My lovely editor at Delacorte just bought my third YA book - titled It's Not You. It's Me. about the crazy, psycho break up girl most all of us could be if we let her out. Yay!

Easy has been selected as a 2007 Oregon Book Award Finalist. The winner will be announced on December 2nd at the swanky awards reception! 

On Wednesday, November 7st at 1pm I'll be giving a reading through Mt Hood Community College's Mountain Writers Series. I will read from Easy, and I'll also be giving a hefty sneak peek of Loose Girl. So, come!

Nov 7, 1pm
Visual Arts Theater
Mt Hood Community College
Gresham, Oregon

Will be published by Delacorte! The Good Girl is the story of a girl who steals. Unlike Easy, it’s not really an issues book. It’s about so much more that her stealing. She feels like she has to be the good girl to make up for the death of her older brother, and stealing becomes an avenue for her anger. I love this book and I’m so happy Delacorte picked it up. It will be out in the fall of 2008

Thanks, again, to those who have contacted me or signed the guestbook on this site to share with me their thoughts about Easy. I cannot imagine a better feeling than to know there are people out there inspired by my work. 

On another note, today I learned a very good friend is dying from cancer. He has been fighting for a few years, but it has entered his brain now. He's not gone yet, but I'm already grieving the loss of him in our world. He is an extremely special and wonderful person, and he's leaving behind his wife and two very small children. It's so terribly unfair. I don't understand any of this. I hope anyone who reads this will think of him and his family and wish them passage through their pain and direction in finding some purpose for their loss.

Apparently having children has deprived us of any sanity, because come early June we're off on a road trip across country to move AGAIN...back to Portland, Oregon. For those of you in Portland, I can't wait to do some appearances around town, which I expect to do with the paperback, and I really hope I'll see you there! We just miss Portland too much. We realize it's our home.

Thanks again, my supporters and fans, for all your kind words - they mean everything to me!

Check out Loose Girl's web site! The site is www.kerry-cohen.com because Kerry Cohen the ceramicist took kerrycohen.com.

Easy is scheduled to come out Spetember 7th in paperback. The editor sent me a jpeg of the cover, and it looks great! I especially love the little saying they added at the bottom. Go here to see the cover.

In case you missed it, check out my Loose Girl blog to see the crazy saga Easy just endured. I'm shocked by the amount of crazy out there. It was a grown woman who did this. I thought I had good instincts about people, but maybe I'm wrong. I mean, I chose this woman as my tenant. Obviously I wouldn't have done so if I realized she was so psycho. I guess it' just more life experience to write about later. I think it was Gore Vidal who said, "You get no credit for living."

Still waiting for another good review on Amazon to cancel out the last bad one, people. Anyone? Please? 

It's so nice to check out my guestbook and see so many nice notes from all of you. Thank you! Your comments make my day. For those who keep asking, we still haven't sold my next two young adult books, but we haven't given up trying.

There's a crappy review from a reader on Easy's Amazon page :( Anyone want to cancel it out with another good review? I'd sooo appreciate that.

Easy is listed as a nomination on the 2006 Quick Picks for Reluctant Readers list. Check it out at http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/booklistsawards/quickpicks/06qp.htm

Also, if you're really interested, you can hear more of my thoughts at http://kerrycohen.blogspot.com/ which is my current web site for Loose Girl.

Here's a wonderful article featuring my book. Check it out at http://www.oregonlive.com/living/oregonian/index.ssf?/base/living/1155083132218900.xml&coll=7 My only complaint is that at one point it sounds as though I disagree that promiscuity is an addiction like any other. I do agree! This point is on what much of my memoir is based.

Hey, friends. If you live anywhere in western Massachusetts you might want to come to one of my Word Street workshops (www.wordstreet.org)
Here's the press release:

Kerry Cohen Hoffmann, author of EASY (Simon & Schuster, 2006) will lead the writing workshop, “Writing for the Young Adult Audience,” on Thursday, August 3 and Thursday, August 10 from 7-9PM at Word Street, 163 North Street Pittsfield. The two-part workshop features the topics of technique and style of young adult novels, revising and polishing the novel, and the process of finding an agent and publishing the book. Participants will write their own young adult story or novel beginning and Ms. Hoffmann will offer personal constructive critique of all pieces done at the workshop.

