Big giant news! And turtles!

Down by Padre Island, Galveston, and on the Gulf Coast, in general, we have just begun the nesting season of the Kemp's ridley sea turtle.

Below is a picture of Archelon, a Cretaceous turtle that hung around the Western Interior Seaway back in the day (It's substantially larger than Kemps ridley).

Archelon, from the Yale Peabody Museum

And congratulations to Austinites Nikki Loftin and Brian Yansky on sales of new books!


Per Publishers Lunch:

Nikki Loftin’s debut novel THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY, pitched as Coraline meets Hansel and Gretel, about a young girl whose seemingly delightful new school hides frightening secrets, to Laura Arnold at Razorbill, in a two-book deal, for publication in Summer 2012, by Suzie Townsend at Fineprint Literary Management (World).

Brian Yansky's FIGHTING ALIEN NATION, the sequel to ALIEN INVASION AND OTHER INCONVENIENCES, which continues the story of the survivors of an alien invasion, again to Candlewick, with Kaylan Adair to edit, by Sara Crowe at Harvey Klinger (world English).

And, no, neither has anything to do with turtles.  That I know of...