The blog of author Matthew J. Kirby

Category: Books

  • The Quantum League! And some other stuff.

    First things first. The news is out, so I’m excited to announce my next writing project. From Publishers Weekly: Lisa Sandell at Scholastic Press has acquired a three-book middle-grade fantasy series called The Quantum League by Matthew J. Kirby, author of The Clockwork Three and Icefall. In the series, two best friends fight modern-day magicians…

  • 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…

  • Infinity Ring

    I’ve recently mentioned a secret project I’ve been involved with, and I am excited to finally announce it. But before I talk about it, The New York Times just ran a piece on it, which I would recommend reading first. You can find it here. If you want to track down the print version, it’s…

  • 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…

  • Claymation! Plus, Scholastic HQ.

    Just a couple of videos today. The first is a book trailer that a fan made for The Clockwork Three. In claymation! I love that the door to Alice’s cabin is yellow, just like in the book. Now that’s attention to detail! The second video is of the Scholastic headquarters in New York City. Having…

  • Travels, part 1

    I’ve been doing a fair amount of traveling recently to promote Icefall. The first trip was to the Baltimore Book Festival in Maryland. Having lived in Maryland for several years, it felt a bit like going home. I stayed near the Inner Harbor, a place I really liked as a kid, especially the National Aquarium…