It has been a truly exciting process seeing how the very talented people at Random House have put together the gorgeous cover to my baby, FLUTTER.
I mean, you lock yourself in your room, night after night, ignoring the dishes, the laundry. Ignoring your husband. Ignoring the call to be slovenly on your couch and watch just one more rerun of How I Met Your Mother. You write and you write and revise and start over and write some more and you fall in love with your characters. Their flaws, their challenges, their life that seems to come from out of nowhere, begging to be told. *Rolls eyes at own grandiose-ness here, but can't help it!*
And that is reward enough, isn't it? Writing that story, seeing the characters change and evolve and triumph. Getting it all on the page as perfectly as you can -- maybe not as perfectly as in your head -- but close! So very close! *Swoons at process!* It is beautiful and what I truly work toward.
And then you get an agent, such as the very talented Caryn Wiseman, who believes in your story, the universal appeal of it, and she falls in love with Emery Land too. *Swoons at absolute good fortune* And lo and behold, Caryn sells it to Suzy Capozzi, the editor extraordinaire at Random House. *Swoons again* And then you get this, this gorgeous, perfect depiction of Emery.
I mean, this is her. The red hair, the pale skin, the curve of frustration in her brow. She is looping. (What does that mean anyway? Just wait.) Emery. She is alive. Not just in my head anymore.
So enough babbling! Here is the cover! In all its glory! Thank you Random House!
Goodreads!
Hello People!
I recently found out FLUTTER is on Goodreads. Is that not supercool?
Check it out here.
Snowpocalypse 2012
so pretty!
The Way We Were
In looking for some funny pix of myself to add to my bio section, I found some funny pix of my brother and sister too. So, in order to ensure maximum hilarity at my end, let me share those with you. (Especially because at this point, I believe my blog readers are limited to my mother and occasionally Heather. Hi Heather! Watch out, I have some pix of you too.)
Thank you dear brother and sister for taking one for the team and making me look like the good-looking one for once.
Happy New Year! Hey, 2012, hope you don't end the world!
When asked what his New Year's resolutions are, my husband answered, "I'm going to Taco Bell."
To that I say, May we all go to Taco Bell this new year! I wish everyone many happy cheese quesadillas and especially killer nachos bell grande.
The Seekers
In my other life, before my kids, I wrote a middle-grade series, The Seekers, published by Augsburg Fortress. I was, and still am, extremely proud of these books. They are still available, I think, but will be out of print shortly. And for those of you from the old stomping grounds of the Joliet area, you might notice some fun use of names and places -- like Reedswood School. And, yes, my skirt did fall down at recess when I was jumping rope, just like the main character in Allie's Answers. : )
There are six titles total, but I couldn't find the cover art for all of them. Go Seekers!
Flutter cover
The final cover for Flutter probably won't be ready for a while yet -- although I've seen the first comp and it is awesome! -- but I do have something I can show you.
This is my daughter's imagining of the cover. My little artist.