Crongton Knights by Alex Wheatle

From the Guardian a couple of months ago, author Alex Wheatle won the children's fiction prize for Crongton Knights. Here's a bit from the article:

A writer who traces his interest in books back to a spell in jail after the 1981 Brixton riots has won the Guardian children’s fiction prize with a hard-hitting novel set on a fictitious inner-city estate plagued by knife crime and overrun by phone-jacking “hood rats”. 

Alex Wheatle is the 50th writer to have won the award, joining a roster that includes Ted Hughes, Philip Pullman, Mark Haddon and Jacqueline Wilson. 

His winning novel, Crongton Knights, is the second in a planned trilogy set on the South Crongton estate, where schoolboy McKay’s rash attempt to help out a girl in danger of exposure for sexting after her phone is stolen takes him on a mission even more dangerous than his more usual challenge of dodging early-morning visits by the bailiffs to his tower block home. 

 Wheatle's frustrations over his publishing history for adults is evident in a second interview that also ran in November.

Here's a bit from that:

“I felt like I was this token black writer who writes about ghetto stuff,” Wheatle says. He believes working-class characters are increasingly thin on the ground, while the handful of black writers who are feted often explore sweeping tales of immigrant experience, rather than domestic tales rooted firmly in one place and time. “My books are seen as only for a black demographic, whereas Zadie Smith or Andrea Levy’s were propelled higher than that, so I felt cheated, in a way.”

Fortunately, he has found acclaim writing for teens, and is producing some powerful - and award winning - stuff.  While his books are not available in the US yet, but you can buy them online - the first in the trilogy is Liccle Bit, then Crongton Knights and, due in April, Straight Outta Crongton. Wheatle sounds like an amazing writer - be sure to check him out.

Joel ben Izzy interview

I recently interviewed Joel ben Izzy, author of Dreidels on the Brain, as part of the 2017 Sydney Taylor Book Award blog tour. Joel is the recipient of the Sydney Taylor Honor Book in the Older Readers category. In the interview, we discussed how his work as a novelist and a storyteller.

"I suppose that, as a storyteller, most of my life walks the tightrope between fiction and non-fiction," he said, describing Dreidels on the Brain as "mostly a memoir, with some parts fictionalized. But I think that the hard and fast distinction between 'fiction' and 'non-fiction' is overrated," he explained. "I think of my writing as something between the two - 'faction.'"

Learn more about Joel's writing rituals, his stories, and his inspirations in our interview at Bildungsroman.

Scary Stories We Love

In the days leading up to Halloween, during conversations about costumes, candy, and celebrations for the coming spooky holiday, I asked authors, friends, and teen readers alike:

What was your favorite scary book as a kid?

Here are some of their responses.

"Well, I was always a fan of Where the Wild Things Are...that was one of my favorites year round. As I got older, I sorta skipped kids' books and went right into the old Doc Savage pulp reprints. After my pulp phase, I discovered Richard Matheson's I Am Legend and there was no going back. I found my love in horror and there was no looking back. That book scared the crap out of me. From there I discovered Stephen King, devouring Carrie and Salem's Lot, but it was The Shining that again reduced me to a quivering mass...but I loved every second!" - Tom Sniegoski

"I LOVED Baby-sitters Beware, The Baby-Sitters Club Super Mystery #2 by Ann M. Martin. The girls were stalked by a creepy dude. So unsettling for a BSC book!!!" - Courtney Summers

"As a kid: Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn. As a teen, I read memoirs about tragedy, which scared me plenty!" - Courtney Sheinmel

"Ghost Cat by Beverly Butler changed how I felt about ghosts, cats, and Wisconsin farms. Spooky and a little quirky, which is my favorite flavor of spooky. Wait Till Helen Comes by Mary Downing Hahn was suggested to me by my bookish friend in grade school. What I remember most about this book are the fires, the liars, and the skeletons. I'm sure I'm making it sound less chilling than it was for me at the time. It scared me. Also, Carrie was scary. I was the first Stephen King book I ever read. I was in high school and I think it's the only frightening novel I read at that age. I metabolize horror very slowly and read it sparingly. My husband is the scary writer. I'm the funny one." - Kristen Tracy

"Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark by Alvin Schwartz. It gave me nightmares." - 15-year-old reader

"There was this book about a kid who was visited by monsters every night and the monsters broke his toys. Every night. Until one night when he asked them not to do it anymore, and then they fixed his toys. I can't remember the title." - another 15-year-old reader (If anyone is familiar with this book and knows the title/author, please share the info in the comments below!)

