Posts Tagged Giveaway

Happy Flag Day! Let’s celebrate with an interview with award-winning author Kate Messner and a giveaway!

 

Happy Flag Day!

flag

 

What better way to celebrate than to talk to award-wining author Kate Messner        

kate

  

about her middle-grade mystery book, Capture the Flag!

 

Kate’s newest middle-grade novel series has it all – excitement, intrigue, high-stakes action, and best of all it centers on the stolen American flag! What a great idea and a fun topic for our Flag Day post!

 

 

A stolen flag, a secret society, and three complete strangers . . .
Capture-the-Flag
Anna, José, and Henry have never met, but they have more in common than they realize. Snowed in together at a chaotic Washington, DC, airport, they encounter a mysterious tattooed man, a flamboyant politician, and a rambunctious poodle named for an ancient king. Even stranger, news stations everywhere have just announced that the famous flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner” has been stolen! Anna, certain that the culprits must be snowed in, too, recruits Henry and José to help find the thieves and bring them to justice.
But when accusations start flying, they soon realize there’s even more than a national treasure at stake. With unexpected enemies lurking around every corner, will the trio solve the heist before the flag is lost forever?

 

 Praise for CAPTURE THE FLAG
A Junior Library Guild Selection
“A fast-paced mystery . . . a sparkling start for a promising new series.” –KIRKUS REVIEWS
“A novel as cinematic in execution as it is patriotic in theme.” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

 

I just finished reading your delightful book, Capture the Flag, I was wondering – where did you get the inspiration for this story? Did you visit the actual flag in the Smithsonian?

I did visit that flag – but not until I already knew I was going to let it be stolen in this book!  The inspiration for CAPTURE THE FLAG was actually the setting — I love airports and thought it would be great fun to set a mystery in one during a snowstorm. I love the super-charged atmosphere…everyone coming or going someplace. In airports, everyone has a story.  And I loved the idea of the snowstorm keeping everyone stuck there for a short period of time so my kids could investigate the crime, knowing that if they didn’t solve it, all the evidence and suspects would fly away as soon as the storm let up.

 

Much of the book takes place in an airport and the baggage area underneath. Were you able to go behind the scenes of the baggage handling area to do research for this book?

That’s the one thing I wasn’t able to explore firsthand in my research. Not surprisingly, airport security in a post-9/11 world doesn’t make exception for children’s authors.  However, I was able explore those under-the-airport worlds virtually, since most companies that build baggage handling systems have videos online showing how they work.

 

How much research, if any, do you do for your fiction books? Do you think this is  important?

I do extensive research for my books, especially when it comes to making sure I have the setting just right.  For CAPTURE THE FLAG, that meant spending a day at the Smithsonian, exploring behind the scenes with the curator of the flag exhibit and talking through just how those fictional bad guys might get out of the museum with the flag.

 

This book is your first mystery. Did you have fun writing it?

Great fun – but it was a great challenge, too, and taught me to plan in much more detail than I’d been accustomed to with my previous books.

 

Any tips aspiring authors should be aware of when writing mysteries for middle grade readers?

When I teach mystery writing workshops, I focus a lot on planning – the idea that suspects aren’t the only ones who need motives; investigators do, too.  It takes a lot of playing around with ideas to make sure all the details end up fitting together just right. And I think setting is huge in mysteries, too. The place can be a huge part of the story, and I encourage writers to think of it as the playground for their characters. What adventures can happen in a museum? In an airport, or a rainforest, or at the World Series?

 

Do you tend to stick with one writing level at a time or go back and forth depending on what inspires you?

I write across genres — middle grade, chapter books, and picture books – both fiction and nonfiction – and I love them all, so I couldn’t choose just one as a favorite. Most often, it’s my deadlines the determine what any given writing day looks like. The book that’s due first gets first priority, and when I’m not on deadline, I tend to play a lot, working on whatever seems to be calling me that day.

 

Your characters are ethnically diverse. How important do you think it is to have ethnically diverse characters in middle grade  books?

Very much so – and I’ve actually been quite involved in providing input for the covers for this mystery series. Scholastic has been amazing about asking for feedback, and we’ve talked about just this topic – the importance of not only including kids from different backgrounds on the covers but also showing their faces.  When I was teaching 7th grade, it was important to me that all of my students could find books with faces on the cover that looked like theirs. It was frustrating to me when most of the books I could find with brown faces on the covers were historical or issue books, where the story was about the character’s race.  In real life, it’s not like that — kids of all different backgrounds go to school and play lots of different sports and solve mysteries and have adventures, and I feel like we need to be mindful of that when we write and market books, too. I’ve been thrilled with the covers for the books in this series!  (And I can’t share the cover for book 3, MANHUNT, quite yet, but I can tell you that I think it might be the best of all!)

Many thanks!  ~Kate

 

And many thanks to you, Kate, for giving us a peek into your writing process. Mysteries are my favorite and I really loved this book! Can’t wait to read the new one in the series.

To learn more about Kate’s many amazing books, see her website http://www.katemessner.com/

Now, for what you’ve all been waiting for,  Kate has generously offered to donate an autographed copy of Capture the Flag to one lucky reader!  Simply leave a comment below and you will be entered in the giveaway.

