Trumpeting Summer Reading and Announcing Two New(ish) Book Blogs

A number of weeks ago, I was asked to take a photograph of my TBR pile. And so I did, joining many other authors in this wonderful photo diary posted today on Mom.me. I can proudly report that I've read a number of the books pictured in my stack since snapping the picture. I must also report that I recently took nearly 60 new hardcovers to my local library for donation and my house is more book stuffed than ever.

I'll never get ahead.

You probably never will either, because there are so many great books to be read. And if you're looking for even more temptations, then I recommend two book-savvy bloggers to you.

First, meet Anmiryam Budner, who kind of sort of blew me away last Saturday at Main Point Books with her deep knowledge of authors and stories. There we stood, in that lovely space, pointing to this book, that book, this one. She'd read them all. I'd read enough of them to talk at length. She gave me room to complain about the unfair review of Stacey D'Erasmo's Wonderland in the New York Times Book Review, and anyone who lets me do that is golden. That woman knows this business, and she talks about it and the books she loves here, on My Overstuffed Shelves.

Second, here is Elizabeth Law, a children's publishing giant now in the business of book editing and ushering. For her first blog post ever she wrote about ten books she loves and why. Fascinating insights, with more—on word count, editorial letters, and publishing magic—to come. She's a fresh new voice on the book blogging scene, and so we welcome her in.

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The YOU ARE MY ONLY third printing arrives

and I like the look of this page.  Thank you, Elizabeth Law, for sending the copy my way.

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A Little You Are My Only News

I've never been to Brazil, but I have longed to go.  For the time being, You Are My Only is going in my stead, thanks to the good work of Amy Rennert and the Jenny Meyer Literary Agency, Inc.  Brazilian-Portuguese rights to the book have been sold to Novo Conceito.

You Are My Only also, as many of you know, went into a third U.S. printing this week.  For that enormous bit of good fortune, I have the world of generous bloggers and independent booksellers (and of course Darcy Jacobs, of Family Circle) to thank. Thanks today especially to Serena Agusto-Cox, who placed You Are My Only on the D.C. Literature Examiner gift book buying guide.  Check out the entire list for some spectacular recommendations from a very fine reader.

I thank you all.  From the bottom of my heart, I do.

Many thanks, too, to Elizabeth Law of Egmont USA, for being the bearer of good news.

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My video conversation with blogger Florinda

I'm off to teach at Agnes Irwin today, while back in New York City, the book bloggers have gathered in force. A few days ago, as those of you who followed the Armchair BEA know, I had the chance to talk to Florinda while Elizabeth Law of Egmont USA videotaped our conversation. I re-post the video here, in celebration of the book bloggers I have come to know and love.

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The You Are My Only Giveaway/Armchair BEA

Yesterday, as I wrote below, I had the great privilege of video interviewing Florinda for the Armchair BEA event that is going on all this week long. My great thanks to Chris, Tif, The 1st Daughter, Chrisbookrama, Michelle, Amy, Pam, Emily, and Florinda herself, the organizers of this runaway-hit of a program, for also making room for You Are My Only, which is due out in October, and for facilitating a giveaway of a signed book and poster. There will not be many such giveaways with this book, and so I encourage those who might be interested to head on over and listen to what Florinda has to say about being a book blogger (and what I have to say about my love of and great appreciation for bloggers).

Please note that I donned my Undercover stance with this interview, hiding, for the most part, behind my humidity unstraightened hair.  This was not intentional, but I'm going to pretend that it is.  I write fiction, after all.  Or I do, at least some of the time, when I'm not teaching students how best to tell the truth.

Thanks to Elizabeth Law of Egmont USA for the great camera work.

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A photo (and link-rich) tour of my morning at the BEA

I left the house at 5 AM yesterday, and walked, in the breaking dark, toward the train. The carnival lights from the Devon Horse Show grounds were shining just for me.

I arrived early to the Javits Center and took a walk first within the silence, then among the onslaught of crowds. Soon I was at the Egmont USA booth, interviewing the wonderful Rob Guzman, part of the Egmont USA marketing team. (Later in the day I had the privilege of interviewing Egmont USA's Alison Weiss.)

