For everyone who aspires to write a book, it's true -- there is nothing more thrilling than opening that first box of hardcover books and seeing your name on the cover. Yet lately I've been struck by something more. I'm even more amazed by all the helping hands.
Promoting MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER is like balancing on a log, trying to stay on top -- and every hand extended fills me with gratitude. The hands that are keeping my feet from slipping into oblivion belong to:
 - friends, who are buying the book for nieces, grandchildren, and themselves;
- family members, who are making sure the book is on the shelves of their local bookstores, schools and libraries;
- Vermont College faculty and friends, for blurbing and talking it up;
- My editor and HMH marketing folks for enthusiastic support;
- booksellers, who are agreeing to let me come and read even though it's a dying practice;
- people who know me from the ferry, church or work who tell their friends about the book;
- and reporters, who review and feature the book plus that crazy copyeditor who gave me a big head!
Writing is solitary work. It's just me and my computer (although I often talk to myself as a I puzzle out plot). Selling is social -- and I thank everyone for pitching in and helping me get across the stream!
That's how people in the publishing business talk about a book's release day. A new story has been born; my wish is that many children, teachers, and librarians discover the story of June and one summer in Vermont. When I was 15, I wanted to be a writer. Who knew it would take this long? Do you remember being a teenager? Everything is so uncertain, and yet as adults we know it gets better. To alleviate the isolation some kids feel, two writers launched a website of letters from authors to their younger selves. If only we knew! Here's my Dear Teen Me letter. These days, it's just as important to appear in the blogosphere as it is to do book readings. But I will be making a couple of public appearances. Check my Visits & Posts page for updates. And let's make a wish for a berry good summer!
On the heels of my last post, I'm awed by my good fortune to win the attention of the Association of Booksellers for Children. MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER was selected as one of twelve novels to earn a spring New Voices award! And I love the company I'm in! Check out Hannah Barnaby, Augusta Scattergood and Caroline Starr Rose (I loved May B.). There's more: Marilyn Sue Shank, Carole Geithner, Cynthia Levinson, Jennifer Shaw Wolf, Marissa Meyer, Jesse Andrews, Leigh Bardugo, and Trish Doller. So thank you so much to the booksellers who spent hours reading all the new releases! Order your books from these folks:- Meghan Goel, BookPeople, Austin, Texas
- Cathy Berner, Blue Willow Bookshop, Houston, Texas
- Liesl Freudenstein, Boulder Book Store, Boulder Colorado
- Ellen Davis, Dragonwings, Waupaca, Wisconsin
- Suzanna Hermans, Oblong Books, Rhinebeck, New York
- Sarah Hutton, Village Books, Fairhaven, Washington
- Emily Grossenbacher, Lemuria Books, Jackson, Mississippi
- Becky Quiroga Curtis, Books & Books, Coral Gables, Florida
- Robert McDonald, The Book Stall, Winnetka, Illinois
- Brandi Stewart, Changing Hands Bookstore, Tempe, Arizona
- Walter Petryk, Community Bookstore, Brooklyn, New York
- Antonia Squire, Kepler’s Books, Menlo Park, California
Support your independent bookstore!
 Crowded hallways, subway cars, and airplanes. It's not very comfortable is it? I sometimes get that closed-in feeling, and the only solution is to hold very still, as if I am disappearing.
Some crowds are just too many people in a small space. Other crowds can feel bigger than they are, especially if they are menacing.
That's the way June feels when she finds herself in the middle of a hostile crowd outside the library.
Fortunately, the world of book publishing is the first kind of crowd--just too many books in a jammed freeway of information. How can MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER stand out?
With help. Lately I've realized how wonderful the writing community is. Slowly, like a spring vine, I'm connecting with booksellers and authors, fans and friends on twitter and Facebook. Everyone has been so supportive!
The care I've taken with the words and story will show, I hope. The book is baked, and in one month it will be on the shelves, ready for young readers.
