Nothing but Ghosts/Undercover Paperback

Yesterday, while walking down the street, I heard the golden-voiced Devon Horse Show emcee introducing a Floridian horse named Undercover. I stood and waited as Undercover jumped a clean, high-gated round, a good-luck omen, I thought. Today Jill Santopolo writes to tell me that my own Undercover paperback has officially launched as of this hour. "I hope you celebrate," she said.

An hour later the mail brought a package from Jill containing the hardback of Nothing but Ghosts. It was the first I'd seen this book in its final form— a reminder of how much better the hardback is than the ARCs released months ago. Nuances matter in the books that I write, and they matter particularly in Ghosts.

How does one celebrate the release of two books? I can only think of one way. By plucking peonies from my garden and arranging a photo shoot, and by sharing the news with the intrepid souls who so graciously gather here.

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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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The Undercover Trailer

The Undercover paperback is due out in a few weeks, and it arrives with extras—Elisa's story moved forward in time and documented with her newest batch of poems.

I invite you to watch the trailer, here.

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Undercover, through the eyes of My Friend Amy

Confession: I have a really hard time reading reviews of my own books. Indeed, I have a hard time reading the books themselves once they're locked for good between hard covers. Like Michael Ondaatje and Tennessee Williams, I have the urge to nip and tuck right up to the very end. At readings I'll often find myself stopping mid-sentence, and reconsidering: What if I moved this semi-colon here? And: Do I need that adjective?

So I go along in this world, trying to write the best books that I can and hoping that those books will find their right readers. Good reviews are far from guaranteed. I write a certain kind of book. There are risks, always.

Tonight, I was moving through the blogs I love to read when I saw an image of the UNDERCOVER cover on My Friend Amy's blog. My heart skipped a beat, like my heart does. My Friend Amy, I thought. And then I held my breath, and read.

Amy does so much more—so beautifully—than talk about UNDERCOVER in this post. She talks about YA novels in general, and about her own high school career, and about a teacher she remembers. It's a charming, touching, and, to me, deeply moving, post, and I thank her so much for it.

(I'm breathing again.)

A footnote: UNDERCOVER is due out in May as a paperback "with extras." I describe just what those are in this earlier post.

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Undercover and the Paperback Extras

When Miss Jill Santopolo invited me to create an "Extras" supplement for Undercover, my novel about a rising young poet and her escapades, I thought a while before concluding that I wanted to tell Elisa's' going-forward story through a letter and a series of new poems. Elisa's story didn't end for me just because I happened to stop writing it. She had always kept growing up in my mind—I'd find her in my imagination, I'd see her out in the streets—and creating the Extras gave me a chance to put down some of where she's traveled.

Yesterday, when I returned home from teaching the next generation of young writers, the Extras were here in my electronic mailbox, waiting for a final review. The timing was Jill-like—creating an intersection between the poet I'd conjured (and partly been) and the poets and writers I'd just left in a light-filled room on the second floor of a coffee shop.

Here is Elisa, then, from the letter that introduces her new book of poems. Undercover, with its Extras, will be available as a paperback in May.

I've gotten interested, I'm saying, in all the ways that language bruises itself. In things that bump and collide. The past against the present. The want against the need. The truth against the lie. The weird against the regular. The smell of red against the color of a song. Poems do not explain, but they do suggest. They mean the most when they buck up and buckle.

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Happy News

"UNDERCOVER," Jill Santopolo, my editor, writes, "just got chosen for the 2009 Texas Lone Star Reading List AND the 2008-09 Tayshas Reading List."

And because that makes me happy, I post the news here. I have heard from other schools (my alma mater, even) that UNDERCOVER is sneaking onto recommended reading lists, and not long ago, while giving a talk, the dear librarian from Upper Darby High School (proud secondary ed proving ground of Tina Fey) made mention of this delightful fact: UNDERCOVER is sometimes being coupled in classrooms there with the original "Cyrano de Bergerac," which inspired some of the story.

I send, then, a virtual hug to these librarians who have so generously made room for UNDERCOVER. In NOTHING BUT GHOSTS, due out in June, I play out my admiration for librarians in full.

For now, right now, I can only say thank you.

Oh, and maybe this would be a good time to mention that an UNDERCOVER paperback is due out in May with a supplement I've loved writing. In that supplement, we meet Elisa a few years on. We read some of her new poetry. We learn the fate of her burgeoning romance with Theo. And Dr. Charmin remains within view.

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