Psst. Let’s Talk about Robert Lipsyte

Please join us tonight for an ALAN Online BookChat to dis­cuss Robert Lipsyte’s RAIDERS NIGHT. A sched­ule of future ALAN BookChats is avail­able at http://tinyurl.com/2l2qu5 Date: Wednes­day, 8/15/07 Time: 9:00 PM East­ern URL: http://alan-ya.org/bookchat/flashchat.php More about the novel: “The pres­sure is on. At Near­mont High School, foot­ball stars are treated like roy­alty, and Matt Rydek has just


An Open Note to the Bigheads on child_lit listerv

Despite your keen­ing whine that J.K. Rowl­ing is a deriv­a­tive, unimag­i­na­tive, bloated, xeno­pho­bic writer, when you and I are dead and buried, mil­lions will still be read­ing the Harry Pot­ter books.  Keep that in mind, will you? PS.  Does any­one know a recipe for mak­ing wine out of sour grapes?


Stop Me Before I Write Again

Check­list before start­ing next novel: POV Char­ac­ter?  Check Side­kick?  Check Vil­lain? Check Quirky sec­ondary char­ac­ters? Check Plot out­line?  Check Story Beat Sheet? Check Voice?  Check Premise?  Check Stakes?  Check Hmm.  What else am I missing?


Pick Laurie Halse Anderson’s TWISTED Brain

Please join us for an ALAN Online BookChat to dis­cuss TWISTED with the author, Lau­rie Halse Ander­son . Date: Wednes­day, 7/25/07 Time: 9:00 PM East­ern URL: http://alan-ya.org/bookchat/flashchat.php Here’s more about TWISTED: High school senior Tyler Miller used to be the kind of guy who faded into the background—average stu­dent, aver­age looks, aver­age dys­func­tional fam­ily. But


I Read It

That’s all I’m saying.


Useless Piece of Personal Potter Trivia

The third Pot­ter book was out before I read the first one, which I received in paper­back  as a give-away at the ALAN Break­fast.  After read­ing it on the plane home, I bought the other two books.  For Christ­mas, we bought a (at the time) com­plete sets for our fam­i­lies.  For books 4,5, and 6,


Poor Yamabushi: Kicked to the Curb Again

Over a year ago, I came up with the idea of set­ting a screw­ball mys­tery in Japan, dur­ing the fes­ti­val of set­subun (in which chil­dren run about in scary masks while pelt­ing folks with soy­beans). I entered a first chap­ter of Yam­abushi and the Seven Gods of Hap­pi­ness in the smart writ­ers con­test and man­aged