squeetus

Books connecting far-away family

I want to tell you a quick story, with permission from who told it to me, of the unexpected ways books connect us. A few years ago I did a photographic essay of men and boys reading Princess Academy to illustrate that, yes, this does happen and yes, it is okay for heaven's sake. One of the participants is this man, who I've known for years:

He is a family man. He has many children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren and is hands-on involved in their lives in an active, loving manner. He's a treasure. A few years ago one of his grandchildren gave up her two precious children for adoption. As is often the case, even though it was for the best, it was still very hard for the whole family.

The two kids, a brother and sister, joined a loving family. And not knowing that their birth grandparents knew me, they apparently became fans of my books. One day the grandson is reading through my past blog posts and sees the above picture. He recognizes "Papa." And so the boy has his mother take a picture of him reading Princess Academy in the same manner, recreating the photo. His adoptive mother sends the picture to his birth mother, who shows the birth grandparents. And today, with tears, they showed it to me.

Here's what's up

The Forgotten Sisters, the final book in the Princess Academy series, hits shelves one week from today. Preorder the book from anywhere and get a free poster.

Here are details of my upcoming appearances in Utah, Chicago, North Carolina, Wyoming, and Santa Monica. I need to focus more on writing and family than on trips and book events, so I will be cutting back wherever possible this year. Catch me while you can!

What am I currently working on? Nine things. Short stories, screenplays, a graphic novel, an adult novel, some middle grade and young adult novels. I honestly don't know which one will be finished and out first. I often hear non-writers muse that coming up with ideas must be the hardest part of writing. There are many things harder than coming up with ideas.

1. Sitting my butt down and writing every day
2. Ignoring the internet
3. Not letting myself get discouraged
4. Getting enough sleep at night
5. Eating healthy food
6. Ignoring the internet
7. Choosing which ideas to work on first
8. Staying with one book till it's finished and not getting distracted by all the other shiny ideas
9. Sitting my butt down and writing every day
10. Balancing work time with business/publicity and family needs

Today I took my four-year-olds to their indoor soccer class, stood outside the door, and had a phone interview with Sally from Publisher's Weekly about Princess Academy's tenth anniversary. The class pit the girls against the boys. My daughters had a stunning plan for victory: stand directly in front of the PVC-pipe-and-net goal and twirl their hair in eerie unison. And then when a boy kicked the ball anywhere near them, they picked up the goal and turned it around. I watched and laughed and gave my interview. A janitor overheard me on the phone and interrupted the call to ask, "Are you a writer? Do you have any books out? What are they? I love to read."

So do I, my friend.

Awards, posters, new covers! As you were, Monday.

Big day for literature! The ALA Youth Media Awards. Especially excited for my pals:

Dan Santat wins the Caldecott for BEEKLE

Cece Bell's EL DEAFO and Jacqueline Woodson's BROWN GIRL DREAMING win Newbery Honors

Candace Fleming's THE FAMILY ROMANOV wins a Sibert Honor

Jason Reynold honored with the Coretta Scott King John Steptoe Award for New Talent for WHEN I WAS THE GREATEST

I always love what I think of as the Newbery morning. Reminds me of the call that woke me up nine years ago. Still such a powerful memory that when I retell the story I tear up. Congrats to all the winners. Though awards aren't everything, honoring books is a great way to remind us of the power of literature.

This year PRINCESS ACADEMY celebrates it's tenth anniversary. The final book in that trilogy, THE FORGOTTEN SISTERS, publishes in just three weeks. Preorder a copy, either ebook or hardcover, from anywhere and get this free poster. See here for more details.

 

Also announcing the paperback of DANGEROUS, coming in May with a brand new cover. What do you think?

Cover reveal: the Princess Academy series

In honor of the 10th anniversary of Princess Academy and the upcoming publication of the third book in the trilogy, Bloomsbury has redesigned the jackets in this series, with artwork by Jason Chan. I'm excited to reveal them here at last!

The Forgotten Sisters pubs in hardcover March 3, 2015, with the rejacketed paperbacks of the first two at the same time. The first review is in, a starred review from Booklist!

"On the day that Miri is to return to her beloved Mount Eskel, she is summoned by King Bjorn of Danland, requesting her to travel to outer-territorial Lesser Alva where she is to tutor three royal sisters. If the King of Stora chooses one to marry, war will be prevented, and it’s up to Miri to succeed. Unhappy but dutybound, Miri accepts the task, only to meet three wild girls who spend their days wrestling on the floor and hunting and fishing in the swamp. ...Action packed and wellpaced, the story’s depth incorporates artful negotiation, the importance of education, and citizens’ equality and rights. This final installment of The Princess Academy trilogy certainly leaves room for more books if Hale were so inclined. Won't she reconsider?"

What do you think of the covers?

