Thursday, September 20, 2012

Good People of Seattle! I Have a Mission for You!

Over a year ago, Arthur and I were contacted by the Make-A-Wish Foundation regarding a young Seattle-area writer named Stephanie Trimberger (who was 13 at the time; she’s 15 now). Stephanie has brain cancer, and her dream was to have her novel edited by “the Harry Potter editors.” Arthur and I read it and wrote her an editorial letter, and she began working on revisions. A year went by, and we didn’t hear anything more. Then last week, we heard that she had finished her book and wanted us to take one last look. 


Thanks to the terrific coordination of a lot of people at Scholastic, we not only managed to edit it quickly, but our designers typeset the manuscript and created a gorgeous cover for it. And with the help of an extraordinarily generous donation from the printer, three hundred copies of Stephanie’s THE RUBY HEART have now been printed. 

Your Mission, Seattle Area People!:  Next Tuesday, September 25, at 6 p.m., Stephanie will be doing a reading and signing of her book at the Pacific Place Barnes & Noble. Will you please, please attend? It would be so very awesome to have a big audience there to applaud her accomplishment and make it a great day for her. Stephanie is a huge reader of YA and fantasy fiction; she lost her mom to brain cancer nine years ago, and it sounds like she’s been writing about that long. I’m sure ALL writers can sympathize with her dream of publishing a book, and it should be an amazing evening in seeing that dream fulfilled.

The details in full:

Tuesday, September 25
6 p.m. (it was scheduled for 5:30 earlier; the time has been moved back)
Barnes & Noble Pacific Place
600 Pine Street, Suite 107
Seattle, WA 98101
(206) 265-0156

You can RSVP or leave a message for Stephanie at the Facebook page for the event. Thank you!

13 comments:

  1. This is lovely and I wish Stephanie all the best. I hope many people attend her reading! But when I read your blog post title, all I could think of was how much it sounded like the title of a new Sufjan Stevens song.

    I'm very sorry. I'll skulk away now.

    *skulks*

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  2. This is an insanely cool thing for you, everyone at Scholastic, and B&N to do. Congratulations and thank you for, if not being an amazing human being*, doing an amazing thing. I wish I was in Seattle so I could take part.


    * I don't know you at all and wouldn't want to jump to conclusions :)

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  3. Wow. What a cool thing you've done. And what a brave girl, to lose her mother, to have the same cancer, and to still manage to write a book. Wow! I wish I lived in Seattle.

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  4. Oh my gosh, go Stephanie! That's amazing. Hope there's an enormous crowd in Seattle!

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  5. What an amazing young lady, and story. A shining example of how our passions, and wonderful caring and giving people, help us to not only survive a major life challenge but, come out on top.

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  6. What a generous and wonderful gift you gave!

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  7. I love this. Wish I could be there to cheer her on!

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  8. I LOVE THIS! What an incredible story/event. I'm moved not only by Stephanie's courageous story, but by the fact a team of devoted and supporting people at Scholastic made this possible for her. I wish I was in Seattle or near there to come support Stephanie and support her in her fight against cancer. If her book ever becomes available please let us know, I would buy it in a heartbeat.

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  9. What a lovely thing you are doing. Thank you.

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  10. I wish I would have heard of this earlier. I only just now saw it on the Q-13 news. I would have tried to go. :)

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  11. If only I was in Seattle . . . but my cousin is...I'll pass the word along to him.

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  12. What a wonderful thing to have done. I hope there was an awesome turnout!! :)

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  13. A friend just posted this link about her, and of course it got me all teary-eyed.

    http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/harry-potter-editors-make-dream-come-true/106j6px?cpkey=298f4605-fc39-462a-ad8d-99c322598522||||

    I wish someone had the book for sale, or even an excerpt online, so more people could read it.

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