Event Pics -- RIF and Bridget Zinn's POISON

A couple weeks ago, Cyn, Chris Barton, and Tim Tingle were featured authors at an event at the LBJ Library sponsored by Reading is Fundamental.  Here are some pics:

Tim and Chris watch while Cyn displays JINGLE DANCER

Day Glo Brothers, Saltypie, and Jingle Dancer

Chris, Cyn, and Tim sign their books

Joy Hein, Kathi Appelt, and Cyn like Ike.

Monkey in the middle

Then, last week, we attended a gathering at BookPeople for the release of the late Bridget Zinn's POISON.  To celebrate, a group of Austin authors signed copies of the book, which are now available at BookPeople!  To buy a copy, click here.

P.J. Hoover, Susan Kralovansky, Nikki Loftin, Cory Oakes

Liz Garton Scanlon, Me, and Cynthia Levinson

Cyn and me.  Photo courtesy Cory Oakes

Title Page!

2014 Books by Austinites [Updated 9/21/14]

This is a preview of books by Austin authors and illustrators tentatively scheduled for release in 2014.  Note that titles and release dates may be subject to change.

Picture Books

GRANDFATHER GANDHI, by Bethany Hegedus and Arun Gandhi, ill. by Evan Turk (Atheneum/Simon & Schuster, Spring 2014).

THE GOOD-PIE PARTY, by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill. by Kady McDonald Denton (Arthur A. Levine Books/Scholastic 2014).

THANK YOU, GARDEN, by Liz Garton Scanlon, ill tbd (Beach Lane Books/S&S 2014).

I PLEDGE ALLEGIANCE, by Pat Mora and Libby Martinez, ill. by Patrice Barton (Knopf/Random House 2014).

ATTACK! BOSS! CHEAT CODE! A GAMER'S ALPHABET, by Chris Barton, ill. by Joey Spiotto (POW! 2014).

LITTLE OWL'S DAY, by Divya Srinivasan (Viking, 2014).

Middle Grade/Tween

LITTLE GREEN MEN AT THE MERCURY INN, by Greg Leitich Smith (Roaring Brook Press/Macmillan, Spring 2014).

NIGHTINGALE'S NEST, by Nikki Loftin (Razorbill/Penguin 2014)

TUT, by P.J. Hoover (Tor/Macmillan, Spring 2014).

THE GREAT GREENE HEIST, by Varian Johnson (Arthur Levine Books/Scholastic 2014).

POETRY BANDIT, by K.A. Holt (Chronicle, Fall 2014).

THE CABINET OF CURIOSITIES, by Katherine Catmull, et al. (Greenwillow, Summer 2014).

REVENGE OF THE FLOWER GIRLS, by Jennifer Ziegler (Scholastic, 2014).

HEAP HOUSE, by Edward Carey (Overlook Press 2014).

Young Adult

FERAL CURSE, by Cynthia Leitich Smith (Candlewick 2014).

EVIDENCE OF THINGS NOT SEEN, by Lindsey Lane (FSG, Fall 2014).

UNMADE, by Amy Rose Capetta (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, October 2014).

SHATTERED, by Mari Mancusi (Sourcebooks Fire, Fall 2014).

THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY

THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY, by Nikki Loftin (Razorbill/Penguin, August 2012)(ages 8-12). When eleven-year-old Lorelei's school burns down, she and her brother transfer to Splendid Academy, a new school which appeared practically overnight.  With gourmet meals, bottomless bowls of candy, no rules about texting or talking in class, and the best playground ever, it seems to be the perfect school. 

But there's a dark secret at Splendid Academy, and Lorelei and her new friend Andrew are determined to uncover the truth.  But who will believe that the school is a front for a witch?

THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY is a deliciously dark debut, offering an engaging heroine, a nicely creepy villain, and piles and piles of marzipan.  A splendid 21st century update to the tale of Hansel and Gretel.

Writers and Illustrators and Dinosaurs: Nikki Loftin

Nikki Loftin and Coelophysis

Nikki Loftin lives just outside Austin, Texas, and writes middle grade novels.  Her first novel, THE SINISTER SWEETNESS OF SPLENDID ACADEMY, which she describes as "CORALINE meets HANSEL AND GRETEL," will be published in Summer 2012 by Razorbill/Penguin.

She recently took a trip to New Mexico and took a couple photos of the Ghost Ranch Coelophysis.   

Coelophysis, a small Triassic theropod, is the state dinosaur of New Mexico and appears to have been a cannibal.

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...