Twelve-year-old Trace and seventeen-year-old Will used to be best friend brothers. It was Will who taught Trace to ride a bike, skate, and snowboard. But Will doesn’t do those things anymore. Trace understands it’s because of the brain injury his brother suffered playing football. He’s scared of getting hurt again. But there’s something else going […]
Category Archives: Author Posts
June
10
The Birth of a Jewish Storyteller by Amy Hest
posted by CBethM
It all starts, I suppose, with Aunt Harriet. A nice Jewish girl from the Bronx. (My mother, a reliable source, and a quite good storyteller in her own right, is the one who told me that my Aunt Harriet had always been, absolutely, a nice Jewish girl from the Bronx.) Okay then, the year is […]
June
09
HOW TO USE TAROT CREATIVELY by Caroline O’Donoghue
posted by CBethM
There’s no wrong way to read tarot. It’s been around since the 15th century, and mostly as a card game, so it’s silly and ultimately not very rewarding to think of the cards and their meanings as fixed entities. They change, over the course of hundreds of years, but also over the course of the […]
June
07
MONSTER OF THE WEEK by Brita Sandstrom
posted by CBethM
My favorite TV show when I was in the third grade was Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Listen. It was the 90s—I was a very well-looked-after child, but in terms of the media I took in, I was a latchkey kid. And in my parents’ defense, Buffy never scared me. I watched Buffy fight monsters every […]
June
03
WHAT IF YOU’RE NOT READY TO FLY? by Dev Petty
posted by CBethM
I wrote Moth & Butterfly Ta-Da! long before our lives were upended by a global pandemic and long before my daughter went to middle school and found herself on the wrong side of a friendship triangle. I also wrote it before my own life had some twists and turns. Now, as we edge to the […]
May
18
Ballet, Me, and THE OTHER SIDE OF PERFECT by Mariko Turk
posted by CBethM
Growing up, I loved to dance. I wasn’t nearly good enough to be on the professional track, but I loved it nonetheless, and I vividly remember the moment I found out from my ballet teacher that I would be going on pointe. (Quick pause for context: graduating from soft ballet slippers to pointe shoes that […]
May
11
The Pain of Returning by Lisabeth Posthuma
posted by CBethM
A few weeks ago, the last video store in my zip code closed for good. On one of its final days in operation, I visited for a last look around. There wasn’t much left—some candy, a few posters, DVDs of titles all easily accessible on streaming services. The merchandise that remained was shoved into one […]
May
10
A Season of Bravery by Lisa McMann
posted by CBethM
It’s been a season of bravery. I’ve always loved books with underdog main characters who must dig deep within themselves to overcome near-impossible obstacles. When I think back to stories that captivated me as a child and as a young bookseller (my first job in an independent bookstore came at age 17), I come up […]
May
07
Birth of a Batpig by Rob Harrell
posted by CBethM
There are a few different origin stories for this particular super pig. There’s the Batpig that appears in my novel WINK, a creation of the main character Ross Maloy. And there’s the origin story of that character you can find in my new graphic novel WHEN PIGS FLY – that involves a mildly radioactive bat, […]
April
30
Nerdy Book Club Cover Reveal — EGG MARKS THE SPOT by Amy Timberlake, with pictures by Jon Klassen
posted by CBethM
Amy’s questions for Jon! 1. Where did the cover design come from? I know you collect books, so any inspirations from your collection? Also, I love how much of the story is compressed into that cover! Where did that come from? This cover was so much fun. When we started this series I had a rough […]
