It's Book Launch Time!

Now that it's March, I'm not only excited about March Break, but March 7th is the release date of my YA novel, The Most Dangerous Thing. I'm also excited about my Kingston launch party at Novel Idea on March 31st. You're all invited, even those of you who live too far away to come. Here's my beautiful invite.

It's possible that I was so excited to show off my new cover last post that I may have neglected to tell you what the book is about. Well, let me fill you in.

The Most Dangerous Thing is about a teenage girl named Syd who is struggling with anxiety and depression. Sydney also hates to talk (or even think) about sex. Since she isn't good at talking to people, especially boys, she's sure she'll never have a boyfriend. So, when her classmate Paul starts texting and sending her nature photos, she is caught off guard by his interest. Sydney's life is further complicated when her extroverted sister, Abby, decides to put on the play The Vagina Monologues at school. Through hearing about the play, Sydney starts to reexamine her relationship with her body, and with Paul. Eventually she starts to grapple with what she calls the most dangerous thing about sex: female desire. You can find the book (and buy it) at Orca Books, or at Amazon or better yet, at your local Indie book store.

You might have guessed that sisters are a big theme in this book, especially sisters who are different from each other. My own sister Marcy and I are very different people. I am far more outgoing, extroverted and goal-oriented than she is. She's way more generous, easy-going and patient that I am. As kids I performed on stage, and well, she didn't.  (She describes herself as the quiet one.) If either of was going to be put on a play at school, it definitely would have been me.

The book is dedicated to Marcy, mostly because she's my sister and she's a special person for all the reasons above, but it's also dedicated to her because of the conversations about mental health we had while I was writing the book. Marcy has worked as a registered nurse in mental health at Vancouver General Hospital for more than fifteen years. She works in the emergency department, so she sees a lot of people in crises. I know the patience and generosity she shows our family is also apparent in her professional life. I'm thankful to her for answering my many questions about anxiety and depression and mental health in general.

So here's to sisters. I feel lucky to have someone to have real tea parties with after all our childhood pretend tea parties, and to still regularly be trounced by whatever game we are playing. For years Marcy destroyed me at Gin Rummy, Spit, Mille Bourne, Rat Race and Monopoly. These days she trounces me at Scrabble. Currently she's 106(!) points ahead of me in our Words with Friends game, and there's no chance I'm going to make a comeback.

My mom, Marcy and me. (I'm the one hamming it up. Quel surprise, eh?)