Jan/2012 Torkidlit Meetup at the Bedford Academy

Had fun with the Toronto Middle Grade And YA Authors group at the Bedford Academy last night. I continue to be grateful to Claudia Osmond for founding the group. I always come away so inspired and motivated!

I asked the attendees of last night's get together what they were working on, if they had any news to share, or just brief bio info and here's what they told me:

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Helaine Becker

http://www.helainebecker.com/ - Twitter: @helainebecker

Trouble in the Hills YA launched this past fall; non fic called The Big Green Book of the Big Blue Ocean will be out from Kids Can Press this winter, and then a second YA contemp called How to Survive Absolutely Anything will be out from Fitzhenry and Whiteside in March. Currently writing two new Quiz Books for Scholastic and season 3 of Planet Echo, a science tv show. More news on new contracts next month!

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Jo Karaplis

http://www.joannakaraplis.com/ - Twitter: @JoKaraplis

"Found one of my NaNoWriMo mauscripts from 2010 and it's better than I remember, so I've revived the project. It's been rattling around in my head for a while so I'm excited to dive back in."

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Maureen McGowan

http://www.maureenmcgowan.com - Twitter: @maureenmcgowan

"Signed a three book contract with Amazon Publishing for a YA trilogy. The first book (Deviant) will be released in 2012."

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Rob Weston

http://www.robertpaulweston.com/ - Twitter: @robertpweston

"Find out more about my novels, or read my blog (about books, writing, mad science, detectives and other miscellanea) at www.RobertPaulWeston.com."

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Joanne Levy

http://www.joannelevy.com/ - Twitter: @JoanneLevy

Posting every Monday at http://www.thedebutanteball.com/

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Jo Swartz

http://www.littlejolit.com/ - Twitter: @littlejolit

"First chapter of a graphic novel is almost complete and will be ready for submission in a month."

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Karen Krossing

http://www.karenkrossing.com

Karen has a draft of her middle grade fantasy novel complete and ready for reading.

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 Megan Crewe

http://www.megancrewe.com - Twitter: @megancrewe

Megan's contemporary dystopian YA, THE WAY WE FALL, comes out from Disney-Hyperion on January 24th! Here's the book trailer:

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Patricia Storms

http://www.patriciastorms.com/ - Twitter: @stormsy

"My illustrated book, Winter Science, is out (Scholastic) and my non-fiction humor middle grade book (which I also illustrated) will be out in the spring, called Kid Confidential (Bloomsbury)."

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Derek Molata

http://www.derekmolata.com/ - Twitter: @derekmolata

Derek is a YA/adult sf/f writer. "Scorpio. Tripping down the rabbit hole. Represented by the sharkly Janet Reid."

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 Jennifer Gordon

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=1129160996&sk=info

"JOIN CANSCAIP!"

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 Jordan Hageman

http://jordanhageman.blogspot.com/ -  Twitter: @ABookLongEnough

"Got my book back from a pro editor I hired and am revising, revising, revising!"

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Ricki Schulz

http://rickischultz.com/ - Twitter: @rickischultz

It was Ricki's first Torkidlit meetup! Ricki is a freelance writer and editor, and coordinator of the Write-Brained Network.

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Jeff Szpirglas

https://twitter.com/#!/jeffszpirglas - Twitter: @jeffszpirglas

Jeff is shopping some novels around and in theory, one is coming out soon. "It's called Evil Eye, about a disembodied floating eye that's totally EVIL." It was Jeff's first Torkidlit tweetup!

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Debbie Ridpath Ohi

http://DebbieOhi.com - Twitter: @inkyelbows

Excited to be able to say that I'M BORED comes out THIS YEAR (woohoo!). I'M BORED is a new picture book by Michael Ian Black, illustrated by yours truly, coming out from Simon & Schuster Books For Young Readers in Sept/2012. Also looking forward to the March/2012 launch of TOMO: Friendship Through Fiction - An Anthology Of Japan Teen Stories. I have an illustrated short story in this collection. Proceeds from the sales of Tomo will go to organizations that assist teens in the quake and tsunami hit areas.

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If you're a middle grade or young adult author and would like to find out about upcoming meetups, please join our group on Facebook:

https://www.facebook.com/groups/127433455731/

To find out more about what Torkidlit members are up to, please visit (and Like!) our Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/TorKidLitNews

On Twitter, follow the #torkidlit hashtag.

Comments

[Hero Fiction Writer]

Sounds like you had a good group of writers show up. All sound appealing; I'll have to check out their work.