon Ha Lee’s Dragon Pearl, and Carlos Hernandez’s Sal and Gabi Break the Universe.   Visit the Unabridged website for our full show notes and links to the books mentioned in the episode.   Interested in what else we're reading? Check out our Featured Books page.   Want to support Unabridged? Follow us @unabridgedpod on Instagram, Facebook, Twitter. | Join our Unabridged Podcast Reading Challenge. | Visit our curated list of books at Bookshop.org. | Become a patron on Patreon. | Check out our Merch Store. | Visit the resources available in our Teachers Pay Teachers store.

In this episode, Sherry Barfitt and I are joined by one of the biggest book fans I know and that is my daughter,  April Sheppard. April works at a bookstore here in Newfoundland and is currently doing a Publishing Certificate online at Ryerson University.Here are a list of the books that April mentioned in the podcast:- Bloom by Kenneth Oppel - Nevermoor: The Trails of Morrigan Crow by Jessica Townsend- New Kid by Jerry Craft  - Coraline and The Graveyard Book by Neil Gaiman- The Giver by Lois Lowry- Escape from Mr. Lemoncello's Library by Chris Grabenstein- Dash and Lily's Book of Dares- Let It Snow (Movie Tie-In) THREE HOLIDAY ROMANCESby John Green, Lauren Myracle and Maureen Johnson- 10 Blind Dates by Ashley Elston - Rick Riordan Presents (Dragon Pearl BY YOON HA LEESal and Gabi Break the Universe BY CARLOS HERNANDEZ)

Happy Halloween to all of our listeners! We return to the genre focus with a look at this very special day. We talk about the origins of Halloween, related games and miniatures as well as we dive into how to get inspired during this most wonderful season. We also have a special guest. Alasdair Stuart of the world famous horror fiction podcast, Psuedopod joins us. Thank you so much Alasdair for sharing your horror journey with us. All of the fantastic links he mentioned are below. You can support Psuedopod and their goal of paying all of their contributors on the Escape Artists Patreon. Download, like and subscribe to Psuedopod wherever you get your podcasts. Let us know what you think of our new direction or tell us what your Pandemic Halloween celebration will be like by emailing us at Listeningtopaintdry@gmail.com. Find us wherever you get your podcasts, now including Amazon. Follow us on Instagram and Facebook at Listening To Paint Dry and on Twitter @DryPainting. Here are the links Alasdair mentioned: Escape Artists https://escapeartists.net/ Patreon https://www.patreon.com/EAPodcasts Stories PseudoPod 111: Radiodemonology https://pseudopod.org/2008/10/10/pseudopod-111-radiodemonology/ Escape Pod 500: The Man Who Lost The Sea https://escapepod.org/2015/09/04/ep500-the-man-who-lost-the-sea/ Full details of The First https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_First_(TV_series) Author Recommendations (horror) Kit Power https://www.gingernutsofhorror.com/kit-power.html Preemee Mohamed https://www.premeemohamed.com/ Penny Jones-Suffer Little Children https://blackshuckbooks.co.uk/shadows-13/ AF Karen Osborne-Architects of Memory http://www.karenosborne.com/ Kameron Hurley https://www.kameronhurley.com/ Namwali Serpell-The Old Drift https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1111103/the-old-drift/9781784703998.html YA Sheena Kamal-Fight Like A Girl https://www.penguinrandomhouse.ca/books/599465/fight-like-a-girl-by-sheena-kamal/9780735265554 Sal and Gabi Break the Universe/Fix the Universe by Gabriel Hernandez https://www.readriordan.com/book/sal-and-gabi-break-the-universe/ The Strangeworlds Travel Agency by LD Lapinski https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/46123742-the-strangeworlds-travel-agency A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking https://argyllproductions.com/product/a-wizards-guide-to-defensive-baking/ How to Interview Doctor Who, Ozzy Osbourne and Everybody Else http://www.jasonarnopp.com/how-to-interview-doctor-who-ozzy-osbourne-and-everyone-else.html After the War, the RPG I co-created with Jason Pitre https://www.drivethrurpg.com/product/285582/After-the-War Genesis of Legend, Jason's company https://genesisoflegend.com/ My press kit https://alasdairstuart.com/press-kit/

What to Read Wednesdays comes at you every other Wednesday and is your one stop for reading, watching and listening recommendations from your favorite library staff members! This week's episode features recommendations from our host, Annie, Mark & Hillary from Powell & Regie from Tech Services @Delaware! Recommendations include Dear Reader by Michael Malice, Malorie by Josh Malerman, Hero of the Empire by Candice Millard, Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez, and more.  Check out all the picks here.

Listen to why youth librarian, Lisa K recommends reading Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. Written For: 5th & 6th Graders Genre: Science Fiction Themes: friendship, Cuban cultural, diabetes, family, alternative universes Check it out here: https://search.westervillelibrary.org/iii/encore/search/C__S%28sal%20and%20gabi%20break%20the%20universe%29__Orightresult__U?lang=eng&suite=gold

Surely this is the episode where Morgan cries! NOTE: This episode contains extended discussions of the racism in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy, as well as brief mentions of current events. Some listeners may find the content of this episode upsetting. That's why we decided to include a list of recommendations for books that address race and racism with much more nuance, thoughtfulness, and appreciation for diverse viewpoints. Fantasy books recommended by Morgan: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (also A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms) The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (also Akata Witch) Descendant of the Crane by Joan He Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho Fantasy books Morgan hasn't read but have been recommended to her: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley Beaulieu The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova Jade City by Fonda Lee The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wrecker Anything by Octavia E. Butler Grace of Kings by Ken Lui Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James The Ghost Bride by Yangzse Choo Aru Shah and The End Of Time by Roshani Chokski The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia Coolcurrybooks on Tumblr also has a bunch of lists of books that include characters of color and are by authors of color. (They also have lists regarding queer or noncisgender characters/authors as well!) Non-fantasy books recommended by Casey: Invisible Man by Richard Ellison Swing Time by Zadie Smith Tracks by Louise Erdrich Anything by Rumi The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen Jazz by Toni Morrison The Sellout by Paul Beatty Home to Harlem by Claude McKay Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros Tropic Death by Eric Walrond The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran Keep in touch with us: fb.me/ReReadPodcast wearereread.tumblr.com Twitter: @ReReadPodcast wearereread@gmail.com . . . #reread #childrensbooks #childhood #ruiningchildhood #nostalgia #cslewis #thehorseandhisboy #chroniclesofnarnia #christianity #itsmuchmuchworsethanyouremember #aslan #fantasy #shasta #aravis #bree #hwin #rabadash #calormen #narnia #racism #middleeast #blacklivesmatter --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wearereread/support

