Whoohoo!

Guess who just blew into town?!?

and she’s here

to take care of a few things.

Billie Wisher’s daddy isn’t a no-good bank robber . . . is he?

Billie’s daddy is on the run. If the police catch him, it’s off to Pendleton Penitentiary for sure. And she just got him back, after he spent years away in California. She had big plans for the summer–plans that won’t be any fun without Daddy.

It must all be a mistake. Daddy didn’t mean to rob that bank. If Billie finds him before the cops do, she can help him put everything right. She has an idea where he might be holed up. But Mama keeps asking what she’s up to, and BIllie’s new stepfather, Daddy Joe, is always around, poking his nose in her business.

With her family at stake, Billie’s determined to track Daddy down at all costs–but will anything turn out the way she expects?

Here’s the box

with the author copies.

I’d love to give a couple of signed copies away!

It’s so simple!

1. Comment on this post and let me know you’re in.
2. To get your name in twice, paste the link to this livejournal, or copy this post into you blog.
3. Wait until September 6th, when DS will draw the winners.

Thanks for playing along!

I’m playing,

From Fusenews: Rights, Radicals, and Rex, T. Nominations begin in September for the Thurber House writer-in-residence program. For more information, contact Patricia Shannon, Director of Children’s Programming, at pshannon [at] thurberhouse [dot] org.

Registration for Kindling Words East and West opens September 6, 2008. The East writers strand will feature Nancy Werlin. The West writers strand features Kathi Appelt.

The International Olympic committee has decided to strip a bronze medal from the wrestler who discarded medal expelled from Games. In his place I wouldn’t drop the medal on the mat, but I understand his frustration with the overtly inconsistent judging in almost every sport that has been televised.

Due to its well-publicized scoring scandals from the last games, the IOC claims to have cleaned up its judging act. The reality is, though, that Olympic judging has always been corrupt. Any time a sport is decided by a judge’s decision instead of direct competition, there will be some sort of favoritism.

But that isn’t the real problem here. It’s with the IOC itself. Georgia organizers claim that it took bribes to bring the ‘96 games to Atlanta. Others claim that took bribes to put the games in Barcelona, as well, and it’s obvious that the lure of money was more important in the choice of Beijing as a site than the Chinese government’s horrendous record of civil rights abuses. In return for the games, the Chinese government promised to give journalists freedom, to treat its own people fairly, and to live according to the rules of Olympic competition. Instead, the Chinese government menaced journalists, forced hotels to spy on foreign guests, bulldozed homes to clear them for sports venues, fouled its own air, and has the audacity to trot out a team of gymnasts whose physiological features indicate they are anywhere between 10-14 years of age (teeth don’t lie), not the minimum age of 16.

Does the IOC challenge any of this? No, they the wink and nod at the cheating, say ‘whoops’ about the broken human rights promises, then stuff their pockets with money and look for the next golden egg.

Maybe the next entity they ban should be themselves.

• Harry Keeps on Slipping, Slipping, Slipping, Into the Future - A Fuse #8 Production - Blog on School Library Journal
• mediabistro.com: GalleyCat: Isobelle Jade, the self-published model scored a deal with HC UK, sends info about “how to pitch your book when you’re broke….”
• EA disses science fiction: Editorial Anonymous
• At Brooklyn Arden, Cheryl Klein lists her favorite books on writing (I own three of them).
• Two sites for folks who like books: childrensbookreviews wiki and
  Bookscreening - Book Trailers, which, strangely, lacks the book trailer that this blogger called funny, upbeat, and promises an excellent read.

1. Julie Prince has posted an interview with me about Soul Enchilada at YA Books Central.
2. professornana has posted the first official review of Soul Enchilada. Excerpt: “Bug is no damsel in distress (and she would be the first to hit you upside the head for thinking that) but she cannot win without some assistance. Enter Pesto, not a swashbuckling Errol Flynn, but a thoughtful compatriot armed with some knowledge of the netherworld. El Paso and Hispanic culture meets West Texas hardscrabble landscape with more than a tad of humor. SOUL ENCHILADA is a tasty book.”
3. Publishers Weekly mentioned Bug Smoot in its Spring 2009 Sneak Previews
4. The novel is available for pre-order from independents such as Books Inc. and if you have to, Amazon.
5. I’m tired of talking about myself, so I’ll mention that this our last week with the boy before he goes off to college.  We’re planning to spend a few minutes together playing Rock Band (my birthday present from the family)  before he leaves, if he can manage to wake up before dinner time.

In all there were 25 excellent entries. The Teen Judges Three had a difficult task choosing just one heart to receive the prizes. Past members of award committees would admire the very serious way they went about the task of vetting the choices and then going behind closed doors to come to consensus about one heart.

Here are their comments about the winning entry:
“Congrats! I think your candy heart is amusing and creative. It took awhile to decide on the winning candy heart though. I enjoyed many of them.”
–Judge D.

“Congratulations!!!!! I loved your candy heart. I thought it was clever and amusing. I really enjoyed reading all of them, even the ones that didn’t win. It took awhile of debating back and forth and rereading to decide on the winner.
–Judge C. #1

“Ohmigosh, I love your candy heart. It was very creative and hilarious. I cracked up the first time I read it. I debated another heart but yours caught my attention. We decided on the Best!!”
–Judge C. #2

The envelope please.
Riiip.

The winning heart is:

Submitted by

afraclose at http://afraclose.livejournal.com/76994.html

CONGRATULATIONS!!!

Audio Rights: David Macinnis Gill’s SOUL ENCHILADA to Tim Ditlow at Brilliance Audio, at auction by Rosemary Stimola at Stimola Literary Studio.

