The big tour is over, although I’m not home yet — I’m in sunny Palm Beach, Florida, meeting with some wonderful kids as part of April is for Authors — and I’m feeling the mix of sadness, weariness, and wistful joy that comes after the run of a play (or after a delicious and way-too-huge meal). I miss my fellow Endangered Authors and our diabolically smarmy game show host already.  Sigh.

During our final few days, we had a fabulous time with the kids at Hollin Meadows Elementary and Mt. Vernon Community School in Virginia, at Meadowside School and Abraham Pierson School in Connecticut, and at C.H. Bullock Elementary and Ridgewood Avenue School in New Jersey. Huge, HUGE thanks to the booksellers at Hooray for Books! in Alexandria, VA, R.J. Julia in Madison, CT, and Watchung Booksellers in Montclair, NJ.  (Get your signed copies at these locations now, Wereworld/Chronicles of Egg/Grimm/Books of Elsewhere readers!)

And now, without further ado, here are Jacqueline West’s Completely Unofficial First-Ever Endangered Authors Tour Awards…

Best chai: Page & Palette in Fairhope, Alabama. (Oh my god.  And there’s more than one kind.)

Best school wildlife: The tiny chameleons skittering through the grounds at Carver Middle School, Miami.  Adorable.

Best dressed: Team West at Palmer Trinity.

Most memorable student conversation: With Anastasia at Campbell County Middle School, who asked, ‘Have you ever had anyone tell you that you couldn’t write because of who you are?’ and then shared her own story with us.

Best comeback to host Holden A. Grudge’s snarkiness: 6th-grader Miguel at Palmer Trinity, who said, ‘This is the first time I’ve met a Holden, and I would have expected you to have the last name Caulfield, but instead you are just a phony.’ Even Holden was rendered temporarily speechless, but he promised Miguel that he would email his own comeback — when he thought of it — to ‘Miguel@meankid.com.’

Best beer list: Brick Store Pub, Decatur, Georgia.  Overwhelmingly awesome.

(Adam Gidwitz, Peter McNerney, Geoff Rodkey, powerhouse bookseller Diane Capriola of Little Shop of Stories, marvelous YA author Terra Elan McVoy, and Curtis Jobling, over a barrel.  Ha.)

Best bathroom: Little Shop of Stories (complete with The Books of Elsewhere poster by the sink.)

Best tale of a school visit gone wrong: Curtis, hands down.  I can’t repeat it here, but the other four of us laughed so hard we hurt ourselves.

Best photo prop: West University Elementary, Houston.

(Geoff, Curtis, and Adam all live in a yellow submarine.)

Best celebrity sighting: The entire current lineup of Styx in our Chicago baggage claim.  One of them was smoking an electronic cigarette.  Middle-aged rebellion.

Most coma-inducing meal: This one.

(At Gino’s East, Chicago.)

Best kiss: From service dog Peanut, at Oak Terrace Elementary. 

Most brilliant blog: Geoff Rodkey. This entry in particular.

Favorite Hotel: The Warwick, NYC.  Schmancy.  Hanging out there with my dear friend Emily (see her incredible work at Haptic Lab) made it even better.

Best Holden A. Grudge book pitch: It’s tough to narrow it down, but it might have been the peacock with the bacon tail, or the rainbow that became a boy with five differently colorful personalities, or the talking mountain of spaghetti and the German mozzarella mountaineer…  (Please head over to the Wereworld Books Facebook page and see several of them for yourself –check out the two from April 17th in particular; you might hear me crying in the background–and if you’re in New York, go see Peter’s weekly improv show, Trike, at Magnet Theater, and know that I am envious of you.)

Two more sleeps, and I’ll be home.

It’s the end of another exciting/exhausting week on the road!  The “Endangered Authors” show is running like a smooth and bookish circus: We pile out of the minivan, snap the set together, talk and laugh with kids, and zoom away again, leaving the scent of Sharpies in our wake.  For another (and another) perspective on the tour, check out this review in Examiner.com (http://www.examiner.com/article/endangered-author-tour-with-jobling-rodkey-west-and-gidwitz) and this blog by a teacher at Carver Middle School, Miami (http://byrdonbooks.wordpress.com/2013/04/14/ya-authors-gidwitz-jobling-rodkey-and-west-are-on-the-endangered-authors-tour-and-it-is-awesome/).  Thanks for spreading the word, Pamela and Janas!

This was my fifth visit to Texas in two years — the Lone Star state has been awfully good to me — and we had a great time in Houston and Austin on Monday and Tuesday.  Thanks again to everyone at West University Elementary, Bunker Hill Elementary, Mills Elementary, Kiker Elementary, and to the booksellers at Blue Willow Bookshop (where, by the way, signed copies of our books are currently in stock), and to the fabulous folks at Perma-bound.

