SEE YOU ON A STARRY NIGHT cover!!

Coming June, 2018!

It's a book about friendship.
About the ups and downs of family, and what it means to open your heart and your home to give someone a place that feels like home when they really need it.
About finding beauty in everyday things and being thankful for them.
About Vincent van Gogh and art, and how art can bring people together.

I'm really proud of this book and am excited for you to read it next year!

***

Here's the official publisher's description:

Juliet has just moved to a beachside town with her newly separated mother and her moody older sister. When she meets their new neighbor, Emma, the girls form an instant bond. Emma's big family takes Juliet in, and the girls have fun together -- starting with the night they throw bottles with secret messages into the sea.

Then someone writes back to Juliet's message. An email arrives, inviting her to join the Starry Beach Club. All she has to do is make someone else's wish come true.

So Juliet and Emma set off to help as many other people as they can. It's fun! But as Juliet spends more and more time away from home, enjoying her new town and Emma's family more than her own mom and sister, she starts feeling lost. It's been easy to find others to help. But maybe her star would shine a little brighter if she brought it closer to home.

Cover for Keys to the City

A box of Advanced Review Copies (ARCs) arrived on my doorstep yesterday so I think it's time to share my May, 2017 cover.

It's my third novel about girls having fun adventures around big cities, and this time you can see it takes place in the wonderful New York City! I'm really happy with how this story turned out. There were a lot of "magical moments" while writing this book -- that is, connections that came together very organically as I wrote. I love when that happens!!

Here is the adorable cover:

Brief description: Lindy can't believe she has homework this summer -- to find her "true passion." Does curling up with a good book count? Probably not. Luckily, Lindy has the help of a new friend, a happy dog, and a special journal as she hits the streets of New York City to unlock her secret talents.

Let me answer some questions you may have:

What's the dog's name and does anything happen to him?
The dog's name is Odie and he is alive and well the entire novel, I promise!

Did you include NYC pizza in this book?
Um, pizza is basically my middle name alongside cupcakes and pie, so yes, of course I put pizza in the book!

Anything else you can tell us?
Nora from My Secret Guide to Paris is in the book! Here's an except featuring a short conversation between Nora and Lindy:

"Okay, here are the things I know for sure I'm good at. Eating doughnuts. Choosing just the right emoji for a text. And finding the perfect book to check out at the library. Do you think any of those will work for my project?"

Nora laughed. "Emojis? Really?"

"Hey, it's not as easy as it seems. Pick the wrong face and you might offend someone."

So what do you think of the cover? Maybe we need to see the others to compare.

So excited to have a cute little trilogy now. Thanks for letting me share!

On jumping to conclusions

Why are we so quick to jump to conclusions when it comes to books, movies, TV shows, etc.? This is something that completely baffles me. And the thing that's terrible is that I am guilty of it too!

Case in point: I was not going to watch "American Crime Story: The People vs. OJ" because I thought - why would I want to watch that when I watched the real thing unfold twenty-two years ago? But then a guy I went to school with and was in a play with in middle school told us all on facebook that he was playing the part of the polygraph tester in the first episode. See? That's him with the glasses. SITTING NEXT TO CUBA GOODING JR!! Cool, huh?

So I set my DVR to record the show. And fifteen minutes into the show, I was hooked. The writing was excellent, the acting superb. I have learned so many things I hadn't known all those years ago. The real case unfolded the year after my son was born. I was busy learning to juggle full-time work and an infant. I caught the highlights of the case and that was about it. Like, I don't think I knew how horribly mean the press was to Marcia Clark.

Anyway, the series wraps up this week and I never in a million years would have guessed that this show would be the highlight of my TV watching the past couple of months. But there you go.

Batman vs. Superman released a couple of weeks ago and everyone, for months, was so quick to judge Ben Affleck in that role. I didn't see the film when it came out but my husband and two sons did and my oldest son said Ben Affleck is his new favorite batman. I mean, imagine if he'd listened to all of those people saying bad stuff months before the movie was even released? He would have missed out on a movie that he really enjoyed.

And when it comes to books, we aren't any better. We dismiss books based on titles and covers so easily. Too easily. And on the other side of the coin, books that hit a home run with a title and a cover will often score big because we love cool things. Pretty things. Strange things. Whatever. If it makes us sit up and notice, that matters - a lot.

THE STRANGE AND BEAUTIFUL SORROWS OF AVA LAVENDER by Leslye Walton (a novel for teens) is a book that hit it out of the park with the cover and title.

Another one that just came out recently (also for teens) - WINK, POPPY, MIDNIGHT by April Genevieve Tucholke. I haven't read it yet but I want to. I'm SO curious!!

I'm thinking about all of this as it relates to THE GIRL IN THE TOWER. Because I'm worried people assume they've heard this story before. That it's another Rapunzel story and gong-shoo, how boring, we certainly don't need another one of those.

