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Simon & Schuster authors speak out on the topics that inspire them

A gossip queen dissecting politics? A political pundit musing about sports? A romance novelist waxing poetic on music? You read it here first... see what your favorite literary personalities have to say about life beyond books.

Most Recent Posts

A Research Trip

By Marion Dane Bauer - April 19, 2012

I’ve just returned from a research trip for the young-adult novel I’m working on, Blue-Eyed Wolf. Well, actually, it was a mixture of a research trip and a retreat with a friend who needed some time away from home to concentrate on her writing. We went to Gunflint Lodge, a marvelous old Minnesota resort on the Gunflint Trail north of Lake Superior. The time we spent...

By Penny Hancock - March 26, 2012

Why am I overcome with melancholy today? OK it's a dire time of the year, dark already at 4.00 pm and it's been overcast since it tried to get light. Christmas is over, we're all back at school and work. But it isn't just this. Tideline came out on Thursday to some great reviews so why aren't I dancing with excitement? Then I realise. Today my middle daughter went back to uni....

From the Mixed Up Brain of Mr. James Ponti

By Jamie Ponti - March 26, 2012

For me it was From the Mixed Up Files of Mrs. Basil E. Frankweiler.Like a lot of boys, reading did not come naturally for me. When I was a student at Atlantic Beach Elementary and we'd read aloud in class, I was always slower than everyone else. When my friends would lose track of time and simply disappear into a novel while reading, I was always too impatient or restless. Then...

By Marion Dane Bauer - March 22, 2012

How many times have I said it to my students and to other developing writers? When you're publishing a book, celebrate every step of the way, because if you don't celebrate the small moments, you rarely arrive at one that feels big enough to justify loud rejoicing. (Okay. If you win a Newbery or a National Book Award you get a party. Short of that, one moment in the life of...

An adult presence in a child’s story

By Marion Dane Bauer - March 15, 2012

When I began writing fiction for young people in the mid-seventies, I had absorbed one of the most basic rules for such books through reading contemporary novels for young people: keep the adults at bay. No comforting–or scolding–adult voices narrating the story as was standard in the 19th century. In fact, few adults allowed on the scene, certainly none solving the kids’...

Where Do Ideas Come From?

By Marion Dane Bauer - March 15, 2012

I got the idea for this blog when I was meditating this morning. Yes, I know, I'm not supposed to get ideas meditating. In fact, that's supposed to be a time for leaving ideas behind. But when my mind loses its quiet focus on my breath and skitters off to someplace else, ideas about what to write or how to fix something I'm currently writing are one of the more productive...

WHY I READ MY AUDIOBOOKS

By Mary Alice Monroe - March 13, 2012

Many people ask me why I choose to read my audiobooks, and what is it like to do it? It’s definitely hard work. Very, very hard. To give you some idea, if you think you’d like to become a narrator, do what director Laura suggests: Try going into a small room and read for eight hours. If you can do that, then continue every day for five days. I had read my books at...

Speaking to TED audiences

By Lani Leary - March 12, 2012

It was a great honor to share my perspective that "No One Has To Die Alone" at the recent TEDx Honolulu event. To view, go to http://drlanileary.com/2011/11/28/lanis-talk-at-tedxhonolulu/Feedback from viewers relayed that they had a new "tool belt" of ways they could now respond to the needs of their dying loved ones. We can increase our competency and confidence by learning...

Samuel Taylor Coleridge and spaghetti

By David Winner - March 12, 2012

I won’t sue! The Observer today calls ‘Al Dente’ “something like a fusion of Coleridge's Table Talk and Marinetti's The Futurist Cookbook, peopled with eccentric film-makers, anorexic saints and wafer-making nuns.” In the preface to ‘Table Talk’ publisher James Murray saidof Coleridge that his "intellectual power in living discourse struck me at once as...

By Marion Dane Bauer - March 8, 2012

I have received letters from adults indignant about my novel, A Very Little Princess (the first of two stories about a tiny china doll), because, again, it is so sad . . . and for, presumably, a younger audience than On My Honor. But I wonder, though we all cherish happy endings, especially it seems adults cherish happy endings in stories intended for children, are happy...

What Do You Need Editors For?

By Marion Dane Bauer - March 1, 2012

I've been asked the question many times, almost always by non-writers. Or if the question comes from a writer it is, for certain, from one who hasn't yet been published. "What do you need editors for? What right does anyone have to tell you how you should write your story?" The best analogy I can think of as to why writers need editors is that it's the same as singers relying...

"The Man who Turned Both Cheeks" is in production!

By Gillian Royes - February 28, 2012

To my joy, the news came that the second in the Shad Series, "The Man who Turned Both Cheeks," will be distributed on December 4 this year. I'm in the process of doing final edits, etc., and I keep having a really good feeling about this book. Even as I work on my fourth draft of the next. And I'm still promoting "The Goat Woman of Largo Bay." The first week in March...

The End of the Children’s Book

By Marion Dane Bauer - February 24, 2012

That was the headline on a news story on NPRs “All Things Considered” last week. Oh, no, I thought. Everything, especially it seems about children’s books, is always coming to a cataclysmic end. I am, frankly, weary of the hysteria. I suppose, too, at the age of 73 and in the latter part of a long career, I feel somewhat insulated against these changes. My books—some...

DARKROOM wins 1st Place prize in Forward National Literature Award

By Joshua Graham - February 21, 2012

The media usually gets a hold of Advanced Reader Copies before the general public, and sometimes this leads to early awards (thankfully). Such was the case with Darkroom, which won a 1st Place prize in the Forward National Literature Award. Read about it on my blog: http://goo.gl/1mvnw And please remember to pre-order your copy of Darkroom!: http://goo.gl/1gvmI

Greatest strength / greatest weakness

By Marion Dane Bauer - February 17, 2012

I am about a third of the way into writing a young-adult novel called Blue-Eyed Wolf, far enough in to feel a sense of accomplishment, far enough from the end to still have some apprehension about making it the whole way. But a problem has begun to develop. As I sit down to work each day I find myself feeling increasingly claustrophobic, as though I’m being caught into a...

Joshua Graham interviews Steve Berry on Blogtalk Radio

By Joshua Graham - February 15, 2012

A fascinating interview with NY Times bestselling author Steve Berry. Listen to the podcast here: http://goo.gl/DGkWT

Just launched: I'M BORED Scrapbook (How a picture book was created)

By Debbie Ridpath Ohi - February 14, 2012

I've just launched the I'M BORED Journal Scrapbook in which I'll be posting about how Michael Ian Black's newest picture book was created. I'll be including early sketches, quotes from everyone involved (including the author), photos from my meetings at Simon & Schuster, comics, and much more.The most recent entry: how and why I was chosen as the illustrator of I'M BORED....

media, sports & entertainment

By Andrew Oyé - February 8, 2012

Andrew Oye's Adventures in Media, Sports & Entertainment-Developing scripts for TV show pilots & feature film pitches

The Curious Case of the Missing Body Found

By Paul Pickering - February 2, 2012

‘I say, Holmes,’ said Dr Watson, opening his morning paper with a cheerful flourish as the sun angled in through the chintz curtains at 22b Baker Street. ‘I say, now that it’s all over, didn’t the taking of this Obama...drat... I mean Bin Laden chappie, fill you with patriotic pride? I remember when I was up on the pass, dodging the Jezzail bullets. And...

Book Signing in Dunwoody

By Anita Folsom - February 1, 2012

Burt and I are looking forward to our book signing at the Barnes & Noble in Dunwoody, Georgia at noon on February 11.

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