Contest Winner and Onward

Oct30 by kamikinard

First of all, we at Nerdy Chicks Rule want to send our thoughts out to those affected by Hurricane Sandy. Many of our friends and followers are without power today. We hope that everyone is otherwise well.

We are postponing the interview scheduled for today until we know that our interviewee is back online. Look forward to hearing from Picture Book Author and creator of PiBoIdMo, Tara Lazar. Her interview will be up later this week! Don’t know what PiBoIdMo is? Click on the link in the right sidebar!

Also coming soon, in honor of PiBoIdMo, we will be doing another giveaway featuring signed picture books from Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen. Details will be announced in the next week or so.

Finally…. Winner Notification.

Winners of the YAmazing Race were announced HERE.

There were almost 200 entries in the Nerdy Chick Giveaway of The Boy Project Prize Pack! Thank you all for entering! To select a winner, each entry was numbered, then the total number was submitted to randomnumbergenerator.com. The winning number was 51, and the person with the 51st entry was PamM. Congrats Pam! Pam has been contacted by email.

Another offer: For fans of The Boy Project who didn’t win, but who did enter the contest. I just had bookplates made and will send a signed bookplate, a bracelet, and a tattoo to those of you who comment below to let me know you would like these. I’m hoping to extend this offer until people without power get it again, but I’ll let you know here when it ends. Thanks for your comments everyone. I am going to end this now, since I will be shipping a few of the swag packs internationally. 🙂 But if you live in an area where you lost power and are seeing this for the first time, go ahead and comment and I’ll ship to you.

Okay everyone, keep safe! And check back soon for the next giveaway and interviews with nerdy chicks.

YAmazing Race with MGnificent Prizes

Oct21 by kamikinard

The YAmazing Race is now officially over, as is the Nerdy Chicks Rule Contest. Winners will be notified soon! All entries recieved after 12:00 pm today, October 29 will not count. Thank you for stopping by!

Nerdy Chicks Rule is participating in the YAmazing Race with MGnificent prizes. That means this post will be up for a week, while race contestants run through the blogs of over 50 participating debut authors for chances to win awesome prizes. Haven’t heard about it? Click the HERE to visit the Apocalypsies blog for complete details. Whether you are participating in the YAmazing Race or not, check out the additional contest we are running here at Nerdy Chicks Rule. Details follow the information about THE BOY PROJECT below.

So for race contestants, here’s what you’ll need to answer that race question:

Wildly creative seventh grader Kara McAllister just had her best idea yet. She’s going to take notes on all of the boys in her grade (and a few elsewhere) in order to answer a seemingly simple question: How can she get a boyfriend?

But Kara’s project turns out to be a lot more complicated than she imagined. Soon there are secrets, lies, and an embarrassing incident in the boy’s bathroom. Plus, Kara has to deal with mean girls, her slightly spacey BFF, and some surprising uses for duct tape. Still, if Kara’s research leads her to the right boy, everything may just be worth it. . . .

Full of charts and graphs, heart and humor, this hilarious debut will resonate with tweens everywhere.

Reviews, trailer and three ways to order THE BOY PROJECT right HERE.

Ready for the next stop on the YAmazing Race? Hop on over to E. C. Myers’s blog: http://ecmyers.net !

WAIT! THERE’S ANOTHER GIVEAWAY. Keep reading for Details!

Enter my contest for THE BOY PROJECT inspired prize pack pictured here: Signed copy of THE BOY PROJECT, Spill Your Guts journal, Paint Splatter Duct Tape, Graph paper journal, BOY PROJECT pen, heart topper pencil, and THE BOY PROJECT Friend pack (5 each of bookmarks, tattoos, magnets, and bracelets).

There are several ways to enter! Leave a comment telling me about a favorite use of duct tape, follow me on Twitter, like my author page on Facebook, follow this blog (right sidebar), or follow fellow blogger Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen’s Facebook author page. When you’re done just fill out the form. (Form must be filled out so you’ll get proper credit!)

Halloween Picks from the Nerdy Chicks

Oct20 by sudiptabq

It’s Halloween season, and I’d been planning to share some great Halloween books with you guys today. Surprisingly, both of the books I’d selected were written by the same author…hmmm….

