You’ve been bounced around from foster home to foster home, and it’s becoming clear that no one cares where you end up next. You’ve fallen between the cracks. So imagine your luck when you discover that you’ve been accepted to an exclusive private boarding school where you might have a chance to make something of yourself. Only…once you get to the school, you find out that there’s no leaving it. There are no grown-ups…only classes taught by fellow students who have received the lessons from mysterious adults on the outside. The students have formed their hierarchies so that you’re in or you’re out, and you’re constantly watching your back. Nothing is quite what it seems. What do you do? Fall in line? Try to escape? Only…those who try to escape aren’t heard from again…
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 5/29/2010
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Presenting Lenore, my friend amy, Maw Books Blog, Linus's Blanket, Book Blogger Convention, The Betty and Boo Chronicles, Caribousmom, Add a tag
The Javitz Convention Center. Yours truly flanked by Natasha (Maw Books Blog) and Nicole (Linus's Blanket). The faithful attendees, of the very last BEA week day, after the very last session, as seen from the very last seat of the Author/Blogger Relationship panel discussion. Yours truly with the one and only Lenore. Yours truly with the always-kind Melissa of The Betty and Boo Chronicles. And never last and never least: The fabulous Amy of My Friend Amy (in person!) as well as the very dear and intelligent Wendy of Caribousmom.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 4/30/2010
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Presenting Lenore, International Book Blogger Mentor Program, YayReads, Add a tag
The International Book Blogger Mentor Program was her brainchild, too, and I was a participating author. I sent three of my books—Undercover, House of Dance, and The Heart is Not a Size—to the rising, Puerto Rico-based author/reviewer Patty of Yay! Reads, and her responses—honest, insightful—made me feel confident that our future is in very good hands.
Check the whole thing out here.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 7/11/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Barcelona, Presenting Lenore, Nothing But Ghosts, Ciutadella Park, Add a tag
Dear Lenore went to Barcelona last week for a wedding and visited a place so dear to me that I wrote it into Nothing but Ghosts. What a gift, then, that she has returned with photographs from her trip, and with memories that she shares with her lucky readers today. She's included, in her post, a Barcelona excerpt from Ghosts.
Another key Ghosts scene takes place here, at Ciutadella Park. A place I wish I would find myself strolling through again, and soon. Wings, anyone? Fantasies?
On another topic now, I fear I must make amends: Poor Sierra has been left wondering (due to my previous two posts) whether I have porcelain-faced doppelgangers in my own backyard. Alas, I do not. I fear my blog makes me seem far more eccentric (by which I mean interesting) than I actually am. In fact, I live in a small, quiet, and (to a fault) immaculate house with a manicured front and back yard, and a (shall I say it?) surround of celebrated gardens (the kind that people slow their cars down for). All bath tubs (that would be one) are of the indoor variety. I own no shower cap. I do not have A. Jolie lips. I wear my trench coats over clothes, not naked skin. But this is true: When I look up, I look for the stars.
All of which would be explanation enough as to why I shifted from memoir to history to fiction. The older I get, the more I like to make things up.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 6/29/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Presenting Lenore, Nothing But Ghosts, Anna Lefler, Beth Kephart interview, my friend amy, Life Just Keeps Getting Weirder, Add a tag
I am definitely living another's life right now.
I am not me. I am merry-go-round whirling. I am dizzy.
First My Friend Amy and Presenting Lenore cook up this not-to-be-believed virtual (surprise) launch party for Nothing but Ghosts—replete with prizes, with urgings, with viral enthusiasms. Their friends friend the initiative. Momentum builds. Conversations unfold: Can bloggers shape the book industry? Is there power in blogger suggestion? A party becomes a dialogue. A dialogue becomes a story. I watch, stunned—the woman who still thinks of herself as the loner in high school.
Then, today, I wake to discover that my friend, humorist and novelist (yes, she's a novelist; I'm reading her it-will-be-published-soon novel right now) Anna Lefler, has kicked off an extravaganza all her own. I mean: An. Ex.Tra.Va.Gan.Za. Featuring a Beth Kephart tour bus (how does she do those things?), an ocarina, and a bootleg interview conducted (in Anna's trademark so-smart-it-can't-be-slapstick style) with yours truly (when I received her questions I started to laugh; as I answered I kept laughing). Featuring prizes that you have to see to believe ($150 Amazon gift card anyone?).
I know that life isn't always like this. In fact, it rarely is. Nothing but Ghosts is my tenth book. What happens here, what happens now, is not, for an instant, taken for granted. It is a surprise. It is a miracle. It is this moment in time that I will return to, years from now. Remember when?, I'll say.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 6/23/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Presenting Lenore, my friend amy, Nothing but Ghosts party, Add a tag
I don't have words for today.
