I’m interrupting my regularly scheduled craft talks for an announcement.
Publishing is a funny animal - you work for years on a book, first alone, and then (if you’re lucky) with your wonderful agent, and then (if you’re really lucky) with your superb editor, and your talented copy editor and…
But somehow no one tells you when your book will be “alive”. As in, up on the sales sites and available for pre-order.
So last night when I saw my next book on the big A, I had a gulpy moment of, “It’s alive!”
I really, really LOVE this book. It’s a super fun mystery with a subtext of serious preteen angst, written in the waning days of the pandemic, when I felt - as I do today - that we all need a bit of a positive kick. I’ve taken to calling it:
“Indiana Jones meets The Hardy Boys meets Holes.”
Set in a decaying Montana dude ranch, 4 teens try to solve an old mystery to find the lost treasure of a Robin-Hood-like outlaw, while being threatened by a lying, greedy, power-and-money-hungry social media star (no, not that one…), and also while dealing with their own losses and messy dreams.
Fun reading for anyone ages 8-12, and will be out from Simon & Schuster on October 22, but, hey, if you love adventures in the old and new west, age doesn’t matter and time passes swiftly.
Without any further ado, the cover:
And yes, that is a snake in the grass, the excellent cover artist’s (Yaoyao Ma Van As) metaphor (although there is an actual snake in the book. Maybe more than one kind, too.)
I hope you’ll love it as much as I do.
Next week - for you lovers of craft - back to business.
Cheers!
I can't wait to read this!
How fun! Congrats!!