Don't Breathe a Word: the words have power video

Holly Cupala should be a movie star.  Click on the frame above; you'll see what I mean.

But I digress.

Because Holly Cupala also has a brand new book out—a second young adult novel called Don't Breathe a Word that has lit up the blog-o-sphere with high praise from enthused Holly fans.  I can't wait to read this book about life on the Seattle streets myself.  Holly puts her gorgeous heart into every sentence she writes.

In the meantime, I'm delighted to join Justina Chen, Melissa Walker, Stephanie Kuehnert, Sarah Stevenson, Denise Jaden, Lish McBride, Lisa Schroeder, Cynthia Jaynes, Tara Kelly, Joelle Anthony, Stasia Ward Kehoe, Janet S. Fox, Tina Ferraro, and Janet Lee Carey in this video celebration of a theme that runs throughout Holly's book and is so important to us all:  words have power.

Happy book launch, Miss Cupala! And thank you for including me among your friends of considered and special young adult authors.

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A cover story, an interview, a giveaway, and unrecordable emotion

Today I am in debt to the many who have embraced Dangerous Neighbors and made today, its launch day, alive and so beautiful, in so many ways.

Thank you, Amy at My Friend Amy, for doing so much, so quietly, so dearly — for finding the energy, for working (with Nicole Bonia) toward the ideas and the ideals, for coining the phrase The Beth Effect, for believing in the power of hope, and finding it.

Thank you, Melissa Walker, for asking me to tell the cover story of Dangerous Neighbors for your Barnes and Noble blog at Unabashedly Bookish. 

Thank you, Holly Cupala, for inviting me to share some of the secrets behind Dangerous Neighbors (and to conduct a book giveaway) for your own wonderful blog. 

Thank you, Deborah at Books, Movies, and Chinese Food, for your gorgeous review and for so kindly posting your thoughts on Amazon.  What a kindness.

Thank you, Anna Lefler, beloved comedienne and faithful Twitterer.

Thank you, Mandy, for more than I can ever tell or say.

Thank you, Karen Mahoney, for this incredible blog nod (and a fantastic list of other blogs you cannot live without).

Thank you, Elizabeth Mosier, for your party-hat wearing (even if it did unsmooth your enviably smooth hair).

Thank you, Jay Kirk, Sy Montgomery, Katrina Kenison, J.C. Castner, Kate Moses, Hipwritermama, Erin McIntosh, Lorie Ann Grover, Melissa Middleman Firman, Jill Santopolo, Rody Gratton, Paul DiLorenzo, Andra Bell, Ivy Goodman, Nate, Laura, Kelly, Tirsa, Caroline Leavitt, Steph Su, Serena, Jenny, Staci, Ed Goldberg, Meg, Novel Novice, Richard, Liz, Jan, Barbara, Jerry, Rosellen Brown, Allie, Kathye, and Alyson Hagy.

Thank you, all of Egmont USA, and thank you, Amy Rennert, for calling, and thank those of you who encourage champagne and a little private reflection on a day that so much corporate work calls, and thank you phenomenal, good-hearted bloggers, and any that I have inadvertently missed. I don't mean to miss goodness.  Ever.

For so many reasons, this book feels like my first, ever.

I have all of you to thank for that.

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The Tell Me a Secret secrets

When Holly Cupala asked a number of writers to share a secret to help celebrate the launch of her engrossing first novel, Tell Me a Secret, I said (because I adore this woman) sure, having zero idea what I might actually say when the recording light of my computer eye went on.

Something, in the end, got said, a small secret revealed, but far, far better in this secret-revealing video are the pearly somethings unveiled by writers ranging from Melissa Walker to Lisa Yee.  Check it out.

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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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Tell Me a Secret/Holly Cupala: Reflections

Bad girls are never bad girls to begin with; maybe it's not fair to bullet them bad at all. They are girls who grow up taking risks and diverging, girls who don't trail down expected paths. They leave questions behind, and secrets, always.  They leave parents and sisters and boyfriends.

With her engrossing, fast-moving debut novel, Tell Me a Secret, Holly Cupala (a most cherished readergirlz) pulls back the curtains on the life a so-called "bad girl" named Xanda left behind—the vacancies that erupt, the questions that go unanswered, the growing up that has now been left to Xanda's younger sister, Rand.  Rand is an artist, she's smart, she's a good soul.  She's also pregnant and confused, suddenly running with the wrong crowd, not sure who she can trust, who she can turn to.  High school can savage a girl with self-doubt, and savages abound in this well-drawn cast of characters.  Rand finds allies in the most unexpected places. She learns, too, to trust herself.

Cupala has a terrific knack for capturing the bang and bruise of the high school in-crowd, not to mention the terrible power of gossip.  She keeps her story ratcheting forward but never at the expense of character development.  She delivers, with Tell Me a Secret, a high-octane tale.  It's going to have people talking all summer.

