Category Archives: Breaking News!!!

A Wolf Called Wander lands on the Indie Best Seller List!

Some dreams are so big I’ve never thought to strive for them.

To be honest, so long as my books do well enough that I get to write another, I’m content. And then, today, I got the news from my editor A Wolf Called Wander debuted at #11 on the Indie Best Seller List! I’m over the moon! I never imagined I would write a best seller.

But I was forgetting to take into account the awesomeness of indie booksellers. Hundreds of them across the country have taken my Wander under their wing just as his raven does in the story. They have read it open-heartedly and given it pride of place in their shops. Thank you, a thousand times!

And if that wasn’t exciting enough, I’ve also just learned that our Wolf will be featured in the top 10 books for Summer of 2019 on the Indie Next flyer that comes out today. Many thanks to Virginia Duncan and the team at Greenwillow who positioned the book quite brilliantly and to Mónica Armiño for her gorgeous illustrations.

A Wolf Called Wander–US edition

Here is the American cover for A Wolf Called Wander, from Greenwillow. The cover (which I adore) was done by Cindy Darby who has a picture book of her own out in March.   This book is fully illustrated on the interior by Mónica Armiño and will be on sale in the first week of May. I’m planning lots of fun kick off events for my books this spring, and I will be sharing Advanced Review Copies at the ABA Winter Institute later this month. There will also be some ARC give-aways on Goodreads. Can’t wait to share this story of a wolf and his epic journey with young readers!

A Wolf Called Wander cover reveal

I’ve been working for months on the most amazing project of my writing career. It’s my first fully illustrated novel and my first book that will be translated and sold abroad. Here is the cover for the UK edition of A Wolf Called Wander illustrated by the wonderfully talented Mónica Armiño.  Many thanks to the team at Andersen Press, Chloe Sackur, Kate Grove, and Klaus Flugge. And many thanks to the publishers who saw the package Andersen press put together and chose to bring the book to their country: Greenwillow in the US 🇺🇸, Coppenrath in Germany🇩🇪, L’Ecole des Loisirs in France🇫🇷, Mann Ivanov Feber in Russia🇷🇺, Beijing Arcadia Culture in China🇨🇳, and Albatros in Czechia🇨🇿.

 

New Book News

I’m so thrilled to announce that my next book, A Wolf Called Wander, will be published by Anderson Press of the UK. It will be a fully illustrated middle grade novel inspired by the life of Oregon Wolf 7. The official announcement will be made when the publisher has selected and illustrator, and the book will be out sometime in 2019, but I couldn’t wait to share the news and thank the many people who helped me get here. My wonderful agent Fiona Kenshole of the Transatlantic Agency arranged the deal. My brilliant friends, Cheryl Coupe, Michael Gettle-Gilmartin, Barb Liles, and Cliff Lehman, have been with me every step of the way.

I’m particularly grateful for an opportunity at the Fishtrap Summer workshops to take a totally unique outdoor writer’s workshop on the absolutely gorgeous and extremely challenging Zumwalt Prairie. I learned and listened and walked and smelled and tasted and imagined my way into a wolf’s point of view in some of Oregon’s most spectacular wolf habitat. Nature writer Gary Ferguson (Land on Fire) was my mentor in that transformative week. Many thanks to him and to the Fishtrap organization who have been nurturing strong western writing for many years.  The pictures are Oregon Wolf 7 and his newest group of pups in their new home ground in the Rogue River watershed.

Grant money for OBOB

I’m a huge fan of Oregon’s Battle of the Books program and I’ve just learned of a great opportunity to get the books your school library needs to participate for free.

Due to an unique LSTA funding opportunity, public and private schools who are committed to participating in the 2017-18 Oregon Battle of the Books program, may apply between now and July 15, 2017 to receive OBOB grant books for their school libraries. July 15th is the cut-off date to complete the online OBOB Book Grant application.

Here is the link on the OBOB website for the OBOB book grant for the upcoming 2017-18 school year. Just hit the “Apply now” button!

http://www.oregonbattleofthebooks.org/registration/

Official Participant OBOB registration will open up in the Fall 2017 and will be posted on both the Oregon Battle of the Books website AND the Oregon Battle of the Books Facebook page