For JOSHILYN: say it Joss-alynn

This is part love- part contest. I bid on a basket of books at a writer's conference last Fall, all because THIS book was in it. I beat out a bunch of old ladies and a few beefy men and then I had to haul all 30 books home. It was worth it, for TGWSS. LOVED LOVED LOVED it. *sigh*

I met Joshilyn at a meeting for the Atlanta Writer's Club. She wowed us with her stage presence and energy. I can still hear her imitating her agent's voice as she told us the story of selling her first manuscript. Classic Joss.
She's the kind of gal I'd stalk, if I were the stalking type because when we took a picture together she said, "Let's do the Betty thing, ok?' And though I had no idea what that was I was like, " Yeah. the Betty thing. How do we do that again?" I think she could get young novelists like me to try anything... like write better than we thought we could after being inspired by her work. Though I am staying away from the high caloric chocolate cocktails... I'm just sayin'.

AS per contest;
I need to also tell you this for DEE:

Laurel Gray Hawthorne needs to make things pretty, whether she's helping her mother make sure the very literal family skeleton stays buried or turning scraps of fabric into nationally acclaimed art quilts. Her estranged sister Thalia, an impoverished Actress with a capital A, is her polar opposite, priding herself on exposing the lurid truth lurking behind middle class niceties. While Laurel's life seems neat and on track--a passionate marriage, a treasured daughter, and a lovely home in suburban Victorianna--everything she holds dear is suddenly thrown into question the night she is visited by the ghost of a her 14-year old neighbor Molly Dufresne.

The ghost leads Laurel to the real Molly floating lifelessly in the Hawthorne's backyard pool. Molly's death is inexplicable--an unseemly mystery Laurel knows no one in her whitewashed neighborhood is up to solving. Only her wayward, unpredictable sister is right for the task, but calling in a favor from Thalia is like walking straight into a frying pan protected only by Crisco. Enlisting Thalia's help, Laurel sets out on a life-altering journey that triggers startling revelations about her family's guarded past, the true state of her marriage, and the girl who stopped swimming.

Okay. go buy it. And if you live in ATL area, come meet and support Joshilyn, at the Margaret Mitchell House on March 4. Reception at 6pm. She's on at 7, I believe.
see you there.