About the author

tanita s. davis is a writer and avid reader who prefers books to most things in the world, including people. That's ...pretty much it, she's very boring and she can't even tell jokes. She is, however, the author of nine books, including Serena Says, Partly Cloudy, Go Figure, Henri Weldon, and the Coretta Scott King honored Mare's War. Look for her new MG, The Science of Friendship in 1/2024 from Katherine Tegen Books.

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  1. I want to extend my birthday wishes to Sarah!!! Happy Birthday, Sarah!! Happy Birthday to you!!

    And, Nick Green, and his Cat Kin books is simply awesome. I’m thrilled to see him get noticed.

  5. That should be award *shortlisted* – pre-emptive to say award winning, but many thanks for that slip of the keyboard! Hopefully not everyone will read this comment of mine correcting it…
    🙂

  7. Faber seems to be taking some perverse pleasure in culling its children’s authors. My situation exactly mirrors Nick’s:

    Towards the end of 2003 I had a children’s novel called “CloudWorld” accepted by Faber (I’ve been writing children’s fantasy fiction – amongst other things – since 1993 and had two previous books rejected everywhere, albeit with encouraging comments.) In January 2004 I sat in my editor’s office at 3 Queen Square to go through the manuscript. Her first comment surprised me. “CloudWorld” was a single volume book, but she felt that its plot was rushed in places. So she suggested focusing on the first two-thirds and cutting the final third, with the intention of expanding it into a full-length sequel. I was a bit startled by this. I didn’t really like the idea of “book one” (as it was suddenly known) having a cliff-hanger ending. But, thrilled to be published by Faber in the first place, I agreed. Needless to say, no mention was made of my one-book contract becoming a two-book contract.

    I returned to Glasgow, where I was staying in a friend’s spare room in order to be able to concentrate on my writing. Over the following year, I completed rewrites on “CloudWorld”. Then, after spending some time finding a new job and a proper place to live, I dutifully embarked on the sequel. For the next couple of years I rose at six every morning to write before going to work. During this period “CloudWorld” itself was published. It received some excellent reviews (www.cloudworldthenovel.com/Reviews.htm) and was nominated for the Manchester Book Award. By September 2007, I’d completed “CloudWorld At War”. But Faber rejected it, arguing that too much time had passed since the publication of “CloudWorld”, which had, according to them, sold beneath expectations.

    “So what?” you may think, and in a way you’d be right. When a publisher rejects a book it isn’t personal. But if you’ve written the book in question – and devoted five years of your life to it and its predecessor – it’s personal to *you*. And this particular book was based on material the publisher had previously accepted, so they have, to some extent, gone back on their word.

    Like Nick, I’ve decided to publish my orphaned book through lulu.com and I draw consolation from the people who’ve recently e-mailed me from Canada, France and Australia, wanting to know how the “CloudWorld” story ends. My latest royalty statement indicates that the first has sold 8,500 copies out of 10,359 originally printed, so hopefully there’s still a readership out there. After all, what have I got to lose?

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