Rabbit Rabbit, Radio Interview, Little Free Library Updates, Book Recs and more!
Rabbit Rabbit! I never remember to say that first thing on the 1st of the month, so I scheduled this email to go out before I even wake up just in case I forget again.
If you’re reading this first thing in the morning, there’s still time to get in on a lucky June! And if you’re reading this later, because I shared it on social media or something… what can I say, subscribing = thriving ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
“Trixie Belden awoke slowly, with the sound of a summer rain beating against her window. She half-opened her eyes, stretched her arms above her head, and then, catching sight of a large sign tied to the foot of her bed, yelled out, ‘Rabbit! Rabbit!’ She bounced out of bed and ran out of her room and down the hall. ‘I've finally done it!’ she cried [...] ‘Well, ever since I was Bobby's age I've been trying to remember to say 'Rabbit! Rabbit!' and make a wish just before going to sleep on the last night of the month. If you say it again in the morning, before you've said another word, your wish comes true.” Trixie laughed. — Trixie Belden and the Mystery of the Emeralds (1962, by way of Wikipedia)
I was recently a guest on The Reading Life with Susan Larson and you can listen to our talk—about Snow Struck, and Action/Adventure, and empathy—here!
If you’re in New Orleans or the Gulf Coast area, you might have heard it broadcast on WWNO or other NPR member stations. WWNO was the radio station we used to listen to on our drive to school and it’s where I first heard my favorite author (Daniel Pinkwater), so this was super cool.
I don’t do a ton of radio interviews, but I’ve been lucky enough to talk with Susan for all three of my books now and you can hear those interviews on nickcourage.com (they’re embedded on the book pages and streaming in the sidebar).
Oh, yeah… another fun thing: I’m also super-lucky to be able to do events with Rachel every once in a while. We have so much to talk about when it comes to books and writing and publishing and, and, and — so my events with Rachel are always the most fun.
But when we’re both in conversation with each other, neither of us is snapping pictures… so I was really happy when a local author (Melissa Killian) shared this photo from our session at the 1st Annual Greater Pittsburgh Festival of Books.
Thank you, Melissa!
Now that it’s summer (-ish?), we’ve been having a ton of activity at our Little Free Library. If you’re new to these emails, the short story is that a bunch of neighborhood kids knock on our door (and ring the doorbell, and holler in our windows) to ask for book recommendations, which is the best thing ever.
I don’t know how or why that started, but we have some pretty funny conversations with the kids in our neighborhood and I post some of the highlights on Twitter. Sometimes I post roundups here, in the newsletter… so for all of my friends who aren’t on social media, I figured it was time to share another one of those:
Just as I was writing this email, just now, one of these kids came and wanted to talk about the Fun Day they have planned for the last day of school and how one of his friends is living in a hotel because people are working on their bathroom and how usually his bedtime is 8 o’clock but when they went to Disney it was 10.
So, I mean, there’s kind of a lot going on in our neighborhood.
I’ve been reading a lot of amazing manuscripts lately, which is kind of annoying because I can’t really recommend them until they’re published… but in between reading pre-published stuff on a Kindle, I’ve gotten really into a new-to-me Urban Fantasy series.
I started reading the first book in the series after an event I did (with Rachel - thank you, Rachel!) at Riverstone Books.
I always like to buy a couple of books and support the bookstore I’m visiting, and Riverstone has a great Science Fiction and Fantasy section. The book I picked up that day was called Hounded by Kevin Hearne—a repackaged edition of the first book in his Iron Druid Chronicles. That was on May 7th and it’s the 31st now… and I just finished Trapped, the fifth book in the Iron Druid Chronicles!
This is pretty much the perfect case study for don’t judge a book by its cover: The repackaged edition is on the left, below, and the original packaging is on the right.
I read all kinds of stuff—literary fiction, picture books, SFF, non-fiction, zines, airport thrillers, theory, poetry chapbooks, shampoo bottles—but I feel like I might not have picked up the original edition if I’d seen it first.
Funnily, now that I’ve read so much of the series: as different as they are, I think both covers are pretty representative of the books and work in different ways… but I’m glad I found the illustrated cover first because that’s the one that got me into the series and I literally cannot get enough these books now.
Like, to the point that I was considering driving back down to Alabama and Thank You Books for one of Kevin Hearne’s book talks (spoiler: I decided to wait until he makes it up to Pennsylvania).
Thank you to everyone who’s been leaving nice reviews of Storm Blown and Snow Struck and recommending them to students and friends—word of mouth is everything with kid lit—and thanks also to all the teachers and librarians who are downloading the free resources I have posted on my website and on TPT.
I just saw that over 100 teachers have downloaded the 63-page (!) Storm Blown Novel Study and it’s so cool to think of all the kids who are really digging into the novel that way. In case you missed it, I also have a Snow Struck Novel Study, Storm Blown and Snow Struck coloring pages, and vocabulary worksheets that are available to download for free (on TPT or my website).
Substack is telling me that I’m about to hit my limit for this email, so I’m gonna sign off for now—but I hope you’re all enjoying some fun, summery days and getting out into nature. If you end up coloring and posting any coloring pages, please do tag me (that always makes my day)…
And—as always—sincere thanks to everyone out there who’s supporting and helping me spread the word about these books. I couldn’t do it without ya!
Your friend,
