iiinova — where your digital self keeps evolving

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 29/09/2025

Received some cool news while on maternity leave: My YA sci-fi, THE ORACLE HAS QUESTIONS, made the top 150 in the Novelry’s Next Big Story contest (in which there were more than 22,000 entries!)!

A badge with the words “Commended: Top 150 in The Next Big Story”

180

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 05/05/2025

Great news! CHASING STARS, my middle grade hi-lo (high-interest, low reading level) novel published through @jollyfishpress.bsky.social is a 2025 CBC Favorites Award Winner in the Middle Grade category! That means 6th-8th graders across the country read it and rated it as one of their favorites!

Shows the cover of CHASING STARS, a middle grade hi-lo novel, which has a frozen, forest-encircled lake in the background, and two girls’ held hands in the foreground, complete with friendship bracelets.

040

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 14/03/2025

Better late than never to share, but . . . these two weirdos are having a baby! If all things go to plan, this kid will be making his debut in August! As if that wasn't enough, we also just bought a house! So agents + authors, if I seem out of it these next months, I blame this (delightful) chaos.

Meg is smiling and showing off her pregnant belly with her spouse.

5340

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 12/03/2025

Woot woot! This story is 🔥🔥🔥. We’re thrilled over at @fluxbooks.bsky.social to be able to help bring @tlsimpson.bsky.social’s next hard-hitting, timely YA novel into the world.

A Publishers Marketplace announcement for the forthcoming ACCELERANT, a YA contemporary by T.L. Simpson.

082

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 19/12/2024

Staying warm and reading submissions while the first major snowfall of the season happens, with Spotify’s Christmas jazz playlist on in the background and two fuzzballs curled up at my side…Perfect acquisition weather!

070

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 13/12/2024

Dear friends and colleagues, If I am delayed in responding to emails today, it is because this god of fear + panic keeps dipping his paw into my coffee and walking over my keyboard in the assumption that such chaos will result in my feeding him hours before snack time. I’m on my 5th mug. Send help.

An extreme closeup of a black tuxedo cat named Phobos who lives up to his name as a total troublemaker

040

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 03/12/2024

Caught my editorial assistants napping on the job. What do you think? Should I fire them? Or should I murmur sweet nonsense into their snuggly-wuggly, cutie-patootie fur bellies… 🤔

A black tuxedo cat curled up on a kitty tower, sleeping.

A gray tuxedo cat sprawled on a purple blanket, peering at the camera, annoyed at having been woken up.

2140

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 30/11/2024

Enjoying moments of peace and quiet with my husband’s family up north (amid VERY competitive board gaming and football watching), and celebrating some long-hoped-for news. Much to be thankful for this year!

A bright orange sunset through the trees. Snow is on the ground, and the lake in the distance is iced over.

0130

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 23/11/2024

No work of art has influenced me more than Les Miserables. I watched the TV concert as a child, read the book in 8th grade, discussed its themes of morality in high school, listened to my dad practice the score to play with the pit orchestra when the show came through... Here’s to another memory!

Meg standing in front of the Orpheum Theatre, where the lit-up marquee shows the promotional image for the musical Les Miserables.

080

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 22/11/2024

I was Napoleon Dynamite for Halloween, so of course I had to learn the dance. It’s a far cry from my usual swing dancing, and it’s tough to do dramatic head tosses with a wig, but it was fun! #CommunityPolls #Uplift #dancing

Meg Gaertner in a Napoleon Dynamite costume, complete with curly wig, Vote for Pedro T-shirt, and black moon boots. She stands in in her kitchen, and a cat watches from the distance.

040

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 20/11/2024

THE SONGBIRD AND THE RAMBUTAN TREE is an SLJ Best Middle Grade Book of 2024! This historical novel is described in SLJ's starred review as "An absolute must-have in all middle grade collections." www.schoollibraryjournal.com/story/best-m... #MGlit #kidlit

The cover of the middle grade book THE SONGBIRD AND THE RAMBUTAN TREE. It shows a girl standing before barbed wire and looking up at a boy in a rambutan tree, who is looking out at Japanese fighter jets in the distance. A songbird is perched on the barbed wire.

170

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 04/04/2024

WE ARE HERE! Come find @fluxbooks.bsky.social + @jollyfishpress.bsky.social at the @nseditions.bsky.social booth #919 at PLA! From gut-wrenching, jaw-dropping YA novels to empowering, inspiring MG reads, from compelling Hi-Lo fiction to humorous chapter book series, we’ve got you covered! #PLA2024

050

Meg Gaertner is OPEN to submissions @meggaertner.com · 17/01/2024

So, this just happened. 🥰 I'm thrilled to continue to work on the amazing books + with the incredible authors @fluxbooks.bsky.social + @jollyfishpress.bsky.social! And for those fresh, surprising, out-of-the-box stories still waiting to be told . . . we're reopening to submissions on February 1st!

3153