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Yesterday I learned that someone had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is what killed my friend (and probably yours) LK Madigan (AKA Lisa Wolfson) in February 2011. (Aside - if you ever have pain in your back or abdomen and unexplained weight loss, BUG the doctors until you get an answer).

It got me thinking about Lisa.

She was a very good friend to other writers. I dedicated The Night She Disappeared to Lisa.



Josh Berk dedicated Guy Langman, Crime Scene Procrastinator to her. (That's Night and Guy Langman pictured above.)

Stephanie Lawton dedicated Want to Lisa, as you can read about on Novel Novice.

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Lisa (LK Madigan, author of Flash Burnout and The Mermaid's Mirror
) may be gone from my life, but not from my heart. After I lamented at her memorial service that I had not kept that many of her emails, her husband slipped me some she had kept from early in 2006, when we were just getting to know each other. At that time she hadn’t been published and didn’t even have an agent.

She wrote:

I would have to be presumptuous enough to class myself as a ‘good writer,’ when I have no verifiable evidence to that effect. But what the hell!! I’ll go ahead and own it. I FEEL like a good writer. But then I worry that maybe I’m like this character in a Wilkie Collins novel (“Hide and Seek”) who devoted his hole lift and soul to ART ... studying it, suffering for it, painting like mad. The problem was - he just wasn’t very good. ...

Despite THINKING I’m a good writer ... maybe I’m deluded too...

Here’s my short answer: no, I don’t think good writing can be taught. I hate to get all New Age-y on you, because I am so NOT ... but real writers are born with ink in their veins. They wake up every day anticipating when they can sit down and read, read, read, as if books are food. Words are so important to writers that they THINK about words all the time, the way some people think about sex. They cringe when people use the wrong words. They also fantasize about their next date with The Muse ... mentally calculating hours and minutes when there will be time to spill their thoughts out on the page. AND they also don’t just wait for a convenient time for the Muse to strike ... they grabe and snatch and demand time to write, like greedy toddlers.

People can be taught to write in a clear, journalistic fashion, I believe. But the kind of writing that pours out like music - that can’t be taught.

Thus endeth today’s pomposity. We now return you to your regularly scheduled conversation.

I told Lisa that a lot of times writing for me is work, and that I don’t always long for it. But that I always enjoy having written.

I would love to be able to talk about books and writing with her again.

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In a few hours I'll be going to hear local author Suzanne Young read from A Need So Beautiful at Powells in Cedar Hills. I kept having this nagging feeling, and I finally identified it. It was that I should be coordinating with Lisa Wolfson (LK Madigan) about who would drive, because we would be going together.

I know Lisa will be there in spirit, but I so wish she could also be there in reality.

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When I saw this story about mermaids in USA Today, it made me think of LK Madigan's The Mermaid's Mirror.

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The YA world's heart is breaking this week as we learned of the loss of Lisa Madigan, Morris Award-winning author of FLASH BURNOUT and THE MERMAID'S MIRROR. She touched so many lives through her kindness, bravery, and truthful words.

I didn't know her well, but my one meeting with her will always be significant to me. We were both at ALA this last summer and met through our mutual friends (Lisa is on the far left).

Then we went out to lunch with a group, and somehow Lisa and I ended up connecting - not on a superficial level, but on a heart level. Even in a moment, I could tell that's the kind of person Lisa was. We talked about loss and writing and the things that matter. She told me about her early battle with cancer, and her beautiful husband and son. I told her the story behind Tell Me a Secret. We both cried a little.

I won't ever forget that.


Lisa, we miss you.

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Thank you everyone for your wonderfully warm condolences and for posting your memories of LK Madigan. It has been really amazing to see how much she touched so many people - a fact that I knew intellectually, but didn't really process until I was able to see the flood of posts from all corners of the writing and reading world.

Lots of folks have asked how they may help Lisa's family.

A trust fund has been established to benefit Lisa's son; donations may be sent to the Nathan Wolfson Trust, c/o Becker Capital Management, 1211 SW Fifth Ave., Suite 2185, Portland, OR 97204.

Her husband Neil posted this info on her blog; I know that any donations would be extremely appreciated.

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I don't know if it's torturing myself or not to listen to her so familiar voice. And eerie, too. When she said at Wordstock that she had many more books she wanted to write, she had been having occasional abdominal pain, but had been told it wasn't cancer. And what she said at the beginning of the Morris Award video is almost crazy to hear now.