I was originally going to talk about how inspiring Halloween can be to authors, but because today is actually also my son’s birthday, I’m going to focus on his story (and Quackenstein’s).

As you can guess, I got the idea for QUACKENSTEIN HATCHES A FAMILY when I was expecting my third child and my only son, Sawyer. I’d already had two daughters, who had been my companions and playthings since birth. I was totally convinced I was going to have another girl – when the doctor told me I was having a boy.

Now meet Quackenstein.

Quackenstein is desperate to have a family, but as the zoo’s only duck, he doesn’t have an easy way to lay an egg of his own. So he comes up with a plan – he will adopt an egg. Except that the egg that he adopts…well, let’s just say it wasn’t what he expected.

And like Quackenstein, what I got wasn’t what I expected.

I hope you’ll check out QUACKENSTEIN HATCHES A FAMILY this Halloween – and HAMPIRE, too!

The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Rachel Carson

Oct19 by kamikinard

Rachel Carson (1907 – 1964) was an American marine biologist and conservationist. Her book, Silent Spring, along with her work, is given credit for helping the environmental movement. She won the National Book Award in 1951 for The Sea Around Us.

I was introduced to Rachel Carson’s work when I lived near beautiful, marshy, Beaufort, NC, which is a short boat ride, (or swim) from the Rachel Carson Reserve. To find out more about Rachel Carson, click HERE.

Rachel Carson Quotes:

But man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.
The edge of the sea is a strange and beautiful place.
It is a wholesome and necessary thing for us to turn again to the earth and in the contemplation of her beauties to know the sense of wonder and humility.
It is not half so important to know as to feel.
In every out thrust headland, in every curving beach, in every grain of sand there is the story of the earth.
One way to open your eyes is to ask yourself, What if I had never seen this before? What if I knew I would never see it again?

Having spent most of my adult life either near the waters of Beaufort, NC or the waters of Beaufort, SC, I can fully appreciate Rachel Carson’s efforts to preserve waters, the beaches, the marshes, the wildlife.

This photo of Rachel Carson is in the public domain.

Rotem Moscovich: Editor, Bookbinder, and Jazz Dancer

Oct15 by sudiptabq

Rotem Moscovich is brilliant. I know this for a fact, because as an editor at Disney*Hyperion she read a manuscript of mine and immediately saw its immense value and signed it up for publication. Also because she wrote her undergraduate thesis on Harry Potter, though only 5 books had been published at the time (and received the award for Best Thesis in the Comparative Literature Department that year! I mean, she’s supposed to flaunt being smart, right?).

Professionally, Rotem works primarily on picture books and middle grade novels. Privately, she loves to bake. She loves bookbinding. And she loves office supplies. (That last one may earn her the Nerdy Chick of the Week Award!)

Rotem admits that she was incredibly uncoordinated as a child (and still is very klutzy, according to her), but she did Jazz Dance for 8 years and by the end of it, in her own words, “I wasn’t terrible! Entering a dance studio now does induce a sense of panic, though…”

Rotem, we appreciate you joining us today, and as a thank you gesture, we won’t make you dance for us at all! Let’s start with your life as a PROFESSIONAL CHILDREN’S BOOK EDITOR. What are your favorite things to read?

Ohhh so many things, when I’m not reading submissions. I recently read Eva Ibbotson’s Journey to the River Sea with my book club and it was everything a middle grade novel should be, with incredibly drawn characters, an integral setting, and a narrator that you know will take you through this smart, nuanced story about what’s important in life and in the education of a person. But I also love to dip into trashy magazines, YA novels with social criticism (especially feminist ones), and I’m always checking out the latest picture books at the many wonderful indie bookstores in Brooklyn.

Here at NerdyChicksRule.com, we love independent bookstores, too! So, you do a lot of reading even outside your job…How do you see the books that are being published today as helping to empower girls to be smart (or, as we like to call it, nerdy)?

From picture books through YA, I think many books today try to invert the roles traditionally given to girls. I mean, think of Hermione! The thing is, it’s more complicated than one aspect or another (also, there’s book smart and there’s socially smart, and both are worthy and important), and girls need parents, teachers, and friends who can help them come to their own understanding of the girl characters presented to them. They might like one aspect of the portrayal, but have an issue with another. Being able to see media with a critical eye (as well as an appreciative one) is the key.

