free write

This month in literature…

| cgkinnett

weekend-is-all-booked

Well hello there. I haven’t seen you in a while….totally my fault. Man, the past month has been crazy. To further interrupt the regular rotation of posts I’d like to tell you all about the amazing time I have had in the literary world over the past five weeks.

To kick off the month of October, the Texas Teen Book Festival was held. The day long celebration of the YA genre hosted 35 authors on the Saint Edward’s University campus. As I was volunteering, my day started just before 7 am putting up parking signs and helping to make sure school bus traffic went smoothly. Mindy Kaling’s book signing was the first event of the day which was to begin at 8:30 am. When I arrived (before the sun) there was already a crazy line waiting filled with so many amazing fans. Working book signings is one of my favorite things to do because the people are always excited to see these authors. YA fans are so appreciative of the authors in this genre and vise versa. Each author is so willing to converse with readers and makes sure that their experience in those two minutes is genuine. They have the rotation of these lines down to a science and know how many signatures they can do in x amount of time. It’s amazing. Another reason that this festival is fun is because of the games! Authors play trivia games, have races and contests. In addition to the panels that are held, many of them gather in the university’s gym and by the time you leave your stomach and face hurt from laughing so hard for so long. The Texas Teen Book Festival has been in operation and in a state of growth and evolution since 2009. The TTBF “fosters a community effort to celebrate and promote reading and writing by connecting teens to local and award-winning authors, whose writing spans across genres and interest level.” It is a wonderful experience to witness this first hand. While working a signing this year I overheard a conversation with Kirkus Prize nominee Traci Chee (The Reader) and a young reader who was probably in 7th or 8th grade. She told Chee that she wanted to be a writer and asked her very earnest and well put questions. How she flushed out characters. How to create a foil. This conversation went on for probably 20 minutes or so altogether. When another fan would walk up, the girl would move to the side and then come back and continue inquiring. Seeing this exchange made me so happy and that is the whole goal of such a festival: to inspire young minds and encourage them to keep reading, keep asking questions, and keep imagining.

The next big event: the Kirkus Prize. To read the full list of nominees and articles about each, visit the Kirkus Reviews website. When I was a young reader of about 10 or 12 I fell in love with this series that was about princesses and dragons. I have since forgotten (much to my annoyance) the name of the series and instead remember that the Kirkus review that was on the back of the book had been high praise. From that book on I didn’t buy a book unless it had a review from Kirkus. Imagine, then, how amazingly, stupendously, wonderfully awesome it is that I now work for Kirkus and speak with independent authors and small presses all day every day. Being part of the team who put together the ceremony for the Kirkus Prize was an experience almost beyond words. The ceremony was held in downtown Austin, Tx with a view of the skyline and a view of the river. Six authors in fiction, six in non-fiction, and six in youth literature (YA, middle grade, and picture books) were nominated for outstanding work in their genre. Making my way in and around the crowd, I spoke with several of the nominees and people within the industry that I have admired for so long. When I found myself in the presence of Jason Reynolds (who later in the evening won the award for YA) I totally fangirled on him. I was able to speak to him about his process, his upcoming projects, and about how great his work is. Again I witnessed the wonderful generosity of authors who want to talk about books just as much as you or I. The Kirkus Prize is the largest monetary prize in the literary world and as the first award of the season, it tends to set a precedent for nominations for awards that follow. The prize is $50,000 to each winning author and is awarded to the title that the judges feel displays exceptional merit.

The following evening was the 21st annual Literary Gala which is hosted by the Texas Book Festival. The gala serves as a fundraiser and is the driving factor in keeping the large festival free and open to the public. This was the first time I had been to anything that was coined black tie. Attending the gala this year was an amazing personal accomplishment for me as it was at this exact function the year prior that I met my future boss and started my path to Kirkus. Last year I interned for the festival and was on the outside for the whole gala. This year I was sitting at the Kirkus table and got to wear a fancy dress, eat an delicious three course meal, and listen to some pretty great speeches. One of my favorite aspects of the festival is the Reading Rock Stars program which goes into underprivileged schools in South Texas. They schedule author talks at these schools, bringing in authors and illustrators to talk to kids about what it means to them to be able to write/draw for them and how they too can do it! Each child receives a book of their own to keep and a lot of the time it is the first time that they are given a brand new book of their very own. To hear this program talked about at length during the gala was heart warming and inspiring. First Lady Laura Bush started the festival in 1995 and it has grown exponentially each year in both author and public attendance.