"By far, the scariest book I remember as a young reader was James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl. After all, what could be more horrifying than rolling around the countryside embedded deep in the dark, cloying, moist tunnels of an enormous piece of fruit while surrounded by huge insects? If you don't suffocate in there, you run the risk of a tunnel collapse or that the enormous spider might decide to sting you and wrap you in its web. And even if all else goes well, what if the peach stops rolling with the opening facing down? Buried alive. I still shudder at the thought of that book... I was also frightened by Shel Silverstein's foot." - Eric Luper

How about you, gentle reader? What was your favorite scary book as a kid? Leave a comment below and let me know!

Want to check out some of my favorite scary stories? Looking for more books to pick up this Halloween? Here are some booklists I created that you might enjoy:
Go Gothic
Monster Mash
Vamping It Up
Mind Readers and Ghostly Visitors
Teen Mystery and Horror Books

How to Talk to Your Cat

Jean Craighead George was a Newbery-Award-winning writer who knew a lot about animals. She wrote a lot of fiction, but I really enjoy her nonfiction. This book, for example. I've lived without cats for a few years now, so rereading this reminded me how much I used to enjoy talking to Merlin, Mr. President, Ibn Rafferty, Bella, et al.

There is one thing to know about cats: The cat that picks you, the one that meows at your door asking to be taken in, makes the best pet. You have not forced yourself upon it. Of its own free will it has chosen you. That's what a cat is all about -- free will.

... cats have worked out as many as nineteen different meows to get their points across... The purr distinguishes the cat from all other animals... Amazingly, the purr is never given when the cat is alone. Sitting in the sun on a soft pillow will not turn on the purr; curled on the hearth before a toasty fire won't do it either. The purr is communication...

Interview with the Author: Jennifer A. Nielsen

Jennifer A. Nielsen, author of the Ascendance trilogy (and the very charming Underworld Chronicles trilogy, as well as an installment in the Infinity Ring series) made a stop at my middle school while on a visit to Boise in April. Nielsen was funny, down-to-earth, quite well-spoken, and really just terrific to hang out with for the short time we spent together during her appearance. I felt very fortunate to be hosting her at our school!

She gave an inspiring and eye-opening talk about an author's life and work, and while signing books took the time to speak individually and personally to each of a long line of starstruck students. She was also gracious enough to visit our library and have her picture taken by our giant READ sign, and agreed to an interview about her past and future work, her audience, and the possibility of a False Prince movie.

5 Questions for Bryon Quertermous

For this month’s post instead of a review, I spent some time chatting (well, emailing) with my old writing center colleague Bryon Quertermous.  Recently, Bryon left a M-F 9-5 job for life as a full-time mystery writer and editor. Most importantly he’s living proof that guys do read, and write.

1.     Why do you read? – Because I love using my imagination. It’s the only entertainment that lets me get lost completely in a world. I also love to read because I love words. I love to see how other writers use words.

2.     Is there are “worst book I ever read?” If so, what is it?-Not really. I’ve read a few stinkers in my time, but I always learn something from them.

3.     What’s your absolute favorite book? – Catcher in the Rye, which is funny because I know a lot of people who would list that as one of the worst books they ever read. But it was a book I read at just the right time and at just the right age to really speak to me. I still try to read it once a year.

