the ARCs are in!

This is our second day of December rain but I'm still trying to feel festive—right now I'm baking cookies for my students and last night I hung my wreath on the front door. I also got a special delivery today—advance reader copies of my next novel! So far I've been presented with two covers and neither one fully captured the essence of Ship of Souls. It's an urban ghost story so the cover needs to be gritty yet magical…they're still working on it. In the meantime, this plain cover doesn't thrill me but I'll now be able to share the book with family and friends. If you're an educator or librarian or book blogger and you're already on my list, you should be getting your ARC in the next week or so (directly from the publisher). If we haven't met but you'd like to check the book out, just leave me a comment.

Amazon made a big announcement this week and the reactions have been interesting. If you like my writing and want to check out Ship of Souls, you should know that some booksellers are vowing never to sell any book published by Amazon. I respect the right of others to stand up for what they believe is right—I just wish we could generate as much outrage over the racism that excludes so many unique voices from the traditional publishing industry. I also can't help but wonder how many of those indie booksellers stock children's books by black authors. How many stock books by Lee & Low—can you find Bird in those stores? And how many are open to self-published authors? I want a publishing industry where readers and writers have options. When one door closes, you're not completely shut out because you can always try another. As I said in my acknowledgments:

I want to thank my agent, Faith Childs, who read the manuscript and responded with enthusiasm and encouragement. I also thank her for persisting in an industry where doors and minds are so often closed to writers like me.

Lastly I thank the AmazonEncore team for keeping their door open.