Invisibility: Andrea Cremer and David Levithan/Reflections

This is how it happens:  I write an adult book that Laura Geringer discovers and reads; she gets in touch.  For a year Laura and I talk about how ill-equipped I feel I am to write books for young adults.  A conversation in a Philadelphia restaurant changes everything; I am persuaded to try.  I write what will become several books for Laura, and in the midst of story development, copy editing, cover design, and publicity, I meet Jill Santopolo—utterly adorable, fashion savvy, super smart, wildly well-organized, and Laura's second in command at Laura Geringer Books/HarperTeen, where I will write four books, one of them (The Heart is Not a Size) being Jill's very own.  Then one day Jill calls to say that she is headed to Philomel to join a children's book empire carved out by a man named Michael Green.  I'd really like Michael, Jill says.  She hopes I'll eventually meet him.

(She is right.  And I do.  Facts made true in reverse order.)

A few years later, I see Jill again, this time at an ALA event, where she slips me a copy of Between Shades of Gray and whispers two words in my ear:  Tamra Tuller.  Jill and Tamra are, by now, colleagues at Philomel, and Tamra edits the kind of books I like to write.  Jill, looking trademark gorgeous, encourages me to read Ruta Sepetys' international bestseller of a debut novel as proof.  I do.  Again, I am persuaded.  Not long afterwards, I have the great privilege of joining the Philomel family when Tamra reads a book I've been working on for ten years and believes that it has merit. Jill has opened her new home to me, and I am grateful.

What happens next is that Tamra moves to Chronicle and I, with a book dedicated to her because I do love her that much, move to Chronicle, too.  What happens next is Jill and I remain friends (Jill and I and Michael and Jessica, too (not to mention Laura)).  Which is all a very long way of saying how happy I was to receive two of Jill's newest creations just a few weeks ago.  Last night and early this morning I read the first of them.  It's called Invisibility, it's due out in May, and it is co-authored by Jill's fabulously successful Philomel author, Andrea Cremer (The Nightshade Series) and the big-hearted author/editor/sensation/Lover's Dictionary Guru David Levithan.

I hear David Levithan—his soulfulness, his tenderness, his yearning, his love—when I read this book. I hear Andrea Cremer—her careful and credible world building, her necessary specificity, her other-worldly imagination.  It's a potent combination in a story about a Manhattan boy whom no one in the world can see.  No one, that is, except for the girl who has moved in down the hall—a girl who has escaped Minnesota with a brother she deeply loves and a mother who cares for them both, but must work long hours to keep her transplanted family afloat.  Cremer and Levithan's Manhattan is tactile, navigable, stewing with smells and scenes.  Their fantasy world—spellcraft, curses, witches, magic—is equally cinematic and engaging.  The love between the invisible boy and the seeing (and, as it turns out, magically gifted) girl feels enduring, and then there's that other kind of love—between Elizabeth and her brother—that gives this story even greater depth and meaning.  The parents aren't nearly bad either (not at all).

What it is to be invisible.  What it is to see and be seen.  What it is to know there is evil in the world and that any strike against it will scar and (indeed) age those who take a stand.  Invisibility is a fantasy story, but it is more than that, too.  It's a growing-up story in which courage, truth-telling, sacrifice, and vulnerability figure large, and in which love of every kind makes a difference. 

Read more...

Tomorrow: A Day so Full, so Rich

5:26 AM Train to Philadelphia

6:30 AM Train to NYC

8:30 AM Pre-conference conversations with my dear friends Jennifer Brown (our nation's ambassador for children's books), Laura Geringer (editor of five of my YA books), Rahna Reiko Rizzuto (a very dear friend with whom I have strolled so much of New York (and Central Park)), and Melissa Sarno (the fab blogger at This, Too, and the brain child behind the title of Handling the Truth). I'll also have the great pleasure of seeing, again, Ed Nawotka and Dennis Abrams of Publishing Perspectives and, later, Eliot Schrefer. 

9:30 AM Lamp Lighters and Seed Sowers:  Tomorrow's YA/
Publishing Perspectives Conference, Keynote Address, Scholastic Building, New York City

10:30 AM: Drawing the Line: What's the Difference Between a YA and an Adult Book?/
Publishing Perspectives Conference Panel, with Andrew Losowsky, Books Editor, Huffington Post, Aimee Friedman, Senior Editor, Scholastic Trade, Elizabeth Perle, Editor, Huffington Post Youth Network, and Dan Weiss, Editor-at-large, St. Martin's Press

2:00 PM  Marketing meeting with the very good people of Gotham/Penguin (launching Handling the Truth next August)

3:15ish PM  Grabbing a hug from the one and only Jessica Shoffel of Philomel/Penguin (who took such good care of Small Damages)

4:40 PM Train from NYC to Philly, second train from Philly to Bryn Mawr in time to see...

