Starting to write a new novel is hard for me. One reason is that I have probably just completed one, which I spent at least several months, maybe even years, writing. So to set aside that world and move on to another isn't easy. Plus there's that word count. If I just spent the last year reaching 10k, then 20k, then 30, 40, 50, etc., it is so ( Read more... )

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My friend illustrator Lauren Stringer http://artistand3cats.blogspot.com tagged me in The Next Big Thing. The next book I have coming out is the paperback of:

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A while ago, my husband and I were hanging out and he said, "You know what? I never thought about this before, but you have to deal with a lot of crap. You have way thicker skin that I ever thought you did."  He then went on to tell me he had discovered Goodreads ( he is not much of a reader, so he went on there for the sole purpose of looking up ( Read more... )

I'm so excited that The Raft has been named to the 2013 Tayshas reading list in Texas. The book is in some amazing company, because there are some fabulous and very much talked about books on the list.

http://www.txla.org/groups/tayshas

I was in Louisville last week, speaking on a panel at the Spalding University MFA residency. On the way home, I checked my mail at the Salt Lake City airport and discovered The Compound had won the 2011-12 Indiana Young Hoosier Award. I was born in Indiana, many eons ago, plus we lived in IN from 2000-2002, so it is very cool to win the award in ( Read more... )

Last week was a bit roller coaster, because I did get this great news before I got the bad news I recently posted about.
The Compound has won the 2011 Nebraska Golden Sower Award. Here are the winners and runners-up for all three age groups...

http://www.goldensower.org/index.htm

The Hunger Games won last year which puts me in some very fine company. ( Read more... )

So, this just hit Publisher's Marketplace, so I guess I can share:
THE RAFT and THE COMPOUND author S.A. Bodeen's first four volumes of a first middle grade series, pitched as "Swiss Family Robinson" meets "Lost," about a recently-blended family on a sailing trip in the South Pacific as a bonding adventure for the new step-siblings and step-parents ( Read more... )

A couple of years ago, I read this:


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