News

I feel like my blog’s been so abandoned this month, except for a few scattered posts and interviews! I’ve been so busy – but that’s no excuse! Here’s how I’ve spent my summer vacation (besides wishing I’d had a vacation) – or at least the last couple of weeks! On the writing front, I just received second edits on Cahill book 3. These are mostly line edits, but there are also a few bigger things – two pivotal moments that aren’t quite working for Editor Ari and require rewriting a few pages, one character motivation to simplify, and one world-building issue to seed earlier. I love the line edit stage of the process, really tinkering with word choice, trying to be as richly visual as possible without slowing down the plot, trying to get my meaning across as concisely as I can. The most frequent note by far is still “show her”... Read More

I’m waiting on edits for Cahill Book 3, and in-between rounds, I have a little time to play with potential next-books. I’ve got one proposal almost ready to go, so was exploring other ideas…and a weird thing happened over the last few weeks. I mentioned on twitter that I’d been thinking about writing a theatre book, because I did lots of theatre in high school and college and studied it in grad school and am married to The Playwright after all, and twitter got very excited. I started brainstorming – daydreaming, chatting with The Playwright, jotting down notes. I love stories like DRAMARAMA and THE REESE MALCOLM LIST, but what would a book about theatre look like from me? I came up with the idea to write about a girl whose high school production of The Crucible gets banned, and she ends up ​putting it on in her uncle’s barn... Read More

Hi! Today we’re celebrating the release of April Genevieve Tucholke’s BETWEEN THE DEVIL AND THE DEEP BLUE SEA. They say:   You stop fearing the Devil when you’re holding his hand… Nothing much exciting rolls through Violet White’s sleepy, seaside town…until River West comes along. River rents the guesthouse behind Violet’s crumbling estate, and as eerie, grim things start to happen, Violet begins to wonder about the boy living in her backyard. Is River just a crooked-smiling liar with pretty eyes and a mysterious past? Or could he be something more? Violet’s grandmother always warned her about the Devil, but she never said he could be a dark-haired boy who takes naps in the sun, who likes coffee, who kisses you in a cemetery…who makes you want to kiss back. Violet’s already so knee-deep in love, she can’t see straight. And that’s just how River likes it. A gothic thriller romance... Read More

Hi! The Playwright and I spent a few days last week at my parents’ and it was so nice! We intended to hang out by the pool but the weather didn’t cooperate (it was gorgeous out but unseasonably cool). We did get to go kayaking on Thursday night with my dad, though!  Otherwise we watched a lot of I LOVE LUCY (my little sister S’s favorite show) and played with Mom’s new kitten, Moxie. She’s ten weeks old and a bundle of mischief who is endlessly amused by things like chasing her own tail or a crumpled-up bit of paper. She had to be put in time-out one night because she got super wound-up and bite-y but mostly she’s just really sweet and hilarious. Anyway! I wanted to let you know about 3 current contests for copies of STAR CURSED: Over at Dark Faerie Tales, I wrote a (hopefully amusing) list... Read More

Hi! I’ve been such a bad blogger this summer. Sorry, guys! I meant to do a post yesterday about brainstorming a new book but I’m visiting my parents and they’ve got a new kitten so: productivity fail, basically. But today we are celebrating the release of Rachel Alpine’s CANARY! They say:   In this debut novel, a high school girl tries to understand the world, figure out where she fits in, and learn how to stand up for herself when everything falls apart. With the passing of her mother, Kate Franklin’s life unravels at the seams as she loses the only emotional mooring in her family. Her dad shuts down completely, and her brother enlists in the army. Things start looking better when her dad is hired to coach at Beacon Prep, home of one of the best basketball teams in the state. In a blog of prose and poetry, Kate chronicles... Read More