7:30 PM  Anne Lamott, speaking at Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, where I will be joined by Deacon Supreme, my own father, Horace Kephart

I will do nothing on Thursday, or almost nothing.  But tomorrow, I will leap, headlong.

Read more...

when good things happen to good people: congratulations to Alyson Hagy, Lilian Nattel, Alex Kotlowitz, Laura Geringer, Buzz Bissinger

This morning I take a moment to honor my friends whose work is gaining the attention it most assuredly deserves.

Alex Kotlowitz, a supremely talented writer and journalist who recently transitioned into film, won a Spirit Award for his documentary, "The Interrupters," made with Steve James for Kartemquin Films.  It's an extraordinary recognition, and I'm so happy for him.

Alyson Hagy, one of my dearest friends and one of the great Renaissance ladies of our times (not just a writer and a teacher, but a university leader and an athlete), received a starred review from Publishers Weekly for her most-magnificent Boleto, which will appear in stores in May.  It's the first of many accolades for Alyson, who was cited by PW as "fast becoming a recognizable author of the American West."  I have no words.  Her time has come.

Lilian Nattel, meanwhile, is enjoying a rush of deeply deserved attention for her groundbreaking novel, Web of Angels, a book I recently reviewed here.  She's on the radio, she's in the papers, and her book is selling.  After many years of work on this book, she emerges with a winner.

Laura Geringer, who first invited me to write for teens however many years ago, will, like the rest of us, be watching the Oscars this evening.  But Laura will have a very special connection, for an animated short in which she played a key role, "The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore," is up for one of those shiny figurines.  It's a short dedicated to a great man in books, Bill Morris—a man Jennifer Brown, featured last week in Publishing Perspectives, refers to as her unforgettable mentor.  Many bibliophiles are cheering this short on. 

Lots of people, finally, are talking about Buzz Bissinger's remarkable memoir, Father's Day, also due out in May.  Buzz broke my heart with this book, as I wrote here.  He's about to break the hearts of many.  If things go as planned, Buzz will be joining my classroom this Tuesday, talking about how this book got made.  We will be lucky to have him.

Read more...

My conversation with Jennifer Brown, Children's Editor, Shelf Awareness

Not long ago, I wrote a piece for Shelf Awareness, that fantastic e-newsletter for the publishing trade, about the future of young adult books—underscoring trends, suggesting new possibilities.  Publishing the essay was, of course, a privilege.  But the greater privilege was all that went on behind the scenes, as I worked with Jennifer Brown, the SA children's editor.  It wasn't just a back-and-forth about a story's shape and timing.  It was a conversation—wide-ranging, funny, thoughtful, perpetually kind.  I frankly couldn't get enough of Jenny, and when I asked Ed Nawotka of Publishing Perspectives if I might interview her for a profile, he said (thank you, Ed) yes.

Here, then, is Jennifer Brown—editor, reviewer, advocate, enthusiast—whose impact on children's books is the stuff of which legacies are made.  She could, I've often thought, write the definitive book on the history of books written for the young.  For now, though, she's focused on brightening the future.

A brief side note.  Yesterday, Laura Geringer, who asked me to write for teens in the first place and edited five of my YA titles, mentioned in a note that an animated short with which she had been involved had been nominated for an Oscar.  The Fantastic Flying Books of Mr. Morris Lessmore (which is glorious, and can be watched here) is dedicated to Bill Morris, a man who mentored Jenny for many years.  Paths cross and tangle in publishing.  I am grateful to be knotted in.

My previous Publishing Perspectives stories can be found here:

Unglue.it: Changing the future of e-books....

The Value Rubric:  Do Book Bloggers Really Matter?

The Attraction-Repulsion of International Literature: My conversation with Alane Salierno Mason

Transforming Children's Book Coverage at the New York Times: My conversation with Pamela Paul

Success is when the world returns your faith:  My conversation with editor Lauren Wein

Between Shades of Gray:  The Making of an International Bestseller  

Read more...

