Category: Novel

Signed By The Author

Where to find signed Ruby Finley copies

By:  TempestNovel

For the past few weeks I’ve been turning up to bookstores that have copies of Ruby Finley vs the Interstellar Invasion to sign them! I also very much enjoyed meeting the booksellers along the way. Below is a list of stores where I’ve signed stock. Most only had one or two copies at the time, so they may be gone. Perhaps you’ll get lucky!

If you happen to drop by to get a signed copy, make sure you tell them you came specifically for that! It helps when they know.

Not in any of these cities? Never fear, you can still get my book online or from your local indie bookstore. Click here to find it in your area.

Junior Library Guild

Ruby Finley is a JLG Gold Standard Selection!

By:  TempestWriting

This news made my day explode with glitter! Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion is a Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection. *confetti!*

For those who don’t know, the JLG sends curated book boxes to librarians who then use those selections to inform which books they’ll buy for their libraries. So this is a big win!

The guild also claims that they have “A Sixth Sense for Choosing Award-Worthy Books.” *fans self*

Many thanks to the folks at JLG for picking my book and I hope all the librarians who get it love it as well.

Writing with Pride

Writing With Pride – LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion

By:  TempestWriting

Since it’s Pride Month and Juneteenth season and three months until Ruby Finley comes out, I thought I’d post about an aspect of the book that’s not obvious from the jacket copy but is very important to me, a Black Queer person.

When I first decided to write this book I had specific goals about representation and inclusion. I wanted my protagonist to be Black, to live in a Black community that is functional, safe, and caring, and for that community to have LGBTQ+ people in it as a matter of course. I did this by including parents who are gay and lesbian, and at no point is this ever brought up as a problem or abnormal.

Continue reading “Writing With Pride – LGBTQ+ Inclusion in Ruby Finley vs. the Interstellar Invasion” →

Deal Announcement Ruby

Now it can be told: How Ruby vs the Robo-Bug came to be

By:  TempestWriting

I am beyond excited to finally announce my first book deal! From the notice in Publishers Marketplace:

Science fiction and fantasy writer and media critic K. Tempest Bradford’s [middle grade] RUBY VS. THE ROBO-BUG1, in which an 11-year-old Black girl passionate about entomology finds an alien bug in her backyard and has to rely on her friends, the scientific method, and her instincts to help the alien get home safely, to Grace Kendall at Farrar, Straus Children’s, in a very nice deal, at auction, in a two-book deal, for publication in fall 2022, by Larissa Melo Pienkowski at Jill Grinberg Literary Management (world English).

I’ve been sitting on this news for months as the slow wheels of publishing turned. I’m glad I can finally be public about it because I am so very excited for this book! I didn’t set out to write a middle grade novel or really any novel that wasn’t the one I’ve been working on for ages. How did we end up here? Settle in and I’ll tell you.

Continue reading “Now it can be told: How Ruby vs the Robo-Bug came to be” →

Footnotes

  1. A working title and slightly different from the draft title: Ruby vs. the Big, Red Bug. [⇧]