Kender fun

March 14, 2007 - Stacy

I’m currently editing one of Jeff Sampson’s new books (he’s

here on LJ; go join the Fu Tang Clan!), and I must reiterate how funny this guy is, especially when it comes to dealing with kender, a hobbit-like race in the Dragonlance world. I see kender much as I see children: they see the world from a much different perspective–it bugs me when people think of children as somehow “lesser” because of this different perspective, even to the point of assuming them stupid or slow-headed or annoying–but the truth is kender (and children) can be really just more quirky and different, in a very good and sometimes entertaining way. And a
good author who writes for children knows how to tell a story embracing those wonderful qualities of childhood to tell something funny and unpretentious, while still able to touch on deeper matters as the story demands.

Well, let’s just give you a little taste of what The Stolen Sun, book 3 in the Suncatcher trilogy, will herald. In the (unedited) prologue (i.e., subject to change), two human characters are talking to each other about their journey to Sindri’s homeland. They’re in a wagon traveling and neither can sleep. One says to the other, “You do realize we are heading for an entire countryside filled with kender?”

“Wilden chuckled. ‘I do. You’re saying I’ll need all the rest I can get?’

“‘I would say that, yes.'”

I will be spending the rest of my week giggling, I’m sure. So go start reading The Wayward Wizard if you haven’t yet, and you’ll be all caught up by the time this one comes out!

Links roundup

March 14, 2007 - Stacy

I should do this more often.

From Marlene Perez’s blog (

marperez

On Monday, I volunteered at the Scholastic book fair, where I sold several copies of

saraclaradara

CONFESSIONS OF A CLOSET CATHOLIC. I also convinced myself to buy a stack of books that I’m pretty sure I don’t absolutely need. Wanna hear the top question asked at the book fair? It was–Got any books about dragons?

(We do! We do!)

Question: in your own trend-watching, do you find that people are looking for dragon books?

Also, two children’s lit bloggers interview each other. The one I find most interesting because, as interviewer Andrew Carre says, we don’t hear from independent buyers often, is the one of Jennifer Laughran (

literaticat

), a buyer for Books, Inc in San Francisco and the one in charge of Not Your Mother’s Book Club.

I especially like her point that “Yep, covers are important, but not as much as numbers for the authors’ previous books, the reputation of the imprint, the production style, the retail price, etc. The thing that is probably the most important, though, is the sales rep’s faith in the book … and really, how much we trust the rep.”

The chains obviously look at all those other things too–price and style are important to them as much as covers, I’m sure–but I’m sure we’ve all heard how they also care a lot about the covers. And covers are important! I love covers. It’s just interesting to see the different perspectives between independent buyers–who serve a much more specific market and can tailor their buying accordingly–and buyers who deal with such large numbers that they have to think on more general terms across the country.

Also, she talks about how she has to figure out if she can personally convince the individual salespeople in the store branches to handsell, and whether it’s worth it for each book. Interesting stuff. I worked as a children’s bookseller in a B&N back in grad school and did a lot of handselling because I knew children’s books, but I’ve always felt it to be more personal in an independent–I loved dropping into the Children’s Book Shop down the street from my apartment in Brookline, MA, not only to talk to a former Simmons classmate who worked there, but also to hear the booksellers’ opinions on new books. It also helped tha
t they were nice enough to give Simmons students a discount, but I would have made it a point to buy from them as often as possible anyway.

Then in turn she interviews Andrew Carre in his persona as YA editor at Flux, the new Llewellyn imprint.

Objects of my profession

March 14, 2007 - Stacy

I brought the new toy to work. 😀

Pictures behind the cut. There’s no real guessing involved–I’m sure you can figure out what the objects are–but I thought you’d get a kick out of them. One of the objects is from

egg_fu

. Can you guess which one?