Beth Kephart's Blog, page 302

Kate Moses, Cakewalk, and Kate on film with August Kleinzahler

Next week, Cakewalk, a memoir by Kate Moses, will be available in stores, though I suspect you've been hearing about the book for quite some time already, following a terrific review in Chicago Tribune, a fascinating interview in the Wall Street Journal blog, Speakeasy, and a lot of blogger buzz.  Cakewalk is the story of Kate's growing up with a "capricious mother" and an "aloof, ambitious" father; it is this story, in Kate's words:

Life does not always reward us with the best cookie in the...

Ruta Rimas writes just now with this news....

House of Dance is a nominee for the Georgia Children's Book Award.  The Heart is Not a Size is a 2011 nominee for Best Fiction for Young Adults.

How do you thank people you've never met for gifts like these? I reach out, hoping to be heard.

In which I answer the question...

What have you been up to?
(a question posed by Readergirlz)

Freesia

(hauling the sun in with them)(presiding over the speckled trout)(easing the day away from itself)

Winsome Media Communications (the new, best thing)

Long-time followers of my blog know this story:  On the day that Nothing But Ghosts was launched, a mysterious note was sent my way.  A you-may-want-to-check-out My Friend Amy's blog message. A Happy Launch Day teaser.  A pre-dawn puzzler. 

A couple of mouse clicks later I found myself stunned by the news that an NBG virtual launch party had been engineered by the extraordinary Amy Riley herself, who had taken it upon herself (in her secret, daring fashion) to encourage bloggers from near and...

On works in progress

Returning to a book too long in progress (after letting it sit, after repeatedly letting it sit) is like walking into a stranger's parlor.  The words don't feel like yours, the pacing surprises, you agree to agree with the flow (you're being polite).  Then, of a sudden, you've slammed into a wall.  The wrong thing is happening, wrongly.

You take your pen.  You strike through pages.  You take lemon with your tea, and intervene.

Buzz Bissinger (at heart)

Probably no one who knows me and knows Buzz Bissinger would imagine us to be friends.  I worry, obsessively, over unintended hurts, small provocations, unfinished thoughts.  I dance because movement is mostly granted immunity and words (often) are not.  I defer when I can, step back when I should, am intimate with shadows.  In the books I write, I lean hard on language when many of my critics wonder why I cannot figure out how to lean just as hard on conflict.

Buzz Bissinger isn't like that.  ...

Border Crossing

The view from Juarez, looking toward El Paso.

Bookalicious and Heart

Bookalicious isn't just an essential, edible name.  It's the site of an enormously generous reviewer.  Thank you so much for these words about Heart.

Already a young man

(already a style)