In Which I Get to Show THE SWEET DEAD LIFE

The interesting thing about having a book that's not coming out until May 2013 is that you know all sorts of cool things about it, but you really can't quite tell people yet. And that's how it's been with the book I've written for the new SOHO TEEN imprint of Soho Press.

But since I'm going to be going to Book Expo of America soon, and signing advanced reading copies on 6/6 from 10:30 - 11,  Editor Dan has given me the okay to show you the cover!! And give you a little tease about what's inside. (Some of you got SOHO TEEN samplers back at ALAMW and some of you have gone to www.sohoteen.com and clicked on the sampler, so you've seen an early incarnation. But now I'm getting to show you the real thing and I couldn't be more proud and excited and thrilled to be working with SOHO PRESS.

Drumroll please!

“I found out two things today. One, I think I’m dying. And two, my brother is a perv.”

So begins the diary of 14-year-old Jenna Samuels, who is having a very

bad eighth-grade year. Her single mother spends all day in bed. Dad

vanished when she was eight. Her 16-year-old brother, Casey, tries to

hold together what’s left of the family by working two after-school jobs—

difficult, as he’s stoned all the time. To make matters worse, Jenna is sick.

When she collapses one day, Casey tries to race her to the hospital in

their beat-up Prius and crashes instead.

Jenna wakes up in the ER to find Casey beside her. Beatified. Literally.

The flab and zits? Gone. Before long, Jenna figures out that Casey didn’t

survive the accident at all. He’s an “A-word.” (She can’t bring herself to

utter the truth.) Soon they discover that Jenna isn’t just dying: she’s being

poisoned. And Casey has been sent back to help solve the mystery that

not only holds the key to her survival, but also to their mother’s mysterious

depression and father’s disappearance.