Fun news! COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS is the Nov. Scholastic tearjerker of the month!

the book comes with a package of tissues, too! How adorable. Thank you, Scholastic.

kh

“Man cannot discover new oceans unless he has the courage to lose sight of the shore.” 
― André Gide

Stay courageous!

kh 

Wordless Wednesday: Jackson, MS

Just returned from visit and book-signing in Jackson, MS. While there, I had a chance to visit the Eudora Welty House. 

Welty House

I liked imagining Ms. Welty walking up her footpath. 

A Little Free Library on the grounds adjacent to Ms. Welty's home. 

Lemuria Books in Jackson. This is one fabulous indie bookstore! The famed giant hand holding a book that once stood
over the store's entrance recently fell off. A new one is in the making! 

At the signing table in Lemuria Books. I love that one of my literary heros, Hemingway, is in the background. 

After the signing, dined at the famed Mayflower Cafe in downtown Jackson. A scene from THE HELP
was filmed here, too. 

Teaser Tuesday - Wild Mind: Living the Writer's Life by Natalie Goldberg

"We never graduate from first grade. Over and over, we have to go back to the beginning. We should not be ashamed of this. It is good. It's like drinking water; we don't drink a glass once and never have to drink one again. We don't finish a novel or poem and never have to write one again. Over and over, we begin." - p. 9, WILD MIND, LIVING THE WRITER'S LIFE by Natalie Goldberg 

Teaser Tuesdays is a weekly bookish meme, hosted by MizB of Should Be Reading. Anyone can play along! Just do the following:

• Grab your current read
• Open to a random page
• Share two (2) “teaser” sentences from somewhere on that page
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (make sure that what you share doesn’t give too much away! You don’t want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title & author, too, so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR Lists if they like your teasers!

Monday Morning Inspiration

In the past week, I've done THREE book launch events. Some part of me still can't believe that I am a person who is capable of talking to strangers about stories and writing and anything else they want to chat about. It takes a lot to stand in a bookstore, try and make eye contact with folks and then launch into a subtle summary about one's book and/or point someone toward the restrooms. I don't know if I'll ever get particularly good at it. This past weekend, my family came with me to the bookstore. My daughters don't mind hanging out around books for a couple of hours so we thought it would be fun for them. They are not that impressed with their mom, but I did see something new in their eyes this time. They'd seen me labor away, day and night, while writing COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS. And then they were witnessing me stand in a bookstore with the actual book on the table! Suddenly, all the awkward feelings of standing there washed away. They had watched for a couple of years as I pursued my dream and then they were there when it had come to fruition. If nothing else, I hope that seeing this experience causes them to BELIEVE that a steady mix of hard work and day-dreaming produce results.

Great love,

kh

Book launch party!

A few snapshots of my book launch for COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS this past Saturday!

COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS release day/giveaway

Hello friends,

I'm so happy to celebrate the release of my new book, COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS, today along with the Nerdy Book Club. Click on over to read my blog post and enter the giveaway. Two, signed hardback copies are up for grabs!

And if you'll be in the Plano, Texas, area this Saturday, stop by my first signing and say hello!

Great love,

kh

Wordless Wednesday: Full Circle Moments

I went to my hometown library in Garland, TX this past weekend. Of course, I had to spy and see if my book was on the shelves. It was. It was shelved about 20 feet from the kids' reading area where I used to sit for hours with a stack of 10 or more books around me, loving the stories, thinking up my own little tales. Three cheers for the full-circle moments in life!!!

One month from today...

My new book, COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS, goes out into the big blue world. I just received the first hardback copy of it in the mail. Even though this is my third book, you don't get over the feeling of seeing your finished book for the first time. It's not unlike holding your real, life newborn for the first time. 

I also like to think of the characters in these books meeting. You know, Sarah Nelson from SURE SIGNS walking to school with Mysti Murphy in COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS. I genuinely think they'd be friends and I'd love to eavesdrop on their conversations. They are very different, but equally spirited, curious and full of heart. 

Another point to mention is that I'm a Hachette author, which means that my books will have a hard time gaining traction on Amazon. (Have you heard of the dispute between Hachette and Amazon?) So I'm keeping fingers crossed that readers will find their way to their favorite indie bookshop or Barnes & Noble online, where you can already pre-order it. 

I loved this recent review from Publishers Weekly

Publishers Weekly - Review of Courage for Beginners 

Mysti Murphy has to brave at least three major trials at the onset of seventh grade. The first is having an agoraphobic mother, who never leaves the house even to chauffeur her children to classmates’ houses or extracurricular activities. The second is losing her only friend, Anibal, who has “decided to be a hipster this year” to pursue a girl and wants to avoid publicly associating with Mysti. The third obstacle is the most difficult of all, when her father falls from a tree and is hospitalized. Now Mysti must find a way to be strong and responsible while her mother becomes sadder and more withdrawn. Harrington’s (Sure Signs of Crazy) portrait of a resourceful girl weathering transitions and finding creative solutions offers an even balance of humor and painful topics relevant to middle-school readers. The way Mysti views her life, as though she’s a character in a novel (“Here we see a girl washing green beans, extracting melons, and contemplating the true meaning of friendship”), provides a fresh perspective on her thought process, environment, and yearnings.

Goodreads giveaway!

Hi friends,

My publisher, Little, Brown, is hosting a Goodreads giveaway for my forthcoming novel, COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS. 20 copies available! Giveaway runs through June 23, 2014. Enter today!



https://www.goodreads.com/giveaway/show/96742

Early praise for COURAGE FOR BEGINNERS

Like Sarah Nelson in Harrington’s Sure Signs of Crazy (Little, Brown, 2013/VOYA December 2013), Mysti Murphy must navigate a treacherous home situation. Mysti’s mother did not try to drown her, but her mother’s agoraphobia wields despotic control over the family’s life. Then, Mysti’s father tumbles headfirst from a tree and spends the next five months hospitalized, leaving Mysti to take care of her mother and younger sister, Laura. Mysti finds strength and comfort in her ability to make up stories for Laura and come up with daily jokes to connect with her homebound mother. Her seventh-grade school days are as troubling as her family situation, now that her longtime male friend, Anibal Gomez, spent his summer losing weight, bought a beret, and is working on becoming a hipster. He is determined to connect with cheerleader Sandy Showalter, earning his props by humiliating Mysti again and again in front of her peers. In addition to escaping through her stories and jokes, she finds consolation with two occupants of the cafeteria’s “loser island”—brainiac Wayne Kovok, who reminds everyone that his last name is an acronym and spouts “did you know” factoids; and Rama Khan, whose rainbow hijabs and loyalty gradually make her the one-word super-heroine Ramakhan to Mysti.

At age twelve, Mysti may be too wise for her years, but her wickedly good schemes to get even with Anibal and her courageous solutions to family crises will make her a compelling protagonist for sophisticated young readers. -VOYA, starred review (June 1, 2014) 

A wrenching and rewarding read. - Booklist, starred review