Debuting GOING OVER at NCTE/ALAN 2013, in Boston

Before I would allow myself to return, in my mind, to Going Over, my Berlin novel due out from Chronicle in April 2014, I had many things to do. Memoir workshops to teach. Talks to give. Essays to write. A novel to finish. Reviews of new books to ponder and submit. And so many stories for my various corporate clients.

I am saying that I wasn't sure I'd ever get here.

But today, after submitting one final, before-Thanksgiving story to a beloved client, I sat again with Berlin. Reviewed the photographs I had taken during my June 2011 trip to that city. Watched the films again, read the news again, went through the dozens of books I had collected on the east, the west, the wall, graffiti, pink hair, the Turkish immigration question, escape mechanics and statistics, and the war two grandmothers might remember.

I sat and relived Berlin.

I am extremely blessed that Chronicle believes in this book. I am blessed, too, that Chronicle has invited me to NCTE/ALAN to meet with teachers of English and others. I've only been to NCTE/ALAN once before as a presenter, in support of Dangerous Neighbors, with Egmont. I recognize the investment that Chronicle has made, in so many ways, on behalf of this story about a boy and a girl divided by a wall. I am grateful.

You can find me in Boston at the events listed below, and I'll be walking the floor as well.

And here, if you haven't already seen it, is the astonishing Teacher's Guide that Rose Brock and the Chronicle team created for Going Over.

Meet me in Boston:

Saturday, November 23
11:30-12:30
NCTE Conference/GOING OVER Signing/Chronicle Books/Booth #1007

Saturday, November 23
1:00-2:00 PM
NCTE Conference/HANDLING THE TRUTH Signing/Penguin/Booth #933

Sunday, November 24
9:00-10:00
NCTE Conference/GOING OVER Signing/Anderson's Bookstore/Booth #1631

Sunday, November 24
5:00-7:00 PM
ALAN Reception

Tuesday, November 25
2:10-2:50 PM
ALAN Conference
Celebrating International Voices ALAN Panel:
Tara Sullivan, Sharon McKay, Eliot Schrefer, Ann Burg, Beth Kephart
Moderated by Karin Perry, ALAN Membership Secretary