Hockey Readers?

Who knew hockey fans read? Not me. But here's proof.

Lo and behold, David Ward's HOCKEY TREE appeared on a blog for-- surprise!-- hockey books. Scholastic plans a late-09 or maybe late-10 sequel, believing the Winter 10 Olympics will spark even greater Canuck madness. (Naturally, we will have to request a television ad to exploit this bonanza.) Outside North America, however, I find little reader enthusiasm for the sport. Pat Hughes's e-x-t-r-e-m-e-l-y good teen novel OPEN ICE (a head injury threatens a a jock's identity - and his brain function) inspired no foreign interest, even though multiple U.S. houses bid for the manuscript.

Boys Don't Read

Okay, they do. (We did!) But not enough. That's what Gail Giles says in her School Library Journal essay. Originally titled "Boy's Don't Read and We See To It," SLJ went for the sexier Wanted: Male Models. Nowadays, boys (girls too) can listen to Gail's teen novels. All are available on Audible. 

Find out more about Gail and her other titles here.

What I'm Looking For (Me, John)

I'm always asked what kind of work I'm looking for. Of course, I'm eager to read anything well written, plot-driven, stringent, original, etc. - but isn't everybody? One genre I'd like to see more of in particular is sci-fi. Ideally, the otherworldly elements should be used to tell a human story. I'm less inclined to care about an invasion of lizard people if the humans are flat and one-dimensional. Also, it's more interesting to find the strange in an everyday setting. Aliens in space are less exciting than aliens in your sister's closet.

Send query letters and sample pages to jmc.st.ny@verizon.net.

Thanks!

- JMC