Showing posts with label Lisa Gail Green. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Lisa Gail Green. Show all posts

Monday, December 9, 2013

THE HOBBIT QUIZ AND GIVEAWAY


In celebration of the release of THE HOBBIT: THE DESOLATION OF SMAUG on December 13th, we here at the Inkpot (HOBBIT loving fans ourselves!) have a quiz to test your knowledge of the book, and refresh your memory before the big release! 

We will choose 5 winners and each winner will receive a signed copy of a book from an Enchanted Inkpot Author! And come back tomorrow, as we discuss how our books are like THE HOBBIT in a very fun post!
And here are thirteen Questions, one for each Dwarf, and because the movie comes out on December 13th:


1. What is Bilbo’s mother’s name?  
2. What was the rumor about the Tooks? 
3. How many are in the company, and of what races?   
4. What does Bilbo decide to call 
his sword?
5. What is the color of Bilbo’s Sword when enemies are close?
6. Where does the company first encounter the Elves?
7. What is the riddle that Bilbo stumps Gollum with? 
8. What mountain are the Dwarves trying to reclaim? 
9. Who discovers the Arkenstone? 
10. What special item does Thorin give to Bilbo from the treasure, that is featured again in LOTR? 
11. Who kills Smaug? 
12. After Smaug is defeated, what two races might go to war with the Dwarves over the treasure?
13. Who takes the Arkenstone from Thorin?

The first five people to get all questions right win! (Hint - if you're stumped, the answer to some of the questions may be found in our Hobbit read along posts of last year) You will be asked to pick your first, second and third choice from one of the following books (in alphabetical order by author) donated by Inkpot members. The book will be signed by the author and mailed to you. Good Luck - and remember to come back tomorrow!

THE LAST KNIGHT, by Hilari Bell 
Need a Hero? You've got one in Sir Michael Sevenson. Although there hasn't been a knight errant in over two hundred years, this young noble has decided to revive the trade. He's found himself a reluctant partner in Fisk, a clever rogue who has been given the choice of serving as Michael's squire or going to jail for a very long time. Now Michael and Fisk are on a quest to right wrongs, protect the innocent, and make the world a happier place. It's not going to be easy. On their first attempt at rescuing a damsel in distress, they break a lady out of a tower, only to discover she was there for good reason: awaiting trial for poisoning her husband. Now the would-be heroes must find Lady Ceciel and return her to justice or be condemned themselves

TEXTING THE UNDERWORLD, by Ellen Booraem: 
A Kirkus Starred Review
.
Conor O’Neill always thought spiders—and his little sister, Glennie—were the worst kind of monsters life had in store. That was before an inexperienced young banshee named Ashling showed up in his bedroom. The arrival of a banshee, as Conor soon learns, means only one thing: Someone in his family is going to die. Not only will Ashling not tell him who it is, it turns out that she’s so fascinated by the world above that she insists on going to middle school with him. The more Ashling gets involved in his life, the harder it becomes to keep her identity a secret from his friends and teachers—and the more Conor worries about his family. If he wants to keep them safe, he’s going to have to do the scariest thing he’s ever done:  Pay a visit to the underworld. If only there were an app for that.

THE EXCEPTIONALS, by Erin Cashman 
A Bank Street College of Education Best Book of The Year, 2013
In a famous family of exceptionally talented people, fifteen-year-old Claire Walker is ordinary . . . or so she leads everyone to believe. Yet the minute she steps out of line, her parents transfer her to Cambial Academy: the prestigious boarding school that her great-grandfather founded for students with supernatural abilities, or “specials”. Although Claire can’t see ghosts or move objects with her mind like the other students, she does have a special she considers too lame to admit: she can hear the thoughts of animals. Just as she is settling in, one by one the most talented students – the Exceptionals – go missing. After years of ignoring her special gift, Claire decides the time has come to embrace her ability . . . before it’s too late.


