If you've never heard of the Blog Blast Tours–Summer and Winter–you're missing out! It started in summer of 2007, organized by Colleen Mondor at Chasing Ray, and has been going strong twice a year ever since. The Blog Blast Tours are a semi-annual week of in-depth interviews with authors and illustrators, with a particular focus on children's and YA authors.
This year's Winter Blog Blast Tour was last week (check out the full list of interviews here), and featured a number of Cybils panelists as well as nominated authors and illustrators.
Cybils panelists participating included Colleen, of course; past Cybils participants Little Willow of Bildungsroman, Vivian Lee Mahoney of Hip Writer Mama, Liz Burns of A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy and Jules and Eisha over at Seven Impossible Things Before Breakfast; Poetry panel organizer Kelly Fineman of Writing and Ruminating; NFPB judge Doret Canton of The Happy Nappy Bookseller; Cybils regular Betsy Bird of A Fuse #8 Production; Tanita Davis & Sarah Stevenson of Finding Wonderland, both on the SFF panel; Gwenda Bond of Shaken & Stirred, also on the SFF panel; and our Middle Grade Fiction organizer, Kerry Millar of Shelf Elf.
Here's a list of the Cybils-nominated authors that were interviewed:
- Daisy Whitney, The Mockingbirds (YA Fic) interviewed at Bildungsroman
- Josh Berk, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin (YA Fic) interviewed at Finding Wonderland
- Andrea Seigel, The Kid Table (YA Fic) interviewed at Shaken & Stirred
- Adele Griffin, The Julian Game (YA Fic) interviewed at Bildungsroman
- Charles Benoit, You (YA Fic) interviewed at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
- Heidi Ayarbe, Compromised (YA Fic) interviewed at The Happy Nappy Bookseller
- Julia DeVillers (Lynn Visible) and Jennifer Roy (Mindblind), both YA Fiction nominees, interviewed at Bildungsroman
- Jennifer Donnelly, Revolution (YA Fic) interviewed at Shelf Elf
- Elizabeth Hand, Illyria (SFF), interviewed at Chasing Ray
- L.K. Madigan, The Mermaid's Mirror (SFF), interviewed at Writing & Ruminating
- Paolo Bacigalupi, Ship Breaker (SFF), interviewed at A Chair, A Fireplace & A Tea Cozy
- R.J. Anderson, Wayfarer (SFF), interviewed at Hip Writer Mama
- Kathi Appelt, Keeper (SFF), interviewed at Shelf Elf
- Maria V. Snyder, Inside Out (SFF), interviewed at Finding Wonderland
- Julie Kagawa, The Iron King and The Iron Daughter (SFF), interviewed at Hip Writer Mama
- LeUyen Pham, illustrator of the Alvin Ho books, graphic novels, and picture books galore, at Finding Wonderland
- Susan Campbell Bartoletti, They Called Themselves the K.K.K. (NFMG/YA), interviewed at Chasing Ray
I hope I didn't miss anyone, but if I did, you can check out the full schedule archived here.