SOLD -- DEATH BY TOILET PAPER

I'm delighted to announce the sale of my new middle grade novel, DEATH BY TOILET PAPER, to Michelle Poploff, Vice President and Executive Editor at Delacorte Press/Random House Children's Books.

Michelle Poploff

I'm forever grateful to my agent, Tina Wexler, at ICM Partners for helping me find the story I was trying to tell and selling it to a wonderful editor. 

Tina Wexler

 I've worked on versions of this story for years, and it's going to be a DOOZY!!!

Here's the announcement from PublishersMarketplace:  Donna Gephart's DEATH BY TOILET PAPER, about a contest-crazed seventh-grade boy whose attempts to save his family from eviction result in battling a bully, keeping a difficult promise and creating a wedding gown made entirely from toilet paper for his zany zeyde to wear.

Publication of DEATH BY TOILET PAPER is slated for FALL 2014.

And in other good book news:  OLIVIA BEAN, TRIVIA QUEEN comes out in paperback March 2013 -- in time to celebrate Jeopardy's! 50th anniversary and Alex Trebek's 30th anniversary as host.  

***  HAPPY HOLIDAYS FROM A VERY HAPPY AUTHOR! ***

Favorite Philly Review . . . and Young Author Celebration

Philadelphia is in the house!!!

For years, my Aunt Iris clipped the young adult book reviews from the Philadelphia Inquirer and mailed them to me in South Florida.

I loved getting those reviews!  

In fact, I e-mailed the reviewer, Katie Haegele, to tell her how much I enjoyed her reviews.

You can imagine my delight to find that my book, OLIVIA BEAN, TRIVIA QUEEN, appeared in today's young adult book reviews, among the likes of books by Walter Dean Myers, Pete Hautman, Cecil Castellucci, etc. 

My favorite part of the review was this:  "Local kids will smile when they see that Olivia lives in Philadelphia, goes to Phillies games, and mentions her favorite place to go out to eat: the Country Club Diner."  (That's right; I proudly set this novel in Philadelphia, which is why I'm so blasted happy it's reviewed in the Philadelphia Inquirer.)

Thank you, Katie Haegele!  (And thanks for your awesome advice about cutting soy out of my diet.  It's reduced my migraines to nearly zero!)

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And in related reading/writing news, I was the speaker at my favorite event of the year yesterday -- The Young Author Celebration at Manatee Academy for St. Lucie County.

Uber-media specialist and President of the St. Lucie Reading Council, Debbie Remington and her trusty sidekick, Vince, organized and ran the event.  They gave the students certificates and food (including giant cookies) and books and more books!

Debbie Remington and Donna

And my trusty sidekick and fantabulous hubby helped out.

Hubby missed his weekly basketball game to help out at this event.

 What a delight to meet these young, talented writers and readers and their very proud parents and grandparents.

And the winners are . . .

I'm going to announce the winners of the Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen giveaway, but first let's get something straight.

Writers are liars.  Flat out.  (And we sometimes get paid for it.) 

So, when I told you I was giving away two copies of Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen, I lied.  I'm not giving away two copies.

YOU, lovely readers, did such a fantabulous job of coming up with creative comments that I'm giving away THREE Olivia Bean ARCs.

CONGRATULATIONS to the following winners:

1)  Kelly Baptist:  "It's more beautiful than 3 1/2 sleeping children... What is Reading in peace!"

2)  Literaryfriendships:  "The youngest Vernick, gymnastics-challenged, would turn cartwheels of joy. Final answer."

3)  Jennifer:  "Category: ELATION. Question: This event causes wild abandon. Answer: Winning an ARC!"

The three autographed ARCs will be on their way soon.


And in completely unrelated news:  This is my 400th blog post.  When did that happen!

Last School Visit and Book Signing of 2010

A big THANK YOU to librarian Karen Marchetto for inviting me to speak to the 6th grade students at Jupiter Middle School.

The day began with Hammy the Hamster appearing on their morning news.

I then proceeded to embarrass myself in front of more than 400 kids by telling them about my dork days of middle school, including the fact that I was a proud member of my school's ping pong club. Clearly, it would be impossible to out-dork me during those braces-wearing, pimple-erupting daze, er, days!

The evening after the school visit, I met great students, parents and teachers at Barnes & Noble, where I signed copies of How to Survive Middle School and As If Being 12 3/4 Isn't Bad Enough, My Mother is Running for President!

One girl insisted her father buy her a copy of As If Being 12 3/4 . . . even though she'd already read it. Another girl asked me to recommend books I enjoyed when I was her age. Turns out, she'd already read and enjoyed Mr. Poppers Penguins, so I told her A Hundred Dresses might be another good choice.

I love meeting and chatting with young readers. It's one of my favorite parts of the job.

It's been a fun, busy year of school visits, book festivals and conferences and I look forward to even more in 2011, but for now . . .

I'm going to relish time to finish revisions for Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen. Can't wait till she makes her way into the world Spring 2012.

Good News and a Contest!

My editor just shared the wonderful news that How to Survive Middle School went into its SECOND printing, after being in the world less than a week! Go, Hammy!

Olivia Bean, Trivia Queen, my third book, is finally finished (for now) and on my agent's desk. I had so much fun learning quirky trivia and about the show Jeopardy!. (Yes, it's supposed to have an exclamation point after it. I mean . . .!!!!!)

A big thank you to Cindy Hudson for her review at The Mother Daughter Book Club. Check out Cindy's book!

Now, onto that contest: The LOVELY LADIES, Mary Hershey and Robin LaFevers, at Shrinking Violet Promotions have launched my novel with a giveaway. Answer a question on their blog, and you'll be in the running to win a nifty autographed copy of How to Survive Middle School. (Rumor has it Hammy will sign it as well.)

Spread the hamster love!