in which a reader of STORY taps deeply into its mystery

In which Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse and Wit discovers the breadcrumb clues I've been leaving for readers all along, book to book. So many thanks for this truly gorgeous review of This Is the Story of You.

From the end of the review:

This Is the Story of You by Beth Kephart will astonish you with the resilience of young people, their drive to make things right, and their ability to withstand more than expected, but it is in the final pages that the true mystery is resolved.  I will say this, I’m not often surprised by book endings or mysteries, but Kephart exceeded my detective skills for the first time in a long while.  (I had suspicions, but not a fully formed conclusion.)  Readers who love to immerse themselves in realistic places and explore humanity won’t be disappointed.  Kephart is a talent at creating places that come alive and characters that grab hold of us emotionally.

**You’ve probably already suspected this is a contender for the best of 2016 list at the end of the year!**

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to the new good, for all of us

Last night I saw a movie ("The Danish Girl") I have long wanted to see, and it was gloriously visual and terribly heartbreaking and genius acting, and it was good. Afterward, my brother called and we talked for a long time (I talked to his daughter, too) and all of that was good.

In the dark hours before this dawn, I began to read the memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes, and it is good. I set the Hare aside to sketch out the outline for a new and interesting (to me) nonfiction book, and I think it will be good.

After the sun rose I added fresh mint to the strawberries, the banana, and the coconut water, spun the Ninja, and that breakfast smoothie was good. I went online and found a very generous LOVE citation on Savvy Verse and Wit Best of the Year round-up (thank you!) AND ALSO an uber kind citation for ONE THING STOLEN, and that was good and very good.

Today we will see dear friends in a new place, and it will be (it always is with them) good.

This is the last day of an old year. The sun (which hasn't made much of an appearance lately) has decided to show up, and I'm hoping that augurs something new, something good, for all of us. I'm hoping that the unsettling headlines dim, that our planet is respected, that terror is abated, that homes are found for those seeking homes. I'm hoping that more people do happy things. I'm hoping the people I love get good news, have good health, have good dreams come true.

I'm hoping that for strangers, too.

To the new good, for all of us.

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Landscape, Soul, Story: An Interview, A Review

A few weeks ago, Tamara Smith, the co-creator of Kissing the Earth (you will love this site, when you visit it) wrote to me about landscape. Landscape is central in Tamara's own books, she said, and having read Small Damages for BookBrowse, Tamara sensed that it mattered to me as well.  A conversation ensued—deep and ranging, thanks to Tamara's smart questions—and I am grateful to be able to share the whole here, on Kissing the Earth.

A fragment:

KTE: You told me that, for you, landscape is a character.  It is for me too. Can you explain that a bit here?  Why is this so?  How do you manifest this belief in your work?

BK: Landscape shapes us.  It defines our legs and lungs as we walk through it.  It shapes the way we see, how we define horizons, what seems impossibly far away and what seems gratifyingly or frighteningly near.  Landscape is proximity, and it is distance.  It is another way of measuring time.  And so, in much of my work—the memoirs (especially my book about marriage and El Salvador), the river book, a YA novel that takes place in Juarez, a YA book that takes place in a garden (and Barcelona and Portugal), another YA novel that takes place in Centennial Philadelphia, and of course Small Damages—I am placing my characters down among very specific places and learning how it shapes them.

Tamara, thank you.  The conversation was a privilege.  Kenzie's landscape was inspired by Arenales, the cortijo I visited in southern Spain, among other sites.  I am yearning, deeply, to return.

I was all set to post this link to my conversation with Tamara when that incredibly generous sneak, Serena Agusto-Cox of Savvy Verse & Wit, sent me a late-night email with a link that would not, she said, go live until today. Well.  In my humble opinion, this blogger, wife, mom, and full-time employee (how she does it all, I do not know) has done so much for me and my books that I felt embarrassed to imagine that she had spent the time to read another Kephart book, and to reflect on it.  When I read Serena's review of Small Damages, I felt even more—I don't know the word—for Serena clearly put so much heart and time and thought into her words.  Perhaps she did this at 2 AM, or perhaps she did it on her lunch break.  I don't know when, or how, but Serena, I am grateful. 

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Ikebana Workshop

Ikebana Workshop

For this she has clipped the wings

Of Jane’s tree and bucketed monks head

And stolen rose hips from a mass of vines

On a roadside stretch while her husband

Perpetuated the crime.  Beauty being in

The bend of things and in the wide

Omnivorous eye

Of a bloom. 