After I sold SOUL ENCHILADA, the one thing I hoped for, thought would be totally, completely, awesomely awesome would be to hear the voice of my characters coming through the earbuds of my iPod.

And now…

This is a die cast 1:18 scale model of the 1958 Cadillac Biarritz with maroon exterior and cream-colored interior. It’s loaded with chrome, sports fancy white walls (which make enticing targets for rogue coyotes), and had a grill that would intimidate Beelzebub himself.

That means the person that the judges think has the best candy heart will receive both the signed ARC of Soul Enchilada and the model of the Cadillac Biarritz.

Reminder: The contest is open until July 31^st so there’s plenty of time to enter.

I got the idea for the first contest from something one of the characters in Soul Enchilada (SoulEnchilada.com) reads off of a warped fortune cookie: “If you love something, set it free before you have to pay child support.”

Here’s the candy heart I created with the phrase:

Now, let’s see what you can create!

To enter:

1. Create your own candy heart at http://www.cryptogram.com/hearts/ . Your heart can say anything you’d like. You are not limited to phrases from the ARC (since you haven’t read it).

2. Copy and paste this entire post–as well as the image of your candy heart–on your blog, Facebook, MySpace, website, etc.

3. Once you’ve completed #3, email me at davidmacinnisgill AT gmail.com with the link to your post. Voila! You’re entered in the giveaway.

4. The contest will be judged by three teen readers based on the criteria of originality, design, and message. The contest closes July 31st.

5. The prize is a personalized, signed ARC and a special gift, TDB by the judges. The winner will be contacted via email. Her/his name and winning entry candy heart will be posted on my lj blog, as well as my home site DavidMacinnisGill.com.

Good Luck!

After my last post, I meandered the labyrinth they call the ALA exhibit hall and once again, almost caved into the temptation to buy some modernesque bookshelves. They sell them in batches of 12, however, and since I only need one, I had to pass.

The bulk of my time was spent reuniting with the sales and marketing folks of sundry publishing houses. I took some photos, but they were universally useless due to my photographic dyseptitude, so I’ve stored the camera for the remainder of trip.

Anaheim weather: crips air, moderate temps, cool nights.  I can deal with this, since it was 101 degrees and 97% humidity the day before I left the east coast.  I was actually cold this AM as a I walked to breakfast.  Good thing I brought along my jacket/purse.

Last night was a lovely reception with Harper.  Saw several friends from ALAN and then went to dinner with the wonderful, wonderful, wonderful Greenwilow folks, Sid Fleischman and Kevin Henkes.  The food was to die for, and the conversation was better.  I’ve truly been blessed.  The ride home was courtesy of the most locquasious cabbie ever.  Wish I’d had a tape recorder–or less jetlag.

First order of business after the HC breakfast was the exhbit hall.  Whoa!  This thing is huge. Take a NCTE convention and at least double it, complete with interesting people selling bookshelves and furniture.  I don’t need to buy a hundred bookshevles, but they do have some nice stuff. Hmm.

Mary Pearson and Laurie Halse Anderson were signing at 10.  I snagged an autograph from Mary and took a quick (totally unstable) pic and went to find Laurie’s line.  Ha! It was andaconda-esque, thick and long enough to stretch around the corner.  Since I have line ADD, I’ll try for the next signing.

Unfortunately, I also missed a few signings I want to attend, due to jetlag and an overwhelming desire to take a nap. Once the nap was over, I trundled down to the Disney Grand Hotel, which mimics a California Arts & Crafts lodge, complete with plastic boulders in the lobby, and made my way to the Downtown Disney (where’s Uptown Disney?) for dinner with the lovely and talented folks from Candlewick. Tobin Anderson was the guest of honor, and I spent the evening in conversation with Goddess Teri Lesesne, past-Printz chair Cindy Dobrez and Candlewick publisher Karen Lotz. Conversation topics included Route 66, people in bunny suits, and snipers. The meal was, as always, terrific, and the company was unrivaled (Dr. O., I have something for you). Tobin Anderson is So. Damned. Smart.

After collecting a few galleys and signatures (including Nancy Viau’s Samantha Hansen Has Rock in Her Head. I read the first two chapters on the shuttle and am loving it.), I ventured over to the Marriott to hear the teen advisors for the BBYA Committee talk about their reading lists to a appreciative crowd (This is my first ALA, and I’ve been impressed with the way that the opinions of teens are honored. This is a very kid-friendly conference.), and I tell you what, these teens don’t hold back. If they love it, they LOOVE it. If they don’t love it, they tell you why in great detail. Though I didn’t always agree with all of their insights (’cuz, y’know, I’m not supposed to), I adored their candor. It’s great training for any YA author who wonders how teens respond to certain books and certain cover elements (hint: the cover better match the book). But don’t go if your book in on the list–unless you’re wearing body armor because a thick skin isn’t going to be enough.

Sunday ended with the huge banquet to celebrate the honor and award-winning books for the Newbery and Caldecott. I know professornana and halseanderson (who took pics of each other taking pics) will soon blog in great detail (Laurie has video), so I’ll limit my post to three things: sparkling silver shoes, moles removed by bears, and a heartfelt thank you to Greenwillow and HarperCollins for hosting me at this event for the first time. If you ever, ever get the chance to attend, take it.

Because I’m a rotten camera operator, I’m exhibiting the YouTube talents of Elizabeth Bird, who blogged ALA for SLJ.  This footage was taken before a reception for bloggers by Feiwel and Friends, followed by the Hyperion cocktail party.