Can Book Bloggers Change a Life? A Definitive Answer in Publishing Perspectives

Anyone who follows this blog knows just how important book bloggers have been to me.  As first readers, as confidantes, as bright and rustling wings. 

I was recently given the chance to tell that story to Publishing Perspectives, an on-line magazine spearheaded by Ed Nawotka and sponsored by the Frankfurt Book Fair that covers the book industry here and around the globe.  I had thought, when I began to write, that I might list all the bloggers who have been so instrumental in my career.  It quickly became clear that that would be an impossibility—that I would consume all allotted characters on blogger URLs before I had a chance to fully explain.  You all know who you are, of course.  Many of you appear permanently on this page.  I hope you know how much you matter. 

(Please also see Ed's call for responses to the book blogger question here.  Perhaps you'll lend your voice to the conversation.)

Today I would specifically like to thank a certain Danielle of There's a Book, who has been a pillar in my writing life—a buoyant, thoughtful, endearing advocate who has cared deeply about these stories I tell and has—in her own time, just because she is who she is—found ways to spread the word.   I didn't know this until last night, but Danielle also named You Are My Only one of her top reads of last year, one of the books she most recommended to people in 2011, the most beautifully written book she read in 2011, and the book that had the greatest impact on her. 

Danielle also named Small Damages, due out in July from Philomel, as the young adult book she is most anticipating in 2012.

See all of Danielle's thoughtful recommendations here. 

I'm not sure that any writer could hope for more than that.  I am sure, however, that anyone who questions the value of book bloggers has not had the privilege of meeting Danielle.

Great thanks again to all of you who have made such a difference in my life. 

My other stories for Publishing Perspectives can be found here:

The Attraction-Repulsion of International Literature: My conversation with Alane Salierno Mason

Transforming Children's Book Coverage at the New York Times: My conversation with Pamela Paul

Success is when the world returns your faith:  My conversation with editor Lauren Wein

Between Shades of Gray:  The Making of an International Bestseller 

Read more...

You Are My Only, the book, arrives

It flew through hurricane-force winds to get here, and I didn't see it coming.  But You Are My Only (Laura Geringer Books: Egmont USA) is a real book now, beautifully encased and designed.  It will be out on shelves on October 25th, but can be found for pre-order at Amazon and other e-retailers between now and then. 

Read more...

The YOU ARE MY ONLY Q and A/Pre-Launch Guide

I have been so grateful to those of you who have written to me about YOU ARE MY ONLY.  You do this author's heart a whole lot of good.

It occurred to me that it might be helpful to answer some questions in a broader format, and so I have prepared this new permanent page for the blog, featuring a Q and A, a list of upcoming appearances, a glimpse of an early review, and contact information.

It can all be found here.

Read more...

Small Damages, a horse named Tierra, and a recap of a crazy week

This has been quite a week here at the old household.  Our son returned from his six-week stint abroad, regaled us with photos and stories, then promptly began his internship at a remarkably innovative advertising agency (while filling the coffers with night work at the local theater; last night's midnight showing of the new Harry Potter was, he reports, sold out).  On the Fusion Communications front, six new client possibilities and projects floated in, thanks to our new website, while familiar (and much-loved) clients kept us occupied, too.

In the world of books, both YOU ARE MY ONLY and SMALL DAMAGES came in for page proofing within 24 hours of each other.  YOU ARE MY ONLY (Laura Geringer, Egmont USA, October 25, 2011) is two weeks shy, I'm told, of being sent off to the big printing presses.  SMALL DAMAGES (Tamra Tuller, Philomel, Summer 2012) is headed toward bound galleys.  Both books took me on a journey and hold an immeasurably special place in my heart. I am grateful.

In the hub-bub of it all, we at Fusion created a very small Berlin book for a photo contest we wanted to enter. We didn't have the time, but we had the desire. Let's just say it went down to the wire.

Finally, in the midst of searching for photographs for assorted other purposes, I came again across the picture above, taken earlier this summer at the Devon Horse Show.  She is the living incarnation of the horse, Tierra, who takes a star turn in SMALL DAMAGES.  She'd been out there, it turns out, all along.

Read more...

Paul Hankins, The English Companion Ning, and Teachers Who Teach Teachers

I'll try to keep this brief: In September of last year, I was invited into a classroom of eighth graders by a teacher for whom I have enormous respect. I was there to talk about Nothing but Ghosts, but mostly I was there to do one of the things that I most love to do, which is to hang out with young people and talk with them about the books they read, the things they write, and the lives they dream of living.

