come and join the fun!

September 21, 2009 ~ jama ~ 15 Comments

Where will you be on Saturday, October 17, 2009?

I’ll be at the Sheraton Crystal City Hotel in Arlington, Virginia, attending my very first Kidlitosphere Conference!

In the two years I’ve been blogging, I’ve only been able to meet a handful of the many people I’ve connected with online. It’ll be fun to compare online personas with in-person personalities. What do their voices sound like? Do any of them have accents? Are they really as nice as they seem online? And how do some of them manage to read and review so many dang books and still lead normal lives?

Yes, I’m quite curious about the attendees, but I’m also excited about the great sessions Pam (MotherReader) has lined up. There’s still time to register and lock in the discount hotel rate of $109/night, so if you’d like to join us, please do!

Here’s more from Pam:

For authors, illustrators, editors, and publishers in the area of children’s and Young Adult literature, the KidLitosphere Conference on October 17th in Arlington, Virginia, offers an incredible opportunity to learn more about online reviewers, blog book tours, blog writing, and social media. Participants will also talk to forty book reviewing bloggers one-on-one about their books in a Meet the Author session. The dinner gives everyone a chance to socialize, talk, network, and collaborate. And all for a low $100 registration fee that includes breakfast and dinner.

Featured sessions for authors/illustrators include:

It’s Not All About Your Book: Writing Ideas for Author Blogs
Social Networking for Fun (and Profit?)
Building a Better Online Presence with Blogging

And several more sessions in the 8:00–5:00 p.m day. Attending authors will have the opportunity to set up a table and show their books to bloggers and promote fall titles. The small conference size allows for more chances for interaction among attendees.

Registration has been extended, so for more information and to register visit the conference page. Discount hotel rates are also available.

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I really hope you’re going. I would love to meet you!!

Click here for a more detailed post about the conference from MotherReader.

three tasty bites

August 31, 2009 ~ jama ~ 11 Comments

photo by amber in norfolk.

♥ Don’t miss the August Carnival of Children’s Literature, hosted by Sarah at In Need of Chocolate. She’s arranged all the posts according to a Back-to-School subject theme. Click through for a delicious variety of reviews (children’s/YA books), thoughts about writing/publishing and more.

♥ Elvis’s Banana Pudding is the perfect way to top off the month. Cakespy.com has a delicious post with the recipe and a little Elvis trivia.

♥ Booksigning Alert: Kristy Dempsey will be signing her new picture book, Me with You, at Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, Virginia, this Sunday, September 6th, at 2 p.m.! You may remember we celebrated this book’s release with a Soup of the Day post. Now I’m looking forward to meeting Kristy in person. Hope to see you there!

get into the swing!

July 20, 2009 ~ jama ~ 4 Comments

photo by kko19652001.

Have you heard?

Uber talented author Jo Knowles is celebrating her soon-to-be-released young adult novel, Jumping Off Swings, with a cool contest!

There are lots of ways to enter — by submitting a picture of you jumping off a swing or sitting on a swing, by helping to spread the word via your blog, Facebook, Twitter, etc., by telling your librarian or friend about the book, or by leaving a comment at the contest post. Each thing you do = one entry.

Jo will be presenting three lucky winners with a set of both her books — Jumping Off Swings and a paperback edition of her first novel, Lessons from a Dead Girl, which will also be released on August 11th!

Get thee over to her blog right now to read all the details. She’s posted a great slideshow of lots of entrants swinging. Wanna be one of those swingers? Send Jo your photo by the contest deadline of August 10, 2009.

how sweet it is thursday

July 2, 2009 ~ jama ~ 12 Comments

photo by amy_eggsonsunday.