I find myself wishing we'd gone with something a little more imaginative, a little less... telling, maybe. Because while it is a story about a girl in a tower, AT FIRST, it isn't only a story about that. It's also a story about the evil queen who is really a witch. And a story about the two hummingbirds, Peace and Pax, who try to help locate Violet's father. And a story about the family of minstrels who travel the land looking for Violet and her mother because they don't know where they are.

I'm not sure most people realize how difficult it is to title a book, and on top of that, to find an image that will do all the things a good cover should do. We do our best and then we hope for the best.

So the next time you find yourself jumping to conclusions about a book based on the title and/or cover, stop for a second and realize what it is you're doing. Of course, you may be right after all - the assumptions you make may turn out to be true. But often times, they aren't. If I had a dollar for every time someone told me they almost didn't read FALLING FOR YOU because of the kissy-kissy cover, but were so glad they did after all, I'd have...about thirty dollars. Ha ha. But still, the fact that I feel like I've heard that thirty times? How many people actually did dismiss it because of the cover and never read it? We'll never know...

Are there any books you can think of that you almost dismissed because of the cover and/or title, and were later glad you didn't? I'd love to hear...

Cover for ALL WE HAVE IS NOW

It's popping up in places on the internet and I just got a few galleys so I'd say it's time to share this beauty with the world.

This will be my 7th YA novel and I have to say, it is my new favorite cover! I LOVE IT!!! I love the colors, the font, the starry sky and the bridge that looks very much like the Vista Bridge in Portland, which plays a part in the story.

This is speculative fiction, in the vein of THE AGE OF MIRACLES and LIFE AS WE KNEW IT (both of which I read and enjoyed) about two teens who have just a little over twenty-four hours before a giant meteor is due to destroy much of North America and decide to spend their last hours helping to fulfill as many last wishes as they can.

Coming in July, 2015 from Scholastic!

Cover for THE BRIDGE FROM ME TO YOU

It's up on Amazon for pre-order, so I think it's safe to share here.

There was a different cover for a while, and Advanced Reader Copies got printed with that cover, but Scholastic didn't think it was quite right, so they went back to the drawing board. That happens sometimes.

Anyway, here is the new and improved cover! The story takes place in small town Oregon, which I know well, and this cover does a fantastic job of capturing that, I think.

What you can't see is that the back is kind of a continuation of the front with somebody else walking along the fence behind her. :) It's pretty cute, I have to say.

I got an awesome quote about the book from an amazing YA author whose books I LOVE, but I'm not sure if I'm supposed to share that yet. Hopefully someday soon.

Covers, covers, COVERS!!!

I can finally share my upcoming covers for the first in the middle grade CHARMED LIFE series, comng in 2014! What do you think???

~*~

The first in the series:

Coming May 27, 2014

From the catalog: "Four best friends, one lucky bracelet, and an utterly charming new middle-grade series!"

Caitlin would stay at summer camp forever if she could. Her new best friends in the world, Hannah, Mia, and Libby, are there. And at home? Everything's different: Her dad is worried he might be losing his job; her mom is repainting the whole house and making the kids volunteer at a soup kitchen; and Caitlin is starting sixth grade at a new school, where none of the girls are as fun or friendly as her Cabin 7 BFFs. But Caitlin has a good-luck charm--or a good-luck charm bracelet anyway. The Cabin 7 girls bought it together, and Caitlin is taking the first turn wearing it. She's sure it will help turn her luck around...but when?

~*~

Second in the series:

Coming May 27, 2014

If I were Queen of YA covers

Jeri Smith-Ready revealed the cover for her new contemporary YA novel coming out in 2014. I commented on twitter that I love it. (You can read a synopsis of the book here)

If I were Queen of YA Covers, I would say, let's have more artistic covers like this, please!!

I was browsing a great web site, yalit.com, which gives an easy-to-read list of upcoming YA releases, and although I hardly found any artistic covers in my quick scan, I did find some that feel different to me than the usual fare, and I'm curious if others like these that are different, or is it just me?

I need to get back to revisions, so I don't have time to link to indiebound so you can learn what these books are about, but do look them up if you're curious. Mostly I just felt like crowning myself Queen of YA Covers for a day, or you know, five minutes, where I say - more creative and different covers, please!

A side note: There is a series my 16 YO son loves, but I don't think he ever would have read them if he wasn't able to take the covers off so he could take them to school. The covers feature a teen boy and girl (though they look older) and he really hated the covers. A lot. I feel like so many of the covers are marketed toward girls, and if we want boys to pick up books and read them regardless of whether a male or female tells the story, publishing really needs to try and do a better job with covers.

All right. Carry on. I have other royal duties to attend to, haha.