Central Massachusetts Meetup

This is the first post-NESCBWI meetup!

We'll be meeting at The Devens Grill (http://www.devensgrill.com/) in Devens, MA on May 29, 2012 at 7:30 p.m. It has a nice little bar and an outside patio if it's warm.

The owner was lovely and very excited about us coming!

As always, authors, illustrators, agents, editors, librarians, etc. are welcome! A chance to come together and chat about writing, reading, illustrating, and the children's writing industry.

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It was nice yesterday in Massachusetts. But it's raining today. And it rained every day before yesterday for about a week. It's been raining or overcast for a long time. Not quite seven years, but the rain makes me feel blah after a day or two.

I know a lot of you have read Ray Bradbury's All Summer In A Day. But if you're not familiar with it - here's an excerpt. It's a fantastic story, written over 50 years ago. Google it and read it in it's entirety. It's only 2000 words. It's how I feel today. And I wish it was stopping.

The children pressed to each other like so many roses, so many weeds, intermixed, peering out for a look at the hidden sun.

It rained.

It had been raining for seven years; thousand upon thousands of days compounded and filled from one end to the other with rain, with the drum and gush of water, with the sweet crystal fall of showers and the concussion of storms so heavy they were tidal waves come over the islands. A thousand forests had been crushed under the rain and grown up a thousand times to be crushed again. And this was the way life was forever on the planet Venus, and this was the schoolroom of the children of the rocket men and women who had come to a raining world to set up civilization and live out their lives.

“It’s stopping, it’s stopping!”

A Spy Like Me by Laura Pauling

In celebration of the official release of A Spy Like Me, Laura Pauling is hosting a three-week blog series: A Spies, Murder and Mystery Marathon. Woot! Woot!

Authors galore, guest posts and book giveaways almost every day!

Gemma Halliday, Cindy M. Hogan, Elizabeth Spann Craig,
Nova Ren Suma, Elisa Ludwig, and Anne R. Allen....Just to name a few!

And here's why she's celebrating!

Stripping your date down to his underwear has never been so dangerous.

After dodging bullets on a first date, Savvy must sneak, deceive and spy to save her family and friends and figure out if Malcolm is one of the bad guys before she completely falls for him.

Amazon ~ Barnes & Noble ~ Smashwords

Head on over to Laura’s blog for the start of the Spies, Murder and Mystery Marathon. You won’t want to miss this sizzling series as we head into summer. Stock up on some great thrilling reads! If you dare…

Timeless (YA Anthology)

I am so excited and proud to announce that the short story I cowrote with my writing partner, Ansha Kotyk, has been selected to appear in the June 2012 anthology Timeless, coming out from Pugalicious Press.

The story is called Stella's Hero and is set in 1892 Boston between the garment district and Chinatown. We are in great company--see the announcement, here.

Thanks to the editors, Joyce Shor Johnson and Jennifer Carson, for believing in our piece.

Me and Ansha in summer 2011