I returned from Penn—boarded the late train home—and walked beneath a clouding sky. It had been a long day, rich, spent in the company of students, and though I ached in my heart and my head (last week is our last class; how hard it will be to say goodbye), I hurried toward the package that I knew was waiting for me.
Isn't it beautiful, the exquisite Tamra Tuller had written in her note.
Yes, Tamra. Because of you and Philomel, it is.
Small Damages, then, which was so kindly
reviewed last week by the one and only Amy Riley,
who has a knack for sensing turning points and celebrating them.
and why they matter in works of art. I was thinking, as I read, that the
New York Times Book Review should hire Amy as a weekly essayist. She is just that good. I was thinking, too, about how lucky I am to count Amy as a faithful reader and so entirely generous friend.
Thank you, Amy, for
these words. Thank you, indeed, for everything.
Now that the
Book Bloggers Appreciation Week long-list nominees have been announced, I want to thank the organizers of this event and the cast of nominators for placing Beth Kephart Books into consideration for best Published Author Blog alongside the blogs of
Maggie Stiefvater,
Veronica Roth, and
Beth Revis. I am honored to share this platform with them. I also celebrate those who have been nominated in categories ranging from Best Audiobook Blog and Classics Book Blog to Kidlit Book Blog, Historical Fiction Book Blog, Literary Fiction Book Blog, and Young Adult Book Blog, among others. I encourage you all to take a look at the lists and to visit those blogs to which you have not already traveled.
Those bright lights who organize this event do it for no other reason than to celebrate those who are passionate about reading and books. Where, I ask you, would we be without them?
I could tell the story of this day, but I won't. I will only say that after a journey up the road and back, and up the road again and back, and then onto the train and into the city and back, I came home to two boxes of books. Those books. My books. My twelfth:
Dangerous Neighbors.
You tire, perhaps, of me singing the praises of Egmont USA. Let me do it one more time, at least.
Dangerous Neighbors is an unusual historical novel, with crossover possibilities and 1876 Philadelphia at its heart. It is a book—perhaps I should start here—that Laura Geringer and Egmont USA chose to believe in. They
chose. Subsequently they delivered unto it (the book) and me (its maker) the most gorgeous cover a writer could ever hope for. They secured a copy editor who cared about Philadelphia and history and who asked me spot-on questions in an attempt to get the story right. They sent me on my way not just to the BEA, but to ALA (treating me like part of their family at each venue), and they have now secured for me a wonderful spot on an upcoming ALAN panel. They sent library copies of the book my way; in twelve books, I've never seen a library copy. People are talking about
Dangerous Neighbors because of Egmont USA (and Winsome Media's Amy Riley and Nicole Bonia). Not only that, but Egmont's publicists talk to me:
They pick up the phone and they talk to me.A writer cannot know the next next. A writer dreams; some dreams are answered. The journey that
Dangerous Neighbors has taken with Laura Geringer and Egmont USA represents a pressing, percolating dream, answered. No matter what happens from here on out, I am a lucky one.
Thank you, Doug Pocock, Elizabeth Law, Greg Ferguson, Mary Albi, Rob Guzman, Alison Weiss, Nico Medina, Katie Halata, Beth Garcia (by way of Goodman Media), Neil Swaab (cover designer), Kathryn Hinds (freelance copy editor) and, of course Laura Geringer, where this book's published life began. I remain in awe of all you have done. One hears so much about what is wrong with publishing. Egmont USA represents the right.
Well, you know I could not have come up with this one on my own. I needed a trip to Chanticleer's lotus pond, so that I might find the photo. I needed my husband to make that photo art. But most of all, I needed Amy Riley and Nicole Bonia of
Winsome Media Communications to patiently wade through my design hopes (can it be simple? can it be easy for me to maintain? can it be basically like it was but a million times better?), to kindly walk me through Feedburner and the Site Meter, and to be there, pretty much around the clock, to answer my profoundly unintelligent technology questions and to be their dear, helpful, knowing, calm selves.
Amy and Nicole, you are the best, you really are.
So what do we have here? We have, at long last, an uncluttered sidebar. We have my biography—the books, the awards, the teaching, the anthologies, the judging—all housed on one page. We have review excerpts of books past and present; an interview revealing a little why, a little how; a YouTube channel that collects my various adventures on film (not all of them, indeed, I tossed many of them out; call it summer cleaning).
We have the blog, still—the photos and musings on the writer's life, the heat of summer (or the chill of winter, if we ever get there), and, mostly, books I've loved and other writers who have taught me.
The door is open. Please stop by. Please stick around.
Congratulations my friend! What a body of work you have created! Can't wait to read your latest. xo
I am so excited to read this...I still love that cover