My essay on John Donovan has been published in Tin House. Alas, the essay isn’t available online, so if you want to read it you’ll have to buy a copy. But it’s a great, very cool issue. The theme is both hope AND dread, which is reflected in the issue’s design: One side is Hope, with its own table of contents (and in which my essay appears). If you flip the magazine over and upside down, then you have the Despair side of the issue.

I also came across a great story about, and interview with, a YA writer I’d never heard: William Sleator. The story was written by the writer Nick Antosca (who happens to be a writing-world friend), and you can read it here at the Huffington Post. Sleator’s creepy, sci-fi-ish books sound amazing. How had I never heard of Sleator? Well, I am always excited to explore a new author, so I promptly went out and hunted down a few of his books: Blackbriar, his first novel, which has recently been reissued in hardcover; The Boxes (“Don’t open them!” the cover warns); and The Boy Who Couldn’t Die, about, yes, a boy who literally can’t die. As if I need more books to read. But I can’t help myself.

Otherwise, I’ve been busy working on Novel 2. I am making great progress, but the next two months I need to really bear down and get a lot of writing done. I hope to finish a draft by early next year, which means the book will come out in 2011. But at least my paperback comes out in February 2010! I’ll be sure and post if I have any paperback-related events planned.

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