The workshop fee for both sessions is $40 ($30 for Word Street volunteers), and a 10% discount is offered to senior citizens. Register by calling Word Street 997-3307 or by emailing courses@wordstreet.org.

I'll also be teaching a fiction workshop in Word Street's summer writing camp for teens. See the info at www.wordstreet.org

The day before yesterday I sold my memoir - on the same topic as Easy - to Hyperion! It's tentatively titled Loose Girl: a Memoir of Promiscuity. I'm thrilled! As an adult memoir the book delves much further into my own experience of teenage promiscuity. It was a hard book to write, to face again the many years I hurt myself and others with what was really an addiction. But I wrote it for the same reasons I wrote Easy: to provide a voice to a topic that badly needs attention. I know there are tons of people out there going through similar travails. I hope my work will reach them, and I hope I will hear from some as well.

As for Easy, the paperback is due to come out in November. I had a scare today when a friend asked me why the paperback had a different title. Huh? I went to Amazon, and sure enough there was the paperback edition - not yet out - with the title "Slut?" I freaked. When I originally wrote Easy, it was titled "Slut". My editor talked me into changing it (wisely, I thought) to Easy. Now I love that title. It perfectly captures the book's layered themes. But no one had said anything about a different title for paperback! It makes no sense! I've been getting reviews, interviews, etc., all about Easy - not some new book called Slut? I called my editor, frantic, but his assistant assured me all was okay. Apparently Amazon was mistakenly using an old concept image Simon & Schuster had sent them long before they came up with Easy and its cover. It will change when they send the new cover, still titled - thankfully - Easy. Go to http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1416926291/sr=1-2/qid=1153925807/ref=sr_1_2/002-6427060-4524814?ie=UTF8&s=books to see the bogus cover.

Today I spent pretty much the whole day trying to work the kinks out of my email account. A good half hour was spent discovering and writing down the conversion from farhenheit to celsius - this after being sick of mentioning the temperature to our German au pair and her having no idea what that means. The remaining hours I might have been writing were spent reading the same way-too-advanced book, a book I know he doesn't understand but insists on my reading, again and again to my three year old; nursing my 5 month old and wiping spit-up off my shirt; and researching how to help my older boy with his constipation. For exactly 15 minutes I stared at the first couple pages (the only ones written) of a new book before pronouncing them worthless. Sigh. Sometimes I hate being a writer.

At http://www.teensreadtoo.com/InterviewHoffmann.html!

Check it out at http://rebeccagrabill.blogspot.com, and after this week at http://rebeccagrabill.blogspot.com/2006/07/in-conversation-with-kerry-cohen.html

I really do! It's so great to hear from those of you enjoying my book (I welcome comments from those who don't too obviously). So good to know Easy's affecting people and making them think. Seriously, knowing just one of you is finding yourself in my book makes me feel successful. That's why I write. Reading saved me at times when I was a teen. It had the power to make me feel, something I didn't always feel safe to do. Plus, seeing myself in characters helped me imagine I was less alone with what I was feeling. This is what I hope for my readers.

So, you say you want more? Tell that to the editors considering my second book right now! We're still waiting for an answer. But as soon as I know something, I'll post it here. If/When it sells, I'll post a little preview of it too.

Oh, and, Samantha, my dear - thanks for calling me pretty. You know what it's like being a girl; a little comment like that can make your day.

People keep telling me they've gone to B&N or Borders and found one or two of my books hidden away on the teen shelf. Most turned the book to face out or had the staff do it. I appreciate these warrior tactics. I want the buzz to be out there on this book! Control freak that I am, I keep trying to orchestrate this, but like my agent told me, there's little I can do that will really make that much of a difference. Obviously, I can send the book for additional reviews. I can try to set up appearances. But mostly I have to trust that the book will do its own bidding. I'm eager to see reviews and get some interviews going. Come on, people! This is a good, important book. Am I wrong about that?

How excited am I? Today I called Barnes & Noble, just to see if by chance it was there yet, and it is. The salesgirl asked me if I knew the author, and I said, well, yes, some days better than others. And more good news: we have some interest for my second book. I don't want to jinx it by saying anything more, but I'll update when I know for sure.