Black Mirror on KCLS walking tour

The King County Library System in Washington has come up with an imaginative way of promoting books: they've set up a virtual gallery of 100 book covers sprinkled around the county at various businesses. At each stop, you can read about or listen to a description of the book behind the book cover.

Nancy's Black Mirror is on display in CC's Lounge at 635 SW 152nd Street in Burien. If you don't live anywhere near Seattle, you can still follow the tour from the website, and get an audio description of Black Mirror here, nestled right between works by T.S. Eliot and Dr. Seuss in the Burien section of the page. If you do live in those parts and want to do some or all of the walking tour, the instructions are at the top of the page.

Save rubles on Impossible!

The Russian-language version of Impossible is now licensed to Ripol Classics of Moscow, under the KIT imprint for YA. Books are affordable in Russia: the hardcover is expected to retail for somewhere around the equivalent of $2.60, while the paperback is expected to go for around $1.50.

Nancy in the stacks

When we were in Austin a few months ago, Nancy was interviewed by Stacy of Girls in the Stacks.com, who wanted to know about Extraordinary. Here's the video of that interview, in which Nancy discusses the ways in which Phoebe is both ordinary and extraordinary.

We have a winner! And another winner!

Not one but two bidders have earned a spot in Nancy's next novel, as a result of the charity auction for YALSA at the ALA Midwinter Meeting (see the January 5 post for a fuller explanation).

Blogger/librarian Cindy Dobrez won the bidding, but runner-up Ellen Dando bid so spiritedly, and is such a committed fan of Nancy, that Cindy graciously lobbied on Ellen's behalf for her to be included as well. So Nancy is going to work both names into Unbreakable.

Pennies for their thoughts

I love this picture in the Chicago Tribune, a reaction shot to one of the award announcements at the ALA Midwinter Meeting. Across the front row we have librarian Walter Mayes (who officiated at our wedding!), Nancy, author Jennifer Jacobson, her agent Barry Goldblatt, blogger/librarians Lynn Rutan and Cindy Dobrez, and teacher Monica Edinger, collectively displaying a wide variety of emotions. It's fun to speculate about what different thought bubbles might be placed above each head -- I leave this as an exercise for the reader -- but the one constant across the group is obvious passion, for the results and for children's literature generally.

The Killer's Cousin has legs

At its Midwinter Meeting, the American Library Association presented its 2011 list of Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults. In the "Thrillers & Killers" category appears The Killer's Cousin, first published in 1998. Great to see that it's still going strong.

What price immortality?

Librarians, are you going to the ALA Midwinter Meeting in San Diego? If so, you'll have a shot at getting your name in print, for as long as Nancy's next book is in print, or exists (perhaps) in electronic form.

YALSA, the Young Adult Library Services Association, is sponsoring a fundraising Not-So-Silent Auction, and among the many items up for bid is the opportunity to get your name applied to a character in Nancy's upcoming novel, Unbreakable.

Click here to see the inset in today's blog post. The auction takes place this Friday evening, January 7, from 8 to 10 p.m. in the San Diego Convention Center, Room 7. It's for a good cause, but more importantly, your grandkids will be impressed.