Parenthetical

I’m in the process of switching web hosts. Hopefully it’ll go smoothly, and in a day or so I’ll be back up and running in my new home. But my experience has been that this sort of thing never goes smoothly. Cross your fingers!

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I just found out that I’m a second-round judge for Nerds Heart YA! I haven’t been involved with this contest before (which has been around for 2 years), but I’m very excited about it. The idea is to give some recognition for worthy books that haven’t gotten as much buzz as they deserve, particularly books [...]

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And we have finalists! (Actually, we did a few days ago, but I’m a bit behind on the posting.) The YA Fantasy & Science Fiction finalists are: Brain Jack, by Brian Falkner Guardian of the Dead, by Karen Healey Plain Kate, by Erin Bow Pod, by Stephen Wallenfels Rot & Ruin, by Jonathan Maberry Ship [...]

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I’ve been keeping a lid on it, but I can finally announce that I’m back for my 3rd year of Cybils goodness, this time as a Round II judge for the Teen/YA Science Fiction & Fantasy panel! *does a little dance of joy* Confused? The Cybils are the Children’s and Young Adult Bloggers’ Literary Awards. [...]

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I seem to have taken an accidental hiatus from blogging. Review every book I read? Post about all the interesting things I’m cooking? FAIL. The end of the school year plus a few months of poor health wiped me out, man. But after a good month and a half of summer, I think I’m ready [...]

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Here’s the Science Fiction & Fantasy list — damn, that’s a lot of books! I’m glad I’m not on the Round I panel! …Er, I mean, what a fabulous list. I’m so sorry I won’t be reading all of them. :) Good luck, Round I team! Comment here

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Yet another conference speaker, who brought a guitar on stage and performed some Tom Lehrer, among other things. What’s with all the musical children’s authors? Maybe music should be Simmons’ theme next time… I am not a poetry reader, as a general rule. But a few poems in, I was sold on this book. If [...]

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Another conference speaker with whom I was unfamiliar. She’s also a jazz singer, and gave us a lovely impromptu a capella performance (just reinforcing the sense that I was at a folk festival). I’ll admit, I found her book tiresome. The prose is lovely, I guess, but it was a Woman’s Sexual Awakening and Learning [...]

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I’ve been neglecting you. The last couple of months of school were wall-to-wall work, and now here it is July already! Oops. I’ve been reading, but not so much reviewing. Which means hold on to your virtual hats, folks, it’s catch-up time.

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…If you are Rapunzel’s Revenge (Graphic Novel: Elementary/Middle Grade) or Emiko Superstar (GN: Young Adult), that is! I’m super-excited about both of these: they were two of my personal favorites. (I even gave Rapunzel’s Revenge to my friend Kate Diamond as part of her wedding present, a bad-ass redhead for a bad-ass redhead.) Congratulations to [...]

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