The Story Behind the YAMO Story: The Treasure Hunt Begins; A Special Prize is Offered

A few days ago, as followers of this blog know, I was all set to post about a blog treasure hunt I'd been concocting with a few dear friends when my plan got ever so slightly derailed.  I've started to call that derailment the You Are My Only grassroots campaign.  I think it's rather historic. 

But, back to our regularly scheduled program.  The blog treasure hunt is pretty simple, really.  Five posts by yours truly are about to go up around the internet.  Each of these five posts tells a story about the making of You Are My Only, a book that today received this Publishers Weekly review. Many posts include passages that were written but never used in the final book. 

These posts focus on:

* The transformation of Sophie from the 40-year-old character she began her (fictional) life as to the 14-year-old at the center of this book.

* The voice of Emmy—where it came from, how it seized me.

* The history behind the asylum that inspired a key setting in the book.

* The story behind Cloris and Helen, characters I've been developing for more than ten years.

* The story behind the book's title (and insights into titles that were considered, then rejected).

These Story Behind the Story posts will start floating around the blogosphere beginning tomorrow.  Each is going up on a different day.  Your task is to find all five entries and then post them collectively on your own blog.  Send the link to me, in the comment box on this page.  Your name will then be entered into the drawing.

Two winners will be selected.  Each will win these two things:  A signed copy of You Are My Only AND a critique (by yours truly) of the first 2,000 words of a work-in-progress.  As many of you know, I teach memoir at the University of Pennsylvania and served as the inaugural readergirlz author in residence.  I have written in multiple genres and critique adult fiction for major U.S. newspapers.  Your manuscript can, I am hinting, be in any genre, save for a screenplay, about which I have absolutely zero expertise.

So there it is.  The treasure hunt begins.  I look forward to hearing from you.