I take it all back - Kirkus rocks!!

Did I ever say Kirkus could be kranky? Did I complain about the review in which I changed sex?

Well, I didn't mean it.

Not one word.

Not after this review from Kirkus for Girl, Stolen.

"This can't-put-it-down crime thriller unfolds through the viewpoints of both victim and criminal. Sixteen-year-old Cheyenne , blinded in an accident that killed her mother three years earlier, has pneumonia. As she sleeps in the back of her stepmother's car, Griffin steals it, inadvertently kidnapping her. Once Griffin 's car-thief father learns she's wealthy, he decides to demand ransom. When the hapless Griffin realizes his dad and cronies will kill the girl to protect their identities, he tries to protect her. Clearly, the author did extensive research on blindness and its challenges. Her realistic depiction of the coping strategies and the strengths developed by the blind greatly enhances the novel, lifting it above the level of a mere escapist thriller. Characterizations make an impact, with both Cheyenne and Griffin becoming quite appealing; much suspense revolves around Griffin 's divided loyalties. The slightly ambiguous ending highlights Cheyenne 's ambivalent feelings toward Griffin . Although Cheyenne 's multiple problems might feel overdone in less skilled hands, Henry handles them deftly and makes her choices work. Constantly interesting and suspenseful. (Thriller. 12 & up)"

All you authors out there know how much this means, how you wait and wait for reviews, feeling slightly sick to your stomach, knowing how much a bad one stings. This is so good I can't take it in!

Adopted girl finds out mother is murderer

27 years ago this week, Diane Downs said a bushy-haired stranger shot her and her three kids, killing one of them. The shooting occurred about 90 minutes from here, and I still remember the terror that swept the state. Such a horror. I also remember looking at the composite drawing and thinking about the words "bushy-haired stranger" and feeling a little bit of doubt.

She was ultimately charged with the shootings. The motive was thought to be a new boyfriend who didn't want kids. At the trial, Christie Ann Downs, who was 8 at the time of the shooting, and who suffered injuries that affected one arm and her speech, testified that her mother shot her and her siblings. Cheryl Lynn Downs, 7, was killed. Three-year-old Stephen Downs was paralyzed from the waist down. In an odd twist, Christie Ann and Stephen were adopted by the prosecutor.

Ann Rule wrote a book about it called Small Sacrifices: A True Story of Passion and Murder (Signet).

Downs was pregnant at the time of her sentencing, and gave birth to a girl a few days later. Now Glamour magazine has the story of the girl Downs was pregnant with - Rebecca Babcock. "Rebecca Babcock always knew she was adopted, but at 16 she was rocked by the discovery that her birth mother, Diane Downs, was a murderer, convicted of shooting her own children."

The story is co-written by Eric Mason. The article says he is now a PI, but used to be a TV reporter. Eric interviewed me - twice! - about my books. It's a small world.

Read more about Rebecca here. While she is seeking a co-writer for her life story, I think it would be a great starting point for a novel.

Look what I found!

This past week, I have seen the strangest assortment of stuff while I've been running:
- a dead mole
- 2 dead rats (I'm starting to worry about bubonic plague)
- 2 pairs of women's panties (in different locations)
- in someone's garage, a Christmas stocking hanging next to a (presumably model) human skull
- amazingly beautiful flowers
- and this! an actual library checkout card! (for May Bird Among the Stars: Book Two)



I didn't know they still used library checkout cards. For me, they bring back so many memories. When I was a kid, you could only check out six books at one time, but the librarian wisely decided the rule didn't apply to me. And my first job was at a library, where I often typed out new cards, as well as filed them when books were checked out.

Making new cards was probably a kind of penance for another memory I have of library checkout cards, which used to be made of a thicker card stock than the one I found. When I was a kid, we were pretty poor.

How poor, you ask?

So poor that we got one pair of shoes per school year and knew we needed to make them last. Seeing as how we bought our shoes at Leeds or Kinneys (cheap chains that probably have long since bit the dust), they didn't. I would get holes in the sole of my shoes. And library checkout cards were the perfect thing to put in the bottom.

