Hello Lovely Readers! This has been a busy week for the Sword & Silk Crew! Our staff and authors spent three days the inaugural US Book Show, hosted by Publishers Weekly. Between staffing chats, wandering the virtual exhibits halls, and catching the occasional panel in the auditorium (Keanu's hair is giving me life) we had a blast. And in case you missed us, we wanted to share some of our chat highlights with you!
Sword & Silk Chat Quotes
Upcoming Author Chat
Lisette would probably be looking for something to pawn, hide your good jewelry. -Amanda Pavlov, Author of Mind Like A Diamond
Hide your jewelry! Ha!- Amelia Loken, Author of Unraveled
Brynn would be safe with Lisette because she doesn't bother with frilly things like jewelry. ;) -Justine Manzano, Author of Never Say Never
Garit might be a little bit of a stale cinnamon roll on the outside, but he has a gooey interior!- Nicole Bea, Author of Beneath the Starlit Sea
I truly used to have nightmares about Scooby Doo movies. I'm a scaredy cat for sure. -Haleigh Wenger, Author of A Feeling Like Home
I'm still scared just thinking about the Haunted House at Disney World - Ann M. Miller, Author of A Heartbeat Away from You
Okay, Okay, I kid. I love our ladies. They did a truly amazing job with these chats. I am so proud of them and their stories but I love how much fun we had during these chats.
I wanted to write my story because there were so few books about girls playing baseball! But a book where girls' baseball was already established and they didn't have to fight for their place among the boys. I was really inspired by A League of Their Own. -Ann M. Miller, Author of A Heartbeat Away From You
How did the story come? Well, I imprinted on The Princess Bride when I was young, and have been a fan of Sherwood Smith and Shannon Hale an Susan Dennard. So, I wrote my own but with a deaf protagonist. I was an ASL/English interpreter, and I'm losing my own hearing so that's a lot of my own story. -Amelia Loken, Author of Unraveled
It doesn't always. There are some times where I honestly just want to write a world where the characters aren't coping with a disability. Writing is my escape, so I'm not always in the mood to only partially escape. Sometimes I just want to play in a world without these troubles. But the lens through which I see the world is tinted by my experiences in life. But, it does sometimes come in, and I've been working on opening up more to leaning into what I see through that lens. - Justine Manzano, Author of Never Say Never on Disability Rep in Fiction
I struggled with putting illness in my books for a while. I wanted the representation but it felt like "who would want to read about this?" or like it was too real. But it's true. It's important and cathartic and needed to write about our true experiences, even in fiction. - Haleigh Wenger, Author of A Feeling Like Home
Definitely do drop into our US BOOK SHOW TRANSCRIPTS to see the full conversation with our Authors and Staff through the week!
And Coming up this June, we have some exciting things planned for the release of Justine Manzano's Never Say Never! Stay tuned!
