Tap. Tap. Tap. Is this thing on?
I know it’s been a while, blog friends. And while I haven’t done a lot of publishing stuff lately, per say, I’ve been keeping up with a lot of things on the writing front.
So, here are some things that did happen:
- THE GENTLE WOUNDS sold in Bulgaria to AMG (Bulgarian title and cover to come), who published WHAT REMAINS (Pieces of Life) there last year. Given that my daughter was born in Bulgaria, I couldn’t be happier about this. Also, the Bulgarian bloggers have been amazing and I hope they love Gordie’s story as much as they loved Cal’s.
- WELCOME HOME, edited by the fabulous Eric Smith, publishes in September. The book is a much needed addition to the YA world, collecting stories about adopted and foster children. My story, THE INEXPLICABLE WEIGHT OF MOUNTAINS, is about a boy facing a difficult choice – whether to search for his Eastern Europeans birth parents or not.
- I’ve been talking for years about BOOMERANG, the book of my heart, which had been scheduled to release from Sky Pony in November of this year. However, because publishing is publishing and nothing happens until it happens, the release is being moved to Spring 2018 (March 6th is the anticipated date at the moment). Although I’m more than anxious (seriously, this is the grossest of understatements) to share this book with the world, publishing is filled with delays and I have to assume that this one will make for a better book in the long-run. I’m looking forward to sharing more information about the book (including the cover) in the coming months.
On the writing front, I’ve completed work on a project for my agent that I hope I get to tell you about, and am overjoyed to see the word count on the book I’ve been referring to as BMN, creep up. This story means SO much to me. It’s set in 1983 NYC, against the looming and still then misunderstood threat of the early days of the AIDS crisis. There are so many bits of my life and heart in this story, and if it becomes a book-shaped thing, I will definitely have some annotated copies floating around. First though, I need to go off and finish it! :-)
Also, one my super amazing Crit Partners, Beth Hull, and I are again co-mentoring Pitch Wars for YA. This is truly a contest unlike any other and Beth and I have found that the skills that make us great CPs (emo character development – me; plotting, structure, grammar, and just about everything else – Beth) make us a great mentoring team. In 2016, our mentee, Christy Goerzen, signed with Barbara Poelle for a beautiful novel-in-verse and we decided that we liked Shawn Barnes so much, we forced him into becoming our CP. We can’t wait to see what this year’s submissions will bring.
Feel free to leave a comment with questions or updates on what you have been up to. More soon I hope….