Jacqueline West's Blog, page 4
June 16, 2014
One more day…
…before STILL LIFE is released.
Actually, it’s not even one day. It’s one evening, one night, and the sliver of morning before bookstores open their doors.
If you can’t wait that long, you can preorder it from your favorite bookseller (and IndieBound can help you find the closest shop: http://www.indiebound.org/indie-store...). Or, if you’re in my part of the world, you can come to Red Balloon in St. Paul at 6:30 on 6/17, Fox Den in River Falls, WI at 6:30 on 6/20, Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, MN at 2:00 on 6/21, or Wild Rumpus in Minneapolis at 7:00 on 6/21, to buy the book and get it signed by me. And I’ll be very happy to see you there.
Samuel Johnson said, “A writer only begins a book. A reader finishes it.” And I 100% agree. Even though I was done writing STILL LIFE months ago, this week is when it’s going to finally feel finished. After tomorrow, people will be reading it. People I don’t even know. They’ll be turning the words into living pictures in their minds, and everything will have finally come to a close: the ideas traveling through paper and time and distance and transforming back into ideas again. It’s a truly awesome thing.
The Pioneer Press just ran this wonderful piece on the series from beginning to end.
And Tor.com is hosting a giveaway of THE SHADOWS — comment between now and June 20th to win!
Lots of pictures, new links, and some more coherent thoughts to come. Til then: Thank you for reading. Thank you, thank you, thank you.
May 25, 2014
Un-Still Life
May is whooshing to its end, and I can’t believe everything that’s been crammed into it: An amazing visit to the school and library in Rye, New Hampshire (read more here: http://www.seacoastonline.com/articles/20140508-NEWS-405080391) that allowed day trips to Salem and Concord (including a stop at Louisa May Alcott’s Orchard House, which was everything my eight-year-old self could have hoped for), the Gaithersburg Book Festival in Maryland, three local school visits, interviews, Skype chats, and increasingly exciting preparations for the release of VOL. FIVE: STILL LIFE on June 17th.
In celebration of the approaching release, Literary Rambles is hosting a giveaway of one of the books in the series (winner’s choice!) and an interview with me: http://www.literaryrambles.com/2014/05/jacqueline-west-interview-and-book-of.html.
The Books of Elsewhere is also being featured at The Book Cellar as part of Middle Grade May: http://www.thebookcellarx.com/2014/05/middle-grade-may-books-elsewhere.html
Next week, I head back to the East Coast for a round of school visits in Fairfax County, Virginia, and then I zoom back home for a slew of release events — like this one:
(That’s right. You’re officially invited to the Official Launch Party. If you’re in the area, and you’re free, and you feel like it, please come.)
More info about all of those release events soon…
View from our cottage window, Rye, NH
Incredible headstones in The Burying Point, Salem, MA
The Burying Point, Salem
Louisa May Alcott’s grave, Sleepy Hollow Cemetery, Concord
April 22, 2014
Endangered Authors (Part III!) Tour Wrap-Up
…And I’m home. Funny how when you’re on the road, it feels like you’ve been traveling eternally, and you can hardly remember what it was like NOT to pull your wrinkly clothes out of a suitcase each morning, and you get used to waking up and not knowing what time zone, city, or state you’re in. And then you get back to your very own house, and all your comfortable routines and favorite coffee cups and non-travel-sized toiletries are waiting for you, and you can hardly believe you ever left at all.
But I’ve got proof: Photos. Lots of ‘em.
In the final two weeks of the 2014 Endangered Authors Tour, we visited Swans Creek Elementary (South Bridge, VA) and the Nysmith School (Herndon, VA), Southern Pines Elementary (Southern Pines, NC) and West Pine Middle School (West End, NC), Hawk Ridge Elementary and Trinity Episcopal School in Charlotte, St. Bridget School and G.H. Reid Elementary in Richmond, VA, Ensworth School in Nashville, Fairhope Intermediate and J. Larry Newton in Fairhope, Alabama, and Doss Elementary and Bryker Woods Elementary in Austin. Huge thanks to all the students, teachers, librarians, parents, and booksellers who made all of this possible.
