The Beth Kephart Reading Challenge (I Know, I Can't Believe It)

When My Friend Amy named her blog My Friend Amy, was she anticipating that she was going to meet me? That she was going to change my life with such force that whenever I talk about the trajectory of my writing career, I talk about her? She's the one who threw the Nothing but Ghosts virtual launch party. She's the one who got me involved with her tremendous Book Bloggers Appreciation Week. She's the one who, every day and often several times a day, helps direct us, her fans, to new books, new shows, new concepts, new issues, other bloggers and writers.

My Friend Amy. Indeed.

Today Amy has posted a Beth Kephart Reading Challenge. But beyond that, she has given me the opportunity to put my eleven years as a book-published author into perspective. I began this journey by publishing memoir. I moved into history and poetry, corporate fable, young adult novels, and I'm currently finishing my first novel for adults. I have learned a lot along the way—about how memoirs, for example, inadvertently freeze people in time when in fact (and for example), children grow up, they evolve, they overcome, they teach us more and more each day. They deserve to be recognized and seen for who they are right now.

Amy has given me the chance to say this, the platform, and she has done this within the context of a contest that has, as its prize, an ARC of Dangerous Neighbors, my historical novel that, as of this moment, only Laura Geringer (my editor), Amy Rennert (my agent), Robyn Russell (Amy Rennert's assistant), and the extraordinarily good people of Egmont USA have seen.

I encourage you to head over to Amy's.