Posts tagged interview

Today’s author is Jonathan Balog, whose short story “The Truth” was just published as part of a tribute collection to Kurt Vonnegut called So It Goes.  He is also the author of an e-collection of short stories called Inaugural Games.  Balog currently resides in Rome and can be followed online on his website.

HEY BOO BOOKS: You just had a short story published in a tribute to Kurt Vonnegut, So It Goes. Congratulations!  How did that come about and what can you tell us about the book?

JONATHAN BALOG: One afternoon last summer, I was on duotrope.com, and I came across an open call for submissions for an upcoming book dedicated to KV.  The guidelines simply said they wanted stories that would have made the man proud.  I thought, “FUCK, I’ve got something perfect for that!” 

The year before I’d written a satirical piece called ‘The Truth,’ which I’d dedicated to Kurt’s memory.  When I first got the idea, I knew I wanted it to be driven by that kind of dry, cynical humor that characterized Breakfast of Champions.  I consciously riffed on KV’s style, aiming to deliver the tale in a manner that would pay tribute to the man, but without blatantly ripping him off.  The fact that it ended up finding a home in a book dedicated to the guy who inspired it makes me immensely happy.

HBB:  You’ve also self-published a collection of short stories, Inaugural Games. What can you tell us about that collection?

JB: In early 2012 I was having trouble getting my stuff placed anywhere.  My girlfriend brought up the option of self-publishing on the Amazon Kindle page.  The more I thought about it, the more I liked the idea.  I put together a book of five radically dissimilar stories and released it as Inaugural Games.  It contained a mystery, an urban fantasy, a period piece, and two absurdist psychological thriller-type pieces.  The idea was for it to be a sampler, something that would give people a taste of the different styles I like to work with.  Also, these were stories that I’d labored over, and I loved them.  Even if I wasn’t getting paid, I’d much prefer them being read than collecting dust on my hard drive.

HBB:  How did the self-publishing process work for you?

JB:  It pretty much accomplished what I’d set out to do.  A lot of people who’d never read me before checked it out.  I got some very kind praise, and a few of them left 5-star reviews.  Now that I’m starting to get published via more conventional channels, the people who read Inaugural Games are interested in checking out the new stuff.

HBB:  Do you have any other upcoming publications in the works?

JB:  Actually, yeah.  This summer, Grey Matter Press is releasing a book of horror stories called Dark Visions.  It’s going to contain my piece ‘The Troll,’ which is sort of a mash-up of Donnie Darko, Stephen King’s IT, and Ray Bradbury’s Something Wicked This Way Comes.  Also, my story ‘The Sentient Hamster’ was recently purchased for an anthology of stories about aliens.  That’s one of my older ones, and it reads like Douglas Adams would have read if he’d grown up in American suburbia.

HBB:  How did you get into writing short stories?

JB:  Well, I’ve wanted to be a writer for as long as I can remember.  At a certain point I just realized that if I didn’t get serious about it, I was going to wake up on my 80^th birthday still dreaming about it.

As for the short stories, I think it was reading the shorter works of Ray Bradbury, Stephen King, Clive Barker, J.G. Ballard, Neil Gaiman, Richard Matheson, H.P. Lovecraft, etc., etc.  I think the medium offers a lot of freedom for everything that falls under the broad umbrella of imaginative fiction.  It’s easier to maintain the fantastic for twenty pages than it is to let it fill an entire novel.  It’s reasonable to ask the audience to suspend disbelief for the length of a short story, which allows me to get away with stuff like ‘The Deviant,’ where a man steals penguins from the Baltimore Zoo, and then they start plotting against him.  If I attempted to turn a story like that into a novel, at some point I’d be obliged to start explaining myself.  And often, explanation takes all the fun out of it.

HBB:  What is your writing process typically like?

JB:  I do my best work when I can start first thing in the morning, while my head’s clear and uncluttered by everything I’ll have to think about that day.  I once saw an interview with Gore Vidal where he advocated the first-thing-in-the-morning approach, because that’s when you’re closest to the dream state, when you’ll come up with thoughts and word combinations that would never occur to your conscious self.  I think there’s something to that.  Of course, since I’m currently juggling jobs, that isn’t always an option.  I basically write whenever I get a free moment.

HBB:  Where do you find influences for your stories?