Speaking of booksellers — Signed copies of The Books of Elsewhere, Wereword, The Accidental Adventures, and Tales from Alcatraz are (or were!) available from:
– Bookworm Central, Manassas, VA
– Country Bookshop, Southern Pines, NC
– Cardinal Lane Book Fairs, Charlotte, NC
– BBGB Books, Richmond, VA
– Parnassus Books, Nashville, TN
– Page & Palette, Fairhope, AL
– BookPeople, Austin, TX
Onward to the pictorial proof section…
Curtis (Jobling), Sandy (C. Alexander London), Gennifer (Choldenko), and Peter (McNerney) in the antique brass elevator at the Tobacco Company Restaurant in Richmond
With two young readers (Hi, Katie!) and a scroll of Elsewhere artwork at Parnassus Books, Nashville
Rows and rows of readers at Doss Elementary, Austin
Feeling very welcome in Texas
And, on the library wall at Bryker Woods Elementary in Austin, between quotes from Swimmy and Holes and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, a passage from one of my very own books — and from Harvey, in particular. It doesn’t get any better.
March 30, 2014
So, four authors and an improv actor walk into an elementary school…
Week one of the Endangered Authors tour (part III!) is done. It was a more endangering week than any of us expected: we were in outer Los Angeles during Friday night’s 5.4 earthquake. I was standing at the hotel room sink at the time, and my first thought was that some rude group of people was running loudly up and down the hallway above me, which shows what a weird old curmudgeon I’ve become. And then the walls started to sway. I stood in the doorframe, watching the curtains swish back and forth and hoping that I wouldn’t have to run outside in my glasses and my hotel bathrobe…and then the rumbling and swaying stopped, and everything was fine. (It was kind of exciting, really, at least to this Minnesotan. Still, if no tornadoes, hurricanes, or Biblical plagues follow us on the next leg of the tour, we all be happy.)
Earthquake excepted, California was very good to us. Curtis Jobling (Wereworld), C. Alexander London (An Accidental Adventure), Gennifer Choldenko (Al Capone Does My Shirts) and I spent our days getting threatened by diabolically smarmy game show host Holden A. Grudge (actually the brilliant actor Peter McNerney) and being rescued by excited young readers, and the show just keeps getting better. Thanks to everyone at Lakeview Elementary and Oak Meadow Elementary in El Dorado Hills, to Brittan Acres in San Carlos and Sacred Heart in Atherton, to all the schools and students who joined us at Amador High in Pleasanton, to Grant Elementary in Petaluma and Monte Vista Elementary in Rohnert Park, and to Telesis Academy in West Covina and De Anza Elementary in Baldwin Park, who even helped me sing “Happy Birthday” to my dad — thanks again, guys!.
(One good morning in California.)
Double-extra-huge thanks to the booksellers at Face in a Book (El Dorado Hills), The Reading Bug (San Carlos), Towne Center Books (Pleasanton), Copperfields (Petaluma), and Mrs. Nelson’s Book Fairs (Los Angeles), all of whom now have signed copies of The Books of Elsewhere, Wereworld, The Accidental Adventures, and the Tales from Alcatraz in stock.
Now we’re in lovely Alexandria, Virginia. Tomorrow we’ve got two local school visits before we head down to North Carolina. Nashville, Alabama, Austin: We’ll see you soon!
March 1, 2014
Looking Backward
Where to begin?
One month ago today, I was finishing a fantastic visit at Pinewood Elementary School in Eagan and rushing off to the airport. So much happened between then and now that it all feels chronologically impossible, as though when we finally flew back to Minnesota, we should have been flying back in time as well.
So, working backward, from most recent to least…
On February 25th, I got to do something exceedingly cool: A live online chat with the readers of New Moon Girls. The magazine reviewed The Books of Elsewhere in their January/February 2014 issue, and the series is up for the Girls’ Choice Book Awards, which is also exceedingly cool. The girls were bright, funny, and enthusiastic, and the chat went by in a flash. You can read the full transcript here (and please excuse any fast-typing typos).
On February 21st, I visited St. Mark’s Cathedral School in Shreveport, Louisiana. The people and the weather were warm and wonderful, and I got to observe a bit of change ringing practice on the cathedral’s massive tower bells.
We spent the weekend of the 26th-27th in New Orleans, where we pastried and coffeed our way around the neighborhoods, and I even got a bit of writing done (as seen here, at my favorite breakfast place on earth). 
And, because Mardi Gras is fast approaching, we caught the parade of the Mystic Krewe of Barkus, which, in spite of the rain, made the list of cutest things I’ve ever seen, right between a baby bat wrapped in a washcloth and a porcupine eating a pumpkin. (Several more photos at my Tumblr, here. For added incentive: This year’s theme was “Dogzilla.” You know you want to see some more wet dogs in dinosaur suits.)
