I have so much to blog about, between recent book signings, launch parties, a wonderful girls’ book club that invited me to their school yesterday, and how I someone found one of the signs my book is based on!!! But, wow, things have been so overwhelming lately that I’m going to have to break it down to small doses.
Last Thursday night, I was a guest at the Children’s Book Guild Dinner in Washington DC where the super-talented Deborah Wiles spoke. I absolutely adored LOVE, RUBY LAVENDER and EACH LITTLE BIRD THAT SINGS, so I was really looking forward to hearing her speak. I was NOT disappointed. Deborah is an incredible woman and I’m amazed at her strength and courage. She left me with a longing to go home and write all through the night!
Here I am with my friends Erica Perl, Pam Smallcomb, and the amazing Deborah Wiles. Deborah’s publisher, Harcourt, also sent a bundle of advance reader copies of her next novel, THE AURORA COUNTY ALL-STARS, to give out to Guild members and guests. (Harcourt is wonderful, and yes, I am biased. 😉 However, they didn’t expect such a great turnout, so there wasn’t enough books to go around. Seeing how the room was full of librarians, booksellers, authors and great fans of Deborah Wiles in general, I expected arm wrestling bouts to break out any minute. Instead, we placed name tags in the center of the tables and they picked the winners.
Both Erica and Pam won a copy, but *sniff* I didn’t. I would have had better luck with the arm wrestling. However, while I was busy plotting how to steal Pam’s copy without her noticing, (I was torn between the ‘there’s Elvis’ trick and pulling a purse switch-a-roo,) a friend of hers loaned me her copy so I could read it.
YAY, baseball!! My boys will love this, too!
And speaking of Erica Perl, she recently sold her YA novel, FOLLOWING THE NAIL, to Harcourt that will be released in Spring 2009! It’s about a smart, sarcastic girl named Veronica who takes a summer job at a vintage clothing store (based on Cambridge, MA’s fabulous store The Garment District, where Erica researched the book!) to avoid peers who persecute her and ends up drawn into an emotional tug of war between two cruel yet charismatic older girls and a very bizarre boy. Woo-HOO, sounds fantastic, Erica! Congratulations, and how cool–we’re now publisher sisters!
Erica also has a new blog on a new website that’s seriously click-worthy! The website is www.offspring.com and it was started by Neal Pollack, the author of ALTERNADAD. Erica writes a children’s books and publishing blog call for the Offspring site called Pajamazon. Cute title!
Okay, I need to calm down from all my craziness and get some editing done. I hope you have a great Wednesday!
