Welcome to my website

A big thank you to Jessica Lucas and Michael Spradlin of Voltaire Designs for helping me crawl my carcass out of the middle ages and put together a website of my own. Not that the middle ages are a bad place to be, esp. if you’re Michael Spradlin. Check out his “Youngest Templar” series to see what I mean.

Great news about my own publications: I’m gearing up for the launch of my second novel, “The River,” to be published in February 2010 by Little, Brown. For those of you in Seattle, we’ve got a date for the launch party locked down, Saturday evening, Feb 6, but alas I’m still working on a venue. We do know that the University Bookstore will be supplying the books and donating 25% of sales that evening to the St. Thomas School library. And the talented George Bullock is putting together a band, so we’ll be able pull back the rugs and shake it, the most important part of any party. Also, some of the St. Thomas fourth grade and second grade kids, under the direction of Kathleen Higgins, have two songs they’re going to serenade us with, so save the date! A good time should be had by all.

A little bit closer on the horizon, I’ll be teaching “Torrrture the Heroine,” a writing workshop for teenagers, at the King County Library, Bellevue Branch, on Saturday, November 14. The indefatiguable Darcy Brixey put this series together and it’s going to be a fun one.  We’ll talk about creating robust characters in fiction, and I’ll be sure to bring chocolate. We only torture fictional characters. The rest of us need food.