News & Notes



Publishers Weekly review of The Midnight Twins
The Midnight Twins
Jacquelyn Mitchard. Razorbill, $16.99 (240p) ISBN 978-1-59514-160-6
Experimenting with genre, Mitchard (The Deep End of the Ocean; All We Know of Heaven, Reviews, May 26) proffers the first of a projected trilogy about identical twins Mallory and Meredith, born two minutes apart—one on New Year's Eve, the other on New Year's Day. The two are perfect opposites, mirrors of each other; they share each other's dreams and feel each other's thoughts—until their 13th birthday, when they nearly die in a terrible fire that has been deliberately set. The fire leaves one of them scarred—they are no longer physically identical—and both of them endowed with psychic powers: one can see the future, the other far into the past. However familiar some of these elements, Mitchard uses them to conjure genuine horror in the form of a villain who begins by torturing neighborhood pets and graduates to murdering young women. The plot moves quickly, propelled by the mysteries of the sisters' relationship. Members of the target audience will be particularly vulnerable to the twins' heightened intimacy and extra-sensitive to any possibility of rupture; the girls' supernatural knowledge is a delicious bonus. Ages 12–up. (July)



Watch Jackie on Good Morning America Now
Jackie is interviewed by GMA Now's Lois Cahall on February 19, 2008. Watch the video.



Jackie's New Essay in CHOICE
Jackie's story about surrogate parenthood, 'The Ballad of Bobbie Jo,' its complexities and ecstasies, is the first essay in the collection CHOICE, described in October's Vanity Fair as: "From adoption to abortion, birth to infertility, Karen E. Bender and Nina de Gramont's anthology of stunningly honest essays encompasses all the contradictions and complicated emotions surrounding CHOICE." Booklist also had kudos for the anthology, upcoming October 19 from MacAdam/Cage. 



Essay May Become Broadway Show
Dana Bedford's witty, funny anthology, Blindsided by a Diaper: Over 30 Men and Women Reveal How Parenthood Changes a Relationship from Three Rivers Press, (ital), in which Jackie's essay on becoming a parent when you've lost your own as a teenager, is under serious discussion to become a Broadway show.



Three Novels to be Reissued!
Jackie's novels The Most Wanted, A Theory of Relativity and  The Breakdown Lane  have been acquired by and are being reissued in Great Britain, Australia and South Africa by John Murray. 



Onward to Fiji...
In connection with the organizers of the Maui Writers Conference, Jackie will teach in April at a writer's retreat in Fiji. Details can be found on the Maui Writers Conference website.



Deep End of the Ocean #2 on USA Today's Top 25
USA Today chose 25 books that "...made an impact on readers and the publishing industry over the past quarter-century." Deep End of the Ocean is #2. Read the story.