4.     You have a young son.  What 3 books do you want to make sure he reads by the time he’s 18? – Catcher in the Rye, obviously. He’s named after the private detective character Spenser, so I would love him to have read at least the first book in that series (by Robert B. Parker), and I also want him to read a really long book, the equivelent of the marathon for a reader.  My first attempt was Gone With The Wind but I never quite made it through, so my first winner was It by Stephen King and then The Stand.

5.     What’s the first book you remember reading that left you going “Whoa”?-Misery by Stephen King. Back in my day, before YA, there wasn’t much for kids who read through all of the Hardy Boys and other few books for kids, so I was allowed to go into the adult section of the library and that was the first book I checked out because it was about a writer and I was already thinking about being a writer. Whoa, indeed. Still love that book.

Bryon Quertermous is a reader, writer, and editor. He edits crime fiction for Angry Robot Books and his first novel, MURDER BOY, will be published this summer and he’s currently writing the sequel that will be published in January. 

The Last Wild by Piers Torday Plus Bonus Interview Questions with the Author!

Twelve year-old Kester Jaynes has a big problem, - he can’t speak. Even worse, he doesn’t know why he can’t speak. The only thing he knows is that he hasn’t been able to say a word since his mother’s death six years ago.  Not only that, he’s locked up in a home for troubled children for reasons also unknown to him. Oh, and just to throw another wrench in the gears, the outside world has all but completely fallen apart. It’s been ravaged by global warming and a disease called “the red-eye,” which has rendered all but a few animals extinct and threatens humans with the same fate.  

So, locked up, depressed, scared out of his wits, Kester is at the bottom of the barrel. Scratch that, he’s fallen through the bottom of the barrel into a pit of…well I was going to say poisonous snakes, but they’re all extinct.


Then one day while alone in his cell, Kester hears someone talking to him. It is then that he realizes it isn’t someone but something. Yes, Kester realizes that it is a cockroach that’s speaking to him and that they can communicate.  Not only that, Kester soon learns that he can “talk” to other animals in his cell.

THE SCAR BOYS by Len Vlahos with bonus author interview!

First, a word about The Scar Boys, a debut novel that releases next Tuesday, January 21, 2014: WOW!

It starts out with an assignment (of sorts): an admission's request for a personal essay, with a limit of 250 words. The book itself--essentially that essay-- comes in at under 250 pages, but quite obviously exceeds the college application limit. Part rock narrative (organized with rock and punk songs as chapter titles, complete with attribution to which recording Vlahos means), part confessional, the book tells the story of the improbably named Harbinger Robert Francis Jones, hideously scarred both physically and otherwise as the result of a childhood incident involving bullies and an unfortunately close lightning strike that mixed blunt-force trauma with disfiguring burns. To make things worse (if that's possible), his worst scars are located on his face and head.

Interview: Prudence Shen & Faith Erin Hicks

Last week Craig reviewed the new graphic novel Nothing Can Possibly Go Wrong, and as excited as I was to see it here at Guys Lit Wire I was extremely bummed because I wanted to review it myself! No matter, I got the chance to interview author Prudence Shen and illustrator Faith Erin Hicks about their influences, the competitive passions of jocks and nerds, and as a bonus one of my favorite expressions – chuckleheads – makes an appropriate appearance.

A million thanks to Gina Gagliano at First Second for making it happen.

Teen Survey: Patric

Meet Patric, a fantastic fellow who is a director, a playwright, and a filmmaker, among other things. Currently enrolled in his senior year of high school, he's juggling schoolwork with theatrical events (meaning both stage and screen) and other obligations. He also has some awesome T-shirts.  

Here's a little peek into his library:

Name: Patric 

Age: 17

Grade: 12

Books recently read for fun: Siddhartha (Hermann Hesse), I Am Not Myself These Days (Josh Kilman Purcell)

Books recently read for class: Hamlet, King Lear (William Shakespeare), Paradise Lost (John Milton), The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Mao (Junot Diaz)

Books you want to read: The Sound and the Fury (love love LOVE Faulkner) and The Fault in Our Stars (John Green)

Books you read as a kid: Peter Pan (J.M. Barrie), Alice in Wonderland (Lewis Carroll), The Hundred and One Dalmatians (Dodie Smith) -- I'm a Disney kid.

