Despite the immense loss everyone still feels here at Upstart Crow about Bridget Zinn, we would nonetheless like to take a moment to shine a bit of sweet light on the wonderful crows who've brightened readers' month of June with their new releases. It has been a busy, busy month!
The first of June brought us The Eternal Sea from Angie Frazier, the sequel to her rollicking, romantic debut, Everlasting.The Eternal Sea follows star-crossed lovers Oscar and Camille through a dangerous and paranormal adventure to find true love and happiness. It is thrilling, passionate, and incredibly well done. Fans of historical novels, romances, and simply “darn good” books should pick it up!And if you haven’t read Everlasting… what are you waiting for?
Josh Berk’s critically acclaimed (and super funny) The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin may have a fresh new look in paperback—but the jokes and suspense are deadly funny just the same.Will Halpin may be deaf and overweight, but what's a couple of handicaps matter when there's a murder to be solved?Read the book that Kirkus and SLJ gave starred reviews to, and Amazon.com, Kirkus, and VOYA named one of their “Best Books” for 2010.
And the middle of June welcomed Olive—the protagonist of Jacqueline West’sNew York Times bestselling debut, The Shadows—into paperback.This award-winner is the recipient of multiple starred reviews and nominations. If you missed Olive in hardcover, get caught up on this heartwarming, spooky, and very funny series … with luck, you’ll be done with it just in time for Spellbound, the second entry, which hits shelves in July.
Another book with a hot new look for summer is Matt Myklusch’s THE ACCIDENTAL HERO.Formerly known as Jack Blank and The Imagine Nation, this riveting middle grade adventure is perfect for Percy Jackson fans, but stands on its own as the start of a great new series. The San Francisco Book Review called Jack "a mythical hero." And look out for the sequel, The Secret War, in August.
And finally, June 24th saw the release of Danette Haworth's third book for middle grade readers, Me and Jack.From the writer of Violet Raines Almost Got Struck By Lightning and The Summer of Moonlight Secrets comes a soon-to-be classic about a boy and his beloved dog, set against the backdrop of the Vietnam War. Me and Jack is a perfect summer read. Danette is a lyrical and charming writer, and you will fall in love with her characters.Happy Summer reading, everyone!
One of the Upstart Crow fold passed away early yesterday morning, and we here are still reeling and red-eyed from the news. Our love and support go out to her husband, Barrett, and to Bridget's family and friends, who are legion.As one should have expected about someone dubbed the World's Fastest Librarian, Bridget Zinn departed the scene earlier and faster than anyone could have ever imagined. And the world is a poorer, dimmer, duller place for her absence. We will miss her. I will miss her.[Below, a video'd thank you she'd made after an auction to raise money for her fight against cancer. It is how I always see her in my mind's eye.]At times like these, one can't help but realize how shabbily inadequate words are when it comes to grief. Sad just doesn't cut it. No how no way. Doesn't come anywhere near to capturing the weighty emptiness we feel. And to amp things up with adverbs—well, that sort of lousy writing she wouldn't stand for.Bridget was a friend as well as a client, but when I think of her, what comes to mind still is my first read of her debut novel, Poison. It is a bright, funny, sweet wonder of a book, and I'd printed out the manuscript and taken it with me home from the office because I just couldn't stop reading. I startled my fellow subway passengers by barking out laughter every few minutes. You'll get to read it one of these days—we later sold it at auction to Hyperion. The story is a fantasy about a girl fugitive who fancies herself tough-as-nails until she finds love, humility, and more through an unexpected partnership with a wee enchanted piglet named Rosie.Like Bridget, her novel is warm, breezily witty, full of a large-hearted love for her characters and the world. And oh god, but she and it are funny. A giddy joy saturates every page of the manuscript—a joy, I realized, that came from Bridget herself.When she was diagnosed with cancer, Bridget handled it with a courage that I found hard to fathom. How could she be so happy? So carefree? So effortlessly sweet and funny? She had an optimism about her, I learned, because that's who she was. Even after the diagnosis, she was for the most part happy and an inspiration to us all on how to live. She and her longtime boyfriend, Barrett, got married, and they bought their dream house in Portland, the city they loved. (And where, when I'd visit, they'd take me to beautiful spots I'd have never found otherwise.) She'd sold her book and was hard at work on the sequel, as well as another novel about one of her favorite things in the world: Shoes. It's a cliche, but Bridget was so full of zest and life that she made the cancer almost seem beside the point.Which is why yesterday's news was so devastating, so unexpected, so unjust. There was little enough in the world already to made it a worthwhile place; now there's a whole lot less.We have all been so fortunate to have Bridget in our lives and never understood that until this moment, even though what we're dealing with now is the exact opposite of good fortune. It's precisely the sort of meaningful contradiction that Bridget, whose novel is rife with ironic (and often amusing) twists of fate, would have appreciated.
