News / Events

January 31, 2010
UPCOMING EVENTS
February 20, 2010
Anderson's Bookshops' Eighth Annual Children's Literature Breakfast
8:00 a.m. to 1:00 p.m.
Abbington Distinctive Banquets
3 S 002 Illinois Rte. 53
Glen Ellyn, IL 60137

March 20, 2010
Virginia Festival of the Book
Panel: Getting Published -- Picture Books to Young Adult
12:00 p.m.
Featuring:
Laura Rennert (Buying, Training and Caring for Your Dinosaur)
Deborah Heiligman (Charles and Emma)
Bonnie Doerr (Island Sting)
Emily Ecton (Night of the Living Lawn Ornaments)
Ruth Spiro (Lester Fizz, Bubble-Gum Artist)
Moderated by: Fran Cannon Slayton

Omni Hotel
235 West Main Street
Charlottesville, VA 22902

April 17, 2010

Southern Kentucky Book Fest
9:00 a.m. - 4:00 p.m.
Carroll Knicely Conference Center
2355 Nashville Road
Bowling Green, KY 42101

2009

July 9, 2009
Visit me at ALA
The American Library Association Annual Conference is in Chicago this year, and I'm going to be doing a signing there! I'll be at the SCBWI-IL booth on Saturday, July 11 between 3 and 5pm. It's booth # 1626 located between Scholastic and Charlesbridge.

If you're in town, stop by and say hello!

May 16, 2009
If you haven't already, check out the Bridget Zinn Auction. It's a fundraiser for YA writer and librarian Bridget Zinn, who was recently diagnosed with colon cancer. You can bid on all sorts of neat things -- signed books by me and other authors, manuscript critque sessions and even a Carl Kasell message!

May 6, 2009
I recently attended the Southern Kentucky Bookfest, where I was on a panel with the fabulous authors Gaby Triana and Michael Buckley. Thanks to everyone who came out -- it was such a fun day!

Posing with me at the Meet the Authors reception are Gaby Triana, Dennis Calero, Michael Buckley, Ashley Folkes and Dawn Hall. (photo copyright WKU Libraries)

2008

December 27, 2008
Boots and Pieces Book Giveaway!
J. Kaye and Nona Oldner of J. Kaye's Book Blog reviewed Boots and Pieces and are having a book giveaway. To enter, just click here and leave a comment. The deadline is January 3.
Good luck!

December 17, 2008
I was lucky enough to participate in this year's Winter Blast Blog Tour, and was interviewed by the terrific Little Willow on her blog, Bildungsroman. You can check out the interview here.

Boots and Pieces and The Curse of Cuddles McGee are nominated for Cybils awards! Boots and Pieces was reviewed by one of the judges in the middle grade fantasy category -- Nettle, of The Puck in the Midden, here. (scroll down for the review)

And I'm very psyched to have found The Curse of Cuddles McGee for sale on this site -- HamsterFizz -- which is described on its homepage as the place "where you will find everything for your gerbil or hamster." Including, apparently, spooky stories about their undead relatives. How awesome is that?

October 23, 2008
It's review time!

Mel Odom, author of the Rover books, reviewed Boots and Pieces for Blogcritics.org here.

Elizabeth Bird of Fuse 8 fame also has a review up here.

And a review from BookDivas is here.

The Curse of Cuddles McGee also has a review, from the Happy Nappy Bookseller -- it's here.

And Little Willow has included the books on two of her lists -- Boots and Pieces is on her Best Books of September booklist, and the series is in awesome company on her list of Funny Fiction for Kids.

October 13, 2008
It's only half over, but October's been such a busy month!

I went to the Great Lakes Booksellers Association Trade Show in Dearborn, Michigan, where I met the terrific Simon & Schuster book reps and hung out with the superfun picture book authors Lisa Wheeler and Kelly DiPucchio and terrific YA author Stephanie Kuehnert.

Then I headed off to LA to help out with the Wait Wait pilot. While I was there I saw the amazing YA author Paula Yoo, hot new YA author Ben Esch and his supercool screenwriter brother Doyle Esch.

Paula took me out on the town and we had a blast! She wrote about our night as Hollywood tourists in her blog.

To finish off the week, I took part in the Educator's Breakfast at the Barnes and Noble in Deer Park, Illinois (and I only got horribly lost twice on the way there.)

I met their terrific community relations manager, Michelle Schmitz, and signed books along with three talented Chicago authors: Sara Shacter, Simone Elkeles, and Adam Selzer.

I'm exhausted, but it was all so much fun!

September 24, 2008
The Curse of Cuddles McGee is officially in stores! Get out your dancing shoes and go wild!

August 20, 2008
I'm having a book giveaway! The Curse of Cuddles McGee won't be in stores for another month, but you can win an advance review copy now on the GoodReads website. To get more information and enter, click here:
Cuddles Giveaway
Update! Congratulations to Danielle in Massachussetts for winning the copy of Cuddles!

August 5, 2008
Boots and Pieces is officially out in stores! Go out and celebrate by doing your best kung fu moves and eating s'mores until you're sick.

July 26, 2008
It's the first review for Boots and Pieces! You can read the Chicago Tribune's review here:
http://www.chicagotribune.com/features/booksmags/chi-kids-26jul26,0,2100789.story

June 5, 2008
Cynthea Liu and her brilliant bunny Snoop talked to me about the books. You can read the interview here:
http://www.writingforchildrenandteens.com/2008/06/05/293/emily-ecton/

June 4, 2008
Books in the works:
Night of the Living Lawn Ornaments, the third book about Arlie, Ty and Mr. Boots, will be out on March 10, 2009.