(A slew of signed books at West University Elementary)

Then it was off to Chicago, where torrential rain caused some crazy flooding, turning roads into rivers, schoolyards into swamps, and cemeteries into zombie aquariums…or so we imagined.  Dozens of schools were forced to close, including Hester Junior High, where we were supposed to stop on Thursday.  [Students/staff at Hester JHS: We're sorry we missed you. If you'd like to arrange an email interview, or get some signed bookplates, or schedule a future in-person visit with me, please get in touch any time.]  To everybody at Lincoln Middle School, Cossitt Middle School, Heritage Middle School, Lincolnwood School, and Oak Terrace School: You were awesome.

Here’s the crowd at Lincolnwood on Friday morning, making us feel welcome (and slightly deaf):

Chicago is a wonderland of indie booksellers.  To find signed copies of The Books of Elsewhere, The Chronicles of Egg, Wereworld, and A Tale Dark and Grimm, visit The Book Stall in Winnetka (where Robert can answer all of your kids’ lit questions), Magic Tree Bookstore in Oak Park (thanks again for braving the deluge, Rosie!), and Anderson’s in Naperville.

While the rest of the troupe flew home to NYC for some family-hugging and underwear-washing, Curtis and I headed on to DC.  We spent today visiting TWELVE local bookstores to sign books (it was supposed to be THIRTEEN, but we were just a few minutes too late for the downtown B&N), so for a limited time, you can find signed copies of Wereworld and The Books of Elsewhere at almost every DC-area Barnes & Noble, at Books-A-Million in McLean and at Dupont Circle, and at the practically perfect Politics & Prose Bookstore.

Here’s the staff picks display at the Rockville, Maryland Barnes & Noble, which made me very happy:

(Not staged, I swear)

And here’s famous author Curtis Jobling in the children’s section at Politics & Prose:

And lastly, here’s some student art from Lincolnwood Elementary:

“Read Forever.” Good advice.

Hey, everybody!

We’re wrapping up our first week of traveling, school-visiting, and book signing.  Things have been marvelous all around, although I’m starting to feel a bit loopy and disoriented. (This morning, I couldn’t find my glasses, my phone, or the buzzing alarm clock, and I spent several seconds wondering where on earth I was and whether I was supposed to be asleep there before I found my glasses, saw palm trees out the window, and remembered that I was in my very own hotel room in Miami.)  Geoff Rodkey and Curtis Jobling are top blokes, as Curtis himself might say, and they’ve both been blogging about the tour.  You can read their delightful observations here and here; I’m feeling too out of it for a full-scale recap.  Maybe later.  For now: Pictures!!!

Watching Curtis mock One Direction and sparkly vampires at the Davis Academy in Atlanta, Georgia

Chatting with readers at the Davis Academy

Assembling the crazy collapsible set

The crowd at St. Thomas More School in Decatur, Georgia

Curtis enthusiastically signing books at Page & Palette between school visits in Fairhope, Alabama

Speaking of signed books, you can now find signed copies of all four of our series (A Tale Dark and Grimm, The Chronicles of Egg, Wereworld, and The Books of Elsewhere) at the following fantastic independent bookstores:
- Joseph-Beth Booksellers, Cincinnati, OH
- Little Shop of Stories, Decatur, GA
- Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL
- Books & Books, Coral Gables, FL

These are the kind of bookstores that give me hope for the future.  Huge, HUGE thanks to all of the booksellers who have hosted us, and who have connected us to these amazing schools:

- Campbell County Middle School, Alexandria, KY
- Davis Academy, Atlanta, GA
- St. Thomas More School, Decatur, GA
- Fairhope Intermediate School, Fairhope, AL
- J. Larry Newton School, Fairhope, AL
- Carver Middle School, Coral Gables, FL

The enthusiasm, insight, and warmth of the kids at each of these stops has blown us away. Palmer Trinity School and Gator Run Elementary: We’ll see you tomorrow!

In Minnesota, there’s an April snowstorm.  In Miami, there’s an orchid in my drink.

I leave on Sunday morning for the big Endangered Authors II tour, and I’ve just had time to unpack my New Orleans luggage, send the latest revision of Volume Five off to my editor, and get my carefully cleaned coat re-covered with Brom hair.  New Orleans at Easter was lively and lovely and full of amazing hats.  We caught beads at Easter parades, walked the Quarter, took a streetcar to the Garden District, and ate a shameful amount of pastry.