In impromptu fashion (under Rob's raised eyebrow) I began signing books right there at the Egmont booth, flashing my spanking-new bookmarks whenever I could.  It wasn't long before I was in the presence of Florinda of the 3Rs, a beautiful book blogger and a member of the Armchair BEA team. We had a conversation, Florinda and I, and, thanks to Elizabeth Law, our dialogue was captured for all of time on film.  Check the Armchair BEA blog later today to see what Florinda and I had to say.

Elizabeth Law of Egmont USA was my guide throughout the morning; in the rush of my signing, Florinda took our photograph. Soon, were we joined by some beautiful people—librarians, teachers, readers, parents, and blogger friends. There I am with Kathy of BermudaOnion (I finally met her and she's as lovely as I knew she would be) and Julie of Booking Mama (isn't she gorgeous?). Later, I had the privilege of seeing (among so many others) the uber-smart editor/blogger behind Beth Fish Reads, the design whiz Alea of Pop Culture Junkie, and the incredibly gracious writer and blogger Melissa Sarno of This Too. I was signing at the very last table and beyond me were authors of huge celebrity and appeal. I cannot sufficiently express my appreciation for those who stood in my line and gave me the chance to meet them.

Just before I left the premises to walk across town to Grand Central to take a (strictly un-airconditioned) bus on a (bumper-to-bumper expressway) to JFK Airport to see my son just ahead of his departure for London, I had a few near encounters with famous people, including Olivia the Pig and Michael Moore, pictured above. I also finally got to meet my last editor at HarperCollins, Ruta Rimas, who helped usher The Heart Is Not a Size into the world. She's cuter and sweeter than I can say. I picked up a single galley at the show, from Grove: Alice LaPlante's Turn of Mind, which is enjoying a whole lot of early buzz.

I will miss my son enormously. But he is on an adventure all his own, and I could not be happier for him.

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Meet me at the BEA

All right, so:  This isn't really Book Expo America.  But I like the photograph, so I place it here, and while I'm at it, I invite you to join me at the real and actual BEA, Javits Center, New York City, on Wednesday, May 25th, where I'm privileged to be appearing at two events: 

YOU ARE MY ONLY Book Signing:  10 AM (author autographing area)

AUTHOR TEA:  3 PM

Perhaps our paths will cross?  I can't promise you a Googer's Cake or Thing.  But I can promise you conversation, and maybe the Famous Elizabeth Law will walk by and sing a tune in your direction, or maybe Egmont USA's Katie Halata or Greg Ferguson or Mary Albi or Doug Pocock or Rob Guzman will lay down some ink for you.  Or maybe Nico Medina will at last wear a costume on my behalf. 

A girl can dream.

Big thanks to Florinda.  She knows what for.

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A Photo Tour of Egmont USA

I made my way up from a client meeting on Wall Street to Park Avenue yesterday, where the always-wonderful Egmont USA troupe welcomed me in, bling and all.  You throw your arms around these people when you see them.  You talk travels, sun, book jackets, dreams, classes taught and classes taken, Mickey Mouse, impersonations, architecture, radical movie flops, the delicate matter of the comma.  You go home feeling warmed, alive, like books still matter, after all.  That's Lawsy and me, in the final picture, aligning our bedazzling silver trim.

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There will be, Lawsy writes to say,

a Dangerous Neighbors e-book.  Available come January 4, 2011, she says, wherever e-books are sold. 

We love our Lawsy.

We are grateful, still, and nonetheless, for books and lamps to read by.

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My little bit of news (a new book deal)

I am very happy, on this day, to be able to announce that I have sold my thirteenth book and my sixth YA novel to Laura Geringer Books/Egmont USA.  I've posted fragments from this book on this blog over the past few years.  I've written the story—about the irrevocable ways that an unthinkable kidnapping affects the lives of two young women—until it was alive and right, until it became a story pierced through with light.  I am entirely grateful to my agent, Amy Rennert; my editor, Laura Geringer; and Egmont USA's own Elizabeth Law for giving me this opportunity.  I cannot wait to share this novel with you.

