Meet me at the BEA

All right, so:  This isn't really Book Expo America.  But I like the photograph, so I place it here, and while I'm at it, I invite you to join me at the real and actual BEA, Javits Center, New York City, on Wednesday, May 25th, where I'm privileged to be appearing at two events: 

YOU ARE MY ONLY Book Signing:  10 AM (author autographing area)

AUTHOR TEA:  3 PM

Perhaps our paths will cross?  I can't promise you a Googer's Cake or Thing.  But I can promise you conversation, and maybe the Famous Elizabeth Law will walk by and sing a tune in your direction, or maybe Egmont USA's Katie Halata or Greg Ferguson or Mary Albi or Doug Pocock or Rob Guzman will lay down some ink for you.  Or maybe Nico Medina will at last wear a costume on my behalf. 

A girl can dream.

Big thanks to Florinda.  She knows what for.

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Dangerous Neighbors: The Library Media Connection Review

I had just boarded the train for the Philadelphia Flower Show when Greg Ferguson of Egmont USA sent along word of a most gracious Library Media Connection Review of Dangerous Neighbors.  Humbled, I share it with you:

This historical fiction takes place during the 1876 Philadelphia World’s Fair. Anna’s accidental demise leaves her twin sister Katherine recalling the time they spent together and how they have recently grown apart. Katherine decides that she just join her sister in death and plans to jump off an exhibition building at the World’s Fair. But as she prepares herself, her sister’s lover finds her, desperate to share something with her. Katherine won’t listen and escapes before he can share his news. She vows to carry out her thwarted suicide plan another day. However, Katherine is forever changed by the events that are set in motion by her choices. While the story is compelling enough for readers who enjoy historical fiction, this books’ excellence lies in the subtle descriptions nestled in Kephart’s writing. It is a book beautifully done, the complex human emotions of heartbreak and hope exquisitely intertwined. 

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YOU ARE MY ONLY: the cover reveal

I have been waiting—oh, I have been waiting—to post the cover of YOU ARE MY ONLY, which is due out from Laura Geringer Books/Egmont USA this fall.  Neil Swaab, who set me dancing with his DANGEROUS NEIGHBORS cover, was brought on board once again.  This is the magnificent result of his fine eye and heart.

And I am so grateful, too, to editors Greg Ferguson and Laura Geringer, for putting together the description of the book, which I include below.  (For more about the book, please go here.)

YOU ARE MY ONLY will appear in bookstores in October of this year.

A missing child. A devastated young mom. Two girls—one traumatic event. 

Emmy Rane is married at nineteen , a mother by twenty. Trapped in a life with a husband she no longer loves, Baby is her only joy. Then one sunny day in September, Emmy takes a few fateful steps away from her baby and returns to find her missing. All that is left behind is a yellow sock. Fourteen years later, Sophie, a homeschooled, reclusive teenage girl is forced to move frequently and abruptly from place to place, perpetually running from what her mother calls the “No Good.” One afternoon, Sophie breaks the rules, ventures out, and meets Joey and his two aunts. It is this loving family that opens Sophie's eyes, giving her the courage to look into her past. What she discovers changes her world forever. . .

The riveting stories of Emmy and Sophie—alternating narratives of loss, imprisonment, and freedom regained—escalate with breathless suspense toward an unforgettable climax.

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A Photo Tour of Egmont USA

I made my way up from a client meeting on Wall Street to Park Avenue yesterday, where the always-wonderful Egmont USA troupe welcomed me in, bling and all.  You throw your arms around these people when you see them.  You talk travels, sun, book jackets, dreams, classes taught and classes taken, Mickey Mouse, impersonations, architecture, radical movie flops, the delicate matter of the comma.  You go home feeling warmed, alive, like books still matter, after all.  That's Lawsy and me, in the final picture, aligning our bedazzling silver trim.

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You Are My Only: in the afterglow of the copyedits

You know how it is:  You write a book because it is furied up inside you—molten and untouchable but ineluctable, too.  You are the huntress.  You're after something you don't quite understand, and you're going to win; you're going to conquer; in the process, you're going to get burned.  You're going to make up words and fury nouns and add commas where you shouldn't. You're going to mix metaphors.

