THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. on VPR’s Vermont Edition

For Vermont blog friends and other people who love Vermont… My interview with the delightful Jane Lindholm of Vermont Public Radio is scheduled to air on Vermont Edition today at noon and 7:00 PM.  Today’s topics are Vermont’s outdoor industry and THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z.

If you’re not lucky enough to get VPR over the radio, I’m told you’ll be able to check out the interview at the website after it airs.

And if you’ve found your way here from the broadcast, welcome!  If you’re looking for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. book club giveaway, you can click here for all the details. 

Hope everyone has a brilliant fall day!

Many things on a Monday…

I’ll be out and about signing books around the Adirondacks this weekend and would love to see you if you’re in the Plattsburgh or Glens Falls area.

Plattsburgh – Borders at Champlain Center Mall

Friday, October 2nd – 4-6 pm

Glens Falls – Dog Ate My Homework Bookstore on Glen St.- Joint signing with

!
Saturday, October 3rd – 4-6 pm

I’m particularly excited about this event because I get to hang out with my critique buddy Eric Luper, author of the gritty, action-packed YA novel BUG BOY, set in 1934 Saratoga.  The Glens Falls Post Star just ran a feature on our upcoming event with articles about both of our new books.

You can read the digital version here  (Eric’s article) and here (mine).

I love this review of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. from The Reading Zone, a blog written by a sixth grade teacher whose ideas I’ve followed and appreciated for a long time.  Reviews from teachers who are sharing my books with readers in their classrooms are extra special to me.

A reminder for teachers, librarians, & book club parents…  Have you entered THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. book club giveaway yet? If not, you can read all about it and enter here.  We’ll be drawing a winner for a complete GIANNA Z. book club package, including up to twelve copies of the novel, some tree identification guides, bracelets, bookmarks, & more. The deadline is October 15th.

Some more great contests going on in the kidlitosphere right now…

L.K. Madigan is having a photography contest to promote her amazing YA debut FLASH BURNOUT. It’s coming out in a month, and it’s right up there with some of my favorites.   Funny…poignant…and with a great teen voice.  Anyway…look for the book at your favorite indie in October, and check out the contest while you wait.

Jo Knowles is having a contest on her blog
to celebrate Banned Books Week.  Write a haiku about your feelings on censorship and banned books, and you’ll be entered to win a signed first edition of Jo’s recently challenged (and beautifully written) YA novel LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL.

I hope you read whatever you want this week – and celebrate your freedom to do so.

How They Got Here: 2009 Debut Author Pam Bachorz

This post is part of a year-long series of blog interviews I’ll be hosting with my fellow 2009 Debut Authors, called "How They Got Here." 

It should be an especially helpful series for teens who write, teachers, and anyone who wants to write for kids.  2009 debut authors will be dropping by to talk about how their writing in school shaped the authors they are today, what teachers can do to make a difference, how they revise, and how they found their agents and editors.  (You’ll even be able to read some successful query letters!)  If you know a teacher or two who might be interested, please share the link!

Today…Pam Bachorz, author of CANDOR!

I was lucky enough to read an advance reader copy of CANDOR (Egmont, 2009), a powerful YA novel about a "perfect town" where everything is far from perfect under the surface. Candor’s "messages" program teenagers to behave perfectly, but what happens when one stops listening?  What happens when a new message gets out there?  It’s a fantastic dystopian novel — one that would make a great discussion choice for book clubs and literature circles.  And without giving out any spoilers, I have to say that the ending of this book absolutely blew me away.  I’m pleased to welcome Pam to the blog today for an interview!

Welcome! What books did you love when you were a kid?

My mother and I shared the LM Mongtomery books together–Anne, Emily, Pat, Marigold, all of them. As I grew older, I fell in love with the Sunfire Romance series, and then Lois Duncan and all the other authors writing "creepy" YA at the time (Mildred Ames, anybody?).

