Karen Sandler

Author: Karen Sandler

  • RTW – Best Book Read in October

    This week, YA Highway’s Road Trip Wednesday asks, What’s the best book you’ve read in October?

    My answer, Scott Westerfeld’s Goliath, was not only the best book I read in October (and I read some good ones), but the most highly anticipated. I was so glad to finally get my hands on it.

    I’d known about the Leviathan series for quite a while, but I wasn’t sure I’d like steampunk. I’m usually pretty meh about alternate history stories, so I was reluctant to try Westerfeld’s series on that basis (despite being a big fan of his Uglies books).

    Then I saw the artwork on his website and realized I really wanted to give it a try. I own a Kindle, and had planned to get the e-book. But then I was in an independent bookstore about an hour away from my house (we don’t have too many IBS’s nearby) and saw Leviathan. I realized the price for the paper book (trade paperback sized) was the same as for the e-book. Wanting to support the IBS, I bought Leviathan in paper.

    I am so glad I did. I’ve learned in the nearly two years I’ve owned my very basic Kindle that it does have limitations. Reading an illustrated book just doesn’t work as well on the electronic device. Much better to see those detailed drawings on paper, at least for me. So reading that paper version of Leviathan was sheer pleasure, and prompted me to buy the second book, Behemoth, as trade paperback as well.

    I was pretty bummed that Goliath wasn’t immediately available when I finished Behemoth several months ago. Then when Goliath came out in August, I was further frustrated because I wanted to purchase it in a brick-and-mortar IBS instead of from Amazon. But the store that’s an hour away from me was near where my son and daughter-in-law used to live. That made it somewhat convenient to shop there when I’d go visit them. But now they’ve moved out of state, so I have no reason to drive all the way to that store.

    Then I was at a nearby news and gift shop and found out they can and will order in books. I requested Goliath from them (and while I was at it scheduled a book signing at their store for Tankborn). Once it came in, I went and picked it up, then proceeded to devour Westerfeld’s book (in the figurative sense).

    Goliath is full of adventure, alternate history, extremely cool gadgets and exotic genetically engineered beasties, and wonderful characters. I’m sure it’s great fun for the young adults who are ostensibly its audience, but I think any adult lover of science fiction would enjoy the book. If you’re intrigued by history, particularly the events surrounding World War I, then Goliath (the entire Leviathan series, really) is absolutely for you. Scott Westerfeld, you are a god of the written word!

    So what did you read this month? Something wonderful?

  • New Book Sale (the cat is out of the bag)

    About a month ago, I wrote a blog post in response to a YA Highway Road Trip Wednesday prompt that asked, What do you hope to be writing in one year? Three? Five? In that post I was very cagey about a new project that I couldn’t yet discuss. Since a notice has gone out today in the UK’s magazine The Bookseller, and also in PublishersMarketplace, I feel free to announce it here.

    Angry Robot’s new mystery imprint, Exhibit A, has acquired World English Rights to my mystery novel, Clean Burn, as well as to a second book in the series. Janelle Watkins, the heroine of Clean Burn, is a hard-edged abuse survivor who gets caught up in an arson investigation in her hometown while reluctantly searching there for two missing kids. She ends up facing the childhood demons she thought she’d left behind and has to confront again the former lover whose marriage she helped destroy.

    I’m very excited about the sale. Exhibit A will be releasing Clean Burn simultaneously in the UK and US in September 2013 (via Random House in the US). Since Lee and Low/Tu Books will be releasing Awakening, the second book of the Tankborn trilogy in Spring 2013 (hopefully late March 2013), that means I’ll have two books out next year. Woohoo!

  • Micro Booksigning in DC

    I just got back from downtown DC where I  toured the Capital and had lunch with my son. No trip to a big, unfamiliar city would be complete without at least one episode of me getting completely lost. There was some mini-confusion when I emerged from Union Station and wasn’t sure which way the Capital building was. My daughter-in-law had nicely printed off a map of the relevant area, including Union Station, the Capital, and my son’s office. As I was gaping at it, mystified, I realized I’d have to snag a local for some help. After the woman I’d asked pointed at a large dome in the distance thrusting up through the trees and said, “That’s the Capital,” I knew even I’d have no trouble finding it.

    It was after the tour when I exited the Capital building that I got myself totally turned around. I had no idea how to turn the map to coincide with the street names I was seeing. Even the recourse of asking a local was only partly successful. It wasn’t until I’d fulfilled my obligation to go off half-cocked in the wrong direction before finally, finally figuring out where I was that I was able to get on the right track. The funny part is, my son had asked me at 11:30 if I could wait until noon for lunch. Since I needed time to get lost before I got found, the extra half hour was appreciated.

    After lunch, I walked over to the downtown Barnes and Noble to autograph shelf stock. There are two B&N in DC, one in the Union Station Metro, and the downtown one on 12th & E. With “get hopelessly lost” ticked off on my agenda, I had no trouble locating the 12th Street store. They’d ordered in three copies of Tankborn, but along the way to the store, I met a woman who was headed to B&N to buy books as a birthday gift to herself.

    When she found out I was an author and that I was glad to autograph a book to her, she insisted on buying one of the three copies. Whee! Thank you, Tracy. And thanks to Ruth, the wonderful, helpful B&N sales associate.

    Fun day for me. How has your week been going?

  • Hurricane Virgin Update #Sandy

    I think I might still be a hurricane virgin. If there’s an opposite end of “got the worst of it,” that would be us here in NW DC. The wind shook the house a bit, the rain was getting close to horizontal, but other than a couple puddles in the basement (the walk-out door blew open), we were high and dry. I called my cousin in Brooklyn and all is well there (although her sister in Staten Island has no power). I’m worried about my Manhattan friends. I hope they all check in over the next couple days.

    Here’s some video of what it was like here. As you can see, kind of boring. I guess that’s the best way to go through a hurricane.

    It got a little worse after nightfall, but not much. Glad to be spared, and sending good thoughts to those who went through storm surge, flooding, and power outages.

  • Hurricane Virgin #SANDY

    As someone who grew up in Southern California, I grew up being freaked out by earthquakes and wildfires. I live in NorCal now, in a seismically stable area that’s nevertheless just as much at risk of wildland fires.

    When I first planned my visit to the East Coast for a writers conference in New York and a week-long visit with family in DC, I never expected my timing would be perfect to experience my first hurricane. Hurricane Sandy certainly isn’t the kind of weather I would have scheduled if I’d been given the choice. I probably would have asked for some nice sunny fall days without the state of emergency thrown in.

    At the moment, it looks like an ordinary storm–a decent amount of rain, a gusty wind. Plenty of leaves on the ground from the downpour. Assuming I have electricity and a charged up computer, I’ll check-in as things progress.

    How are things where you are? Lots of rain already? None? I hope everyone is keeping safe.