What do you look for in a story when you are acquiring books for girls?

I look for a girl with agency, and a girl with courage (even if that’s something that she must acquire over the course of the story). Or if the main character is not a girl (not all books for girls have girls as their main character!), then I’d look for the female characters to be multifaceted. And of course, inspiring writing.

Oh, so I need to learn to write well? OK. I can work on that. 🙂

Let’s shift gears a bit and get away from all that work stuff…I was pretty nerdy in middle school and high school (I won’t make you tell us whether you were, too). But those years can be tough for anyone. If you could give your middle school or high school self one piece of advice, what would it be?

Stay the course! You’ll know who your true friends are.

That’s really great advice. It isn’t easy to do, but worth it in the end. Another gear shift: As our newest Nerdy Chick, what is one of your favorite achievements that you can credit to being a nerdy chick?

Well, gosh, this is going to sound extremely nerdy, but it’s my master’s degree in Children’s Literature from the Simmons College Center for the Study of Children’s Literature. It was an intense, incredibly rewarding two years where much time was spent engaging in discussions with other wonderful nerdy chicks. I worked my butt off.

Wow! Even more brilliant than I initially gave you credit for! But no more work – what’s something you like to do that might be considered a little bit nerdy, but is actually really fun?

Is sewing still considered nerdy, or has that passed over into hip? Well, either way, I like to sew and make stuff—the satisfaction of creating a thing when said thing did not exist before . . . I can’t get enough. Also, I love being read to. Why should small children get all the fun?

I agree! I think we should be read to as adults – and get nap time. Nap time would lead to fewer wars, I think. This has been such a great interview. I just have one more question, and it’s very important: if you could rewrite the ending of a favorite fairy tale, which one would you change, and why?

Yikes, this is a tough one! I guess Snow White—though really it’s the whole premise of “the fairest one of all” being the most important thing, not just the ending (though it is rather creepy that the prince wants Snow White in her glass coffin so badly. What for?!).

Thank you again, Rotem, for joining us here on NerdyChicksRule.com — you are truly a Nerdy Chick of Note!

The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Madeleine Albright

Oct12 by sudiptabq

Madeleine Albright is a Nerdy Chick extraordinaire! She has served our country as the United States Ambassador to the United Nations and as the 64th United States Secretary of State — and, oh, by the way, the first woman to ever hold that office. She has a PhD from Columbia University, she has received the Presidential Medal of Freedom, she has served on the Board of Directors of the New York Stock Exchange, she is a Professor of International Relations at Georgetown University’s Walsh School of Foreign Service, and just to top all that off, she is fluent in English, French, Russian, and Czech. Oh, and she speaks and reads Polish and Serbo-Croatian, too. I wonder if she has a cape and mask to go with all those superpowers?

Quotes from Madeleine Albright:

“Even before I went to the UN, I often would want to say something in a meeting – only woman at the table – and I’d think, ‘OK well, I don’t think I’ll say that. It may sound stupid.’ And then some man says it, and everybody thinks it’s completely brilliant, and you are so mad at yourself for not saying something.”

“It’s one thing to be religious, but it’s another thing to make religion your policy.”

“I love being a woman and I was not one of these women who rose through professional life by wearing men’s clothes or looking masculine. I loved wearing bright colors and being who I am.”

“I really think that there was a great advantage in many ways to being a woman. I think we are a lot better at personal relationships, and then have the capability obviously of telling it like it is when it’s necessary.”

“I’ve never been to New Zealand before. But one of my role models, Xena, the warrior princess, comes from there.”

(FYI: Xena is one of my role models, too!)

What Happens in High School…Driving and Crying (and Aging)

Oct10 by sudiptabq

In the state of New Jersey, children have to be 5 years old to enter Kindergarten. The cut-off date is in the fall and it varies, but generally, the kid has to be 5 by December 31st at the latest to start Kindergarten in a given year. If you extrapolate that out over time, you realize that by December 31st of his or her senior year of high school, all students have reached the age of 17. Which happens to be the age one can get a driver’s license in New Jersey.

All of this is true for most kids. But not for the super-nerdy! If you’re super-nerdy (like me), you may have skipped the fourth grade. And you may have a June birthday that happens to fall after the school year ends. And that throws everything off.

