Author Reply: Paul Tobin

So, a bonus second post for the day! I got a reply from Paul Tobin, the author for Gingerbread Girl. He said it was very challenging to write Gingerbread Girl, but he's proud of the way it turned out. I would be too! By the way, his website is here if you want to check it out.

Also, you may have noticed that I did some redesigning. It's not nearly as fancy as most of the other blogs I follow, but I think it looks nice. I'll probably be messing around with it more in the future. Note the new "Books I've Read" page-an easier way to check if I've written about a book you like or are interested in! Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

One last thing: I will definitely not be posting about Speak Out tomorrow. The reason is this: it is a compilation of short stories, all by different authors. I have been thinking about how I want to handle books like that, and I decided that I would handle each story individually (all in one post) and contact each of the authors individually. I definitely won't have time to finish that by tomorrow. Instead, I will be posting about Haiku for the Single Girl, written by Beth Griffenhagen and illustrated by Cynthia Vehslage Meyers. I may post about a second book later in the evening as well, but it all depends on how much reading I get done tonight. See you tomorrow!

"This Silly World Forces Us to Lead Silly Lives": Paul Tobin & Colleen Coover

First, I need to apologize. In my last post I incorrectly stated that the author of Gingerbread Girl (Amazon) is Colleen Coover. In fact, she is the illustrator and Paul Tobin is the author. On the plus side, both of them have contact information up!

First, a quick description of the book:
Gingerbread Girl is a graphic novel, set to be released on July 12th, 2011. It is the story of a girl named Annah Billips who may or may not have a sister named Ginger. This story is told from the point of view of... well, of everyone. From Annah herself to a pigeon, the reader gets to hear all sorts of points of view on this girl.

Overall, I thought the book was cute. Not exactly my cup of tea, but an excellent way to kill an hour or so. Both the writing and the illustration were fairly no frills, which was appealing.

Anyway, onto the letters!

Paul Tobin:
"I just finished reading Gingerbread Girl (through netgalley.com) and I just wanted to let you know that I thought the story was very unique. Though the concept wasn't something I personally find too interesting, I think the way it was executed made it appeal to me. I especially liked the concept of having multiple narrators tell Annah's story.

I see from your website that you are at a writer's retreat. I hope it is going well, and good luck on your writing in the future."

Colleen Coover:
"I just finished reading Gingerbread Girl (through netgalley.com) and I just wanted to let you know that I really enjoyed your illustration style. It was not over detailed, and seemed like the perfect way to tell the story of Annah. Based on your website, it looks like you're working on a secret project. Good luck with that and all of your future projects."

They're fairly short, but honestly, while entertaining, the book didn't appeal to me on any sort of emotional level.

In theory tomorrow's book is Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up by Steve Berman. We'll see if that ends up being true. See you tomorrow!

Author Reply: Neve Maslakovic

No new book today. However, I got a reply to one of my emails! Neve Maslakovic (who wrote Regarding Ducks and Universes) sent me a lovely reply. She said Jasper Fforde is one of her favorite authors! She also sent me a link to her blog, which you can find here, so we can all stay up to date as she writes her second book.

I found a website where you can request galleys, and I have a bunch of requests in. I figured it was a good way to find authors I've never heard of on a budget. A few of the requests have been auto approved, so here's a list of what I have tentatively planned for the next few days:
Wednesday-Gingerbread Girl by Colleen Coover (graphic novel)
Thursday-Speaking Out: LGBTQ Youth Stand Up by Steve Berman
Friday-Count Down To Love by Julie N. Ford
Saturday-Liar's Kiss by Jhomar Soriano (graphic novel)

That'll get us through the rest of the week! See you tomorrow!