Is this the episode where Morgan cries? NOTE: This episode contains extended discussions of the racism in The Chronicles of Narnia: The Horse and His Boy, as well as brief mentions of current events. Some listeners may find the content of this episode upsetting. That's why we decided to include a list of recommendations for books that address race and racism with much more nuance, thoughtfulness, and appreciation for diverse viewpoints. Fantasy books recommended by Morgan: Trail of Lightning by Rebecca Roanhorse City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty The Fifth Season by N.K. Jemisin (also A Hundred Thousand Kingdoms) The Black Tides of Heaven by J.Y. Yang Gods of Jade and Shadow by Silvia Moreno-Garcia Empire of Sand by Tasha Suri City of Stairs by Robert Jackson Bennett The Ten Thousand Doors of January by Alix E. Harrow Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire Binti by Nnedi Okorafor (also Akata Witch) Descendent of the Crane by Joan He Sorcerer to the Crown by Zen Cho Fantasy books Morgan hasn't read but have been recommended to her: Throne of the Crescent Moon by Saladin Ahmed Twelve Kings in Sharakhai by Bradley Beaulieu The Poppy War by R.F. Kuang Song of Blood and Stone by L. Penelope Labyrinth Lost by Zoraida Córdova Jade City by Fonda Lee The Golem and the Jinni by Helene Wrecker Anything by Octavia E. Butler Grace of Kings by Ken Lui Black Leopard, Red Wolf by Marlon James The Ghost Bride by Yangzse Choo Aru Shah and The End Of Time by Roshani Chokski The Storm Runner by J.C. Cervantes Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee Tristan Strong Punches a Hole in the Sky by Kwame Mbalia Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez Race to the Sun by Rebecca Roanhorse Paola Santiago and the River of Tears by Tehlor Kay Mejia Coolcurrybooks on Tumblr also has a bunch of lists of books that include characters of color and are by authors of color. (They also have lists regarding queer or noncisgender characters/authors as well!) Non-fantasy books recommended by Casey: Invisible Man by Richard Ellison Swing Time by Zadie Smith Tracks by Louise Erdrich Anything by Rumi The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini The Sympathizer by Viet Thanh Nguyen Jazz by Toni Morrison The Sellout by Paul Beatty Home to Harlem by Claude McKay Woman Hollering Creek by Sandra Cisneros Tropic Death by Eric Walrond The Namesake by Jhumpa Lahiri The Best We Could Do by Thi Bui The Prophet by Kahlil Gibran Keep in touch with us: fb.me/ReReadPodcast wearereread.tumblr.com Twitter: @ReReadPodcast wearereread@gmail.com . . . #reread #childrensbooks #childhood #ruiningchildhood #nostalgia #cslewis #thehorseandhisboy #chroniclesofnarnia #christianity #itsmuchmuchworsethanyouremember #aslan #fantasy #shasta #aravis #bree #hwin #tisroc #calormen #narnia #racism #middleeast #blacklivesmatter --- Support this podcast: https://anchor.fm/wearereread/support

With Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, best-selling author Rick Riordan (as editor/publisher, not author) presents the sequel to the critically acclaimed Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, a brilliant sci-fi romp with Cuban influence. Among many other challenges, Sal and Gabi have to try to make everything right with our world when there is a rogue Gabi from another universe running loose. Author CARLOS HERNANDEZ has published more than thirty works for fiction, poetry, and drama, including Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, and a book of short stories for adults entitled The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria. He is an English professor at City University of New York, and he loves to both play games and design them. That’s the gift of these books: not just a rosy ending but a universe built around people’s fundamental goodness and grace, grounded in the events of daily life. In the construction of Sal and Gabi’s world, Hernandez has himself fixed our own universe—not by removing its flaws but by populating it with people who care for one another. It’s a place for readers to live in, a haven they can always escape to for comfort and for hope. And also, fart jokes. But mostly hope. Starred review, Booklist A hilarious, heartwarming, and absolutely unmissable sequel. Starred Review, Kirkus

With Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, best-selling author Rick Riordan (as editor/publisher, not author) presents the sequel to the critically acclaimed Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, a brilliant sci-fi romp with Cuban influence. Among many other challenges, Sal and Gabi have to try to make everything right with our world when there is a rogue Gabi from another universe running loose. Author CARLOS HERNANDEZ has published more than thirty works for fiction, poetry, and drama, including Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, and a book of short stories for adults entitled The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria. He is an English professor at City University of New York, and he loves to both play games and design them. That’s the gift of these books: not just a rosy ending but a universe built around people’s fundamental goodness and grace, grounded in the events of daily life. In the construction of Sal and Gabi’s world, Hernandez has himself fixed our own universe—not by removing its flaws but by populating it with people who care for one another. It’s a place for readers to live in, a haven they can always escape to for comfort and for hope. And also, fart jokes. But mostly hope. Starred review, Booklist A hilarious, heartwarming, and absolutely unmissable sequel. Starred Review, Kirkus

With Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe, best-selling author Rick Riordan (as editor/publisher, not author) presents the sequel to the critically acclaimed Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, a brilliant sci-fi romp with Cuban influence. Among many other challenges, Sal and Gabi have to try to make everything right with our world when there is a rogue Gabi from another universe running loose. Author CARLOS HERNANDEZ has published more than thirty works for fiction, poetry, and drama, including Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, and a book of short stories for adults entitled The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria. He is an English professor at City University of New York, and he loves to both play games and design them. That’s the gift of these books: not just a rosy ending but a universe built around people’s fundamental goodness and grace, grounded in the events of daily life. In the construction of Sal and Gabi’s world, Hernandez has himself fixed our own universe—not by removing its flaws but by populating it with people who care for one another. It’s a place for readers to live in, a haven they can always escape to for comfort and for hope. And also, fart jokes. But mostly hope. Starred review, Booklist A hilarious, heartwarming, and absolutely unmissable sequel. Starred Review, Kirkus

Listen along as The Story Seeds Podcast host Betsy Bird chats with Carlos Hernandez, author of Rick Riordan Presents' Sal and Gabi series and winner of 2020 Pura Belpré Author Award. They go behind the scenes of  Episode 6: The Paintbrush of Doom  and talk about what it was like working with twins Siri and Zarana and growing their story seed (a girl who receives a magic paintbrush from her kooky aunt that turns whatever you paint, real! Things are going great as she creates dozens of hybrid creatures until ... upset by her friends' disbelief of the power of her paintbrush, she unleashes her anger on her canvas and paints a monster who comes alive!) On this bonus episode, Carlos also talks to Betsy about how his work as a board game and video game designer helped him write the SAL AND GABI books as well as the importance of being your truest, most kooky self. Books mentioned in this episode: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez Clockwork Phoenix Five by Mike Allen. Games mentioned in this episode: Dear Reader, Dungeons and DragonsCalls to ActionKids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at storyseeds@literarysafari.com, or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club.Grownups: Visit www.storyseedspodcast.com for subscription links, to sign up for our newsletter, and to download our printable activity e-zines for your kids (or the  kid in you!) that offer opportunities to read, write, and get creative alongside listening to each episode . You can also follow us on Instagram @storyseedspod, on Twitter @litsafarimedia, and on Facebook @literarysafari. Get our Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity activity book! It pairs perfectly with the podcast and features tons of episode-inspired prompts and projects! Order your copy here!Hey Listeners! Looking for ways to support our show? Well, now you can! Visit our recently launched glow.fm page where you can support The Story Seeds Podcast on a recurring or one-time basis. Your donation - large or small - will help us create more episodes of the show and give us the ability to provide opportunities for more kids from around the world to participate in Story Seeds. This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here. Show creditsMatt Boynton and Ania Grzesik of Ultraviolet Audio for the sound mixing, design, and score of our bonus episode. Theme music is composed and performed by Andrew VanWyngarden. And, our host is Betsy Bird. The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari www.literarysafari.com

CARLOS HERNANDEZ has published more than thirty works for fiction, poetry, and drama, including Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, and a book of short stories for adults entitled The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria. He is an English professor at City University of New York, and he loves to both play games and design them. He lives with his wife, Claire, in Queens, New York. Follow him on Twitter: @WriteTeachPlay.

