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I got chills when I saw this. Flynn McGarry really reminds me of – his passion, his ambition, his talent. You’re never too young (or too old!) too pursue your dreams. I love that he’s taking the initiative and turning his home into a once a month pop-up restaurant. And I love that his family is obviously so supportive!

KON’NICHIWA!
Guess what? has been released in Japan! Yep, that’s right. Here’s the Japanese cover by amazing artist Mel Kishida-

I haven’t received any copies of the book yet, but I’m eagerly awaiting their mysterious interiors. You see, the Japanese publisher, Media Factory, hired their own interior artist who will be rendering all the characters in a manga style. So stay tuned…

P.S. Someone made an Anna Smudge book trailer over at YouTube.

Cool music by Kevin M...

I have some wonderful news to share — Quenton Cohen just won the Bronze Medal for pre-teen mystery at the 2011 Moonbeam Children's Book Awards! I am really SO grateful to win of these awards. Any time you pour such a large amount of work into a project it's enormously gratifying when it gets some recognition (from someone other than your mom!)

Hey guys, just got an email with some fun visual treats — The Professionals is being released in Denmark and Taiwan and these are some of the new covers.

As you can see, the publishers decided to go with Greg Horn's amazing covers (which I think is a no-brainer).

And I really love how colorful the designs are for the Taiwan covers. But I was especially curious as to what those floating sentences were alongside Anna and Quenton. So I asked, and apparently these are the 2 translations:

Anna...

I don't want to give away any twists from

www.warchild.ca

War Child works with local partners across the world to help children affected by war.

They provide sustainable, long-lasting programs that focus on education...

I know many of you have been waiting a while for this. So I am thrilled to announce that Quenton Cohen: Professional Chef, Book Two of The Professionals is finally here!

There's lots of danger, chases, explosions… but most of all delicious cuisine. I told my family and friends I was just doing "research" for the book since the main character is a chef, but really it was just an excuse to go to as many incredible restaurants as possible.

Here are the deets on the plot:

The dangerous criminal...

I thought it would be cool to take you guys through a little of the art process for Quenton Cohen: Professional Chef. We usually start with me, alone, sitting in front of my computer, trying to think… Until I finally write up a character description for, um, let's use Thud as an example.

I email the description to Glenn Fabry, who's in the UK. Sometimes I'll chat with him on the phone and we'll talk through the character a bit. (Glenn likes to learn as much about the characters as possible so ...

I've had a wonderful week! My friend Jo-Anne Rioux was in NYC for a visit and I got to take her out for a night of fun, fun, and more fun.

Cha-an Teahouse, hidden on the second floor of an East Village brownstone, where we dined on small dishes of exotic fish, multi-colored seaweed, pickled vegetables, and 15 grain rice porridge while sipping white tea. For dessert? Black sesame crème brulee and a mini pound cake with vanilla bean ice cream and raspberry sauce. (Quenton Cohen...

OK, Quenton Cohen will be out very soon, I've already started Book Three (Shhh, top secret!), but you can't count little Miss Anna Smudge out just yet. Girlfriend knows how to hang in there! She just won 3 new awards from the wonderful folks at the Young Voices Foundation:

Gold Medal for Best Juvenile Fiction

Gold Medal for Best Juvenile Mystery

Gold Medal for Best Youth Fiction- NE Region

In case you don't know, the Young Voices Foundation has two really cool awards that they give out...

Hey guys!

It's been forever since I posted because I've been writing the next book in The Professionals series, Quenton Cohen: Professional Chef. But it's finally finished and delivered to my publisher. YAY! As soon as they tell me, I'll give you all the exact release date. Also, I'll be posting the cover very soon. It's AWESOME-O! I can't wait to share it with everyone!

Lots of good stuff has been happening in the meantime while I've been writing QUENTON. The main thing is that ANNA SMUDGE