I don’t think of myself as a terribly patient person, so it’s been killing me to sit on this news since January, but I can finally spill the beans that I’ve sold a new book to Scholastic! Here’s the official announcement from Publishers Weekly:

Erin Black at Scholastic Press has bought the middle-grade novel Once Upon a Cruise by Anna Staniszewski ( Read more... )

Things have been a little nuts around here thanks to deadlines and end-of-semester grading, so I haven’t had much time for reading. When I’m most stressed, I tend to gravitate toward light, fun reads. Here are a couple I enjoyed recently.

Not in the Script by Amy Finnegan


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Look what arrived on my doorstep last week: advance copies of THE GOSSIP FILE! How is this book a real thing? How is it coming out in January? And how is it possible that the whole series is totally out of my hands??


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If you’re in the Cambridge, Mass. area on Sept 6, stop by Porter Square Books at 3pm for a “Middle Grade Mavens” event with yours truly and fellow children’s book authors Jen Malone, Dana Levy, and Jennifer Mann. It should be a great time!

I’m back from my cruise, and I must say that it was fantastic. We snorkeled and ate (and ate and ate) and ( Read more... )

The blog tour for The Prank List continues! I was interviewed by Vonna Carter about creating the story, I shared the inside scoop on the inspiration behind the book, and I did an interview that includes a giveaway of a signed copy.

Back in May when I was at my agency retreat, I was reminded of how lucky I am to have so many talented agent-mates. ( Read more... )

The blog tour for The Prank List continues! I was interviewed by Vonna Carter about creating the story, I shared the inside scoop on the inspiration behind the book, and I did an interview that includes a giveaway of a signed copy via Elizabeth Dulemba.

Back in May when I was at my agency retreat, I was reminded of how lucky I am to have so many ( Read more... )

The blog tour for The Prank List continues! Get the inside scoop on the inspiration behind the story, and enter to win a signed copy of the book.

Back in May when I was at my agency retreat, I was reminded of how lucky I am to have so many talented agent-mates. After I got home, I vowed to put more of their books on my summer reading list. First up ( Read more... )

I don’t know about guys, but sometimes I can’t shut off my internal editor. When I’m revising a manuscript and teaching a workshop class and critiquing manuscripts for fellow writers, my brain is firmly in editing mode all the time. All I see are the things that aren’t working or the things that could have been done better. When I’m in that mindset ( Read more... )

I don’t know about you, but hearing people literally cheer for books is just about the best thing ever. As I was watching the ALA awards online this morning, hearing people actually scream when winners were announced, I couldn’t stop smiling. Yes, it’s nice to find out which books won and to hear about titles I might have missed, but mostly I love ( Read more... )

I know I’ve mentioned The Anatomy of Story by John Truby before, but I need to sing its praises one more time. Since I first read it a couple years ago, it’s become the one book on craft that I can’t live without. It’s helped me out of some serious plotting jams, and it worked its magic again yesterday when I found myself stuck on my current ( Read more... )