The three weeks before that were spent in Oregon with Ryan’s family.
I don’t generally post the most personal stuff here–or anywhere, really–but this is a big one.
Ryan’s mother, fearless adventurer Sherri West, died on February 12th, four and a half years after her diagnosis with metastatic breast cancer. She was able to spend most of that time–between bouts of chemo, drug tests, research, and radiation –traveling, exploring, gardening, reuniting with far-flung friends and family; all the things that she loved most.
The entire immediate family was able gather for her last two weeks here. We spent the days (and some of the nights) telling stories, singing, sharing bourbon and brownies, and at the very end, Sherri was in her own home, encircled by all of us. It was good to be there. It is also good to be home.
To the organizers and attendees of events I had to bow out of — in particular, to Vicki Palmquist and everyone at Children’s Literature Network/Books for Breakfast 2014, who were so incredibly kind — and to the librarians and teachers coordinating other events that were nearly rearranged at the last minute, and to the writers in the Twin Cities kids’ lit community who have reached out with notes and help: Thank you for your understanding. As for the family and friends who’ve supported us, shoveling our driveway, sending messages, making donations in Sherri’s memory… What would we do without you guys? I really don’t want to know.
February 19, 2014
Cover Reveal (…sort of): THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE, VOLUME FIVE: STILL LIFE
This has already appeared on Facebook and Tumblr (and it may or may not have turned up on Goodreads and Amazon), but here it is again: The lovely, eerie, swirlingly snowy cover of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE, VOLUME FIVE: STILL LIFE. I knew how lucky I was to be paired with illustrator Poly Bernatene the very first time I saw his sketches, and with each volume of THE BOOKS OF ELSEWHERE, I feel even luckier and even more certain that these books should not — or maybe even could not — have turned out any other way. Thanks to Poly and the brilliant designers at Dial, these are books I would want to climb inside.
The very last volume of the series will be turning up in bookstores, libraries, and mailboxes everywhere on June 17th.
Events are also falling into place. The release party will be held at the glorious Red Balloon in St. Paul on the actual release date (that’s still Tuesday, June 17th, for anyone who’s lost track) at 6:30 p.m.
The following weekend, I’ll be at Valley Bookseller in Stillwater, MN. If you’re in the area at 2:00 on Saturday, June 21, I’d love to see you there.
More to come…
January 29, 2013
Wintry Mix
Originally published at Jacqueline West. You can comment here or there.
Freezing rain and fog here in Minnesota, with the roads so treacherous that schools are closed. I’d much rather have an actual blizzard…but a flurry of words and links and news will have to do.
First things first: The advance reading copies of The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Four: The Strangers have arrived at my house in their excitingly heavy box! If you (or someone you know) is a book blogger or reviewer, and you would like an ARC of The Strangers, contact me in the comments or email me at jacqueline@jacquelinewest.com. Obviously, quantities are limited, but I will guarantee a copy for the first three reviewer-respondents.
(For now, this offer is for bloggers/reviewers only. I will very likely do a giveaway for readers in a few more weeks, so stay tuned!)
Speaking of book bloggers, two great reviews of The Second Spy appeared on Book Nut and Book ‘Em! Huge thanks to everyone who is spreading the word in this way.
I learned that The Second Spy was nominated for the 2012 Cybils Awards, as well as for the Minnesota Book Awards. It isn’t a finalist for either, but both awards have been very kind to The Books of Elsewhere in the past, and truly fantastic books are on both lists.
The Second Spy also got a mention (and its picture!) in Publishers Weekly, in an article on holiday book sales.
My spring travel schedule is about to get really crazy, with more events being added all the time. Keep an eye on http://jacquelinewest.com/appearance-calendar.php, if you’re interested. This weekend, I’m off to booksALIVE! in Panama City, Florida. So long, freezing rain. Hello, Emerald Coast.
December 5, 2012
Volume Four
Originally published at Jacqueline West. You can comment here or there.
Here it is… The Books of Elsewhere, Volume Four: The Strangers.
“It’s Halloween. But not for Morton, who’s trapped in Elsewhere. Good thing Olive has a plan: Swallowing her dread of the McMartins, she sneaks Morton out and takes everyone trick-or-treating. But when they’re followed by a creature who’s not all he seems, they’re in for a surprise—something, or someone, is living in Mrs. Nivens’s abandoned house. Yes, strangers have come to Linden Street. And though they claim to be her allies, Olive has a bad feeling. She returns home late Halloween night to discover something worse: Her parents are gone.