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Forgive me, but

I have had a glass and a half of wine, and I am myself, my emotions near the surface.  No, my emotions are the surface.  They are the unhidden, unbidden me.

Lately my father has been leaving things at my house—old publications featuring stories of mine (Risk and Insurance magazine, let's say, where I was the Benefits columnist, a job I could do in the middle of the night so I could be a mom in the daytime).  Sometimes I look into my father's packages right away and sometimes I forget, and only today did I find this photo (I took it myself, 21 years ago) of my mother, my father, and my three-month-old son.

Oh, how the passing of time breaks your heart.  Relentlessly.

For this same boy, this night, texted me from a Phillies game, where he'd gone with a friend. "It's such a beautiful night," he wrote.  "And we have such great seats."  Why does something like that make me cry?  Why does a phone call, thirty seconds later, from Elizabeth Law make me cry harder?  "Dangerous Neighbors launches tomorrow," she says, after we chat about a million other things.  "And I want you to know that we at Egmont are proud of this book."

Something like that, or close to that.

Elizabeth Law, calling me.

Dangerous Neighbors, a book I care about more than I'm willing to admit, launching tomorrow.

My son, texting me from a Phillies game, where a soft rain is falling.  I am happy. 

Look.  Life is full of a thousand oddities and more regrets.  It is the why not me and the why me and the indignity and the shame.  It is also a son and a book and a father, redistributing memories.  What does it mean to launch a book about a city you love?  What does it mean?

It means your heart is full.  It means right now is the right right now.

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Dangerous Neighbors: The Teacher's Guide

It comes full circle, at one point—the reading and research one does, the teaching one loves, the books one writes.  Dangerous Neighbors may be my twelfth book, but it is the first book for which I've ever created a teacher's guide.  The behind-the-scenes history of the Centennial can be found in these pages.  So can the irreducible Mrs. Gillespie and perhaps my favorite Philadelphian of all, George Childs.  But mostly this teacher's guide offers a range of classroom exercises—from team projects to personal essays to broad discussions about community, innovation, media, even classified ads.  I hope that this guide opens doors for both teachers and students who recognize that the past—its lessons, its influences, its legacies—is alive in the right now.

The guide can be found here.

Thanks to Egmont USA's Elizabeth Law, Mary Albi, Katie Halata, Nico Medina, Greg Ferguson, and Rob Guzman, who cheered this guide on, and made it better.  Thank you to Stacey Swigart for paying close attention.  Thank you to the original William for teaching me a dash of In Design.  And thanks to Elizabeth Mosier, for saying, Why don't you....

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Dangerous Neighbors (the book) Arrives

I could tell the story of this day, but I won't.  I will only say that after a journey up the road and back, and up the road again and back, and then onto the train and into the city and back, I came home to two boxes of books.  Those books.  My books.  My twelfth:  Dangerous Neighbors.

You tire, perhaps, of me singing the praises of Egmont USA.  Let me do it one more time, at least.  Dangerous Neighbors is an unusual historical novel, with crossover possibilities, twin sisters, and 1876 Philadelphia at its heart.  It is a book—perhaps I should start here—that Laura Geringer and Egmont USA chose to believe in.  They chose.  Subsequently they delivered unto it (the book) and me (its maker) the most gorgeous cover a writer could ever hope for.  They secured a copy editor who cared about Philadelphia and history and who asked me spot-on questions in an attempt to get the story right.  They sent me on my way not just to the BEA, but to ALA (treating me like part of their family at each venue), and they have now secured for me a wonderful spot on an upcoming ALAN panel.  They sent library copies of the book my way; in twelve books, I've never seen a library copy.  People are talking about Dangerous Neighbors because of Egmont USA (and Winsome Media's Amy Riley and Nicole Bonia).  Not only that, but Egmont's publicists talk to me:  They pick up the phone and they talk to me.