Is there a particular teacher or librarian who was a mentor for you in your reading and writing life?

I was so lucky to have a number of teacher and librarian mentors in my life, and I thank a number of them in my CANDOR acknowledgments. In particular, my middle-school English teacher, Emily Adams, convinced me that I had talent–and that I still would have to write draft after draft before my stuff was good enough for publication. She died a number of years ago, and I’m so sad that I can’t send her a copy of CANDOR.

Moving on to the here and now, most writers admit that making time to write can sometimes be a challenge.  When and where do you write?   Do you have any special rituals?  Music?  Food & beverages?

I make a schedule every week for my writing, and post it on my study door. I also make goals for that time, such as writing 20 pages, outlining a third of the book, whatever. I do play a lot of music while I write, though sometimes I need total silence. I keep See’s hard chocolate lollipops and decaf green tea close at hand!

Do you have a favorite strategy for revision?

I love Holly Lisle’s One-Pass Revision method. Print your manuscript out and rip it to shreds with a pen–then enter it all in a computer. It stops me from the endless, addictive cycles of stopping in the middle of a manuscript and going back.

What’s your best advice for young writers?

Love your first drafts while you write them–but after that’s done, spend a ton of energy and time on making them better. Lots of writers, whether young or old, make the mistake of thinking their first effort on a story is brilliant. It never is!

What’s special about your debut novel?

CANDOR was inspired by the 6 years I spent living in a planned community in Florida. It’s filled with settings that were inspired by the town, and I tried hard to capture the feeling of living in a place like that.

How did you find your agent and/or editor?

A friend found my agent for me–she had posted on the Blue Boards that she was a new agent and was looking for people who had written smart YA fiction with a boy’s voice. But I hadn’t been checking the BB so I’m glad my friend was! My agent, thankfully, did the job of finding me my wonderful editor.

Thanks for joining us, Pam!

You can read more about Pam at her website (Check out the fabulous trailer for CANDOR while you’re there!) You can pick up your copy of CANDOR at your local independent bookseller, order it through one of my favorite indies, Flying Pig Bookstore (they ship!), or find an indie near you by checking out IndieBound!

Burlington Book Festival

So I’ve discovered that I really love panel discussions.

I was on a panel about Writing for Children and Young Adults at this weekend’s Burlington Book Festival, along with Jo Knowles, Linda Urban, Tanya Lee Stone, and Julie Berry.  I’m pretty sure I enjoyed listening to my fellow authors at least as much as the people in the audience.  We talked about writing process and outlining (turns out we are all "plungers" to one degree or another), book challenges, and the business of writing.


From left to right, that’s me, Jo Knowles, and Julie Berry in front, Linda Urban and Tanya Lee Stone in back.

It was also great to meet the people who came to see us — librarians and teachers and writers and readers. Thanks to everyone who came out — and especially my fellow panelists — for such a fantastic afternoon!

How They Got Here: 2009 Debut Author Jennifer Brown

This post is part of a year-long series of blog interviews I’ll be hosting with my fellow 2009 Debut Authors, called "How They Got Here." 

It should be an especially helpful series for teens who write, teachers, and anyone who wants to write for kids.  2009 debut authors will be dropping by to talk about how their writing in school shaped the authors they are today, what teachers can do to make a difference, how they revise, and how they found their agents and editors.  (You’ll even be able to read some successful query letters!)  If you know a teacher or two who might be interested, please share the link!

Today…Jennifer Brown, author of HATE LIST!

I had the good fortune to read an early copy of HATE LIST. Jennifer Brown’s YA novel about the aftermath of a school shooting, narrated by the shooter’s girlfriend and loaded with questions. The characterizations in this YA novel are some of the best I’ve ever read in any book for kids or adults. The characters, their motivations, and their responses to that awful thing that happened in the Commons on May 2nd all feel so very true and real that I had to keep reminding myself I was reading a work of fiction.

