Hello, friends & family– I am working on behalf of SCBWI in the mid-Atlantic Region to collect traditionally published picture books for the Sandy Hill Elementary School Book Drive. If you have any picture books to donate, please send me an email (akontis at gmail) and I’ll give you the address where you can send them. Thank you all…
I was tagged by my dear friend Alma Katsu to participate in this infamous NEXT BIG THING meme that’s going around. I was asked to answer the following questions about the book I was working on at the time, and then tag more people at the end. Want to know a little more about Hero? Here are my answers:…
(This blog is part of the SFWA Norton Award Blog Tour.) ************* I don’t really get nervous speaking in front of crowds anymore. Public speaking is one of those skills that can be exceptionally difficult to learn, but well worth braving that initial terror to get to the other side. The biggest benefit is that when someone in an…
Hello, lovely friends! It’s that time of year again — SMALL BUSINESS SATURDAY. That day in which you can put your money where your mouth is and support those small, local folks who are busting their rump to make a living against the Giant Chain Stores that sponsor Black Friday. I started my Saturday early yesterday, and shopped at…
Happy Monday, everyone! This is a very special Monday, as it’s also the birthday of my beautiful older sister Cherie, the inspiration for Monday Woodcutter. People always ask authors if any of their characters are based on real people. As a general rule, the characters in books are always based on some facet of the author him/herself. But sometimes,…
Because the internet is not rife enough with silliness, YOU TOO CAN PLAY THE ALETHEA KONTIS QUIZ GAME ON IMDB! How well do you know Alethea’s career in films and television? Here’s your chance to find out! It’s really tough because there are ONLY TWO QUESTIONS. (And the TV show I did when I was 8 is not listed.)…
I’ve had this on my list to blog about for a while…and now that I’m jumping back onto the intarwebs post-Sandycane, the subjectmatter seems even more fitting. I’ve known Jeff Carlson since he won the Writers of the Future Award in 2007 for his novella “The Frozen Sky.” I am not–nor have I ever been–a Writers of the Future…
Hi, everybody! *waves* Miss me? Now that I’ve finished the first draft of Hero and sent it off, I am free to catch up on ALL THE THINGS, like the link to this article which appeared on USA Today’s Happy Ever After blog (like a month ago), in which I (and a bunch of other big famous authors) shared…
Thank you for giving us the moon, and all the dreams I had about it when I was a little girl.
On Saturday night, Dark-Hunter posse member Maggie Mae Short was watching fireworks. She posted about it on Facebook. Apparently, her town had a bunch left over from the 4th of July, so they were setting them off in honor of some local event. She looked out her window, was surprised by a professional light show in rainbow colors, and…
As we get ready for the THIEFTESS release on…
Dearest Squad, A new chapter is now live! Chapter…
I finished my novel on Wednesday. I had such…
