Susan Beth Pfeffer's Blog, page 19

Yay! An Excellent Review For Blood Wounds

My editor forwarded this review to me just now, and I love it!

Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books - Oct. 2011

Pfeffer, Susan Beth Blood Wounds. 
Harcourt, 2011 256p ISBN 978-0-547-49638-2 16.99
Reviewed from galleys  

R r. 8-12

"We're a happy family," states Willa's stepfather, Jack, and Willa agrees. Or she thinks she does at the time, but soon her blended family is thrown into chaos: Budge, the father that sixteen-year-old Willa barely remembers, goes on a murderous rampage, killing Willa's never-met half-sisters and finally being shot dead himself by the police. Willa horrifies her family by traveling back to small-town Texas for the memorial and to learn about the relatives she never knew, and in the process she finds herself questioning the price of her seeming family happiness.

Pfeffer's had some interesting science-fiction explorations lately (Life As We Knew It, BCCB 12/06),but this is a return to her classic form, with headline-worthy melodrama a vehicle for exploring family dynamics widespread even in more ordinary households. Willa's dawning understanding that she's been "Quiet-Never-Make-A-Fuss Willa," going along with her mother's acceptance of the fierce inequities of her household in order to keep the family together, unfolds subtly but effectively.

Pfeffer avoids reductivity, however, making it clear that Willa's mother and stepsisters have paid their own price for the family bargain, with unfairness being spread around so thoroughly the situation almost comes back around to being fair. There's also the looming tacit reminder, in Budge's truly horrific crime, that there are worse things than having fewer advantages than one's stepsisters.

The sheer drama of the plot will draw readers, and they'll stay for an insightful exploration of the way families go both right and wrong. DS

What's Done Is Done And Cannot Be Undone (Except When You Play Free Cell)

Not having heard yet from my editor about The Shade Of The Moon (notice how I cleverly avoid beginning this blog entry with a certain pronoun I'm unduly fond of) I (there it is) have been keeping busy with jobs that must be done.

The most important of said jobs (am I in a classy mood or what) was clearing out my mother's apartment. Fortunately for me, and thanks in part to the power of my whining, my brother and my friend Marci did more than their share (well, Marci didn't have to do any, but did because she's a good and true friend). Thursday morning I'll officially turn the keys over. Then I'll go to my mother's room and swap her clean clothes for dirty ones. Apartments come and go but laundry is forever.

I've also spent a certain amount of time marvelling at my goddaughter Allison's new business. Allison is a national award winning cheese maker, and already quite a number of restaurants and gourmet shops are carrying her Ricotta.

When I'm not doing my mother's laundry or cheering Allison on or winning at Free Cell (thanks to the Undo button, I have a 281 game winning streak), I've been cleaning out the outside storage closet (aka The VCR Burial Ground). One of the things I took from my mother's apartment was her paper shredder, and for a while I was shredding old electric bills and the suchlike. Eventually I got bored with shredding and simply dumped all the old bills at the neighborhood recycling center (for any of you interested in stealing my identity the papers are on the bottom of Bin Number 2).

But in the midst of all the old bills, I found my even older account books. I recycled the pages devoted to how much I spent on electricty, but I kept the ones that had the records of my (pathetic) earnings. Here's how I did in 1977-79:



I have to admit I was pleasantly surprised to find out I'd earned royalties for Whatever Words You Want To Hear . As you can see from its current one cent pricetag, it wasn't the most successful of my books.

Let's hope my current books do a tad better. I want to be able to afford some delicous Lakin's Gorges Cheese!

Blood Wounds Is Now Published

Today is the official publication date for my newest book Blood Wounds .

I read a blog review that said Blood Wounds is a love it or hate it kind of a book. Personally, I love it and I hope you'll at least like it.

Amazon likes it. They named it one of their best YA novels for the month of September.

As my way of showing my appreciation for your support, I had new bookplates created just for Blood Wounds. If you'd like one, for yourself or your library or your bookstore, email me with your name and mailing address (and if you need multiple ones let me know). I'll sign it and off it will go.


It's an exciting day for me. But I am kind of sorry to say goodbye to the countdown clock!

The Dead And The Gone Is Alive And Right Here

I'm pleased to report that my copy of Chroniques De La Fin Du Monde L'Exil arrived the other day.

I have every reason to believe it's a Poche Roman. Which kind of sounds like it should be a character on Happy Days.

Thanks to the back of the jacket, I know what the French version of This World We Live In will look like, a stress reducer right there.



Naturally all the versions of The Dead And The Gone decided to get together. I did what I could to help them along.



Scooter did his part as well.



For a book with such a sad title, these are happy days indeed!

