Just like this entire year has been flying past at inconceivable speed, the Cybils season is revving up without delay, and Tanita and I are both incredibly excited to be judging again. Tanita is part of the Round 1 YASF panel (which brings back memories of early days when I had the time to do the vast amount of reading for Round 1…I’d really like to do that again before too long, but it was not in the cards this year) and I will be on Round 2 for Graphic Novels along with a few familiar faces and a couple of new ones–so fun, and always a wonderful opportunity to talk books when the time comes.
It’s been such a busy year for me, and for Tanita, too, so I think the routine of Cybils is a welcome comfort in so many ways and is incredibly rewarding to boot. I’ll be blog co-editor again with Melissa Fox of Book Nut, so I’ll be in charge of cruising volunteers’ blogs and posting reviews of nominees and finalists to the Cybils blog once the reading period kicks into gear. It’s something I truly enjoy and value because I seem to have less and less time to visit blogs just for the heck of it, just to see what others are reading and doing.
This year should be really interesting with the addition of Board Books and Audiobooks as new pilot categories, so I hope you’ll have fun exploring along with me!
I'll be honest: I told Sheila to put me where I was needed, but I'm pretty sure I shouldn't have signed on for R1. And yet, I really miss it when I'm not there! Hard balancing Writer vs. Reader; this year, since I'm actually meant to be FINISHED with the revision before I start the reading, I think I may be okay…!
Yes–I usually also say to put me where I'm needed, especially category-wise, if there's a gap somewhere. I do think about the first or second year we did Cybils, when we were on SF Round 1 and they hadn't split the category yet, and we had ALLLL the books…and yet it really was fun.