Paperback Available August 11

With the impending release of the paperback version of The Brothers Torres, I find myself thinking a lot about Dennis Cass's spectacular Book Launch 2.0: The paperback, by the way, comes with the same great cover and includes an author interview and a fantastic 20-question study guide written by Tracie Vaughn Zimmer.

Big Day

Today I sent off the draft of my new novel, THE ARTIST (for now) to my editor. I don't really know what to do with myself. It's a good thing I'm going back to New Mexico for a week of Isotopes baseball, Sadies stuffed sopaipillas, and sunset walks along the ditches of Corrales.

A Kepler's Review. It all comes full circle.

As many of you know, I spent six years in the SF Bay area before moving to Houston. I lived within walking distance from a wonderful outdoor cafe called Cafe Borrone, and most days after coming home from my teaching job, I hung out at Borrone and wrote the book that became The Brothers Torres. Well, Borrone is right next door to Kepler's Books, one of the best indie bookstores in the country, and Kepler's is responsible for at least half the books I had to lug from Menlo to Houston. All of this is to say that this review on The Book Bind, Kepler's teen blog, pretty much made my week.

Thanks to Breakthrough Houston!

I spent a wonderful morning a couple weeks ago with the ninth graders from Breakthrough Houston, a summer enrichment program for incoming 6th-9th graders in Houston's schools. Their mission statement: "Breakthrough aims to prepare students who possess high academic potential, but limited educational resources for competitive high-school programs and college admission. In addition, we encourage talented high-school and college students to consider careers in education." I was so impressed with Mr. Solis's students. Thanks so much for all the great questions.

The Brothers Torres Word Cloud

Generated with Wordle.

Out of Hibernation

The last few months have been a bit of a blur, as I've been trying to make progress on a new book at the same time as I'm welcoming a new human into our house. My daughter--second child, first little girl--was born three months ago, and that definitely added some spice into the "will he or won't he make his deadline" debate, the results of which are still not known. Nevertheless, it looks like I'll be able to get the new novel out the door on time. It's tentatively called "The Artist," kind of a satire that takes place in a hard-charging prep school in Northern California.