Happy Release Day to the wonderful Christina Mandelski, whose debut novel, THE SWEETEST THING, is officially on sale today from Egmont USA.A bit about the novel:In the world of Sheridan Wells, life is perfect when she’s decorating a cake. Unfortunately, everything else is a complete mess: her mom ran off years ago, her dad is more interested in his restaurant, and the idea of a boyfriend is laughable. But Sheridan is convinced finding her mom will solve all her problems—only her dad’s about to get a cooking show in New York, which means her dream of a perfect family will be dashed. Using just the right amount of romance, family drama, and cute boys, The Sweetest Thing will entice fans with its perfect mixture of girl-friendly ingredients.It's always exciting to see a wonderful book make its way into the world, especially when there was such a group effort in the publication process--and particularly when that book introduces readers to an author who is as bright a talent as Christina.Pick up your copy today!
I'm thrilled to show off the brand spanking new title and cover for Book I in Matt Myklusch's Jack Blank Adventures, now titled The Accidental Hero. If you didn't have a chance to read the story in hardcover, fear not, for the book hits the shelves in paperback TODAY!I'm planning a later post on books for boys, but in the meantime, if you're interested in reading the sort of book that immediately caught my eye and serves as a solid indication of the sort of story I'm interested in representing, do yourself a favor and pick this story up! I love this story and think you will, too.Here, for your clicking enjoyment, are a few useful links:
Here at Upstart Crow, few events make us happier than when our clients' books appear out in the world. That really is the ultimate triumph—when the book is on shelves, awaiting the fancy of a passing reader. Making that debut all the sweeter is when the reviewers recognize the genius of the talent involved (for if the talent involved didn't partake of genius, we wouldn't be working with him or her, right?
Next month marks the publication of Kurt Cyrus's picture book The Voyage of Turtle Rex, and its first two reviews are in—both starred raves that recognize Kurt's singular talents as a writer and illustrator. The first is from Kirkus Reviews:
In a life-cycle arc paralleling the one in Cyrus’ Tadpole Rex(2008), a tiny prehistoric ancestor to modern sea turtles hatches from a buried egg, scuttles across a beach into the sea, survives multiple hazards to grow into a mighty two-ton Archelon and then in season returns to shore to lay a clutch of her own. Injecting plenty of drama into his beach and sunlit undersea scenes with sudden close-ups and changes of scale, the illustrator vividly captures the hatchling’s vulnerability as she passes with her sibs beneath a towering T. Rex only to discover a world of toothy predators beneath the ocean’s rolling surface. And even full grown, though she can glide unheeding past sharks and even plesiosaurs, an encounter with a mosasaur “massive and dark: / muncher of archelon, / gulper of shark” sends her sliding hastily down to concealment in the billowing bottom sands. Like its subject, the rhymed text moves with grand deliberation, carrying the primeval story line to a clever transition between that ancient era and ours: “Gone is that sea and the creatures it knew. / Archelon. Mosasaur. Pterosaur, too. / Gone is the plesiosaur’s clam-cracking smile… / but full-body helmets are still in style” as “shells of all fashions continue to girdle / the middle of many a tortoise and turtle.” Never has time travel been so easy or so immersive.
The second rave will appear in Publishers Weekly. They write:
In this companion to Tadpole Rex, a prehistoric turtle hatches on a "primeval beach" and slips beneath the waves. Cyrus's illustrations incorporate dramatic scale, movement, and majesty: the spreads are a marvel of lighting and texture, as swirling ocean and sky symbolize the passage of time ("The hatchling who hid in the seaweed was gone.../ grown to a two-ton archelon"). As the turtle treads the starlit sea after laying her eggs, Cyrus comments on species loss: "Gone is that sea and the creatures it knew./ Archelon. Mosasaur. Pterosaur, too./ Gone is the plesiosaur's clam-cracking smile.../ but full-body helmets are still in style." A moving and truly epic journey. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)
We couldn't be happier with the reception of Turtle Rex, and we think when you pick up the book you'll see why: This is a picture book creator at the top of his form as both a writer and an illustrator. Perfect for the young marine paleontologists in all of us.
Here at Upstart Crow, few events make us happier than when our clients' books appear out in the world. That really is the ultimate triumph—when the book is on shelves, awaiting the fancy of a passing reader. Making that debut all the sweeter is when the reviewers recognize the genius of the talent involved (for if the talent involved didn't partake of genius, we wouldn't be working with him or her, right?