JB:  They all come from different places.  I got the idea for ‘Inaugural’ when I was doing research on the Roman Colosseum, and started drawing parallels between popular entertainment in the ancient world and the modern world.  ‘The Man Who Sold Flowers’ came to me when I was buying some flowers for my girlfriend at one of the 24-hour floral shops scattered around Rome.  I wondered what it would be like to run one of those things during the night shift.  ‘The Troll’ was born while I was taking my dog for a walk along the Tiber River, and I suddenly had the image of a boy having a conversation with a magician under a bridge.

HBB:  Do you have any advice for aspiring authors?

JB:  Yeah, don’t listen to my advice!  The methods that work for me won’t necessarily work for you, and vice versa.  Find the conditions that are conducive to YOU writing, and maintain those conditions.  Don’t listen to anyone who tells you there’s one true way to do it, and for God’s sake, don’t let anyone who doesn’t get what you’re doing discourage you.

Of course, it’s a Jane Austen truth-universally-acknowledged that you have to read A LOT.  Read frequently, and read broadly.  Read anything that catches your interest.  Build vocabulary, absorb technique.  And just so you know, it’s OK to borrow someone else’s voice once in a while, especially at the beginning when you’re still discovering your own. 

HBB:  If you were stranded on a desert island, what three books would you want to have with you?

JB:  Oh man…I’ve never been good at narrowing down my favorites.  There’s too much that I like.  However, if I were planning on being marooned this week, I’d probably bring the following:

1. Clive Barker: Imajica
2. Fyodor Dostoevsky: The Brothers Karamazov
3. Ernest Hemingway: For Whom the Bell Tolls

My reason for those is that I recently made the mistake of reading them on trains and buses, and I missed out on a good third of each.

 Today I’m excited to introduce the lovely and talented poet Tyler Mills, the author of Tongue Lyre, which won the 2011 Crab Orchard Series in Poetry First Book Award (Southern Illinois University Press, 2013). Her poems have received awards from the Crab Orchard Review, Gulf Coast, and Third Coast and have appeared in the Antioch Review, Best New Poets, Georgia Review, TriQuarterly Online, and elsewhere.  A graduate of the MFA program at the University of Maryland, she is currently pursuing a PhD in Creative Writing at the University of Illinois-Chicago.

Hey Boo Books:  What can you tell us about your lovely new poetry collection?

 Tyler Mills: The title of the collection, Tongue Lyre, draws upon two different concepts. The first, “Tongue,” invokes the myth of Philomela, or the loss of speech post-violation. The book itself gets kind of dark and dangerous. It also invokes language itself (as in “mother tongue”) and its capacity for song. “Lyre” draws on the convention of lyric poetry, which comes from the word, “lyre.” In the myth of Orpheus, the lyre was an instrument that, paired with the voice, could enchant anything in the world (other than death!). Southern Illinois Press wrote a lovely summary of the book here. And, I’ve written a little bit more about it here, too.

 HBB:  When did you first begin writing poetry?

 TM:  It really feels like I first began writing poetry when I learned how to draw…or even began trying to learn how to draw. To me, poetic images are about a way of seeing that is simultaneously a way of making that ties the body, mind, and world together. When I was around twelve, I received a collection Emily Dickinson’s poems as a gift and soon tried imitating her. I made little pseudo-common meter poems about the trees outside my window, a walk in the snow, a candle. My poems now can be kind of huge, but my very early poems were small Dickinson imitations. I spent a year in music school—writing my little poems throughout it—until I came to the realization that all along I really was, or wanted to be, a writer.

 HBB:  What is your writing process like?

 My writing process changes greatly from poem to poem. Sometimes I hear a word or phrase that follows me around for a while. Sometimes I hear a story and hold onto it (like the one in my poem “Violin Shop”) until I find a way to use it in a poem. Sometimes, I approach my notebook with a general, vague feeling that I just need to write, and then assign myself sets of words or a form that I must work with in order to find out what it is I need to say. Often, I revise poems many, many times before I feel comfortable with the idea that they are “done.” I can be kind of neurotic like that. One of my recent poems has been through 40 revisions. Yet, another has only been through four. I suppose what keeps me returning to my notebook is how mysterious the writing process can really be. Keats famously said  “We hate poetry that has a palpable design upon us,” and I try to remind myself of this when I sit down to work on something and think that I already know what I want to say about it.

 HBB:  Where do you find your inspiration?

 TM:  I find my inspiration in art, music, politics, history, memory, and texts of all kinds.

 HBB:  Who are your favorite authors?

