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Simon and Schuster
Congrats to S.K. Ali on her Two Book Deal!
S.K. Ali’s SAINTS AND MISFITS has touched so many readers and received so much praise, including becoming a William C. Morrow finalist. Today we get to announce there’s lots more to come from @sajidahwrites!
Check out the announcement from Publishers Weekly:
Congrats S.K.!
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You can check out SAINTS AND MISFITS on Goodreads, and pre-order on Amazon, B&N, and Indiebound.
Cover Reveal Day! Christian McKay Heidicker’s THROW YOUR ARM ACROSS YOUR EYES AND SCREAM!
Today we bring you another pink-and-purple inflected cover, this time for the (fabulously titled) new YA by Christian McKay Heidicker coming this September from Simon & Schuster: THROW YOUR ARM ACROSS YOUR EYES AND SCREAM!
As die-hard 50s Sci-Fi schlock fan, I just love this book so much. As with his debut, CURE FOR THE COMMON UNIVERSE, Christian manages to take a stock trope from pop culture and turn it completely on its head. Oh, and it’s also funny as hell.
Without further ado, here is the cover…
Phoebe Darrow is a lightning rod for monsters.
She and her mom are forced to flee flesh-eating plants, blobs from outer space, and radioactive ants. They survive thanks to Phoebe’s dad—an invisible titan, whose giant eyes warn them where the next monster attack will take place.
All Phoebe wants is to stop running from motel to motel and start living a monster-free life in New York or Paris. But when her mom
mysteriously vanishes, Phoebe is left to fend for herself in small-town Pennybrooke.
That’s when Phoebe starts to transform . . .
Christian McKay Heidicker returns with a book unlike any other, challenging perceived notions of beauty, identity, and what it means to be a monster.
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You can find Christian online at http://www.cmheidicker.com/and https://twitter.com/cmheidicker, and get his debut CURE FOR THE COMMON UNIVERSE at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound.
“A plugged-in young adult comedy about the pain of unplugging… perfect for teen gamers and readers who are fans of Jesse Andrews and John Green.” (School Library Journal)
“Heidicker’s debut crackles with twitchy energy… this is a fun, absurdist romp through gaming culture, populated by zany characters and a quest narrative worthy of its own game.” (Booklist)
Congrats to Christian McKay Heidicker on his debut middle-grade!
Real talk: every time Christian Heidicker pitches me an idea, I think “How on earth is he going to pull that off?” And yet, he always does, coming back with something weirder, more lovely, more heartbreaking, more original than I could ever have expected.
I cannot wait to share SCARY STORIES FOR YOUNG FOXES with you all. This is going to be such a thoroughly unique and wonderful book, with some gorgeous art by Junyi Wu.
Here’s the announcement from PW:
Christian’s second YA, THROW YOUR ARM ACROSS YOUR EYES AND SCREAM, is coming September 11th from Simon & Schuster.
You can find Christian online at http://www.cmheidicker.com/ and https://twitter.com/cmheidicker, and get his debut CURE FOR THE COMMON UNIVERSE at Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Indiebound.
“A plugged-in young adult comedy about the pain of unplugging… perfect for teen gamers and readers who are fans of Jesse Andrews and John Green.” (School Library Journal)
“Heidicker’s debut crackles with twitchy energy… this is a fun, absurdist romp through gaming culture, populated by zany characters and a quest narrative worthy of its own game.” (Booklist)
Happy Pub Day to Saints and Misfits!
Happiest of Pub Days to the phenomenal S.K. Ali, and SAINTS AND MISFITS! S.K. Ali’s debut novel is also the first young adult from Simon & Schuster’s Muslim Voices imprint Salaam Reads.
Order right now on Amazon, B&N, and Indiebound.
Saints and Misfits is an unforgettable debut novel that feels like a modern day My So-Called Life…starring a Muslim teen.
There are three kinds of people in my world:
1. Saints, those special people moving the world forward. Sometimes you glaze over them. Or, at least, I do. They’re in your face so much, you can’t see them, like how you can’t see your nose.
2. Misfits, people who don’t belong. Like me—the way I don’t fit into Dad’s brand-new family or in the leftover one composed of Mom and my older brother, Mama’s-Boy-Muhammad.
Also, there’s Jeremy and me. Misfits. Because although, alliteratively speaking, Janna and Jeremy sound good together, we don’t go together. Same planet, different worlds.
But sometimes worlds collide and beautiful things happen, right?
3. Monsters. Well, monsters wearing saint masks, like in Flannery O’Connor’s stories.
Like the monster at my mosque.
People think he’s holy, untouchable, but nobody has seen under the mask.
Except me.
Follow S.K. Ali on twitter at @sajidahwrites, and check out her piece on her quest to find an agent.
S.K. Ali Talks Family, Togetherness, and Ramadan at NBC News
So cool to see SAINTS AND MISFITS author S.K. Ali talking about blended families, togetherness, and Ramadan with NBC News.
