Goodness (again), a Contest Update, and Kudos to Melissa Walker

Forgive me for being a tad emotional this morning. The last time I posted a world-goes-streaking-past photograph, it was the morning after the evening that we'd left our son at school—a freshman at a college hours away, a young man on the verge.

Yesterday, downpours and client pressures couldn't keep us away from that guy. His finals were done, and his room was in order; freshman year is done. Our son comes home with broader shoulders, boundless stories, and a multitude of friends—engaging, truly beautiful young people who were chanting his nickname as they made the trek to say goodbye while we boxed things up, Windexed the mirrors, and ran an old vacuum cleaner over nubby, well-worn rugs.

In my absence, goodness happened. The kindness of Little Willow, Holly Cupala, Readergirlz, Alea, Jen Robinson, and others, who made it a point to spread the word about the Undercover poetry contest. Meanwhile, the uber-kind Ed Goldberg, of the fabulous Young Adults (& Kids) Books Central, posted a glorious review; I thank him, deeply, for taking an interest in these books that I write.

For those of you interested in the Undercover contest, you'll see that I have now posted the official judge of the competition: Jill Santopolo. I have worked with Jill at HarperTeen since my earliest introduction there; together with Laura Geringer, Jill shepherded Undercover, House of Dance, and Nothing but Ghosts to their respective finish lines. Jill then took on The Heart is not a Size, due out next March, in Laura's absence, and as an author herself, Jill absolutely knows books and words. I can't wait to share your work with her.

Today my dear friend Melissa Walker celebrates the debut of Lovestruck Summer. She's a force and a presence in this blog world; I've learned a lot from her kick, her poise, her smarts. Congratulations, Melissa, on your fourth book. We (and the spring's entire bounty of daffodils) are cheering you on. (And I can't wait to read it.)

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UNDERCOVER Paperback Release, Contest, and Poem

This coming week, the paperback of UNDERCOVER, along with its back-0f-book extras, is being released. Some of you know already that the story continues in those extras, revealed by Elisa through a new collection of her poems. Elisa has given me permission to run one of those poems here.

In the meantime, I am (and I say this without excess) astonished, daily, by the poems that so many of you are writing and posting. I would like, then, to announce a contest, the winner of which will receive a signed copy of the UNDERCOVER paperback. I'd like those of you who might be interested to send to me, in the comments section of this post, a link to your best blogged poem. I'll be assembling fragments of those poems for a future post, and I'll be asking a special person to choose a favorite. This contest will close on May 10th. For more on the paperback, check out the UNDERCOVER trailer on the left margin of this blog.

Contest Updates: I had promised a very special guest judge of this contest. Let me now reveal that the final judge of this contest will be none other than Miss Jill Santopolo herself, my editor and friend at HarperTeen. All ages are welcome to submit. There will be three prizes.

Pearl Earrings

You were the uncle who rolled his trousers at the shore.
You smelled of sequins, fusty paper bags, slightly tacky Elmer’s glue,
the Styrofoam that began the balls you made each year

for Christmas. You never brought me the right presents
on purpose. You always kept the pearl earrings in their velvet
box in your one deep pocket until Mom had gone
to check the turkey, and it was just the two of us. I knew

you loved me best. You also loved Hollywood and gossip, yoghurt,
the secrets you kept. I never thought
you would die so soon. I never thought

you would die to begin with. The sea, however,
is where you left it, and I never put the pearls to my ear
without loving you first, without wanting to tell you

that I am becoming someone true.

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On Air (and an UNDERCOVER giveaway)

Yesterday I wrote about the float of a book—how the books I fall into and wish to write generate energy in the seams, in their criss cross and overlays.

Today I am myself floating on air, for Hip Writer Mama, of whom I wrote just a few days ago, has posted her interview with me on her popular blog site, which has been running terrific author interviews all week long as part of the 2008 Winter Blog Blast Tour.

http://hipwritermama.blogspot.com/2008/11/wbbt-through-eyes-of-beth-kephart-and.html

I'm not going to say more here, for I'd love for you to visit her today—Hip Writer Mama, who puts such time into her interviews and such care in the posting (obviously, I don't even know how she does what she does with all those fancy color-coded embeds, or I'd do a little of that myself). Later today (perhaps by 11 AM Philly time?) you will also be able to find me on the MySpaceHarper Teen site, where I'm writing about something that is important to all of us who care about our future: books, and how we vote for them by buying them.

http://www.myspace.com/harperteen

Enough having just been said, I think I'll go hop my train for the city and float some more.

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Obsession

“If you aren’t obsessive,” writes Hanif Kureishi in HOW I WRITE, “you can’t be an artist, however imaginative you might be.”

Read that at 4:18 this morning and thought, okay, well, okay, feeling just a little better now. Because they called me obsessive in college, when I pinned all the poems I’d been writing to the wall above my bed. And they called me that wherever I went to work, as in, Give it to Beth, she’ll get it done, she’s obsessive. And (equally), Did you ever learn the word, relax?

No one used the word when I was a kid, filling black book after black book with poems (watercoloring the pages swirly colors first, so as to establish mood). Maybe they thought it, but nobody said it.

So maybe I read too hard (and still come up short for answers). So maybe I write too much (and have yet to write the perfect book). So maybe you find me talking to somebody and half of the time, we're talking about stories and words. I'm still not half the artist I want to be, but I'm drawing the conclusion right here, right now that being obsessive has its perks.

PS: Congratulations to Kristina (http://kristinasfavorites.blogspot.com/), who has won a copy of UNDERCOVER via a competition held by Em's Bookshelf (http://emsbookshelf.blogspot.com/). Thanks for all those who showed an interest!

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