The BBAW Community and A Special YAMO Thanks

There is an extraordinary number of BBAW posts going up around the blogosphere today; you'll find many conversations sparking around the idea of community.  You all know how I feel about that, and how grateful I am for my rooting in among you. Today I'd like to formally thank one more special person and blogger (and author!) who is both wise and kind—Colleen Mondor of Chasing Ray—who took the time to read You Are My Only last week and had this to say.

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When you run out of thank you, what do you say?

Look.  I'm going to be honest with you.  You book bloggers out there are bringing me to my knees in gratitude.  You have no idea what your words, your enthusiasm, your deeply felt embraces mean—right now, always.  Every single blog post takes time.  Time to construct the thoughts, to find those links, to read the words through, to make them right, to get it all out there.  Time away from something else (so many things) that might be done.  I know how much time matters—how there is never enough of it—and I am so grateful that you have gifted me with so much of yours.

I speak of all of you out there who have been so supportive of You Are My Only, of this blog, of this odd book life of mine.  And today I speak to Florinda of the fabulous 3Rs, who wrote this beautiful post just now.  In honor of who she is, and of how she stood at my side at the BEA this past summer, and of all that she does as a book blogger and reviewer (her own blog was a long-list nominee for the BBAW), I am replaying a little video that we made during a happy moment this past summer.  We had this conversation on behalf of the Armchair BEA initiative that has now been nominated as part of the 2011 Book Bloggers Appreciation Week.

Florinda, then and now, I thank you.

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The BBAW 2011 Short Lists are Announced—and Voting Begins

It's that time of year again—that time when book bloggers take a moment to stop and to honor the work that gets done out here by so many.  Pure love and countless hours define book bloggers.  Engagement with a larger community, conversation across time zones and geographies, and a chance to articulate and debate opinions are the rewards.  Friendships erupt and stay firm.

This year, as always, the list is rich, and now it's up to you to take some time and vote for the winners.  Winners will be selected by voting via Twitter or Google log-in at the BBAW site and will be announced during the week of September 12 - 16 against the backdrop of interview swaps, guest posts, and giveaways.  To see the short list, to vote for your favorites, or to learn more, go here.

I find myself on the short list this year, and I could not be more humbled or (at the same time) proud.  Proud to stand among these bloggers who, time and again, have reached out and made my life as an author brilliantly real and lastingly meaningful.  When the chips have been down—and yes, from time to time, they have been down—book bloggers have risen up, spoken out, and given my books and me a second life, a greater chance.  A huge thank you, then, to those who nominated me for the long list and to those who kept me here on the short list, and to those myriad bloggers, everywhere, who have made my world complete.  I am grateful.

Here are just a few of the categories you can vote for.  Please take the time to give all the bloggers on the list a real boost:

Published Author Blog
Beth Kephart Books
Maggie Stiefvater
Veronica Roth

Kidlit Book Blog
Charlotte’s Library
The O.W.L.
There’s a Book

Poetry Blog
Necromancy Never Pays
Savvy Verse & Wit

Publishing Industry Blog
Olive Reader
The World of Peachtree Publishers

Young Adult Book Blog
Forever Young Adult
Galleysmith
I Swim for Oceans
Pure Imagination
The Book Vixen

yaHighway

Best Author Interviews
Presenting Lenore
Relz Reviewz
Stacked
There’s a Book
Unabridged Chick

Best Written Blog
A Room of One’s Own
Parajunkee’s View
S. Krishna’s Books
Shelf Love
write meg!

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A BBAW Long-List Nomination, a Return to Teaching, and WriteOnCon

Today I drove through what might have been the hardest sustained rainfall I've ever seen.  It had lessened somewhat by the time I got home and (drenched through) took this photograph.  But even as I write this post, the weather remains wild, tumultous, otherworldy.

Also otherworldly is the news today that this very blog, Beth Kephart Books, has been nominated for the long list in the Best Published Author Blog category for the 2011 BBAW Awards.  The complete long lists will be published next week and short lists and winners announced thereafter.  Truly, I am honored.

The BBAW news arrived with the news that I will be teaching Creative Nonfiction 135 once again at the University of Pennsylvania during the 2012 spring semester.  Anyone who reads this blog knows just how much I love the teaching privilege.  I hope to finish work on three books in progress (one of which is about the teaching of memoir) before the semester begins.

Finally, I wanted to share with my blog readers this treasure trove of YA stuff that I discovered only today. If I am late to the WriteOnCon scene, I am sincere in my appreciation for this wealth of insight and experience sharing from such YA writers, agents, and editors as Sara Zarr, Jay Asher, Josh Berk, Steve Malk, and the one and only Book Babe.  I encourage you to take a look.

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