rj_anderson: (Knife - UK Cover Full Length)
rj_anderson ([personal profile] rj_anderson) wrote2009-11-09 08:59 am
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I went to North Carolina and all I got was this major award nomination

This past Thursday I flew down to the AASL (American Association of School Librarians) conference in Charlotte, NC to meet some fellow [livejournal.com profile] debut2009 authors, hang out with my agent, drive up to visit [livejournal.com profile] cesario, and maybe, if all went well, get to sign a few of my books at the AASL PitStop. Those were my expectations, and they were modest and practical ones, and I had no idea that there was even the possibility of anything more. Especially since I'd left my laptop at home, my Canadian cell phone doesn't work in the US, and I wouldn't have access to e-mail or Internet until I got back Sunday night.

So I was wholly unprepared, when I met the Debs for breakfast on Friday morning, to find out from [livejournal.com profile] carrie_ryan that Knife has been nominated for one of the most prestigious children's book awards in the English-speaking world. The Carnegie Medal. We are talking the British equivalent of the Newbery or the National Book Award, people. C.S. Lewis won it for The Last Battle. So did Richard Adams for Watership Down.

I may have stared blankly at Carrie for about thirty seconds before I started flailing. And then I spent the whole weekend in a happy daze and I haven't come down since.

Congratulations to my fellow nominees [livejournal.com profile] sarahtales (The Demon's Lexicon) and [livejournal.com profile] halseanderson (Chains)!

[identity profile] olmue.livejournal.com 2009-11-09 02:18 pm (UTC)(link)
HELLO, B&N and Borders.

That's all I have to say.

(And congratulations, of course! :)

[identity profile] rj-anderson.livejournal.com 2009-11-09 02:42 pm (UTC)(link)
You think so? I don't know... my experience so far has been that US publishers and big chain stores don't pay much attention to anything that happens outside the US. Maybe if I won the Carnegie (not that I expect to!) they would notice, though I'm a bit skeptical even about that. But I would be delighted to be proven wrong!

[identity profile] olmue.livejournal.com 2009-11-09 02:49 pm (UTC)(link)
Well, Americans are sometimes pigheadedly ignorant about anything that happens outside our borders...But seriously, they SHOULD wake up!

I noticed that my library has it on order, though. So maybe readers will discover it this way and then go looking for the sequel at the bookstore, at least in NW Arkansas.