I was craving a chocolate strawberry tartlet today, and thought you might like to have a little bite. While you’re wrapping your lips around this luscious beauty, check out these other tidbits:

Thank you to Candice Ransom (uber prolific author of a million books, fellow teddy bear collector and antiques junkie), for awarding alphabet soup the One Lovely Blog Award. I love reading her Live Journal blog, Under the Honeysuckle Vine — we’ve been slowly discovering that we have similar tastes in bears, old children’s books and china, and of course, food. I’m honored Candice found my blog worthy of recognition. Bring on the tea parties!

I’m also tickled to report that Becky Levine has awarded alphabet soup the Love Ya Award. The criteria for this award is as follows:

"These blogs are exceedingly charming. These kind bloggers aim to find and be friends. They are not interested in self-aggrandizement. Our hope is that when the ribbons of these prizes are cut, even more friendships are propagated."

Wow! *beaming* Thanks so much, Becky! I appreciate your taking the time to stop in regularly, in between blogging here on Live Journal and at your website blog, "Moving Forward on the Writing Path."

Congratulations to Cynthea Liu on the recent release of her second book, a middle grade novel called Paris Pan Takes the Dare (Putnam, 2009)! For the past couple of weeks, she’s been hosting an extended online Launch Party — yes, there’s plenty of food, games, and fun, but there’s also an awesome auction to benefit Tulakes Elementary School in Oklahoma. You can bid on fabulous prize packages as well as critiques by published authors, editors and agents! The auction deadline has been extended to midnight (EST) July 8, 2009.

I’ve mentioned before that one of my absolute fave food blogs is Cakespy.com. This is where I get my daily fix for all things dessert — and it’s calorie free! Just wanted to point you to two especially delicious posts — "Malasada Madness: The Portuguese Doughnut That Took Over Hawai’i," and "Cinema and Sugar: Movies to Satisfy Your Sweet Tooth." The first post is about a place in Seattle that sells malasadas; it includes mouthwatering tidbits about the history of this island favorite, and the cinema post has a great list of movies with storylines featuring some form of dessert. I’m going down the list, and adding anything I haven’t yet seen to my Netflix queue. The perfect summer diversion!

Finally, in case you didn’t have a chance to stop in at Grace Lin’s Launch Party yesterday for Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, I wanted to remind you about her contest. All you have to do is take a picture of yourself with the book and post it on her Facebook Fan Page. She will draw winners at the end of July, August, and September for a $25.00 gift certificate, good for purchases at her new online store. Then, on October 1st, she will draw a grand prize winner — and the prize is your name or likeness in one of her upcoming books! Eeeee!

Oh, and there’s one more thing:

photo by shotsi.

HAPPY INDEPENDENCE DAY!!

Have a great Fourth of July weekend, and I’ll see you next week!

hot fudge wednesday

August 13, 2008 ~ jama ~ 2 Comments

Hot off the press! Dip your spoon into the coolness:

From Tricia of the Miss Rumphius Effect: 100 Places to Connect with Other Bibliophiles Online, an article by Laura Milligan at the Online Education Database. Great collection of links by category: Book Collectors, Blogs, Librarians, Social Media, Recommendations, Organizing and Sharing Titles, Novelists and Writers, Sites for Children and Teens, Trading and Selling, and For Those Who Love to Read.
Anti-Craft Book Literary Glossary of Writing Terms by Carrie Jones in Through the Tollbooth. The ABCs of writing served up with side-splitting wit. A must read, since it’s the only place to get your feet licked.
Check out Oprah’s Book Club Kids Reading List. So happy to see Linda Sue Park’s Keeping Score, Cynthia Kadohata’s Cracker: The Best Dog in Vietnam, Jackie Urbanovic’s Duck Soup, and Laura Vaccaro Seeger’s Dog and Bear: Two Friends, Three Stories on the list. Check out my interviews with Jackie, here and here, and Laura, here!
Don’t forget that the Second Annual 2008 Portland Kidlitosphere Conference is a little over a month away. Find out how to register here. If you can’t go, you can still support the conference by scoring some cool shwag at Cafe Press, like T-shirts, mugs, and bags. Look what I ordered (thanks to Jen Robinson for whetting my appetite):