Posts Tagged ‘Achievements’

Some words from Tammy:

Whew!  I am back, bloody but unbowed, maybe a tad bit semiconscious, but what a wild ride!  This is absolutely the longest and wildest book tour I have ever had, including Firehouse Books at Fort Collins, Colorado; The Tattered Cover, Colfax Avenue (they have two stores now) in Denver; The King’s English in Salt Lake City; Barnes & Noble in Orem, Utah; Boskone (the science fiction convention) in Boston; Brookline Booksmith, near Harvard, Massachusetts; Escape Pod Comics, Huntington, NY, together with comics and book writer G. Willow Wilson; Barnes & Noble at Union Square, New York, NY; Books of Wonder, the new 84th Street store in New York, NY; Oblong Books, Rhinebeck, NY;  the University Bookstore hosting Rachel Hartman, Lish McBride, and me at the University Temple United Methodist Church in The Sanctuary in Seattle; three days of Emerald City Comic Con in Seattle, then Changing Hands Bookstore in Tempe, Arizona!

By the way, as if my head weren’t spinning enough, Tempests entered The New York Times Young Adult Bestseller List at #1 right before I left!  Talk about a sign from the gods that things were going to go well . . .

I met many wonderful fans, familiar and new, got to talk with fellow authors and old friends, became acquainted with new landscapes, visited the Seattle Aquarium for the fourth (fifth?) time, saw the Grand Canyon from overhead,  and signed lots and lots and lots and lots of books.  So did my assistant Julie and my spouse-creature Tim, co-writers of Spy’s Guide to Tortall.  I drank way too much coffee, wore my funkiest-in-life-ever (funkier even than the miniskirts and hot pants I wore when I was much younger!) outfits, and came to hate tiny airline seats. And now I’m verblunget, as I say, with catch-up mail, unhappy kitties, new rescues to find homes for, and a book to write quickly!  But I’m home, and it snowed some more, and my office cat—the lovely Autumn—is curled up behind my butt, so all is good!

Back to the book, then!

—Tammy 

Margaret A. Edwards Award Speech

Here is the original text of Tammy’s Margaret A. Edwards Award speech, as requested by some fans.

What a long, strange trip this has been—and yet I can’t complain. If you feel bitterly used and wish to exact vengeance at the end of my talk, I wish you luck, because it’s my father’s fault that I’m here, and he is swapping stories with the fellows in Valhalla. He was glad to hear that I fought my mother to watch the British TV series “Robin Hood” every weekday morning before I ran to school. You see, my father had three daughters, which means that I was the oldest son. I was never good at outdoor things, but when it came to books and television, my father shaped me. We shared the adventures of Thor Heyerdahl and Sir Edmund Hillary, Howard Pyle’s renditions (for boys) of the adventures of Robin Hood and of King Arthur, the historical novels of F. Van Wyck Mason and Kenneth Roberts, and the books of Edgar Rice Burroughs, Mark Twain, and Edgar Allen Poe. He approved heartily when I read the family Golden Library editions of The Iliad and The Odyssey. We watched “Davy Crockett” together, the World War II drama “Combat!”, and the original “Star Trek” series. My mother, who was a brilliant, troubled woman, oversaw my education in liberal politics and issues, and in religious and social history. She was the reason that my middle school principal introduced me to a visitor as “our little women’s libber.” It was the 1960s. Things were changing. I breathed in feminism long before my friends at school.

Not that I had many friends. Up until third grade things were all right. I lived in a small coal town where everyone dressed the same. Then we moved to the San Francisco Bay Area. I was obviously poor: one kid said I looked like a “refugee from a rag bag.” I used “big words.” I read too much. I knew no popular songs or dances or TV shows (we had no TV by then). I was beat up and bullied. A girl who had been my best friend the day before joined others at my bus stop to throw dirt clods at me.

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Buzzfeed Members Pick ALANNA: THE FIRST ADVENTURE as One of “21 Books Every Woman Should Read In Her Lifetime”

At Number 17, between Malala Yousafzai’s I Am Malala and Suzanne Collins’s The Hunger Games, is Tammy’s first Tortall novel. She’s delighted to be included on this list, and proud to be in such great company as Ms. Yousafzai, Maya Angelou, Alice Walker, Jane Austen and Khaled Hosseini.

BUZZFEED: 21 Books Every Woman Should Read in Her Lifetime

Tamora Pierce is One of “Five Great Audiobooks Read by the Author”

Tammy’s in great company at No. 2 (The Immortals and Circle of Magic Quartets) narrating as the Full Cast Audio Family performs the characters’ dialogue (including Bruce Coville as Niklaren Goldeye and Tammy’s husband Tim as Dedicate Crane, among other roles!), with Neil Gaiman (Ocean at the End of the Lane) at No. 1 – and Jenny Lawson (Furiously Happy), the late Christopher Hitchens (Hitch-22), and Seamus Heaney’s translation of the Old English classic Beowulf also on the list.

Alanna of Trebond and Brienne of Tarth – Separated at Birth?

Apparently Abigail Chandler of Bookbub‘s Blog thinks so! In her “Eight Books to Read Based on Your Favorite ‘Game of Thrones’ Character” post, she lists Song of the Lioness as the books fans of Lady Knight Brienne of Tarth should be reading….

Just in case you aren’t already a member, Bookbub recommends eBook deals, which prices usually ranging from Free to US$2.99, based on your interests. It’s free to join, and the books range from classics which are on special for a short while to newly-published work in a variety of genres.