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Updated October 21, 2009
The Magic Thief has been nominated for the New Hampshire Great Stone Face Book Award
It has also been nominated for the Tennessee Volunteer State Book Award and for the Wyoming Indian Paintbrush State Book Award
Because of this article I've been doing a lot of school and library book group meetings via Skype or Google chat, and having a great time. If you're interested in scheduling a virtual visit, contact tony.hirt@harpercollins.com
I did a presentation at the Iowa City Public Library that included pyrotechnics and swordfighting!
I spent a day in Marshalltown, Iowa, meeting at least 1000 awesome students. What a day!
At the end of August, Der Magische Dieb came out in Germany! Here's a picture from a store taken by Sarah B. Johnson, a friend of mine:
And the book came out in France on October 22!
Updated June 17, 2009
The Magic Thief is an E.B. White honor book!
I sold three more novels to HarperCollins, for publication in 2011, 2012, and 2013!
Updated May, 2009
It's also nominated for the Beehive Awards!
And it's on the Maine Student Book Award list.
I was a guest and speaker at the Iowa Society of Children's Book Writers and Illustrators conference on April 24-26.
On April 24 I got to speak and present awards at the ceremony honoring kids who wrote wonderful letters to their favorite authors. This was at the State Library in Des Moines and was sponsored by the Iowa Center for the Book and the Library of Congress.
On May 2 I will be presenting and signing at the Iowa Book Festival in Adel, Iowa
Updated April 2, 2009
The paperback of The Magic Thief comes out on April 21st! Includes new content--"extras" at the back of the book, including Conn's ten reasons why it's better to be a wizard than a gutterboy.
The trilogy has sold to publisher Egmont in Turkey.
The Magic Thief was selected an NCTE Notable Children's Book in the Language Arts 2009.
The book has sold to the Scholastic Book Club! Look for it at book fairs everywhere!
I just sold three more books to HarperCollins!
Updated January 6, 2009
The Magic Thief is a Cybil Awards finalist!
The Magic Thief was reviewed as a "great pageturner" at James Patterson's site, ReadKiddoRead!
The book is one of the top 5 books of the year at River Bend Books in Australia (gotta love the independents Down Under, too!)
The book was reviewed in the UK newspaper The Guardian.
El Ladron Mago is out in Spanish! Check out the website--with video--here!
www.ladronmago.com
The Magic Thief is out in Finnish, Czech, and Danish, too. Here's a picture of a billboard at the busiest train station in Denmark:
On October 26th and 27th I had a great visit at the Des Moines Public Library, and at the West Des Moines Barnes & Noble, where I met Ms. Thompson's sixth grade students from Van Meter Elementary.
I did an interview for the Des Moines Register.
Updated October 25, 2008
The Magic Thief has been named to the 2008 New York Public Library Books for Reading and Sharing list (a children's book award).
Foreign rights have sold to Poland.
Updated October 18, 2008
On tour in New Jersey! At Mill Street Elementary in Glen Rock. Such a great audience!
Updated September 28, 2008
I toured in the UK--London area and Bath--during September 16-24 and had a great time! This picture from a school visit at the Monk's Walk School in Hertfordshire.
On Sept 26 I attended the Midwestern Booksellers Association meeting in St. Paul and met booksellers at a speed-dating luncheon.
I was featured in the June 16th issue of Publisher's Weekly as a "Flying Start" author.
I was interviewed (with picture) by the Iowa Alumni magazine.
The Magic Thief got its third starred review, this one from the Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books!
Here's a link to a podcast I did for HarperCollins--you can hear me read the first chapter of the book!
The amazingly wonderful artist of The Magic Thief blogged about working on the book.
I visited the Cover to Cover children's bookstore in Columbus, Ohio and a couple of teachers/librarians blogged about it (with pictures!)
On June 7th I did a signing at a Barnes & Noble in Columbus, along with a bunch of cool science fiction writers.
Updated May 3, 2008
Magic Thief was selected as #3 on the Booksense Top Ten Picks for all children's books published in spring/summer 2008.
The book has been selected by the American Booksellers for Children New Voices project.
And HarperCollins is running a contest, giving away lots of books,
including The Magic Thief.
Click here to enter!
Updated April 13, 2008
Here's the cover of the UK edition of The Magic Thief, coming in September 2008 from Quercus. Shiny!
During April 7-11 and 14-15 I went on a five-city prepublication tour to talk about The Magic Thief over dinner with booksellers, librarians, teachers, and readers. First stop was Anderson's bookshop in Naperville, then The Book Stall in Winnetka (these are both Chicago suburbs), then Cover to Cover in Columbus, and the amazing Books & Co in Dayton, followed by Harry W. Schwartz Bookshops in Milwaukee. Here's a picture from the Anderson's visit, with kid readers:
Updated March 30, 2008
Another review, this one on RJ Anderson's blog.
If you want to see what I'm reading, I've started a list on goodreads.com. I'm not doing reviews or rankings, but I'm finding the site a great way to keep track of what books I've read recently.
Updated March 13, 2008
The Magic Thief received its first review--five stars!--from Teens Read Too
I'll be a "participating pro" at this year's WisCon (a feminist science fiction convention in Madison during Memorial Day weekend), which means I'll be running a critique session on YA/MG novels. For more information, click here.
Looking ahead, along with Blue Heaven workshoppers Charles Coleman Finlay, Sandra McDonald, Tobias Buckell, and others, I'll be doing a reading/signing/panel-thing on Saturday, June 7th at the Barnes & Noble at Lennox Town Center on Olentangy River Road in Columbus, Ohio. Time TBA. Probably 7:00pm.
This is looking even further ahead: I'll be doing an "author talk" at the Iowa City Public Library at 1:00pm on Wednesday, July 16th. Sponsored by the library and by Prairie Lights bookstore.
Updated Feb, 2008
Romanian rights sold to RAO International
School/library audio rights sold to Recorded Books
I was interviewed for the January newsletter of the Online Writing Workshop.
The Magic Thief trilogy sold to Quercus for publication in the UK, Australia, and New Zealand, probably in fall 2008 sometime.
I’m a member of the Class of 2K8, a group of debut authors working together to get our books into the hands of readers.
Here’s our website: www.classof2k8.com
and our blog: http://classof2k8.blogspot.com/
My short story “Dragon Hunt” is online in the December 2007 issue of Lone Star Stories.
An interview is online at the HarperCollins site.
The ARC (Advance Review Copy) of The Magic Thief is out in the world.