All posts by kathymacmillan

Read This!: WHAT GOES UP by Katie Kennedy

Read This, Reviews,

What Goes UpWhat Goes Up by Katie Kennedy

Summary: Rosa and Eddie are among hundreds of teens applying to NASA’s mysterious Interstellar Agency. After rounds of crazy-competitive testing they are appointed to Team 3, along with an alternate, just in case Eddie screws up (as everyone expects he will). What they don’t expect is that aliens will arrive from another dimension, and look just like us. And no one could even imagine that Team 3 would be the only hope of saving our world from their Earth-destroying plans. The teens steal the spacecraft (it would be great if they knew how to fly it) and head to Earth2, where the aliens’ world and people are just like ours. With a few notable exceptions. There, the teens will find more than their alternate selves: they’ll face existential questions and high-stakes adventure, with comedy that’s out of this world.

Another earth out there somewhere, with someone just like you, only a little different – that’s the intriguing premise behind this twisty and fun sci-fi romp. The story opens with a series of tests, both obvious and hidden, as high school students Rosa and Eddie, each haunted in different ways by a parent’s legacy, compete to become the newest specialists to train with the Interstellar Agency, in charge of contact with other dimensions. As she did in Learning to Swear in America, Kennedy blends a fine ear for dialogue with complex characters, a crackling adventure of a plot, and just the right amount of pathos so that the hilarious one-liners and the scientific thrills never overshadow the complexities of human relationships.

WHAT GOES UP is out now.

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Watching the Sun Disappear

On Life

I just got back from my favorite August event – an epic two-week camping trip that my son and I take every year.  This year we started at the absolutely mystical Fairy Stone State Park in Virginia:

The view from our camp site. These are definitely fairy woods.

 

 

Then we headed down to Greenville, South Carolina, where we got to view the eclipse at 100% totality.  Totally indescribable and totally worth the trip!  (Even the part where I left our eclipse glasses at home and had to have a friend mail them to our camp site – thanks, Janet!)

Leave it to a couple of introverts to find an uncrowded place to view the eclipse!

 

Got my eclipse-appropriate reading!

 

Our last stop was Knoxville, Tennessee, where we indulged my son’s animal-loving instincts at Zoo Knoxville and the Gentle Barn, a truly transformative animal rescue.  And of course he managed to make a friend at the campground:

 

Now I am back and getting ready to dive into line edits for the sequel to Sword and Verse (I SWEAR I will be able to share the title soon!).  And today I got a sneak peek at the cover.  It’s gorgeous and I can’t wait to share it with you all!

 

Read This!: POST-HIGH SCHOOL REALITY QUEST by Meg Eden

Read This, Reviews,

Post-High School Reality QuestPost-High School Reality Quest by Meg Eden

Summary: Buffy is playing a game. However, the game is her life, and there are no instructions or cheat codes on how to win. After graduating high school, a voice called “the text parser” emerges in Buffy’s head, narrating her life as a classic text adventure game. Buffy figures this is just a manifestation of her shy, awkward, nerdy nature—until the voice doesn’t go away, and instead begins to dominate her thoughts, telling her how to life her life. Though Buffy tries to beat the game, crash it, and even restart it, it becomes clear that this game is not something she can simply “shut off” or beat without the text parser’s help. While the text parser tries to give Buffy advice on how “to win the game,” Buffy decides to pursue her own game-plan: start over, make new friends, and win her long-time crush Tristan’s heart. But even when Buffy gets the guy of her dreams, the game doesn’t stop. In fact, it gets worse than she could’ve ever imagined: her crumbling group of friends fall apart, her roommate turns against her, and Buffy finds herself trying to survive in a game built off her greatest nightmares.

What a unique, wild ride of a book! Buffy’s story of trying to find her way after graduation lends itself perfectly to the format of a text adventure game. Buffy must navigate a barrage of choices about who she is and who she wants be, examine and reexamine relationships with friends and family, and somehow keep remembering to save. The book is full of witty touches that will make geeky readers laugh out loud; my favorite is the fact that Buffy has nicknamed her backpack “inventory”, so whenever she puts an item “in her inventory”, that’s where it goes. Buffy’s quest is not without disappointment and heartbreak, and the reader will be rooting for her to fight her way through.

POST-HIGH SCHOOL REALITY QUEST is out now.

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Women in the Business Panel Podcast

On Life, On Publishing, , , ,

Back in May, I was honored to participate in a panel about the experiences of women in publishing, media, and broadcasting at Balticon 51.  The other panelists were Nuchtchas, Lisa-Anne Samuels, and Veronica Giguere, and John Walker moderated. You can hear the panel now on the Nutty Bites Podcast.  Prepare to hear stories from the trenches, good and bad, as a diverse group of women talk about what it’s really like to fight for recognition of their creativity and hard work.

Read This!: POPPY MAYBERRY, THE MONDAY by Jennie K. Brown

Read This, Reviews

Poppy Mayberry, The Monday (Nova Kids #1)Poppy Mayberry, The Monday by Jennie K. Brown

Summary: What if your teacher could read your mind just because she was born on a Thursday? Or the kid next to you in class could turn back the clock just because he was a ‘Wednesday”? In the quirky town of Nova, all of this is normal, but one thing is not—Poppy Mayberry. As an almost-eleven-year-old Monday, she should be able to pass notes in class or brush her dog, Pickle, without lifting a finger. But her Monday telekinesis still has some kinks, and that plate of spaghetti she’s passing may just end up on someone’s head. And if that’s not hard enough, practically perfect Ellie Preston is out to get her, and Principal Wible wants to send her to remedial summer school to work on her powers! It’s enough to make a girl want to disappear…if only she were a Friday.

Poppy Mayberry isn’t thrilled when she’s sent to summer school to master the telekinetic powers she’s supposed to have as a kid born in the town of Nova on a Monday. And she’s even less thrilled when prissy, stuck-up Ellie, who has Thursday mindreading powers, ends up as her roommate. But when scary Headmistress Larribee kidnaps Poppy’s precious dog, Pickle, as part of a challenge, Poppy and Ellie have to team up, along with dreamy Logan and smart Sam, to find the precious things that have been taken from them and win the chance to go home early. Full of funny moments and most of all full of heart, Poppy’s story perfectly captures that middle school moment when everything in life seems to be in flux.

POPPY MAYBERRY, THE MONDAY is out now.

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