"Don't you just love being compared to classic authors? Kate Chopin, anyone?"
That was the email from a certain Nicole, and, confused, I clicked on the link. And there it was,
the first blog review of Dangerous Neighbors, by clumzbella of the rich and enriching site, Novel Novice. Novel Novice is a blog created by middle school literature teacher Tiffany Truitt and friends to "help foster a passion and life-long love of reading among today's youth."
I have always loved Kate Chopin's
The Awakening. I am more than honored by the comparison. In fact, I think I may just re-read that book this week; how, now, could I resist?
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.
The Awakening is one of my favorite books! Even MORE excited for this - if that's possible.
What a wonderful comparison...congrats!
How wonderful!
just read this in that review :
Both have female leads searching for something, but while one ultimately gives up hope, the other clings to it.
I don't like the ending of Awakening - but your book promises to be different - so I think I will like it better :)
wow, that's some comparison! Congratulations!
I've been carrying Dangerous Neighbors around with me for two weeks hoping to find some quiet time to start it! I'm really looking forward to reading it even more now!
What a lovely review! I love Kate Chopin. Yes, I find your writing to be very hopeful, Beth. One of my favorite things about you.