Some Exciting Fall Updates and the Comadres and Compadres Writers Conference!

As I encourage you to once again to sign up for the fast-approaching Comadres and Compadres Writers Conference on September 27th, I would like to share some news for fall, in part, to offer an incentive by showing you some of the many wonderful things that can happen to writers when they share their works with others and take that all-important step toward turning their writing passion into a career.

Here are some updates from my clients, who, for the most part, are being published for the first time:

Debut picture book author Katheryn Russell-Brown's LITTLE MELBA AND HER BIG TROMBONE (Lee and Low) has received three starred reviews from Kirkus, Publishers Weekly and School Library Journal since its publication this September! The book has also just been listed among The Huffington Post's "50 New Picture Books for Fall 2014" and received accolades from the NY Journal of Books and The Horn Book's "Calling Caldecott" blog! I'm very excited for Katheryn, who, on a recent interview for The Brown Bookshelf, shared her book's "Back Story," a piece that offers a nice glimpse into how books get published these days. To learn more about this fabulous book and its author, visit Katheryn's website.

The amazing ballerina and star of the ballet documentary FIRST POSITION, Michaela DePrince's memoir TAKING FLIGHT: FROM WAR ORPHAN TO STAR BALLERINA and its Step Into Reading companion BALLERINA DREAMS (both from Knopf and co-written with her mother, Elaine DePrince), will debut in the US on October 14th. The memoir has already received a starred review from Publishers Weekly and received quite a bit of online buzz.  The Dutch edition just launched in Michaela's current home city of Amsterdam on September 13th at the Dutch National Ballet's Annual Gala event to celebrate the opening of company's  2014-2015 season. Posters promoting TAKING FLIGHT can now be seen all over Amsterdam, I am told! The Dutch is one of TEN upcoming editions of the memoir to be published worldwide. A very exciting time for another debut author! For more about Michaela, and her books, visit her website.


Eric Pierpoint, whom you may know from his other gig as an actor and his  roles in Park and Recreation and Heart of Dixie among many others, is also a very talented children's book writer! His debut historical fiction adventure THE LAST RIDE OF CALEB O'TOOLE (Sourcebooks) received the Mountains and Plains Independent Booksellers Association's "Reading the West Award" in the Children's category this summer! Read an interview with Eric about his inspiration for writing the book, and a sneak peek at his next one! For more information about Eric and his books, visit his website.

And speaking of awards, debut children's author Angela Cervantes won her first one this year for her funny, heartwarming middle grade novel, GABY, LOST AND FOUND (Scholastic). Angela and Gaby won First Place in the Chapter Book category at this year's International Latino Book Awards, presented at the American Library Association (ALA) Annual Conference in Las Vegas, Nevada, this summer. I'm happy to report that Angela is also working on her second book with Scholastic! For more information about Angela and her books, visit the author's website.





Petit Collage founder Lorena Siminovich's YOU ARE MY BABY: GARDEN (Chronicle) two-in-one board has just been listed among Parenting.com's "24 Best Baby Books of All Time!" While Lorena is a veteran illustrator with many books under her belt, You Are My Baby is the first board book series that she writes AND illustrates! Look for many more books in the YOU ARE MY BABY series, and another darling series of board books coming from Lorena and Chronicle in 2016!

I feel very fortunate to work with such talented folks and overjoyed about their success. I hope that they inspire you as much as they inspire me every day. And of course, I hope that this will provide the little extra push you need to join our conference on September 27th. I'd love to meet more talented folks whose work I can display on another post next year!