April Lindner

Here in Southeastern Pennsylvania, we've fast forwarded through April Showers and made it to May Flowers in what seems like record time.  This year April brings with it the publication of Far From Over , the new digital-exclusive companion novella to Love, Lucy.  It also brings some celebratory blog posts including this one, from NOVL , on the travel destinations that inspire me most .     And this musical F ar From Over playlist from With Her Nose Stuck in a Book .  What songs does street musician Jesse Palladino play on the streets of Naples?  Here's a little taste: Finally, April brings a really nifty sale-- Love, Lucy in e-book form for only $2.99 --which means for a little while longer you can download both Love, Lucy and Far From Over for under five dollars.  So if you're yearning for a little vacation flirtation in sunny Italy, please give them a look!

Today marks the launch of my newest baby, Far From Over , a digital-only novella companion to Love, Lucy .  And to mark the occasion, the e-book of Love, Lucy is on sale (only $2.99) for the rest of the month.  If if you've got a yen for some southern Italian sunshine and romance, please take a look!

  A local celebrity As I may have mentioned (about a thousand times) Andre and I have been living in limbo these last few months.  Our house is in the market and half of our furniture is in storage, while we wait for the next chapter of our lives to begin--hopefully in the town of our dreams, Lambertville, New Jersey. What's so special about Lambertville? It's a small town--charming, picturesque, quirky, and with a startling number of artists per capita--the kind of place that would make the perfect place to live--or the great setting for a novel. You can probably guess where this is going, right?  Over the last few months I've been working on a new writing project. Another YA reimagining of a classic work of Brit Lit, it's set in a fictional New Jersey river town that bears a passing resemblance to a certain actual New Jersey river town. The Delaware Raritan Canal So of course I take every opportunity I can get to research my novel-in-progre...

Snack shack, Tinos, Greece (photo by Shawn Krahmer Heal) It's been a super-busy spring.  I've been struggling to balance teaching and a flurry of events promoting my most recently published YA novel,  Love, Lucy.   In the middle of it all, we put our home on the market, so this spring has been a blur of renovation, cleaning, and dog wrangling to get the house ready for potential buyers.   That's why you haven't seen me here for a long time.  But now that the spring semester is more or less over, I'll be back, sharing my thoughts about writing, travel, music, etcetera. And now (at last!) I hope to get back to some serious, sustained writing.  I've got several projects in the works, all too new and fragile to discuss in public just yet.    And then there's my Greek novel --a reimagining of Jane Austen's Persuasion , set on a high school study tour of Athens, Santorini, and Crete. Mule on Syros, Greece (photo by Shawn Krahmer Heal) La...

Alexis and Ashley at With Her Nose Stuck in a Book are two of my very favorite book bloggers.  Thanks to Alexis for this very festive post celebrating the release of Love, Lucy . Tomorrow, Alexis and Ashley will play host to yours truly.  I'll be writing  about the songs that transport me straight back into Lucy's European backpacking adventures--and her vacation flirtation with footloose Jesse.  So stay tuned!

...because there's nothing quite like holding your newborn for the very first time.  Or setting off on a brand new journey. Lifted from http://www.residenzadellasignoria.com/images/mappa_grande_residenza.jpg

With the release date of Love, Lucy a little over a month away, I've been making plans for a launch party--my very first.  Yesterday, Andre and I paid a visit to the venue--a cozy family-owned vineyard in quiet South Jersey.  Our friends Joe and Brenda O'Donald introduced us to Salem Oak Vineyards , and to Mandi Cassidy, the vineyard's cheery and energetic owner.  Then the five of us put our heads together to plan the event.   Andre, Brenda, and Joe Mandi Cassidy (on the right) To celebrate Lucy's travels in Florence and Rome, we're going with--what else?--an Italian theme.  There will be light fare on offer-- antipasti  and dolci . And a playlist of Italian music to set the mood. But of course, it wouldn't be a party without  you.   So here's the what, when and where: Love, Lucy launch party Friday, January 30th from 7 to 9 p.m. Salem Oak Vineyard 60 North Railroad Avenue Pedricktown  NJ  (About half an ...

The other day on Twitter, #amwriting was trending.  This made me sad, because I #amnotwriting lately.  Nanowrimo happened without me.   Months have passed since the last time I put words on paper.  Insert excuses here.  As a friend of mine used to say, "Any excuse will do."  And this long fallow season isn't about to end soon.  Final portfolios and exams have been flooding my desk, and as soon as the grading winds down, the holiday season preparation is destined to ramp up.   2014 is likely to be history before I manage to get any writing done.  So I was heartened to read this post from the fabulous writer Beth Kephart.  Branches in the Sky by Zanuardian I have to believe, as Beth promises, that my next story is waiting for me.  And, after all,  there have been recent hopeful signs.  A new character has been taking shape in my head.  I can see her, and certain things about her have revea...

The Maryland Dove My teaching and travels have taken up all my time lately, which is why it's been a while since I posted here.  I'm just back from my most recent trip, to St. Mary's College , Maryland's public honors college, in the gorgeous river town of St. Mary's City. Leaving home is always the hardest part of any road trip. When Nico saw me packing my bags, he tried his darnedest to discourage me from going. But once I got past my bodyguard, the trip was a breeze. What could be better than chatting about poetry and fiction with the spirited and bright students of St. Mary's?  I also gave an evening reading, and spent a lovely last morning with the College's Arts Alliance discussing poems inspired by fairy tales and myth. And I was able to spend a little time exploring one of the prettiest campuses I've ever seen.   In the distance, the sailing team practices maneuvers on the St. Mary's River St. Mary's College is an es...

Photo by Howard Dinin Anyone who has ever read a cookbook for sheer pleasure--or who appreciates creative writing about the sensuous joys of food--will love the new anthology Books that Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal .   Organized in menu sequence from starters to dessert, Books that Cook features an impressive range of contributors from the culinary world—Julia Child, Fannie Merritt Farmer, James Beard, Alice Waters—and from the world of letters—Maya Angelou, Sherman Alexie, Nora Ephron...and many others.    Co-editors Jennifer Cognard-Black and Melissa Goldthwaite introduce each “course” with an essay putting it in historical context.    Tomorrow at Washington D.C.'s fabulous indie bookstore Politics and Prose, Melissa and Jennifer (and a panel of writers including yours truly) will be celebrating Books That Cook . And today Melissa lets me ask her some questions about this delicious project. I’d love to hear about t...

Food meets literature at Politics and Prose Now that the school year is seriously underway, it's officially prime time for book signings, poetry readings, and literary panel discussions.  Over the next few months, I've got quite a few of these lined up.    The first will be this Saturday, September 6,  at one of the nation's finest bookstores, Washington D.C.'s Politics and Prose , in celebration of Books That Cook: The Making of a Literary Meal ,  a scrumptious melange of creative writing about food and creative food writing.  (I'll also be featuring an interview with one of the book's editors, my dear friend Melissa Goldthwaite.  So stay tuned.) In the coming weeks, I'll also be doing a number of Pennsylvania events in Exton, Philadelphia, and Lancaster, plus some events in New York and New Jersey.   Click here for the specifics --and come by and say hi. Also, there's still time to enter to win eight YA books , including the new paperba...

Today Catherine appears in her new, glorious paperback form in a bookstore near you!  So I'm revisiting the Catherine playlist and turning the music up loud! Just one of my musical inspirations By the way, it's not too late to win your very own copy.   Enter this giveaway.   Or this one . And it's never too late (or too early) for this: