…to the Season of Blurbs. This just in from one of my writing (and life) heroes and the author of many fabulous books, including the bestselling The Jane Austen Book Club, Karen Joy Fowler:
"A deft and clever debut! Bond takes some reliably great elements—a family curse, the mark of Cain, the old and endlessly fascinating mystery of the Roanoke Colony—and makes them into something delightfully, surprisingly new. How does she do that? I suspect witchcraft."
*practices witchcraft*
And I do believe that's it, though I suppose it's possible a stealth blurb could also sneak in.
I can't express how incredibly grateful I am to all these writers–Marcus Sedgwick, Cynthia Leitich Smith, Micol Ostow, Scott Westerfeld, and Karen Joy Fowler–for taking the time out of their insanely busy lives to read my book, and how humbled I am that they were willing to offer words of praise. There is a lot of smack talk about blurbing and certainly it's so nervous-making that no one enjoys asking. And it's hard to say exactly what their impact truly is…but I don't think anyone would argue with the fact that it's debut authors, people at the start of their careers (or perhaps further along but making big changes in their careers), who blurbs can help the most. I have always felt tremendous respect for established authors willing to help out other, less established writers in this way–and I feel it even more keenly now.
Anyway, I've updated my tiny proto-Blackwood page with all of these quotes and a little teaser about the book. The next excitement will probably be the cover, which is indeed very exciting. (And at some point, I've got to overhaul this site, but that is less exciting than terrifying and potentially painful.)
Happy Monday!