That's it, I don't.
My Friend Amy (her blog name, her world self) wrote to me a week or so ago and suggested that we have a Nothing but Ghosts party. I said, "Thank you. Of course. That would be lovely." I said, "Yes, of course, I'll be in a chat (thank you for the invitation)", and "Yes, of course, I'll do a reading (let me fix my hair)", but in truth, I had no idea—zero—what she was planning.
This is what she and Lenore have been planning. My Friend Amy plus Presenting Lenore.
The force is, most definitely, with me.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 3/30/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Presenting Lenore, UNDERCOVER, Add a tag
You have not forgotten dear Presenting Lenore, who taught me the zombie chicken dance (a number I performed for that star of ballroom dancing stars, Jean Paulovich, last Thursday; he was impressed indeed). Who makes me smile at many an odd early-morning hour with her unstintingly opinionated posts. Who takes me back to high school days and academic bowl life, though let us be clear: Lenore made her high school smart team because she was actually smart; I made mine because I had the smartest brother in the entire school (the guy was a stand out everywhere he went—high school, Princeton, Stanford), and people assumed I'd have at least a fraction of his brain matter. (They were wrong, I tell you, wrong! They should have seen the difference in our eyes—his brighest blue, mine hazy green.) Who assures me that sushi can be found in Germany (a relief) and that I can (at my old age) still adopt a cat so as to be more like her.
In any case—that Presenting Lenore.
Lenore has a review of Undercover up on her site right now, and let me tell you all one thing: I'm exhaling mightily over here. Lenore has the toughest of tough standards, and she loves highly plotted tales. I'm just so relieved that she found, in Undercover, a character to remember her former self by. I'm grateful, hugely, that she had such nice things to say.
I bow my head.
By: Beth Kephart ,
on 3/22/2009
Blog: Beth Kephart Books (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Presenting Lenore, Fine Bloggers, The Zombie Chicken, Add a tag
Presenting Lenore—oh, Presenting Lenore. She adorned me with a zombie chicken award (yeah, you read that right) and asked me to pass it on. I love Lenore—so smart, so unblinking, so quick on her feet, so adventurous (plus, she loves sushi).
But: To win an award means one should pass the award along, and I've always sidestepped this. I only have one son. I've only had one husband. I only ever had one cat. I can't do the favorites thing. I'm constitutionally incapable.
But I can tell you, as I do in this video, about some of the bloggers who mean a lot to me. I'd list them out here, all properly URLed and stuff, but then what would be your motivation to watch this little vlog? Truly.
Oh man, I hate already all the names I couldn't fit in, like Little Willow (oh my gosh, she's smart, LW, you are right here in my heart), and Ink Mage (so dear), and Jen Robinson and Finding Wonderland (both indispensible), but wanted to so badly. All right, and while I'm at it: The 3 Rs, Shelf Elf, Saints and Spinners, The Holly and the Ivy, Doret, Not The Rockefellers, Juliet Colours, SolvangSherrie, MariReads, SeptemberMom, Kristen, and yup, here you have it, from the horse's mouth itself: There are so many smart women out here that I (with my limited math ability) can't enumerate them all.
(Forgive me.)
By: Amy C. Moreno,
on 11/7/2007
Blog: Cachibachis (Login to Add to MyJacketFlap)
JacketFlap tags: Christmas and Holiday cards for recovering soldiers, Add a tag
When you are making out your Christmas and holiday cards this year, how about including the following on your list:
A Recovering American Soldier
c/o Walter Reed Army Medical Center
6900 Georgia Avenue,NW
Washington, D.C. 20307-5001
So glad I had a chance to see you again yesterday (along with the others)! A wonderful panel discussion and a great day all around.
(I'm especially happy that the photos turned out. Such pressure borrowing your camera for these! :)
Looks like you had so much fun! I'm so sorry I missed you!
Aw, you are too kind!! It was wonderful to finally meet you in person after being a long and faithful reader of your blog...and can't wait to read your latest book :)
I had a ticket for this and then woke up feeling soooo sick on Thursday. I am so disappointed I missed it, looks like it was great!
I am so so sorry we missed connecting at the reception. We will have to figure out a way to meet one of these days!
I don't know how we missed our photo op! So wonderful to meet you in person and to have a few moments to talk with you.
Beth, thank you so much for joining us and being such a positive source of energy! I enjoyed hearing your thoughts.