Swati Avasthi's Blog, page 6

That's right.  One of the many reasons my editor rocks is that she sends holiday cookies.  She is a seriously busy woman who still finds ways to remind her writers that this business is the best one to be in.

This is the second year I've received cookies and this year, my husband and I were checking the mail.  When the envelope came, my husband came in our kitchen and said, "Editor's Cookies!"

This is how they come:






















Here's why we gobble them down:




















They are as tasty as they look.  Chocolate...

Split on audio is fast becoming a reality.  Listening Library snagged Joshua Swanson for the gig.  I'm thrilled!  He is wry and seems to find the funny in scripts -- something absolutely necessary for Split to work.  I can't wait to hear him embody my protagonist, Jace.

Check him out:  Demos

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It is Happy Agent Day in the Blogosphere, so I'm celebrating my agent, Rosemary Stimola.  Rosemary is actually a fairy godmother in disguise.  Here are my top 5 reasons why:

#5)  With a wave of her wand, she can make emails appear in my inbox.

Recently, I was worried about not receiving some nameless information from a nameless person at a nameless company.  When I called Rosemary and relayed my concern, she first calmed me down, telling me not to worry about it.  Then she said she shared my co...

I know that businesses routinely close. I know we shouldn't get attached to corporations. But there are some for which, when the bell tolls, we don't need to ask who it tolls for, because we know that we've all lost.

Goodbye Kirkus Review.

I know that businesses routinely close. I know we shouldn't get attached to corporations. But there are some for which, when the bell tolls, we don't need to ask who it tolls for, because we know that we've all lost.

Goodbye Kirkus Review.

After a disheartening week in which I was waiting for good news that never came, I have a little something to celebrate. Yes, in my inauspicious inbox, I found an email that let me know that the audio book for Split will be recorded this month!

And with this step, like all the others on the what-do-you-mean-I'm-getting-published road, I have to convince myself that I haven't gone completely around the bend and fantasized the entire contract.

3 months and one day until kick off.

BACKSTORY: I met Julie Schumacher almost three years ago as one of her students in University of Minnesota's MFA program, but knew her through her work and venerated reputation within the Twin Cities writing community prior to that. I first encountered her work in Book of One Hundred Truths, which won a Minnesota Book Award in 2007, and was drawn into the work at the end of the first chapter in which our narrator states, "I should probably mention something right now before this story goes...

2k10 is a group of debut authors who have bound together for support and such. I've met some great women on line and I can't wait to read all the books this coming year. We've been working hard as of late to launch our new website (coming very soon!) and asked Madison at M2productions to put together a trailer for us. Talented girl. Here's what she came up with. (Stick around, Split is second to last)



I love the images she came up with for Split -- how the fist is foregrounded and the bac...

HM Bowuman and I are co-curating a new bi-monthly Reading Series at the Loft featuring writers of Children's Literature. The idea behind the series is to pair up a nationally recognized author with an emerging one in a kind of "if you liked..., you might also like ..."
We're so excited to get the authors we have for this month: Pete Hautman and JT Dutton. Here's the pitch: Come, enjoy, steal (or earn) a chocolate car.
Listen to Pete Hautman, winner of the National Book Award, read from hi...

They can make anything look like something else.