Busy, Busy, Busy: A Round Up Between Bursts of Busy

It's Friday--which means it is round up time and there is much going on in the kid lit scene one must read about.

In Awesome Austin

The Austin SCBWI hosts Storytelling in the Digital Age tomorrow at St. Edwards. The event itself, and author/speaker Lindsey Lane, got some wonderful coverage in the Austin Statesman, in their article, "Storybook apps for kids a major topic among children's book writer's and artists."  

"It astounds me the possibilities of what you could do with a story and touching the screen, opening up different worlds for kids," Lane said.

If wanting to register, see here. 


The Austin Teen Book Festival
I was one of the 25,000 attendees at The Austin Teen Book Festival at the Palmer Center last weekend. I snapped many a picture, chatted with many a fellow author, and was overwhelmed at the excitement in the air. The teens came out in full force to see a line up of stellar YA writing rock stars. Check out today's coverage from Publisher's Weekly, including a fabulous quote from Varian Johnson, Austin author of Saving Maddie.

 

 

A young fan of author Jennifer Ziegler

An attendee in full steampunk regalia. 

 

 

Authors Jennifer Ziegler, Christina Mandelski, Stephanie Perkins and Simone Elkeles

 

 

 

 

 

 

For more photos of the outstanding event, see Cynsations Event Report by Austin Teen Book Festival featured author Cynthia Leitich Smith, whose Tantalize series drew in plenty of fans. And, see also Greg Leitich Smith, whose new novel Chronal Engine is coming soon!


The Writers' League of Texas

As usual, much is going on at the Writers' League of Texas, including a fundraiser for the WLT this Sunday evening. Check out information for the Raise the Roof Party Here.

The Texas Book Festival

I am up to my ears in books for this year's TBF. Please join me on Saturday at 2pm, Oct. 22nd for:

Zombies, Odd Girls, and My Other Middle School Classmates

with Mac Barnett, K.A. Holt, René Saldaña Jr., and Jo Whittemore

Date: Saturday, October 22, 2011
Time: 2:00 - 3:00
Location: Family Life Center (1300 Lavaca)

In middle school, most kids are afraid to be themselves. So we want to celebrate those daring middle schoolers who are proudly unique - the sullen odd girl in Jo Whittmore's Odd Girl In, the brain-eating zombies in K. A. Holt's Brains for Lunch, and the crime-solving detectives in Mac Barnett's It Happened On a Train and René Saldaña Jr.’s The Lemon Tree Caper. Because if you can't be yourself, you might as well be (un)dead.

Moderator Bethany Hegedus is the author of Between Us Baxters and Truth with a Capital T, both of which were named to the Best Books list by the Bank Street Awards Committee. Forthcoming is the picture book Grandfather Gandhi, co-authored with Arun Gandhi, grandson to the Mahatma. Bethany serves as the Young Adult & Children's editor for the literary journal Hunger Mountain.


Authors: Jo Whittemore
René Saldaña, Jr.
K.A. Holt
Mac Barnett




At the Writing Barn


Please join us for The Writing Barn's first event, October 16th, 2-4 pm. 

Please join Jeff Crosby & Shelley Jackson to celebrate the release of their newest children's picture book, HARNESS HORSES, BUCKING BRONCOS & PIT PONIES: A HISTORY OF HORSE BREEDS!

Minis and Friends, a charitable organization that benefits disabled children, will be at the event with live miniature horses to pet. Original art from the book will be on display, prints will be for sale, and copies of HARNESS HORSES will be available for purchase and to get autographed. We'll also have snacks, horsey games and more!
  

This event is open to the public. The Writing Barn is located at 10202 Wommack Road in Austin. Parking will be available inside the property and overflow parking is available on Riddle Road and Wommack Road.

 

It's sure to be a fun event for horse lovers, book lovers, and art lovers of all ages!

Happy Friday!

Hunger Mountain YA & Children's Summer Issue--Varying Shade of Shadows

New content is now LIVE over at Hunger Mountain. This issue we begin rolling out new content every other week. Four fabulous pieces are available now--and a SNEAK PEAK into Open Wounds, a debut novel by Joe Lunievicz  (which just earned a PW starred review) will go live later this week. But join Joe and I tonight for a live author chat at 8pm EST, 7pm CST as part of Reach Out Reads.