Why you like to read: It's an escape act, I guess.  When you find that really good read -- I mean, that one that really grabs you, so that you can't stop reading until you've read the whole thing cover to cover -- and you've realized that you've lived someone's entire lifetime in just an hour and a half, it's staggering.  It's fantastic.

Favorite book genres/topics: Fantasy, I'm now getting into a lot of Fantasy Realism in particular.  I also like reading fictionalized memoirs (like I Am Not Myself These Days)

Favorite authors: J.M. Barrie, Roald Dahl, Lewis Carroll, William Faulkner, Maiya Williams (and not just 'cause she's my mom) and so many more!

Favorite playwrights and plays: Shakespeare, especially A Midsummer Night's Dream and The Laramie Project (Moisés Kaufman)

Favorite movies: The Dark Knight, Casablanca, Cloud Atlas, and Monty Python and the Holy Grail

Favorite musicians/music genres: David Bowie, Fun., Janelle Monáe, Lana Del Rey, The Beatles

Anything else you want to say: Tip for the road (literally): Keep Hermann Hesse's Siddhartha in your car.  It's a brilliant read, and you can open it up to any page and find a little gem of the deepest insight.

Teen Survey: Aidan

Meet Aidan, a teenager who frequently drops by the bookstore to discuss comics, movies, and random hypothetical situations with me. Aidan is a high school student who perhaps one day would like to make a living contributing to commercial projects so he "doesn't have to eat Ramen every day." His friend described his drawings as "realistically anime-ish."

Recently, while discussing the works of Mike Mignola and lamenting the fact that he couldn't attend an upcoming comic book convention, I asked if he wanted to take part in the GuysLitWire survey. "I love surveys!" he exclaimed, and so: 

Name: Aidan

Age: 16

Books recently read for fun: Scott Pilgrim graphic novels by Bryan Lee O'Malley (Aidan and his girlfriend recently attended a convention dressed as Scott and Ramona.)

Books recently read for school: The Crucible by Arthur Miller; Sophie's World by Jostein Gaarder

Books in your to-read pile: Too many to list!

Favorite authors and illustrators: Alan Moore. I like Watchmen. All of his stuff is good. V for Vendetta is good, and so is League of Extraordinary Gentleman. I like his original graphic novels better than the movie versions. The Killing Joke is good, and it's got Batman in it!

Favorite superhero: Batman. Batman. Obviously Batman.

Favorite genres: Everything! I like sci-fi. I like fantasy. I like historical fiction. I like all of them. I like good things. I like all the things.

Why do you like comic books? Because they are fun. [I like] great illustrations and great stories.

Favorite movies: The Godfather; This is Spinal Tap

Do you listen to music (or TV) while you read? No. It's distracting.

Do you finish every book you start? No.

In conclusion: Aidan is a fan of boiled eggs and warm socks. Not together.

33 1/3 series

I am an addict...and my addiction is popular music. I adore it. Who doesn't? We all have our favorite songs, artists, genres. The right track at the right moment can hit us emotionally or physically, make us weep or dance. What I like almost as much as music are all of the details and stories that lead up to the making of some of my most cherished albums. That's where the 33 1/3 series comes in.

Started in 2003 by editor David Barker, 33 1/3 is a collection where each volume examines the allure of a particular album as well as the artist who recorded it. Named after the number of revolutions per minute on an LP record, the series spans rock, hip-hop, folk, metal, pop, country, dance, punk, electronica, and world. There is something here for everyone.

The titles are relatively short--often less than 200 pages, and every title is penned by a different writer. This does lead to a vast range in quality and approach for each book. Some read like meticulous postgraduate theses while others spout a haphazard spray of unconditional love. But I'm not here to recommend you those titles. This review is to suggest a few in the series that you might want to start with. These books will be broken up by the author's approach to his subject so as to offer some context.

