The Week in Review & A Look Ahead

The Week in Review:

     My class on Wednesday (Rick Walton's Children's Publishing Class) featured an awesome panel of local illustrators; Julie Olsen, Nathan Hale, Guy Francis, & Will Terry. It was a lot of fun! There were a few PowerPoint presentations and great discussion, mostly about the business of being an illustrator. I'll post about it later (I say this far too often, don't I).

     Thursday was the Marissa Meyer lecture at Provo City Library. Marissa is stupendous! She's a big time Sailor Moon fan (that's actually how she got started writing --fan fiction, check out her page!) and also loves fairy tales. Hence The Lunar Chronicles; Cinder (Cinderella, out now), Scarlet (Red Riding Hood, 2013), Cress (Rapunzel, 2014), Winter (Snow White, 2015). The local book bloggers even got to have a special meet n' greet with Marissa before the lecture! (To view the Cinder book trailer, click here. For first chapter audio, click here.)

     The Family Literacy Symposium was this Saturday at the Provo Library (PCL is a hoppin' place!) with special guest, author Haven Kimmel (I got her middle-grade book, Kaline Klattermaster's Tree House, signed). I missed the keynote address, but made it to the three hours of breakout sessions. I attended the presentation about recommended children's books, recommended teen books, and then the Raising Kids to Read panel featuring authors Kristen Chandler, Ann E. Cannon, Matthew Kirby, & Chris Crowe (I also got Mississippi Trial: 1955 autographed). It was a great event, and it's annual!

Acquired:

Audio book, Cinder by Marissa Meyer (won from YA Sisterhood, you can listen to chapter one, here)
Virtuosity by Jessica Martinez (won from Goodreads)
Illustration print from Julie Olsen (signed)
Become: A Novel of Desolation by Ali Cross (won from Ali)
Rubber bracelet, The Sprightling Diaries: In the Twilight by Fiauna Lund (won from Fiauna)
Bookmarks & signed bookplates, Don't Expect Magic by Kathy McCullough (for the blog!)

A Look Ahead:

This sounds interesting doesn't it? There are a lot of Steampunk YA books out these days! To learn more about Jamie Horrocks, click here.

     Next Saturday, Jan. 21st, is the iWrite Network Winter Workshop at the Utah County Building in Provo from 9 AM - 2:10 PM. The cost is $30 and lunch is provided! (Click here to learn more about iWrite Network and scroll down for the workshop class schedule.)