Next month marks the publication of Kurt Cyrus's picture book The Voyage of Turtle Rex, and its first two reviews are in—both starred raves that recognize Kurt's singular talents as a writer and illustrator. The first is from Kirkus Reviews:
In a life-cycle arc paralleling the one in Cyrus’ Tadpole Rex(2008), a tiny prehistoric ancestor to modern sea turtles hatches from a buried egg, scuttles across a beach into the sea, survives multiple hazards to grow into a mighty two-ton Archelon and then in season returns to shore to lay a clutch of her own. Injecting plenty of drama into his beach and sunlit undersea scenes with sudden close-ups and changes of scale, the illustrator vividly captures the hatchling’s vulnerability as she passes with her sibs beneath a towering T. Rex only to discover a world of toothy predators beneath the ocean’s rolling surface. And even full grown, though she can glide unheeding past sharks and even plesiosaurs, an encounter with a mosasaur “massive and dark: / muncher of archelon, / gulper of shark” sends her sliding hastily down to concealment in the billowing bottom sands. Like its subject, the rhymed text moves with grand deliberation, carrying the primeval story line to a clever transition between that ancient era and ours: “Gone is that sea and the creatures it knew. / Archelon. Mosasaur. Pterosaur, too. / Gone is the plesiosaur’s clam-cracking smile… / but full-body helmets are still in style” as “shells of all fashions continue to girdle / the middle of many a tortoise and turtle.” Never has time travel been so easy or so immersive.
The second rave will appear in Publishers Weekly. They write:
In this companion to Tadpole Rex, a prehistoric turtle hatches on a "primeval beach" and slips beneath the waves. Cyrus's illustrations incorporate dramatic scale, movement, and majesty: the spreads are a marvel of lighting and texture, as swirling ocean and sky symbolize the passage of time ("The hatchling who hid in the seaweed was gone.../ grown to a two-ton archelon"). As the turtle treads the starlit sea after laying her eggs, Cyrus comments on species loss: "Gone is that sea and the creatures it knew./ Archelon. Mosasaur. Pterosaur, too./ Gone is the plesiosaur's clam-cracking smile.../ but full-body helmets are still in style." A moving and truly epic journey. Ages 4–8. (Apr.)
We couldn't be happier with the reception of Turtle Rex, and we think when you pick up the book you'll see why: This is a picture book creator at the top of his form as both a writer and an illustrator. Perfect for the young marine paleontologists in all of us.
A great article to add to your weekend reading pile: An interview in Poets & Writers, in which Gabriel Cohen talks to John B. Thompson about this book (titled Merchants of Culture: The Publishing Business in the Twenty-First Century) and his views of the publishing industry today.The article touches on everything from technology to chain stores to the roles of the key players in the industry, but my favorite part was probably the one in which Thompson discusses the technological fallacy, or the assertion that technology—not people—is the driving source of change in the publishing industry. Here's what Thompson had to say about it:"What they miss is that publishing is a complex field of actors and players and agents who are human beings actively involved in content—and that readers are human beings who have their own tastes and preferences. Technology isn’t just an independent variable that drives through all that come hell or high water. It’s part of a complex social process."I also loved his thoughts on whether authors "publishing" their books online will somehow bring about the downfall of the jobs of publishers, agents, and editors:"There’s a very big difference between “publishing” in the sense of making something publicly available, on the one hand, and publishing in the sense of getting readers to notice it, read it, buy it, discuss it, and so on. Any author can post anything online, but that doesn’t mean that anyone is going to pay attention to it. That’s where the role of publishers remains absolutely vital—they play a fundamental role in bringing content to the attention of others, of publicizing it, of marketing it."You can read the full article here. And feel free to share your thoughts. Anything about the article you loved? Anything you disagreed with? Anything in particular that scares you about the fate of the future of book publishing?Happy reading, and have a great weekend.
Great news! We learned today that Jacqueline West's THE SHADOWS has won a Cybil in the category of favorite middle grade fantasy & science fiction. What are the Cybils, you ask? From the official Cybils website (where you can view all the winners), "The Cybils awards are given each year by bloggers for the year's best children's and young adult titles... [that] combined literary merit with kid appeal." We're so happy bloggers chose to give this great award to Jacqueline's book!We must also acknowledge Sandra Stiles, a blogger who runs the website The Musings of A Book Addict; Sandra nominated THE SHADOWS and posts loads of great reviews on her site. Thanks so much, Sandra!And there's more BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE news, too! THE SHADOWS is also a finalist for a Minnesota Book Award in the Young People's Literature category, and was named to the Texas Bluebonnet Award master list for 2011-2012. We're so, so excited!
One last thing: As many of you know, Olive & company's adventures don't end in THE SHADOWS. There will be at least five volumes, starting next July with Vol 2: SPELLBOUND. Here's a look at the cover. Isn't it just gorgeous?Stay tuned for more exciting news!