Candy hearts, cards, chocolates -- this day can be pretty miserable, especially for anyone in middle school. I can remember being relieved that I wasn't forced to send a card to every classmate as I was in elementary school. But the relief of not doing 24 homemade cards was overshadowed by receiving only one or two from friends.
Valentine's Day gets better, really, when you are older.
Especially when you realize it's OK to celebrate the love you feel for your friends, your dog, and your sister or brother.
This Valentine's Day, I'm thinking about the people in Washington State. They just voted to approve marriage for all. Now, it doesn't matter if two men or two women want to marry. You can marry who you love. That makes seven states, including Vermont, that have legalized gay marriage.
I think that's great. June would, too. In MY MIXED-UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER, June encounters some grownups who don't think her mom should be allowed to marry her girlfriend. June struggles to make sense of her new family, and how to stand on the side of love.
You'll have to wait until May to see how the pie gets mixed in.
As you get older, birthdays are smaller affairs and mostly a chance to be with the people you love. This year, my daughters made me an amazing cheesecake (wrong time of year for pie!). I know what I like for my birthday. How do I get ready for my book's birthday? I'm overwhelmed as I learn how to celebrate the publication of MY MIXED UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER. The big day is 99 days away!So that means build the buzz, and build it now. So I've revived my twitter account (follow me @JenGenn), I'm blogging more, and joining the conversation more. And I'm inspired by AC Gaughen, and cheering for writer friends, including Kekla Magoon, and supporting independent booksellers. The good news is people are helping. The sales team is talking about my book this weekend to librarians at ALA midwinter in Dallas. I wish I could see the banner over the table! The best for me, though, is that soon June's story of pie and courage will be out. Here's hoping readers of all ages enjoy MY MIXED UP BERRY BLUE SUMMER.
Thanksgiving is around the corner, and I bet everyone is telling you to be thankful for something. At my house, we're giving thanks for... pies!
Yes, this is the season when you can make pies with abandon. Chocolate-pecan, Apple-blackberry, cherry-pear, pumpkin whatever!
I'm looking forward to making pies with my daughters. But I'm also thankful for sales representatives. The good folks at Houghton Mifflin are traveling around to bookstores, talking about books and about My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer. And I'm grateful, I really am.
If you've been keeping up with the news, Lake Champlain has risen higher than ever--three feet above flood level, all due to snow melt and unusually heavy spring rains. I've been worried about friends, and thinking about the lake I love. It's not the lake but politics that gets things riled up in My Mixed Up Berry Blue Summer, and as I reviewed first pages, this month I thought about the seed that started me writing June's story. The emotional core of this story comes from a young teenager in San Francisco, who was bullied by grownups -- something that should never happen. I was outraged then, and it fueled my desire to write an answer to "What if..." (The scene that recalls that moment is on page 54.) One step of first pages -- when your story is typeset, and you get a chance to fix bad line breaks and sentences you hate now -- is to think about the dedication. So I reached out to a friend, who gave me the name of that young teen who I witnessed encountering prejudice. I'm emailing one of her two dads, but I'm a little nervous. What will she say? Will she want to erase the memory, have nothing to do with me? Or will she be excited that June's story may help some other kid like her?Whatever happens, June is more real then ever, thanks to Julia Denos. I'm loving the cover.
Exciting news! Julia Denos is illustrating the cover of My Mixed-Up, Berry Blue Summer. Her style reminds me of my younger self -- free-spirited, climbing trees, bicycling to Crystal Lake. I heard the news when I was at a novel-writing retreat at Vermont College. It was great to be back in New England, tramping briskly across campus. What a joy to share stories and book suggestions. When you are with other writers, the ideas just flow and the inspiration seeps in, just like snowflakes melting on my hands.
The harbor seals are acting up, and I think it has to do with the season. Instead of lolling around on the log breakers, they are swimming in pairs, splashing each other, and showing off with dolphin-like dives. Sometimes, they follow my kayak, to see who I am.
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