The blog of author Matthew J. Kirby

Category: Icefall

  • A bunch of stuff!

    I’ve been very, very busy lately, and I’m just poking my head up for a moment to say that yes, I am alive, before dropping back under. (Although. I am on twitter, now, and I am able to update there a lot more frequently than here, FYI.) In the past few weeks I’ve written the…

  • Sextet on an Ice Epic

    I meant to post this a long time ago, but somehow forgot. (I say “somehow,” but really there’s no “somehow” when you forget things as often as I do.) You  may remember Alessandro, the young musician who composed a quartet inspired by The Clockwork Three. Well, he has done the same for Icefall, and I continue to…

  • PEN Center USA Award, and the first snowfall of the year

    A few weeks ago, Scholastic was kind enough to send me to Los Angeles to receive the PEN Center USA Award for Icefall. I have to say, I think this was one of the most intimidating events I’ve been to. It’s partly because I was there alone and didn’t know anyone. It’s partly because it…

  • Icefall in German

    Yesterday, I received copies of the German translation of Icefall. I think it’s a really interesting take, and I particularly like the tattoos on Solveig’s hand and face. I had never pictured her that way, but I think it’s pretty cool. It’s also fun to see how widely interpretations of the material can vary, when…

  • PEN Center USA, and the Infinity Ring launch

    I’m honored and pleased to announce that Icefall has won the 2012 PEN Center USA Literary Award for Children’s Literature! I continue to be humbled and touched by the attention Icefall has received. As I’ve talked about many times, Solveig and her story are very close and personal to me, and I love that the…

  • The Edgar! Also, butterflies, a space shuttle, and a really big snake.

    As some of you may have heard, last week Icefall won the Edgar Award in the Juvenile Fiction category! I am honestly still a bit stunned. The nomination alone took me completely by surprise, to say nothing of actually winning. But I’m so thrilled and honored, and I’d like to say thank you to the…

  • Travels, Part 2

    This post has been a long time coming, but I do still want to talk about some of the trips I took last fall. One of the things I’ve loved most about my writing career has been the opportunity to travel, to meet new people and have wonderful experiences I wouldn’t otherwise get to have.…

  • An Edgar Nomination for Icefall

    Just a quick note with some really cool Icefall news. Pretty soon, I hope to do another post about the travel I did in the fall, as well as a belated New Year kind of thing where I talk about my writing goals for the upcoming year. But in the meantime, I’m really excited to…

  • Parents’ Choice, and a few more Icefall reviews

    Some more good news and reviews have been coming in for Icefall. First, it was recently announced that Icefall has been given the 2011 Parents’ Choice Gold Award in the Fiction category! I’m honored and grateful. Icefall is sharing the award with Brian Selznick’s Wonderstruck, and there are some other great titles on the lists,…

  • Images of Icefall

    Writers often use a variety of tricks to get into the stories they’re writing, things that help us to enter the world of the story and make it real. For example, some writers clip pictures from magazines and other places to help them visualize characters or settings. Others use music, a song that perfectly and…