Liam O'Donnell » ramprats

More Graphic Guide Goodness

liam — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:15:24 +0000

This just in: Ramp Rats named to the Resource Links Best of List for 2008! This is very cool news for a couple of reasons. First, it’s always nice to have your work linked with the word “best” and second, it’s another sign that educators and book people are welcoming graphic novels into the realm of “stuff that is good for young readers.” Included in the list are some really good titles from fantastic Canadian authors. I’m honoured to included.

I say it’s another sign, because the first book in the Graphic Guide Adventure series, Wild Ride, is nominated for the 2009 Hackmatack Children’s Choice Award. This isn’t new news, but it is to my knowledge the first time a graphic novel has been nominated for one of the “Tree Awards” (Silver Birch in Ontario and more varieties in other provinces.) Sequential art FTW!

All this is a round-about way of saying that I’ll be heading out to Halifax for the Hackmatack Awards ceremony in May. Very excited about that. I’ll also be visiting schools in the run up to the awards, so I’m looking forward to meeting the readers and securing their votes by any means necessary (this stuff makes the US elections look like a tea party, let me tell you.)

Thanks to Resource Links and Hackmatack for including the GGA books and a big thanks to the creative powers of Michael Deas, illustrator extraordinaire who gives the whole serkies its fantastic look. Just check out the cover art for Soccer Sabotage, GGA #3 on the left. Kickin’! (in every sense of the word.)

Soccer Sabotage gets colour

liam — Wed, 10 Sep 2008 14:30:14 +0000

While I’ve been busy writing Media Makers, Book 4 of the Graphic Guide Adventures series, my illustration partner, the fantastic Michael Deas has been busy drawing the art for Book 3: Soccer Sabotage. Over the weekend, my editors at Orca Book Publishers sent me Mike’s pencils in full colour and they’re looking great! We run a high security facility around here, so I can’t show you the roughs but has put together a very cool Soccer Sabotage banner – it’s the one at the top of the post. Pretty cool, huh?

You’re going to have to wait until 2009 (I know, I know – it says spring 2008 on the banner – we’re working on that!) to get your hands on Soccer Sabotage. But Book 2 in the GGA series, Ramp Rats, hits bookstores in October and is already getting good reviews – which I’ll get up once I have the first draft of Media Makers into Orca – see how it all works in cycles?

Writer emerges from Azeroth with news

liam — Mon, 21 Jul 2008 14:37:31 +0000

[via feedingchange] Ok, so here’s how it goes: Writer announces that he’s delving into World of Warcraft, purely for research purposes and doesn’t blog for nearly a month. A classic case of gamer widowhood? Not really (honest!) I have been busy and there is much to report. For instance:

Wild Ride has gone into its second printing AND has been picked up by the Scholastic Book Club for the 2008/09 school year. Very cool. This is first time any of my books have gone into a second printing and it’s completely due to my fantastic publisher, Orca Book Publishers, and their even more fantastic connections in the USA.

Read the rest of the news at my blog: feedingchange.

Book Expo Canada takes over my weekend

liam — Sat, 14 Jun 2008 15:58:49 +0000

Okay, not the entire weekend. But Book Expo Canada is here and I’ll be out tonight at the CCBC Children’s Gala, (which I’ve stated before, is neither for children or a gala, but is always fun) schmoozing with fellow writers and editors who I normally only email with.

Tomorrow, I’ll be signing advanced copies of the latest title in the Graphic Guide Adventures series: Ramp Rats, with my good friends at Orca Book Publishers. I’ll at their booth from 2pm until around 2:30ish. So, if you’re in the Metro Convention Centre and want to learn how to pull a stalefish grab, come see me and I’ll get you sorted.