This is a story about high school and bullying, about stepping too close to lines and crossing over them.  And even though it’s also the story of a community’s worst nightmare, ultimately, it’s also a story about hope. Highly recommended…with a special note for teachers & librarians that this will make one heck of a compelling book club/literature circles choice. 

Welcome, Jennifer! Tell us about the first thing you ever wrote that made you think maybe you were a writer.

While I can remember writing short stories as far back as 2nd grade (and thinking writing was really cool), I probably didn’t start thinking of myself as a potential writer until high school. I took Creative Writing my junior year and did really well with it, even writing and illustrating a children’s story. The story was about a kid who’d eat nothing but pizza. And then one day, pizza just started falling from the sky and just covered everything, and the only way for this kid to get home from school was to eat his way home. It was written entirely in verse and was really (pardon the pun) cheesy. But my teacher’s young daughters declared it their favorite of the class, and I was really proud.

What books did you love when you were a kid?

The Ramona books, Runaway Ralph, the Fudge books… basically anything Beverly Cleary, and also Judy Blume. Boy, I wanted to be Judy Blume!

Is there a particular teacher or librarian who was a mentor for you in your reading and writing life?

My mom was a volunteer librarian when I was very young (preschool-aged), and she would take me to the library with her and park me on the floor behind the desk with stacks and stacks of pop-up books. That is what started me on the road to loving to read!

Moving on to the here and now, most writers admit that making time to write can sometimes be a challenge.  When and where do you write?   Do you have any special rituals?  Music?  Food & beverages?

Depends on what I’m writing. If I’m working on a column or a blog, I write at my kitchen table, on the laptop. But for my Very Serious Writing (AKA: novels), I work in my office at the desktop. I always have to have something to drink with me at all times (morning = coffee, afternoons = big glasses of water, late afternoons = Diet Coke), and I have to have a hair elastic and hand lotion with me, as well. I usually light a good, smelly candle (because my office is in the basement, where the litterbox is), give the dogs a couple rawhides to keep them out of my hair, and get going!

Do you have a favorite strategy for revision?

I don’t really find revising to be all that difficult. I like the idea of making my work the best it can possibly be, and very rarely do I get upset over having to cut or change something. So I tend to just plow right through revisions, one chapter at a time.

What’s your best advice for young writers?

Keep going. There will be rejections, no matter how good you are. There will be days you think it will never happen for you. There will be people who will work hard to make you believe it will never happen for you. But if you just keep going… keep looking at the finish line… you will get there.

What’s special about your debut novel?

One special thing about my debut novel is that it was also my editor’s first acquisition. I think it’s so cool that we’re both going through a first together. And he’s the best!

But the most special thing about Hate List is that it’s making people think. Making them look really hard at their lives and the things they say and do and the impact that can have on other people and on the world in general. I really like novels that make me think, and get a special little happy jolt every time I hear that Hate List is doing that for other readers.

What were the best and worst parts of writing it?

Best — Revisions, because that’s when I really got to know my characters and make them come to life.

Worst — Because of time and work constraints, I had to get up at 5:30AM every day for most of a year to write it.

How did you find your agent and/or editor?

I’ve actually had my agent for several years, when she signed me to represent a women’s fiction novel I’d written. It was a blind submission — I think I was actually querying another agent in the agency — and we didn’t sign until more than a year after I made the initial query. We’re a perfect match, and I’m so happy with my agent. She’s like a friend.

Thanks for joining us, Jennifer!

You can read more about Jennifer at her website. You can pick up your copy of HATE LIST at your local independent bookseller, order it through one of my favorite indies, Flying Pig Bookstore (they ship!), or find an indie near you by checking out IndieBound!

THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. Book Club Contest!

Since THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. was released, I’ve heard from a handful of parents, teachers, & librarians who have already tagged it as a choice for their book clubs.  This thrills me to no end.  Why?  Because I love the sense of community and the conversations that book clubs create.  So today, I’m announcing…

THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. Book Club Contest!