(Okay, this is not auguring brief, but I go intrepidly on.)

At the close of that session, the teacher suggested that I look into something she called the English Companion Ning, an award-winning online social networking tool for English teachers that advertises itself, in part, as "a place to ask questions and get help... a cafe without walls or coffee: just friends." I do teach, of course, but at a university. The time I spend in middle school and high school classrooms is frequent, but sporadic. I don't actually fit into this community, in other words, but I was welcomed in, and I have gained enormously from the Ning conversations that carry on. Mostly I have gained a great appreciation for how right so many English teachers try to make their classrooms, how much they care about the books their students read, and how creative they are in their responses to educational needs and learning styles.

Recently, as you can imagine, there's been a conversation about the now-infamous Wall Street Journal article, "Darkness Too Visible," by Meghan Cox Gurdon. I don't need to review well-trod ground: Gurdon wrote, among other things, of her concern that YA work is getting darker, and that such darkness may be dangerous, noting: "Yet it is also possible—indeed, likely—that books focusing on pathologies help normalize them and, in the case of self-harm, may even spread their plausibility and likelihood to young people who might otherwise never have imagined such extreme measures."

The essay was, of course, a lightning rod, provoking all manner of response and reigniting that familiar debate about what YA should and could be. I have my own reasons for writing the kinds of YA books that I write—will be forever grateful to Laura Geringer who invited me into this YA world in the first place. Laura didn't mind that I love language and that my stories always seem to revolve around bright, seeking, big-hearted young people. She didn't marginalize me because I do not have within me a vampire tale or even (I'll be honest) any actual vampire or dystopian knowledge. She said, "Write and see what happens," and what has happened is that I have met, through my books, an astonishing group of young people who have entered my life as a second family.

The point I set out  to make today does in fact have to do with that aforementioned English Companion Ning. It has to do with the quality of conversation now ongoing in response to Ms. Gurdon's WSJ essay. Back and forth these teachers go, in all civility—suggesting, defending, opposing, reformulating, teaching each other and me about the books they introduce into their classrooms, the books they hope kids will read on their own, and the conversations they sometimes have with parents about books in which darkness pervades.

At the center of this conversation is one Paul Hankins, a Ning administrator, an ALAN board member, a Facebook treasure, and one heck of a teacher/reader whose path has crossed mine from time to time. I fervently hope that Paul does not mind me pulling a small quote from his Ning comments today. If anyone wonders what real teachers do, please think of Paul, and be grateful for him. Think of all the teachers who care.

Less than 80% of my students will have passed the GQE (graduation exam) when they come into Room 407 next fall. Last year, I had eighteen (remember our school is small) students with special needs. In one room alone, six of the twenty-eight students required some form of assistance and an aide was assigned to work with me in helping these students to navigate works like The Crucible, Of Mice and Men, and Tuesdays with Morrie. But we also tackled Speak by Laurie Halse Anderson. And many more texts.

Using a 40 Book Invitation, I was able to advise readers as they moved through genres like Plays, Memoirs/Autobiographies, Poetry, Historical Fiction, Non-Fiction, Graphic Novels, Illustrated Texts/Picture Books, and American Classics. At the end of the year, my 150 juniors read almost 4000 titles. We celebrated this at the end of the year.

 

   

Read more...

YOU ARE MY ONLY: the cover reveal

I have been waiting—oh, I have been waiting—to post the cover of YOU ARE MY ONLY, which is due out from Laura Geringer Books/Egmont USA this fall.  Neil Swaab, who set me dancing with his DANGEROUS NEIGHBORS cover, was brought on board once again.  This is the magnificent result of his fine eye and heart.

And I am so grateful, too, to editors Greg Ferguson and Laura Geringer, for putting together the description of the book, which I include below.  (For more about the book, please go here.)

YOU ARE MY ONLY will appear in bookstores in October of this year.

A missing child. A devastated young mom. Two girls—one traumatic event. 

Emmy Rane is married at nineteen , a mother by twenty. Trapped in a life with a husband she no longer loves, Baby is her only joy. Then one sunny day in September, Emmy takes a few fateful steps away from her baby and returns to find her missing. All that is left behind is a yellow sock. Fourteen years later, Sophie, a homeschooled, reclusive teenage girl is forced to move frequently and abruptly from place to place, perpetually running from what her mother calls the “No Good.” One afternoon, Sophie breaks the rules, ventures out, and meets Joey and his two aunts. It is this loving family that opens Sophie's eyes, giving her the courage to look into her past. What she discovers changes her world forever. . .

