Maverick Graphic Novel List
Jennifer Smith
Great news! Texas is the first state to create a graphic novel reading list! YART proposed the creation of the Maverick Graphic Novel Reading list to the TLA Executive Board during Annual Assembly. The Board loved the idea and accepted it enthusiastically!!!
Of course the list still has to be accepted by the YART membership and go through all the bylaw issues, but we are very excited about this new program.
Special thanks to WyLaina Hildreth, Alicia Holston and Tuan Nguyen for the initial proposal and to Alicia, Tuan, Laura Jewell and Renee Dyer for working on the policies and procedures. Their hard work set the groundwork for what will be a great list.
We will post more info on the blog and the YART website as it comes available.
Annual Assembly
Joanna Nigrelli
If you are interested in attending Annual Assembly in Austin in July, please register first. Registration info is here: http://www.txla.org/conference/assembly/AAinfo.html
Assembly is free and open to everyone. You are welcome to join the YART meetings on Wednesday. Please see the schedule for times and rooms.
Looking for Lone Star members
Jennifer Smith
The 2009 Lone Star Reading List will be the 20th list! The Lone Star committee and the Young Adult Round Table are very excited about this anniversary. We are planning some great programs for the 2009 conference in Houston.
I am looking for all past members of the Lone Star committee. If you served on Lone Star, please drop me an email at read.junkee@gmail.com with your years of service, the names of the librarians who chaired the committee during your time (if you can remember) and any special remembrances of your Lone Star time.
If you would like to be involved with some of the anniversary programs at the next conference, please let me know. We have several programs in the works and would love to have our past members take part.
Thank you to everyone who has supported the Lone Star Reading List over the last 20 years, and I hope you will continue to support us for the next 20 years and beyond!
Jennifer Smith, read.junkee@gmail.com
Lone Star Reading List Chair 2007-2009
Looking for Photos of Tayshas Displays
Renee Dyer
Librarians-
Yesterday, YART Chair, Joanna Nigrelli visited Anderson High School Library in Austin and e-mailed about the fabulous display that Mrs. Fuller, the librarian, had for Tayshas books. I thought it would be fabulous to gather up pictures of everyone's Tayshas displays and post them as a slide show on the Tayshas website. Please e-mail me photos with complete descriptions if you would like what you are doing to promote Tayshas books at your library displayed on the Tayshas portion of the TLA website. I am so excited about this. I think it will be a wonderful way to illustrate the use of Tayshas books in our libraries. My e-mail is rdyer@wisd.us. I look forward to seeing your amazing displays.
Renee Dyer
Head Librarian, Weslaco East High School
Tayshas High School Reading List Committee, Chair
Texas Library Association
rdyer@wisd.us
(956)-969-6845 W
(956)-975-7680 C
TLA Conference
Jennifer Smith
Just got home from a fabulous TLA conference! I hope most of you got to attend a few great sessions.
I knew we were in for a wild ride when the first session - Strong Voices, Other Worlds: YA Fantasy Authors - had a packed house. And who can blame us for showing up in droves? Libba Bray, Suzanne Collins, Cinda Williams Chima, John Flanagan, Jacqueline Kolosov and Rick Riordan as the moderator!!!
They had us laughing (Bray and Flanagan may not be allowed to sit together again), nodding in understanding and just plain enjoying ourselves.
Please share your favorite memories of the 2008 TLA conference and don't forget to fill out your evaluation form on the TLA website so more wonderful programs can be planned for next year. See you in Houston!
Jennifer Smith
Lone Star Reading List Chair
Meet Author Terry Trueman
Joanna Nigrelli
Author Terry Trueman will speak twice this TLA. His first appearance will be Wednesday from 10:15-11:20 on the Working with Teens on the Edge panel. His second appearance will be as one of the "Guys" with In the Clubhouse with the Guys on Thursday from 10-11:50.
1. Have you attended TLA before? If so, what advice do you have for new authors?
TT: I have not been to TLA before but have heard great things about it; I’m very excited to attend.