Here, in panoramic West-vision:

               Ryan’s view                                                            My view

     Pere Antoine Alley            Jackson Square                  Lafayette Cemetery

This year’s Endangered Authors Tour includes the Story Pirates, Adam Gidwitz (A Tale Dark and Grimm), Geoff Rodkey (The Chronicles of Egg), and Curtis Jobling (Wereworld)… and me.  I’m excited to be hitting the road with them, seeing new parts of the country (hello, Connecticut!), and meeting young readers.  It looks like all of our events this time will be school visits—in other words, not open to the general public—but we will be signing stock at local bookstores in each location, so if you’re looking for signed copies, check with your indie booksellers!  I’ll post a list of stores where we’ve signed once the tour is complete.  Also, a few last-minute schedule changes/additions are possible — I pre-apologize for any mistakes.

Here we go:

April 8: Alexandria, KY (Campbell County School)

April 9: Atlanta/Decatur, GA (Davis Academy, St. Thomas More School)

April 10: Fairhope, AL (Fairhope Intermediate School, J. Larry Newton School)

April 11: Coral Gables, FL (Carver Middle School)

April 12: Palmetto Bay/Weston, FL (Palmer Trinity School, Gator Run Elementary)

April 14: Stock signing in Houston, TX

April 15: Houston, TX (West University Elementary, Bunker Hill Elementary)

April 16: Austin, TX (Mills Elementary, Kiker Elementary)

April 17: Oak Park, IL (Lincoln Middle School, Cossitt Middle School)

April 18: Oak Park, IL (Heritage Middle School, Hester Junior High School)

April 19: Evanston/Highwood, IL (Lincolnwood School, Oak Terrace School)

April 21: Stock signing in Alexandria, VA/Washington DC

April 22: Alexandria, VA (Hollin Meadows Elementary, Mt. Vernon Community School)

April 23: Milford/Clinton, CT (Meadowside School, Abraham Pierson School)

April 24: Montclair/Glen Ridge, NJ (Charles H. Bullock Elementary, Ridgewood Avenue School)

And THEN I head alone to Palm Beach, Florida for April is for Authors.  On April 26, I’ll be visiting with the kids at Morikami Park Elementary, and on Saturday, April 27, I’ll be speaking, reading, and signing books at Palm Beach Gardens High School for the April is for Authors festival.  This is a free public event, so come down and say hello!  A schedule of author events will be posted on the festival website any day now.

April 28: Come home.  Get covered in dog slobber.  Sleep.

This is just a quick post, because we’re rushing off to New Orleans (just for self-indulgent fun…although I’ll be going back for the 2013 Louisiana Book Festival in November!) and deadlines are looming — but I wanted to share these photos from the week I just spent at Glacier Hills Elementary.  This was my third annual visit, and once again the kids blew me away with their questions, enthusiasm, creativity, and painting skills.  Thanks to everyone who makes that school such a wonderful place.

I also wanted to mention one very special book.  Poison, Bridget Zinn’s debut novel, has just been released.  I tore through my copy between classes at Glacier Hills; it’s delightful and funny and adventure-filled and romantic, and it made me think again and again of the Princess Bride.  Bridget was an agency sibling (we’re both represented by Upstart Crow), and she is not here to see her book emerge into the world and make its way into the hands of readers (read more about that here and here), but I hope that Poison will be found–and loved–by scads of them.

(Wow, Little Falls: Way to make a writer feel welcome!  Brom Bones even gets his own section.)

Over the past month, I’ve been busy with Volume Five, school visits, and performances of “Sirens” with Red Wing’s Soapbox Players.  (If you’re near Red Wing, you should really come to a show sometime.  We perform in a gigantic barn!  Seriously!!)  The play is over, but the school visits will continue; it’s going to be a travel-crazy spring.  While I’m here at my very own desk, I want to give one more huge round of thanks to the students, staff, and parents at Little Falls Middle School of Little Falls, Minnesota, Mounds Park Academy of St. Paul, and Ashbel Smith, Stephen F. Austin, and San Jacinto Elementary Schools in Baytown, Texas.  It was a privilege meeting all of you.

I’ve been too busy to notice it happening, but somewhere within the last few months, I passed the magic number: The number of performances you need to give before you really know the material.  Not counting writing workshops and bookstore signings and talks with adults, I have given somewhere around 100 presentations to young readers.  Yup.  100-ish.  And something I learned several years ago has proved itself to be true again.