The riveting stories of Emmy and Sophie—alternating narratives of loss, imprisonment, and freedom regained—escalate with breathless suspense toward an unforgettable climax.

Read more...

You Are My Only: in the afterglow of the copyedits

You know how it is:  You write a book because it is furied up inside you—molten and untouchable but ineluctable, too.  You are the huntress.  You're after something you don't quite understand, and you're going to win; you're going to conquer; in the process, you're going to get burned.  You're going to make up words and fury nouns and add commas where you shouldn't. You're going to mix metaphors.

(It's like writing a blog, sort of, without the back-up support.)

Thankfully, then, there are agents like Amy Rennert who calm you down, and editors like Laura Geringer who ask questions, and a team like Egmont USA, which stands behind you, relieves you of you.  One of the great gifts, in this process, is the gift of copyediting, which Egmont's Greg Ferguson and Nico Medina handle so well.  This time, additionally, Egmont engaged a certain Hannah to read the pages of YOU ARE MY ONLY (due out next fall), and Hannah made sure, among other things, that I didn't have a certain character deciding to take the day off on the day that was already her day off, and that I didn't have the moon wane too quickly.

I've just now finished reading the book through, and can I say (would it be boasting?) how excited I am?  I can't wait for this one to be on the shelves.  I am so grateful to all of those who are helping it come to pass.

Read more...

A book takes a journey; a book is framed by light

I was standing right here, on the edge of an old cemetery, watching the sun light up the earth, when Laura Geringer's final notes on YOU ARE MY ONLY buzzed in on my phone.  I read them through.  I looked back up.  The sun had rearranged itself, and yet the day was bright. 

I began this book three years ago, inspired by the legends of urban explorers and by the haunting stories I had heard about a Philadelphia asylum known as Byberry.  I was encouraged to keep writing by the magnificent Lauren Wein, of Black Cat/Grove, and by my sustaining agent, Amy Rennert.  I was helped to think harder by memorable conversations with Marjorie Braman of Holt.  And after Laura Geringer (Egmont USA) read the book, I reimagined characters into their younger selves and watched to see what might happen.

What happened, in the end, was light.

Read more...

Joining the Mayor of my City, on behalf of First Book

It is the children, always the children, who give me hope.  The ones I've met in gardens, who shared their poems with me.  The ones who read Kipling out loud, so loud, that the story became a song.  The ones who extended my own vocabulary by giving me elements of theirs.

And so it is a tremendous honor to be asked to join Philadelphia Mayor Michael Nutter; Lehigh Valley County Executive Don Cunningham; First Book President and CEO Kyle Zimmer; KIPP Philadelphia Charter School CEO Marc Mannella; and Host Committee Chair Heather A. Steinmiller, among others, for a celebration of the good that books can do in children's lives.

First Book, which was mentioned in this recent New York Times Magazine story, was founded nearly twenty years ago by a corporate lawyer who tutored children at a soup kitchen by night—a lawyer who came to believe that books were critical to the health of families, and of nations, and who has, in the intervening years, overseen an organization that has delivered more than 70 million books to programs serving children in need.  KIPP Philadelphia Schools is a network of charter schools born of a nationwide system known as Knowledge is Power Program.  The event, which will take place at 1209 Vine Street this coming Wednesday, October 27, at 12:30 p.m., at the location of the KIPP Philadelphia Elementary Academy/KIPP Dubois Collegiate Academy, will kick off the Third Annual Book Bash, which will be held in New York on December 10, during the Pennsylvania Society Weekend.

I've been invited to talk a little bit about Dangerous Neighbors, a book that all 108 ninth graders will be given during the event.  You can't imagine how happy that makes me—to be part of a day in the life of a brand new school, talking about a city I love, talking about once and talking about tomorrow.  I thank Laura Geringer, Egmont USA, and the good people at First Book for all the convergence that has made this possible.

Read more...

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.

Read more...