Historical/Analytic: 

Nirvana's In Utero by Gillian G. Gaar:
In 1991, Kurt Cobain had a number one record. That was a problem for him. Nirvana was not meant to make slick polished albums to be consumed by the masses, so Cobain tried to make the dirtiest, punkiest sounding album that he could. Calling in Steve Albini, a producer known for his intentionally anti-pop sound, the trio attempted to show the world that they had more than just rock radio chops, without imploding in the process. Gaar uses tons of quotes from Cobain and manages to show how hands-on he was, from the album cover to the video for Heart-Shaped Box. This is as breezy as the album is heavy. If you end up enjoying this book, you may want to check out Chuck Klosterman's Eating the Dinosaur, where the culture critic somehow manages to point out the similarities between Cobain and Branch Davidian leader David Koresh.

After School Special, by Dave Kiersh + author Interview!

The first time I read a Dave Kiersh comic, I was blown away like I'd never been by any comic I'd ever read before. Not because of the art, which is great, but because it perfectly matched, in some way I couldn't understand, the feeling and mood of my teenage years. Over the years, I've read many of his minicomics and short pieces since then, some collaborations with other cartoonists, but most of them done on his own. The titles alone I think indicates what I'm talking about: "Teenage Neverland" and "Last Cry for Help" being the most obvious. 

After School Special is Dave Kiersh's first full-length graphic novel, and it delves deep into the territory Kiersh has mapped out in all his stories before: adolescents trying their damnedest to make sense of the world around them. The book's main characters are a boy, Jed, who's just transferred to a new school for his senior year, and the girl, Lisa, whose reputation has left her isolated and bitter. Their meeting kicks off the book, and through each other they find a tether holding them back from whatever bleak trajectory they fear when they see all the people around them.

The back cover to
After School Special 

 The book takes its title from the television movies from thirty some odd years ago with the same categorical name, often based on the YA literature of the time. Those books were very different from what the genre has become these days, instead they were rigorously grounded in realism with an uneasy rejection of resolution. Kiersh 
does an amazing job recreating that feeling in all his comics, and it is powerfully evoked here. 

In his biography at the end of the book, Kiersh writes, "Like Jed, I was a kid with angst who always believed believed I had something unique to say. Searching, wandering, and heartbreak followed." After School Special is filled with the ache and beauty of that same searching and heartbreak.

After I read the book, I had an opportunity to chat over email with Dave, and he answered our 5 question interview, along with some comics-specific questions:

An Interview with Ed Briant

Ed Briant is the author of the novels Choppy Socky Blues and I Am (Not) the Walrus, which is reviewed today here at Guys Lit Wire. I had the good fortune to ask Ed the Guys Lit Wire "Five Quick Questions". Here they are, with Ed's answers:

1. What do you do for a living and what do you like best about your job?

When I’m not writing I teach a class in creative writing at a university, and when I’m neither writing nor teaching I write and illustrate a weekly comic strip.

In the days before I was a writer-comics-creator-teacher I was a saxophone player in a number of rock bands. Most musicians are late-night people, I was no different, and even when I stopped being a sax-player I never really got the hang of working during daylight hours again. So, for me, one of the best things about writing and comics is that because I do them on my own at home I can work on them in the middle of the night, and I think I often do my most creative work in the small hours of the morning.

Naturally I have to teach classes during more conventional hours. The students have to learn during the day because they need their nights to go and see the very same kind of rock bands that I used to play in when I was their age. I view it as the karmic retribution of rock-n-roll. I love teaching though. I love reading the students’ stories. I love finding what’s good in the stories and encouraging the students to do more of the same.

The best thing of all about being a writer-comics person is the same as the best thing about being a musician. It happens when I stop work at about 4AM on a chilly night, and I climb into bed next to my wife. I’m freezing, she’s fast asleep and hot, and I just wrap my arms around her until I warm up and fall asleep.

An interview with Edward Ormondroyd, author of "David & the Phoenix"

Some days, you have just GOTTA love the internet.