We are to watch for thorns,

She says, and for architecture.

We are to turn the subject back

On itself and lift the object’s chin

And make room for spaces in

Between, and nothing is lovelier

Than the odd one thing, and turgor

Is a word she’d buy, a word she gives away

For free.  Her best friend died this summer,

And in the earthen room

In which we work, there are

Her best friend’s things: 

Pods and kenzans and ceramic half moons and the name

Helen, which she joins with honor

And stem. 

We are women working in shadow

And with inversions and toward the faith

She teaches us to have

In the line between the lines

Of stolen hips and wings.  

— Beth Kephart, posted as part of the Savvy Verse and Wit National Poetry Month Blog Tour.

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My house is lit by trees, my heart quickens with gratitude

I am having a small dinner party this evening—an early Thanksgiving Day meal with friends.  That means that I spent much of yesterday polishing things, trying to see my house the way others might see it.  I realized, as I worked, that my little house is lit by trees.  (Later in the afternoon the house was lit by Kelly Simmons, who stopped by with a manuscript in progress I have been begging to read and a bunch of autumnal calla lilies.)

This morning I did not turn the computer on at once—wanted a few spare moments of quiet to reflect and think before I got into the business of the day.  When I did dial into the world, I discovered a most outrageously compassionate, well-written, and deep-thinking review of You Are My Only, penned by Serena Agusto-Cox, a reader, writer, poet, and mom who advocated so fiercely on behalf of this book, even long before she had read it.  True faith—oh so rare, and so appreciated.  Serena was one of the YAMO Treasure Hunt winners, and so I have had the pleasure now of reviewing her own work.  She has Facebooked and believed and conducted giveaways—even invited me to participate in a YAMO interview—the only YAMO interview on record (please check back later today for that).

I don't have the capacity to fully state how much this kind of support has meant to me—how much it means to any author.  But I will share just a few words of Serena's review here, with the hope that you will visit her blog and find out more about what she reads and how she sees:

You Are My Only is an emotional powerhouse drawing redemption out of the shattered pieces of lives rendered asunder by a single event.  Through faith and love these characters can begin the heal, rebuild, and flourish.  What more could readers ask for?  Stunning, precious, and captivating from beginning to end.

Thank you so much, Serena.

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A treasured treasure hunter: Serena Agusto-Cox

I come up with crazy schemes. Some might call them complicated, which is not nearly as nice a word as complex.  In recent weeks I developed this You Are My Only treasure hunt scheme.  To make it work, I needed the help of other bloggers, who might roost my words in their nests.  To make it work, I also needed people who might take the time and follow along.  Take the time.  That's enormous.

Serena Agusto-Cox of the (very) Savvyverseandwit fame has been on it from the start.  Finding my guest posts.  Sharing them with the world.  Encouraging me.  And, today, posting this most generous give-forward on her own intelligent, insightful, cutting-edge blog.

I honestly do not know what to say, except, Serena, thank you.

To the rest of you, the hunt is still on.  There are multiple prizes.  I have been very blessed

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Savvy Verse & Wit reviews Undercover

In the midst of launching new books or struggling to write them, we are reminded, by gracious souls, of stories that did once make their way into the world; we are reminded that that is possible.  Serena Agusto-Cox affords me that gift this morning, with her kind review of Undercover, my first novel for young adults, and the most autobiographical of them all.

Thank you, Serena.

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Christmas in November: Two Nothing but Ghosts Reviews, an Interview, and a Contest

So here I am, scrubbing bathrooms, dusting shelves, sweeping floors, arranging flowers, buying the ingredients for butternut squash soup, citrus salad, cranberry sauce, my mother's brownies, and thinking: Oh, Thanksgiving. Soon my son will be home.

But friends out there have conspired to make this an even greater holiday (Christmas in November) by yielding space and time to Nothing but Ghosts. Sara of the very sophisticated YA book site, The Hiding Spot, has adorned Ghosts with beautiful commentary, asked me some great questions, and posted a Ghosts giveaway contest. I hope you will spend some time on her site (and I hope Sara will always know how grateful I am, especially since she had to persevere through some rather nasty e-mail problems on my end).

Meanwhile, over at Savvy Verse & Wit, Serena has given Ghosts the deeply thoughtful eye of someone whose book review and interview list reveals a reader who is committed to doing justice by fine books.

I am thankful.

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