how to welcome an alien

An Unexpected Award

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Last week, I was shocked to learn that Shirley Waisman and I won a Golden Duck Notable award from Core for HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN! It’s for excellence in sci-fi kidlit. Before I learned I’d won it, I had no idea this award even existed, but it gives me particular pleasure because while the book got some attention as a Jewish book, I think of it as a sci-fi book, as well.

Apparently, Core is the national association that advances the profession of librarians and information providers in central roles of leadership and management, collections and technical services, and technology. It’s part of ALA, the American Library Association. It’s nice they recognized HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN, and I hope to go from strength to strength.

Announcing the 2024 SF Notable Lists!

HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN also appeared on a great list of books about Jewish Joy for Multicultural Book Day last week. The list was compiled by Charlotte Offsay. You can read her list and enter a giveaway for her book CHALLAH DAY! here.

I’ve got a lot of submissions out right now and am hoping (praying!) for some acceptance letters.

More reviews! And shanah tovah (by the way)!

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It’s now a month and a half since the release of HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN, and it’s a new year, too! I thought I should post a few more of the reviews the book has gotten, even if I don’t have *that* much to say for myself otherwise (still writing, still querying, still trying to sell books, still washing lots of dishes and dealing with loads of laundry).

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Shanah tovah! And if you see my book out in the wild or spot a review, let me know about it.

One Week Till the Release of HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN!!!

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Lots of exciting stuff happening around the release of my next book, HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN!

I was interviewed—twice! The first interview was by the always-lovely Barbara Bietz for Jewish Books for Kinds…and more!. You can find that interview here. And the one with Kylie Ora Lobell appeared in the Jewish Journal last week. You can read that one here.

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Additionally, I got lots of help from my writing group friends (plus my pal Merri Ukraincik, who has a fantastic newsletter for Jewish creatives) to polish up a personal essay called “My UFOs.” It details my attraction to aliens, UFOs, and all things sci-fi. Even though I wrote it a while back, it also addresses many of my complaints from my last blog post. It went up on the Paper Brigade Daily blog by JBC yesterday. Go ahead and check it out if you haven’t yet.

And, finally, there’s another review out, this one from the Sydney Taylor Schmooze. Read that here.

Don’t forget to place my book on pre-order if you haven’t yet! It’s available on Bookshop, Amazon, and Barnes & Noble. If you want to help me out, you can also ask your local library or bookstore to order it. And if you’ve already ordered the book, you should be getting your copy next week. When you do, I’d love it if you snapped a picture with your book and tagged me on your social media pages!

Kirkus Review Is Up!

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Reviews in Kirkus can greatly influence people’s interest in a new title, particularly the interest of bookstore managers and librarians. Therefore, I was greatly relieved to see a postive review for HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN up on their site. If you want to read the review in full, you can find it here.

The Kirkus Review is up for my upcoming book!

There was another supposed alien sighting in Vegas a couple weeks back, so maybe that will increase sales, too. (My best friend called it an extraordinary marketing effort.) Remember: Preorders are available on Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Bookshop.

Reviews coming in for HOW TO WELCOME AN ALIEN

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With just a couple months till publication, I’m feeling a bit anxious about the release of How To Welcome an Alien. But when I opened up Twitter today, I felt a little more confident.

The blog Bookishly Jewish posted a review (which you can find here), and it’s a positive one. I’ve heard there are more reviews coming. And hopefully all these combined will boost presale orders.