My next 2 years: 6 books and a movie

So I have a lot of schtuff going on (and I promise, no new book announcements for sometime). To sum up:

August 16, 2013 - AUSTENLAND premieres in LA and NYC, more cities and dates TBA.

September 17, 2013 - GUYS READ: Other Worlds, an anthology of a science fiction and fantasy short stories. I have a story in it titled "Bouncing the Grinning Goat."

October 8, 2013 - EVER AFTER HIGH: The Storybook of Legends, a middle grade book about a boarding school for the children of famous fairytales, a tie-in book with Mattel's new Ever After High line of products.

April 1, 2014 - DANGEROUS, a young adult, scifi, superhero adventure novel. (btw, the setting is contemporary. Some assume that YA scifi is always dystopian.)

July 2014 - the fourth book in the SPIRIT ANIMALS series. Like 39 Clues and Infinity Ring, this is a 7-book series, each book written by a different author, supported by a huge online video game. The first book, written by Brandon Mull, launches Sept '13.

Fall 2014 - THE PRINCESS IN BLACK, the first book in Dean's and my early chapter book series, gorgeously and wittily illustrated by LeUyen Pham.

Winter 2015 - PRINCESS ACADEMY: Dragonfly Sisters (working title), the third and final PA book. I imagine it'll be Jan or Feb '15.

And then, who knows? Well, there will be at least three more PIB books, and I have other books outlined and stories to tell. I want to write more Austenland books and wish I could have gotten to one to time it with the movie's release. It's almost maddening, how many books I want to write! And book writing takes so much time I have to tell those other stories just to sit down and shut up for a minute please, I can't get to you yet!

So...I thought I was slowing down, taking it easy for a few years. Funny what happens as soon as you say that. Thanks for sticking with me, guys! I'm excited about all the different kinds of stories and fun books I'm getting to create, and so grateful there are readers who are excited about them too.

Next post I'll tackle that question I get as often as any: how do you manage to write while being a mother? In the meantime, if you have specific questions about that or have thoughts about how to balance parenting/your work, school/your passion, etc. let us know in the comments.

Announcing new Princess Academy books!

Eight years ago Princess Academy was published. Once it won a Newbery Honor, its success overwhelmed me. I'd considered writing a sequel before but decided against it, sure that it could never match up.

So I resisted until my idea for what happens next overwhelmed me more than the overwhelmingness of the previous success. Just generally overwhelmed, I still had to write that story.

I'm so glad I got to write Palace of Stone. I love that book. While working Palace of Stone, another burning question haunted me. And the only way to answer it was to write a third book in the series. Which I am doing now, most likely for early 2015 publication. Working title: Dragonfly Sisters.

Since it's going so well, I see no reason to stop. Here are some more Princess Academy titles that you can absolutely expect to see in the near future.*

*this isn't true. the third book will be the last. but what would you give to read princess academy: doug? *sigh*

EDIT: Faithful reader Laura adds this brilliant idea to the Princess Academy genre family:

Winners from our photo contest

Winner winner chicken dinner! My children and husband all chimed in and picked their two favorites. The first was no surprise:

I know the marvelous manipulator of the Batman image and she has been justly rewarded. I wanted to honor a second winner so I gave my family three votes on another one. They all chose different pictures (so many great ones!), overlapping on one:

Awesome! Marvelous-photo-taker, please email me your address and who you'd like the books personalized to at squeetus (at) gmail (dot) com. Thanks, guys, for caring about this! I love that so many of you care too. Hopefully by spreading awareness we'll give our boys a chance to grow up reading lots of great stories and embracing female characters as well as male.

To continue the ongoing posts featuring bits from the Palace of Stone area on my website, I list dozens of titles we tried on for size. Here are a few that I thought would be the final title at one time:

Lady Miri

The Queen's Castle

Lady of the Princess

The Robber Princess

Crown Breaker

Miri of Mount Eskel

Literary pumpkins

I've been neglecting you! And I haven't posted winners of the contest yet. Sorry. I just sent off the latest draft of my unnamed YA book to my editor and am working on a short story for an anthology I'll annouce later. But first, Happy Halloween! And as has become a magnificent Squeetus tradition, here's a book pumpkin from carving wizard Laura Middleton.

There are no words.

Also, check out her ode to FRANKENSTEIN, from the picture book parody of MADELINE, written by Ludworst Bemonster, aka Rick Walton and Nate Hale.

Aw. The little demon looks so sweet. And celebrating Ally Condie's final book in the MATCHED trilogy:

Gorgeous! Thank you, Laura. Your talent rocks.

Photo contest: Boys read "girl" books!

Here are your photos! I love these so much. I'll let my husband and kiddos select two winners (because I have no doubt that they'll choose the Batman one, so we'll add a second winner to the mix). If you submitted a photo and it's not here, please put the link in the comments below and I'll add it. Enjoy!