Would you like to read THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. with your book club?  It can be a mother-daughter group, a class literature circle, an after-school book club…any situation where a group of kids (and maybe grownups, too!) get together to talk about books.  In cooperation with my publisher, Walker Books for Young Readers, one book club will win all this:

  • Hardcover copies of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. for your book club (up to 12 copies!)
  • Six copies of TREE FINDER: A MANUAL FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF TREES BY THEIR LEAVES by May T. Watts, a great resource for creating your own leaf collections!
  • GIANNA Z. silicone bracelets and bookmarks for everyone in your book club
  • GIANNA Z. discussion guide, a recipe for Nonna’s famous funeral cookies, and the "What Kind of Tree Are You?" quiz.
  • Me…at your book club meeting!  If you live nearby, I’ll try to come in person,and if you’re far away, I’ll be there via Skype videoconferencing software to tell you all the juicy stories behind the writing of GIANNA Z. and answer questions.

Here’s how to enter.

Email me
at this address:  kmessner at kate messner dot com (with no spaces).

In the subject line, write BOOK CLUB CONTEST

In the body of your email, please include:

1. Your name
2. How many kids/adults in your book club?
3. Why would GIANNA Z. be a good choice for your book club?  Just a sentence or two is fine.  You can learn more about the book, view the trailer, and read reviews here.
4. City and state where you live
5. Your email address, where you’d like to be notified if you win

You must be over 13 to enter. If you’re younger, please have a parent, teacher, or librarian enter for you. 

All entries must be received via email by the end of the day on Thursday, October 15th. A winner will be drawn at random from all eligible entries and notified via email after the drawing.

best tracker


The Burlington Book Festival is this weekend!

On Saturday from 1:00-2:00, I’ll be part of a panel discussion on Writing for Children and Young Adults at Fletcher Free Library, along with the  authors of these amazing books.

Julie Berry (THE AMARANTH ENCHANTMENT)
Linda Urban (A CROOKED KIND OF PERFECT and MOUSE WAS MAD)
Jo Knowles (LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL and JUMPING OFF SWINGS)
Tanya Lee Stone (ALMOST ASTRONAUTS, SANDY’S CIRCUS, and more)

We’ll be talking about both the craft and business of writing for kids.  What would you like to know?  Feel free to share a question in comments, even if you can’t join us on Saturday.(But we really hope we’ll see you there!)

The literary festivities run all weekend.  There’s a whole, smashing lineup of events posted here on the festival website.

Newtonville Books and “Seeing Songs”

You know how some bookstores are so bright and cozy and wonderful you’d just like to set up a cot and move right in?  Newtonville Books is like that, and I was so happy to have an event for THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. there this past Saturday.  There were even beanbag chairs!

Thanks so much to store owner Mary Cotton, whose hard work just shines in this place, and to everyone who came out to meet Gianna and me.

And just in case they’re reading…thanks to my husband and kids, too.  As always, they helped so much.  My daughter single-handedly ran the leaf identification challenge for kids while I was signing books, and it even included a tree we don’t have at home – the rare and elusive sassafras! (We grabbed a branch from a tree in our hotel parking lot!)

The thing I’ve loved best about this book journey has been the fact that my family has been able to enjoy so much of it with me.  Our book trips always leave some room for non-book fun, too, so Sunday morning after a big diner breakfast, we headed into Boston for Free Community Day at the Museum of Fine Arts.

We wandered through the early American paintings and European masters before finding our way to an exhibit called "Seeing Songs" in the contemporary wing.  It’s a fascinating collection of visual art inspired by music.  This piece, called "Queen (A Portrait of Madonna)" especially caught our attention.