(It's like writing a blog, sort of, without the back-up support.)

Thankfully, then, there are agents like Amy Rennert who calm you down, and editors like Laura Geringer who ask questions, and a team like Egmont USA, which stands behind you, relieves you of you.  One of the great gifts, in this process, is the gift of copyediting, which Egmont's Greg Ferguson and Nico Medina handle so well.  This time, additionally, Egmont engaged a certain Hannah to read the pages of YOU ARE MY ONLY (due out next fall), and Hannah made sure, among other things, that I didn't have a certain character deciding to take the day off on the day that was already her day off, and that I didn't have the moon wane too quickly.

I've just now finished reading the book through, and can I say (would it be boasting?) how excited I am?  I can't wait for this one to be on the shelves.  I am so grateful to all of those who are helping it come to pass.

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Dangerous Neighbors: The School Library Review

I have Egmont USA's Greg Ferguson to thank for inspiriting this afternoon with the good news of a very kind School Library Journal review for Dangerous Neighbors, the final words of which I quote here, and Pamela Sedor and Ann Pagano to thank for the Radnor Memorial Library event poster above.

I honestly don't know what I'd do, on some of these darkish, headed toward winter days without this kind of light.

Thank you.

Ultimately, it is through chance meetings with “dangerous neighbors” and caring strangers that Katherine begins to consider the possibilities of her own life going forward. Her forgiveness of Bennett and herself gives birth to a sense of hope and helps this tenderly crafted story end with a positive spin. Kephart has painted a vivid picture of the Exhibition. Readers can practically smell the roasted peanuts and feel the bruise of crowds shoving by as she creates a lively setting against which a quiet, desperate struggle is played out.–Karen Elliott, Grafton High School, WI(School Library Journal)

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Dangerous Neighbors: The Starred Publishers Weekly Review

Because I am too happy to patiently sit and transcribe the entire, beautiful starred Publishers Weekly review for Dangerous Neighbors, I am going to share with you Greg Ferguson's favorite line, for he (Greg, of that fabulous Egmont USA team) is the one who let me know that this gift exists, and who, indeed, has let me know about each review in its turn.  Thank you, Greg.

"Conjuring sharp, meticulously detailed images of fair exhibitions (The wonders of the world slide past.  Parisian corsets cavorting on their pedestals.  Vases on lacquered shelves.  Folding beds.  Walls of cutlery.  The sweetest assortment of sugar-colored pills, all set to sail on a yacht"), Kephart evokes a tantalizing portrait of love, remorse, and redemption."

PS.  Egmont's also fabulous Alison Weiss just provided me with this link to the whole review.

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Dangerous Neighbors: The Cover Reveal

To say that I am honored by this profoundly (to me, and I hope to you) gorgeous cover for Dangerous Neighbors would be a supreme understatement. Laura Geringer, who bought this book for Egmont USA and edited it with a whole, sustaining heart, invited art director Neil Swaab to develop themes and possibilities. Within a few days this fabulously talented artist had created a half dozen jackets of such extraordinary quality that I longed to hang them here on my office walls. The very good people of Egmont USA chose this as the final and now officially approved jacket art.

I couldn't wait to share it with you.

Nor could I wait to share this description of the book, which was written not by me but by someone else who read with great care the novel I'd worked on for five years. It's startling, as I mentioned a few days ago, to see your work through another's eyes. It teaches you.

Could any two sisters be more tightly bound together than the twins, Katherine and Anna? Yet love and fate intervene to tear them apart. Katherine's guilt and sense of betrayal leaves her longing for death, until a surprise encounter and another near catastrophe rescue her from a tragic end. Set against the magical kaleidoscope of the Philadelphia Centennial fair of 1876, National Book Award nominee Beth Kephart's book conjures the sweep and scope of a moment in history in which the glowing future of a nation is on display to the disillusioned gaze of a girl who has determined that she no longer has a future. The tale is a pulse by pulse portrait of a young heroine's crisis of faith and salvation in the face of unbearable loss.

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