While I was in college, I worked as an actress at a dinner theatre.  Our shows were mostly classic comedies–lots of Neil Simon, lots of British farces–and from Wednesday to Sunday, we would put on 6 – 8 performances, with a show each evening, plus matinees on the weekends.  Throughout the run, we would do 50 – 120 performances (the cast kept track by making hash marks on the back of the wooden set, so I know).  I was used to the community theatre/school play model, where you rehearse for three months and then give four performances, which are over in a blur of adrenaline and Ben Nye face paint.  80 shows is different.  80 shows is actor boot camp.  You learn a lot from 80 shows.  80 shows means you can polish and practice in front of a live audience, which is the only way you’ll really see what works…and what doesn’t.  You learn how to adjust split-second timing to get a laugh where there wasn’t one before, or to create a pause long enough for a thought to seep in.  You learn about inflection and expression and physicality.  There’s nothing in the world that could substitute for the learning experience of 80 live shows.

When I’m making school visits, I’m kind of a writer/teacher/actor combo — and these are exactly the jobs that I’ve done, so I’m laughably lucky!  But that doesn’t mean it’s easy.  Speaking in front of big crowds of grown-ups still scares me to death.  And getting up in front of an audience and just being myself, not some much cleverer and more interesting character, still makes me squirm a teeny bit on the inside.  But after three years and dozens of school visits, I’m starting to think that I just might know what I’m doing.

Almost.

Maybe.

So, here are the things that dinner theatre taught me about school visits:

- Every audience is different. Audiences may be quiet or hyper, reserved or full of questions, rolling on the floor or barely cracking a smile.  You can give the same presentation to two different groups and have head-spinningly different reactions.  That’s because it’s not all about you.  A really small group is less likely to laugh aloud; a bigger group probably will.  They might have had a day full of bad weather, or hard work, or multiple choice tests.  They may have just eaten Beef Stroganoff in the cafeteria and now they can barely move, or they might have just gotten back from a field trip and they’re so electrified with excitement that they can hardly sit still.  Maybe they’ve actually read your book, and they loved it and they’ve been waiting for you to come, and they treat you like you’re Marilyn Monroe stepping off the plane at an Army base.  Or maybe they’ve just been plunked down in the library and told to behave themselves, with no idea who you are or why they’re supposed to care.  Once again: It’s not all about you.

- Adjust to fit your crowd.  So, because every crowd is different, you might have to do things differently.  Think about your volume, because if the audience can’t hear you, everything else is a wash.  Make sure you can speak loudly enough for your voice to fill the space, or that you’ve got a working microphone.  If the microphone doesn’t work, set it aside, ask the kids to scoot closer, and project.  Pay attention to your pacing.  Keep it energetic, but not too fast to stifle laughs or other reactions.  Depending on your audience’s age, adjust your habits to fit the crowd.  Older kids might be less likely to laugh aloud, or to want to be the first to raise their hand with a question or comment, and younger kids may have shorter attention spans.  Watch their reactions.  Adjust accordingly.

- Scenery is important.  Of course, a great performer can give a great show on a bare stage…but a little set dressing never hurts.  If you use a slideshow or other images, you can accent your talk with mystery or information or humor.  It gives visual learners something to focus on (and, really, we’re all visual learners, aren’t we?) and it will help keep your talk on track.  In my own slideshow, I use embarrassing photos from my childhood, pictures of the places and people that provided me with inspiration, manuscript pages that show my revision process, and big, full-color images by my illustrator.  I often hear gasps or giggles as I change the slides, so I’m pretty sure they’re working.

- Interact.  The younger and livelier your audience, the more interaction is necessary.  (This does not necessarily apply to dinner theatre, where most people will react with a look of frozen horror if someone onstage tries to draw them in to the action.  At least they do in the Midwest.)  Create multiple opportunities for comments, questions, and activities.  Try to leave something fun for the very end, like a skit or a game or an especially funny reading.  It’s your closing number.  Go out with a bang. 

- Eye contact is tricky.  It’s also important.  Make sure to look up into the crowd often, especially while reading.  I like to move back and forth in front of the crowd rather than stand still, so that I can gaze out into more faces, making contact with a greater number of people.  But I keep those looks brief and blurry.  If you lock eyes with somebody–whether they’re laughing, yawning, or watching you open-mouthed with one finger up their nose–it can be pretty distracting.  If direct eye contact makes you nervous, pick a spot just behind the crowd and focus on that.  When I do musicals, I often sing straight to the exit sign at the back of the hall.  (We have a long, romantic history, me and exit signs.  Over the years, I’ve told exit signs that I would know when my love came along, and that if I loved it I would try to say all I wanted it to know, and that someone like it had found someone like me and suddenly nothing would ever be the same… (Bonus points to any musical theatre nerds who get all the references.))   Nobody will know you’re not making direct eye contact.  Except for the exit sign.  Which might try to follow you home. 