 

From my Welcome Letter

Welcome to the summer 2011 issue, The Varying Shades of Shadows. Time stretches in the summer. The days can be filled with activities or slow down to an almost complete stop.  Laughter can bounce across the lake as buoyant as a beach ball or it can become muffled by the heat and the trees and turn melancholy in a matter of minutes. There is a dichotomy in summer, as there is in most everything. We writers love dichotomy—for it is in the exploring of seeming polar opposites that we find the “good stuff”—the betwixt, between-ness of our natures.

From May through September, we will be exploring lightness and darkness and the many shades of grey in between. Beginning this issue, every other week, we will welcome three or four new pieces including additional feature pieces, fiction, craft –essays and interviews. We’ve changed the way we publish our online content to serve our readers’ needs. The Hunger Mountain YA & Children’s Lit section has such meaty content that launching all pieces at the same time didn’t give enough creative digestive time. Hence, our new way of doing things.

Janet Fox

This week The Varying Shades of Shadows welcomes a wickedly smart investigation into the use of elision by Janet Fox in The Shadowy Landscape of Dreams Where Reader and Writer Meet. 

Deborah Halverson

 We also welcome an instructive Toolbox piece, Where the Teens Are: 5 Ways to Freshen Up YA Fiction’s Favorite Places from Deborah Halverson, author of the newly released, Writing Young Adult Fiction For Dummies.

Liz Garton Scanlon

Our In Response essay to the Passion for the Picture Book special feature  is by the outstanding author Liz Garton Scanlon. 

Lindsey Lane

Last, but not least, in Fiction we offer The Proposal, a short story by Lindsey Lane which dives deep into the hiddenness of our human natures and our desires to be both safe and loved.


(I spoke about Lindsey's short story cycle in this interview over at Word Crushes, Lovin' The Story, when interviewed in March and am thrilled the piece is now live.)


So, please stop back often.  Read, respond, share your thoughts and delight in the darkness and luxuriate in the light. They both offer respite and reward. Go ahead, see for yourselves.


Best,
Bethany Hegedus, Editor

Please note: submissions are still open for The Art & Insanity of Creativity issue for fall 2011, and we welcome submissions through our Submissions Manager.  Look for 2012 themes to be announced this fall.


AND a big thank you to all those who participated and bid in the Hunger Mountain e-bay critique auction! Thanks to the support of agents Erin Murphy, Ammi-Joan Paquette, Elena Mechlin, Joan Slattery, Jill Corcoran,Emily Van Beek and authors Sara Zarr,  Sara Pennypacker, G. Neri, Janet S. Wong, Holly Cupala, and illustrator Julian Hector.  In total the Kid Lit portion of the auction brought in $6981.50 and the total auction $10,638.49. Funds go to supporting the journal and the artists we publish! Thank you! Thank you for making this auction such a success...and to winning bidders--enjoy the critiques!

Behind the Editor's Desk

Over on WordCrushes.com, a great blog by Erin Fanning following the teen/tween book market is an interview with me today, in my Hunger Mountain Children's and YA Editor capacity. I had a wonderful phone call with Managing Editor Miciah Bay Gault yesterday and soon Hunger Mountain content is going to be be published online in an ongoing "rolling" fashion so every few weeks or so there will be fresh/new content to keep our readers (over 6k unique hits per month) inspired. And, we are looking for more fabulous fiction, so hop on over to wordcrushes.com and see what it is we are looking for.

Sneak Peak into the interview:

Who are some of your favorite authors and why? Favorite short stories? Is there a story (or two) that was completely unforgettable… changed your life or outlook in some way?

I recently read a short story cycle manuscript, titled, The Pullout, for a friend and though my opinion was supposed to come as Bethany, friend and fellow critiquer, what I originally thought as I was reading is I have, have, have, to have one of these stories to showcase in the spring issue of Hunger Mountain. The one I choose, that I thought would resonate most from the collection VCFA grad Lindsey Lane is stringing together is a story called The Proposal. Lindsey, who has been known as a picture book writer, did something brave and beautiful in her short story cycle. She went deep and the work she laid bare had a profound affect on me.

** This short story will be coming in the next issue whose theme is: The Varying Shades of Shadows.

Those interested in submitting may see the submission guidelines here: http://www.hungermtn.org/submit/