Gwenda Bond: Special Edition Podcast

We're rounding out the ALA 2013 series of Librarians are ROCKSTARS! podcasts with an interview with the fabulous Gwenda Bond, author of Blackwood.

Together with Steve from Circulating Ideas, Allison got to hang out with Gwenda in a quiet corner of the ALA Annual conference in Chicago. Gwenda chatted with us about her thoughts on using social media as an author, why she enjoys writing for the YA audience, and what she read as a teen... (spoilers: we have a pretty in-depth discussion about Christopher Pike!).




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Visit Gwenda's website to find out about her upcoming book, The Woken Gods and visit Steve at Circulating Ideas for tons of awesome librarian interviews.

Podcast hosting courtesy of archive.org. Intro music by 46bliss. Special thanks to our sound engineer, Marc Conrad Tabula, for his awesome audio editing skills. Please subscribe to Authors are ROCKSTARS! on iTunes so you'll never miss an episode-- and if you leave a review, that would make our day.

Gene Yang: Special Edition Podcast

We're back with another episode of our special edition series of our podcast, Librarians are ROCKSTARS! We're thrilled to collaborate once more with Steve from Circulating Ideas, the librarian interview podcast. Steve and Allison met up at the American Library Association Conference in June to talk to some fantastic authors about their thoughts on libraries and librarians.

To kick off this round of Librarians are ROCKSTARS!, we're sharing an interview with Printz Award winning author and artist, Gene Luen Yang. We had a blast chatting with Gene about his perspective on libraries as an author and an educator, as well as his upcoming graphic novels, Boxers and Saints, which will be out in bookstores everywhere next month.

Also, even though Michelle wasn't at the conference with us, the two of us settle a VERY IMPORTANT debate about the Great Lakes in this episode.



Want to download this podcast? Click here for an mp3 or find us on iTunes!

Keep up with Gene at his website, and stop by his publisher, First Second. Be sure to check out Circulating Ideas for the next episode of Librarians are ROCKSTARS! (and a whole bunch of awesome librarian interviews, to boot). And if you missed our earlier collaboration with Steve on the Librarians are ROCKSTARS! series, check here for an interview with Kirby Larson and here for an interview with Tom Angleberger.

Podcast hosting courtesy of archive.org. Intro music by 46bliss. Special thanks to our sound engineer, Marc Conrad Tabula, for his awesome audio editing skills. Please subscribe to Authors are ROCKSTARS! on iTunes so you'll never miss an episode-- and if you leave a review, we might be your BFFs. 

Raina Telgemeier: Road Trip Edition Podcast

Get ready for Drama! The newest graphic novel from Raina Telgemeier comes out September 1st from Scholastic, and we are thrilled to bring you an interview with this fabulous Eisner Award winning author and artist.If you're a drama geek like us-- or if you just happen to like really awesome graphic novels (and who doesn't?!)-- tune in to hear about Raina's student theater experiences, what it was like to win an Eisner award for Smile, and how she came to draw and write The Babysitters Club graphic novels- as well as an insightful discussion of the babysitter personalities. (Trust us, you will come away with a whole new image of Stacey after you listen to this!)

Want to download this podcast? Click here for a mp3 or find us on iTunes.

We are also happy to announce the winners of our two giveaways that ended yesterday! The winner of Kiersten White's Endlessly is Alicia Marie. The upcoming Kiersten White project she's most excited about is Mind Games. In her comment, she said "Just seeing the cover was enough to make me need it, but after reading about it, I need it even more!" The winner of the Lorien Legacies series (courtesy of HarperCollins) is Enna P. We are still happy to take questions for our upcoming interviews with Michelle Hodkin, Julie Kagawa and Kendare Blake. Just leave a comment with your question or tweet it to us @AuthorsROCK.

Thank you so much to all of you who participated. We have a lot of giveaways planned for future podcasts. We just love sending people presents!

Hosting courtesy of archive.org. Intro music by 46bliss. Special thanks to our sound engineers for this episode Marc Conrad Tabula for helping make the interview sound fabulous. Please subscribe to Authors are ROCKSTARS! on iTunes so you'll never miss an episode! (And if you like us, please be so kind as to leave a review!)

Melissa Wiley: KidLit Corner Road Trip Edition Podcast

We are so pleased to bring you an interview with the lovely Melissa Wiley. Perhaps you know her from the "Little House on the Prairie" prequels about Laura's ancestors... perhaps you know her for her social media savvy... perhaps you know her for her gorgeous hair. Whatever the case may be, if you know Melissa, you automatically love her. And if you don't know her yet, you'll want to!

We caught up with her at the ALA Annual conference in June... and when I say "we," I mean myself (Allison) and our good friend Lali of Masala Reader. Unfortunately, Michelle had to miss out on this one! But Lali stepped in as a fabulous guest interviewer, and we had a blast chatting with Melissa about her upcoming projects, her strategies for balancing her life as a writer and a homeschooling mom of 6, and, of course, Betsy-Tacy.


Want to download this podcast? Click here for a mp3 or find us on iTunes.

Hosting courtesy of archive.org. Intro music by 46bliss. Special thanks to our sound engineer Marc Conrad Tabula for his editing skills. Please subscribe to Authors are ROCKSTARS! on iTunes so you'll never miss an episode! (And if you like us, please be so kind as to leave a review!)

Libba Bray and Alvina Ling: Special Edition Podcast

Last month, we had the pleasure of attending the American Library Association conference in Anaheim. Not only was it a fantastic opportunity to get to meet a lot of people who love books just as much as we do, we had the opportunity to interview some incredible authors. Including...

Yes! We met Libba Bray! The Printz-award winning author of Going Bovine, Beauty Queens, and the Gemma Doyle trilogy is every bit as fabulous as you would imagine. We got to chat with her about her upcoming Fall release from Little, Brown, The Diviners (which you are going to LOVE!)-- we discussed her favorite 1920s slang and how librarians aided her historical research, as well as her journey to becoming a writer.

(We also talked about Beauty Queens and, as promised in this episode, here's a link to Michelle as a teen beauty queen.)

If you're not familiar with the awesomeness of Libba, visit http://libbabray.com to learn more. You will adore her.

And that's not all! Not only does this episode of the podcast feature the lovely Libba Bray, but we were also lucky enough to snag a quick interview with her editor, the amazing Alvina Ling. If you've listened to our interviews with Laini Taylor and Grace Lin, you've heard them mention Alvina. She's the Editorial Director at Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, and she ROCKS.

(Quick disclaimer: bear in mind that we recorded these interviews in the middle of a huge conference, so there's a little more background noise than normal... but hey, it's ambience! You'll feel like you were there with us!)


Want to download this podcast? Click here for a mp3 or find us on iTunes.

Hosting courtesy of archive.org. Intro music by 46bliss. Special thanks to our sound engineer Marc Conrad Tabula for his editing skills. Please subscribe to Authors are ROCKSTARS! on iTunes so you'll never miss an episode! (And if you like us, please be so kind as to leave a review!)