Dark River out in Paperback!

Welcome readers.  Lots of exciting news going on this spring.  My book Dark River was just released in paperback on April 10th by Little, Brown and Company.  A great pick for your summer reading list if you like suspense and mystery.  The story follows the main character Veronica Severance, a high school student who moves from the city to a small town in ruralOregon.  She feels secluded from everything and everyone –except for Karen, a young girl who she babysits.  So when she discovers Karen’s lifeless body in the river, Ronnie is compelled to uncover the truth and solve her murder.  As she becomes increasingly obsessed with solving the mystery of Karen’s death, Ronnie is led deeper into the woods surrounding the river and to the dark secret hidden within.

I will be out and about town over the next two months promoting my book and engaging with my readers.  Check out my calendar of events here on my website. I would love to meet you, discuss my book further and answer any questions you might have about reading and the joy of creative writing for young adults.

If you have a book club and would like to select Dark River as your next read I will be happy to attend your book club meeting to facilitate discussion, just contact me through this website.

My book is available on Amazon.com, Barnesandnoble.com, the University Bookstore as well as the many wonderful independent book stores across the city. Dark River was chosen as a finalist for the Mystery Writers of America Edgar Allen Poe Award in 2011 in the category of Best Young Adult.

Keep reading!

 

 

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.