The blog of author Matthew J. Kirby

Category: Life

  • On Sexual Harassment in the World of Children’s Literature

    Though mostly silent on social media these days, I am aware of the earthquake taking place in the kidlit world. That’s the most accurate metaphor I can think of to describe this long overdue upending of the status quo. It’s the kind of event that leaves everyone shaken, and makes you question things you had…

  • Ursula K. Le Guin

    “Only for a moment did the spirit glimmer there. Then the sallow oval between Ged’s arms grew bright. It widened and spread, a rent in the darkness of the earth and night, a ripping open of the fabric of the world. Through it blazed a terrible brightness. And through that bright misshapen breach clambered something…

  • WARNING: This Post Contains My High School Art

    My, my, my. It has been a long time since I posted anything here, which is how I think 99.89 percent of blog entries begin nowadays. But on a whim I think I’ll post something today. I’ve been feeling the urge to draw lately. Well, I’ve been feeling it for the past couple of years,…

  • Thoughts from a Book Tour

    I’ve been traveling quite a bit, off and on, over the last month or so. I visited several cities, a few amazing bookstores, and numerous schools. The people I meet often wonder what a book tour is like. Some people assume it’s glamorous, and on occasion it does kind of feel that way. Some people…

  • A Halloween Post

    It was Halloween over the weekend, which was appropriate to the book I’m currently writing. It’s a Victorian horror novel, and will be for a much older, YA audience than my usual, middle grade books. It’s been a new and interesting challenge to write, and I have to say I’ve creeped myself out a couple…

  • Books written, books yet to be written.

    The books I have written may explain why I haven’t written an entry here in quite some time. Since I last posted, I’ve written the next Quantum League book, the sequel to Spell Robbers, and did a rewrite on the first installment in an SF/adventure series I’m doing for Harper Collins. I’m really excited about both, and I’m…

  • 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…

  • You can almost feel the fur coats…

    The other day, after we’d had a heavy snowfall, I took the dogs for a walk in the woods. The forest had a very Narnia feel about it. I imagined Mr. Tumnus with his parcels and little umbrella around every tree (and it also made me think that I need to get a lamppost like…

  • 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…

  • Zombie Cats, Some Pretty Scenery, and a Red Dawn

    I’ve been researching quantum theory recently, and by “research” I mean that I’m trying to wrap my math-challenged head around something that is even more amazing, disturbing, and shocking than I thought it was. Things (very small things) really can be in two places at once. The observation of something writes the history of that…