This week’s Story Seeds collaboration matches Carlos Hernandez (winner of the 2020 Pura Belpré Author Award and author of the Sal and Gabi series from Rick Riordan Presents)  with 10 year old twins Siri and Zarana.Carlos collaborates with Siri and Zarana to grow their story idea:A girl who really loves to paint get a magic paintbrush from her kooky aunt on her 10th birthday. She uses it to paint the animals she loves, but it turns out that her imagination is opening up doorways to a locked, magical world that’s letting the animals from her paintings out into the real world.Join an imagination-filled Story Seeds adventure with host Betsy Bird as Carlos and the twins take a field trip to the Children's Museum of the Arts NYC to: Create clay landscapes in CMA's art studios  while talking about silhouette painting and creativityDiscuss their inspiration for the story idea: the power of imagination and screentimeGrow a story about a main character who discovers what happens when she unleashes her anger and lets it take control of her creativityThe episode concludes with this week’s storytime (17:00) where Carlos reads the story he grew from Siri and Zarana’s story seed: Citaria’s Paintbrush.Books and media mentioned in this episode: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe by Carlos Hernandez, A Wrinkle in Time by Margaret L'Engle, The Chronicles of Narnia by CS Lewis, and His Dark Materials by Phillip Pullman.Calls to ActionBonus Episode: Check back next week to hear Betsy's interview with Carlos. You’ll get to hear more about his life as an author and a game designer.Kids: Call The Story Seeds Hotline at 646-389-5153, email us at storyseeds@literarysafari.com, or visit our website to submit your story ideas. You can also join The Story Seeds Society, our kids listeners club.Grownups: Visit www.storyseedspodcast.com for subscription links, to sign up for our newsletter, and to download our printable activity e-zines for your kids (or the  kid in you!) that offer opportunities to read, write, and get creative alongside listening to each episode . You can also follow us on Instagram @storyseedspod, on Twitter @litsafarimedia, and on Facebook @literarysafari. Get our Imagination Lab: Experiments in Creativity activity book! It pairs perfectly with the podcast and features tons of episode-inspired prompts and projects! Order your copy here!This episode is also available on YouTube. Subscribe here. Show creditsProduced and written by Sandhya Nankani, Anjali Sakhrani, and  Kayla Fedeson. Scoring, mixing, and sound design by Ania Grzesik and Matt Boynton of Ultraviolet Audio. Field audio recorded by James Boo. Hosted by Betsy Bird. Music by Andrew VanWyngarden, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter/musician and co-founder of MGMT. The Story Seeds Podcast is a creation and production of Literary Safari www.literarysafari.com

Today’s author interview guest is Carlos Hernandez, author of Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe (Sal and Gabi Novel, A Book 2). Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents the sequel to the critically acclaimed Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, a […]

Author: Carlos Hernandez Book: SAL & GABI FIX THE UNIVERSE Publishing: Rick Riordan Presents (May 5, 2020) Synopsis (from the Publisher): Best-selling author Rick Riordan presents the sequel to the critically acclaimed Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, a brilliant sci-fi romp with Cuban influence. Among many other challenges, Sal and Gabi have to try […] The post CARLOS HERNANDEZ – SAL & GABI FIX THE UNIVERSE appeared first on KSCJ 1360.

Authors Brandy Colbert and Grace Lin answer the question What made you an author?  and kid reviewer Ani reviews Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez.

Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, Slay, Fever Year: The Killer Flu of 1918 (Graphic Novel), A Life Without Water, Wilder Girls, The Lovely War, Black Brother Black Brother,

Here’s the second half of my two part interview with authors, C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez!In my last post for my paid subscribers, I talked about the common advice that creative people should choose one niche in which to specialize. In the first part of this interview, we explored how ignoring that advice can actually help creativity grow stronger, but in this second part we’re diving into the question of how to narrow your focus in order to finish projects, even when they’re really hard and you feel stuck. Image Description: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria by Carlos Hernandez and Jack O’ the Hills, How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, Bone Swans, and Desdemona and the Deep by C. S. E. Cooney. Carlos’s Sal and Gabi Break the Universe won the Pura Belpré Medal for Latinx creators whose work portrays Latinx experiences well for young readers! Carlos also has a story in The Mythic Dream, an anthology edited by Navah Wolfe and Dominik Parisien. You can find Carlos on Twitter as @WriteTeachPlay.Claire’s Bone Swans won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection! Her novella, Desdemona and the Deep is wonderful, too, and I am not just saying that because the title character was named after my late cat, Desdemona (but she really was! She is even called Desdemonster sometimes, which we also called my cat!) Claire has also narrated over 100 audiobooks, and has an alter ego as a rock star named Brimstone Rhine. Both of them will be at Boskone in February in Boston, Massachusetts, and so will I! In fact, we’ll all be performing together in one of Claire’s Brimstone Rhine concerts, AND we’ll be reading excerpts of our work together. I’ll post my full Boskone schedule soon, so you’ll know where to find us!Technical note: If you are reading these show notes in email or on the web, you don’t have to listen in a web browser! You can subscribe to this podcast in the podcatcher of your choice by clicking the “Listen in podcast app” link at the top of this message. It will send you an email, which will have a button in it that you can click while viewing the email on your phone, and that will generate a private RSS feed just for you. It will give you options to add it to one of several podcast apps by clicking a link, or to copy the RSS feed and add it to the podcast app you use. Once you add this feed to your app, future episodes should download to your phone automatically if you choose to autorefresh the feed. If you are a paid subscriber, you can use your private feed for both the paid and free episodes. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at omgjulia.substack.com/subscribe

Here’s part one of a two part interview with authors, C. S. E. Cooney and Carlos Hernandez!Claire and Carlos are both multi-talented creative powerhouses. Here’s a picture of some of their books:Image Description: Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and The Assimilated Cuban’s Guide to Quantum Santeria by Carlos Hernandez and Jack O’ the Hills, How to Flirt in Faerieland and Other Wild Rhymes, Bone Swans, and Desdemona and the Deep by C. S. E. Cooney. Carlos’s Sal and Gabi Break the Universe just won the Pura Belpré Medal for Latinx creators whose work portrays Latinx experiences well for young readers! And when I say he just won this award, I mean this happened literally yesterday at the American Library Association’s Midwinter conference in Philadelphia. How exciting! In 2016 Claire’s Bone Swans won the World Fantasy Award for Best Collection. But they don’t JUST write books! Both of them are poets, musicians, screenwriters, game writers, and more! Claire has also narrated over 100 audiobooks, and has an alter ego as a rock star named Brimstone Rhine. In my last post for my paid subscribers, I talked about the common advice that creative people should choose one niche in which to specialize. In this interview, we’re exploring just how many grains of salt you can take that advice with. Technical note: If you are reading these show notes in email or on the web, you don’t have to listen in a web browser! You can subscribe to this podcast in the podcatcher of your choice by clicking the “Listen in podcast app” link at the top of this message. It will send you an email, which will have a button in it that you can click while viewing the email on your phone, and that will generate a private RSS feed just for you. It will give you options to add it to one of several podcast apps by clicking a link, or to copy the RSS feed and add it to the podcast app you use. Once you add this feed to your app, future episodes should download to your phone automatically if you choose to autorefresh the feed. If you are a paid subscriber, you can use your private feed for both the paid and free episodes. This is a public episode. Get access to private episodes at omgjulia.substack.com/subscribe

