Happy New Year! I will spend the next six months writing 2012 on all my correspondence. I haven't made any resolutions, because the only one I've ever followed is: never buy cut flowers again. That was fairly easy, because I can always find something blooming in my garden. Even now, my antique tea roses are about to open.

To celebrate the New Year, for a limited time, I'm offering a free read of The Shadow Girl of Birch Grove at its original home on Scribd, where you can read it or download it in your preferred format.  When my agents were unable to sell my YA gothic, I posted it as a free read; it quickly became Scribd's number one YA novel. Many thanks go to Amanda of Love Vampires, who liked the story so much that she surprised me with wonderful cover art.

Please do not embed this free read on any other sites.
It is an exclusive to Scribd.

The Shadow Girl's success at Scribd led to Tor Teen's interest. I worked with Susan Chang, my fantastic editor, to revise and develop the story, which was recently published as Dark Companion.

Working with a skilled editor is such a joy. Susan understood that I was writing a contemporary gothic and that I wanted to use classic tropes to tell the story of Jane Williams, a broken young woman who begins to heal herself. She coached me through plot structure and character motivation. She gave wonderful suggestions for chapter headings that celebrated gothic literature. The finished novel has entirely new chapters, scenes, and characters. There are different plot points and...more scenes with Mary Violet, Jane's lovely and hilarious poetry-spouting friend.

I hope you'll take this chance to meet the world of Birch Grove Academy and then want to go on to read Dark Companion!



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