Since retiring from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel in 2007, where she was lifestyle columnist with a nationally syndicated weekly column “Rest of Us: Dispatches from the Mother Ship’’, Jacquelyn Mitchard recently began a new job as an editor at a Young Adult only book publisher from F&W Media (publishers of Writers Digest and the Everything books). It's called Merit Press Books, which publishes young adult suspense. And by young adult suspense—Mitchard made it clear she doesn’t men vampires, post-apocalyptic or time travel.
Having just started in April, Mitchard informs me the first five books have already been snagged, including: LOUDER THAN WORDS by Laurie Plissner, about a girl who loses her ability to speak after an accident that kills her whole family — until she meets a boy who literally can read her mind. When he leaves her, hoping to speed her progress, she fights for healing and for him, only to learn her family's death was no accident.
Mitchard is author of the best-selling novel, The Deep End of the Ocean, which was the first selection for Oprah's Book Club, on September 17, 1996. Soon after the Oprah appearance, the novel leaped to #1 on New York Times Bestseller for 13 weeks, and remained on the list for 29 weeks overall.
Other works by the American journalist and author include: The Breakdown Lane, Twelve Times Blessed, Christmas, Present, A Theory of Relativity, The Most Wanted, Cage of Stars, No Time to Wave Goodbye, Second Nature – A Love Story, and Still Summer.
In addition to her publishing duties, Mitchard is a faculty fellow at Southern New Hampshire University, and a contributing writer for Parade Magazine and More magazine, among others.
-Bill Lucey
June 25, 2012
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