“With my remarriage nine years ago, my single-parented family of three gained two appetite additions: the nuanced one of my gourmand husband and, for two to three months of the year, that of my teen stepson, Jochua, solidly rooted in good ol’ southern American fare.
Which, for him, being brought up as a Christian, includes bacon. (Thank Allah for quality halal beef bacon ready to do fill-in duty!)
You could say my son Hamza is also a meat ‘n potatoes kind of guy. Halal meat and turmeric-laced potatoes that is. My mother, an amazing cook, has nurtured his taste for good ol’ southern Indian fare.
And then my daughter, Bilqis, turned vegetarian four years ago. The kind of vegetarian who thrives on the sameness of her favorite foods, like veggie sushi rolls, with drizzled spicy sauce on top (i.e. she’ll eat it every day if she could).”
Check out SAINTS AND MISFITS (which has garnered three starred reviews!) on Goodreads, and pre-order on Amazon, B&N, and Indiebound.
Follow S.K. Ali on twitter at @sajidahwrites,
Congrats to Quinn Sosna-Spear on her Debut Deal!
A huge congrats to Quinn Sosna-Spear on her debut deal with Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers! Guys this manuscript is so weird and wonderful, I can’t wait for you to read it.
Liz Kossnar at Simon & Schuster has acquired world rights to a debut novel by Quinn Sosna-Spear. Pitched as Charlie and the Chocolate Factory meets American Gods, The Mortician’s Son follows 12-year-old Walter’s travels in the stolen family hearse, through towns where people dress as fish, worship bees, and dig for living rocks, en route to meet the infamous inventor who mentored his father. Publication is planned for fall 2018; John M. Cusick at Folio Jr./Folio Literary Management brokered the deal.
You can find Quinn online @qsosnaspear and quinnsosnaspear.com.
Congrats to Christian Heidicker on His Debut Deal!
A big power-up high five to Christian Heidicker, whose debut y.a. just sold to Simon & Schuster! From Publishers Weekly:
Christian Trimmer at Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers has bought debut author Christian Heidicker‘s YA novel, Miles in the Infinite Sandbox. Told in “censored” blog posts, the novel follows basement-dweller Miles after he is sent to video game rehab, and touches on issues of pop culture, sexism, and human connection. Publication is slated for summer 2016; John M. Cusick at Greenhouse Literary brokered the deal for world rights.
(You read that right. Christian’s editor is also named Christian. No, that’s not going to get confusing at all.)
When and how did you start writing?
Christian: I was cleaning a deep fat fryer. It was one of those crappy fast food jobs you get in college so you can afford to buy crappy fast food.
While the charred gloop of a thousand dead French fries splatted out into the bucket, images kept popping into my head of a small girl wandering into a forest with a plastic crown and a stuffed gorilla. I had to keep snapping off my rubber gloves to scribble notes on a pizza order sheet. Hold on to your crappy jobs, kids. They can inspire miracles.
Can you remember the first book that made an impact on you? Who were your childhood storytelling heroes?
Matilda is the first book I can remember finishing and then starting right back over again. I loved Matilda’s power over her teachers and parents. Being an only child with a New Age mother who healed my cuts with white light instead of Band-Aids, I’d always had a problem with authority figures. In fact, who are you? Why are you asking me these questions?
My childhood storytelling heroes were C.S. Lewis, Beatrix Potter, A.A.
Milne, Shel Silverstein, Maurice Sendak, and Brian Jacques . . . But everyone knows about them. You’re here for the goods. The work that turned me into a storyteller has to be Jim Henson’s Storyteller. The Soldier and Death episode specifically. Oh, look! It’s on YouTube! You lucky devils: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZvsnV0yNddc If you don’t like the crappy eighties special effects, don’t tell me.
Was it hard to get an agent? Can you talk us through the process?
Someone else got my agent for me. Valynne E. Maetani* and I co-wrote a book about kids that used to eat brains together. (Not really though, it was hamburger.) We worked really hard on it, and when we were finished, Valynne threw on a Safari hat, grabbed a harpoon, and set off into the publishing wilderness. Eight days later, she returned bloodied and sweaty and covered in bruises. She had a lavender sack slung over her shoulder with a man-sized object struggling and screaming inside.
“I have good news,” she said, and poured John M. Cusick out onto the floor.
I highly recommend this approach.
Describe your writing day. Where do you write? How do you organize your time? Where do you look for inspiration?
I wake up between the hours of 7 and 11 a.m. (That’s not a joke.) I don’t care where I write so long as I’m standing. People may give me funny looks at coffee shops, but I feel like hell if I sit for too long, and how else am I supposed to break into interpretive dance if I’m super excited about an idea?
When it comes to organizing time, I’m my own Nurse Ratched. I don’t let myself do things like eat or read or go out on the town until I finish an assignment or a chapter. Right now, I’m eyeballing a cup of tea and a book on the history of Scientology.
