Karen's website - www.KarenDellecava.Com - is lovely. Please visit it to learn more about her - and read a chapter of her awesome book.
Karen is also a model (just kidding - but she could be!)
"There are a lot of great YA's out there, but it has been a long time since I read one as hard-hitting and in-your-face as A Closer Look..."
-Young Adult Book Central, 5 star review
I'm particularly excited for Karen and her book because she and I have been friends for years. We meet in a New School writing class/support group. Karen has always championed my (& everyone else's) books. It's about time she had her own parade!
Karen and I were roomies at the American Library Association conference in New Orleans. We even went on swamp tour together - and held a baby alligator!
That's me in between Karen (right) and Scars/Hunted author Cheryl Rainfield. This picture was taken at the WestSide Books booth at ALA New Orleans. We will never have another WestSide Books booth photo (sob...)
Karen agreed to pinch-hit for me at the last minute this week. Fortuitously, she'd just been to a class reunion, and she was bubbling with some thoughts about it. (You know us writers.)
Karen (from New Jersey) and I (from Long Island) are teaming up with two other tri-state area WestSide Books authors to bring you an adventerous new group blog soon: Got Teen Fiction? Even though WestSide Books is gone as we knew it, we Westies stick together!
Welcome, Karen:
Happy Thanksgiving Weekend! It’s great to be here on this lovely Black Friday far from bumper to bumper traffic and those enthusiastic bargain-hunting power shoppers.
Thanksgiving weekend is typically earmarked for class reunions—next year’s a biggie for me—30 years! Passaic Valley H.S. Class of 82ers (Go Hornets!) meet casually every year for those who still live in the area. The cool thing about a reunion is how old friends come together with a shared, unique and irreplaceable past. Classes, sports, clubs, the music, secret crushes and not-so-secret crushes. Sure we’ve made other friends since high school but none that remember what we remember, none that knew us when. It was neat to see how many of us have remained tight with the same people for 3 decades.
Two nights ago, I was hanging out with friends, some I hadn’t seen since last year or even longer. Conversations about careers, kids, parents, marriage and divorce all moved along seamlessly. Talking about our kids was especially interesting because a lot of us have kids in high school and we couldn’t help comparing them to us at that age. Yikes!
As I listened to their voices, I was transported back in time to the teen emotions that I always try to draw on. There were plenty of laughs back then but plenty of angst and tears, too. My two closest friends couldn’t make it and I had to actually rationalize that there’d be plenty of people I could talk to if I went alone. See? Still feeling the angst.
As I writer, I’ll never pass up an opportunity to chat with someone from high school, it jump starts so many emotions—good and bad—but honest which is paramount for my characters. As a PVHS Class of 82er, I’ll never pass up a reunion if I have the opportunity give a friend a hug, look into their eyes and ask about their lives. If you have a reunion this weekend, give it a shot, you’ll be glad you did.
Before I dive into a hunk of pumpkin pie, I want to mention how excited I am about our group blog, Got Teen Fiction? launching next year with you, Shari Maurer, author of Change of Heart and Joe Lunievicz, author of Open Wounds! It should be a blast!
Have a great rest of the weekend!
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