A great interview with Carlos Hernandez, author of Sal and Gabi Break the Universe and the upcoming Sal and Gabi Fix the Universe. Join us as we talk Sal & Gabi, Spanish, Spoilers for book 2, and all things Riordan. Find Carlos on Twitter: @WriteTeachPlay or his website. If you have any questions, comments, or suggestions, we recommend you contact us. We love you feedback and thoughts, so make sure to contact us in one of the ways below: Twitter: @halfreport Instagram: @thehalfbloodreport Website: thehalfbloodreport.com Email: thehalfbloodreport@gmail.com  Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/bePatron?u=26609238

In today's episode of Signal Boost, Shaun Duke interviews the fantabulawesome C.S.E. Cooney about Desdemona and the Deep and the wonderrifical Carlos Hernandez about Sal and Gabi Break the Universe! Unlike other Signal Boost episodes, this one features both guests on the same mic! And that means in addition to talking about Cuban food, the […]

Sorry for the long wait in between episodes! In this episode we discuss how excited we are for Tyrant's Tomb and The Fire Keeper, our thoughts on Sal and Gabi Break the Universe, as well as of our theories around the gods and their jobs. Also, bonus footage from our next episode! Make sure to check out https://kwamembalia.com/events/ for his upcoming book tour! EDIT: I'm sorry, when I first published the episode I forgot to put in the time stamp for avoiding spoilers. If you want to avoid spoilers for Sal & Gabi break the universe, go to 13:58 after we tell you too.

Sal has just moved to Miami and is going to a magnet middle school to study magic. Listeners soon find out that Sal not only excels at sleight-of-hand but can also tear holes into alternate universes and bring things (and people!) into his own universe. Narrator Anthony Rey Perez skillfully interprets this delightful mix of realistic and fantastical events and nimbly switches between English and Spanish. Listeners will love hearing Sal and Gabi’s banter and growing friendship, the loving support of their Cuban-American families, and their out-of-this-world escapades as they try to make things right. Published by Listening Library. Read the full review of SAL AND GABI BREAK THE UNIVERSE at audiofilemagazine.com. For more free audiobook recommendations, sign up for AudioFile Magazine’s newsletter. On today’s episode are host Jo Reed and AudioFile Magazine Assistant Editor Emily Connelly. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

This week, Liberty and Tirzah discuss The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project, Survival Math, The Lady from the Black Lagoon, and more great books. This episode was sponsored by Libro.fm, Blinkist, and FabFitFun. Subscribe to All the Books! using RSS or iTunes and never miss a beat book. Sign up for the weekly New Books! newsletter for even more new book news. Books discussed on the show: Daisy Jones & The Six by Taylor Jenkins Reid  Dealing in Dreams by Lilliam Rivera A Woman Is No Man by Etaf Rum   Real Queer America: LGBT Stories from Red States by Samantha Allen   The Lady from the Black Lagoon: Hollywood Monsters and the Lost Legacy of Milicent Patrick by Mallory O'Meara   The Manic Pixie Dream Boy Improvement Project by Lenore Appelhans   Survival Math: Notes on an All-American Family by Mitchell Jackson  Lovely War by Julie Berry  What we're reading: King of Scars (King of Scars Duology) by Leigh Bardugo The Reign of the Kingfisher by T.J. Martinson  More books out this week: Long Live the Tribe of Fatherless Girls by T. Kira Madden   Flashback Hotel by Ivan Vladislavic Goya: The Terrible Sublime: A Graphic Novel by El Torres and Fran Galán A Stranger Here Below: A Gideon Stoltz Mystery by Charles Fergus The Island of Sea Women by Lisa See Between the Lies by Michelle Adams Sissy: A Coming-of-Gender Story by Jacob Tobia   Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake Topgun: An American Story by Dan Pedersen Villanelle: No Tomorrow: The basis for Killing Eve by Luke Jennings The Wall by John Lanchester The Shadowglass (The Bone Witch) by Rin Chupeco When All Is Said by Anne Griffin When I Hit You: Or a Portrait of the Writer as a Young Wife by Meena Kandasamy The Wolf and the Watchman: A Novel by Niklas Natt och Dag   She/He/They/Me: For the Sisters, Misters, and Binary Resisters by Robyn Ryle The Pioneer by Bridget Tyler Today I Am Carey by Martin L. Shoemaker The Wrong End of the Table: A Mostly Comic Memoir of a Muslim Arab American Woman Just Trying to Fit in by Ayser Salman Star Wars Queen's Shadow by E. K. Johnston Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez Famous Men Who Never Lived by K. Chess   So Here's the Thing . . .: Notes on Growing Up, Getting Older, and Trusting Your Gut by Alyssa Mastromonaco, Lauren Oyler (Contributor) Queen Bey: A Celebration of the Power and Creativity of Beyoncé Knowles-Carter by Veronica Chambers Mr. President, How Long Must We Wait?: Alice Paul, Woodrow Wilson, and the Fight for the Right to Vote by Tina Cassidy If You’re Out There by Katy Loutzenhiser The New Me by Halle Butler The Mastermind: Drugs. Empire. Murder. Betrayal. by Evan Ratliff The Last 8 by Laura Pohl Gingerbread by Helen Oyeyemi   The Parting Glass by Gina Marie Guadagnino The Salt Path: A Memoir by Raynor Winn  Alice Payne Rides by Kate Heartfield Black Souls by Gioacchino Criaco, Hillary Gulley (Translator) The Age of Disenchantments: The Epic Story of Spain's Most Notorious Literary Family and the Long Shadow of the Spanish Civil War by Aaron Shulman That Good Night: Life and Medicine in the Eleventh Hour by Sunita Puri A Friend is a Gift You Give Yourself by William Boyle   Call Me Evie by JP Pomare The River by Peter Heller   Baby of the Family by Maura Roosevelt The Silk Road by Kathryn Davis The Volunteer by Salvatore Scibona The Stranger Diaries by Elly Griffiths   An American Summer: Love and Death in Chicago by Alex Kotlowitz Instructions for a Funeral: Stories by David Means The Gardener of Eden by David Downie Little Faith by Nickolas Butler   The Devil Aspect by Craig Russell The Story Prize: 15 Years of Great Short Fiction by Larry Dark and Anthony Doerr   Deaf Republic: Poems by Ilya Kaminsky Labrador by Kathryn Davis We Were Rich and We Didn’t Know It: A Memoir of My Irish Boyhood by Tom Phelan The Revenge of Magic by James Riley The Last Woman in the Forest by Diane Les Becquets   The Altruists: A Novel by Andrew Ridker Ancestral Night (White Space) by Elizabeth Bear You Asked for Perfect by Laura Silverman A Question of Holmes by Brittany Cavallaro Minutes of Glory: And Other Stories by Ngũgĩ wa Thiong'o Bending Toward Justice: The Birmingham Church Bombing that Changed the Course of Civil Rights by Doug Jones Death in Ten Minutes: The Forgotten Life of Radical Suffragette Kitty Marion by Fern Riddell The Necessary Hunger by Nina Revoyr A Student of History by Nina Revoyr King of Joy by Richard Chiem   The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart by Holly Ringland Woman 99 by Greer Macallister   Blood Feud by Anna Smith Allmen and the Pink Diamond by Martin Suter When Brooklyn Was Queer: A History by Hugh Ryan   The Women's War by Jenna Glass Mahimata by Rati Mehrotra the mermaid's voice returns in this one by Amanda Lovelace Spies of No Country: Secret Lives at the Birth of Israel by Matti Friedman Skeleton Keys: The Secret Life of Bone by Brian Switek   Smoke and Ashes: A Novel by Abir Mukherjee Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve Mitochondrial Night by Ed Bok Lee Brilliant, Brilliant, Brilliant Brilliant Brilliant by Joel Golby The Secret Wisdom of Nature: Trees, Animals, and the Extraordinary Balance of All Living Things -― Stories from Science and Observation (The Mysteries of Nature Trilogy) by Peter Wohlleben and Jane Billinghurst The Everlasting Rose (The Belles) by Dhonielle Clayton L.E.L.: The Lost Life and Scandalous Death of Letitia Elizabeth Landon, the Celebrated "Female Byron" by Lucasta Miller The Twice-Born: Life and Death on the Ganges by Aatish Taseer Infinite Detail: A Novel by Tim Maughan Ronan Boyle and the Bridge of Riddles (Ronan Boyle 1) by Thomas Lennon, John Hendrix (Illustrator) She the People: A Graphic History of Uprisings, Breakdowns, Setbacks, Revolts, and Enduring Hope on the Unfinished Road to Women's Equality by Jen Deaderick and Rita Sapunor Homeland by Fernando Aramburu, Alfred Macadam (translator) Barely Missing Everything by Matt Mendez Staff Picks: Stories (Yellow Shoe Fiction) by George Singleton and Michael Griffith City of Jasmine by Olga Grjasnowa, Katy Derbyshire (translator)  

