Thrilled the Pigs and Big Bad Wolf are finally out of the bag. Oops! Did I say bag? I meant book! SUPER HUGE THANKS to Liza Fleissig, Ginger Harris-Dontzin, Marissa Moss, Deborah Zemke, Bank Street Writers Lab, and to my critique buddies for their endless encouragement and support. WHO’S WRITING THIS STORY? will be in bookstores and libraries Spring 2024. WOOHOO!
Today is THE DAY! Happy Book Birthday, DON’T CALL ME FUZZYBUTT! And on the Ides of March, no less. How cool is that? (Okay. I’ll admit it. I am a nerd. And a proud one to boot! :-))
A super huge THANK YOU to Sleeping Bear Press, Sarah Rockett, Susan Batori, Liza Fleissig, Ginger Harris-Dontzin, the Bank Street Writers Lab, and to anyone who may have even sneezed on the manuscript.
Over the weekend Bear, Woodpecker, and I celebrated the virtual launch of DON’T CALL ME FUZZYBUTT! at Books of Wonder. Many thanks to everyone who joined me and made the day extra special.
In case you missed it, the event was recorded. (Note: I am not sure how long the recording will remain available.)
If you are still interested in getting signed copies, please click here. The first 100 orders will receive a fuzzy-tas-tic giveaway!
Have a fuzzy-ri-fic week! XO
Birthing a book is NOT an easy process. THE CASE OF THE BAD APPLES went through 32 plus rewrites and revisions. Talk about stretch marks! But in the end it is so worth it. I’d like to shout out a super HUGE THANK YOU to Creston Books, Marissa Moss, Deborah Zemke, Simon Stahl, Liza Fleissig, Ginger Harris-Dontzin, The Bank Street Writers Lab, Jill Davis, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Marcelino de Santos, Michael J. Miller, and Sarah Longstaff for their feedback and endless encouragement and support.
THE CASE OF THE BAD APPLES is available wherever books are sold. However, please support your independent bookstores. In honor of Independent Bookstore Day this past Saturday, I am giving away a $50 gift card to Books of Wonder. To enter, click here. There are four days left to enter! Good luck!
Now, let’s get to the party! Deborah Zemke and I are having our Virtual Launch at Books of Wonder on September 6th at 1 pm (EST). To register for the event on crowdcast, please click here.
And one last item! The first 50 pre-orders of THE CASE OF THE BAD APPLES will receive a super-cool detective loot bag! (Hat not included.)
That’s all folks!
Detective Wilcox, Captain Griswold, and I are thrilled to share our first review of The Case of the Bad Apples. Let’s just say it’s PIG-DIC-U-LOUS-LY AWESOME!!!!! Here’s what Kirkus Reviews had to say:
More hard-boiled hilarity, this time with a side of apples.
In their third case, mice Detective Wilcox and Capt. Griswold, esteemed Missing Food Investigators, look into the latest “bad apple” on the farm. The action starts with a call from a doctor at Whole Hog Emergency Care. It seems Porcini “pigged out” on a basket of apples that may have been deliberately poisoned! For the MFIs, that’s a Code 22—better known as “attempted hamslaughter.” The detectives rush to the scene of the crime to get the 411 and “save [Porcini’s] bacon.” At the pig’s pen, they find the basket (with four remaining apples) and a series of hoof, claw, and paw prints. The MFIs quickly narrow down the suspects to fellow farm animals Sweet Pea (another pig), Herman the Vermin (a rat), and Hot Dog (a dog, natch). But whodunit? Forensics will reveal the truth. With a successful formula established in earlier series entries, this one’s par for the course. The five chapters range in text complexity, reaching 23 lines at most per page. Full-color cartoon spot illustrations provide contextual clues and break up the text. Though yellow sticky notes define slangy terms like “tox screen” and “perp,” the abundant wordplay is perhaps best deciphered by more confident readers.
Completely “pig-dic-u-lous”—and a whole lot of fun. (recipe) (Early reader. 7-9)
I’d like to shout out a SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to Marissa Moss (editor and publisher extraordinaire), Deborah Zemke (illustrator genius), Simon Stahl (designer rock star), Mollie Katzen (cookbook author superstar), Liza Fleissig and Ginger Harris-Dontzin (my very special agents), and EVERYONE who read, reread, and REREAD this manuscript that went through revisions of biblical proportions, including but not limited to, The Bank Street Writers Lab, Jill Davis, Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen, Marcelino de Santos, and Sarah Longstaff. And wait! I’m not done.
A super HUGE THANK YOU to Julie Gribble, Doreen Cronin, Nick Bruel, and JoEllen McCarthy for the kind words on the back of the book. And of course, thank you to Kirkus Reviews for the lovely review.
Sincere apologies for the radio silence but it has been crazy busy on my end. For the writers reading this blog, we all know that crazy busy is AWESOMESAUCE!
I finally have some amazing news. Check this out!
A SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to Liza Fleissig, Ginger Harris-Dontzin, Sarah Rockett, Sleeping Bear Press, and to everyone at the Bank Street Writers Lab for your encouragement and support. (It truly takes a village and then some to do a picture book.) I am beyond excited to be working with Sarah Rockett and the amazing team at Sleeping Bear Press, as well as the incredibly talented Susan Batori. Click here to check out her adorable illustrations.
If I had to summarize what the month has been like in one word, it’s been a good month of revisions. Lots of revisions! Revisions to The Case of the Bad Apples, which releases on September 1 (Since folks have been asking, it’s currently available for pre-order on Amazon. Click here!), and revisions to another book that I can’t talk about just yet. But more news to come!