A random comment left on the Charlotte's Library blog MONTHS ago garnered me an email from author Marc Tyler Nobleman (BOYS OF STEEL: The Creators of Superman) and a link to his Edward Ormondroyd interview!

Edward Who, you ask?

Edward Ormondroyd (I love that last name) is the author of my favorite 1963 (reissue, Purple House Press, 2003) time travel novel TIME AT THE TOP, which Charlotte so ably reviewed for an August TIMESLIP TUESDAY feature, and to which, I must admit, I wrote a very fanfic-y sequel at about the age of twelve. (Do not ask to see this thing. No: do not.)

Mr. Ormondroyd's first novel, DAVID AND THE PHOENIX, has seen a resurgence of popularity due to The Boy Wizard -- a lot of boys+magic novels are going into reprint for the same reason, which is All To The Good -- and as the Phoenix novel is a favorite of Marc's, he tracked the author down. Discovering that somehow Edward Ormondroyd had never before been interviewed, Marc set to it with forty-one questions. Forty-one!! The interview is - for obvious reasons - in two parts; Part the first, here, followed by its conclusion.

I was happy to see that TIME AT THE TOP is the author's all-time favorite book of those he's written - it's mine too! I hope that eventually someone redoes the 90's Showtime movie version of the book, because they totally ruined it. (Stupid 90's TV.) Ahem.

Thank you Charlotte, for reviewing an old favorite of mine, and thank you, Marc, for going the extra mile to actually finding the author and letting him know how much his works are loved.

It's the internet: for once using its powers for good.

An interview with Ron Koertge about Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II

Some of you may remember that Ron Koertge was already interviewed here at Guys Lit Wire back in the spring of 2010, in conjunction with the release of Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs Today - on the release date of his next book, Now Playing: Stoner & Spaz II, Ron agreed to sit down and talk about the book (and a bit about his process. Ordinarily, you might expect to find a review here, so let's go with this: If you liked Stoner and Spaz, you will love Now Playing. If you don't know about Stoner and Spaz, you will love Now Playing - and then want to dig up a copy of Stoner and Spaz to see how these perfect, messed-up, perfectly messed-up characters found each other in the first place.

1. 1. Stoner and Spaz was published in 2002, so I'm guessing you wrote it at least 10 years ago now. When did you first know you wanted to pick up Ben's and Colleen's story again? Was it difficult to reconnect with those characters after the time – and other books – that came between Stoner and Spaz and Now Playing?

I knew I’d pick up Ben’s and Colleen’s story again when a friend of mine—Lou’s name is on the dedication page—told me that she’d been “seeing Colleen around.” I’m a big fan of hints, intimations and hunches. (I bet on Thoroughbred horses three or four days a week, and I’ve cashed some big tickets thanks to hunches.) So when Lou said she’d been seeing Colleen I figured that was Colleen’s way of telling me her story wasn’t finished. (Things happen to Ben, of course, and he’s the narrator, but Colleen’s the one who’s fun to write.)

It wasn’t hard at all to pick up the story again. I read a little of the original and it all came back to me—the tone, the banter, the attitudes, the sass, the fears, the insecurities, the whole nine yards. Another friend of mine says that I am Colleen, anyway—potty-mouthed, rueful, defensive, and scornful. If that’s true, no wonder I could dive right back in again.

Spray by Harry Edge (by way of an Interview with bookseller Kimberly Jones)

Since last summer, I've cut back my hours at Little Shop of Stories, the children's bookstore here in Decatur, Georgia which got me involved in kidslit. One of the folks hired to replace me is Kimberly Jones, a super cool woman with a great sense of books for guys. She knows books for guys--in part because she's got a bunch of brothers, in part because she's got a young son, but also because, I think, at times she's like a 15 year old boy at heart.

One of her recent favorites to recommend to guys is the book Spray by Harry Edge. "It's like the coolest game of 'Assassination' ever, with lots of action and a great underdog character."

