Beth Kephart's Blog, page 84

Gearing up for Alaska

Azalea-pink rain jacket. Check.

Water-resistant hiking boots with as much style as they could muster and as few pounds as they could bear. Check.

Water-resistant pants. Yes, I have those, too.

And a new battery for the camera. An extra chip or two.

I'm gearing up for Alaska. The National Geographic Cruise. I want to see those blue icebergs before they melt into the sea. Those bears (but at a distance). The humped backs of those whales.

And so, later this summer, I will.

Nose to the grindstone between now and then.

Lessons in Publishing Longevity: Undercover Sells to the Dutch House, Callenbach

Yesterday, it became official: Callenbach, the glorious Dutch publishing house that released a gorgeous, translated Small Damages two years ago, has purchased Dutch translation rights to Undercover, the first young adult novel I ever wrote and published.

Like Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River, Undercover first appeared in 2007 and taught me several things about risks worth taking. Like The Heart Is Not a Size, Undercover is vaguely autobiographical—a Cyrano story of a teen who cannot see her own beauty and who relies on words to bridge her to the world. My Elisa writes poems. She has an English teacher who cares. She skates secretly on a frozen pond. She meets a boy named Theo. Her words, she soon discovers, have power. But so, perhaps, does she.

It is moving to think of vestiges of my own Radnor High and adolescence being transported to the Netherlands, under the auspices of a publishing house established in 1854. It is also telling, and hopeful—a sign of optimism for all of us—that books written years ago still live on, somehow. This idea about longevity is perhaps the lesson for me of this year, as Flow, seven years later, emerges as an affordable paperback, and as Undercover begins the process of finding a new audience in the Netherlands, as it has also found in China.

My thanks to Alpha Wong of HarperTeen for negotiating the agreement, and to Amy Rennert, my agent, for letting me know.

Clydesdales, Georgina Bloomberg, Cowboy: Scenes from the Devon Horse Show

Ever since I was a little girl, the Devon Horse Show has swept me in. It has been gray here, misty, but that hasn't daunted the horses or those who love them.

Last night was the Grand Prix. Leading up to all of that was this—anticipation in the stables, an entertaining cowboy, Clydesdales on the grounds. The first jumper of the night was Georgina Bloomberg.

Stone Harbor: One Hundred Years of the Seashore at Its Best

I write four hundred words of the new novel—a seashore novel—and decide that I've earned a walk, down to the Devon Horse Show, where anticipation surrounding this evening's Grand Prix runs high.

Shortly after I return, a gift arrives—an absolutely gorgeous hardback history of Stone Harbor, which was "my" seashore during my growing up years and which has in recent times been returned to me by my brother, his wife, and his children. I wrote of my love for this place in one of my first stories for the Philadelphia Inquirer, and not long afterward, Amy Welsh, on behalf of the Stone Harbor Property Owners Association, wrote to ask if she might include the essay in the Stone Harbor centennial story.

Of course I said yes.

But I did not foresee just how lovely this book would be—the photos, the stories, the personal reminisces, the high-quality design and production. It is an honor to have my words included and an inspiration as I turn the corner on the halfway mark of this novel that still sits here, waiting for me.

Thank you, Stone Harbor, for being the shore I always loved best. And thank you, Amy, for ending your glorious book with my words.

Trumpeting Summer Reading and Announcing Two New(ish) Book Blogs

A number of weeks ago, I was asked to take a photograph of my TBR pile. And so I did, joining many other authors in this wonderful photo diary posted today on Mom.me. I can proudly report that I've read a number of the books pictured in my stack since snapping the picture. I must also report that I recently took nearly 60 new hardcovers to my local library for donation and my house is more book stuffed than ever.

I'll never get ahead.

You probably never will either, because there are so many great books to be read. And if you're looking for even more temptations, then I recommend two book-savvy bloggers to you.

First, meet Anmiryam Budner, who kind of sort of blew me away last Saturday at Main Point Books with her deep knowledge of authors and stories. There we stood, in that lovely space, pointing to this book, that book, this one. She'd read them all. I'd read enough of them to talk at length. She gave me room to complain about the unfair review of Stacey D'Erasmo's Wonderland in the New York Times Book Review, and anyone who lets me do that is golden. That woman knows this business, and she talks about it and the books she loves here, on My Overstuffed Shelves.

Second, here is Elizabeth Law, a children's publishing giant now in the business of book editing and ushering. For her first blog post ever she wrote about ten books she loves and why. Fascinating insights, with more—on word count, editorial letters, and publishing magic—to come. She's a fresh new voice on the book blogging scene, and so we welcome her in.

Undercover, my first novel for young adults, sells to a wonderful Dutch publisher

Seven years ago, I published two very different books—a vaguely autobiographical first novel for young adults, Undercover, and Flow: The Life and Times of Philadelphia's Schuylkill River.

Both represented a turning point.

Both remain books that I remember with great fondness. The stories I was given the freedom to tell. The people I met throughout the telling. The lessons I learned about the risks worth taking.

Both books have surprised me deeply in recent weeks; both have been returned to me.  

A few days ago, as I wrote here, Flow arrived in warehouses as a brand-new paperback.

Today I learned that Callenbach, the fantastic publishing house that beautifully packaged Small Damages for Dutch readers, will be publishing Undercover as well.

By many, many measures, my writing life is a modest life. That is, perhaps, why news like this touches me as deeply as it does.

