Fiction Friday: HOPING-FOR-SUN READS & SUNDRY FUN STUFF

It's been gray here in my hometown--damp and depressing. Even walking my secretary (like his cute new haircut?) doesn't cheer me up because the sky is so sunless that each step makes me shiver. Plus, I have been reading so many pre-published manuscripts for work this week that I haven't had time to review any new fiction--bloggy failure!

After a brief wallow in self-pity, I decided to give up on the search for rays, let go of the blogger guilt, pour a nice cup of tea and start my hoping-for-sun summer reading list. Here are the first few title that will be making my beach bag super-heavy:

I'm feeling more cheery just thinking about these great titles and looking forward to writing about them soon. So, now for two brightening bits of news:

I did get hold of an arc of TELL ME A SECRET and the whole book was as great as the first two chapters--could not put it down. Check out Holly's blog tour here and grab your copy in bookstores next week.

I'll be giving a vlog presentation as part of WRITE ON CON (check out this past Wednesday's post). More details to come.

Hope there's some sun in your weekend forecast!

TELL YOU A SECRET...

Even though it won't be in stores until June 22, I got to read the first two chapters of Holly Cupala's amazing debut novel yesterday (check out her rockin' website--lots of great swag)!  Here's how it happened:  When Holly arrived at the SCBWI meeting on Tuesday night, she had just received some copies of the 17-page "sneak preview" of TELL ME A SECRET from her publisher and I snagged one (check out cute pic of me and Holly with the bookie). Reading it was the carrot I dangled in front of myself as I was trying to reach my 1,500 word goal for the day (don't always set the bar that high but I was feeling energetic). Alas, I only finished my pages in time to head out to pick up four boys from three different schools and haul them all to a two-hour track meet :)

I'll admit, I didn't actually see my third-grader run the relay because, leaning against the chain link fence at the edge of the track, I was already swept up in the opening pages of TELL ME A SECRET. I did catch him in the 75 yard dash because I raced through those two chapters more breathless than the runners on the field and, frankly, frustrated that the rest of the book wasn't in my hands right that moment. With rich, evocative language and a heartbreakingly vulnerable protagonist, this title is going right onto my summer must-read list!

Next post, on Friday, will be about School & Library author visits.  Promise!