And now, in completely un-dinner-theatre-related news:

Pour mes amis francais: Here’s a brand new review of the French translation of The Books of Elsewhere, Volume One: The Shadows (or as it’s called in France, “La Maison des Secrets: Les Lunettes Magiques”)!  Check it out:http://un-souffle-sous-la-plume.over-blog.com/article-la-maison-des-secrets-t1-116078795.html

The schedule for this year’s “Endangered Authors” tour is nearly complete!  I’ll post an update on my appearance calendar very soon…

And for the young pen connoisseur who I met at Mounds Park Academy: The beautiful fountain pen I was sent as a Cybils Award is a Lanier.

Last week, I was invited to put my own link in the “Next Big Thing” blog chain by speculative fiction writer J. R. Roper.  Joe’s short fiction has appeared in multiple anthologies (including Monsters!, published by A Flame in the Dark, which will be out later this very month…).  He’s currently seeking representation for his middle grade fantasy novel, and you can–and should!–read more about that project right here.

If you aren’t already familiar, the Next Big Thing chain gives writers the chance to talk about their current projects.   My current–and past, and future–project is The Books of Elsewhere.  My first full draft of Volume Five is currently in the hands of my amazing editor, and there is more revising to be done…but I can’t believe how close I am to the end (the END!) of this series.  Here are my thoughts on Volume Five:

What is the working title of your book (or story)? 

I am truly terrible at coming up with titles.  I never know what a story’s title will be until all of the writing (and most of the revising) is finished, and sometimes not even then.  The title of the first book in my series, The Books of Elsewhere, Volume One: The Shadows, went through six or seven variations.  Volume Two: Spellbound was my editor’s idea; Volume Three: The Second Spy was mine, Volume Four: The Strangers (which will be released on July 16^th, 2013) was my editor’s again.  I guess that means this is my turn.  (Sigh.)   So its title will be The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Five: Somethingsomething.  I’m 95% sure that it will start with an S.

Where did the idea for the book come from? 

This is the final volume in a five-part series, so the ideas within it mostly grew from other ideas in other books.  The idea that started the whole series came from an interesting old house in my hometown in Wisconsin.  My bus would pass this house each day on the way to middle school, and I would stare at it through the smudgy windows.  The house was more than a hundred years old and three stories tall, with peeling paint, a slightly sagging porch, and windows seemed to be always dark.  The man who lived in it was an inventor; he built wind-powered machines, so the whole lawn was filled with weird little spinning and whirling contraptions.  It was such a strange contrast—that old, mysterious, haunted-looking house and that modern, eccentric, scientific inhabitant—that the whole scene stuck in my mind.  Years later, I started writing about an old house with a long and twisted history, and I filled the house with odd, mathematical people, and the story grew from there.

What genre does your book fall under?

Middle-grade fantasy.  It’s also been called mystery, humor, adventure, and, according to Amazon, it’s “spine-chilling horror”.

Which actors would you choose to play your characters in a movie rendition?

Ooh, I’ve heard lots of great suggestions from young readers about this!  There seems to be a consensus that Johnny Depp should be the voice of the vain, dignified cat, Horatio, and Jack Black should be the voice of the delusional attic-dwelling Harvey.  Personally, I’d love to cast Tim Curry as Leopold, the soldierly, easily confused cat who lives in the basement.   (Many of my characters aren’t human—they are talking cats or enchanted portraits or living darkness—so casting might involve voices only.)  I would love—LOVE—to see Charles Dance (Tywin Lannister in Game of Thrones) as the dangerous Aldous McMartin, and Krysten Ritter might be really interesting as his granddaughter Annabelle.  Judy Greer (Arrested Development) and Richard Ayoade (The IT Crowd) would be my dream version of the dippily mathematical Dunwoodys.  As for the kids—Olive, the protagonist, and her friends Morton and Rutherford—I’d prefer to cast unknown, interesting, enthusiastic kids rather than working “child actors.”  Then again, if Maisie Williams (Arya Stark on Game of Thrones) wanted to play Olive, I’d be over the moon.

What is the one-sentence synopsis of your book?

Hmm.  It’s tricky to sum up a five-volume series in one sentence (unless I construct a mammoth, page-long, Jonathan Franzen-style beast), so I think I’ll just say—

Eleven-year-old Olive Dunwoody is an unwelcome guest in her own house.

–and leave it at that.

Will your book be self-published or represented by an agency?

I’m lucky enough to be represented by the fabulous Chris Richman, at the equally fabulous Upstart Crow Literary.  Dial Books for Young Readers, a division of Penguin Young Readers Group, is my publisher.