Scenes across the Berlin Wall, and a story about female graffiti artists, with thanks to Paul Steege

There is no sound in this video shot across the Berlin Wall in 1971. There doesn't have to be. The faces here say it all, the blown kisses, the raised binoculars, the East Germans who do not wish to leave the friends they spot in the West across the many walls, the many divisions.

This is chilling, heartbreaking, telling, historic, and I have my friend Paul Steege, writer and historian at Villanova University, to thank for sharing it with me.

Paul also sent along a link to this Julia Baird New York Times story about the rise of female graffiti artists around the world, which ran earlier this week. The story is fascinating, end to end, and begins like this:

For decades it was thought that the reason street art was almost exclusively male was because men were more comfortable with peril; many sought it. After all, street art is notoriously dangerous, exhilarating and risky.

It is, of course, usually illegal; many street artists work at night, in wigs or masks, wearing shoes made for running. One night, when the Australian artist Vexta, who is now based in Brooklyn, was painting neon-splattered, psychedelic images in an abandoned building with friends, the police arrived. She jumped through a hole in the wall, rolled under a shutter door and ran down the street to hail a cab. No one would pick her up, since she was smeared with dirt and paint.

 Ada, I think, as I read. Ada ( Going Over ). She might have been Vexta. She might still be.

The Shebooks Kickstarter Campaign: watch the movie

You know how proud I am to be a Shebooks author. You know how much I've loved the Shebooks I've read. You know how much it means to be able to support other writers of fiction, memoir, long-form journalism. To support other women, too.

And so here I am with Shebooks again, but this time I'm talking about the Kickstarter campaign. I'm going to let the official press release speak for Shebooks here. But I hope you'll stop to watch the movie. To be inspired by it, even, to help the campaign, to write a Shebooks of your own.

Shebooks Launches Kickstarter for its 2014 Equal Writes Campaign

New digital publisher kicks off campaign to raise awareness of gender bias in publishing.


San Francisco, CA (May 27, 2014) – Shebooks, a new digital publisher of short e-books by women,
today launched a Kickstarter campaign to raise awareness of the gender bias in publishing—and to
build a fund to pay women writers. “Our goal is to publish as many short e-books by women as we
can this year.” says Laura Fraser, Shebooks Cofounder and Editorial Director. “As an author, I’ve seen the space for quality women's writing shrink and shrink. That’s why we started Shebooks, to give more women a platform to publish their work.”

The 30-day Kickstarter campaign has a goal to raise $50K, all of which will go to pay women writers in 2014. At every pledge level, Shebooks offers fun, creative campaign rewards, including a Shebooks subscription, a chance to get your own original work published in an upcoming Girl Power anthology, an “EQUAL WRITES” T-shirt, a night out with Shebooks authors, author visits to your book club, the opportunity to have a protagonist named after you in an upcoming book, and much more.

To date, Shebooks has published over 40 original books by top authors and journalists. Shebooks
authors include international bestselling author Hope Edelman, New York Times-bestselling author
Caroline Leavitt, former Deputy Editor of Essence Teresa Wiltz, founder of Ms. Magazine Suzanne
Braun Levine, and National Book Award finalist Beth Kephart. This week’s Shebook, I’ll Give You
Something to Cry About, is an original novella by New York Times-bestselling novelist Jennifer Finney Boylan, who was recently named the Anna Quindlen writer-in-residence at Barnard.

“We are thrilled by the quality of the e-books that we’ve published so far and are excited to discover
new voices and publish many more,” says Peggy Northrop, Cofounder and President of Shebooks.
“Kickstarter is the perfect vehicle for getting the word out to a wide audience about this exciting new media form.”

About Shebooks
Shebooks is a new publisher of short e-books by and for women, cofounded in 2013 by magazine
editor Peggy Northrop, bestselling author Laura Fraser, and media executive Rachel Greenfield.
Shebooks.net offers a curated collection of original and hard-to-find memoir, fiction, and journalis tailored to women and designed to be read in under two hours. Shebooks can be purchased individually for $2.99 or by subscription.

I see what you've done and how you've cared, he said

"Hey," my son will sometimes say. "Maybe we can see each other this weekend."

Say the word, we're there. Or he's here. And it is, as the Brits say, brilliant.

This weekend our son came here. The Devon Horse Show carriages rolling down the street. Our son rolling into town.

On Monday, we took our walk, for walking is how we do our best listening. Down the hill, past our neighbors, underneath the leafy trees, and my son began to talk about home, what it means to him, what he appreciates about the tiny house, only two bedrooms big, that has required so much work and time just to keep its warm heart beating.

I see what you have done and how you've cared, he said. And I love being there.

Maybe it's just me, but no review of anything I write or make could ever matter more.

GOING OVER is a YA Reads for Teachers (And Any Other Adults)

We all know how Beth feels about categories. About books being books, read without prejudice.

And so I was so very happy to hear from Rory, who leads the YA Reads for Teachers (And Any Other Adults) program on Goodreads, and to learn that Going Over will be the discussion book throughout the month of June.

Chronicle contributed 15 books through a giveaway for this program (thank you, Chronicle and Stephanie Wong). Those of you who wish to participate in the conversation should follow this link to learn about the program in general, and about the Going Over discussion.

Rory and YA Reads for Teachers (And Any Other Adults), I again thank you.