I Heart Nerds Heart YA!!

Well, After the Kiss has been out for a month, and it’s getting a lot of exciting coverage, including this amazing STARRED REVIEW from the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books, which included gems of insight and understanding such as, “the story doesn’t go in the expected direction of angry confrontation . . .” and “The poetry is richly allusive . . . and the imagery is often startling with an originality that exhales into a perfect aptness for the experience.” I am still jumping up and down about that one, and want to send the reviewer a big bouquet of candy hearts as thanks!

But even though After the Kiss is getting its hype (and stay tuned for more exciting stuff, including maybe a poetry contest), Pure is still chugging along, too! In fact, it just got nominated for inclusion in an awesome contest being run by Nerds Heart YA. I’m getting pitted against a ton of great, “underrepresented” authors, including my book bud Amy Reed, who’s book Beautiful is, well, beautiful. (I interviewed her in 2009; follow the link in the word “interviewed” here and scroll down a bit to find it.) So I know the competition is pretty fierce. Pure’s in an early bracket, and judges make their decision about the first round on June 15th.  I will keep you posted on how it goes, but to follow judges’ reviews and see the other competitors, bookmark Nerds Heart YA and click every day!