I’m joining my dear friend Becky Davis at the Red Balloon in St. Paul Saturday, Jan. 20, for a book appearance. The fun starts at 2 p.m.

I’m featuring Laura Ingalls is Ruining My Life, and Becky has a new middle-grade novel called Slider’s Son.

Becky and I have been in a writing group for nearly 18 years. Many marriages don’t last that long!

I fell in love with Becky’s first novel, Jake Riley: Irreparably Damaged. My husband had been Becky’s neighbor. One day he came home with a manuscript. It was Becky’s first novel, on submission to publishing houses, and she wanted my teenage stepdaughter Wendy to read it and give her feedback.

I was alone in the house later that day, so I curled up on the couch with Becky’s manuscript. I was hooked. I stayed up late and read the entire book, which captured the teen experience so vividly I felt like I’d traveled through time back to my bedroom at my parents’ house.

Hope you can join a couple of old friends this weekend!

(By the way, Wendy loved the book as much I did.)

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