Aside from revisions, I’ve also been doing some WRAD Skype visits. If you’re unfamiliar with WRAD, WRAD stands for World Read Aloud Day. WRAD is the brainchild of the amazing Kate Messner, whereby authors Skype with schools for free on a particular day of the year. This year WRAD is February 5th. Since I get way more requests for author visits than I can do in a single day, I like to think of WRAD more like, WRAW, World Read Aloud Weeks. I do a number of Skype visits before and after WRAD and I try my very best to include as many schools as possible. (If I have been unable to schedule your school, please email me again later in the year or early next year.)
My first Skype visit for WRAD with third, fourth, and fifth graders
at Christ the Teacher School.
And in the last bit of news, I am looking forward to my third Amelia Island Book Festival, and in particular, to their incredible Authors-in-School program, which generously purchases a book for each student visited by an author. This year I will be visiting with first and second graders at Yulee Primary School. I cannot wait!
p.s. Apologies for use of all the superlatives but it’s been a superlative-kind-of-month. 🙂
A few weeks ago, I had the privilege of stopping by Stacey Horan’s podcast, The Bookshop at the End of the Internet, to talk about books, writing, revision, and more. It’s been a lifelong goal to master the use of “um” and I think I’ve finally done it. So, please click here to give a listen and enjoy!
Stacey Horan is the award-winning YA author of Inland, The Elixir Vitae Adventures: ORTUS (Book 1), The Elixir Vitae Adventures: JUVENIS (Book 2), and Sycamore Lane. To learn more about Stacey, her awesome books, and The Bookshop at the End of the Internet, please visit her website.
No Peacocks! was off to a glorious flying start with its launch party at The Corner Bookstore on September 6, 2018. Fans of Phil, Jim, and Harry, the superstar peacocks from The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, flocked to the store for the book’s feathered-tale debut.
Here are a few photographic* highlights:
I would like to squawk, honk, and screech a SUPER HUGE THANK YOU to everyone who made the celebration extra special, including but not limited to: The Corner Bookstore; my amazing agents, Liza Fleissig and Ginger Harris-Dontzin; the Bryn Mawr Club of New York City, with special thanks to Helen Thurston, President of the Bryn Mawr Club of New York City; Bebe Bakes (cupcakes) and Dean Lawrence Bake Shop (cookies, THANK YOU, Liza!); and to friends and family for your encouragement and continued support.
*Photos provided by Liza Fleissig, Joanne Kaplan, Ellen Fisher, Marcelino de Santos, and Nancy Armo.
I am thrilled beyond words to share the cover for No Peacocks! (Sky Pony Press) illustrated by the amazing Chris Ewald. Drum roll, please!
No Peacocks! is a fictional feathered tale about the three real-life mischievous peacocks who reside on the grounds of The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
Let me introduce you:
This is Phil.
This is Jim or Harry.
Or Harry or Jim.
(I can’t tell the difference between Jim or Harry but if you ask any of the children, they all know which bird is which.)
For five years, my son attended The Cathedral School of St. John the Divine. And from the moment I saw the birds, I knew I wanted to write about them. There was just one problem. I needed a story. On one extremely fortunate day while I was attending a meeting for the school’s book fair, one of the school administrators came into the room asking if anyone had left a sandwich in a stroller because one of the peacocks ate it. And as soon as I heard that, I knew I had my story.
No Peacocks! is about Phil, Jim and Harry’s quest to taste the school’s very famous mac ‘n cheese. It’s a cheesy story of friendship and teamwork, with a mild sprinkling of criminal activity that’s perfect for influencing the impressionable minds of children ages 0 to 1000. It flies onto bookshelves September 2018.
I’d like to take a quick moment to thank my editor, Alison Weiss; my agents, Liza Fleissig and Ginger Harris-Dontzin; my writing teacher, Jill Davis; my writing group, Jacki Morris and Joanne French; my husband, Michael, who has probably read this story more times than he would have liked; my son, Noah, for the tremendous joy he brings my husband and me every day—even during homework; and anyone else who so much as sneezed on my manuscript.
No Peacocks! is currently available for pre-order on Amazon, Barnes & Noble and at your favorite independent bookstore.
BOOKS! SPELLBINDINGLY BEAUTIFUL BOOKS!
I would like to shout out a very big THANK YOU to Marissa Moss, publisher and editor extraordinaire. THANK YOU for taking a chance on my quirky little witch; to my very special agents, Liza Fleissig and Ginger Harris-Dontzin, whose magic touch heralded Hildie Bitterpickles to Creston Books; to Chris Ewald for making Hildie Bitterpickles more adorable than anything I could have ever imagined; to Simon Stahl, whose design magic never ceases to amaze me; and to my amazing critique group for helping me persevere during those really awful rough drafts. THANK YOU!!!
The old adage, “Good things come to those who wait,” is definitely true in my case. It took just about eight years for Wilcox and Griswold to make their first public appearance. A very big THANK YOU is due to everyone who helped Wilcox and Griswold on their journey, especially Creston Books, Marissa Moss, Deborah Zemke, Liza Fleissig, Ginger Harris-Dontzin, my critique group (Jill Davis, Jacki Morris, Joanne French, Ellen Grogan), and my family. Many thanks to The Corner Bookstore for making the celebration extra special!
Here are some photographic highlights:
From the bottom of my heart, thank you!!! xoxo
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