WITCHLANDERS, by Lena Coakley 
A high fantasy full of swords, snow monsters, and singing magic. Kirkus, School Library Journal, and Publisher's Weekly Starred Reviews. High in their mountain covens, red witches pray to the Goddess, protecting the Witchlands by throwing the bones and foretelling the future. It’s all a fake. At least, that’s what Ryder thinks. He doubts the witches really deserve their tithes—one quarter of all the crops his village can produce. And even if they can predict the future, what danger is there to foretell, now that his people’s old enemy, the Baen, has been defeated? But when a terrifying new magic threatens both his village and the coven, Ryder must confront the beautiful and silent witch who holds all the secrets. Everything he’s ever believed about witches, the Baen, magic and about himself will change, when he discovers that the prophecies he’s always scorned— Are about him.

CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS, by Miriam Foster
Nisha was abandoned at the gates of the City of a Thousand Dolls when she was just a child. Now sixteen, she lives on the grounds of the isolated estate, where orphan girls apprentice as musicians, healers, courtesans, and, if the rumors are true, assassins. Nisha makes her way as Matron’s assistant, her closest companions the mysterious cats that trail her shadow. Only when she begins a forbidden flirtation with the city’s handsome young courier does she let herself imagine a life outside the walls. Until one by one, girls around her start to die. Before she becomes the next victim, Nisha decides to uncover the secrets that surround the girls’ deaths. But by getting involved, Nisha jeopardizes not only her own future in the City of a Thousand Dolls—but her own life. 

 THE BINDING STONE, by Lisa Gail Green 
Tricked into slavery by the man she loved, the Djinni Leela has an eternity to regret her choices.

Awakened in the prison of her adolescent body, she finds a new master in possession of the opal that binds her. But seventeen-year-old Jered is unlike any she's seen. His kindness makes Leela yearn to trust again, to allow herself a glimmer of hope. 
Could Jered be strong enough to free her from the curse of the Binding Stone?


THE EMERALD TABLET, by PJ Hoover
Benjamin is different from other kids—he can read minds and use telekinesis. But it isn’t until he’s sent to summer school on a hidden, underwater continent that he learns the truth. 

It turns out, Benjamin isn’t really human at all—and the powers he thought made him special, just make him normal. But then the mysterious Emerald Tablet chooses him as its champion and he’s thrust into a mission to save the world.




Thanks for entering and see you tomorrow!

Monday, July 15, 2013

Refueling Your Inspiration



Let’s be honest – we don’t have great ideas all the time. In fact, sometimes we don’t have any ideas. Other work gets in the way, with all those memos and meetings, or with the digging and polishing, the measuring and pouring. Then there are the dishes, the school concerts, the potlucks for the community soccer team, and the back of the fridge in need of cleaning. (Actually, there might be some great inspiration there for pandemic infections.) Sometimes the many demands of the real world can get in the way of imagining fresh ones.

Or sometimes, after writing several stories, we begin to think all our ideas are gone. Used up. Every time we put something on the page, it seems stupid or silly. It seems to have been said a million times already. We end up staring at the ceiling, which is as blank as the page on the screen.

What to do? Here are some answers from a few Inkies, as well as some story starters to help spark a few ideas.

To start with, when I need inspiration, I read fairy tales and folklore. Also, I read nonfiction books and articles, anything full of cultural details and individual stories. I especially like letter collections. I walk or run to clear my head. I amble around and take photographs.

William Alexander: “I have a very simple refueling trick. If my typing slows to a trickle, I turn off the computer and start scribbling in my notebook. If I run out of ink (metaphorically or literally), I switch back to the keyboard. Chocolate also helps.”

Lisa Gail Green: “The best fuel for me, when I seem to be writing stale, is reading a good book. It's really the best medicine and I find myself recharged and ready to go.”

P.J. Hoover: “I find that chatting about the story, even topically, with friends (not only writing friends), can really help kick start ideas. Also, simple brainstorming techniques like writing words that come to mind about a certain subject can really help get creativity going and help me avoid the clichés.”

Keely Parrack: “I find reading a huge help, preferably something really well written that has nothing to do with whatever I'm working on. I just read The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman and Her Fearful Symmetry (both of which let me escape into totally different worlds. And today I spent two hours working really productively on a pb while my kids went to the movies – another great refueling trick - coffee and limited time!

