Thursday, April 16, 2009

praise where praise is due!

Jennifer Gooch Hummer, who began as my student at UCLA and ended up as my friend, just told me that her novel APRON (a novel I love) was selected by Amazon as one of the top 100 in the Amazon Breaththrough Novel Awards. Now Penguin editors are going to go through the manuscripts and choose the top three.

Hey.  I know who I would choose.

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7 comments:

  1. Clea SimonApril 16, 2009 at 9:28 AM

    Oh good luck to her!! Even if it doesn't win, this bodes well for it selling.!

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  2. Jeff LyonsApril 17, 2009 at 11:59 AM

    C:

    Yay for her! How could she not with you teaching her?!

    J :)

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  3. Caroline LeavittApril 17, 2009 at 1:25 PM

    Oh, she can't learn a thing from me. She's so very talented all on her own.

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  4. UnknownApril 17, 2009 at 1:59 PM

    Hah! - to the above. Apron would still be stuck in my .doc files if it weren't for Caroline. Every page was edited with her genius-ness . She is the best kept secret in the literary world. And thank you to everyone for your very kind words! (Shoot I can't get my face off this post... ?? sorry.)

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  5. Gina SorellApril 17, 2009 at 6:29 PM

    This is very exciting! Congrats Jennifer, and I agree with the undeniable fact that Caroline is a Godsend for all us writers!

    Fingers crossed!

    G :)

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  6. Leora Skolkin-SmithApril 18, 2009 at 7:31 AM

    Agreeing one thousand per cent that Caroline is a Godsend for all of us...and congratulations Jennifer, wonderful news!

    I love to hear when valuable writers can finally break through those closed club doors!

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  7. Caroline LeavittApril 18, 2009 at 9:21 AM

    Oh please. While I appreciate the lovely compliments, the truth is that really, if the talent was not already there, there would have been nothing I could do. All I did was push, prod and ask questions and help unlock what was already on the page. All the glory really belongs to Jennifer and her incredibly good novel.

    BUT, that said, this is enormously exciting because the book is so brilliant and this opens up a whole other avenue for getting really really wonderful work out there. And Clea is right--even if it doesn't win--and it should--it is a huge bang on her resume which will attract agents and editors! Psst, any publishing people reading, please consider looking at this novel. It had me laughing--and weeping and it is really haunting. This is one really talented writer.

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