Intro Hi everyone and welcome to Books Between - a podcast for teachers, parents, librarians, and anyone who wants to connect kids between 8-12 to books they’ll love.  I’m your host, Corrina Allen - a teacher, a mom, and battling a cold this afternoon! So if I sound a little...off - that is why! This is episode #68 and Today I’m answering some questions about trends in middle grade and sharing with you some fabulous 2019 titles to look forward to this year! Q&A - Trends in Middle Grade Fiction Last month, my husband asked me some questions about trends in middle grade fiction. He teaches a class at Seton Hall all about trends in genre fiction and wanted some input on middle grade. So I thought I would share my responses with you. And I would be very curious about what YOU would answer. What genres or subgenres do you believe are the hottest right now? Well, it’s a format and not a genre but graphic novel memoirs like Hey Kiddo, Real Friends, and Be Prepared are still really popular. And also graphic novel adaptations of classics (like Anne of Green Gables) and popular novels (like Wings of Fire or Percy Jackson).  And again, not genre, but I see more books that are based on the core experiences of the writer. Those novels that draw on the real-life backgrounds of the authors like Kelly Yang’s Front Desk, Tami Charles’ Like Vanessa, and Supriya Kellar’s Ahimsa.  They’re not memoirs but they are books rooted in a very personal experience. To authors, I’d say - take those things that make you unique, that make you a bit quirky, that set you apart from most other people - and write THAT story. Like Kelly Yang taking the experiences of her family coming from China and running motels to write Front Desk. Jarrett Krosoczka writing the critically acclaimed graphic novel memoir Hey Kiddo about his life living with his grandparents after his mom lost custody of him due to drug addiction. Crack that door open and invite us inside. What genres or subgenres do you believe are passé or overexposed? I don’t know…. I do wonder how long the unicorn and narwhal craze will last but that seems to live more in picture books than middle grade. Magical realism - or rather realistic fiction with a magical twist - doesn’t seem to be slowing down. You know - anything can be new and fresh with the right spin.  And also, authors from marginalized backgrounds are still underrepresented in just about every genre so those are stories that will likely have new points of view. I thought I was totally over zombie stories but Dread Nation popped up and whoa!!  I’ve never read a zombie story like THAT before!   If you had to predict, what genre or subgenre do you think is primed to be the next Big Thing in the next year or so? I would say stories about immigrants, refugees, and the unique experiences of marginalized groups (especially by #ownvoices authors) will continue to be popular. Over the last couple of years we’ve seen an explosion of critically acclaimed middle grade stories like Alan Gratz’s Refugee, Jacqueline Woodson’s Harbor Me, and Escape from Aleppo by N.H. Senzai among many more. We also have more and more books coming out that tell stories of police violence in developmentally appropriate ways like Ghost Boys by Jewell Parker Rhodes and Blended by Sharon Draper.  I’m also really excited about a new crop of middle grade #MeToo stories on the horizon like So Done by Paula Chase and the upcoming Barbara Dee novel Maybe He Just Likes You.   Any comments about where you see genre fiction heading? In middle grade, like everywhere else,  #ownvoices books are still underrepresented  - everyone has a unique story to tell or a unique POV to offer.  EVERYONE. So my advice to authors, take the spark of your unique life experiences and let that burn throughout your story.  My advice to educators - scour those shelves to find a wider variety of books. Also - if you write for a YA/MG audience, librarians and educators are more and more eager to the ditch the old canon and form partnerships with authors. Look for opportunities like #KidsNeedMentors or reach out to your local schools and libraries.   Book Talk - Most Anticipated Middle Grade Books of 2019   The last couple of episodes were all about looking back on some of the best that middle grade had to offer in 2018. (If you missed those, go check out episodes #66 and #67.)  But today is all about looking forward into the new year. Last year, when I did our Most Anticipated MG of 2018, I went chronologically by month. But this year I’m going about it a little differently and discussing the new releases by category.     First, we’ll chat about the new graphic novels coming up in 2019. And then we’ll talk about new releases from authors who debuted in 2018 and 2017 and see what they’re up to now. After that, I’ll give you a peek at some of the 2019 debut middle grade authors.  Then we’ll see what new books are coming out in favorite series and what sequels we have to look forward to. And finally, we’ll finish up with the 2019 releases from more established authors.   So, buckle up and get ready to add to your wish list. And remember - no need to go hunting for a pen and paper. You can find every book mentioned AND a picture of the available covers AND a link to pre-order them right on the Books Between post for this episode, #69, at MGBookVillage.com.  I’ve got your back, I know you’re busy, so it’s all right there for you. And as I’ve said before, I’ve come to really love pre-ordering - it helps out favorite authors and it’s like a little surprise to your future self.   Before we jump in, just remember that this is just a sampling of all the incredible books coming out this year. I’ll add some links to some other great resources in the show notes and on the website where you can find more complete listings of titles to browse through and the MGBookVillage website has a great release calendar so that’s one to bookmark for sure.   https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/111975.Middle_Grade_Novels_of_2019 http://novelnineteens.com/books/middle-grade-books https://mgbookvillage.org/2018releasedates/ http://www.teenlibrariantoolbox.com/2018/12/19-2019-middle-grade-books-to-have-on-your-radar/ https://www.readbrightly.com/middle-grade-books-2019/ https://www.bookish.com/articles/must-read-childrens-books-winter-2019/ http://www.popgoesthereader.com/target-audience-middle-grade/70-middle-grade-novels-i-cant-wait-to-read-in-2019/   Also - publication dates do occasionally change, so just be aware of that.   Alright, get your Goodreads tab open, or your library website pulled up, or your Amazon/Indiebound shopping cart ready, or ….. print out the show notes and bring it to your favorite local bookstore!   Alright - let’s get to it! The 2019 Graphic Novels This January, Lincoln Peirce, the author of Big Nate, has a new graphic/illustrated novel series set in the middle ages called Max and the Midknights that looks really, really cute. Also out on January 8th is Click by Kayla Miller - the story of 5th grader Olive who is having some trouble finding where she “clicks” in middle school. The sequel, called Camp, is being released this April so fans won’t have to wait long for the next one. A fantasy graphic novel that Mel Schuit recommended that I check out is The Chancellor and the Citadel by Maria Capelle Frantz so that’s on my radar now - and yours! Thank you, Mel! On January 29th another Hilo is coming our way! Hilo 5: Then Everything Went Wrong. And on that same day the 5th Bird & Squirrel is coming out called All Tangled Up. One graphic novel adaptation that has really piqued my interest is Meg, Jo, Beth, and Amy: A Modern Retelling of Little Women by Rey Tercerio and illustrator Bre Indigo. The classic is reimagined as a blended family living in modern-day New York City. I don’t think I’ve ever hit “pre-order” faster and will be eagerly stalking my delivery person on February 5th for that one! My mailbox is going to be brimming on February 5th because I also HAD to preorder New Kid by Jerry Craft!  