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birthmarked

Fan Mail and Hope

Q. Do You Get Much Fan Mail?

PurpleFlowersA.  I do.  It seems like a lot to me, at least.  Even though the first book in the Birthmarked trilogy has been out since 2010 and the fuss around the release of the third book has died down, readers are still finding Gaia’s story for the first time, and some of them send me the nicest notes.  This week, one reader told me her teenage son had recommended Birthmarked to her, and reading the series with him had… Continue reading

Birthmarked Comes to Audio Book!

Get your earbuds ready.  The audio book of Birthmarked has arrived!

BirthmarkedAudioCover2I’m so happy about this project. Over the last few months, the audio book process for Birthmarked has been charmed, but it was not always so.

Let me take you back.  About a year ago, I received a nice email from Carla Mercer-Meyer, who said she would love to narrate the audio book for Birthmarked, and she offered to send me an audio sample.  I was sorry to report back that we had no deal… Continue reading

Kicking Back

Friday evenings are always sweet, aren’t they?  My son is watching League of Legends next to me on the couch, I’m back from visiting a poet friend and her writer husband, my husband’s cooking dinner, and the evening stretches wild and free before us into a long weekend.  We even have the windows open to an unseasonably warm October breeze.

For my final stop on the Promised Blog Tour, I’m talking with Bailey at IB Book Blogging. Her important questions cover the zombie apocalypse and what else… Continue reading

A Happy Launch for Promised

I had such a nice time at the UConn Coop last night.  Thanks to Suzy Staubach and Sharon for putting on such a nice event, and thanks to my friends and family for coming by to help celebrate the release of Promised.  I really love living in a small town with my buds and our own, familiar bookstore.

My next stop on the Promised Blog Tour is with Usagi at Birth of a New Witch, where we talk about how women’s rights figure in the Birthmarked… Continue reading

Promised Comes Out Today!

I’m happy about Promised coming out today and hopeful that readers will enjoy finding out where Gaia’s adventures take her next.  This trilogy was not a solo effort, that’s for sure.  Special thanks to my editor Nancy Mercado and the team at Roaring Brook for all their brilliant ideas and help over the past four years.  Thank you to Kirby Kim, my agent.  I’m grateful to my family and friends, too, for ongoing support.  My novels would not have happened without you!

Today I’m writing,… Continue reading

The Mirror Trap

One of the most common ways beginning writers show a character’s physical appearance involves posing the character in front of a mirror.  This setup lends itself to a quick list of eye color, hair color, skin color, and face and body shape, which can be efficient, but it also risks being boring or cliché.  More fun is invading a character’s body, like when Gaia moves through a tight tunnel, bracing her fingertips against the walls, I can give a sense of how that feels for her.  She… Continue reading