Mark Tavani will join Penguin Random House’s G.P. Putnam’s Sons imprint as vice president and executive editor.
Just prior to to Tavani’s hiring, he served as the editorial director for fiction at Ballantine Bantam Dell. In the past, he has worked with several renowned writers including Justin Cronin, China Miéville, and Steve Berry.
According to the press release, Tavani will report to Sally Kim, a vice president and editorial director. His start date has been set for Feb. 08, 2016.
A few years ago, in a novel called
The Heart Is Not a Size, I wrote of Juarez, of a squatter's village, and of two best friends, Georgia and Riley, each of them navigating this foreign terrain while also navigating secrets. Georgia was privately negotiating anxiety attacks. Riley was declaring to anyone who asked (and Georgia, seemingly unwisely, had begun to ask) that she did not—absolutely did not—have an eating disorder, that she was not starving herself.
I wrote the book and created the characters because I understood both conditions all too well.
This coming spring, Chronicle Books will publish two companion books—true mother-daughter stories—about a young woman's struggle to stop hearing the hectoring internal voices that left her body starving, her heart working too hard, and her future imperiled. Calories were Elena's enemies. A bite of toast was a grave mistake. Numbers were everything. And Elena Dunkle was, in too many terrible ways, dying.
In and out of hospitals. In and out of rehab. In and out of conversations with the family who loved her and the specialists who seemed incapable of hushing the terrible voices. In
Elena Vanishing, a memoir written by Elena's mother, Clare Dunkle, and grounded in extraordinary medical records, journals, and conversations, Elena's story gets told in a high-velocity, present-tense voice. We see Elena's world. We hear the voices in her head. We rush headlong into an illness that may have a name but still remains, for every person afflicted, a mystery. Where does anorexia begin? How is it finally controlled? Where is the key that fits the lock, that stops time from running out?
You will read, your heart pounding. You will remember a version of someone you were, or someone you loved, or love still.
Ultimately, as Clare reminds the reader, "this isn't the story of anorexia nervosa. It's the story of a person. It's the story of Elena Dunkle, a remarkable young woman who fights her demons with grit and determination. It's the story of her battle to overcome trauma, to overcome prejudice, but most of all, to overcome that powerful destructive force, the inner critic who whispers to us about our greatest fears."
There is depth, beauty, horror, and beauty again in
Elena Vanishing. You'll read it, as I did, in a single day. You will think not just about the story that got made, but the story as it was being made—this mother, this daughter, remembering together, writing together, reaching out to the world together.
And when you are done there is a book called
Hope and Other Luxuries to turn to—Clare Dunkle's memoir about loving this vanishing daughter of hers. Both books are being released by Chronicle next May. Both were edited by Ginee Seo, who poured her heart into these true stories and, once again (in Chronicle fashion), broke new ground by deciding to publish both sides of a story about an illness that affects millions of people around the world.
I own, it seems, the first two signed ARCs of both books, for I met Clare and Elena at the Chronicle booth at NCTE yesterday morning. I would like to thank Chronicle, as I close this blog, for including me at this event, for making such a home for me, for extending your friendship so warmly. Ginee Seo, Sally Kim, Jaime Wong—you threw one heck of a party, you look so good surrounded by Chronicle blue, and I am so proud to be a Chronicle author (and a Tamra Tuller writer).
Deepest thanks to those who stopped by to say hello, who stood in line for
One Thing Stolen, who came and surprised, who spoke with me over a delicious meal. Twenty-four hours at the National Harbor. Not to be forgotten. Nor are these two books, by a mother and daughter.
It's amazing, all the things I do not know.
How to get rid of the embarrassing yellow-flower weed in my front lawn. How to stop breaking my fingernails just when they've reached their prettiest. How to make my new-fangled pottery vases stand up straight. How to remain focused on what actually matters in life, even as I stare down petty worries and ricocheting fears of the unjust.
Etc.
I also didn't know a thing about
Wattpad—a free community in which readers can chat with writers—until my friends Sally Kim and Ali Presley of Chronicle Books whispered the news in my ear. There are all kinds of authors here, all kinds of books, all kinds of reading opportunities. And, like I said, it's free.
I am now, officially, a Wattpad-er, and here is my I don't even have a single follower yet
Wattpad page. I'll be posting chapters of GOING OVER here over the next several weeks and interacting with any reader who sends a note or asks a question.
Take a look.
But also, while I have your attention, here is something wild: While exploring Wattpad on my own yesterday, I discovered this—a Wattpad story called
Unrequited Love whose second chapter begins with words that this writer named Beth Kephart wrote.
That's
here.
There I was, just the other day,
extolling the virtues of sleep. Last night, the durned beast was elusive (to say the least) and when I did finally fall away, I had one heck of a dream.
Let's just say that I was shoeless (how cliche!) and poorly dressed (of course I was) and standing before an unruly crowd about ready to speak (they had NO interest whatsoever in what I had to say) and — well — I'd forgotten my speech. Not only that, I'd forgotten the topic of my speech. Not only that, but when the guy introduced me, I could not imagine who he was, how he knew me, or what town I was in.
And there I stood.
Speak! Speak!Such is the messed-up mind of the author who is about to launch a book.
Thank goodness, therefore, that the incredible team at Chronicle Books has my back. That it keeps doing these wow things—like
making a trailer, like running a blog fest (more on that soon), like (and I just found out about this yesterday, thank you, Sally Kim!) offering a download-able sample of the book for free.
So if you are on the fence about
Going Over (oh dear, how cliche!), please check out the free sampler
here. It won't cost you a dime. And maybe, by the time you see me next, I'll be able to speak.
Sally Kim (pictured) has been named editorial director at Touchstone, a Simon & Schuster imprint. She will report to vice president and publisher Stacy Creamer.
Here’s more from the press release: “In the course of her career Sally has specialized in quality fiction with commercial appeal, which fits perfectly with our Touchstone mission. Her authors have included Lisa Unger, Gillian Flynn, Allison Winn Scotch, Justin Evans, Phillip Margolin, Cecelia Ahern, and Kate White.”
Kim’s previously served as executive editor at HarperCollins. Kim’s publishing career has included jobs at Random House, Macmillan, and the Sandra Dijkstra Literary Agency.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
