How to use this Page

Because you may in fact have grown weary of listening to me go on about the You Are My Only Treasure Hunt, I introduce this final clues installment with pictures of puppies.  Everyone still loves puppies, right?  And especially ones with hats.

In any case, here we go.  The fifth and final guest post telling the story behind the story of You Are My Only has now gone live out there in the blogosphere.  This one appears on a blogger site that I find visually fascinating and deeply textured, like the best designed Project Runway dress (I'm thinking Mondo crossed with Anya).  This blogger (who is herself a fine writer) describes herself as a pain in the you know what (but I rather love her), has a close relationship to Hicklebee's (she's the resident blogger), wears tiaras, and is a member of the National Book Critics Circle.  I do not know if she dances.

Post 5 begins like this:

If you’ve been following these blog posts, then you understand already that I don’t write my books in some preordained sequential fashion. I don’t outline a plot; I don’t consult the trends; I don’t go with the fashions. I write about what will not let me sleep, and over time, and through countless drafts, the separate aspects of my obsessions knit themselves into a story.

One of the things that was keeping me awake at night while I was working on this book was the stories I kept reading about urban explorers—those fascinating souls who explore abandoned buildings, often illegally, and create entire underworlds within them. For many years, a northeast Philadelphia asylum known to many as Byberry was a favorite haunting ground for these folks. This gigantic structure had been left to rot after being shut down in the 1990s, and the urban explorers (or “cavers” as they are sometimes known) had taken over—held rave parties there, ridden their motorcycles through connective tunnels, dug through the patient records and film reels and all the wild and disturbing “stuff” that had been so haphazardly left behind.

Your job is to find this post and to also find the four other posts that very kind bloggers have lodged on their blogs.  If you do that—find all five posts, put the links on your own blog, and send me proof of your cross linking in any comment box by October 24—you will be entered into a drawing.  The two randomly chosen winners will each win a signed copy of You Are My Only as well as an opportunity to have 2,000 words from a work in progress be critiqued by yours truly.  For the full details go here.  Winners will be announced October 25, the day that You Are My Only launches.

Here, again, are the clues.

Post 4 is housed at the psychodelically-hued (we know that isn't a real term) home of a certain chick who loves lit.  I met this wonderful person at the BEA this past summer.  She was part of the awesome gang of many who surprised me with a YAMO blast a month or so again.  The post you are looking for begins like this:

Those who know me know that I’m only intermittently good at devising titles.

Undercover was called Come Back to Me, for example, until Laura Geringer asked me to please think again on that one. Still Love in Strange Places was named by my son moments b

5 Comments on The You Are My Only Treasure Hunt Final Installment: What about that asylum?, last added: 10/14/2011

Display Comments

Serena said, on 10/12/2011 10:01:00 AM

I had fun with the treasure hunt.

Anna Lefler said, on 10/12/2011 10:11:00 AM

This is co cool!

I hope all your readers are out there tweeting this to get the word out...

XOXO

A.

Wendy said, on 10/12/2011 9:12:00 PM

Ha ha - what fun! I found them all and posted them here: http://www.caribousmom.com/2011/10/12/you-are-my-only-treasure-hunt/

Bonnie Jacobs said, on 10/13/2011 3:23:00 AM

I left the link to my blog about your five guest posts where you announced the treasure hunt. Is this where it should be? Either way, here's my link:
http://bonniesbooks.blogspot.com/2011/10/blog-hop-treasure-hunt.html

Serena said, on 10/14/2011 2:30:00 AM

Here is my post for the treasure hunt: http://savvyverseandwit.com/2011/10/you-are-my-only-by-beth-kephart-treasure-hunt-giveaway.html

Add a Comment

I have been so grateful to those of you who have written to me about YOU ARE MY ONLY.  You do this author's heart a whole lot of good.

It occurred to me that it might be helpful to answer some questions in a broader format, and so I have prepared this new permanent page for the blog, featuring a Q and A, a list of upcoming appearances, a glimpse of an early review, and contact information.

It can all be found here.

Display Comments Add a Comment

I was standing right here, on the edge of an old cemetery, watching the sun light up the earth, when Laura Geringer's final notes on YOU ARE MY ONLY buzzed in on my phone.  I read them through.  I looked back up.  The sun had rearranged itself, and yet the day was bright. 

I began this book three years ago, inspired by the legends of urban explorers and by the haunting stories I had heard about a Philadelphia asylum known as Byberry.  I was encouraged to keep writing by the magnificent Lauren Wein, of Black Cat/Grove, and by my sustaining agent, Amy Rennert.  I was helped to think harder by memorable conversations with Marjorie Braman of Holt.  And after Laura Geringer (Egmont USA) read the book, I reimagined characters into their younger selves and watched to see what might happen.

What happened, in the end, was light.

Display Comments Add a Comment