 TM:  First, I have to say that some of my teachers are my favorite authors. I really mean this and am not just saying that. Their work continues to teach me. I have recently read Stanley Plumly’s Orphan Hours, Michael Collier’s An Individual History, Shara McCallum’s This Strange Land, and Elizabeth Arnold’s Effacement. Srikanth Reddy has also been an inspiration (Facts for Visitors). When I was writing Tongue Lyre, I read Anne Carson’s Autobiography of Red and Stanley Plumly’s The Marriage in the Trees over and over. I also read and re-read Elizabeth Bishop and John Ashbery. And, Lucille Clifton has been a dear poet to me for many years. I was also greatly influenced by James Joyce’s Ulysses and wanted my poems to spark the way his prose does. I also kept returning to Homeric myth and Ovid’s Metamorphosis. The plot structure of the Odyssey is intriguing.It is a frame story, but the shape of its circle is delightfully maddening. I can’t tell you how many times I revised the order of my manuscript before finally arriving at the sequence of the poems that are in Tongue Lyre.

 HBB:  What’s the best writing advice you were ever given?

 TM:  I would have to say that when I first became serious about writing poems, I came across a copy of Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet on a visit to Brooklyn. The quote that has stuck with me was a version of this one, which I hunted down again for this interview: “The necessary thing is after all but this; solitude, great inner solitude. Going into oneself for hours meeting no one - this one must be able to attain.” We writers like to be social, but the writing itself is very solitary. And that’s OK: it’s a good thing.

HBB:  Where, besides your book, can we read your poetry?

TM:  You can find some poems from the book in Memorious, TriQuarterly Online, and Connotation Press. The title poem of the collection, “Tongue,” is being published in the Women Write Resistance anthology—an exciting project I am honored to be part of.

HBB:  If you were stranded on a desert island, what three books would you choose to keep you company?

TM:  Wow. Too bad the huge Russian novels I love wouldn’t float very well! Perhaps if I brought the Odyssey, I could learn from Odysseus how to wander (Float? Sing?) my way home.

This month, I am happy to introduce you to a fellow blogger and librarian.  One of my favorite coworkers, Kate, has worked as a library circulation assistant for 12 years.  She enjoys reading, helping customers find new authors to read, and setting up displays.  She can be found online at her new blog, Book Pusher By Day. Make sure you check it out!

HEY BOO BOOKS: How long have you been a librarian?    

KATE:  Almost 12 years

HBB:  What are the three best parts of your job?     

K8:  Senior customers, readers advisory, the other half of the dream team (we rock the circ desk on a regular basis…I swear people are in awe of us!).

HBB:  Can you tell us a little bit about your blog and what you’re hoping to accomplish with it?    

K8:  My blog is, or will be multi-purpose.  I will be writing reviews of books I read, some thoughts on author tidbits and possibly some library stories that may seem hard to believe, but honestly, you can’t make some of this stuff up.  We should have a reality show.  The Kardashians wouldn’t be able to keep up!    

HBB:  What genres do you usually pick up to read?  

K8:  I love a good legal thriller.  For a time, I thought I wanted to be a lawyer.  I enjoy a good romance, particularly historical fiction.  Sometimes, I just want something light and easy to read, almost to refresh myself (usually my go-to for this is Evanovich).

HBB:  Who are your three favorite authors?  

K8: Harlan Coben is my absolute favorite.  He writes mystery/thrillers that have twists and turns that you never see coming.  Just when you think you’ve figured it all out, he turns you around and now you’re off in another direction.  I like a lot of his books, but my favorite remains Tell No One.  I really like Brian Haig and his JAG attorney character, Sean Drummond.  My favorite is The President’s Assassin.  I don’t want to pick a third favorite because I like so many others that I would feel I’ve slighted an author by not mentioning them.  I love a good John Grisham book, and Elin Hilderbrand is my go to summer read along with Wendy Wax.  I’ve discovered Karen Witemeyer this year, as well as Kate Alcott.  I’ve been a fan of Stuart Woods, Robert Parker was a must read, I am fascinated over and over with Diana Gabaldon books and enjoy Sara Donati.  See what I mean?

HBB:  How about your least favorite author(s)? 

K8:  Right now, I am pretty annoyed with James Patterson’s last couple of books.  He’s phoning it in and there are way too many books I want to read to waste my time on that.  I don’t read sci-fi or fantasy (I just can’t wrap my brain around that stuff) and I don’t like slice and dice books, so any author who writes in that style is on my must miss list.

HBB:  What are the five books you would take with you if you were stranded on a desert island? 

