News You Can Use

It's been a big week at Author Amok. Let's do some announcements, events and a Poetry Friday sneak peek that you won't want to miss.

Announcements

1) Have you read Laura Miller's review of The Hunger Games in the New Yorker? It's a thoughtful review, not just of Suzanne Collins' series, but of the dystopian genre and why it works for YA readers. Miller's comparison of the Capitol city and the games themselves to the hungers and cruelties of high school is spot on.

One disappointment with the article -- Miller didn't mention The Mysterious Benedict Society by Trenton Lee Stewart. My middle schooler ate up the book and its sequel. It's dystopian, but very funny and scathingly satirical (adults run around worrying about "The Emergency" but no one can say what the emergency is or how long it's been in existence). I think Stewart's balance of humor and disaffection is perfect for middle grade.

2) Speaking of Middle Grade, there's a new blog championing MGs. From the Mixed-Up Files of Middle Grade Authors promises can't-find-it-anywhere-else interviews with MG authors, giveaways, fun book lists, and an insight into real kids' opinions about MG books.

3) Not exactly an announcement, but I'm reading Scott Westerfeld's Leviathan. All it took was the flap copy for me to proclaim this is the perfect book for my world history/modern technology/fantasy novel loving almost-eighth grade son. He took one look at the maps and agreed. Now he's bugging me every night, "Are you done? Can I have it?" No -- get your  paws off my book!


Events
1) The Columbia Festival of the Arts kick off this weekend with Bookfest at Lakefest. Stop by the Maryland Writers Association tent on Saturday and say hello. If you get there around 1 PM, I'll be doing a family poetry craft -- Poetry Pops...concrete poems shaped like whirly pops.

2) Steampunk was the talk of last month's Balticon SF/F convention. If you're free June 18, I'm hosting a "Craft & Crit" -- we'll discuss Leviathan while catching up on our craftworks-in-progress. (I'm finishing up my son's socks.) Leave me a comment if you'd like info.

3) June 22 is a big fundraiser for CityLit Project, publisher of my chapbook. I'll be reading from Mountain, Log, Salt and Stone. A $40 ticket buys you dinner, the reading and you're supporting the arts in Baltimore!

Sneak Peek
Tomorrow is Poetry Friday.

I was dismayed and disappointed that the next state on my 50 state tour does not have a poet laureate. You'd think Nevada would join the poetry party. I thought Las Vegas never met a good time it didn't like.

I have soothed my mood by asking a truly fabulous Nevada poet to visit tomorrow...bestselling YA novelist Ellen  Hopkins. She's going to share a poem.

Are you jumping up and down with excitement? Me too!

See you tomorrow.