Martha will be in conversation with Natasha Tripplett, a Jewish-Jamaican picture book author whose debut is The Blue Pickup, a charming story about a young girl who loves fixing automobiles with her grandfather on the warm grounds of Jamaica, Natasha Tripplett's debut picture book is a perfect pick for fans of My Papi Has a Motorcycle and The Old Truck. 

Martha will be in conversation with Ben Guterson, the award-winning author of The Einsteins of Vista Point, which has sold into eight languages, as well as Winterhouse, an Edgar Award and Agatha Award finalist and an Indie Next List Pick, and its sequels, The Secrets of Winterhouse and The Winterhouse Mysteries. The Winterhouse trilogy is available in eleven languages worldwide. The World Famous Nine is a thrilling mystery about, Zander, who is determined to do whatever it takes to save his grandmother’s nineteen-story out-of-this-world department store—perfect for fans of The Swifts and The Mysterious Benedict Society.

I'll be visiting A Book for All Seasons in beautiful Leavenworth, Washington.

How to write query letters: a workshop. Come ready to write yours (and your synopsis)!

Martha Brockenbrough writes fiction and nonfiction for young readers and adults. Her novel The Game of Love and Death won a Washington State Book Award, a Pacific Northwest Bookseller Association Award, and was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize. Forthcoming titles include Alexander Hamilton: Revolutionary, the first young-adult biography of the founding father. She teaches at the Vermont College of Fine Arts writing for children and young adults MFA program.

Learn how to write a sparkling query letter and get an agent’s attention, with novelist and nonfiction writer Martha Brockenbrough.

Knowing how to talk about your work and make it compelling is vital when you’re looking for an agent. Learn what to do—and what to avoid—when querying. We’ll also take a look at writing a synopsis of your book.
 

I'll be one of two dozen or so authors meeting booksellers and consumers at each table, talking about books and answering questions about books, writing, and—if my dream come true—puppies. 

I'll be celebrating the great work of readers in this Silverdale School District. 

Serendipity 2017 looks to the stages of development between childhood and teenage years, from the humorous antics of Jeremy Tankard’s Grumpy Bird to Jennifer A. Nielsen’s exploration of young life during the Holocaust in A Night Divided, and Martha Brockenbrough’s Game of Love and Death, a tale of destiny and personal choice throughout various times and places. The work of these three phenomenal artists, from picture books to nonfiction to historical novels, will make you laugh, cry, and think about humanity in surprising ways.

I'll be thanking The Seattle Public Library's volunteers for their amazing support of the Library and the community. We'll start with a jazz concert featuring Lucy Berliant, and then I'll talk about The Game of Love and Death, how I researched it, and how libraries are invaluable support for the arts. This is a private event for invited volunteers and their guests.

I'll be talking about the craft of writing YA novels in an all-day session at the SCBWI Florida conference at Disneyworld. Come for my talk--and then exorcise your demons in the Disneyland Haunted Mansion!

How do you write a query letter, find an agent or get more involved in the writing community. We’ll discuss the writing process, finding our way to our best writing genre, and defining success in a writing career. 

Join me at this spectacular bookstore for live music, and we'll chat about what went into the writing of THE GAME OF LOVE AND DEATH.