To Madeline Miller's THE SONG OF ACHILLES

An enormous congratulations to Madeline Miller (whom I met at the wonderful Booktopia Vermont event in April) for winning the Orange Prize for Fiction, with her debut novel, The Song of Achilles.

From her website, a brief description (and trailer, below):

Profoundly moving and breathtakingly original, this rendering of the epic Trojan War is a dazzling feat of the imagination, a devastating love story, and an almighty battle between gods and kings, peace and glory, immortal fame and the human heart.

Couldn't have gone to a nicer person.

A Sneak Peek at My New Cover

Here she is, coming in November from Crown, the sequel to Learning to Swim (I have several more planned).

Just Call Me Cinderella: My Most Amazing, Wonderful, Twelve Days Ever

On April 18, I flew to St. Louis, beginning what would be my most amazing twelve days ever, and I've done a guest blog over at Jungle Reds about it (thanks to the Jungle Reds writers for having me, and a particular huge thank you to Julia Spencer-Fleming). It starts out ...

I live on a dirt road in southern Vermont—excitement is when a fox tunnels into my yard and I try to referee a chase between dog and fox as they lap the yard, me alternately trying to grab my 105-pound Newfie mix and direct the fox to a fox-sized opening in the fence.

A long time ago I wrote a novel. Parts were good and parts weren’t, and I put it in a drawer, where it stayed for a very long time. Eventually I pulled it out and revised it, over and over, until it was published. In the 14 months since I did two panels, and went to the few bookstores who asked me. And then my amazing twelve days began. - to read more, head to Jungle Reds

Me chatting on Books on the Nightstand (oh, and a guy named Richard Mason, too)

Richard Mason

Me, in ponytail mode post-event

About a million years ago (okay, really just over a week ago) I attended an insanely wonderful event called Booktopia, a weekend retreat for readers and authors, organized and hosted by the folks who run the beloved Books on the Nightstand podcast, Ann Kingman and Michael Kindness. Over at their website, you can hear my talk at the Celebration of Authors event that closed out the event. And you can also hear my new pal, the inimitable, delightful Richard Mason, author of History of a Pleasure Seeker. (If you have a chance to see Richard present in person, do so. He's amazing.)

Yep, I won the Agatha for best first novel ...wow

I'm more than delighted to announce that I won the Agatha Award for best first novel on Saturday night at the Malice Domestic conference in Bethesda, Maryland - here's a list of all the nominations and winners (I'm still on the road, so please forgive the short post.)

In good company: Just after I won the Agatha for best first novel, with Margaret Maron, winner of the Agatha for best novel

Words fail me ...

And I'm posting via my just-acquired iPad before I leave town ... But I am extraordinarily grateful to have just won the 2012 Mary Higgins Clark award for my first novel, LEARNING TO SWIM. Can't at the moment figure out how to post a photo from here, but there's one over at the Crimespree mag blog.