 

How I used Diplomacy to get my book back

I received this wonderful account from Erin, age 12.

    I had stayed up late the night before at our ward’s Women’s Retreat, and was grumpy that evening. My sister and I were supposed to clean our room. I was mean to her, and my mom took away my book, Palace of Stone, for five days. When I argued and tried to get my book back, I got sent to bed.
As I was lying there, I was trying to think of ways to get my book back. I didn’t want to just take it, even though I knew I could easily find it and take it back. The only other way I could think of was to convince my mom to give it back, and I didn’t know how I would do that. So I started thinking about what I had already read. I had just passed the part when Miri convinces Peder’s dad to let him go to the lowland by using Diplomacy. Suddenly the idea came to me. I could use diplomacy to get my book back. If it worked for Miri, is should work for me, right?

    Rule one: Identify the problem
    “I know I’m not allowed to have my book back.”

    Rule two: Admit your own error
    “I was mean to Ashley and disobeyed you. That was wrong.”

    Rule three: State the error of the other party
    “But you took my book and yelled at me. That was wrong too.”
   
    Rules four + five:  Propose specific compromises + Invite mutual acceptance
    “I think we should put that behind us and forget last night on these terms. I will try my hardest to be nice to my siblings and do everything I’m asked the first time. In return you will give me my book back.”

    Rules five + six: Illustrate the negative outcome of refusal and positive acceptance + Assert a deadline for acceptance
    I couldn’t really think of any way to say this without it sounding like a threat. You know, she is my mom. :)

    I also had to make sure she was in a good mood. I chose Sunday afternoon, on the way home from our ward choir practice. Then we were alone in the car for several minutes. All through choir I prepared myself and went over my speech in my head. In the car, I gave it to her, and she laughed. I didn’t get my book back until later that afternoon, but it still worked. I was really excited that now I could finish devouring it and enjoy the drive to Salt Lake to visit family.

 

What a cutie! Cheers to Erin and her mom. Also, here's more info about the webcast event: Join Shannon for a live webcast at Brooklyn Friends School to celebrate the release of Palace of Stone. Click here to register for the free event.

A cool thing and a song

This is a cool thing I'm doing in early October. I'll be presenting an author assembly in New York City, and School Library Journal is broadcasting it live into other schools. Educators, you can sign up your class or school to participate remotely. I'll be taking questions and comments from kids both live and digitally. I know Jeff Kinney did this recently and it turned out super awesome. EDIT: don't know why the link wasn't showing up before but it should be working now.

See my events page for upcoming appearances in Utah, Illinois, Baltimore Book Festival, and NYC.

Thanks for your support of my new book! Here's a snippet, one of the songs that start off the chapters:

 

Once there was a queen in a palace of bread.
Sing blue, sing white, stay up all night.
She nibbled on the walls and gobbled up her bed.
Sing white, sing blue, sing ballyhoo.

The people begged a crumb from their robust queen.
Sing blue, sing white, she ate all night.
She would not share a thing until it turned green.
So white, so blue, the mold it grew.

Boys leading the best seller lists

Here it is! For reals! Palace of Stone at #8 on the NYT best seller list. Wahoo! Thank you SO MUCH to those who bought the book early. It really makes a difference for a book's overall success if it's launched well.

It was interesting looking over all the children's best seller lists. Like most female children's/YA writers I know, I've been asked many times why I don't write books for boys. (My answer is: but I do. Why don't some boys read books about girls?) There is a crisis in reading. Boys aren't reading as much as girls and are suffering academically for it. I love that this is being addressed and questioned. But I wonder why books that have female main characters are seen as part of the problem.

I also hear over and over again that there just aren't enough "boy" books and books about boys. Look at this week's NYT best seller lists and the ratios of male:female authors.* [EDIT: whoops, I write it out wrong the first time. Now it reads correctly, e.g. 8 male authors: 2 female authors.]

Children's paperback - 8:2

Series books - 8:2

Children's chapter books- 7:3

Children's picture books - 9:1

I love to see a lot of men in children's books. It's wonderful! But I don't see the paucity that some are worried about. 80% of the current best sellers are written by men. Does anyone know, are the best seller lists not representative of what's published over all? Are, say, 80% of books published by/about girls, even while 80% of the best sellers are by/about boys? I don't know those stats but I'd be curious to learn.

Now please keep posting your great photos of boys reading "girl" books! Loving the entries. Some of these are really going to make you laugh. Let's give the contest a couple more weeks. And I'll post about the book tour soon.

*I looked at this just by author gender. There are a couple of books by men that have female main characters, and a couple of books by women that have male main characters. But overall, the best sellers are 80% male-led. Not a criticism, just the facts, and I like to look at facts and wonder about them.