The book dropped and I dropped the balls...

Remember me?

Yeah, me either. . . it's been a busy few weeks. . . I may have dropped a ball. All the balls. Whatever.

I was still juggling pretty well after the whirlwind two days of NYC Teen Author Festival,

Reading at Book Revue

and my own private book launch at Book Revue, Huntington,


and a bunch of local appearances including a few schools and libraries, and one of my patented 90-second YA author panel read events at the Dolphin Bookshop . . .

and the Fox Cities Book Festival in Wisconsin. . .

and the flu I came home with (dear god, let's not even talk about that flu. . .) followed by more local book stuff, (school visits, Skype visits, book clubs). . .

But then, there was an intense, amazing week in Indiana with Reading for Life (I must write a whole blog post about that because it was one of the most rewarding weeks of my life, but until I find the time, you can watch a little NEWS PIECE about the program and my visit HERE, if you want.

With the extraordinary founder of Reading for Life, Alesha Seroczynski at the Kroc Center,
South Bend, talking about how books can save kids lives...

I spent one day at The Crossing (an incredible alternative school for kids who have either been expelled, or otherwise couldn't cut it at their mainstream high school and are now thriving in this program) . . .

and another day in the Juvenile Justice Center with five different groups all reading The Pull of Gravity. . .

then an evening at the Kroc Center, pictured above...

I had my own end cap at the
Mishwaka B&N!

With Amy and Heather from Reading for Life!

There was also a writers workshop somewhere in there and an evening at Barnes & Noble in Mishawaka, IN.





Even typing this now, I don't know how I did it all!

Super double money bonus: spending time with Sherry Gick and
Kathy Burnette, librarians extraordinaire!

But I did.

I did!

And after all that, as long as I was there, there was also a pretty amazing school visit to NorthWood High School in Nappanee, IN, with the awesome Kelly Vorhis and her students

... a day I will not soon forget.

And, the icing -- and, oh, how I love icing -- was THIS amazing review of THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO in the Sunday Children's Book Review Section of the New York Times.

and this pretty cool piece in Mashable!

Anyway, things are finally settling back down, though my summer is pretty chock-full of Skype visits and appearances, including in person at Eight Cousins in Falmouth, MA (7/11) (we WILL googly-eye all the books!), Bunch of Grapes in Martha's Vineyard (7/12), and Nicola's Books (in the works for 8/19!) in Ann Arbor, MI.

I'm trying (desperately) to finish a rewrite of a manuscript, and answer the call of the open water swim season which is in full and glorious force.

And, of course, our next uber-fantabulous summer of Teachers Write! starts July 7th!

If you are a teacher and don't know what it is, click that link. If you think you might like to participate, please join our facebook page, and look for tweets with the hashtag #teacherswrite!

So that's all. If you're looking for me, I'm over here scooping up balls.

If you haven't read THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO yet, I hope you'll add it to your summer reading list. I've been getting some wonderful feedback from readers and critics, and if you have a road trip in your future, I highly recommend the audiobook, and so does Audiofile Magazine!

Oh, and one more thing, if you have a book club of 5 or more people using THE SUMMER OF LETTING GO as its summer selection, I will be happy to Skype in for free! You can contact me via my email: g.polisner@gmail.com

So there you have it. Happy end of school year! Happy almost summer!

See you back here soon.

xox gae