How long did it take you to write the first draft of your manuscript?

With Volume Five, it took about three months.  I’ve found that I can’t start working on the next volume in a series before the previous volume is completely finished, so I started writing in November and finished my first draft in late January, after a couple of missed deadlines and many weeks of panicked scribbling.

What other books would you compare this story to within your genre?

I feel really uncomfortable doing this for myself, so I’ll list some of the books/authors reviewers and other publishing folk have mentioned:

Roald Dahl, Eva Ibbotson, Neil Gaiman, Pseudonymous Bosch, The Mysterious Benedict Society, and The Gideon Trilogy.

Who or what inspired you to write this book?

The Shadows was the first thing I ever wrote for young readers.  At the time, I didn’t even hope that it would ever be published.  I was just exploring and experimenting, trying to write something that my brothers and I would have liked when we were kids—we liked creepy/funny stories with surprising bits of magic, like the Bunnicula series and Calvin and Hobbes—but when I finished the book, I realized that other young readers might like it too.

What else about your book might pique the reader’s interest?

Well, if that reader puts any stock in awards, The Books of Elsewhere have won or been nominated for a few.  Books in the series have won the Cybils Award, been finalists for the Minnesota Book Award, and made the lists for the Texas Bluebonnet Award, the Sunshine State Young Readers Award, the Illinois Bluestem Award, and the Louisiana Young Reader’s Choice Award, among others.  The things that teachers, parents and readers say about the books make me feel incredibly happy, too.  I’ve had parents tell me that their children didn’t like to read until they began this series, teachers write to me that their classes have begged to give up recess time in order to stay inside and hear another chapter, and young readers tell me that my work has inspired them to try writing stories of their own.

I’m one incredibly lucky writer.

Now it’s my turn to add other writers to the chain.  Cole Gibsen, Shannon Morgan, and Terra Elan McVoy, you’re up!  (We may also hear from the marvelous Matt Myklusch, author of the Jack Blank trilogy, but I didn’t give him much time to answer.  Sorry, Matt.)

Cole Gibsen is the author of Katana (Flux, 2012), a YA novel about a modern-day skater girl whose body is overtaken by the spirit of a 500-year-old samurai warrior.  (Awesome, no?)  She’s currently at work on the next book in this series…

Shannon Morgan writes plays, short stories, and novels for young readers, and she keeps a blog (what’s up, Daily Pie!) that often includes drool-inducing food photos.

Terra Elan McVoy writes beautiful, realistic YA fiction.  Her books include Pure, Being Friends with Boys, and After the Kiss (which I just read and adored), all published by Simon Pulse.  I was lucky enough to meet Terra at BooksALIVE in Florida this month, and I know she’s got a brand new, very different project on the way.

Freezing rain and fog here in Minnesota, with the roads so treacherous that schools are closed. I’d much rather have an actual blizzard…but a flurry of words and links and news will have to do.

First things first: The advance reading copies of The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Four: The Strangers have arrived at my house in their excitingly heavy box!  If you (or someone you know) is a book blogger or reviewer, and you would like an ARC of The Strangers, contact me in the comments or email me at jacqueline@jacquelinewest.com.  Obviously, quantities are limited, but I will guarantee a copy for the first three reviewer-respondents.

(For now, this offer is for bloggers/reviewers only.  I will very likely do a giveaway for readers in a few more weeks, so stay tuned!)

Speaking of book bloggers, two great reviews of The Second Spy appeared on Book Nut and Book ‘Em! Huge thanks to everyone who is spreading the word in this way.

I learned that The Second Spy was nominated for the 2012 Cybils Awards, as well as for the Minnesota Book Awards.  It isn’t a finalist for either, but both awards have been very kind to The Books of Elsewhere in the past, and truly fantastic books are on both lists.

The Second Spy also got a mention (and its picture!) in Publishers Weekly, in an article on holiday book sales.

My spring travel schedule is about to get really crazy, with more events being added all the time.   Keep an eye on http://jacquelinewest.com/appearance-calendar.php, if you’re interested.  This weekend, I’m off to booksALIVE! in Panama City, Florida.  So long, freezing rain.  Hello, Emerald Coast.

Well, another year is over.  I’m a bit more well-read, a bit more well-traveled, and a bit better at using my cell phone (now I can take photos AND email them to myself!).  Most of my 2012 writing energy was expended on drafting and revising and re-revising Volume Four: The Strangers, re-re-revising the Shakespearean YA project, and embarking on Volume Five.

