Hello, August

I've come to accept--and so rather hope you have, too--that in the summer this blog is mostly about being out frolicking and avoiding too many deep thoughts. (Shouldn't we all be doing that, in summer?) But I'm pausing the summer funtimes (and sweating!) to pass along a few links:

1. Soon-to-be-published author Claire LeGrand has a fun blog series up in which she asks fellow writers and publishing folk about one of their favorite books as a middle grade reader. You can read my entry over there now (AND enter to win a giveaway for an advance readers' copy of Kathryn Fitzmaurice's next novel, Destiny, Rewritten.)

2. Speaking of Destiny, Rewritten and the spectacular Kathryn Fitzmaurice, want a sneak peek at the cover of its cover? (It's out in March 2013!) She revealed it recently, over on her blog. Go take a peek; our designers have really outdone themselves!

3. I L-O-V-E-D listening to this recent edition of This American Life (the segment is called "South of Unicorns," and suspect many of the bookish among you (especially fantasy-lovers) will feel the same way.

4. SLOTH. OLYMPICS. The pictures will slay you with cuteness.

5. Write On Con, the 100% totally free, totally online, totally awesome 2-day conference for Children's & YA writers is fast approaching--it's August 14th & 15th. In its third year, this conference is designed especially for those who can't get away from home for an in-person conference, or who just need an inspiration boost. It makes use of lots of digital tools to present dynamic offerings from publishing peeps, literary agents, authors, illustrators, and more, and though some of the presentations and forum offerings are most valuable during the actual days of the con, if you can't make it then, lots of the content will be archived.
     As we've done for the past two years, editor friend Martha Mihalick and agent pal Holly Root and I will be doing a video, in which we answer YOUR questions. Which means we very much want to hear YOUR questions that you'd like answered about kidlit, publishing, YA, cute baby animals....etc! The best way to get your question to us is on Twitter, using the hashtag #askhmm, but if Twitter's not your thing, you can leave your question here in the comments section, too. Either way, we're only taking questions through THIS WEDNESDAY AT MIDNIGHT, so don't dally!

Back to frolicking!