This month has been hectic and stressful and rewarding. It has been long and involved multitasking on a whole different level. And it was so worth it. Never before have I felt so satisfied with myself. I have worked hard for many years now to become part of this world and now that I am, I can’t imagine being anywhere else.

Thank you for reading my ramblings and for visiting my site. Next week we will return to our regularly scheduled programming.

 

An uplifting free write

| cgkinnett

The sky held death in its clouds. All the shades of shadow loomed over the earth, casting gloom from one side of the horizon to the other. The vast coverage provided by the clouds caused the greenery on the ground to look as though it had been pained with soot and ash.

Beams shone brightly from cars as they zipped from one locale to the next; spotlights in the darkness. Street lamps flickered on despite the midday hour. The sun was ready to shine but the clouds would not hear of it. They held her hostage in her own sky. Every time she tried to break through the clouds shook themselves, echoing across the heavens. And each time this rumbling overcame them the clouds would send down a bolt of  deadly energy for good measure.

“Do we have your attention now?” they were asking.

Their tyrannical rule of the sky angered the sun. On this day in particular she was not in the mood for their sass. She resolved that she was not going to let them dictate when she could or could not shine. Bringing herself up to maximum brightness, she started to shake like the clouds and rumble like the clouds and strike down like the clouds. And lo, the clouds took note of the sun and were shocked that she was standing up for her shine.

In that one moment of shock their guard was let down and the tiniest bit of sky opened up allowing one of the sun’s rays to reach the earth. It was just for a moment however and then her light was extinguished. Swallowed up by the shadow. And the world was plunged into darkness once more.

Not A Review

| cgkinnett

Retrograde

I  whispered from car to car, always in the shadows. I poked my head out from behind the tires just enough for my eyes to get a quick glance and then on to the next.

Quick.

There was one human girl who was about to reach her car. She hadn’t seen me…yet..

Slowly, I stalked out from behind the blue car and crossed to the other side of the lot to a shiny red one. In so doing, I crossed her path. She saw me and I saw her face when it registered what was happening.

I’m sorry, I thought. And looked her straight in the eye. I knew the glint of my bright green eyes would send a shudder down her and in turn I arched my back, striking a pose before her.

She got in her car and I darted away, knowing that I would be on her mind all day.

I looked back as she drove off and wondered what the day held for her.

I hate when she drives me downtown. It’s great and all, this thing she has going. But it’s almost over and that is making her anxious. When she drives me downtown three times a week we end up circling the same three block by five block square sometimes for like 20 minutes, she creeps and dives and her breaking habits sometimes give me a headache but she is great at helping me into a parallel spot. We are really good at parallel parking. toot. toot. Sorry, that was my horn. Anyways, so today we were driving and driving and we finally found one on the very edge of the radius. Winning! She took my good pal Glamdring and off they went. It was a great spot. Right next to a hotel so there was great people watching. Nice and sunny too.

Whenever someone first pops my top, I usually let out a refreshing sigh and my insides get all bubbly and fizzy. Sometimes, however, I fizz up too much and some of me seeps out. Oops. I can’t help it…I just get so excited. When I was opened today, that’s exactly what happened. One of her coworkers was using the desktop to print and it overflowed on to the table, managing to hit some of the keyboard in the process. He handed me over and I sat patiently on the desk next to his Mac which she was using. Reaching across the table, she showed someone which of the delivery bags held the brownies. Upon sitting back down, her elbow tipped me over. I couldn’t stop myself or control where I fell. I couldn’t stop!

I saw it coming. It was like my history flashed before my screen. I might’ve blacked out for a second. As a human, she needs water. Me? I’m allergic as hell. It’s deadly. Keep that shit away from me. So, I had been watching as she slowly drank the first one and liked it so much she opened a second. The thing was full; she’d only taken one sip of it and as she sat back down I saw it happening. And then it happened. Right there on my keyboard. How would you like it if I tossed* (stay with me now it’s hypothetical) on you a cup of something that could KILL YOU INSTANTLY!!!! You wouldn’t like it now would you? She shrieked and he scooped me up upside down and patted down with tons of paper towels. Luckily, none of it seeped in between my buttons and I was okay. Don’t worry. No lives were lost.

Comprised of almost 20 books, we are going home with her in installments. She took us out of the dark boxes and now we are all going to have shelves of our own. We’ve been arranged heaviest to lightest and sit proudly by the window behind one of her bosses’ desk. As she reached for the topmost in the stack, she reached her fingers over as many of us at one time as she could. We went with her to be added to a bag. Half way out from behind the desk we began to shift in her hand. We were slipping. We weren’t going to make it to the table. We started to fall. We’ve fallen to the floor. Skattered. No longer a “we”.