In Honor Of My Mother's 100th Birthday On September 5

Here's her official 4 days short of 100 years old picture.







Happy 100th Birthday Freda Pfeffer!

September First Fell On A September This Year

I am very impressed with September's ability to fight off August's efforts to appropriate a few of its days. Bravo September, plucky 30 day month.



September is always a significant month in the Pfeffer family, since it hosts my mother's birthday (100 years of birthdays to be celebrated Monday Sept. 5) and my brother's birthday, and my parents' wedding anniversary. In addition, my father had emergency open heart surgery on Sept. 7 and regarded that as a second birthday. I used to spend a lot of money in September on gifts.



Speaking of my mother and my parents' anniversary, my job for September is to clear out my mother's apartment. She has made the official move to the Health Center, where people look after her and bring her three meals a day and comment regularly about how cute she is.



Clearing her apartment out is a good stress reducing job for me, since it distracts me from thinking about my editor reading The Shade Of The Moon. My editor had been under the impression that August had an extra 5-7 days attached to it, so she was taken by surprise when the book arrived on schedule.



My new term for The Shade Of The Moon is domestic dystopian, and my new excuse for anything my editor might object to is, "It's all Princess Summerfallwinterspring's fault!" I always like being blameless.



Back to my mother's apartment, which is where I'll be going back to soon enough. We have 30 days minus 2 at this point to clear it out. It's not that bad a job, because my mother had done a great deal of downsizing throughout the years, so it's not like an 8 room house with a hundred years of memories. And there are the hidden treasures that make this sort of job worth doing. I have found over $1.57 in loose change already (I think it was $1.58, but I didn't count the pennies too carefully). We found some kind of silver coin collectible that my brother priced on the open market, and if the market is open enough, we stand to make at least $12 from it. And my mother has an extraordinary collection of slipper socks from her various stays in hospitals. Green and grey are the favored colors.



What I did find are my parents' ledger books from the time of their engagement and marriage. Apparently they wrote down every penny they spent on groceries. Boy, did they use a lot of butter. My mother said she gained 20 pounds that first year of marriage, and now I know why. The ledgers were kept in marble composition books, full of useful information on the back. The English pound sterling was worth $4.86.65 and 24 sheets of paper=1 quire. Who knew?









Here's a list of purchases my parents made to set up their kitchen. Notice how they bought two different kinds of can openers and a flashlight. They knew someday their daughter was going to write Life As We Knew It, and encourage those kinds of purchases to people around the world (granted, not including their daughter, who waited about five years after the publication of her novel to buy a flashlight to call her own).







Now if only I could find that 10 cent square grater. I'm certain it could bring in at least 2 bucks on eBay!

L'exil (The French Version Of The Dead And The Gone) Finally Has A Cover

It's probably had a cover for a while now (since its publication date is Sept. 1) but now I can look at it on French Amazon.



I love how the Harcourt designed covers look with French words on them. Tres elegant!

A Very Short Post Irene Report

Scooter and I and the apartment we share are fine. One small unattractive tree that I can see through the window is sideways, probably not the best direction for a tree to be.



My little impatiens garden, which earlier this summer suffered a vicious groundhog attack, got battered by all the rain.



My brother and sister-in-law, who live in New Jersey, didn't have electricity for much of yesterday, but it's back on.



My mother's nursing home has lost telephone service, so I haven't spoken to her today. I'll be seeing her tomorrow and Wednesday and Friday, so (bad daughter) I'm not driving over today to reassure her.



My flashlight, which I didn't have to use, is still working. I have lots and lots of batteries, except Ds, which for some reason are hard to find. I did buy a couple of those weird square ones, in case I had a desperate need to weigh myself in a blackout.



My kitchen seems to have been declared a fruitfly evacuation center. My hope is when they find out they can go home again, they'll pack their bags and get going. Neither Scooter nor I will miss them!

I've Got A Working Flashlight. I've Got A Radio With Batteries.

I've got a completed manuscript.



Yes, in honor of the upcoming Hurricane Irene, I finished The Shade Of The Moon and sent it off to my editor approximately 8 minutes ago.



There's nothing like an impending hurricane to make you beat a September 1 deadine.



Have a good and safe weekend everyone!

Blood Wounds Doubled Its Sales!

Thanks to Amazon's Author Central, I can proudly announce (and show you) that my not quite yet published novel Blood Wounds doubled its sales in a single week.



See. It went from 1 book sold! to 2 books sold!!













If Blood Wounds continues to double its sales every week, my estimate is I'll be able to buy the New York Yankees in 27 years!!!



Watch out A.J. Burnett . Your 9,855 not including Leap Years days as a Yankee are numbered!!!!