Showing posts with label magic realism. Show all posts
Showing posts with label magic realism. Show all posts

Tuesday, September 6, 2011

An Interview With Author Meg Medina

Launching Darcy Pattison's Random Acts of Publicity:

Meg, reading Tia Isa
I first met Meg Medina in the mid-'90s, when she was collaborating with dancer/choreographer Cherie Carson on a theatrical piece based on the life of her Cuban grandmother. Meg was a journalist for the now-defunct alt-weekly iCE in Palm Beach County; she also wrote grants for the Center for Creative Education. But for as long as I’ve known her, Meg has been passionately and creatively engaged with the Latino experience, and the joys and difficulties of navigating a bicultural heritage. I was bowled over when I found out she’d turned to writing fiction for children. And I was blown away by the beauty of her debut novel, Milagros: Girl From Away (Christy Ottaviano Books: An Imprint of Henry Holt Books for Young Readers).

Meg followed Milagros with a picture book, out this summer, Tia Isa Wants a Car (Candlewick Press, Spanish and paperback editions to follow in 2012). Her young adult novel, THE GIRL WHO COULD SILENCE THE WIND, is forthcoming from Candlewick in March of 2012. Although she still has family in South Florida, she now lives in Richmond, Virginia, with her husband and kids. She’s one of the smartest and most eloquent people I know.

I'm glad to launch Random Acts of Publicity with Meg, since September is also National Hispanic Heritage Month (see Meg's recipe for arroz con pollo, and her author's blog, here, and follow her on Twitter here. I've got a giveaway: a signed copy of Milagros goes to a randomly selected commenter on this post. I’ll contact the lucky winner at the end of the week about how to mail it to you.

Questions for Meg Medina

Tuesday, August 16, 2011

Three Easy Ways to Refresh Your Writing Today

1. Jump In to WriteOnCon

This free, two-day, on-line live writers conference starts this morning and runs through Thursday, featuring live forums for pitch sessions, queries, Q&As with agents, and critiques. Agents featured include Jessica Sinsheimer, Carlie Webber and Christina Hogrebe, Sara Megibow, Suzie Townsend, Jenny Bent, Kelly Sonnack, Ginger Clark, Holly Root, Alissa Eisner-Henkin, and Roseanne Wells, among many others.. Plus a slate of top-notch authors. The full schedule is here. The submission threads open 24 hours in advance of the live event, which means, basically, that you should be getting ready to submit right now if you want a pitch or query critique. Hint: the Middle Grade/Young Adult query critique opens at 10 a.m. this tomorrow morning. Click here to get started.

2. Find a Page of Dialogue in your WIP and Rewrite It