“Also just get out, go to a movie, visit an art gallery, walk in a cemetery - all opportunities to let your mind wonder and be inspired by new experiences. And if you can, travel is brilliant for helping you see everything with a fresh lens!”

Any ideas to add? What are some ways you refuel?

For those of you who could use a bit of a nudge this week, try some of the story starters below:
  • I saw it sideways, out of the corner of my eye. But it couldn’t have been there. Impossible.
  •   In the last two years, here’s what I’ve determined: lots of people in New York go to church on Sunday; lots sleep in. Mike and I found the perfect middle ground and meet for pizza. Sure, maybe both of us will end up in hell, but life will taste good until we get there. 
  • The light was a shade of, blue? Green? It was gray, or maybe something without a name. I reached toward it. 
  • The present he’d given her wasn’t entirely what she’d expected. In fact, it wasn’t what she’d expected at all.
  • Spring didn’t come, nor did summer. Four feet of snow at the end of July.
  • She opened up her mouth, and all that rose out of her was birdsong.
  • She wasn’t a witch, exactly. At least, that’s what she told everyone.
  • It had no power source: I was certain of that. Yet the metal form began to rise.

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Embarrassed by the Shamelessness

So apparently its been like a month since I did a Shameless Saturday post. WHAT IS WRONG WITH ME?  I swear I'm losing my marbles, on deadline for this new book.

Whatever.  I'm here now, right?  DOESN'T THAT COUNT FOR SOMETHING???

On with it.

Book Expo America 2013 is rapidly approaching, and several Inkies will be in attendance. Lisa Amowitz will be signing BREAKING GLASS at the Spencer Hill Pres booth #2567 on Thursday, May 30th at 9:00am.  Dawn Metcalf will be stopping by the Harlequin Teen booth #1238 on Thursday, May 30th.  Amy Butler Greenfield will be at Simon & Schuster's blogger preview party Tuesday night, May 28th.  And I will be signing copies of 3:59 at Table 12 in the autographing area Thursday, May 30th at 10:30am.  Yeah, BEA is going to be nuts!

We've got a cover reveal!!!

The cover and title for the sixth book in Scholastic's INFINITY RING series has been released. BEHIND ENEMY LINES by Jennifer Nielsen, takes our heroes, Dak, Sera, and Riq into the heart of World War 2 where they must help the allies succeed with a most dangerous spy plan that will either chance the course of the war, or else destroy any hope for victory and freedom. It will be released on November 26, 2013.  Wanna see?


In addition, Jennifer's THE FALSE PRINCE is a double 2013 Whitney Award winner for Best Middle Grade Book of 2013 and also Best Overall Youth Book of 2013. In addition, it is a nominated title for Yalsa's Teens' Top Ten books!  Phew.  That's a lot of news!!!!

Speaking of awards, both THE CABINET OF EARTHS by Anne Nesbet and THE EXCEPTIONALS by Erin Cashman are on the Bankstreet Best Children's Books of the Year list, 2013 edition! Plus, Lena Coakley's Witchlanders was named an Honour Book for Canada's White Pine Award at the Forest of Trees, Festival of Reading, Canada's largest children's literature festival. And Goodreads named Amy Butler Greenfield's CHANTRESS one of its top 6 "Movers and Shakers" for May YA releases. Plus there's a swag and finished copy giveaway running at thoughtsandroses.blogspot.com this week.

We've got some great news for brand news books here at the Inkpot. Ellen Booraem’s TEXTING THE UNDERWORLD, due out in August, got its first journal review—and it has a star attached! Noting that the book has death as its major theme, Kirkus Reviews said:
“Booraem applies a light touch to her heavy subject . . . . But she doesn’t avoid staring death in the face, saddling her likably unlikely hero with an agonizing decision that, though framed in fantasy, is all too gut-punchingly real. Like Conor, readers will emerge from this adventure a little better equipped for heroism.”
Makes me want to snatch it up!