A commercial for Kinney Shoes:

Local Children's Author Pleads Guilty to Possessing Porn

Luckily, I never met KP Bath, the author of two middle-grade books - The Secret of Castle Cant, and Escape From Castle Cant - even though he lives less than 10 miles from me. [In a rather creepy coincidence, the ad displayed on the Amazon page says I can find Portland-area babysitters. Trust me, this guy is not someone you would want watching your kids.]

Yesterday he pleaded guilty to possessing child porn. And not just any child porn. "Prosecutors have alleged that some of the images were of infants, toddlers and prepubescent children, some of whom were bound and appeared to be the victims of sadistic and violent behavior."

Little Brown dropped him after he was arrested. He was supposed to have a new book out last fall. It's possible I would have reviewed it for the Oregonian.

The full story.

I'm not a believer in the death penalty, but it's hard to think that a person like this could ever be rehabilitated.

Bribery works!

A couple of years back, we did something that seemed kind of radical for Teen. We stopped giving her a flat allowance and started paying her to read and play musical instruments.

I always felt a bit defensive about it. But now comes some scientific proof that that sort of thing works. A researcher studied five different ways to improve student performance. For each method, there were matched control schools. Success was measured by performance on standardized tests.

The most successful method: “Paying second-graders to read books significantly boosted their reading-comprehension scores on standardized tests at the end of the year — and those kids seemed to continue to do better the next year, even after the rewards stopped.”

Other efforts had more mixed success. These including paying for better grades, better test scores and better behavior.

Adults are motivated by money. Would many of us work at our jobs if there was no pay? Why should kids be any different?
Read more about the study here.

The path to success

I've been reading The Art of War for Writers: Fiction Writing Strategies, Tactics, and Exercises, and really enjoying it.

One thing I especially liked was this:


It is, I believe, a diagram of a realistic path to success.

From the bottom up
At the bottom are people who "want to" write, maybe write a very little, but abandon it and don't move on to the next level.

Next up are people who are trying to learn something about writing, through books, conferences, classes, critique groups.

And some from that group will actually finish their novels.

And while they try to find a publisher for that finished novel, they start a new one (or ones), because most people don't have their first novels published. (For me, it was my fourth book. It sold in three days. It was like a seven-year, overnight success.)

If they persevere, if they keep learning, keep writing, then eventually they get published.

And if keep at it, they are multi-published. (Are there times when your career might seem dead, when you can't get anyone to bite, even after you are published? For me, yes, there have been times. But I always figured the only one who could take me out of the game was me.)

And James Bell's diagram shows that having a breakout hit is not something you can really control. Every now and then the Ferris wheel dips down and picks you up and carries you off. I had that happen last year when Lis Wiehl's and my first book together showed up on the NY Times bestseller list.

Want to read my next book - Girl, Stolen?

Want to read my next book - Girl, Stolen?

Come on, you know you do. ;-)

Here’s the description: “In Girl, Stolen, 16-year-old Cheyenne Wilder is napping in the back of the car while her stepmom fills her prescription. Before Cheyenne realizes what’s happening, someone is stealing the car - with her inside. Griffin hadn’t meant to kidnap Cheyenne; all he planned to do was take the car. But when Griffin’s dad finds out that Cheyenne’s dad is the president of a powerful corporation, everything changes - now there’s a reason to keep her. How will Cheyenne survive this nightmare? She’s not only sick - she’s blind.”

Girl, Stolen comes out in October. But I’ve been hearing from some enthusiastic readers/bloggers/reviewers who want to get their hands on an Advanced Readers Copy (which looks just like the real book, except done as a softcover, not a hardback). I feel terrible I can’t send ARCs to every one of you. But I do have two I can share, and I’d like to launch them on a whirlwind trip.

What I'm proposing is to send my ARCs off on a cross-country adventure. Each of my two ARCs will make stops at the homes of interested readers, who will then send it on in turn.

Would you like your home/office/school to be a pit stop on the road trip for Girl, Stolen? Then leave your email address in the comments.

That means you - yes, you! - will get to read Girl, Stolen months before it comes out. The only catch is that you’ll have to send it on to the next reader after you’re finished, which means you have to pay for postage. And since there will be more readers waiting after you, you have to swear on a stack of Bibles that you won’t let it lie around, gathering dust.

If this sounds like your kind of deal, just leave me your email.