If you’re super-nerdy (like me), you may have been the reason that your eighth grade wasn’t allowed to watch that PG-13 movie at the end of the year — because you were still 12.

And if you’re super-nerdy (like me), you may have had the distinction of being the only graduating senior who needed a ride to graduation because you hadn’t turned 17 yet.

This seems like it would totally not be a big deal, right? Except, if you think about it, there is no milestone greater in high school than getting that driver’s license. Add to that some mortifying extras:

Most of the classes I’d taken that had mixed grades meant I was in with kids older than me (because I was, you know, so advanced) — until driver’s ed. Where senior me got to be with juniors.
I’d pretty much raced to success at everything in high school faster than at least 95% of my peers — except this.
I got my driver’s license on my 17th birthday — which was a good few days after graduation. Meaning I did not get to show off my new license at school.

I won’t lie. In the realm of totally cool things about high school, being the youngest one was really not one of them.

But…there’s always a silver lining to being nerdy. Really. And in this case, like many of the other ones, it just gets silverier (is that a word?) with time.

You see, I turned 17 after all of my high school classmates, sometimes over a year after. But that also means when all my former classmates are stressing over turning 40….

I’ll only be 39.

Trust me, Nerdy Chicks, that is totally worth it.

Hook and Theme: A Post For Writers

Oct6 by kamikinard

Me with fellow panelist Megan Miranda and moderator John Claude Bemis. MG author Stephen Messer was also on the panel.

This time last week I was in Charlotte NC at the SCBWI Carolinas conference. It was an honor to be included on the faculty this year. During the conference I critiqued manuscripts, participated in author panels, and attended some inspiring speeches and workshops! So… can I boil down all that happened in an info-packed weekend into one blog post? No way. But being around so many authors and so many enthusiastic writers who long to see their books on shelves has made me think about this question: What is the MOST IMPORTANT thing an aspiring author can learn?

The answers to this question may vary, depending on who you ask, but here is my answer.

Writers must know the difference between theme and hook. The theme of a book tells us what it is about. This Wikipedia definition is accurate: a theme is the central topic, subject, or concept the author is trying to convey.

When I ask aspiring authors to tell me the HOOK of their book, they often describe the theme instead. But the hook is different from the theme. It is the part of your book that pulls the reader in, but it is also the part that NO ONE ELSE has ever thought of before.

It’s true that no two characters, no two settings, no two plots are ever exactly alike. But slight differences between characters, settings, and plots are not enough to set a manuscript apart. For a manuscript to stand out, it must present a truly original idea. One that will make editors and agents wonder how you thought of it in the first place!

When I looked over my conference notes, I saw that some of our most esteemed speakers echoed the importance of presenting editors and agents with truly unique work.

During SCBWI President Stephen Mooser’s workshop, he gave us this advice on character:

“Think about who is someone that editors have never seen.”

This goes hand in hand with advice from Harper Collins editor Molly O’Neal whose keynote included the thought:

“Collect your ideas from where no one else is looking.”

Our words alone do not set us apart as writers. But those unique ideas, the HOOKS, will set us apart instantly. Think about your manuscript. How can you make it completely different from anything else out there? Once you latch on to that idea, you are one step closer to publication!

Theme: A girl who discovers the truth about her world, and her quest to find her mother, and safety.
Hook: A girl who discovers that her father can read characters out of books, and her quest to find her lost mother, who disappeared into a book, and safety.

The Quotable Nerdy Chick: Martha Graham

Oct5 by kamikinard

This photo of Martha Graham and Bertram Ross was taken by photographer Carl Van Vetchtan

Martha Graham (1894- 1991) was an American dancer and choreographer whose influence on modern dance has been compared to Picasso’s influence on visual art. She worked as a dancer and choreographer for more than seventy years. Graham received many awards for her contributions to dance including the Presidential Medal of Freedom. Read more about her amazing life HERE.

Some men have thousands of reasons why they cannot do what they want to, when all they need is one reason why they can.
The only sin is mediocrity.
There is a vitality, a life force, an energy, a quickening, that is translated through you into action, and because there is only one of you in all time, this expression is unique.
Dance is the hidden language of the soul of the body.
‘Age’ is the acceptance of a term of years. But maturity is the glory of years.