On the announcement side of things, new Inkie Katherine Catmull and three other middle-grade authors, Stefan Bachmann, Claire Legrand, and Emma Trevayne, have been posting creepy/spooky/unnerving short-short pieces at EntertheCabinet.com since January 1. This week Greenwillow Books (HarperCollins) announced that they will publish a collection of the stories, tentatively titled THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, in summer 2014.

And on the debut side of things, Lisa Gail Green's THE BINDING STONE (the first book in the Djinn series) is now available on Amazon!

Lisa also has amazing blurbs from both Nancy Holder and Lisa Desrochers!
"I dream of Lisa Gail Green! The Binding Stone is magical in so many ways. My Djinn asks for my third wish? The sequel, of course!" - NYT bestselling author Nancy Holder

"Genies like you’ve never seen them, THE BINDING STONE is a wild ride of treachery and deception. For my first wish, I’d like a sequel, please." - PERSONAL DEMONS author Lisa Desrochers
Rock on.

See what happens when I forget to post?  Things get crazy.

Saturday, January 12, 2013

Happy Shameless New Year!!!

2012 was a banner year for the Inkpot - releases, awards, new book sales, critical acclaim.  How can we possibly top that?

Our bi-monthly shameless posts will show you!!!!

Case in point, or first shameless post of 2013 is just chuck full of awesomeness.  Don't believe me?  Take a look!

Starting off with a bang, featuring the cover release for Dawn Metcalf's INDELIBLE, he first in a new series from Harlequin Teen, which will hit shelves July 2013!


There's a new blog on the scene for 2013!  Lisa Amowitz, along with author Michelle McLean, has founded the new Scene 13 blog to showcase and highlight 2013 releases. In total there are 29 members including Inkies Lena Goldfinch, PJ Hoover, Ellen Booraem, Lisa Gail Green and Hilari Bell.

Speaking of Lisa Gail Green, she recently announced her 2013 debut THE BINDING STONE, the first in her Djinn series. Check back here for more updates!

We love collaborative Inkie efforts here in the Inkpot, so we're proud as punch about all the rave reviews for DIVERSE ENERGIES, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology featuring works by Cindy Pon and Ellen Oh.  Here are the latest reviews:

from VOYA:
Teen angst in the future makes for a very popular genre and this well-written collection should prove popular if promoted to the The Hunger Games or Divergent series crowd.

from Publisher's Weekly:
While there's not a single misfire in this anthology, particular works stand out. Ellen Oh's "The Last Day" takes place in a world torn apart by a decades-long war...and Cindy Pon's "Blue Skies" is almost painful in its longing for escape. Not only do these stories feature racially diverse casts, set all over the world or in space, some have gay and lesbian protagonists, giving readers plenty with which to identify.
Amazing!

More accolades for Anne Nesbet's THE CABINET OF EARTHS which appears on the Chicago Public Library's "Best of the Best" list for 2012 and is a Finalist for the 2012 Cybils award for Fantasy & Science Fiction (Middle Grade), along with Jennifer Nielsen's wonderful book, THE
FALSE PRINCE.

And to top it all off, Shannon Hale just put THE CABINET OF EARTHS on her list of "'Girl'
books that boys love"!

Which dovetails into our big finale here with perhaps the most exciting news of all. Paramount Pictures has announced it has contracted with Bryan Cogman, story editor for HBO's GAME OF THRONES series, to adapt the screenplay for Jennifer Nielsen's THE FALSE PRINCE.  HBO?  GAME OF THRONES?  OH MY GOD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

See?  2013 is going to give 2012 a run for it's money...  :)

Saturday, June 16, 2012

Pour on the Shamelessness

You know, us Inkies get around.  Last weekend, we descended about New York City for BEA 2012, with signings, meet and greets and cocktail parties galore.  I had an amazing turn out for my signing of TEN, and Grace Lin's upcoming middle grade novel STARRY RIVER OF THE SKY was part of the middle grade buzz panel!  Which is pretty rad.

Next week?  It's Anaheim's turn for ALA 2012!

