Not many things can get me to blow the dust off this old website and crank out a new post, but the upcoming Oklahoma SCBWI conference is one of those rare exceptions. If you’re a writer or illustrator living anywhere within reasonable driving distance of Oklahoma City, this conference is definitely not the place to […]
The design team at Little, Brown could not have come up with a more stunning cover for DREAMLAND BURNING, and I’m so grateful! That’s Will and Rowan, if you’re wondering. And though the book won’t be out until January 2017, I’ll have some advanced copies to share in the next few months. Stay posted for […]
The cover of Dreamland Burning is pretty amazing (thank you, design team at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers!), and I’m so excited about being able to reveal it Wednesday. In the meanwhile, here are a few pictures from Greenwood, which, at the time of the riot in 1921, was known as “Black Wall Street. […]
I may not be a Tulsan by birth, but this city is my home and I love it. Of course, like all homes, Tulsa has its problems. And honestly, sometimes those problems are what inspire me most. Dreamland Burning is about the Tulsa race riot (which plenty of people around here justifiably call a “race […]
I’ve had my head down for a while now, finishing DREAMLAND BURNING and getting it ready for its debut next January. Honestly, the details of what happened in Tulsa back in 1921 have gotten so ingrained in my brain that I forget not everyone knows about them. Rather than go into the history here, I’ll […]
Apparently I’ve been so busy working on DREAMLAND BURNING I completely forgot that I have a website. But as it turns out, I do. And DREAMLAND is in ARC form now, along with some other amazing-looking books.
Scarlett’s birthday is coming soon. As in May 19th soon. And the weird thing is, getting to this point has been such a long, long process that it doesn’t feel quite real. But here are some things that are — most definitely– real: –I’m recording an interview at our local NPR station, KWGS, next week […]
So I just read an article about a school district in Hamilton, Ontario that’s raising money to provide Muslim girls with special athletic hijabs designed to stay in place without pins.These hijabs are pretty expensive (around $40 a pop). But you know what? So are football helmets and catcher’s gear and wrestling mats. And when […]
Off to Austin next week to hang out with writers who rock my world and librarians who rock the worlds of readers all over Texas. For the record, I will be fangirling the whole time. But best of all, I get to visit two schools and talk about Scarlett. Can I just tell you how […]
I’ve never had a deadline for writing something new. It’s wonderful (because I know what I’m producing will, in some form, turn into a real book) and terrible (because…deadline). Mostly wonderful, though, because it is so hard writing into a void. That’s what I call all the writing I did working up to selling SCARLETT […]