According to my files, I wrote eight poems this year, but I don’t remember doing it.  (Hmm.)  I also saw my kids’ play, “Under the Bed,” performed.  I wrote/rewrote a couple of short stories and had a few accepted or published by various exciting places (BTW: My odd little story, “Paper Dolls,” is available in the new issue of American Athenaeum: http://www.amazon.com/dp/1480290270/ref=cm_sw_r_tw_dp_9S2Zqb1SWDRRQ).   I also traveled around several parts of the US and got very good at packing a week’s worth of clothes in a weekend-sized suitcase.

And still–for some reason–I feel as though I didn’t get enough done.  But I did manage to read a few books.

Here’s what I accomplished, reading-wise, in 2012:
(Titles in bold are rereads; asterisks mark books that Ryan and I read aloud together)

THE RED AND THE BLACK – Stendhal
* MOCKINGJAY – Suzanne Collins
THE SCRAPBOOK OF FRANKIE PRATT – Caroline Preston
AMERICAN GODS – Neil Gaiman
BREADCRUMBS – Anne Ursu
CHIME – Franny Billingsley
THE NIGHT CIRCUS – Erin Morgenstern
ANGRY HOUSEWIVES EATING BONBONS – Lorna Landvik
* FOOD RULES – Michael Pollan
THE NEW YORK TRILOGY – Paul Auster
THE JOY OF HOBBY FARMING – Michael and Audrey Levatino
THE BIG CRUNCH -  Pete Hautman
OKAY FOR NOW – Gary D. Schmidt
THE PARTICULAR SADNESS OF LEMON CAKE -Aimee Bender
SO MANY BOOKS, SO LITTLE TIME: A YEAR OF PASSIONATE READING – Sara Nelson
THE NAME OF THIS BOOK IS SECRET – Pseudonymous Bosch
THE RED TREE – Caitlin R. Kiernan
REVOLUTIONARY ROAD – Richard Yates
NOTES FROM A SMALL ISLAND – Bill Bryson
THE PARIS WIFE – Paula McLain
LIFE AND DEATH – Andrea Dworkin
WITH OR WITHOUT YOU – Brian Farrey
THE PORTRAIT OF A LADY – Henry James
AMERICAN PIE – Pascale la Draoulec
UNWIND – Neal Shusterman
THRESHOLD – Caitlin R. Kiernan
THE DROWNING GIRL – Caitlin R. Kiernan
GARLIC AND SAPPHIRES – Ruth Reichl
IF ON A WINTER’S NIGHT A TRAVELER – Italo Calvino
A TALE DARK AND GRIMM – Adam Gidwitz
ZIP – Ellie Rollins
ALL THE PRETTY HORSES – Cormac McCarthy
SATURDAY NIGHT: A BACKSTAGE HISTORY OF SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE – Doug Hill and Jiff Weingrad
SURVIVOR – Chuck Palaniuk
* MURDER OF ANGELS – Caitlin R. Kiernan
SOME ASSEMBLY REQUIRED – Anne Lamott
SOMETHING RISING (LIGHT AND SWIFT)  – Haven Kimmel
THE GLASS CASTLE – Jeannette Walls
LOW RED MOON – Caitlin R. Kiernan
JAZZ – Toni Morrison
LIES (AND THE LYING LIARS WHO TELL THEM) – Al Franken
AN ACCIDENTAL ADVENTURE #1: WE ARE NOT EATEN BY YAKS – C. Alexander London
MAMA MAKES UP HER MIND (AND OTHER DANGERS OF SOUTHERN LIVING) – Bailey White
THE GRAPES OF WRATH -  John Steinbeck
SLEEPING AT THE STARLITE MOTEL – Bailey White
A PEOPLE’S HISTORY OF THE UNITED STATES – Howard Zinn
* RAMBLES AROUND NEW ORLEANS – Roy Blount Jr.
* GONE GIRL – Gillian Flynn
LOOKING FOR ALASKA – John Green
SPARROW ROAD -  Sheila O’Connor
DEAR GENIUS: THE LETTERS OF URSULA NORDSTROM
DANDELION WINE – Ray Bradbury
* DOWN RIVER – John Hart
STANDING IN THE RAINBOW – Fannie Flagg
GEORGIA BOTTOMS – Mark Childress
* MY NEW ORLEANS – Rosemary James
CLOUD ATLAS – David Mitchell
ANNA DRESSED IN BLOOD – Kendare Blake
THE SOLACE OF LEAVING EARLY – Haven Kimmel
THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES – Ray Bradbury
CHASING VERMEER – Blue Balliet
LITTLE HOUSE IN THE BIG WOODS – Laura Ingalls Wilder
LITTLE HOUSE ON THE PRAIRIE – Laura Ingalls Wilder
THE MAGUS – John Fowler
BETSY-TACY – Maud Hart Lovelace
BETSY-TACY AND TIB – Maud Hart Lovelace
MONEY – Martin Amis
SAVING GRACE – Lee Smith
THE SINGER – Cathi Unsworth
WONDER – R. J. Palacio
BLUEFISH – Pat Schmatz
WINESBURG, OHIO – Sherwood Anderson
I, CLAUDIUS – Robert Graves
RED CARPETS AND OTHER BANANA SKINS – Rupert Everett
* INSIDE OF A DOG – Alexandra Horowitz
THE FAULT IN OUR STARS – John Green
THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN – Katherine Applegate
BETSY AND TACY GO OVER THE BIG HILL – Maud Hart Lovelace
BETSY AND TACY GO DOWNTOWN – Maud Hart Lovelace
TITHE – Holly Black
ANYA’S GHOST – Vera Brosgol
HEAVEN TO BETSY – Maud Hart Lovelace
MISS PEREGRINE’S HOME FOR PECULIAR CHILDREN – Ransom Riggs
BETSY IN SPITE OF HERSELF – Maud Hart Lovelace
BRINGING UP BÉBÉ – Pamela Druckerman
THE TIGER’S WIFE – Teá Obreht
BETSY WAS A JUNIOR – Maud Hart Lovelace
THE WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE – Joan Aiken
KRAMPUS: THE YULE LORD – Brom (not the dog)
WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN – Lionel Shriver
* VISITING TOM – Michael Perry

