Tag Archives for hannah moskowitz

OUT TUESDAY: Zombie Tag, by Hannah Moskowitz

Hannah is one of my biffers, and I’m thrilled to help spread the word about her newest book, Zombie Tag. It hits shelves tomorrow, Tuesday December 20, and it is a pretty awesome piece of MG fiction. (MG is just a label—you bet your boots I’m planning to read it.)

You may recall, last year, I presented the rules for the game of zombie tag (click to refresh your memory). That game plays a major role in the book, aside from just giving it a title, but the book is so much more. Here’s the blurb:

Wil is desperate for his older brother to come back from the dead. But the thing about zombies is . . they don’t exactly make the best siblings.

Thirteen-year-old Wil Lowenstein copes with his brother’s death by focusing on Zombie Tag, a mafia/capture the flag hybrid game where he and his friends fight off brain-eating zombies with their mothers’ spatulas. What Wil doesn’t tell anybody is that if he could bring his dead brother back as a zombie, he would in a heartbeat. But when Wil finds a way to summon all the dead within five miles, he’s surprised to discover that his back-from-the-dead brother is emotionless and distant.

In her first novel for younger readers, Moskowitz offers a funny and heartfelt look at how one boy deals with change, loss, and the complicated relationship between brothers.

Doesn’t that sound awesome? Yes, yes it does.

Check out Hannah’s blog here. This link goes to Zombie Tag on Amazon, but I obviously encourage you to buy it at your local bookstore.

What are you doing on Tuesday April 19?

This is a shameless pimping post.

Because if the answer to the question posed above is not, “Buying Hannah Moskowitz’s novel Invincible Summer,” then you are doing it wrong.

Hannah is not only one of my biffers, she is an absolutely kick-ass writer. Invincible Summer is her second YA novel, following the highly-acclaimed Break. Here is a brief blurb:

Across four sun-kissed, drama-drenched summers at his family’s beach house, Chase is falling in love, falling in lust, and trying to keep his life from falling apart.

Hannah’s writing is gritty and sharp and lyrical and filled with intense and complicated relationships. I’ve never read something of hers that I haven’t loved. But don’t just take my word for it:

“Engrossing, messy, complex, and real. Moskowitz’s writing is raw and so right.” —Lauren Strasnick, author of Nothing Like You

So then. Why are you still here? Go get it. Amazon is already shipping it, apparently. I’m picking mine up at a local bookstore, and it’s going to be one of my reads on the trip to Disneyworld.

I am so! Excited!

why you need to bring your spatula to SCBWI

Are you going to SCBWI?

Are you packing a spatula?

This weekend, at SCBWI’s Summer Conference, there is going to be some EPIC ZOMBIE TAG happening, and you need a spatula to participate. Don’t know what I’m talking about? You obviously don’t follow Hannah Moskowitz. She recently sold her first MG novel, ZOMBIE TAG, to Roaring Brook Press, and a key part of this book is a game called—are you keeping up here?—zombie tag.

Which all the cool kids will be playing at SCBWI. I don’t have details, but I know it’s going to happen. And you want to be there.

So bring your spatula and stay tuned. It’s going to be AMAZING.

Hannah outlines the rules of zombie tag in this post, but here are some of the basics:

For the best game of Zombie Tag, you need somewhere between 8 and 15 people. More or less can work, depending on the size of the house. Wil, the main character in Zombie Tag, plays with closer to 6 people, because his parents would never let eight kids in their house at once.

This game is played at night, in the dark.

–Your objective is: If you are a zombie, turn everyone else into a zombie. If you are a human, escape the house.

–If you are the victim of an attempted zombie attack, you have four ways to escape:

1) Fight him off with your spatula. Zombies are terrified of spatulas.

2) Hit him on the top of his head with the flat of your hand (gently, please) which is a zombie paralysis move that will freeze the zombie for ten seconds, allowing you to make an escape.

3) Run. Be warned, however: Zombies possess super speed.

4) Remember your BARRICADE post-it? [you don't because I cut that part out, go read the full rules] Slap it on a door and hide in a room. The zombie, upon encountering a barricaded door, must bang on it for thirty seconds to break the barricade before he can enter. This should give you time to find the key if it is hidden in this room, at which point you will need to find an alternate route or fight the zombie long enough to sprint to the door. Or, if the key is not in the room, it is enough time for you to call your mother and tell her you love her.

–If you are bitten, you become a zombie. But all is not lost! You now begin hunting the others with your zombie compatriots. And you win if everyone is a zombie at the end.

–If you are a human and you find the key, run like hell towards the front door. If you escape, you win! You are now the only hope for humanity.

You know you want to be there. See you in LA!

tip jar: shut the fuck up

(Note: This was the only real post I did at my short-lived anonymous blog, which I am now deleting.)

So this hot chick that I may have mentioned before, Hannah Moskowitz, made this video (she’s a YA Rebel, they do daily vlogs on writing, check it out) and she talked about the best and worst writing advice she’s ever received. It’s pretty funny, you should watch it.

I want to talk for a sec about her Best Writing Advice, which is:

“Shut the fuck up and write your book.”

(cont’d after the vid)

Like, yeah.

Seriously.

Shut up.

Stop talking about how you need to write, how you can’t write, how much it sucks. Stop tweeting. Stop blogging. Stop reading blogs about writing. Stop posting on writing forums. Stop reading writing forums. Stop making lists of your main character’s traits/favorites. Stop making maps. (You’re looking at an ex-fantasy-trilogy-master here, you can’t fool me. I know what you’re up to.) Stop talking about writing.

Because if you don’t shut the fuck up and do it… well you won’t get it done.

Just look at me.

Let’s just say… I am not always good at following the advice I give.

I talk nonstop about writing (and, well, everything else). And I don’t get shit done.

So I’m passing Hannah’s advice onto you and I’m going to follow it myself.

All together now, with feeling! “Shut the fuck up and write your book. Shut the fuck up and write your book. HURRAH!”