A writer cannot know the next next.  A writer dreams; some dreams are answered.  The journey that Dangerous Neighbors has taken with Laura Geringer and Egmont USA represents a pressing, percolating dream, answered.  No matter what happens from here on out, I am a lucky one.

Thank you Doug Pocock, Elizabeth Law, Greg Ferguson, Mary Albi, Rob Guzman, Alison Weiss, Nico Medina, Katie Halata, Beth Garcia (by way of Goodman Media), Neil Swaab (cover designer), Kathryn Hinds (freelance copy editor) and, of course Laura Geringer, where this book's published life began.  I remain in awe of all you have done.  One hears so much about what is wrong with publishing.  Egmont USA represents the right.

P.S.  The case cover is G O R G E O U S. And I can thank Nico for that. 

P.P.S. For a reading from the book, please listen here. 

P.P.P.S.: I have just learned that Dangerous Neighbors is an Indiebound Children's Pick for Fall 2010.

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a happy-making photo

This photo, taken by Tiff Emerick and passed on to me by Holly Cupala, makes me happy.  I had the privilege of sitting with Elizabeth Law through much of the YALSA coffee klatch at the ALA.  This is proof that it wasn't a dream.

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In which Elizabeth Law snaps a photo

My friend, hipwritermama, just informed me, the un-twitterer (but I might get there, I might still), of this photo floating around, hot off the Elizabeth Law press.  So.  That's Elizabeth Law (queen of all things, but especially of Egmont USA) behind the camera; Laura Geringer, fantastic-fabulous editor to the left of the frame; Virgin Territory author James Lecesne, holding up his number 33 for the YALSA coffee klatch, and me, with my un-matching jewelry, being held up by James (in all ways).

Wherever Elizabeth goes, we interesting people follow.....

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The YALSA Coffee Klatch

On Sunday morning, in a gigantic room at the very beautiful Washington, DC convention center, YALSA conducted its much-anticipated coffee klatch (in which authors are given but a few minutes at each librarian-stoked table to discuss his or her books)—and I, as I have already posted, was a very privileged author participant.

I could say many things—about the kindness of many toward this first time "speed dater," about the dearness of Laura Geringer and Elizabeth Law, who stayed by my side.  But what I want to say right here right now is what a privilege it was to stand among those authors for that hour—to meet the entirely lovely Libba Bray, to share an old reminisce with Laurie Halse Anderson, to see the gracious John Green move among the crowds, to hear a rumor that Rebecca Steadman was among us, to laugh, again, with James Lecesne (note to self:  when in a photography session before many flashing lights, stand next to James; he knows the ropes).

YA authors, YA readers, librarians:  good folk.

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Egmont USA Rocks (and so does the ALA conference)

Just look, to begin with, at that gorgeous green-but-mostly-blue from which Egmont USA emerges.  My favorite color when I was a kid, and my favorite color, still.  Look at the books lined up on the ledge.  Look at what Egmont does, and look at its fearless leaders.

Consider this:  In Washington, DC, at the ALA Annual Conference, I was an Egmont guest—signing books at the booth, talking about librarians (anyone who has read Nothing But Ghosts, which stars a sexy librarian, knows I love them) on an ALA flipbook, and greeting the first in the Dangerous Neighbors line with a photograph that (I am so sorry) did not turn out!  Consider that my editor, Laura Geringer met me there, at the booth, despite so much else she had to do, and consider that today, Sunday, I was among the 35 or so authors included in the remarkable YALSA "speed dating" event.  Laura joined me at times at those wide, brimming-with-interesting-people tables. Egmont USA's own Elizabeth Law joined me at others.  The fabulous James Lecesne was also, reliably, one table ahead, charming the pants off of anyone who crossed his path.

Good company?  Of course it's good company.  It feels like family.

Thank you, box-carrying, cheer-bearing Rob Guzman for all that you did to make the weekend perfect.  Thank you so much, Katie and Jeanne.  And thanks to all of you who stopped by or listened. Twelve books in, this was a first for me.  It will remain a cherished memory.