2. The theme for TLA 2008 is "Books, Bytes and Beyond". How would you describe yourself in 4 words?
TT: 4 words huh? Excitable. Unreliable. Recalcitrant. Handsome.
3. What is your preferred method of writing and why -- laptop, longhand, typewriter?
TT: I work on a computer and my vastly preferred method is my big dinosaur desk top at home, it could be nicknamed the rock grinder.
4. What are you reading right now?
TT: Am heading into Raider’s Night and just finished Ball Don’t Lie.
5. Movie you've loved in the past year
TT: I loved Michael Clayton and Once.
6. The perfect vacation is...
TT: Lying on my couch at home staring out the window.
7. Which do you prefer? Zombies or Vampires?
TT: Teens
8. Do you have a blog or website that you would like to share with us?
TT: I do have a website, www.terrytrueman.com
Meet Author Libba Bray
Joanna Nigrelli
Libba Bray will be speaking on Tuesday from 2-3:50 on the Strong Voices, Other Worlds: YA Fantasy Authors panel. Her book, A Great and Terrible Beauty, is on the 2005-2006 Tayshas List. The final book in that trilogy, The Sweet Far Thing (Random House), was released in December.
Have you attended TLA before? If so, what advice do you have for new authors?
For non-Texans, “y’all” is plural, and if we tell you the dish “has just a little kick,” it will probably make your head explode.
The theme for TLA 2008 is "Books, Bytes and Beyond". How would you describe yourself in 4 words?
Surprisingly, still at large.
What is your preferred method of writing and why -- laptop, longhand, typewriter?
Laptop. And lots of complaining.
What are you reading right now?
Junot Diaz’s THE BRIEF WONDROUS LIFE OF OSCAR WAO. Rachel Cohn’s YOU KNOW WHERE TO FIND ME. Kelly Link’s forthcoming short story collection, PRETTY MONSTERS. Amazing, all.
Movie you've loved in the past year?
Oh, wow. I’ve seen so few movies—once you pay for a babysitter, movie tickets, and refreshments in New York City, you could have made a down payment on your child’s future college tuition, so I pretty much have a close personal relationship with my Netflix account. I really liked “Juno.” Also “Stardust” and “Hot Fuzz.” Those all happened last year, didn’t they? Oh man, I really DO need to get out more...
The perfect vacation is...
Vacation? Writers get to take vacations? Since when? The perfect vacation is anywhere I can hang out with family and good friends.* Corny but true. *(But not if it involves camping. I don't do bugs and outdoor toilets. Just sayin'.)
Which do you prefer? Zombies or Vampires?
Vampires are easier to dance with (no sudden detaching of body parts) and often know a lot about history, but they’re smug, as immortals can be. Zombies are kind of like pets. Pets who sometimes like to eat people’s brains. Once you get past the shuffling and the cannibalism, they’re really quite charming. So I have to go with zombies for the win.
Do you have a blog or website that you would like to share with us?
You betcha. It’s www.libbabray.com
Meet Editor Sarah Cortez
Joanna Nigrelli
Sarah Cortez will be speaking on the Young Latino Writers Open Up panel on Thursday from 12-12:50. She is editor of a collection of short memoirs entitled Windows into My World published by Arte Público Press.
Have you attended TLA before? If so, what advice do you have for new authors?
I have not attended TLA before, although I have read about it. I'm thrilled to be attending this year -- both as a presenter and as an avid lover of books and librarians. (As a child, one of my dreams was to be a librarian. I couldn't imagine a better life than one in which I worked with books all day long.)
The theme for TLA 2008 is "Books, Bytes and Beyond". How would you describe yourself in 4 words?
Organized, smart, intuitive, hard-working.
What is your preferred method of writing and why -- laptop, longhand, typewriter?
Longhand. When one types, then too much energy is used in the process of mechanical tasks. I feel that writing longhand allows the brain and subconscious to feed into the writing in a way that typing does not allow. The connection of the blood in the hand to the page is very important.
What are you reading right now?
Janet Evanovich
Movie you've loved in the past year
I don't watch movies.