Read on for more about Spray and a brief interview with Kim

Christopher Rowe Interview

As I mentioned in my review of the novel Sandstorm last Thursday, author Christopher Rowe is a friend. He's also one of the most interesting guys I know when it comes to talking about books, especially fantasy and science fiction. His knowledge is deep and broad, and if you ever have a chance to go hear him read, he's fantastic. After conducting the interview, though, I realized I never knew just how much thought he as an author has put into figuring out what the books he read as a teen still mean to him and for him today.

Interview with Scott Oden

Scott Oden is a bestselling author of swashbuckling historical fantasy, including his latest, Lion of Cairo. I recently got to ask him about Lion, history, and advice for young writers.

Q: What do you want to tell us about Lion of Cairo?

The Lion of Cairo is an adventure story, part fantasy and part historical, set during the turbulent years between the Second and Third Crusades . . . roughly 1170 AD. Its cast of characters includes shadowy assassins, seductive courtesans, wily thieves, barbarian Turks, a foul necromancer, and a fierce hero who is “known from Seville to Samarkand as the Emir of the Knife”.

It’s a little dark, a little grim, but filled with rousing battle scenes and moments of daring—perfect for a story which takes its cues from Robert E. Howard and the Arabian Nights.

Interview: Grumpy Dragon

Today we have an interview with Spring Lea Henry, cofounder of Grumpy Dragon, a small publishing company based in Colorado. Ever wondered what it was like to run a publishing company? Want advice on how to get started? Read on!


GLW: How did you decide to start a publishing company? What challenges did you
face in the beginning? What education/experience did you have to prepare
you for this venture?


SLH: As an author, I found myself dissatisfied with several aspects of
publishing that seem to be industry standard. I've never really thought
the usual 10-15% of the coverprice of a book was a fair cut of the profits
for an author, and I really didn't like the fact that authors rarely have
a say in the coverart that goes on their books. I basically got the
impression that most publishing houses were coming at it from a pure
profit point of view, and I just thought there needed to be a different
model, one that is based on helping authors feel their dreams are coming
true. My husband and business partner agreed with me on this, so we
started the Grumpy Dragon as a way of putting these beliefs into practice.
The creators of our books get a full 50% of the markup for their books,
and they also have input into the book design and coverart. We work hard
to make our books ones that that authors can feel proud of 100% so that
they will do their share of the marketing. I've met too many other
authors who just shake their heads about the coverart or some other part
of their contract, and that little head shake makes me feel like they
aren't happy with the book. As a reader, I don't want to read some thing
that even the author doesn't fully endorse!

It's funny you should ask about challenges in the beginning because I feel
like we still are in the beginning! We're only 3 years old, and we're
still working hard to get our company to a state of self-sufficiency.
It's especially difficult because neither of us believes in taking out a
business loan to fund this venture. Debt is something that kills so many
small businesses. So honestly, the challenge is to time our success
just-so. We can't grow too slow, or all the money we've invested won't be
enough to keep us afloat, but we can't grow too fast, or we'll have more
work on our table than we can handle. It's been a process of little
successes, one at a time that keeps us moving forward. We've also had
quite the learning curve as far as technology goes. In our first two
years, we went through three printers before we found one that meets our
needs.

I didn't plan to be a publisher when I was in college, but as it turned
out, the skillset I acquired turned out to be the perfect formula, as did
my husband's. I do all the editing work for our company, and my
preparations included a double-major of psychology and English. The
psychology actually comes in very useful for discerning character
motivations and being able to explain to an author when those motivations
are unrealistic. I also worked as the copy editor for the newspaper,
which was very good for my grammar and punctuation. I was the editor of
the school's literary magazine, which has taught me a fair bit about the
approval/rejection process and how to layout a publication. My masters in
library science helped to sharpen my writing skills and learn how to work
with people one-on-one. My husband brings business education and computer
science to the table. He's the one who handles sales-tax licenses,
royalties statments, contracts, graphic design, and getting our books
ready for the printer. Even with all that, we could stand to have someone
in the mix with some marketing experience!