I miss her so much.

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I know everyone has been aching to do something in memory of Lisa. Here's how you can help. Her son Nate was the most important person in the world to her. Now you can help him by donating to a college fund:

Checks can be made payable to the Nathan Wolfson Trust.
They can be mailed to:
Becker Capital Management, Inc.
Attn: Sharon Gueck/John Becker
1211 SW Fifth Ave, Suite 2185
Portland, OR 97204

Donors will be sent acknowledgement letters.

Please repost, Tweet, etc. widely.

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I do have Bookanista post I will do later today.

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Lisa (LK) Madigan passed away today and I can't even put into words how upsetting this is. She was around my age and a brilliant author. Her Flash Burnout, her debut won the William C. Morris Award in 2010. We found out about after ALA MW in Boston.

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I'm heartbroken to report that my beloved friend and client Lisa (LK Madigan) passed away this morning.

Lisa was not only a dear friend but a truly remarkable writer. I had the great privilege to help bring two of Lisa's books into the world, and I hope that through those stories, many many more readers will have a chance to be touched by Lisa's brilliance, humor, heart and generosity of spirit in the years to come.

I know that many of you knew Lisa, at least online or through her books, and had her in your thoughts during her illness. She cared deeply about her readers and her community of writers, and I feel certain that your support and good wishes meant, and continue to mean, a great deal to her and to her family. And to me, as well.

Plans for a memorial will happen in the coming days and weeks. Meanwhile, I think that Lisa would encourage you all to give great big hugs to your friends and family, and follow your dreams, as she did.

Thank you all so much, and please take care of yourselves.

Love,

Jennifer




For more about LK Madigan, please visit her blog.  For the adorable story of her first book deal, go here. For the possibly even more adorable story of her long-awaited Mermaid Book, go here.  For the entries where she memorably channeled Tim Gunn, go here.  For an interview where she dishes about the Morris Award and more, go here.


To buy FLASH BURNOUT or MERMAID'S MIRROR, follow the links or visit your local independent bookstore.

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My dear friend and client LK Madigan has some hard news to share on her blog.

I've had several emails from friends and fans asking what they can do for Lisa.  Well, right now you can send her love and prayers and healing thoughts. I don't think that she's up for getting emails, but I know she's reading the comments of her blog. 

And if you're of a mind to, you can buy her books FLASH BURNOUT and MERMAID'S MIRROR, or check them out from the library, and read them, enjoy them, and share them with a friend, and smile, and think about what a great writer and wonderful person Lisa is.

Then hug your friends and family.

Then if you're a writer, get to work. You don't have enough time to waste any of it!

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Flash Burnout L. K. Madigan

Blake often feels torn between Shannon, his perfect girlfriend, and his best friend Marissa. Things get more complicated when Blake takes a picture of a meth addict passed out in an alley way for photography class. A meth addict that just happens to be Marissa's missing mother. Blake tries to support Marissa as she finds her mom and tries to (once again) get her cleaned up, but balancing Marissa's needs with Shannon's wants is more than Blake can handle.

For about the first 100 pages, Blake's voice really annoyed me. I felt like he should be narrating something that was much more laugh-out-loud funny than the story he is narrating. It's not that there's a voice shift after 100 pages, that's just when I got used to it so it stopped bugging me.

I really liked Blake's family. I liked the dark humor of how his dad's job as a medical examiner encroaches on their home life. I liked how Blake's parents and brother were in the picture and very supportive. Even Blake's brother, whom he doesn't always get along with, was there when push came to shove, which was nice to see.

But seriously, OMG, Shannon's mom was such a @#$$%&!@$%^&! I can understand how Blake was probably a rather annoying boyfriend from a parental perspective, but woah, way to actively sabotage everything. Blake really didn't need her help in messing things up. But because of how evil her mom was, I wasn't nearly as sympathetic to Shannon as I should have been. I also think Shannon got the short stick in the Blake-Shannon-Marissa triangle, because Shannon didn't have any real drama in her life and Blake was spending all of his time with Marissa, so Shannon was just kinda there, but wasn't really given a chance in the story for the reader to connect with her. Poor Shannon.

Book Provided by... my local library

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Flash Burnout by L.K. Madigan. Houghton Mifflin Books for Children. 2009. Reviewed from ARC borrowed from a friend. Morris Award finalist.

