Last little bits from today

Read Roger talks about “also-rans” in terms of book awards, and wonders if a book is nominated another award — say, for instance the Coretta Scott King Award or the Pura Belpré Medal, do Newbery and Caldecott people unconsciously discount them, figuring they can win “something else.” After all, wasn’t it the relative lack of award attention … that brought these new awards into existence in the first place?” Kind of a good question…

I got a little “squee!” (as Jackie says) from reading Chicken Spaghetti’s post about multicultural sci-fi and fantasy. I have had people suggest various books to me over time, and I have a someday hope of writing YA fantasy — a dim someday hope, granted, because my agent hates fantasy, and I’d have to do a bit of work to convince him that it was a good idea. Anyway, Susan has reposted, with permission of Prof. Craig Svonkin and the others at Child_Lit a list of multicultural and ethnic fantasy which includes dystopia, time travel and others in the loosely categorized genre. I don’t know about you, people, but as SOON as my readings for Cybils are done, I shall begin tracking down ALL of these gems for the bedside reading table. (Yes, yes, I know in theory I’ll be revising a manuscript by then. When I drop everything and get into bed with a bowl of popcorn and a book I’ll call it… um, research…)

It’s unbelievable that we are reaching the end of the month! Congratulations to everyone slogging away at National Novel Writing/Reading/Blogging Month — hope it was fun, at least… Sometimes it’s also fun to abstain from shoving yet one more thing into an over-packed month, too!