I just received the most amazing news and on my birthday too! A Whale of the Wild is now a New York Times Bestseller! I’m so proud of this story and of Lindsay Moore’s brilliant illustrations that do so much to bring the tale to life. It was first published in the depths of the pandemic, September of 2020, when my home was shrouded in wildfire smoke. And yet people found my story and loved it and shared it with others. When the paperback edition went on sale we were in the thick of the Delta wave. Still people found my story. And now after all this time, when people were out there thinking about what book they wanted their child to have this holiday, they thought of Vega and Deneb and the Orcas of the Salish Sea. I could not be more thrilled. I hope a legion of eager readers grow up to be wayfinders and defenders of the ocean.
Many thanks to my agent Fiona Kenshole of The Transatlantic Agency who never gave up on these stories and has represented them around the world with vigor and warmth. My thoughtful and savvy editor Virginia Duncan has been a dream to work with as has the whole team at HarperCollins. Most of all thanks to the booksellers and librarians and teachers who work so hard to bring books and children together in the most challenging environment of my lifetime. Thank you!
It’s been a busy two weeks since A Whale of the Wild splashed down in bookstores on Sept 1st. Wildfires have occupied most of my attention this last week but I prefer to focus on much happier news. For example, there is a new baby orca in the Salish Sea! You can read all about it on the Center for Whale Research website. The photo below is by Katie Jones who helped me vet A Whale of the Wild.
Last Thursday I got to spend an evening with one of my favorite writers Janet Fox on the Books in Common NW writers series. We had a lovely chat about my book and hers, The Artifact Hunters. It was great fun and you can catch the whole conversation here. It starts a little slow because we are waiting for folks to join the zoom, so skip ahead a minute if you like.
I had hoped to create some science videos in my backyard here in Oregon this month as a supplement to school visits, but at the moment my back yard has the most unhealthy air in the entire world because of wildfire smoke, so I’ll be postponing that for now. Fortunately I haven’t had to evacuate yet and I’m grateful for all the help and prayers that people are sending.
If you are looking for a way to support people in my state, the Oregon Food Bank is going to have 40,000 extra folks to feed this month, so a donation there would be very welcome. If you are looking for more literature-specific aid, the Book Industry Charitable Foundation (BINC) gives direct aid to displaced booksellers and burned or shuttered book shops.
A million hours of care go into a book, so it’s a relief when I finally see one off into the world, between its own covers, not needing my attention anymore.
I have learned so much from studying orcas who organize their lives around the leadership of mothers. In honor of that I’d like to say a word about some of the women who’ve made a difference in my life and helped me see the full possibilities of feminine leadership.
First up, thanks to the Girl Scouts of America. I loved my time as a brownie and junior scout. It gave me a place apart from my family and away from the male gaze to try out new skills and flex my creative, intellectual, and physical muscles.
The women saints and theologians of history like Hildegard of Bingen have inspired me for many years. (Shout out to the many Jesuits who introduced me to these women and tried to live by the example they set) I’m also grateful to the women pastors I know including Bishop Laurie Larson Ceasar and Amy Delaney who personify all that is best in female leadership with serenity and good humor 98% of the time.
I’m grateful to my mother who never said a negative thing about herself in my hearing. (She had plenty of negative things to say to me, which is why I will be showing up to all my zooms this year in a clean shirt, not picking my nose!) It’s not that I imagine my mother had no regrets or moments where she doubted herself. But she staunchly refused to play the self-depreciation game so expected of women across the generations. In refusing that game she freed me to imagine the impossible for myself and here I am with an occupation that suits my talents, and serves my community well–two of the hallmarks of female leadership.
And finally I am indebted to my brilliant mother-in-law Kathryn–a queen among matriarchs. She is the mother of twelve of the most creative and generous people I know. She is a champion wayfinder–not just in finding a way to raise all those children so beautifully, but also in helping others find their way. When I was a new mother and my Bill deployed to Desert Storm I was frantic with worry. She encouraged me to find an art that I could practice a little bit every day. She urged me to drive that desire for control and perfection into my art where it would serve me well rather than into my child where it might do much harm. Wise advice. I am a writer now because of it and grateful to have fretted over perfecting these thousands of sentences rather than my own children.
I hope you will enjoy this tale of a matriarch-in-the-making who is testing her leadership skills against incredible odds in the company of her stout-hearted little brother who–so like the men in my life–accompanies her, not to solve her problems for her, but to strengthen her simply by his presence.
A thousand thanks to Lindsay Moore for her stunning artwork, Fiona Kenshole for her tenacious advocacy, and Virginia Duncan and the whole Greenwillow team for bringing these words into such a beautiful form.
My commute today is a few dozen steps to the corner of the yard where my tiny studio is waiting for me as it has every day for the past ten years. Today was going to be the start of a publisher sponsored book tour, my very first in more than 20 years as a working writer. It would have been in support of the paperback release of A Wolf Called Wander. I would have traveled across the country and met and been inspired by thousands of students and their wonderful teachers and librarians. I would have made new indie bookseller friends and seen cities I’ve never visited and had new and interesting research opportunities. And I would have sold hundreds of books. Now, because of the pandemic, that opportunity is gone and nothing will bring it back.
And I am feeling such gratitude! First, and most importantly, I’m grateful to all the school boards and superintendents who made the call to close schools and protect the families they serve. I’m in awe of the energy they’ve thrown into educating their students at home. I’m intensely proud of my fellow booksellers who have sacrificed income in favor of the safety of their shop patrons–many of whom are the grandmas and grandpas of my readers. Special cheers to those who are scrambling to make books available to their communities via mail and delivery and ebooks and downloadable audio. I’m thankful that my publisher HarperCollins has valued my safety over their profits and not even asked me to do something that would put myself and my family at risk. I’m grateful to have a roof over my head and my family at my side in these heart-rending times. I’m thankful to be able to stay in and do what I can to protect those for whom staying at home is not possible. I’m grateful for the vast majority of Americans who understand the importance of elective quarantine and hand hygiene.
One thing I came to appreciate in researching A Wolf Called Wander and it’s companion A Whale of the Wild, is that humans are pack animals too. And we are being hunted by a microscopic creature, weak out in the air, but intensely powerful once it breaks the fortress of our lungs. Thousands of our fellow pack members have fallen prey to it. Even so the human pack has the upper hand. Because a virus can’t run. It can’t even crawl. It can only get from one human to the next if a human carries it. And so I’m sending up a howl of solidarity to my fellow pack members, today and everyday, until victory is ours. I will do everything in my power to starve our predator and I will trust my fellow humans to chose life over profit and do the same.
Advanced Review copies are finally here for A Whale of the Wild. Just look at that gorgeous cover art by Lindsay Moore. The book will be on sale in September. I’m going to be sending a dozen of these to teachers and librarians use the contact form on my website. Tell me the name of your school or library and the address where I can send it.
Booksellers the ARC is available on Netgalley and from your HarperCollins sales rep. I am in the process of signing first editions and YES! I do want to come to your bookstore. It it scheduled for September of this year. Let’s talk about making some version of a bookstore visit possible.
