Holy (sacred) COW!!!

As we mentioned last week, 2k8 is full of interesting people who've accomplished great things in other (non-kidlit/YA) areas of publishing.

Lots of interesting people! Lots of accomplishments!

But only ONE member of 2k8 has been in the news lately. And when we say "the news" we mean THE NEWS!

Like, interviewed on TV and writing stories for superblogs like Salon and major news outlets like the Boston Globe.

Our own Donna Freitas!

Soooo... why is Donna hot stuff?

Well, in addition to writing wonderful books for kids, Donna just happens to be an academic-- on faculty at Boston University and co-author of the new book Killing the Imposter God: Philip Pullman's Spiritual Imagination in His Dark Materials.

In case you've been living under a very heavy, very large rock, we'll tell you that Pullman recently upset all kinds of people (especially some particularly rigid Catholics) with his (heretical??? and wonderful) books.

When the Pullman insanity began, Donna just happened to be the leading expert on Pullman's iconic/iconoclastic books, and found herself a media darling (though she'll probably blush to see us post this, because in addition to being suddenly FAMOUS she's also humble and sweet as can be).

Over here, Donna actually interviews Pullman himself. Because yes... she's *that* cool.

You HAVE to check it out!

The secret lives of 2k8!

While every member of the Class of 2k8 is a debut children's/YA author, we aren't all *totally* new to the world of publishing. In fact, we've spent hundreds of years (altogther, duh!) scribbling and submitting, and we've published lots and lots of books. From academic textbooks to anthologies, romantic comedies to quiet collections of poetry.

Of particular interest to blog-readers might be this gem, just out from Walker yesterday!

The Ultimate Teen Book Guide

The Ultimate Teen Book Guide is a review guide covering over 700 books for teens. Contributors include award-winning authors such as Nancy Werlin and 2k7's Sara Zarr, best-selling authors Meg Cabot and Christopher Paolini, debut authors (2k8's Debbie Reed Fischer), and many more. Articles and reviews by teachers, librarians, editors and teens make this book a must-have for any book-lover. Whether you like fantasy, horror, chick lit, graphic novels, sci-fi, or crime, there's something for everyone. Readers will also enjoy the top ten lists and surveys. Each rave review comes with suggestions for what to read next, so with more than 1,000 recommended books total, you'll never be without a good book again!

That's right! Our own Debbie Reed Fischer is a contributor! W00T!

How does she find the time? We have *no* idea... but you'd better go check it out!

Our big sisters and brothers...

We want to take a minute to post about the Class of 2k7. If it weren't for them we certainly wouldn't be here, doing this insane thing as a group. It was their crazy idea that got this ball rolling.

Thanks guys!

We'll never know how much the "class" concept helped, but it's astounding what these authors accomplished last year. We should only be so lucky...

Sara Zarr was nominated for a National Book Award!

AND

Melissa Marr hit the NYTimes list!

And that's just a few!

But that brings us to the point of today's post... which is that some of the members of the Class of 2k7 might not be books you've heard about.

One thing we want to mention, going into 2k8, is that we're aware that we won't all debut on the NYTimes list. And of course we realize that all 28 of us also can't be nominated for the Newbery or the National Book Award.

This makes things tricky, because of course we'd all love to "win" and we all admire and respect each other, and feel that we all deserve to "win".

And it can be hard when someone shoots into the stratosphere, because success begets success. So if Class member X gets a Printz nod, they'll be much more likely to get MORE attention, and MORE awards. Leaving those of us with "quieter" books to pat each other on the back, and dream of the kids out there who love our poor awardless books.

With that in mind, we're all going to do our best to support each other. But as a few of our books take off (and we hope they will) we're going to do everything we can to share the glory around a little. To remember that although we might not all be famous, we're all authors, and classmates... and by the end of the year we really hope to be friends.

We thought it might be of interest to readers of this blog to imagine this odd aspect of the Class of 2k8. That by definition, some of us will sell more books, get better reviews. And so that means that, by definition, some of us will get less.

And now... today... before that happens, we want to say this out loud...

THESE BOOKS ARE ALL GREAT! Whether they make the front page or not...

They like us, they really like us!!!

All over the kidlitosphere, folks are hearing about the Class of 2k8 and taking note.

Of course, we couldn't be more thrilled. Just today we noticed that Teen Book Review, and The Reading Zone have linked us!

Elsewhere in blogland, Miss Erin has amazing things to say about our very own Elizabeth C. Bunce's A Curse Dark as Gold. And it isn't even out for months yet...

Yay!

Do YouTube? WeTube!!!

How cool is this?! A video trailer for the Class of 2k8! Made for us by our very own Jen Bradbury. Thanks, Jen!



Here you can see some of our amazing (and wildly different) covers.

Just a taste...

Things you might have missed...

(Oh, yeah... bring it on, Lubar!)

As we're scurrying around the web, friending the good folks who've already got us on their blogrolls, we keep coming up with tidbits about 2k8. We thought you might like to know that:

We got a mention in this PW article about the Class of 2k7 (our big sibs)!

And one over here, at A Fuse #8 Production, the blog of librarian extraordinaire, Elizabeth Bird!

Brilliant, bearded, and balding author David Lubar even saw fit to make fun of us. Yeah!

Not too shabby...

Drumroll, please...

Okay! So we've begun the countdown to 2k8, and that means we've begun the countdown to our books!!! In less than two short weeks it'll be our year...

Which is so exciting we can hardly stand it.

Yep, here we are, 28 brand-spanking new authors, and we've dreamed all our lives of publishing these books, and now... now... now it's HAPPENING!

By the time you've recovered from your champagning, your wassailing and all your other revelry, our fancy new site will be full of all kinds of good stuff, videos and contests, reviews and links...

But while you're waiting for that, why don't you friend us on MYSPACE, join our group on FACEBOOK, check out our list on AMAZON, or join our JACKETFLAP!? And as mentioned in our previous post, you can friend us through LJ too!

That way you can stay up on all the wonderful news that's already begun to roll in. Like the advance praise for our January authors, Lisa and Liz!

Liz has gotten a slew of kidlitosphere blog reviews, from the likes of Professor Nana , and also some early buzz over at Teenreads.com!

And Boys Blogging Books are all over Lisa's awesome contest! She's also going to be featured at at Authorlink!

Rest assured, this is just the tip of the iceberg.For more on these (and other) books, check back here in January, when we'll be hosting virtual release parties with the authors themselves!!!

See you soon...