Cindy Pon has both a panel AND a signing at ALA.  The Not Another Boring Vampire Romance: Going Beyond the Norm in YA Paranormal Fiction will be led by the fabulous librarian, Angei Manfredi where Cindy will be joined by Kendare Blake, Jackson Pearce and Kenneth Oppel.
Saturday, June 23, 8-10am in the Anaheim Convention Center, Room 209B.

Then from 12.30-1.30pm, Cindy will be signing along with Tahereh Mafi at the HarperCollin’s Booth 2558. Cindy will be signing BOTH Silver Phoenix paperbacks as well as Fury of the Phoenix hardcovers.

Nancy Holder is also signing at ALA: 1:00 – 2:00 PM, in the Simon & Schuster (Booth #2600-2601).  And don't forget Robin LaFevers,1pm Saturday at the Houghton Mifflin Booth!

I'll be at ALA as well, roaming around the convention floor Saturday June 23rd.  No signings for me (boo hoo) however, I will be doing a special TEN giveaway.  BUT YOU HAVE TO FIND ME AT ALA TO WIN!  Details coming on my blog next week.

We've got a huge cover reveal coming up next week.  Ellen Oh's PROPHECY reveal will be hosted by the YA Book Central on Monday, June 18th at noon EST.  Don't miss it!

A couple of weeks again, we announced that William Alexander got an amazing blurb from Ursula Le Guin for his upcoming release GOBLIN SECRETS, and now Ursula herself is blogging about the book.  Yes, that scream your heard just now?  Inkie fan girl/boy screams from around the country.

Speaking of blurbs, Miriam Forster has two to share for her upcoming debut CITY OF A THOUSAND DOLLS:
"A truly unique treasure, Forster's debut is storytelling at its best. With a chilling mystery, a forbidden romance, and delightful characters I fell in love with, I wanted to spend more time in the City of a Thousand Dolls." —Elana Johnson, author of Possession

"With fantastic world building and a wonderful heroine, City of a Thousand Dolls intrigued me from the first page. Forster took me on a fascinating journey full of twists and turns--I can't wait for the sequel!" --Cindy Pon, author of Silver Phoenix
Lastly, Lisa Gail Green has two short stories out in the new anthology JOURNEYS OF WONDER on sale only at Amazon.com now! $.99 or free through the Amazon Prime lending library.

Monday, May 28, 2012

TOTW: Shades of Genius

As readers, many of us can point to the book or story that cemented us in the would-rather-read-than-eat category of humans (mine was my older brother's copy of Trixie Belden's Mystery at Mead's Mountain when I was five or six). As writers, I wondered if we had that same type of experience, where we scribble a few sentences and think That's it. This is what I'm going to do with my life. I rule.

Turns out, pretty much yeah.


Lena Coakley

When I was in junior high school I wrote a very earnest, very looooong play called Phaeton's Chariot of the Sun. It was about an ancient but advanced civilization on the island of Atlantis. When the island gets destroyed in a nuclear power accident, only a scholar and his daughter are left to rail about the dangers of nuclear power as they sail away from the sinking island in their little boat.

Ouch! Just writing the synopsis makes me wince-but at the time I thought it was utterly brilliant. I think it was the first time I wrote something that gave me that thrill of accomplishment all of us writers are addicted to.


Keely Parrack

The first time people told me I could write, at school, I guess I was about 13/14 and we used to have to write stories from prompts - actually I think it was part of the English exams. I wrote one about a ghost looking out at the sea from a window and remembering her youth, another about the end of the world when a guy woke in an alley way to discover he was the last person left in the world, and another on an old bed ridden man living out the remains of his days in a haunted bedroom.

Guess I was a fun child LOL - too bad it took me several decades to try again!


Ellen Booraem

The first story I remember writing was, I think, when I was seven. It was a day in the life of a Mexican cat. (I lived in Massachusetts, mind you, and had never been south of Maryland. I did have a cat, so I had that going for me.) As I recall, there was an evil dog involved. Also tortillas.


