Friday, August 28, 2009

Around the interwebs

In case you missed it, the call for Cybils judges went out this week! I was a nominating panelist in the YA Fiction category last year and it was lots of fun, but a big time commitment. Make sure you know what you're getting yourself into and then click over to this post to see how to apply.

(The Cybils are the Children's and YA Bloggers' Literary Awards and even if you don't want to be a judge or don't have a blog, you can still nominate a book in each category starting October 1! So be thinking about the best books you've read this year!)

If you do blog, head over to A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy to take Liz's blogging survey. How much time do you spend on your blog each week?

Do you love Twitter? (I do.) Well, that's great, but making time to comment thoughtfully on people's posts may better show off your writing skills and attract people to your blog, so says Mother Reader. So, go forth and tweet, but make sure you remember to leave time for commenting, too.

Are you facing rejection after rejection for your manuscript? Take heart and read Lisa Joy Singleton's guest post over at The Story Siren. She got the idea for her recently published DEAD GIRL series way back in 1988 and it published in 2008. I love reading the stories behind the stories!

And speaking of stories behind stories, check out Alvina Ling's post A Day in the Life of an Editor. (I have to say that I'm somewhat intense about having a tidy email inbox and having 200-300 emails at any one time would drive me nuts! Lucky I'm not an editor!)

Have you ever wanted to name a character in a book? Well, Peachtree Publishers is giving you a chance to do just that. Enter the contest and you could win not only the chance to name a character but an entire set of sports stories from Peachtree Publishers. And who couldn't use more sports stories on your shelves?

Schools are starting all over the country and Adrienne shares her My First Day of School program that she does for kindergartners every year. It's a little too late for my library (our kids started school on August 13!), but I'm definitely filing this idea away for next year. ;)

And I haven't forgotten about you lovely people who showed me where you blog! I was hoping to get a few more posts from the Kidlitosphere before I post the round-up. So, if you were thinking about showing me your blogging space, do it and send me a link to your post! And in the meantime, check out Cathy's Scene of the Blog feature (oh, I love the name!).

And last, but certainly not least: have you registered for the Kidlitosphere Conference?? I will be there! I am all registered and everything! If you've never been before and you're thinking about it, go ahead and register. I'll be a newbie, too, and we can be newbies together. ;) Oh, and authors, you should all come, too. I want to meet you!