Presenting the fabulous cover of my new YA novel, How to Tend a Grave, coming soon from Great Plains Teen Fiction!

I absolutely love this cover! I wasn’t sure what the design team would come up with, since the story features both a guy and a girl, but I think they got the feeling of the book just right.

How to Tend a Grave is contemporary, realistic fiction for readers 14 & up. Here’s the catologue copy:

He always figured he might be thirty or something before he could even talk to a girl. Before he met the right one. One who could make him forget that his mom had sex for money. Liam’s mom has been killed in a hit-and-run, forcing him to live with a grandfather he’s never known in a small town with a big youth crime problem. At the cemetery he meets and falls for Harmony, a gorgeous but mysterious girl who records the names of all the babies buried there long ago.

Harmony is afraid that Liam will join the local gang of vandals and ruin his life. As a result of her painful history with the gang leader her best friend dumped her and she was shunned at school. In her journal she writes to the unplanned baby she recently miscarried, and examines her growing feelings for Liam. But as she says, “He’s a grieving teen and I’m a loony nutbar. Does that sound like a good combination?”

The very different stories of these two fifteen-year-olds interweave brilliantly in this fast-paced, engaging and unforgettable book about family, love and healing.

The proofs are finished and the book is at the printer (it will also be released as an ebook). Launch in late May, when I’m back in Toronto. Details TBA. But for those who just can’t wait, How to Tend a Grave is now available for pre-order at online bookstores.