Anne Nesbet

I wrote a lot of stories when I was little, most of them gloomy or ridiculous or both gloomy AND ridiculous, but my first actual real novel was called "Liz in Artland," written when I was 11, and it totally took over my brain for some months. I had the whole story all worked out: Liz was going to be sucked into a museum catalog and find herself in a world where paintings by Paul Klee and Marc Chagall and Vassily Kandinsky had all come to life! and where monsters in Surrea, the dreadfully scary land of the Surrealists, were about to destroy the Castle of the Mind! which would mean the end of all painting and drawing everywhere unless Liz could SAVE THE DAY!! Which she was totally going to do in a really dramatic scene involving filing cabinets! You know what? Just thinking about "Liz in Artland" still makes me happy.

In real life, what happened was I wrote the first thirty-five pages and then the story got worn in a rain boot, which was completely my own fault in a very complicated way, and some of it was destroyed, and that was the end of "Liz in Artland."


Lia Keyes

I got busted for autographing the flyleaf of my parents' books before I actually knew how to read and write.

Later I got busted for writing stories on the paper lining my parents' chests of drawers, the inside of cupboards, and other such things.

I bought an old typewriter with my pocket money at an antique fair when I was eleven and started writing a novel. Only no one ever told me to write what you know. I wrote a cowboy story about taming a wild horse. I was a London schoolgirl. What did I know about such things? But there was a cute boy in it. I knew about cute boys.


Jacqueline West

For the final unit of my sixth grade year, my language arts class was given blank hardcover books (oh, the delicious blankness!!!) to fill with our own fiction. I was deliriously excited about this, having not known that such a beautiful thing as blank hardcover books existed in the world, and I proceeded to write a giant, ridiculous fantasy tale involving a rebellious princess, an evil enchantress, a golden eagle and a crystal orb, etc., etc. My handwritten story was much too long to fit in the blank hardcover book, so I had to type it (on a typewriter, as these were pre-home-computer days; lots of Wite-Out was involved). Even typed and single-spaced, it was still too long to fit in the precious book, so I had to glue in extra pages to accommodate the words and illustrations--but at long last, my work was finished.

During the final week of school, the sixth graders all brought in our books and read one another's work, which was thrilling and terrifying. And then, on the very last day, when I went to the language arts classroom to bring my work home, I discovered that my book had disappeared. The teacher and I looked everywhere, but it was gone. Someone else had taken it. Of course, I was disappointed that something I'd worked so hard on had vanished...but even at the time, I remember thinking that it was pretty cool that one of my classmates had liked my (terrible) book enough to want to keep it for him- or herself.


Dawn Metcalf

The first full-length novel I wrote was called "The Eye of the Ancients"--it was 365 pages long and probably had an equal number of various characters and subplots. It was a rambling, cliched, mess of a first-draft quest story starring a female heroine, Galena, and I was incredibly proud of it. It was printed on enormous feed paper on a Commodore 64. I was 11 years old. I still have a copy to this day.


Lisa Gail Green

My first story was about a talking giraffe. I was seven, and my mother, the librarian, bless her, thought it was a masterpiece. Honestly though, it was her encouragement, legitimate or not (ahem) that gave me the confidence to go for it so many years later. :D I suspect she still has it. Let's hope it never mysteriously surfaces anywhere!


Leah Cypess

The first story I wrote, in first grade, was told from the point of view of an ice-cream cone being eaten. And my parents still DO have a copy of that one.

The first full book I wrote, in third grade, was about a girl who got trapped on a desert island with her faithful and loyal collie dog. It was basically a mash-up of The Black Stallion and Lassie. Only, a lot less sophisticated than that sounds. I hadn't quite mastered breaking text into paragraphs yet, so I figured I would have to hire someone to do that for me before I got it published.


Can you see the genius fairly sticking out of all these early masterpieces? For my own part, my first story was about a Very Friendly Monster who had to take over the class when the teacher ran away screaming at the sight of him. She had very little imagination (unlike me, obviously).

What about you all? Do you have special first stories that clearly marked the path you were to take? Please share!