Cover Stories: The story behind the YAMO cover

Melissa Walker is not just a fiendishly talented author, kindhearted fashion maven, and brand-new mom who knows how to strap her pretty baby on.  She's the creator of (among countless other things) a regular feature series called "Cover Stories."

Today she shares a story I told about how the cover of You Are My Only got made. 

Sometimes (no, often), I think these thoughts:  Where would we be without Melissa?

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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.

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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.

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Dangerous Neighbors: Unspeakable Happiness

To all of those who have carried me forward, who have believed: 
Thank you.

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Dangerous Neighbors: the first review

Every time I post this cover image I sigh, happily.  This evening I am sighing doubly happily, for I have read what is in fact the first review of Dangerous Neighbors, a five-star YABooksCentral review, and it touches my heart deeply.  For now I share these words, which do such an outstanding job of capturing a story that, in my five years of working on it, I struggled to adequately sum up.

Originally I was just going to tell you exactly what the author, Beth Kephart, tells you about Dangerous Neighbors: “It is 1876, the height of the Centennial Exhibition in Philadelphia. Katherine has lost her twin sister, Anna, and though it was an accident, Katherine remains convinced that Anna’s death was her fault. One wickedly hot September day, Katherine sets out for the exhibition grounds to cut short the life she is no longer willing to live. This is the story of what happens.” But that would leave out a lot because Dangerous Neighbors is about more than feeling the loss of a sister. It is about sisters, especially twin sisters, and how they are a part of each other. It is about the inevitable maturing and ultimate growing apart of siblings. It is about the world in 1876 and one parent’s fight for equality. It is about having someone to care for and how that spark of caring can change everything.

Thank you so much, reviewer Ed Goldberg.

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Dangerous Neighbors ARCs arrive

Oh my gosh.

I was on the phone with a client. I was working. I was on the computer and the phone with a client. I was working. I noticed that there was sun outside, but I noticed nothing else, and so the UPS man surprised me today. He doesn't often, but today he did. Only now, opening the front door to gauge the weather do I discover this:

Dangerous Neighbors has arrived, in immaculate Advanced Reading Copy form.

Have I mentioned how much I love this Neil Swaab cover? And you should see the interior pages. The packaging like an object lesson in book art.

Thank you, Egmont USA!

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Dangerous Neighbors: The Cover Reveal

To say that I am honored by this profoundly (to me, and I hope to you) gorgeous cover for Dangerous Neighbors would be a supreme understatement. Laura Geringer, who bought this book for Egmont USA and edited it with a whole, sustaining heart, invited art director Neil Swaab to develop themes and possibilities. Within a few days this fabulously talented artist had created a half dozen jackets of such extraordinary quality that I longed to hang them here on my office walls. The very good people of Egmont USA chose this as the final and now officially approved jacket art.

I couldn't wait to share it with you.

Nor could I wait to share this description of the book, which was written not by me but by someone else who read with great care the novel I'd worked on for five years. It's startling, as I mentioned a few days ago, to see your work through another's eyes. It teaches you.

Could any two sisters be more tightly bound together than the twins, Katherine and Anna? Yet love and fate intervene to tear them apart. Katherine's guilt and sense of betrayal leaves her longing for death, until a surprise encounter and another near catastrophe rescue her from a tragic end. Set against the magical kaleidoscope of the Philadelphia Centennial fair of 1876, National Book Award nominee Beth Kephart's book conjures the sweep and scope of a moment in history in which the glowing future of a nation is on display to the disillusioned gaze of a girl who has determined that she no longer has a future. The tale is a pulse by pulse portrait of a young heroine's crisis of faith and salvation in the face of unbearable loss.

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