Thunder over Kandahar

Sharon E. McKay will be launching her new book, Thunder over Kandahar  in September with Annick Books.  Check out the trailer below.

2010 Locus Award Winners

The 2010 Locus Awards winners were announced at the annual Science Fiction Awards Weekend, held June 25-27, 2010 in Seattle, WA. 

Best SF Novel:

• Boneshaker, Cherie Priest (Tor)

Best Fantasy Novel:

• The City & The City, China Miéville (Del Rey; Macmillan UK)

Best First Novel:

• The Windup Girl, Paolo Bacigalupi (Night Shade)

Best Young Adult Book:

• Leviathan, Scott Westerfeld (Simon Pulse; Simon & Schuster UK)

Best Novella:

• The Women of Nell Gwynne’s, Kage Baker (Subterranean)

Best Novelette:

• ‘‘By Moonlight’’, Peter S. Beagle (We Never Talk About My Brother)

Best Short Story:

• ‘‘An Invocation of Incuriosity’’, Neil Gaiman (Songs of the Dying Earth)

Best Anthology:

• The New Space Opera 2, Gardner Dozois & Jonathan Strahan, eds. (Eos; HarperCollins Australia)

Best Collection:

• The Best of Gene Wolfe, Gene Wolfe (Tor); as The Very Best of Gene Wolfe(PS)

Best Non-Fiction Book/Art Book:

• Cheek by Jowl, Ursula K. Le Guin (Aqueduct)

Best Artist:

• Michael Whelan

Best Editor:

• Ellen Datlow

Best Magazine:

• The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction

Best Book Publisher:

• Tor

Heist Society by Ally Carter

Yeah.  I love Ally Carter and she has a new book out, Heist Society.

This time, Carter's main character is sixteen year old Kat, who whose family are professional thieves.  But Kat wants out of the thieving business and manages to con her way into an elite boarding school.  When her dad becomes the prime suspect in an art heist from a scary mobster,  Kat has a choice to make.  She can either find the real thieves and steal back the paintings, or turn her back on dear old dad.  Needless to say, the heist is on.

Carter's books have been called escapist fluff, but they are sooo entertaining.  She's got that hip young voice thing going on and it totally sucks me in.  Besides, we are talking perfect summer reading here, and my calendar reads the end of June even though it is cloudy and raining outside.  Damn rain...

The Lit Report by Sarah Harvey

I've been meaning to post about The Lit Report for a while now.  I read it last summer but recently reread it and was even more impressed the second time around.

Julia, the seventeen year old narrator, is practical, funny and smart.  She and her best friend Ruth can hardly wait to graduate and leave their Christian high school behind, go to college and get a cool apartment in the city.  Meanwhile, Ruth is determined to lose her virginity before the end of the school year, but ends up getting pregnant. Unable to get help from her fundamentalist parents, or her brother Jonah who has been sent away to try to keep him on the straight and narrow, Ruth turns to her friend for help.  Julia comes up with a plan that has some serious loopholes, but with the very real possibility of Ruth being disowned and homeless, what choice do they have.

There's a lot to like about The Lit Report. Each chapter begins with a quote of one of the narrator's favorite books, a device which the author adeptly uses to foreshadow coming events.  Harvey is also particularly skilled at capturing realistic teen voices.  She doesn't shy away from expletives or from hot issues like teens having sex.  And best of all, she has created winning characters whose relationships are rich and multilayered.  Take Ruth for example.  She's loud, mouthy, self-centred, and ends up taking to mothering like a duck to water. She's nobody's victim.  Julia, on the other hand, is smart but naive and totally caught off guard when Ruth decides to keep her baby.  Their friendship goes through some bumps, but remains strong; something I liked very much.  Come to think of it, I liked pretty much everything about this book, and I suspect that you will too.










he Lit Report isn't an issue novel.

High School Students' Poetry Slam Camp

UBC Okanagan is offering a poetry slam camp for high school students.  It will take place July 23-25 and is sponsored by the Creative Studies Department of the Faculty of Creative and Critical Studies and by CanWest's Raise-a-Reader Program. Check it out.

The Poetry Slam Camp is a great opportunity for high school students to harness their creativity by learning the craft of poetry.  Students between 15 and 18 years of age are eligible.  The Camp will be two fun-filled days of writing, performance, and learning.  Cost: $50, including accommodation, meals, and classes.  Info: poetryslamcamp2010@gmail.com.  

Query Letter from author of The Duff to agent Joanna Stampfel-Volpe

I did promise a review of The Lit Report by Sarah Harvey and it is coming...gardening has seriously cut into my blogging time.  But, in the meantime, I came across this very interesting post by on YA Highway, a super blog that features several YA writers.  The post, featured the query letter sent to agent Joanna Stampfel-Volpe of Nancy Coffey Literary & Media Representation from Kody Keplinger about her now published novel, The Duff which I featured not long ago.  The post also includes the agent's response as to why she wanted to read the manuscript.  It isn't very long, and it's well worth the read.

coming soon

Watch for a review of The Lit Report by Sarah Harvey coming soon.  But for now it's back to editing.