Whoopie-pies, a teen book club and sponsor, and librarians – what more could an author ask for at the end of a week of mind-bending revisions?
Last Thursday afternoon, I made my way to the Hillsboro High School library to introduce myself and Breath of Angel to Hillsboro teen book club members and librarians from various local schools. Great people, all of them. They love reading and are keenly interested in transmitting that book-love to students. As a result of the meeting, I think a couple of other schools will start a book club. Getting enough copies of the same book was a concern. The sponsor at Hillsboro says she buys as many copies as she can at a used book store and puts out requests for parents to donate copies.
So I left plenty of copies of my ARC with the book club. I also reminded them that there are errors in an ARC that will be corrected by the time the final book comes out. One librarian warned me that her students will pick up on every error they find in the ARC – and will often email the publisher to tell them what they discovered that was wrong. Future editors?
I also gave everyone a teacher/reader discussion guide, which I’ll be adding to my web page this week. So if you’re interested in that sort of thing, it should be available by the weekend. One warning: The questions on the guide may include a few spoilers. I tried not to give away anything crucial, but it’s amazingly hard to write questions and not reveal twists in the story!
Oh – and for those of you wondering what in creation Whoopie-Pies are, they’re the most delectable cream-filled chocolate cake-like big cookies I’ve ever tasted! Available at Trader Joe’s!