The Plot: Blake, 15, has a GF (girlfriend), Shannon; and a girl who is a friend, Marissa. It seems possible to have two women in his life, despite the jokes his brother makes, until he discovers a secret about Marissa that he promises not to tell anyone.

The Good: A perfect romance, written from a teenage boy's point of view. Blake really likes Shannon, even eventually saying the "l" word. He's trying to figure out how to be a good boyfriend, what to say, what not to say, to ignore the "advice" of his brother and friends that say, don't be so into her, ignore her sometimes.

Blake also really likes Marissa, but just as friend. And that's true; it's Shannon he is in love with, it's Shannon he cannot get enough with, loves her shoulders, the feel of her skin, the way she smiles just for him. Marissa is his buddy in photography class, a friend. Want to know the difference between feeling friendship for a person and something more? It's in the details of Blake's interactions with and thoughts about both Shannon and Marissa.

This is NOT one of those stories where the best-friend-who-is-a-girl becomes something more, or the girlfriend turns out to be a shallow undeserving bitca. It's about three nice, likable, teenagers: Blake, a photographer who is always cracking jokes; Shannon, who plays soccer and plays the piano and is strong and sort of confident but also not quite sure how to handle her first real relationship; Marissa, a photographer, living with her grandmother and haunted by her past.

Blake gets involved with Marissa's heartache inadvertently. He takes a photo of a homeless woman who turns out to be Marissa's meth addicted mother. Her mother, Anne, isn't evil or bad; she is an addict whose addiction and sadness overwhelms her and her family. If someone is drowning, when do you try to save them? When do you concentrate on saving yourself?

Blake promises not to tell anyone about Marissa's family, and this secret becomes a problem with Shannon. He cannot share with Shannon why he is there for Marissa, spending time with Marissa.

Flash Burnout manages to be both hilarious and touching, as Blake figures out his relationships with others and also how his actions have consequences.

Blake's parents are terrific; his mother is a hospital chaplain, his father a medical examiner. They are supportive but not pushovers. In addition to interesting career choices, both jobs add to the plot line. When Blake goes looking for Marissa's mother, his mother turns out to know about the homeless in town and where they may be because of her job. Likewise, his father's job also factors into the search for the missing woman.

I'm adding this to my favorite books read in 2009; and it's easy to see why this made the Morris Award shortlist. Yes, of course it's because of the plot, and the deft handling of serious issues and everyday issues, and supporting characters who are well rounded; but it's also (in my opinion, I have no con

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The William C. Morris YA Debut Award "honors a debut book published by a first-time author writing for teens and celebrating impressive new voices in young adult literature." The Morris Award Committee announces the shortlist in December; which means we know the five finalists, so have plenty of time to read them all prior to the announcement of the winner on January 18 at the Youth Media Awards press conference.

This is the second year for the Morris Award; last year's winner was A Curse Dark as Gold by Elizabeth C. Bunce.

From the Morris Award webpage: "This supernatural novel retells the story of Rumpelstiltskin, setting it at the dawn of the Industrial Revolution and centering it around the life of Charlotte Miller. When the bank wants to repossess her mortgaged mill, Charlotte strikes a bargain with the mysterious Jack Spinner, (a creature who knows the art of turning straw into gold), but then discovers she must free her loved ones from a generations-old curse.

At the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, Charlotte Miller strikes a bargain with the malevolent Jack Spinner, who can transform straw into gold, to save her family’s mill. With masterly writing and vivid characterization and setting, Bunce weaves a powerfully seductive tale of triumph over evil.

“Bunce has crafted a story that superbly embodies the criteria for this award. Her work is compelling and has broad teen appeal,” said Chair Bonnie Kunzel. “Thoughtful reflection and spirited discussion characterized this outstanding committee’s work as its members selected a shortlist that honors the influence of William C. Morris on the field of young adult publishing.”"

The five finalists for the Morris Award are:


Ash by Malinda Lo.

From my review:

"This retelling unfolds slowly, deliciously. It's an internal story; a story about Ash grieving the loss of her parents, shutting down from it, and eventually choosing life and love. This is a tale about recovering from grief and unbearable loss. . . . Take note, librarians and teachers looking for a great book with both literary merit and one that encourages deep discussion; you'll want this one."