 

****

Jennifer Swanson is a life-long mystery lover. Some say she was born with a magnifying glass in one hand a Nancy Drew book in the other.

An interview with independent editor Harold Underdown – and a giveaway!

  So just what is happening with the publishing industry these days?

Amazon seems to be growing in influence. The major trade publishers are discussing a merger. Some small presses are closing while others are opening. Editors who’ve worked for years developing wonderful children’s books are leaving or being downsized.

What does this mean for the average writer? Is this good or bad?

A little bit of both. While the smaller pool of editors may mean that it lowers the odds of being published, some of these editors are actually making themselves more accessible to the aspiring author.  Talented editors, with many years of experience are bravely setting out on their own by re-making themselves as independent editors. Interestingly enough, they offer their services to the very publishing houses they left.  But the best part is that they offer help to the individual writer looking to polish a manuscript before submission. Lucky us!

HU_portrait
One such independent editor is Harold Underdown. Harold has over 20 years experience as a children’s editor and has worked with companies like Macmillan, Orchard Books, Charlesbridge and ipicturebooks. He has an amazing website filled with TONS of great information found here:  http://www.underdown.org/.

He attends conferences, holds workshops both with editor Eileen Robinson, on his own, and at the Highlights Foundation. But the best thing is that Harold also works with individual writers to craft fantastic submission-ready manuscripts.

I am lucky enough to have worked with Harold in the past and I asked him if he’d be willing to share some information about what he does with the MUF readers.

Harold, thanks for joining us.

        Why did you decide to become an independent editor?

I decided to become an independent editor because the alternative–moving into another profession–was unacceptable to me. I had to make this choice because in 2001 a company that I was working for closed down, having run out of its initial funding. I looked around, did not see any good prospects in-house, and embarked on this path. I love being a children’s book editor and am glad that I have been able to stay in the field in this way.

           What does an independent editor do?

An independent editor does just about everything an in-house editor does, with the arguable exception of acquisitions, and with the happy exception of not attending a lot of meetings. We edit manuscripts, we coach clients through multiple rounds of revision, we consult on the phone about where a manuscript “fits” in the market, we help pull together the people needed for a writer to self-publish successfully, and we read a lot of books and manuscripts and talk about them. We generally have both publishers and writers as clients.
Many independent editors also give workshops and presentations at conferences. I do this at SCBWI conferences and at the Highlights Foundation in Honesdale, PA, or through Kids Book Revisions, a working partnership with fellow independent editor Eileen Robinson. I keep up a schedule of these at http://www.underdown.org/conferences.htm

         How do you choose clients to work with?

I usually am contacted by potential clients by email, and I spend some time finding out what they are looking for from me, and reading some of their manuscript (or the whole thing, if it’s a picture book). I then offer to work with the people who I feel I can help, and who I feel I can provide with the kind of help that they won’t easily find elsewhere for less. So I do turn clients away. If someone has a manuscript that’s outside my experience, such as something for the Christian market, I turn them down.

If someone has a manuscript that only needs the kind of feedback that they could get from an inexpensive critique at a local SCBWI conference, I turn them down. My services aren’t cheap, and I like to provide good value for money. I also turn people away if they seem like they would be difficult to work with, though that doesn’t happen often. More typically, it’s for one of my two main reasons, and I’d say I turn away at least as many projects as I take on.

What are the advantages of working with an independent editor?

I don’t know if I’m the right person to ask–you should ask some of my clients! But from what people tell me, there is  one reason why many of them work with an independent editor. They have gone as far as they can with the avenues that they have for getting feedback on a manuscript, whether that’s their critique group, a writer friend, conference critiques, or all of those, and they know that they haven’t yet reached the place where they want to be. And so they reach out for help from a professional editor. Their manuscripts are in many different stages–ranging from early drafts with significant flaws to oft-revised drafts that need a final polish. What they have in common, though, is that they need or want to get help to move it up another level.

What do you think of mid-grade novels?

 I love middle-grade novels, and read them for pleasure as well as for work. They are one of the oldest of the many forms in which we write for children, with their roots in the 19th century–books such as Treasure Island, Little Women, Alice in Wonderland, and Tom Sawyer that are still read today, and many others that are not. Today there is a tremendous variety of genre and point of view and style to be found in middle-grade novels.

What do you think defines a great mid-grade novel? Can you give some examples?

A great middle-grade novel is one that both tells a wonderful story, drawing upon all  of the tools a writer has to craft plot, character, and setting, and that contains a theme that directly and gracefully speaks to the concerns and needs of its audience. Some examples: Mark Twain’s Tom Sawyer, E.B. White’s Charlotte’s Web, Virginia Hamilton’s M.C. Higgins the Great, Lois Lowry’s The Giver, Tamora Pierce’s Wild Magic, Adam Rex’s The True Meaning of Smekday, Linda Sue Park’s A Single Shard, David Almond’s Skellig — I could go on and on. There are so many!

How are mid-grade novels different from YA novels?

