Me and Melissa Walker

UNDERCOVER has taken a journey since last September, when it was first released; every book does. But I have never published another book that has been so companionably launched—ushered from here to there through the generosity of bloggers, reviewers, librarians, and one very special Melissa Walker, whose VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY was released at about the same time. UNDERCOVER and VIOLET appeared side by side on the pages of FAMILY CIRCLE magazine. They appeared together in the New York Public Library, during the celebration of the 2007 Books for the Teen Age. And this morning I woke to an email from Melissa: We're together again, in the pages of JUSTINE.

I've never met Melissa, but I feel I know her—her blog is charming and outreaching (http://www.melissacwalker.com/blog/); she projects a bright blue sky; she's generous whether conducting a contest or sharing apron tips; and I happened to love the smart and glittering VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY. She's got a new book out, VIOLET BY DESIGN, which I (a gigantic fan of the Bravo TV show Project Runway) can't wait to read. So here's to companionship, and here's to Melissa, whom I've loved getting to know.

Thanks today also go to Jill Santopolo, at HarperCollins, for sharing the news that UNDERCOVER made the Bank Street College of Education's Best Children's Books of the Year list (2007).

Looks like the sun is coming up today. I've got some plants to bed in.

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Dog Ears and Happenstance

I give my son my favorite books to read, and I find them, months later—beneath his bed, stuck in his pile of first-draft screenplays, in among his paycheck stubs—with all the stop pages turned back like some kind of origami.

When I read the books again I find myself following his trail—the parentheses he placed around the chapters, the suspense he held back for himself. The reading mind in action.

P.S. A shout out to someone whose new book I'll soon be reading—Melissa Walker, whose VIOLET ON THE RUNWAY shares pick of the month space with my own UNDERCOVER in the current issue of Family Circle. I love the way seeeming happenstance brings people together. I'm not just reading Melissa's novel because she's an extremely generous person. I'm reading it because I am a fan, why, yes I am, of America's Next Top Model, and because I suspect Melissa has a lot of insight into that whole gorgeous-on-the-outside-but-what-about-the-inside world.
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