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Juarez and Secret Angels

In a March 23rd article in the Christian Science Monitor, Sara Miller Llana wrote of a father named Adrian Cadena whose son was one of the 15 murdered in Juarez in January, while attending a birthday party. Adrian's son had hoped to play soccer, Llana writes, in college. Today his dad, living through his grief, "has put his energy into volunteering for the local team, cleaning parks, and raising money through barbecues and carwashes" in an attempt to help those who remain. "There are thousands of boys left behind," the author quotes Mr. Cadena. "We have to focus on the survivors."

Juarez, one of the bloodiest cities in the world, sits opposite El Paso, one of the most peaceful cities in the states. It is home to children like the gorgeous one pictured here. It deserves its cessation from a chaos spawned by warring drug cartels. It deserves our attention.

Today I would like to thank two angels who are helping to spread word about a book I wrote based on a trip I took to Juarez five years ago. The first is Holly Cupala, whose novel (and the early buzz is great), Tell Me a Secret, is due out from HarperCollins in June. She interviewed me about the making of Heart; the conversation is here.

The second person I'd like to thank is the secret agent angel who has set up a Facebook Fan page for Heart. She knows who she is. We'd love you to hop on board so that you'll get early news of coming contests, reviews, and content.

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a thank you vlog

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What readergirlz sound like when readergirlz are talking

We readergirlz girlz tore up the keyboards last night talking everything from writerly schedules (thank you, Little Willow, for offering to make me breakfast); TV shows ("So You Think You Can Dance" rocks supreme); the joint appearance by Erin McIntosh and Melissa Walker in the newest six-word memoir book (oh, baby); certain showcase dance number videos that will never be aired (thank you, Mercy, for keeping our secret our secret); the emergence of Priya as a readergirlz street girl; favorite bands (yes, mine is still and will always be Bruce Springsteen); landscape as character (thank you, Nicole, for the question); favorite editors, past and present; how I stink at the samba (just ask Jean Paulovich); whether I will every write fantasy (thank you, Maya and Hipwriter Mama for your faith in my abilities); whether I've watched "Glee" (I'm so sorry, Lorie Anne); and why Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River was perhaps the most challenging and most rewarding book that I've yet published, though 2010 and beyond is filled with books and potential books that were probably even harder. All along Dia Calhoun and Holly Cupala were tossing out not just literary questions but riotously funny—and unexpected—images.

Which is all to say that if you haven't participated in a readergirlz chat, you really ought to. They happen twice a month or so. They will keep you at the edge of your fingertips.

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Headed for Perfection (or at least pointed that way)

Those of you who are in the middle of writing something are also, inevitably, in the middle of revising something.

Over at Brimstone Soup, Holly Cupala, a young adult author (and a Readergirlz marvel), has been shining light on the revisionary path with a program called Summer Revision Smackdown. I've learned a lot in previous posts, and today Holly is hosting me, as I think out loud about my own revisionary patterns, and instincts. Check it out, if you have a chance.

Also, Kathye Fetsko Petrie, a big-hearted local literary legend has a piece in the Examiner about authors' summer reading lists. What, she wanted to know, are some of us reading this summer?

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The Books on my Shelves

The fabulous Holly Cupala of Brimstone Soup tagged me on this meme, and since I was musing just yesterday about bookshelves and friendships, it seems an appropriate Sunday launch. The question is, What's on your bookshelf?, and the specifics are these:

Tell me about the book that has been on your shelf the longest...

A beaten, brown thesaurus (the pages unbound now and out of order) and the bible my mother gave me. In fact, however, most all of my books have been acquired during the last 20 years. I was not a bookish kid (I was a writerly one, not a bookish one, which is truly not the right order of things) and did not come from a bookish family, which is not to say that I did not come from an educated one. It's simply that the home that I grew up in was not furnitured with books.

Tell me about a book that reminds you of something specific in your life ...

Natalie Kusz's Road Song was the first memoir I ever bought—the first I ever read. I was pregnant with my son. I was in a Princeton bookstore. The book was revelatory (you can write about your life? like this?) and I wrote to Ms. Kusz, never expecting a response. A few weeks later, one came. "As I am sure you know (because, judging from the elegance and insightfulness of your letter, you must be a writer yourself), writers are in the business of attempting to expose the human condition in such a way that our description resonates in the souls of other humans ... " A writer myself? Not then. Just someone who loved the sound of words, their puzzling together. By announcing to me a new genre—memoir—and by suggesting to me a possibility—an actual writer—Ms. Kusz and Road Song changed my life.

Tell me about a book you acquired in some interesting way ...

This past Friday six books arrived in a brown box, chosen by an editor with whom I've lately had the privilege of corresponding. I had mentioned that I sought, in my life, books that "put faith in the reader." She responded with generosity and with a telling eye and ear. Every one of these six books appears to be my kind of book. You'll be hearing about them here, over time.

Tell me about the most recent addition to your shelves...

