Angel Goodness

We sense the true in others—friendship that begins not as an exchange of services that might potentially be rendered, but in curiosity, optimism, and mutual respect. Friendship that promises and presages.

True is the reason why Miss Em and her Bookshelf are so widely loved—why so many readers of YA books consult eagerly with her site and have been inspired by her example to fashion book blogs of their own. Miss Em is in books for all the right reasons. She brings intelligence and heart to the conversation, an irreversible goodness.

Yesterday Miss Em sent me a mysterious email: I have left a gift for you on my blog. Bemused, I traveled her way only to be taken aback—not just by her words but by her photograph of a garden fairy. She'd taken the photo with her new cell phone, and I stared in disbelief. For the very same fairy that she'd discovered there in her vacation path sits here in my garden, looking up to the now-empty stalks of tiger lilies. My fairy is a little weather-beaten, a mite crushed-in about the feet. Still, she sits in the shade reading the one page of her book, patient as a muse.

http://emsbookshelf.blogspot.com/2008/07/vacation-thoughts-and-photo-shout-out.html

As if Miss Em were right here, among my favorite blooms.

HOUSE OF DANCE Giveaway

Back when UNDERCOVER was a relatively new release, that wonderful Miss Em, whom so many know as a grand advocate for books and for those who write them, asked me some questions about the writing life, posted them on her blog, and conducted an interesting competition. We became friends; we couldn't help it.

It turned out that Miss Em was one of the very first people—in the world—to read HOUSE OF DANCE, and her note to me about it last winter eased my heart tremendously. Recently she interviewed me again and asked—and I think this was a touch of genius—that I answer some of my questions with photographs.

That interview, which is now up on Miss Em's blog, is part of a HOUSE OF DANCE giveaway, and you can participate by visiting here.

Thank you so much, Miss Em.

http://emsbookshelf.blogspot.com/2008/05/house-of-dance-interview-and-contest-to.html

Em's Bookshelf Interview

So here I am relaxing now that nearly all my Christmas gifts are bought and wrapped, and all but one client project put to bed, and college application angst a thing of the not-so-distant past (okay, not really: my skin was never porcelain, my lips were never pouty full, my nose doesn't sweep toward perfection, and I can't find my pearl-encrusted bathing cap). Here is me, I should say, in my own mind's eye. A little less crazed.

And then, in the midst of a sigh, I receive an email from a really wonderful (extraordinarily generous) reader and writer named Em, who reports that a conversation we had over email has now been posted on her blog.

Boy, has she done an artful job of arranging the text and the images, and truly, she is very kind.

Here is the URL if you'd like to check it out for yourself. She asked good questions, made me think hard.

Thank you, Em. For being one of the very first to read and celebrate UNDERCOVER, and now perhaps the first (outside the editing circle) to have read HOUSE OF DANCE. You may never know just how much that means.

http://emsbookshelf.blogspot.com/2007/12/my-very-first-author-interview.html