Category: Goblin Market

Sic itur ad astra

Posted on by Diane Zahler

I had never had a starred review. Many of my reviews were wonderful (even Kirkus reviews, except for that really mean one). Positive. A few were almost rhapsodic. But not so much starred. So I had a thing in my head, that I wanted a starred review. That was my end-all and be-all. I was quite sure it was never happening.

To non-writers, this probably seems bizarre. What’s a starred review? you ask. Well, In the main children’s book review journals — Publishers Weekly, Kirkus, School Library Journal, Booklist, Horn Book — a star means a book is something special. Libraries and bookstores are much more likely to order starred books. It makes a difference, though many, many deserving titles don’t get stars.

And then, a month or so ago, Publishers Weekly gave WILD BIRD a starred review! It was…well, I guess I don’t quite have a word. Awesome is dumb. Amazing is overused. Startling, astonishing, staggering, stupefying. All of that.

And then a few days later, School Library Journal gave GOBLIN MARKET a starred review. Overwhelming. Shattering. Staggering. All of that.

And then, a week or so later, School Library Journal gave WILD BIRD a starred review! Astonishing, etc. Three stars in a month. After twelve years with none.

Does this actually mean anything? Has my writing improved? Or is it a longevity thing, a sort of Oscar or Rock & Roll Hall of Fame lifetime achievement award?

I prefer to think I’ve gotten better over time. Like a fine wine, or a smelly cheese. After this, maybe I’ll turn to vinegar, or develop mold. Or just fade away. Whatever. Still, I got what I wanted — more than I wanted — and not many writers are lucky enough to be able to say that.

 

A Long Silence

Posted on by Diane Zahler

It’s hard to write about writing when the world is falling to pieces.

There’s a pandemic. There’s a war. We’ve even been visited here by a third Horseman, Pestilence, who gifted us with a grotesque infestation of spongy moth caterpillars that dangle from trees and leave welts on the skin of the unsuspecting.

 

 

 

 

We’ve lost so much:

Time

Money

Trust

Family, friends, loved ones.

 

But writing has been an escape for me, as I’m sure it is for a lot of writers. And I’ve kept on doing it, because — well, what else can one do?

My book Goblin Market will be published in August. I’ve seen an ARC, and the cover is beautiful. There’s interior art, which I love. It’s all very Polish, because my version of the story takes place in a fantastical version of Poland — for no real reason except that I visited there and was fascinated by it, and that it has storks, which are fabulous, and that it has a long history of goblin stories.

Wild Bird, my novel about the bubonic plague, is also moving right along. Another gorgeous cover, more lovely interior art, even a map. I do love a good map.

And Daughter of the White Rose will be published in paperback in August!

 

So life goes on, regardless. I hope you are well. But if it’s all too much, then another reality — an invented reality — might help.  Open a book. Take yourself out of the here and now. Exist somewhere, sometime different for a while.

 

You deserve it.

Goblin Market!

Posted on by Diane Zahler

It’s been a long, strange year.

But I’ve been writing, and I have some news to announce: my new middle-grade fantasy novel, Goblin Market, has been accepted for publication by Holiday House! I’m thrilled to be putting out another book with this wonderful publishing house (Daughter of the White Rose — see the cover on the left — comes out from Holiday House on February 16).

 

 

 

 

 

Goblin Market was inspired by the 1862 Christina Rossetti poem of the same name. It’s a tale of two sisters and what happens when the elder falls under a deadly enchantment cast by the goblins who sell their bewitching wares at the local market. The strange spell threatens her very life, forcing the younger girl to battle her own limitations to try to save her beloved sister.

Backwards up the mossy glen
Turn’d and troop’d the goblin men,
With their shrill repeated cry,
“Come buy, come buy!”

Christina Rossetti

 

 

Happy 2021, everyone! May it be a vast improvement over 2020 in every possible way.