I pull inspiration from EVERYWHERE. I believe in the Ray Bradbury reading diet. I read picture books, comic books, books on science and history, the news, classics, music lyrics, anything. Lately, however, I’ve found that just listening to how people speak is crazy valuable.
The other day, I was putting on a puppet play for kindergartners. One of the little girls raised her hand and said, “I don’t know what’s a puppet.” I couldn’t make up that kind of cuteness if I tried.
Can you tell us about your next book?
It’s about a kid who’s committed to video game rehab. Or, if you want to get more specific, it’s about a kid who gets the first date of his life only to be committed to video game rehab where he must earn one million points by learning real-life skills in order to be released and make it back to his date.
Are there any tips you could give aspiring writers who are looking to get published?
YES. Read outside of your genre. The most famous creators out there bring something new to the table. Just look at sci-fi and fantasy.
J.R.R. Tolkien studied language. J.K. Rowling studied mysteries.
George R.R. Martin studied world history. George Lucas studied Akira Kurasawa films. C.S. Lewis studied theology. Of course you should read a bit in your genre to get a feel for what’s out there . . . but I’d like to see the Young Adult romance by someone who studied corn pollination or something . . .
Can you describe three aspects of writing craft that have been most important as you’ve developed as an author?
1. Learn how to finish things. You learn more by finishing and sharing your stuff than by doing anything else. (I’m hoping to reach Nirvana at the end of this questionnaire.) If someone can look at one your work as a whole, they can point out your weaknesses and strengths. Keep a tough skin and pay attention to how they really feel about it.
2. Give yourself permission to completely screw it up the first
time. It’s super intimidating to approach a blank page, difficult chapter, or even a questionnaire. I’ve found that if I remind myself no one’s going to read the first draft, I can take big sloppy risks and throw in whatever jaunty crabjectives I spoon like.
3. Start working on the next thing. Writing stings. Sharing
writing stings. Having that writing rejected over and over and over* again stings. BUT if you start working on a new project as soon as the first one is finished, then you won’t think about that poor first manuscript being blown to smithereens and tumbling down to the earth as a papery carcass. Also, you can mentally tell whoever rejected it that you’ve got something WAY better on the way. In fact, I think I’ll go start another questionnaire right now.
*and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
This is a tricky question because I think the most brilliant writers were kind of . . . well, a-holes. Salinger was a hermit. Truman Capote was in love with himself. Roald Dahl hit his wife apparently. I’m not feeding that guy dinner. So here’s my list of people whose writing I greatly admire and would actually like to hang out with:
The Living:
Toni Morrison
Alan Moore (tolerably grumpy)
Ursula K. LeGuin
Kate DiCamillo
Sherman Alexie
And FINE, Neil Gaiman, you can come. (Ug. I feel like I’m inviting the prom king that everyone’s in love with. Although . . . he is pretty handsome. Er, good at writing.)
The Dead:
Maurice Sendak (charmingly grumpy)
Ray Bradbury
David Foster Wallace
Joseph Campbell
John Steinbeck
Kurt Vonnegut
(Whoa there, all white men.)
A character I wish I’d invented?! Ooh, that’s a good question.
Matilda, The Storyteller, and Swamp Thing all jump to mind . . . But then I wouldn’t have been able to experience them as a reader. So I’ll say . . . L. Ron Hubbard. Imagine a character who could brainwash tens of thousands with a simple sci-fi story . . . WHAT? That guy’s real? I still wish I invented him.
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* Valynne’s amazing debut, INK AND ASHES, is coming from Tu Books in Spring 2015. Watch for it! Also Valynne is amazing and you should follow her and check out her websites. Add INK AND ASHES on Goodreads. – JMC
Tommy Wallach’s WE ALL LOOKED UP Optioned for Film
So in other *really really really* exciting news, Tommy Wallach‘s debut y.a. WE ALL LOOKED UP (Simon & Schuster, 2015 [so soon kids, so soon…]) has been optioned by Paramount Insurge! The announcement went up on Deadline Hollywood last week. You can see it here.
If’n you don’t know, WALU follows the lives of four teens several months before a meteor (read: Giant Kill Rock) will pass through earth’s orbit with a 66.6% chance of striking and annihilating all life on the planet.
It’s also that book with no title on the cover…
(!!!)
Adrian Garcia at Resolution was my co-agent on the deal. Adrian shopped the manuscript all over town and drummed up phenomenal interest. In the end, the book was scooped up by Davis Entertainment, the production company behind Chronicle, Eragon, Blacklist and a whole mess of other films and television shows.
You know what? Tommy does a much better job breaking down this process than I could. You can read all about it in his aptly titled “On My Novel Being Optioned For Film”.
You can also add WE ALL LOOKED UP on Goodreads or pre-order it on Barnes & Noble, Amazon, or Indiebound. Which you should do.
John M. Cusick 