The perfect vacation is...
someplace tropical with beautiful skies, an luxury hotel with a fine kitchen, no alarm clocks, and old Catholic churches with hand-painted saints and the Virgin Mary.
Meet Author Catherine Gilbert Murdock
Joanna Nigrelli
Catherine Gilbert Murdok is the author of Dairy Queen (Houghton Mifflin books for Children) a 2007-2008 Lone Star and Tayshas Reading List selection. She will be speaking on the Shine On: Lone Star Reading List Authors panel from 8-9:20 on Thursday.
1. Have you attended TLA before? If so, what advice do you have for new authors?
No, this is my first time, and my only second trip to Texas. Very excited about both!
2. The theme for TLA 2008 is "Books, Bytes and Beyond". How would you describe yourself in 4 words?
3. What is your preferred method of writing and why -- laptop, longhand, typewriter?
Laptop definitely gets first prize, though in a pinch I can write longhand. It’s depressing, though, to see how little I’ve written once I type it up. Longhand is best for revisions, and thank you notes.
4. What are you reading right now?
Both Unwind and Alfred Kropp are on my bedside table, but I’m really saving them for the plane – book tours are a delicious time to get all my overdue reading in. To be honest what I’m devouring is William Cullina’s Native Trees, Shrubs and Vines. I read it last spring and marked it with approximately 150 post-it notes. Now I’m trying to figure out what the different colors mean. So far I’ve determined yellow = “of general interest.” Beyond that I’m flying blind, but happily so.
5. Movie you've loved in the past year
Just saw Leatherheads Saturday night with the family, and couldn’t have adored it more. I wrote my dissertation on Prohibition, so it was nice to see the era brought so deliciously to the big screen. Plus there were all these little Prohibition jokes that probably no one got but me. I also loved Michael Clayton and Enchanted, though not at the same time.
6. The perfect vacation is...
A quiet corner (which means most of it) of Virgin Gorda, one of the British Virgin Islands. Stay as far away as you can from “the Baths,” which should be renamed “Grand Central Station at Rush Hour,” and you’ll have the loveliest, most relaxing experience of your life.
7. Which do you prefer? Zombies or Vampires?
Ewww! Neither, thanks. You want to freak me out, just send a house centipede my way. I’m normally pretty good with insects – adore cicadas, for example – but those things give me the dry heaves.
8. Do you have a blog or website that you would like to share with us?
Why yes (see question #2 ) – it’s catherinemurdock.com.
Meet Author Kenneth Oppel
Joanna Nigrelli
Kenneth Oppel is the 3rd of our 4 "Guys". See him with Lipsyte, Hartinger, and Trueman on Thursday from 10-11:50. His book, Airborne (Harper Collins) is on the 2006-2007 Lone Star Reading List.
Have you attended TLA before? If so, what advice do you have for new authors?
This is my first time, and I'm really looking forward to it.
The theme for TLA 2008 is "Books, Bytes and Beyond". How would you describe yourself in 4 words?
Contrarian ecoholic control freak. But that makes me sound pretty unappetizing, doesn't it. How about: Buoyant amusing outgoing optimist.
What is your preferred method of writing and why -- laptop, longhand, typewriter?
Longhand for notes (for the speed and mobility of jotting things down), then onto the computer for the actual writing (because it makes rewriting so much easier -- and you always have a back-up copy of your work!) .
What are you reading right now?
Just finished Before Green Gables, the prequel to Anne of Green Gables, and am now onto The Great Gatsby. I think I read it before in high school, but I can't remember.
Movie you've loved in the past year.
I can't say I was totally in love with anything, but I did enjoy "Once," and "Across the Universe".
The perfect vacation is...
I've already had it. Sorrento, Italy with my family, having after-dinner drinks and playing cards on a terrace overlooking the Bay of Naples, while bats flitted overhead in the dusk.
Which do you prefer? Zombies or Vampires?
Vampires; they've just got more flare, and have better personal hygeine.
Do you have a blog or website that you would like to share with us?
Please take a look at www.kennethoppel.com or www.airborn.ca.