It was a bank of monitors with people performing — and I mean really performing — Madonna songs.  The artist, Candice Breitz from South Africa, put ads in newspapers and online inviting the most devoted Madonna fans to come to a studio in Milan to perform her entire 74-minute Immaculate Collection album.  Hundreds showed up; Breitz chose thirty people who are now captured in this wall of monitors, belting out Madonna songs in unison.  Breitz said she’d wanted the piece to explore the dichotomy between the "somebodies" who create music and experience fame and the "nobodies" who internalize that music and make it their own. 

I’m not sure why, but I had trouble walking away from this one.  Maybe it was watching ordinary people who were so different from one another so united in their passion for an artist’s music.  Maybe it was wondering what kind of person would travel to Milan for this.  While I was wishing I had video to share with you, I found the YouTube video below that shows a clip of the piece, along with video of the big karaoke party the museum had to celebrate its opening this summer.  That celebration, I think, captures the same sort of "putting yourself out there" that I appreciated so much in Breitz’s piece. 


And thinking about it, maybe that "putting yourself out there" feeling is the reason this piece caught my imagination this weekend – the first time I’d seen my book out on its own, in another state. Like a kid who snuck out when no one was looking. (I kept feeling like I should gather up all the copies and take them home.)  After all, as writers, we’re putting ourselves out there every time we let go of a book.  It’s not so very different from having the nerve to just let go…and dance.

Disorganized, red-headed artist girls are the new vampires.

Okay, not really.

I just said that to get your attention, so I could say this:

Thank you.

In the two and a half weeks since the official release of THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z, I’ve opened up my email and smiled like crazy at least a thousand times because people — and by that, I mean you guys — have been so amazing about helping to spread the word about this quiet, funny, quirky book about a girl and a leaf collection project, with not a single vampire in sight.

I’ve been sent links to blog reviews like these:
Jen Robinson
A Patchwork of Books
Mary at KidLit.com
Six Boxes of Books
Prose and Kahn
Kelly Fineman’s Writing and Ruminating
Doughtnuts ‘n Things

And today, there was this post on Publishers Weekly’s ShelfTalker blog, which I read religiously at lunch time.  I just about choked on my salsa when I opened the page today and saw Gianna staring back at me.  It was overwhelming.

It’s all been pretty overwhelming.  The nice notes you’ve posted on GoodReads and the ones you’ve emailed me or sent in other ways.  Those little things make a huge difference in an author’s world. This 140-character gift arrived via Twitter this morning and had me smiling all day:

My 9-year old is reading TBFOGZ; when I asked at breakfast this am how she liked it, her face stayed in the book; a good sign!

(I keep all my reviews in a file on my computer, but this one I printed out and put on the bulletin board for when I’m stuck on a scene.  That’s when I really need to remember the nine-year-old with her nose in a book at breakfast.  She is why I write.)

Anyway, thanks. The very best part of this publication journey has been the people whose paths I’ve crossed along the way.


(Editing to add: I have absolutely nothing against vampires, werewolves, evil fairies, bloodthirsty pixies, or fallen angels. In fact, I’ve been known to love and devour books about all of those things. I mention the vampires only to contrast that sort of book, which often gets heaps of attention, with the quieter, Gianna-ish books, which often don’t and rely on people who love them to share them with others. Thus the vampire bit…and the thanks.)

For Boston Friends…

Gianna Z. and I will be in your neck of the woods this weekend!

I’ll be reading, answering questions, signing books, and doing some fun leaf identification activities with kids this weekend at Newtonville Books.  I’ve heard such great things about this independent bookstore, and I can’t wait to visit!  Here are the details:

THE BRILLIANT FALL OF GIANNA Z. Author Event
Saturday, September 19th
2:00 PM
Newtonville Books
296 Walnut St.
Newton, MA

If any of your friends are teachers or parents of middle grade readers, I’d love it if you’d share the time & date with them.  There’s also an official invitation on Facebook if anyone has Boston friends & would like to pass along the link! 

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=150197268351&ref=nf

Hope to see some of you there!