Several of the books I read this year were the ones people raved about–the ones on every bestseller list, the ones mentioned for every award and honor, the ones being made into movies as we speak–and with just a few exceptions, I found myself either disagreeing strongly with the raving people or scratching my head in bafflement.  Among the few I didn’t disagree about are John Green’s THE FAULT IN OUR STARS, which was just as beautiful and as near-perfect as everyone says and CLOUD ATLAS, which not only drew me (slowly but entirely) into its story but dazzled and awed me with its craft.  There are many other special, wonderful books on this year’s list (WITH OR WITHOUT YOU, THE TIGER’S WIFE, THE GLASS CASTLE, OKAY FOR NOW, THE ONE AND ONLY IVAN…), but the ones that really shook me up were THE MARTIAN CHRONICLES — a reread, but one I fell in love with even more deeply this time around — and WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN, which I started before the shooting at Sandy Hook and finished afterward.  Its characterization is brilliant, the questions it raises are  terrifying and fascinating, and the added resonance of current events actually made my hands shake while I turned the pages.

Also, every writer and editor in the world should read the letters of Ursula Nordstrom.

Happy 2013, everybody.  I hope you spend it with good books, good health, and good people.

Here it is… The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Four: The Strangers.

“It’s Halloween. But not for Morton, who’s trapped in Elsewhere. Good thing Olive has a plan: Swallowing her dread of the McMartins, she sneaks Morton out and takes everyone trick-or-treating. But when they’re followed by a creature who’s not all he seems, they’re in for a surprise—something, or someone, is living in Mrs. Nivens’s abandoned house. Yes, strangers have come to Linden Street. And though they claim to be her allies, Olive has a bad feeling. She returns home late Halloween night to discover something worse: Her parents are gone.

Desperate to get them back, Olive strikes an unbalanced bargain with Annabelle McMartin and loses something incredibly valuable in the process—something that could mean doom for the house, and for Elsewhere itself. Turning to her uncertain allies, Olive attempts to sever the McMartins’ power at its root, unleashing a flood of darkness and terror that could overwhelm not only her, but the house and everyone in it. To mend her mistakes, Olive must determine who to trust. Will she put her faith in her own worst enemies to save the people and the home she loves?”

Release date: July 16, 2013.

(You can pre-order it now from Amazon.  I’ll post links when pre-order is available on IndieBound and other venues.)

More cool news: Audiobooks of The Strangers AND The Second Spy will also be released on July 16, 2013, in downloadable format (no CDs this time).

And now, the wait.  Good thing I’ve got Volume Five to keep me busy.

The multi-talented Matt Myklusch (of the Jack Blank trilogy) and I are both lucky enough to be clients of agent Chris Richman.  Matt and I recently chatted for his podcast, The Other Side of the Story, which is rich with behind-the-scenes info and anecdotes.  You can listen to our conversation here.

One of my favorite parts of traveling is coming home to a huge pile of mail.  Here are two of the best things that were waiting for me on our return from NYC: A thank-you card fr0m readers at Fairmount School, and my Cybils Award for The Shadows, a gorgeous fountain pen in a carved wooden case.