Oooh, Pretty Booklist Ad!

I just found out that Delacorte has included BANISHED in an ad they are running in Booklist, which is the magazine of the American Library Association. See my little cover, there on the upper right? Sorry, I couldn't figure out how to get a better image. But I'm pleased as all get out - it would be amazing for BANISHED to make its way into some school libraries...

I volunteered in the school library when my kids were little. This was long before I had a publishing contract, but I was writing, and I remember thinking how cool it would be to see a book of mine on the shelves some day...

oh and P.S. - aren't these covers gorgeous? I can't tell if it's bragging to say that my publisher kicks cover ass. If it is, I apologize, but wow have they got some talent over there. I especially love the FALLEN and TORMENT covers. They're just so....Evanescence. (I listened to a fair amount of Evanescence while I was writing BANISHED).


Have you seen the TORMENT book trailer? I don't care what your stance on trailers is, it's hard not to be captivated by that one.

Discount Noir!! ...'cause i heart WalMart

You guys know Patti Abbott, right? Wait, a few of you aren't raising your hands. Let me introduce you - Patti's a friend of mine who writes great dark, gritty short fiction (you'll love her, Mysti) and an amazing blog that is so much more than a, y'know, blog in the sense that *this* thing is a blog....blah blah blah, just take a look and see what I mean. Patti is SMART.

Anyway she and Steve Weddle, who appears to be really cool so far though our friendship is still in the "virtual" stage, have put together this anthology with a great hook: it's all about WalMart. Yeah, every story is set in or includes a reference to WalMart. It's a fact that every single one of my books so far contains a reference to WalMart - that should prove the depth of my relationship with the place. It's a complicated relationship, probably a little unstable...the rest of my family HATES the place and won't shop there, on moral grounds, but to me, merely the memory of the smell (Milk Duds, calico sizing and old popcorn) is enough to make me feel, well, happy and optimistic. WalMart, in my scrappy childhood, was my mecca, my place of plenty.

Anyway, enough about me, this post is supposed to be about Patti, Steve, and the book, which will be released by Untreed Reads.

Untreed Reads is very happy to announce that thanks to our partnership with Stacia J.N. Decker of the Donald Maass Literary Agency, Untreed Reads will be the ebook publisher for a new short mystery anthology tentatively titled Discount Noir. The anthology consists of super short/flash murder and mayhem centered around a very Wal-Mart/Target-esque backdrop.

The anthology contains works by: Patricia Abbott, Sophie Littlefield, Kieran Shea, Chad Eagleton, Ed Gorman, Cormac Brown, Fleur Bradley, Alan Griffiths, Laura Benedict, Garnett Elliot, Eric Beetner, Jack Bates, Bill Crider, Loren Eaton, John DuMond, John McFetridge, Toni McGee Causey, Jeff Vande Zande, James Reasoner, Kyle Minor, Randy Rohn, Todd Mason, Byron Quertermous, Sandra Scoppettone, Stephen D. Rogers, Steve Weddle, Evan Lewis, Daniel B. O’Shea, Sandra Seamans, Albert Tucher, Donna Moore, John Weagly, Keith Rawson, Gerald So, Dave Zeltserman, Dorte Hummelshoj Jakobsen, Jay Stringer, Anne Frasier, Kathleen A. Ryan, Eric Peterson, Chris Grabenstein and J.T. Ellison. The anthology was edited by Patricia Abbott and Steve Weddle.

Look for this title to be released in late September/early October.

BANISHED - one month away!

My first young adult novel, BANISHED, comes out one month from today. I love this book and I can't wait to have it in the hands of readers - but perhaps because it's very close to my heart, I'm also a little nervous.

Anyone who knows me knows that my world revolves around my kids. At 15 and 17, they are right smack in the target age range for my book - but they haven't read it. I understand why - I was the same way when my own dad published book after book as I was growing up. I needed him to be my Dad, not an author, not a pundit (he wrote books about legal history) - and I didn't want to "go looking" for him between the lines of the text. That may not be an adequate explanation - it's something I feel, rather than something I can enunciate. Anyway, it doesn't bother me a bit that my kids - while they are excited and happy for me - don't feel the need to open the cover.

As for any other readers out there - that's a different story. I want you to love the cover (I do). I want you to be intrigued by the first line ("Waking up hurt.") I want you to care about the characters and what happens to them. I hope you find a sentence or two that makes you go "oh!"

I'm going to be pretty busy this fall with a couple of deadlines and family stuff, and so I haven't been able to do as many appearances and signings as I would like to. All I can do is stand at the door, like the parent of a kindergardner that I once was, and watch my little bundle toddle out into the world - full of hopes and best wishes and maybe a prayer or two.