Happy Holidays, Everyone!!

Wishing everyone a safe, warm, joyous holiday season, and a bright, healthy, prosperous new year!

See you all in 2011. :)

Jazz, Now Available!!!

So I just was alerted to the fact that JAZZ is now available (early!!) on a number of online retail sites!

Here are the ones I've found so far . . .

Boone Bridge Books (indie bookseller)
Indiebound (US)
Powell's (US)

Amazon US

Amazon Canada

Amazon UK

Chapters/Indigo (Canada)

Barnes and Noble

And here is where you can find JAZZ in eBook:

For the Apple iPad

Sony e-reader, Stanza, Diesel, and hand-held reading devices

Kindle

Still waiting for the paperback to show up on Borders and other indie sellers in Canada, the UK, etc. But for now, this little book is slowly making its way out into the world . . . with a lot of help from its friends :).

Me & L.A. Banks - That's How We Roll...

It looks like me and NY Times best-selling author, L.A. Banks, are going the same route with our books. I noticed her most recent release on Smashwords last night, which is the ebook distributor I'm going with, and saw that she listed herself as the publisher. I was so excited you do not even KNOW.

If you're interested in the ebook for JAZZ, it's available right now, here, and will soon go live on the Barnes & Noble and Borders online sites, as well as the Sony and Apple eBook stores within the next few weeks. The print version is on its way and should be available for purchase by mid-January (or sooner).

So exciting! Go, Ms. Banks! It looks like sisters ARE doing it for themselves *grin* (okay, that was cheesy). I'm going to buy her book for sure, and so should you. :)

JAZZ Book Trailer

Here's JAZZ, in images and sound . . .

Food, Freedom, Control, and Profit

This link was posted on Facebook and I had to share it here. Jason Taylor is over on Vimeo with a video series about food, freedom, control and farming (hence, the title of this post - clever, huh?). I saw three of the short pieces and was duly impressed. Unfortunately, my connection slowed, so I was frustrated and couldn't watch the rest, but I'll be sure to be back on Jason's channel as soon as I get another chance. Check out the videos - they're really interesting.

Here's one that shows the Golden Temple's langar ritual. Langar is the communal meal served at all Sikh temples. Anyone, regardless of race, ethnicity, class, whatever is given a free meal - it's one of the basic tenets of Sikhism, and one I whole-heartedly agree with. No one should go hungry.

Favourite Quotes

A couple of *great* quotes this week . . .

This has to be one of my absolute most favouritest quotes of all time:

"The lack of regard for YA fiction in the mainstream isn't an altogether bad thing. There's something to be said for living in a disreputable, ghettoized bohemia . . . . There's a lot of room for artistic, political and commercial expectation over here in low-stakes land, the same way that there was so much room for experimentation in other ghettos, from hip-hop to roleplaying games to dime-novels. Sure, we're vulnerable to moral panics about corrupting youth (a phenomenon as old as Socrates, and a charge that has been leveled at everything from the waltz to the jukebox), but if you're upsetting that kind of person, you're probably doing something right.

Risk-taking behavior — including ill-advised social, sexual, and substance adventures — are characteristic of youth itself . . . . However, the frightened and easily offended are doing a better job than they ever have of collapsing the horizons of young people, denying them the pleasures of gathering in public or online for fear of meteor-strike-rare lurid pedophile bogeymen, or on the pretense of fighting gangs or school shootings or some other tabloid horror. Literature may be the last escape available to young people today. It's an honor to be writing for them. " -- Cory Doctorow

And this is one I swiped off CrazyQuilts, the blog of one of our favourite blogging librarians:

"I'm tired of YA books that stereotype teens of color and continually cast them as victims. Too often, whether the teen be Asian or Middle Eastern they are first or second generation with immigrant issues or retelling traditional stories. Blacks and Latino/as are urban dwellers with violent anger issues and Natives are silently stereotyped, too. No doubt we need to meet students where they are and validate their existence, however not all teens of any one ethnic group have the exact same experience. Even those who live marginalized lives deserve to see other possibilities for themselves and White readers need to see people of color in equitable situations." -- Edi Campbell

Introducing...JAZZ IN LOVE!!!

So I have been very busy. I am so SUPER, TERRIBLY, UNBELIEVABLY EXCITED to share with you the cover of my second novel, JAZZ IN LOVE!!!!

I have to say that this is an incredible time in publishing for creative pursuits. I know there are many who are predicting doom for publishing and the printed book, but I think things are simply going to change (and for the better!) because people will have more options and choices. For instance, even five years ago, I would not have known about, nor had access to the types of resources that have allowed me to put JAZZ out into the world. I am releasing it under my own imprint, Ignite Books, and I worked with a very enthusiastic and supportive former Greenwillow/Harper Collins editor to get the book in the best shape it could possibly be. The result is a fun, funny story with elements of romance and a little bit of intensity thrown in. YAYYYY!!!!!

Here is the blurb from the back of the book:

"Jasbir, a.k.a. Jazz, has always been a stellar student and an obedient, albeit wise-cracking, daughter. Everything has gone along just fine--she has good friends in the "genius" program she's been in since kindergarten, her teachers and principal adore her, and her parents dote on her. But now, in her junior year of high school, her mother hears that Jazz was seen hugging a boy on the street and goes ballistic. Mom immediately implements the Guided Dating Plan, which includes setting up blind dates with "suitable," pre-screened Indian candidates. The boy her mother sets her up with, however, is not at all what anyone expects; and the new boy at school, the very UNsuitable hottie, is the one who sets Jazz's blood boiling. When Jazz makes a few out-of-the-ordinary decisions, everything explodes, and she realizes she'll need a lot more than her genius education to get out of the huge mess she's in. Can Jazz find a way to follow her own heart, and still stay in the good graces of her parents?"

The official release is slated for January. If you'd like a review copy, please leave a comment below, or email me, and I'll do my best to get one out to you as soon as I can!