Since the books in that box aren't yet on my shelves (but on the coffee table, where I will leave them until they are read), the newest books were three: Book of Clouds, The Frozen Thames, and The Cradle. I've written of them all here. Book of Clouds also, in its way, changed my life, my way of seeing what is possible in story.

Tell me about a book that has been with you to the most places...

Michael Ondaatje's The English Patient. I've read it several times, in several places—in El Salvador while visiting my husband's family, in Orlando while helping to oversee a corporate launch conference, on the train to New York City.

Tell me about a bonus book that doesn't fit any of the above questions...

Two books that I felt strongly should win the Pulitzer Prize did, and they sit eloquently on my shelves: March by Geraldine Brooks and Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout. There were shouts of joy here when both were announced. Both winners aren't just enormously talented writers. They are gracious people, which counts just as much.

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Rocking the Drop for readergirlz

I have returned this moment from Radnor Middle School, where I left three copies of House of Dance along the bus line. The former Dr. Dewsnap teaches there now, having moved there awhile ago from the high school where she inspired me and, ultimately, many pages in my first young adult novel, Undercover.

The books are there to be discovered. They are there as part of the terrific national program, Operation Teen Book Drop, which celebrates its second anniversary today and owes its birth to the extraordinary founders of readergirlz.

I borrow the following text from the readergirlz press release, so that you might know more and celebrate with all of us who are honored to reach out to younger readers.

In its second year, “Operation TBD” (short for Teen Book Drop), puts free books donated by 18 book publishers into the hands of many teens most in need of escape, inspiration and a sense of personal accomplishment. Books with exceptional characters and fabulous stories can provide just that for teens and their families dealing with difficult, long-term hospital stays.

At a time when philanthropic giving is down, readergirlz co-founders have been inspired by overwhelming industry support for Operation TBD. “readergirlz is always looking for innovative ways to connect teens with literature, “ said Dia Calhoun, co-founder of readergirlz and acclaimed young-adult author. “We’re honored that publishers have supported this goal by giving so liberally this year.”

Operation TBD also aims to encourage all teens to choose reading for pleasure as a leisure activity, over other entertainment options. Inciting the broader teen community to participate in Operation TBD in its drive to spur reading on a national scale, readergirlz has launched a trailer on YouTube (http://www.youtube.com/readergirlz) inviting teens and YA authors to leave a book in a public place on April 16. When visiting www.readergirlz.com, participants can download bookplates to insert into the books they’ll leave behind, which explain the surprise to the recipient and tell them to read and enjoy.

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And Then I Cried

There was hardly a soul in the restaurant last night by the time my husband and I made our way to it. The streets were thick with ice and the snow that had been falling all day long kept rising back up with the wind and snapping. I had my blackberry with me because I always do, because it is my one connection across hundreds of miles to my son; I want to be near if he wants to talk. And so there we were, and there was the blackberry, and there was cold outside and a certain emptiness in my heart—a sadness stemming from news encountered earlier in the day.

Toward the end of the meal (appetizers, only), that little red blackberry light went off, and I checked to see to whom it might belong. It was Little Willow, of all people, a forerunner blogger of forerunner bloggers, who was out there doing smart book talk in advance of most of the world.

Guess who has a book recommended in this month's issue of readergirlz? she wrote. You do! You do! The postergirlz picked UNDERCOVER as a recommended read, along with our main March pick, THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX by Mary E. Pearson.

I try hard not to cry at things that are not life and death related, but no amount of resolve stopped my tears with this. Because who are those readergirlz? They are Lorie Ann Grover, dancer, writer, illustrator, thinker. They are Justina Chen Headley, former executive and now author of such supremely successful and lovely, intelligent books as NORTH OF BEAUTIFUL, her latest, which earned three starred reviews and is getting incredible responses across the blogosophere. They are Melissa Walker, and we all know Melissa—beloved author of the VIOLET series and fashionista, who reports on her Manhattan travels so that the rest of us can be voyeurs. They are Dia Calhoun, the acclaimed authoress, and Holly Cupala, whose first novel is due out in 2010. And in essential supporting roles there are those like Miss Little Willow herself, HipWriterMama (a blogger I admired for so long from afar, a writer, and interviewer extraordinaire), and the delightfully popular Miss Erin, rising actress and poet and friend (and daughter of sometimes actress, rising photographer, and always friend Sherry!).

They are, in other words, women I have long respected. Women who are out there making a difference with their voices and their opinions.

UNDERCOVER stands as a March pick among books that I'd be proud to be associated with on any day of any week: MEMOIRS OF A TEENAGE AMNESIAC, FRANKENSTEIN, GRACELING, NOT QUITE WHAT I WAS PLANNING: SIX-WORD MEMOIRS BY WRITERS FAMOUS AND OBSCURE, and WALDEN.

I don't know about you, but sometimes electronic hugs, as first delivered upon my heart by Anna Lefler, are not enough.

Still:

(((thank you)))

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