I have to be honest: I always breathe a huge sigh of relief when we close our query lines in December. Finally, I think, a chance to catch up! But after a couple of weeks in a query-less world, I get twitchy with anticipation and anxious to dig in once again. Thus, I always approach the re-opening of our query lines with a sense of hope and a certain amount of nervousness. Not unlike, I suppose, many writers who are about to submit their work to agents feel as they pause, scanning their query letter one last time before clicking “send.”
As you probably know, we re-opened our query lines last week. Perhaps you’ve just sent out your first-ever round of queries to agents. Or perhaps you’re on your second or third round of queries, having made tweaks and revisions to your query letter and novel based on previous feedback from agents and writers. Whether you’re a first-timer or a veteran, you most likely log into your email each day, nervous yet hopeful that you’ll get a response or two from the agents you’ve queried.On my side of things, I log into my query box every day (or every couple of days), nervous yet hopeful that I will find the project—the one that will keep me up all night reading, the one that is so beautifully written that I will follow my husband around the house reading it aloud to him (as I am apt to do when I really love something), the one that I can pitch to editors with the utmost confidence and enthusiasm—basically, a project I can shout to the world about (and I’m happy to report that I’ve signed several such projects lately).That said, in order to find that one project that I can’t live without, I have to read—and let go of—plenty of manuscripts. How many, you ask? At last glance, I had just over 150 queries in my inbox. Out of those queries, some will show great potential, but will need more work before I can consider signing them. Some will be great, but just not right for me. And some of them just won’t be very good.Once all is said and done, about three out of the 150 queries in my inbox will excite me enough that I’ll request a full manuscript. That’s right—three.Look, I know this sounds dismal. I know that rejections are an unpleasant part of the submissions process (hey, don’t forget—agents get rejections, too!), and I know it’s discouraging to receive several rejections in a row, or not to hear back at all. And after awhile, it’s difficult for a writer not to take it personally. But as you go about your submissions process, remember that I’m not reading through queries looking for reasons to reject you; I'm reading with the hope that I will find a project I love. And that’s what other agents are doing, too.So what can you do while you’re waiting to hear back? Keep writing (every day, even if it’s only a couple hundred words). Keep networking. Keep researching and querying more agents. And keep asking questions. If you have any questions about the querying process, the reading process, etc., shout ‘em out in the comments section.Finally: Don’t give up. I’ll see you in the query box!
This week saw the debut of Vesper, the constantly surprising, un-put-down-able first entry in Jeff Sampson's thrilling new paranormal teen trilogy, Deviants, from HarperCollins Children's Books/Balzer + Bray. It's got a sexy cover, a spiffy design, and the stewardship of a great editor. A happy ending all around.But this novel has had a long route to publication, and so its appearance on bookshelves is especially sweet. In a much different form—as a novel entitled, I believe, Wildeside—it was purchased for the Mirrorstone imprint of Wizards of the Coast. It was revised, edited, and scheduled. But before it could be published, Mirrorstone was folded and WotC became again focused on Dungeons & Dragons. (Roll those polyhedral dice, Nina!)Then Jeff found a new agent, and the novel was again revised and edited. And then it sold at auction and was again revised and edited. During those years it went from being called Wildeside to The Savage Files to The Vesper Files to The Life and Death of Emily Cooke, until at last it was retitled Vesper, and Jeff again revised to more seamlessly work the title origin into the text, and now it is there, in stores, waiting for you to go and buy it for the teen in your life (or for yourself—go on, it's okay).I've already written about this novel on Goodreads, where I described it as "a kind of mix of Westerfeld and Heroes (when it was good) and Veronica Mars, but entirely its own beast." And then I got all philosophical-like. To wit:"Of late, the teen genre paranormal romances announce themselves as such, with the single element the author is playing with brayed about on the cover. Bored by Wolves! or Fairy Tail or Angel Boy or what-have-you. Such books are all about cashing in by being as obvious as possible. Want paranormal romance? Here's a vampire angel zombie you can really love! You know you're reaching the nadir of a trend when mere labeling is enough to make a book a success.""Which is one of the most refreshing things about Vesper. There are genre elements in here, but they're not the ones you expect, and they're not being used in a manner you'll expect. Sampson has bigger aims than mere sort-of-boy-meets-sort-of-girl, and one of the novel's many joys is just how often you realize that you don't quite know what in tarnation is going on.""And the book is written with a crispness that is increasingly rare in this genre—Sampson isn't one to linger forever on a boy's steely gaze, the line of his jaw, his rock hard head (er, abs), etc.—those sorts of calculatedly gooey details that basically make so much of today's teen paranormal romance come off as soft porn for thirteen-year-olds. Instead, he's got a story to tell. And it's a doozy of a page-turner. The only disappointment is that when it is over we realize it is only the first entrant in a story that is much larger."Congratulations, Jeff, from all of us here at Upstart Crow Lit. It's nice to at last see Emily Dub out in the world, fighting the good fight and winning over readers coast to coast.