In Which Pretty Freaky Argues Toward Beauty

It was here, at Pretty Freaky, a provocative site developed by the writer, teacher, and artist (among other things) Elizabeth Collins that I discovered words that stopped me in my virtual tracks.  Collins was writing about Dangerous Neighbors, among other summer reads.  More to the point, however, she was writing about what gets published today: 

The author is a past finalist for the National Book Award but I actually felt irritated, reading the galley of this novel (sent to me for review), that such beautiful prose would probably not see the light of day if not for this author's past awards and a publisher willing to take a risk, as so few seem to be nowadays (which is sad and horrible for all of us, actually).

I am not sure that Kephart's scintillating words will be properly appreciated or speak to a huge audience of contemporary readers, though I sincerely hope they will, and if there is adequate or skilled marketing/PR, it will happen. But 'Dangerous Neighbors' should be read and hand-sold by booksellers, and sold by word of mouth promotion.

I quote Elizabeth at length because I have a point to make—a point to reiterate, I should say, about the fact that Egmont USA—adequate and then some, skilled beyond measure—is the publisher (urged along by editor Laura Geringer) who took the risk and made Dangerous Neighbors happen, who believes that books like this one still have a right to exist in this world.  Don't think that I took or take that for granted.  Don't think that I ever lean back on past books or good fortune and say to myself, Well, if you had that, you will also have this.  Don't think I see myself as having any edge up, because believe me, I do not.  We are all fighting out here—our hearts on our pages, our doubts a thick mist, the unknowns obscuring the knowns—and when we find a house like Egmont USA that takes a risk on a book like Dangerous Neighbors, we count ourselves extremely lucky.  When we find a blogger like Elizabeth Collins, who stands up other beauty-seeking books, other beauty-making authors, we know that we are in good company.  

Read more...

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.

Read more...

How do you choose the books you are going to read? she asked

A few days ago, when Amy Riley and I were taking a wee break from techno talk (Beth:  HTML code?  Amy (long distance):  Okay.  I'm doing it with you.  Are you on the Feedburner screen?  Do you see the box next to the words ....?), I told her that I'd just returned from the bookstore with an armload of new books.  She, being a great reader herself, asked me which ones.  I listed Libba Bray's A Great and Terrible Beauty, Richard Russo's That Old Cape Magic, Maile Meloy's Both Ways is the Only Way I Want It, John Green's Looking for Alaska, and Jane Mendelsohn's American Music.

There was a bit of a pause, as Amy searched (I imagine) for some pattern in my selections.  "Interesting," she said at last.  "How do you choose what you are going to read?"

In answering the question I realized just how many influences weigh upon me.  The fact that I work in multiple genres, that I teach, and that I care a whole lot about language has me scurrying after the books I hope will teach me—in every genre.  The fact that I sometimes wonder why the rest of the world reads what it reads (e.g., The Help, Girl in Translation, Loving Frank) gets me curious enough to buy.  Blogs influence me (hence my purchase of My Name is Mary Sutter).  Friends do (Kate Moses has led me to The Names of Things; Jane Satterfield to The Importance of Music to Girls).  Reviews do (The New York Times Book Review led me to Forest Gander's As a Friend, Kim Echlin's The Disappeared, and Chloe Aridjis's Book of Clouds).  I trust imprints, like Graywolf, because they publish friends like Alyson Hagy and so I read and not surprisingly love Jessica Francis Kane's The Report.  I trust editor friends like Laura Geringer, Jill Santopolo, and Alane Mason, and so I read, respectively, Virgin Territory, Between Shades of Gray, and Aliens in the Prime of Their Lives and Nothing Happened and Then it Did.  Many, many authors send me their books, and I do all I can to read them.  On lovely afternoons, I drift through bookstores and find titles that appeal, and some of my favorite books have come to me this way:  Michael Ondaatje's work, The Book Thief, The Cellist of Sarajevo, to name just a few.

This time around, my reasons were thus:  Maile Meloy because my writing friends adore her work and because I've been impressed by earlier stories.  John Green because he is John Green.  Richard Russo because I always meant to read him and because bloggers I respect insist.  Libba Bray because two minutes in her presence and I adored her.  Jane Mendelsohn because I absolutely loved her first novel, I Was Amelia Earhart, which begins: "The sky is flesh. The great blue belly arches up above the water and bends behind the line of the horizon...."

Marketers would love to know the why behind book selling.  Pundits speculate (interestingly, following the recent New York Times story suggesting that book trailers are highly influential, my in box was full of readers saying they never watch trailers).  I can only tell you what I do.  I wonder what your methods are.

Read more...

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.....

Read more...

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.

Read more...

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.

Read more...