K8:  I would take my bible, the entire “Jamie and Claire” Gabaldon series, The Firm by Grisham, Gone With the Wind by Margaret Mitchell, and I’ll reserve my last pick until I am packing for the trip that might take me over a desert island. 

HBB:  Quarterly, you create a list of upcoming fiction and nonfiction books for our customers to look forward to.  What sources do you use to find out what new titles  are coming out?  

K8:  Mostly Amazon and Library Journal.  I also get a lot of pre-pub alert emails.  And I am a member of Net Galley, which allows librarians to get advance copies of books that might not be coming out for several months.  So, I see titles there that I might add to the quarterly list.  I just requested the latest Sandra Brown book Low Pressure which isn’t released until 9/18/2012. 

HBB:  What’s your preference: e-books, real books, or a little of both? 

K8:  I love the feel of a “real” book in my hands, but I am reading on a Kobo, Nook and Kindle, as well as an I-pad and for convenience sake when traveling, an e-book cannot be beat.  Lightweight, so many choices of titles to choose from.  My nook has over 200 sample books on it, so I can try a short (typically 30-70 pages) portion of a book before I spend money or time reading the whole book. 

HBB:  Can you judge a book by its cover? 

K8:  Sometimes.  I’ve picked up books just because of the cover and loved them.  And I’ve picked up books because of the cover and couldn’t put them back down fast enough.  A good cover will still catch my eye, but I will read the jacket for a little more confirmation that I want to read the book and then I head to Amazon to see how the reviews are going.

This month, I am happy to introduce all of you to Tess, a librarian/blogger extraordinaire!  Tess, who can be found here on tumblr, has been a librarian for five years. When she’s not busy being awesome at the library, she hangs out with her husband and their dog (simultaneously the smartest and dumbest dog she has ever encountered), and plays the accordion, and watches a lot of BBC America. 

HEY BOO BOOKS:  Hi Tess, and welcome to my corner of the internet here at Hey Boo  Books.  How did you decide that you wanted to become a librarian?

TESS:  After graduating college with a degree in literary studies, I worked several unrewarding jobs in food service, retail management, and even telemarketing (don’t hate me! I needed the money!). I really wanted to do something that mattered, and contribute to my community.  I saw an opening at the local public library, and the rest was meant to be I guess!

HBB:  What does a typical day at the library look like for you?

TESS:  I specialize in youth services, so my day at the library is spent with mostly young children and their families. I work the information desk in our library’s children’s section, interacting with kids and their care givers, helping them find the things they need. I answer reference questions. I do readers advisory. I assist with technology. I also do a lot of programming. A good deal of my time is spent planning and executing story times for babies, toddlers, and pre-schoolers. I am our library’s early childhood community liaison as well, so I do a lot of outreach, providing library services to local Headstart centers and such, sitting in on various inter-agency meetings, and representing the library at promotional events in the community.

HBB:  What is your favorite book to read aloud?

TESS:  I really don’t think I can pick just one! I have so many great experiences reading aloud to children. I can tell you my favorite types of books to read aloud. I love books that encourage interaction with children like Don’t Let the Pigeon Drive the Bus by Mo Willems, The Purple Kangaroo by Michael Ian Black, or Can You Make a Scary Face by Jan Thomas. I also love books that incorporate music like Port Side Pirates by Oscar Seaworthy, Pete the Cat: I Love My White Shoes by Eric Litwin, or Tanka Tanka Skunk by Steve Webb. I also love Dr. Seuss. Horton Hears a Who is my favorite Dr. Seuss book to read aloud, because Horton is such a great role model, and sharing his story of loyalty and devotion with children makes my heart happy.

HBB:  Do you have any tips or tricks that you can share about reading aloud to children?

TESS:  Have fun! Children will benefit in the long run from positive experiences with books. Don’t be afraid to read silly books! Laughter is good for the soul. Don’t hesitate to read a book over and over again. Repetition helps children learn. And while you are reading, try to start conversations with children. Ask simple questions like “How many balloons are on this page? What colors are they?” and complex questions like “When is the last time you saw a balloon? Where do you think balloons go when they fly away?” and really listen to the answers!

HBB:  I know that you’ve served on several book awards committees over the past few years.  Can you talk about what those experiences were like for you?

TESS:  The Maryland Blue Crab Young Reader Award committee celebrates books written for children who are starting to read independently. The Blue Crab committee annually recognizes four distinguished books for this age group.  I was incredibly pleased to serve on this committee because high quality literature for early readers is, in my professional opinion, in generally short supply. By creating this award, children’s librarians in the state of Maryland are challenging authors and publishers to produce more excellent books for children, and I’m glad to have been a part of that.