That is a frequently discussed question, and due to the differences often being less than clear-cut, I often feel like falling back on the age of the protagonist! But there are some other differences, all of which have exceptions. YA novels tend to be told in first person, or an under-the-skin third person, while middle-grade novels are more likely to have objective narrators. Both focus on themes relevant to their audiences, which is why middle-grade novels have so many missing or dead parents, as children around that age are starting to become more independent and wonder if they could cope on their own. Teens, on the other hand, generally ARE more independent and are focused on their peers. Not that middle-grade children aren’t, of course, but in a different way–and this is where the differences get murkier, as they are often differences of degree.

To get at the differences, I am going to suggest an exercise for your readers. Take a novel that everyone would agree is YA–let’s say Paper Towns, by John Green–and take one that everyone would agree is middle-grade–let’s say Surviving the Applewhites by Stephanie Tolan. Read them both  (they are both well worth reading anyway). And then post your observations in the Comments below….

What trends do you see in publishing?

I see the same trends that everyone does. I see digital publishing changing the way books are sold–and the way books are discovered. I see self-publishing becoming a viable option, though I don’t see it bringing about the end of publishing companies. Those are probably the two areas where the most change has happened recently, and will continue to happen. Where’s this all going? I don’t know, but I’m open to seeing what happens.

I don’t pay much attention to trends in types of books, by the way, such as whether or not dystopias are still hot. It’s fun to speculate and trade that kind of gossip–and I do too when I’m chatting with friends–but I think writers will do best by writing the stories they are driven to write, not the ones they think will sell. Trends come and go, but when you write what you must write, you do your best work, and that is what sells.

One way that I keep up is to use Twitter as a news conduit, though I do use it for other things. I follow a very limited number of people–mostly news sources, along with a few others I know. And those news sources, from Publishers Weekly to individuals such as Jane Friedman and Mike Shatzkin, help me follow what’s going on in publishing generally and in our world in particular without spending a lot of time.

Anything you’d like to add?

Yes: read every day. Read books that interest you, current books, books like the manuscript you are working on or not like the manuscript you are working on. Books nourish the soul. That’s true for everyone, but particularly for those of us creating them.
Thanks!

And a huge thanks to you Harold for giving us all this excellent information. Again, you can learn more about Harold and his services and see all of his fantastic writing information at his website:  http://www.underdown.org/

As an additional help for the aspiring writers out there, we are offering a giveaway of Harold’s much-acclaimed book, The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Publishing Children’s Books, 3rd Edition

 

To enter to win an e-book version of this book, please comment below. And yes, doing the exercise that Harold suggested above and commenting below does gain you an entry into the giveaway!
****

Jennifer Swanson’s greatest wish is for someone to invent a transporter (like in Star Trek) so that she can send her kids to their events with the flip of a switch so she will have more time to write!

The Great Library Giveaway of 2012

UPDATE: The nomination period has now closed. We’ve disabled comments here, but please be watching for the opening of our voting period on Saturday, October 20th!

It’s back, and it’s better than ever!

Two years ago, we hosted our first Great Library Giveaway.  Seventy middle-grade titles were donated by our blog members as well as other middle-grade authors, publishers, and you, our readers.  We sent the entire collection to the school library at Old Orchard Elementary in Valencia, California.

Copyright 2009, Frederik Questier and Yanna Van Wesemael, licensed under Creative Commons.

This year, our members have donated a new stack of middle-grade titles to give to another school or local public or private library.  And we are hoping you will help us find a worthy recipient by nominating a library today.

To do so, simply post a comment below with the name of the library you’d like to see us ship these books to. Only one nomination per person, please.  However, you may earn up to six additional entries for either the same library or a different one by tweeting/blogging/facebooking this giveaway, liking our Facebook page, following us on Twitter, or following our Tumblr blog.  For additional entries to count, each must be in a separate comment with the link to your shout out if applicable and the name of the library you are nominating listed.  Nominations will only be accepted in the comments of this post, so please do not nominate elsewhere on our blog.

Also, please keep in mind that the library you nominate must serve our target audience of 8-12-year-olds in order to be eligible.   We can only ship to US and Canadian libraries.  See our Great Library Giveaway FAQ for the official rules.

Copyright 2012, Washington & Jefferson College, licensed under Creative Commons.

The nomination period ends October 16, 2012 at 11:59pm Pacific.  On Saturday, October 20, 2012 we will announce three finalists chosen by our random generator, and we will ask our readers to vote on which library should receive our middle-grade collection.  So please come back in October to cast your vote for the winning library. Voting ends Tuesday, October 30, 2012 at 11:59pm Pacific, and the winner will be announced on Wednesday, October 31, 2012.

We’ll be highlighting all the titles in our middle-grade book collection throughout the giveaway period, but you can see the complete list here.  Though it’s already a large selection, our goal this year is to have 100 books in the collection, and we’ll need your help to do it.  If you would like to donate a title,  please read our Great Library Giveaway Donations page for more information.

Please join us in support of libraries.  Nominate yours today.  And don’t forget to come back in October to cast your vote for the winning library.  Thank you for supporting From the Mixed-Up Files and the Great Library Giveaway!