It’s about seventh grader Jordan Banks who loves drawing cartoons and dreams of going to art school. But his parents enroll him in a prestigious private school instead, where Jordan is one of the few kids of color in his entire grade. Looks amazing!!  90-Second Newbery was singing its praises on Twitter last night and said this about it: “The amazing graphic novel New Kid by @JerryCraft should definitely be on everyone's tbr list and it has a full-cast (and all-star cast) audiobook released at the same time….perfect for rich, nuanced convos abt race, class, identity, school systems, how we share books, code switching, starting new school, just so much!”   So, yeah… I’ll just wait here for a bit while you hit pause and go order that! We also get  the second Wings of Fire graphic novel, The Lost Heir, on February 26th AND the second Mr. Wolf’s Class book called Mystery Club. And a heads up that the graphic novel of The Hidden Kingdom (Wings of Fire Book 3) is out in October 2019. For those Minecraft fans in your life, this March we get another Diary of an 8-Bit Warrior graphic novel - Forging Destiny. And for older middle grade kids - maybe 11 or 12 and up -  look for the new graphic novel adaptations of The Iliad and The Odyssey this March as well. And fans of Terri Libenson’s Invisible Emmie and Positively Izzie will want to get their hands on Just Jaime - coming out May7th. There were lots of smiles among my students today when I told them that news! Bad Guys #9 - The Bad Guys in the Big Bad Wolf is out June 25th.  Perfect launch for a fun summer read. This August brings us Best Friends, the sequel to Shannon Hale and LeUyen Pham’s Real Friends -  out on August 27th. And have you seen the cover? It’s Shannon at the top of a rollercoaster with this vibrant purple background. Love it, love it, love it! And Dog Man fans (like my daughter) will be psyched this August because we are getting Dog Man #7: For Whom the Ball Rolls! The seventh graphic novel adaptation of the Baby-sitters Club, Boy Crazy Stacey, illustrated by Gale Carrigan, will be out September 3rd. That’s one of those no-brainer preorders for my classroom library. Also - I was interested to hear that R.J. Palacio is publishing her first graphic novel Wonder story this fall called White Bird. This one is Julian’s grandmother’s story about her life as a young Jewish girl hidden away by a family in Nazi-occupied France during World War II. So be on the lookout for that one September 3rd as well. You want another don’t-even-have-to-think-about-it-just-preorder-it graphic novel? Guts - the long-awaited new Raina Telgemeier graphic memoir is out September 17th!! September also brings the latest from Tillie Walden - Are You Listening.  The peeks I’ve seen of that online look incredible, so that one is definitely on my radar this fall. And then….….. Drumroll please…… Mighty Jack and Zita the Spacegirl!! Ahhhh!!  I knew it! That last page in Mighty Jack and the Goblin King was just too good not to be followed up with a joint adventure. Yay! Jen Wang -  author of last year’s hit, The Prince & the Dressmaker, has a new graphic novel coming out in September called  Stargazing. This one draws on her personal experiences and is the story of two friends - Moon and Christine. And this November we’ll get The Midwinter Witch - the third and final book in the trilogy that includes The Witch Boy and The Hidden Witch. And - wow, I’m just going to start saving up now for September because the graphic novel adaptation of Kwame Alexander’s The Crossover is also coming out on September 24th!  It’s going to be a pancakes and ramen noodles for dinner kind of a month if I want to keep up with all these awesome books coming out!  (And I haven’t even gotten past the graphic novels!) And…. I think, maybe, possibly.. that Amulet #9 (the final one of the series) will be released late this year. But I can’t find much info on it. No title, no date, no synopsis - nada! So, I’m cautiously optimistic that it will arrive in 2019. Finally - another graphic novel to be on the lookout for later in 2019 is Twins by author Varian Johnson who you may know from The Parker Inheritance and illustrator Shannon Wright. The publication date isn’t yet announced, but apparently it’s about twin sisters struggling to figure out individual identities in middle school and it’s based on Johnson’s own childhood experiences as a twin. New Releases from 2017 / 2018 Debut Authors   Early February brings us the second in Anna Meriano’s Love, Sugar, Magic series called A Sprinkle of Spirits and oh is that cover gorgeous! And definitely snag a copy of the sequel to Jarrett Lerner’s EngiNerds - Revenge of the EngiNerds out on February 19th. It is EVEN FUNNIER than the first one. And that’s saying something! Another book I’m looking forward to is Jen Petro-Roy’s Good Enough - about a young girl with an eating disorder. Game of Stars by Sayantani DasGupta - the follow up to The Serpent’s Secret is out on February 26th. And the end of February also brings us Bone Hollow  by Skeleton Tree author Kim Ventrella. Also be on the lookout for The Hunt for the Mad Wolf’s Daughter by Diane Magras on March 5th. That sequel is getting rave reviews so it’s definitely one to add to your library. Alyson Gerber, author of Braced, will have a new novel out called Focused. It’s about a middle school girl who loves chess and has been recently diagnosed with ADHD. Definitely a book a lot of my students will be able to connect with! In the last week of April we get the sequel to Roshani Chokshi’s Aru Shah and the End of Time called Aru Shah and Song of Death This April brings us the second novel from Rebecca Donnelly called The Friendship Lie. One book I’m excited to dip into this spring is Up for Air by Laurie Morrison. You might know her from last year’s Every Shiny Thing. From the author of 2017’s The Epic Fail of Arturo Zamora and 2018’s Marcus Vega Doesn’t Speak Spanish comes Each Tiny Spark. This is Pablo Cartaya’s third MG novel and this one features a young girl, a father recently returned from deployment, and… welding. So look for that one in August. And The Cryptid Keeper, the sequel to Lija Fisher’s 2018 The Cryptid Catcher is out this August as is Melissa Sarno’s A Swirl of Ocean. In September comes the sequel to Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling. It’s called Momentous Events in the Life of a Cactus and follows Aven’s adventures as she heads into high school. At first I thought that might put it in the YA category, but from what I can tell, it’s still middle grade. This fall we’ll also be treated to Abby Cooper’s third novel - Friend or Fiction. Just like Sticks and Stones and Bubbles, this one is also magical realism. It’s about a girl named Jade. In the pages of her notebook, she writes all about Zoe--the most amazing best friend anyone could dream of. But when pretend Zoe appears in real life thanks to a magical experiment gone right, Jade isn't so sure if she likes sharing her imaginary friend with the real world.   Another treat in store for you this fall is the third novel by Elly Swartz - Give and Take. This book is about 12 year-old Maggie whose grandmother’s recent death has triggered her to start hoarding things under her bed. 2019 Debut Authors   So - I’ll just say right now that I could have had an ENTIRE show just dedicated to the amazing middle grade debuts coming our way this year but at some point, I had to cut myself off.  So - I’ll include a link to the Novel19s website where you find many more middle grade debuts and discover some of your new favorite authors.   