The CYBILS Awards are very unique literary awards giving by the “Kid Lit” blogging community.  I had the honor to serve on the CYBILS committee judging Fiction Picture Books. There are first round judges, who evaluate the large group of contenders, and then narrow them down to a short list of top books, and there are second round judges who intensely argue the merits of the short list books, and then choose a winner. I was a second round judge. My fellow judges were fantastic and made the experience highly enjoyable.

I am currently serving on the American Library Association’s Stonewall Book Award committee. I’m so lucky, being as relatively young to the profession as I am, to be asked to serve on such an illustrious committee! The Stonewall Book Awards are given annually to books of exceptional literary merit relating to the gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender experience. The American Library Association has a long history of celebrating diversity. The ALA’s GLBT Round Table was the nation’s first GLBT professional organization, and the Stonewall was the first, and most enduring, GLBT book award. I’m proud to be part of such a forward thinking field as librarianship! The Stonewall Book Award committee gives three awards each year: the Barbara Gittings Literature Award, the Israel Fishman Non-Fiction Award, and the Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award.  The Stonewall has been my most intense, but most rewarding committee experience to date. We considered approximately 200 books total for these awards and engaged in many eye-opening deliberations. I’m extremely happy with our list of winning and honor books for this year, and am looking forward to the next cycle!

HBB:  You and your fellow librarians run a great blog that reviews children’s books.  Can you talk a little bit about how that came about, what you write about, and any success you’ve had?

TESS:  The Kid’s Book Blog was originally my final project for Library Associate Training Institute, which is Maryland’s state certification program for librarians. I was initially a reference librarian, and when I switched focuses to youth services, I wanted to learn more about children’s literature, specifically picture books, so I set forth to read as many as I could and discovered I had a great affection for them. I also have an affection for blogging, so it was natural to combine the two, and start blogging about picture books I liked. The project grew from there, and after a while it became a collaboration between myself and the other children’s librarians in my county. Every month we each review children’s picture books for the blog. It is an indispensable readers advisory tool for us. Our customers seem to like it and often seek titles they’ve seen suggested on the blog. I’d say it’s evolved into a big success, and I’ve even lead trainings on blogging and readers advisory as a result of my founding and maintaining the Kid’s Book Blog.

HBB:  If you were stranded on a desert island, what three books (of any genre or reading level) would you want to have with you for the long haul?

TESS:  Moby-Dick, or the Whale by Herman Melville, A Game of Thrones by George R.R. Martin, and Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan. Given those choices my island may not be the most cheerful, but by golly it will not want for good literature!

HBB:  I know that you’re an accordion player—do you ever get the chance to incorporate that or any of your other hobbies and skills into children’s programs at the library?

TESS:  My accordion has made quite a few appearances at the library. I especially like to bring her when we do pirate themed story time. Kids generally are very interested in the accordion. It looks like a piano on one side! And there are buttons on the other side! And that weird part in the middle that looks like a fan (the bellows)! I play some simple songs they can sing along to. I have them try to guess how old my accordion is (she was built in the 1950’s), and what country she’s from (Italy, though many accordions are made in Germany). I talk to them about how musicians often name their instrument (my accordion’s name is Ethel), and how you have to practice an instrument a lot to be able to play well. Playing any musical instrument for children is a great opportunity to entertain and educate at the same time!

HBB:  What is the number one best part of your job?

TESS:  I don’t hate it. I know a lot of people who get up every day dreading what lies in store for them at work, and I really don’t. Some days are better than others, don’t get me wrong, but every day has a moment of Zen. Working with children, in the capacity that I work with them as a librarian, can’t be beat. The way they look at the world is so refreshing. They are my heroes.

I’d like you all to meet Jessica Spotswood, an up and coming author who’s sure to be the next hot thing in young adult literature.  Her debut novel, Born Wicked, will be published by Putnam in the the spring of 2012, and I for one cannot wait to get my hands on a copy.

I hope this interview lets you get to know her and her awesome work a little bit better.  Without further ado, meet the author!

Hey Boo Books: What can you tell us about the story and the characters?
 