The older I get, the more this nerdy chick appreciates that last quote. Especially the word glory!

Anne Marie Pace: Author and Award-winning Cookie Baker!

Oct1 by kamikinard

I met Anne Marie Pace the same place I met several of the Nerdy Chicks interviewed so far: at the Workshop for Writers at Chautauqua, sponsored by the Highlights Foundation. One of the best things about that week was connecting with others who took writing seriously. A writer who loves words, loves playing with words, and keeps working with words until she gets them right, Anne Marie was one of those writers. And she does it while raising four children. To me, that is impressive and amazing. Three of Anne Marie’s picture books have been published and there are more to come! Her latest, Vampirina Ballerina is almost too adorable for words. It is the perfect treat for this Halloween! Thanks so much for joining us today Anne Marie!

You’ve got to be thrilled with the art in Vampirina Ballerina. The black and pink together is both stylish and genius! How do you feel that Pham’s illustrations enhance your words? Did you work together to decide on which images to use? Definitely, I’m thrilled. LeUyen Pham’s work brings so much depth to the book. We did work together more collaboratively than authors and illustrators are often able to, thanks to our editor Kevin Lewis. Some of the visual humor was originally in the text, but we took it out of the text because Uyen’s art did the job without my words (an example would be Vampirina’s inability to see herself in the mirror). But much of it is Uyen’s contribution. My text had some small things in it that Uyen then developed into book-long threads; for example, I had the line “resist the temptation to turn into a bat,” and Uyen took that and ran with it from end paper to end paper. I couldn’t be happier with the book.

I can see why! It’s a great book. Back when I met you, you were working on a middle grade novel. Now you’ve had three picture books published. How did you have to change your mind set to write picture books? Picture books and novels have many things in common, of course—the need for plot, characterization, and so forth. You just have 5000 times more words in a novel, which has its pros and cons. In my own work, I suppose that in my novels, setting tends to be very important, almost a character, if you will—but in picture books, setting is up to the illustrator. Novels are so much lusher—picture books are spare. I don’t think it’s a mindset as much as a skill set, and I acquired the basics from studying good picture books. Honestly, I still have a lot to learn.
I often tell writers that recognizing that they have more to learn is important to success. That’s probably one reason you’ve been successful! Now that you have several books out in the world, what do you think was the biggest obstacle to your achieving success? Oh goodness, to answer that I’d have to define obstacle and define success, because we all define those so differently. Hmmm—how about this? Letting life’s ordinary moments get in the way of writing, and worrying when life’s extraordinary moments get in the way are both obstacles I’ve needed to overcome.

In addition to writing, you’re a mom to four bright children. How does your family help with your writing process? They seem to understand that we are not always going to have a three-course dinner on the table. There is usually clean underwear. That’s a joke. There is always clean underwear. You just might have to look for it on the dining room table, where there is no dinner.

It’s definitely hard (impossible maybe?) to be a published domestic goddess! What is one of your favorite achievements that you can credit to being a nerdy chick? I wanted to perfect my chocolate chip cookie recipe so I did a lot of reading and research on the chemistry of baking, then followed it with many, many trials. I’m happy to say that the resulting cookie won a blue ribbon at the county fair.

Award winning chocolate chip cookies… maybe you are a domestic goddess after all! Here’s something we try to ask everyone: If you could give your middle school or high school self one piece of advice, what would it be? Well, since this blog is about NERDY chicks, I’d probably tell myself not to worry about trying out for cheerleading and to stay on the English Team. Be true to yourself, Anne Marie! I would also tell my middle school self not to curl those bangs under. Ai yi yi, those were some bad bangs.

Do you have a personal “theme song,” perhaps one that speaks to your inner nerdiness? It’s not super-nerdy, but I’m very inspired by U2’s “Magnificent”: “I was born to sing for you/I didn’t have a choice to lift you up/and sing whatever song you wanted me to.”

Very nice! I love your answers, Anne Marie! To find out more about Anne Marie, visit her website, or like her on Facebook! And if you want to make a bat headband for your little Vampirina, Anne Marie shared instructions HERE.

Here’s a Happy Halloween Wish from Vampirina! You can see more Vampirina art like this on her Facebook page.