Big News: LITTLE GREEN MEN AT THE MERCURY INN

I am thrilled to announce that Roaring Brook Press (Macmillan) will be publishing my novel, LITTLE GREEN MEN AT THE MERCURY INN.  Release is tentatively scheduled for Fall 2013.

It's a comedic middle grade story about what happens to three friends at a motel in Cocoa Beach, Florida, after a manned space launch at Kennedy Space Center is scrubbed due to the appearance of an unidentified flying object over Cape Canaveral.

Thanks to my agent Ginger Knowlton and my new editor Deirdre Langeland (FYI, Deirdre is also editor at the Flashpoint imprint, where she edits some awesome nonfiction)! 

Photos courtesy of NASA 

TURTLE IN PARADISE

TURTLE IN PARADISE, by Jennifer L. Holm (Random House 2010)(ages 8-12). It's 1935, and eleven-year-old Turtle has been shipped off to live with her aunt, uncle, and a boatload of cousins in Key West, Florida, where, to her, everything is strange. How will she adjust to life as a Conch? Will the boys ever let her into the Diaper Gang? And will her mother ever come back for her?

Drawing on family history, Holm provides a fun and fascinating look at a young girl trying to learn the ins and outs of a strange, new world. Evocative of a bygone era, and with just a touch of The Little Rascals, TURTLE IN PARADISE is an enjoyable and sometimes bittersweet read.

THE POSTCARD, by Tony Abbott

THE POSTCARD, by Tony Abbott (Little Brown 2008)(ages 8-12). In this fun and quirky novel, Abbott delivers mystery, humor, suspense, and a touch of nostalgia.

A week into summer vacation after eighth grade, Jason is sent down to St. Petersburg, Florida, to help his father settle his recently-deceased grandmother's affairs. After the funeral (which is attended by some truly bizarre individuals), and while going through his grandmother's papers, Jason discovers a magazine of pulp mystery-adventure serials. Then, after a mysterious phone call, he finds a postcard connecting his grandmother's never-talked-about past; the author of one of the (never-completed) serials; and a grand old hotel (featured in the postcard). Joined by Dia, a neighbor girl, Jason must discern fact from fiction as he attempts to untangle an intricate web of love, family, deceit, obsession, and, yes, postcards.

Never dull, often funny, THE POSTCARD offers a sophisticated mystery without stinting on character development or relationships. Highly recommended.