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Many years ago I wrote an odd book called Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River.  Flow had grown out of my love for my city, was supported (in all its strangeness) by a Pew Fellowships in the Arts grant, and was published by the best possible house for a book such as that one:  Temple University Press.  Micah Kleit, my editor, gave the book room, while Gary Kramer, a savvy and delightful publicist with deep Philly roots, gave it wings.  Not so run-of-the-mill in tone, structure, and voice, but always Philly true, Flow sits today—slender and alive—on my shelves, thanks to Micah's picking up the phone when I called.

From Flow grew Dangerous Neighbors (Laura Geringer Books/Egmont USA), my 1876 Centennial novel.  Katherine, a bereaving twin, stands at the heart of that story, but just one step to her left is a character named William, a young man from the poor side of town who rescues lost animals for a living.  William was a character who never left my thoughts.  He lived with me long after Dangerous Neighbors ended.

Soon I was conjuring William as a young adolescent living among the machines of Baldwin Locomotive Works in 1871 Philadelphia.  His brother has been murdered by a cop (the murder based on a real Philadelphia event), his father is in Eastern State Penitentiary, and it is up to William to protect his heart-and-soul-sickened mom.  William gets some help in this from his best friend, Career, who has a job with the newspaper man, George Childs.  He gets help, too, from a prostitute named Pearl, and from the little girl next door.  He thinks he's getting help from the variety of medicines (that sarsaparilla resolvent among them) that were being pedaled at the time.  And those ginger-haired twin girls from Dangerous Neighbors?  They're in and out of his poor neighborhood, thanks to their feminist mother.

After I'd finished writing this novel, I sat and thought for a time about publishing options.  I wanted a true Philadelphia home for this book.  I wanted an opportunity to work with a house that might connect this story to Philadelphia school children, museum goers, history buffs.   It wasn't long before I was writing a note to Micah at Temple University Press, who thought the story sounded interesting and encouraged me to send it on to his colleague, Stephen Parks.  Steve is a Syracuse University professor who also runs New City Community Press.  NCCP began as a literacy project in the public schools of Philadelphia, won a major national grant in support of its ethos, and remains today committed to telling community stories.  I liked the sound of all that, and so, last February, I met Steve in Chestnut Hill and we talked.  There's been no question (in my mind) about this book's future ever since.

Today I can officially announce that Dr. Radway's Sarsparilla Resolvent will be released next March from New City Community Press and distributed by my friends at Temple University Press.  It will be illustrated by my husband, William Sulit, who also designed the book's cover, revealed for the first time here; for a glimpse of interior art, go here and for more of Bill's a

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I have, as readers of this blog know, a bad case of avoidance when it comes to reading my own published or nearly-published work through, and I'm especially anxious once galleys arrive.  Is my book what I think a book should be?  Does it represent a step forward? Is it original and new?  I need to know, and I'm afraid to find out.  A writer requires distance, and courage.

And so, these past many months—through corporate projects and student papers, through the finishing of another novel and the start of a memoir—the galleys of You Are My Only have been sitting here, awaiting my attention.  When you get the time, I kept telling myself.  When you are ready.

This morning I made myself ready.  I sat, and I did not move.  I stayed with Sophie and Joey, with Emmy and Autumn, and I read all the way through.

I emerge at peace.

Thank you, Amy Rennert, Laura Geringer, and Team Egmont USA.

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Okay. So maybe there's not one site that can do all those things, but that would be pretty sweet. Luckily I found four different sites where you can do all that and more...

Start by going to Reporterist, a brand new social networking site where someday (hopefully soon) journalists can network directly with editors for stories. (Thanks, OJR).

Then sign up for the L Magazine short fiction contest, where you can perform your stories as well as writing them. 

Then go to Litpark for a sprawling interview with the great minds behind Smith Magazine and the new Six-Word Memoir book they compiled. It's a surefire way to make new writing friends. 

Finally, go see Tony D'Souza read at the Sunday Salon in Brooklyn this Sunday evening. D'Souza is our special guest this week, demystifying book agents for us. The reading will be an intimate, writer-packed way to meet our guest.

 

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