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Dangerous Neighbors receives a sweet PW citation

I knew that BEA was extraordinary for many reasons; I felt something tremble in the air.  I didn't, however, expect to see Dangerous Neighbors listed in this PW article noting the show's "biggest" children's books by category.  Thanks to all of you who contributed to that buzz, who stood in line for that end-of-day signing, and who made me feel at home.

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Scenes from the BEA

I was out of the house by 4:30 AM, and the day unfurled at lightening speed (save for the trains, which were both on the rather too late and slow side).  In the first photo:  The Egmont lunch for authors, booksellers, and librarians, held on the upper floor of a garment-district art gallery.  In the second:  Egmont Publisher Elizabeth Law, the remarkable James Lecesne (about whom I will soon be writing far more), Laura Geringer (who edits both James and me), and yours truly (in pink, because who else would wear pink on an 18 hour day spent among crowds and on trains?).

A huge thank you to all of you who stood in that line for the end-of-day, end-of-convention signing— I looked up, and there you were, and I won't forget the gift of your patience and enthusiasm.  Thank you to all of those who found me and stopped to say hello.  Thank you to the impeccable and beautiful Mandy King (I will always be grateful for our time together, and for all that led up to it).  Thank you to Amy Rennert and Louise (you know why).  A lasting thank you to the Egmont team—Elizabeth Law, Doug Pocock, Mary Albi, Rub Guzman, Regina Griffin, Greg Ferguson, Nico Medina, and Alison Weiss—who put together such a show, and who have welcomed me to the family in ways that I have never before been welcomed. (Nico, please note that I am thanking you despite your refusal to wear 19th century garb in support of my 19th century book.)  Thank you, Laura, for being there throughout.

I came home to see my boys (a midnight rendezvous) and to attend to corporate work.  I'm back on that train in a few hours, to join book bloggers at a convention and to speak about author/blogger relationships.

The horses are down the street; I'll sneak into their world early Saturday.

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Winsome Media Communications (the new, best thing)

Long-time followers of my blog know this story:  On the day that Nothing But Ghosts was launched, a mysterious note was sent my way.  A you-may-want-to-check-out My Friend Amy's blog message. A Happy Launch Day teaser.  A pre-dawn puzzler. 

A couple of mouse clicks later I found myself stunned by the news that an NBG virtual launch party had been engineered by the extraordinary Amy Riley herself, who had taken it upon herself (in her secret, daring fashion, and with no little help from Presenting Lenore) to encourage bloggers from near and far to send NBG out into the world with their collective, blogthusiastic blessing.  She'd organized an online book club.  She'd organized a chat (which, might I add, was attended by many dear friends and new readers as well as my new publisher, Elizabeth Law).  I still cry when I think about that day—that effort, that goodness.

Amy, I have learned since, is endlessly doing good—making the most of social media, discovering and elevating new artists, and bringing an old song back into our collective conscience, not to mention coordinating the massive Book Blogger Appreciation Week and helping to launch the first-ever Book Blogger Convention (which is such a cool and important thing that it is sharing space with the BEA).  It takes a certain kind of heart, for sure, but it also takes the know-how that Amy has about how media work, how book bloggers think, and how culture gets perpetuated.  Ask her a question, any question, about an RSS feed tweak, and she'll offer to walk you through it, screen shot diagrams and all.  Ask her whether there are bloggers who only blog about historical novels, and she'll sub-divide the category into Tudor and Victorian.  Ask her how the independent bookstores interact with the electronic world, and she'll have an informed opinion on that as well.

That is why I am so incredibly proud (and lucky) to be working with Amy and her partner, Nicole Bonia of Linus's Blanket—to be one of the very first authors to be tapping into a new Amy-Nicole venture called Winsome Media Communications.  Winsome builds brands, optimizes websites, expands social networks, and manages targeted social media campaigns.  They bring books like The Heart is Not a Size and Dangerous Neighbors to readers who might not have heard of them before.  They help techno-fearing authors like myself navigate the possibility of relaunching a (much better organized) blog (stay tuned for that one, folks).  They are the company we want to keep when we're navigating publishing waters.

I can't recommend them highly enough.  I hope you'll recommend them, too, to authors and artists you may know.

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