The Whisperers is Greg Howard’s middle grade debut and one that has really caught my eye. Just listen to this description: “Eleven-year-old Riley believes in the whispers, magical fairies that will grant you wishes if you leave them tributes. Riley has a lot of wishes. He wishes bullies at school would stop picking on him. He wishes Dylan, his 8th grade crush, liked him, and Riley wishes he would stop wetting the bed. But most of all, Riley wishes for his mom to come back home.” Oooo…. This one is out January 15th. If you are looking for a new book for younger middle grade readers - something along the lines of Ramona Quimby or Stella Diaz - check out Meena Meets Her Match by Karla Manternatch. One book that keeps popping up into my radar is the middle grade debut of Padma Venkatraman called The Bridge Home about four children who discover strength and grit and family while dealing with homelessness. That one comes out Feb 5th so be on the lookout for that one. Another debut that I have been dying to read is The Simple Art of Flying by Cory Leonardo!  Let me just read you the teaser: “Born in a dismal room in a pet store, Alastair the African grey parrot dreams of escape to bluer skies. He’d like nothing more than to fly away to a palm tree with his beloved sister, Aggie. But when Aggie is purchased by twelve-year-old Fritz, and Alastair is adopted by elderly dance-enthusiast and pie-baker Albertina Plopky, the future looks ready to crash-land.”  My step-mother had parrots when I was growing up, so this one in particular I really am interested in reading! So I’ll be checking my mailbox for that one on February 12th. Another debut I am excited to read this year is Joshua Levy’s Seventh Grade vs. the Galaxy! Since one of my goals this year is to introduce my students to more science fiction, a story about a school on a spaceship orbiting Jupiter would be perfect! On March 12 we get Lisa Moore Ramée’s debut A Good Kind of Trouble about a girl who just wants to follow the rules. And sometime this spring we get rather the opposite in Bernice Buttman, Model Citizen by Niki Lenz. This one is about a “bully” who ends up living with her aunt who is a nun and tries to turn over a new leaf. This March is the debut of Julia Nobel with The Mystery of Black Hollow Lane about a girl who gets shipped off to a British boarding school and finds a box of medallions that might just be connected to the disappearance of her father. A graphic novel debut coming in March that looks fabulous is Red Panda & Moon Bear by Jarod Roselló. It’s about two Latinx kids who defend their neighborhood from threats both natural and supernatural. And in late April is the first book in a new MG detective series called Kazu Jones and the Denver Dognappers by Shauna Holyoak and a time-traveling action adventure that will transport readers to ancient Egypt called Jagger Jones & the Mummy’s Ankh by Malayna Evans. Hurricane Season by debut author Nicole Melleby comes out May 7th and oh how do I want to read this novel!  On a recent #MGLitChat focused on the 2019 debut authors, the moderator asked, “What do you hope young readers take away from your book?”  And Nicole Melleby said the following, “ I want them to take away that they’re not alone, that they’re seen, that mental illness is hard but manageable, and that love may have its limits, but help comes in all shapes and sizes. Also that Van Gogh was a brilliant man.”  After reading Vincent & Theo last summer - uhhh…. gimme that book!! Another great middle grade debut to look for on May 7th is Just South of Home by Karen Stong which is described as Blackish meets Goosebumps. The story follows a rule-abiding girl who must team up with her trouble making cousin, goofy younger brother, and his best friend to unravel a mysterious haunting in their tiny Southern town. Also coming this spring is a book that I immediately knew I wanted to read. It’s called Planet Earth is Blue by Nicole Panteleakos. (So, I was pretty much ALREADY sold by the Bowie reference.) The book follows Nova, an autistic, nonverbal, space-obsessed 12-year-old who is awaiting the Challenger shuttle launch and the return of her big sister, Bridget, as she struggles to be understood by her new foster family.  I was a 4th grader when The Challenger Disaster happened and vividly remember watching it happen live on tv, so I am really interested to see how that plays out in this book. Another debut to look for early this summer is All of Me by Chris Baron - a novel in verse about a 13 year old boy who is dealing with a big move, struggles in his parents’ marriage, and his own body image issues. So… if you are a close listener, you have probably figured out that I’m a sucker for books involving baking or cooking.  Maybe that’s why Midsummer’s Mayhem by Rajani LaRocca just leapt out at me when I stumbled across it last month. This is a contemporary-fantasy retelling of A Midsummer Night’s Dream about an 11 year old Indian American girl whose father is a food writer and whose mother is a successful businesswoman. But when she adds some rather…. unusual (and maybe magical?) ingredients to her baking, things get out of hand. So look for that one on June 4th. And if your kids are looking for a fun spooky read this summer, Ollie Oxley and the Ghost comes out on June 18th and looks really cute. It’s about a boy who moves to California and ends up becoming friends with a ghost from the Gold Rush era. Ghost Squad by Claribel Ortega is another paranormal middle grade coming this September and it’s described as Coco meets Stranger Things. So, uh… yeah...gimme that for sure! Also coming out this September is The Light in the Lake by Sarah Baughman - a book about a young girl who finds herself caught between her love of science and her late twin brother's belief in magic. Sequels and Favorite Series This January 29th we’re getting two awesome books: a 4th in the Crime Biters series - Fangs for Everything AND I Survived the Battle of D-Day, 1944 by Lauren Tarshis.  And watching out for another I Survived book in September called I Survived the Great Molasses Flood, 1919. Also in 2019 we are getting not one but TWO new Babysitting Nightmares books! The Phantom Hour this January 29th and The Twilight Curse on August 20th. February 5th brings another Stick Dog book - Stick Dog Gets the Tacos AND the third Frazzled book by Booki Vivat! This one is called Minor Incidents and Absolute Uncertainties. I just love her titles! In late February kids will be getting book 4 in the DC Comics Secret Hero Society - Science Fair Crisis! Lion Down by Stuart Gibb is out on February 26th. The second in his FunJungle series and the follow up to Panda-monium.) In March comes book five in The School for Good & Evil series: A Crystal of Time , a new Emily Windsnap novel called Emily Windsnap and The Pirate Prince, and another in the Fairy Tale Reform School series called Wished. In March we also get a seventh Jedi Academy Book called Revenge of the Sis. This one starts a new storyline and is written by Amy Ignatow with Jarret Krosoczka illustrating. And an as yet untitled 8th Jedi Academy novel is scheduled for September 2019. AND I’m really excited for the third BAT book: Bat and the End of Everything by Elana K. Arnold.  My daughter’s 4th grade class read the first book and they - of course! - fell hard for this series! Jeff Kinney fans will be excited about Diary of an Awesome Friendly Kid - a book told from Rowley’s point of view that is out this April. And that month also brings us another Unicorn Rescue Society novel - The Chupacabras of the Rio Grande. And my 9 year old is going to be thrilled when I tell her that Katherine Applegate’s sequel to The Endling is coming out May 7th. It’s called Endling: The First and is already in my cart. The second book in Laura Ruby’s York series - The Clockwork Ghost is also headed our way this May and so is Another Fenway & Hattie book - In the Wild! Natalie Lloyd’s sequel to The Problim Children - Carnival Catastrophe is due to be out June 25th. And not quite a sequel but more of a spin-off, is Dough Boys by Paula Chase - author of 2018’s So Done. Characters Simp and Rollie are the leads in this novel told in two voices. Also - Karina Yan Glaser’s third Vanderbeekers novel is coming this September - The Vanderbeekers to the Rescue! And finally - just announced this morning - is Kate DiCamillo’s new novel coming September 24th - Beverly, Right Here. And if you guessed that this is the Beverly from Raymie Nightingale - then you are correct!  