Once upon a time, I was very good about things like writing Pub Day posts, but this past pub day I happened to be getting an offer on my next novel and would you believe that was slightly distracting? (Not that I’m complaining!) But the lovely thing about His Hideous Heart is that it’s honestly felt like its release has lasted from it’s actual pub date (September 10, 2019) through Halloween, because it’s been so warmly embraced for the Spooky Season everywhere from Shondaland to HelloGiggles to Bustle to Tor.com to The New York Times, and only now as we’ve hit October 31 does it feel like it’s really and officially no longer a “New Release.”
So, first of all, a huge thank you to everyone who’s worked on, blurbed, photographed, blogged about, reviewed, read, bought, borrowed, displayed, sold, recommended, and just straight-up embraced this book in one way or another. I’m so glad to see so many people loving it and so honored to see it making its way into so many classrooms and libraries. I had such a great time doing events for this book, and I’m so grateful to both the stores (and cemetery!) that hosted them and the readers who came!
(Please do support these stores if you’re still looking to buy a copy!)
- Books of Wonder
- East City BookShop
- Children’s Book World in Haverford, PA
If you haven’t yet checked out the book and want a glimpse of its contents, here’s an excerpt from “A Drop of Stolen Ink” by Emily Lloyd-Jones (a retelling of “The Purloined Letter”) which Lit Hub’s CrimeReads section was delightful enough to run!
Anyway, there are a million more things I could say about this book and the experience of publishing it, but there’s a lot more going on, so I’m just gonna wrap it up with a quick mention of where I’ll be in the next few months!
- Jewish Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators’ Seminar: I’m so excited to be once again paneling at this lovely seminar hosted by the Jewish Book Council! If you’re in the NYC area, come check it out on Sunday, November 10!
- NCTE: If you’ll be in Baltimore for NCTE 2019, please come see me and some other fabulous anthology editors on Friday morning, November 22, at 11 a.m. for a panel on using anthologies in the classroom! I’ll also be signing books at 2 p.m.
- TLA: I’m so excited to be heading to the Texas Library Association’s conference in Houston in March! Look for me on Friday, March 27 at 10:30 a.m. at the “Short and Sweet: Collections of YA Fiction and Nonfiction” panel!
OK, so, there’s that! But there’s also other stuff! I was wildly delighted to share my release month with another anthology I’m tremendously excited about and was honored to be in, It’s a Whole Spiel, edited by Katherine Locke and Laura Silverman! And we had a fantastic launch for that too!
And now we can circle back to that whole “offer on my next novel” thing. For anyone who might’ve missed the news in the hubbub of the book release, I sold a new book! Two, actually! I’m so excited that Cool for the Summer has found a home with the fabulous Vicki Lame at Wednesday Books, thanks to my wonderful agent, DongWon Song!
Yes, the book is inspired by the Demi Lovato song, and no, it wasn’t inspired by Grease, but do feel free to think of the book as “Bisexual-Questioning Grease with Better Life Choices” because that’s pretty spot on!
That is, actually, not even my next book, because as you probably know but maybe don’t and that’s why I’m doing this whole roundup post to make up for being a deadbeat and sharing stuff, I have another anthology coming with Flatiron! That Way Madness Lies will be taking on Shakespeare, and like His Hideous Heart, it has an incredible lineup that frankly blows my mind a little.
Between those books and events and the fact that B&N Teen Blog and LGBTQ Reads are both plowing forward full steam ahead, it’s been busy times! Thank you for all your support as I drown under deadlines and probably don’t answer your emails, and I look forward to sharing more with you soon and hopefully in a more timely fashion!
The Daily Dahlia 