Desperate to get them back, Olive strikes an unbalanced bargain with Annabelle McMartin and loses something incredibly valuable in the process—something that could mean doom for the house, and for Elsewhere itself. Turning to her uncertain allies, Olive attempts to sever the McMartins’ power at its root, unleashing a flood of darkness and terror that could overwhelm not only her, but the house and everyone in it. To mend her mistakes, Olive must determine who to trust. Will she put her faith in her own worst enemies to save the people and the home she loves?”
Release date: July 16, 2013.
(You can pre-order it now from Amazon. I’ll post links when pre-order is available on IndieBound and other venues.)
More cool news: Audiobooks of The Strangers AND The Second Spy will also be released on July 16, 2013, in downloadable format (no CDs this time).
And now, the wait. Good thing I’ve got Volume Five to keep me busy.
The multi-talented Matt Myklusch (of the Jack Blank trilogy) and I are both lucky enough to be clients of agent Chris Richman. Matt and I recently chatted for his podcast, The Other Side of the Story, which is rich with behind-the-scenes info and anecdotes. You can listen to our conversation here.
One of my favorite parts of traveling is coming home to a huge pile of mail. Here are two of the best things that were waiting for me on our return from NYC: A thank-you card fr0m readers at Fairmount School, and my Cybils Award for The Shadows, a gorgeous fountain pen in a carved wooden case.
November 29, 2012
Vagabond Shoes
Originally published at Jacqueline West. You can comment here or there.
We spent Thanksgiving in New York City with Ryan’s family. It was Ryan’s first visit, and my first non-book-whirlwind visit, so we had time for some sightseeing and bagel-fueled street-wandering: The Metropolitan Museum, Central Park, the Museum of Natural History. Since coming home, we’ve been playing the game of watching our favorite New York-based shows and squealing “We’ve been there!” whenever something familiar appears on the screen.
One of my favorite stops was the New York Public Library, naturally.
Finding my third book in the Children’s Center. The first volume was checked out, which made me even happier.
With the stuffed animals that belonged to the real Christopher Robin and inspired A. A. Milne’s Winnie-the-Pooh stories. You probably can’t see it, but I am crying. (How small the real Piglet is! And how shirtless the Pooh!)
Now I’m back in my own very quiet house, hard at work on Volume Five.
A very sweet new review of The Books of Elsewhere can be found here.
And if you’d like to take the reviewer’s suggestion and get some (signed!) copies of The Books of Elsewhere for the readers on your holiday list, I’ll be at the Thank-You Celebration at the Red Wing Public Library from 5:00 – 6:00 on Friday, December 7, selling and signing The Shadows, Spellbound, and The Second Spy. (Of course, if you already have copies of your own and just want them signed, you can bring those too.)
Big news about Volume Four to follow very soon…
November 15, 2012
Hey, Winona! (Not you, Ryder.)
Originally published at Jacqueline West. You can comment here or there.
This Sunday–November 18th–I’ll be a guest at Kids Day, part of a special open house event at The Book Shelf in Winona, Minnesota. If you’re in the area, or if you know anyone who is, please spread the word! (Now would be a great time to stock up on holiday gifts from a fantastic independent bookstore. Just saying.) I’ll be reading, signing books, chatting, and bringing supplies for some Books of Elsewhere-related art and writing projects. The event goes on all weekend, but I’ll be there from 10:00 – 11:30ish on Sunday only. Or, to put all of this another way:
I’d love to see you there.
“Under the Bed” had its premiere and its closing in quick succession (that’s how it goes when there are only two performances), and I got to attend both. The students, staff, and families who helped out with the production at Twin Bluff Middle School did amazing work, and the audience seemed to love it, and I’m still hearing nice things from people around town. I didn’t take any photos of the set or of the cast in costume, but if I can find someone else who did, I’ll post some images here.
And while I’m talking about past events, another huge thank you to the kids, teachers, and volunteers at Mosinee Middle School, who hosted me last week. It was a joy. Same goes for the kids at Fairmount School in Downer’s Grove, IL, who I got to visit with via Skype yesterday. I’m one lucky writer.
I should have some big Books of Elsewhere news to share in the very near future, so stay tuned! In the meantime, if you’ve been enjoying the books, please consider writing a review at Amazon.com (or Goodreads, if you’re a Goodreads-user. A Goodreader?). This kind of individual recommendation can mean a lot. It certainly does to me.