So now each of the three girls will have their own novel. By the way - if you haven’t seen it yet, the cover by Amy June Bates is stunning!!     2019 New Releases from Established Authors   First up here is the book I am devouring right now - The Remarkable Journey of Coyote Sunrise by Dan Gemeinhart which just came out on January 8th. And oh…. does this book live up to its hype! Brace yourself to hear lots more about this one later! Also out this January is a book my friend Sandy has been raving about - The Unsung Hero of Birdsong, U.S.A by Coretta Scott King honor nominee Brenda Woods. So I definitely need to add that one to my TBR list. This January readers will get a new Gordon Korman novel - Unteachables AND a new Andrew Clements novel - The Friendship War. January also brings us the first book in the really incredible Rick Riordan Presents Imprint - Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee. This is a space opera about thirteen-year-old Min, who comes from a long line of fox spirits. (By the way - if you have kids who love Rick Riordan’s novels or who love adventure books with a dash of humor and myth - then check out his Imprint site. I’ll include a link in the show notes so you can check them all out. From those lucky enough to read advanced copies, I haven’t heard anything but praise.) Pink Hair and Other Terrible Ideas by Andrea Pyros is one to watch out for this February. And another upper middle grade February release that caught my attention is a joint novel told in letters by Counting by 7s author Holly Goldberg Sloan and The Interestings author Meg Wolitzer. It’s called To Night Owl from Dogfish and it’s about two very different 12 year-old girls named Averie and Bett who are sent off to the same sleepaway camp in order to bond after their single dads fall in love with each other. February also bring us another novel by Anne Urso (author of the critically acclaimed The Real Boy) This novel, The Lost Girl, is about identical twins Lark and Iris.   On March 5th we get another Lisa Graff novel called Far Away about a girl, CJ, whose aunt is a psychic medium who claims that she carries messages from the dead. And I’m really psyched for We’re Not From Here by Tapper Twins author Geoff Rodkey. This novel is also out March 5th and is about refugees from planet Earth who need to find a new home on a faraway planet. I had the opportunity to read an ARC of this one and it’s quirky and hilarious… and timely. Definitely add this one to your pre orders. March also brings us another Rick Riordan Present’s book called Sal and Gabi Break the Universe by Carlos Hernandez. I’ve been hearing lots of great buzz about this one, so I’ll definitely need to pre-order a copy. On March 19th we get a new Kevin Henkes novel called Sweeping Up the Heart and this one is the story of the spring break that changes seventh-grader Amelia Albright’s life forever. In late March Natalie Lloyd fans will be treated to Over the Moon - a story about twelve-year-old Mallie who lives in a mining town where boys leave school at 12 to work in the mines, and girls leave to work as servants for the wealthy. But of course with that quintessentially Lloyd magic interwoven. And another Cynthia Lord book is coming out this March! She is the author of Rules and A Handful of Stars. This one is titled Because of the Rabbit and is about a young girl who starts public school for the first time after being homeschooled. Where the Heart Is by Jo Knowles is coming out April 2nd and a really interesting looking book called Summer of a Thousand Pies by Margaret Dilloway will be released April 16th. It’s about a girl who has to save her aunt’s pie shop. I think this one would be  a winner for kids who enjoy shows like The Great British Baking Show. In early May, we get to read Lynda Mullaly Hunt’s next novel, Shouting at the Rain about a girl named Delsie who lives with her grandmother, loves tracking weather, and who starts to wish for a more “regular” family and life. You can’t go wrong with the author of Fish in a Tree and One for the Murphys so… just pop this one in your cart now! And another novel that is getting all kinds of early buzz is the latest from K.A. Reynolds called Spinner of Dreams. It’s being called “inventive, empathetic, and strange in all the best ways.”  Plus - it has a really otherworldly cover that I just want to stare at... And finally - I know you all have heard me rave about this one before - but Barbara Dee’s Maybe He Just Likes You is going to be AMAZING!  My students and I got the chance to read the first chapter and we were all already hooked. But let me give you a little taste from the teaser: “For seventh grader Mila, it starts with an unwanted hug on the school blacktop. The next day, it’s another hug. A smirk. Comments. It all feels…weird. According to her friend Zara, Mila is being immature, overreacting. Doesn’t she know what flirting looks like? They don’t understand why Mila is making such a big deal about the boys’ attention. When Mila is finally pushed too far, she realizes she can’t battle this on her own–and finds help in some unexpected places.” I can’t WAIT!!   Phew!!  Alright - I am both energized and - I gotta be honest - a little daunted! But - I am reminding myself and I hope you’ll remember too that it’s not about a mad dash to read all of these books. But to give you a taste of what’s to come so you can match readers with books they might like and get them excited about new releases.   I hope you have a wonderful year reading and I would love to know - what are the books that you and your students are most looking forward to in 2019?   You can email me at booksbetween@gmail.com or jump into the conversation on Twitter/Instagram at the handle @Books_Between.      Closing   Thank you so much for joining me this week.  You can find an outline of interviews and a full transcript of all the other parts of our show at MGBookVillage.org.   And, if you have an extra minute this week, reviews on iTunes or Stitcher are much appreciated.   Books Between is a proud member of the Lady Pod Squad and the Education Podcast Network. This network features podcasts for educators, created by educators. For more great content visit edupodcastnetwork.com   Talk with you soon!  Bye!  

The Magical Properties of Unicorn Ivory When a cynical reporter goes to observe a unicorn from an alternate universe that now lives in ours, she encounters poachers, a forest ranger and a child used as a unicorn lure. The Author: Carlos Hernandez is the author of The Assimilated Cuban's Guide to Quantum Santeria (Rosarium 2016) and numerous works of short fiction, poetry, and drama, mostly in SFF. Look for his middle-grade novel Sal and Gabi Break the Universe from Disney Hyperion in March 2019. The Actor: Dyan Flores is a musical theatre writer and performer. She was a regular on the Chicago improv and sketch comedy scene before she moved to New York and shifted her focus to musical theatre writing. Dyan has performed with Halcyon Theatre, Impress These Apes, The Paper Machete, Beast Women Cabaret, iO Chicago and more. Dyan is a member of the BMI Lehman Engel Advanced Musical Theatre Writing workshop, and she has had shows performed at the New York Library for the Performing Arts, American Theater Company, The Metropolitan Room, Milk Can Theatre Company, and NYU. flores.dyan@gmail.com