Jessica Spotswood: This is the pitch we sent to editors, although some things may be changing in the editing process:

Cate Cahill and her sisters are considered eccentric bluestockings—a little odd, a little unfashionable, and far too educated for their own good. The truth is more complicated; they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it could mean an asylum, a prison ship—or an early grave. Before their mother died, she entrusted Cate with keeping them safe and keeping everyone, including their father, in the dark about their powers. When her father employs a governess and Cate begins to receive notes from her missing, presumed-mad godmother, her task becomes much more difficult. As Cate searches for answers in banned books and rebellious new friends, she must juggle unwanted proposals, tea parties, and an illicit attraction to the new gardener.  Cate will do anything to protect her sisters, but at what cost to herself? 

HBB: Where did you find inspiration for Born Wicked?

JS: I had a dream where two sisters were using magic to fight the third sister in this big, epic battle that involved an heirloom necklace. (There is no epic battle or heirloom necklace in Born Wicked, but the idea of three witchy sisters took root). I’m one of three sisters myself, and the sibling dynamic fascinates me—how much we can love our siblings, how they make us crazy sometimes, how even as you grow up there are weird childhood rivalries at work.
 
HBB: What does your writing process typically look like?

JS: Ha, I’m not sure I have a process yet! But I write late, often from 9 pm until 1 or 2 am. I write in hour-long stretches, usually, with internet breaks. I’m not super-fast; a good day for me is 1000 words. I require lots of tea. When I finish chapters, I make my husband read them and then send them to my alpha readers (one of my crit partners and my best friend) for cheerleading and big-picture questions. And when I finish a draft, I get more detailed feedback from a trusty group of readers and rewrite at least once before I send it to my agent.
 
HBB: Do you have any tips for budding writers or resources that you have found to be helpful?

JS: When I was ready to look for agents, AgentQuery.com was really helpful. I also love reading writers’ blogs, and I’ve made some great friends that way. In terms of writing tips: read, read, read. Read in your genre to learn about the market, but read everything to learn about flow and language and what works and doesn’t for you as a reader.
 
HBB: Who is your agent, editor, and publisher and how did you get connected with them?

JS: My agent is the awesome Jim McCarthy at Dystel & Goderich Literary Management. When I was ready to query in fall 2009, I consulted the acknowledgments sections of books I loved and AgentQuery.com and made a spreadsheet. Jim reps Carrie Ryan and Richelle Mead, so he was in the first batch of agents I sent query letters. I got rejected by the other 4, but he requested a full manuscript and then offered to represent me! And he’s been really-truly awesome: he never stopped believing in me even though my first book didn’t sell.
My amazing editor is Arianne Lewin at Putnam. Jim sent Born Wicked out to a number of editors, and we were lucky to have a lot of interest. Penguin made a pre-empt offer. Then I got to choose between two fantastic editors, and Ari was the one I really clicked with. I’m so excited to work with her!
 
HBB: What are your top five favorite books at the moment?

JS: Can I give you my 4 favorite books of 2011 so far? They are:
Wither, by Lauren DeStefano
Clarity, by Kim Harrington
Where She Went, by Gayle Forman
Kat, Incorrigible, by Stephanie Burgis

HBB: What other writers do you admire?

JS: Carrie Ryan (The Forest of Hands and Teeth series) is amazing. Her prose is gorgeous, and her characters are strong and scared and flawed and fascinating. They’re girls who fall in love without losing themselves, which I like. And Carrie herself is really warm and welcoming to new writers. I also love E. Lockhart; I’ll buy anything she writes. Jandy Nelson (The Sky is Everywhere), Erin Bow (Plain Kate), and Stephanie Perkins (Anna and the French Kiss) wrote my favorite debuts last year and I can’t wait to see what they do next.
 
HBB: Do you have any other projects that you’re excited about right now?

JS: There will be at least three books in the The Cahill Witch Chronicles. Only Born Wicked is written, so I’ll be writing the other two books in the series for awhile. After that, who knows? I would love to go back and radically rewrite my first book (which got me my agent) someday. I also started a retelling of Sleeping Beauty from the point of view of her half-fey bastard best friend. 

Banned Books Week has officially come to a close, so this librarian  is moving right along to the next thing.

Coming soon, I’ve got some content in the works:

-Booktalks for classic horror titles.  Think Edgar Allan Poe, Frankenstein, and Dracula.

-Interviews with up-and-coming authors.  If you have written a book, whether it is published yet or not, please shoot me a message and I’ll include a promotion for you on this site, as well as a brief interview if you’re interested.

-An online book discussion club.  I’m still working out the details, but all are welcome to join and I am now accepting ideas for books to discuss.  Send any ideas to me via comment or email, and let me know if you’re interested in participating!