A Dangerous Neighbors review and radio talk

And since I seem to be posting inspirational images today, here's one I took at the Please Touch Museum—images of the Observatory at George's Hill.  My Dangerous Neighbors heroine Katherine seeks to see the world from places high above, and towers like these figure in my story.

I post this image, this towering image, to thank the 1st Daughter for her incredibly generous review of Dangerous Neighbors and for her extraordinary words about the book during her interview with Nicole from Linus's Blanket for the Blog Talk Radio Show, "That's How I Blog!"

 

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Dangerous Neighbors: The first blog review

"Don't you just love being compared to classic authors?  Kate Chopin, anyone?"


That was the email from a certain Nicole, and, confused, I clicked on the link.  And there it was, the first blog review of Dangerous Neighbors, by clumzbella of the rich and enriching site, Novel Novice.  Novel Novice is a blog created by middle school literature teacher Tiffany Truitt and friends to "help foster a passion and life-long love of reading among today's youth." 

I have always loved Kate Chopin's The Awakening.  I am more than honored by the comparison.  In fact, I think I may just re-read that book this week; how, now, could I resist?

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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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Not just a new banner, but a new blog

Well, you know I could not have come up with this one on my own.  I needed a trip to Chanticleer's lotus pond, so that I might find the photo.  I needed my husband to make that photo art.  But most of all, I needed Amy Riley and Nicole Bonia of Winsome Media Communications to patiently wade through my design hopes (can it be simple? can it be easy for me to maintain? can it be basically like it was but a million times better?), to kindly walk me through Feedburner and the Site Meter, and to be there, pretty much around the clock, to answer my profoundly unintelligent technology questions and to be their dear, helpful, knowing, calm selves.

Amy and Nicole, you are the best, you really are.

So what do we have here?  We have, at long last, an uncluttered sidebar.  We have my biography—the books, the awards, the teaching, the anthologies, the judging—all housed on one page.  We have review excerpts of books past and present; an interview revealing a little why, a little how; a YouTube channel that collects my various adventures on film (not all of them, indeed, I tossed many of them out; call it summer cleaning).

We have the blog, still—the photos and musings on the writer's life, the heat of summer (or the chill of winter, if we ever get there), and, mostly, books I've loved and other writers who have taught me.

The door is open.  Please stop by.  Please stick around.

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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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