Hello, world!

Lots of good news on the Elsewhere front:

VOL. 5: STILL LIFE was included in this roundup of recent MG/YA releases by the Minneapolis Star-Tribune. (“Still Life winds up the McMartin saga with emotional complexity and suspense, and the denouement of the tale is generous and joyful.” Lovely to hear.)

Meanwhile, VOL. 4: THE STRANGERS has been selected as a finalist in the Middle Grade category of the 2014 Silver Falchion Awards.  (Also lovely to hear — although I did have to look up “falchion,” an admission that would shock and disappoint Middle Ages expert Rutherford, I’m sure.)

And my editor, the absolutely splendid Jessica Dandino Garrison, was recently featured on the Penguin Blog to talk about Jandy Nelson’s upcoming book, I’LL GIVE YOU THE SUN, and everyone should read this and see how absolutely splendid she is (and to check out the row of books right behind her in the photo!).

August is when invitations for the upcoming school year turn from a dribble into a deluge.  I’m trying to keep my head above the email flood, but my reader mail response time has been pretty unimpressive lately.  If I owe you a reply: I’m sorry for the lag, and it will eventually be on its way, I promise.

Thanks to that email flood, fall is shaping up to be an exciting season: the Twin Cities Book Festival, school and book club visits, a five-state tour in October…  If you’d like to know where I’ll be, keep an eye on my appearance calendar.

Finally, because every post should have a picture, here’s what I made for the 2015 Waupaca BookFest tote bag fundraiser.  (Sketching this showed me just how rusty I am with pen and ink.  Which is a way of pretending that I used to be better at it.)