BLUE has been named a 2022 Independent Press Award Distinguished Favorite in Teen Fiction. Check out all the honorees here. Many thanks to the judges and to IPA for this honor – and for giving me the terrific first-world problem (and total humblebrag) of running out of room on my book cover. I am blessed.
My pick for the letter C in my A to Z Book Read was Copper Sun by Sharon Draper. Copper Sun gives us a story from two points of view: first, we meet Amari, a West African girl of fifteen, living an idyllic life with her tribe. She’s being happily courted by the man she will be married to in a year’s time, she hates chores like any teenager, loves her mother’s cooking, and dotes on her younger brother, a child of ten. All of this changes in every terrible… Read more A To Z Book Review: Copper Sun by Sharon Draper →
I am extremely happy to announce that BLUE won the 2021-2022 Reader Views Reviewers Choice Gold Medal in Young Adult Fiction, and a Bronze Medal in the 2021-2022 Reader Views Overall Grand Prize for Fiction (chosen from all category winners). In addition, BLUE was named Reader Views Kids Best Teen/Young Adult Book of the Year. See a complete list of winners HERE. When I set out to write this complicated, heart-wrenching, oddly hilarious story, I never dreamed it would get the amount of accolades it has garnered so far. I… Read more BLUE Wins Gold From The Reader Views Literary Awards →
My Letter B Read was The Bone Spindle, a fairytale retelling of Sleeping Beauty with a delicious twist: the beauty is a sleeping prince named Briar Rose – and the “Rose” name identifies him as a member of a powerful family of witches blessed with light magic. Fi, historian and cultural anthropologist extraordinaire teams up with treasure hunter Shane (secretly a Princess of a war clan and able to swing an axe like a champ) to go after a hidden treasure in a fallen kingdom. Instead she gets roped into… Read more A To Z Book Review: THE BONE SPINDLE →
I am over-the-moon thrilled to announce that Society of Children’s Book Writers & Illustrators (SCBWI) has named BLUE as their 2021 SPARK Award Winner in YA! This is an enormous honor, and I am beyond thrilled that they chose my my multi-layered, sad, happy, complicated, sappy, hard-to-explain book. BLUE was a real labor of love, and I couldn’t be more proud.
My goal in 2022 is to read my way through the alphabet, at least one book per letter (more if I have time). My choice for the letter A was ALIAS GRACE by Margaret Atwood. My rating: ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Grace Marks has been incarcerated these many years for her part in the murders of her former employer, Mr. Kinnear, and his housekeeper. A (willing?) accomplice to the bloodthirsty dealings of her former coworker (lover?) and convicted at the age of 15, there are enough details – and of course, Grace’s impressionable… Read more A to Z Book Review: ALIAS GRACE →
Now that the whirlwind of 2021 is behind us, it’s time to regroup and set the stage for next year. My writing plan is severely ambitious. That’s a nice way of saying I’m out of my freaking mind and I may well be updating this blog from a tiny, padded room this time next year. Here’s the rough outline: Publish one YA novel – this one a holiday romance! Look for an announcement in early fall. Finish drafting and query one new manuscript (an extension of my NaNoWriMo project, a… Read more What’s On Tap For 2022? →
What a year it’s been! I started out the year with a manuscript in hand, a posse of great Beta Readers, and a lot of high hopes. I found an outstanding cover and interior designer, and in April, it was Cover Reveal Day for BLUE. From there, I took a breather and hammered away at another manuscript, and also managed to publish three novellas and two novels in another genre under my alter ego pen name. Summer arrived, along with a return to in-person book festivals! I had a great… Read more Farewell To 2021 →
LE DeLano Author 