Malinda Lo

My blog has been sadly quiet lately, but the one thing about traveling (and deadlines) is that it makes it hard to blog. I’m at home for a few weeks now and have some fun (hopefully) things planned for this blog, so stay tuned! Meanwhile here are a few awesome things I wanted to share with you:

Mythopoeic Awards

I’m happy to announce that Ash is a finalist for the 2010 Mythopoeic Awards in the Children’s Literature category! I’m in very illustrious company indeed:

• Kage Baker, The Hotel Under the Sand (Tachyon)
• Shannon Hale, Books of Bayern consisting of The Goose Girl, Enna Burning, River Secrets, and Forest Born (Bloomsbury)
• Grace Lin, Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (Little, Brown)
• Malinda Lo, Ash (Little, Brown)
• Lisa Mantchev, Eyes Like Stars (Feiwel & Friends)

This is such an honor! The news really made my day.

Lambda Literary Awards

Last week I took a whirlwind trip to New York where I spoke to a fantastic group of 7th graders in Harlem, ran through Book Expo America, and then attended the Lambda Literary Awards. Ash, which was a finalist in the Children’s category, did not win, but I still had a wonderful time catching up with many old AfterEllen-era folks and hanging out with my editors.

L to R: Kate Sullivan, Emily Kent, me

On the left is Kate Sullivan, my amazing editor at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers. In the middle is Emily Kent, my editor at Hodder Children’s Books in the U.K. It was so great to meet her! Afterward, Kate and I went out for pizza, which may sound lame but believe me — I live in California and there is no good pizza in this state (although we make a decent pizza at home). Every time I go to New York I have to eat pizza.

What I Did at BEA

As I mentioned, I sped through Book Expo America last week while I was in New York. I was there to look around, but also to write up a blog post on publishing trends in fantasy for The Torch Online. The piece just went up today, so you can check it out here: What’s Next for Fantasy Publishing? Zombies, Angels, Teens, and Machines!

Lunch Time!

I still have many photos from Ireland that I want to share, but I’ll just leave you with this teaser, since it’s lunch time in my neck of the woods.

This was dinner on my first night in Ireland, at Kyteler’s pub in Kilkenny. I ordered the lamb stew and a Guinness. The stew was so delicious, and the brown bread was pretty awesome, too. My goal for this fall will be to recreate this lamb stew.¹ I’ll let you know how it goes.

1. Probably not the bread, though. I’m not really a baker. The only things I bake are pies. [↩]