SPECIAL EDITION {Black and White} COVER REVEAL and Guest Post for WHILE HE WAS AWAY by Karen Schreck

I am SOOO excited to share this cover reveal with all of you today!!!
A NEW black and white exclusive cover from Sourcebooks Fire for...
WHILE HE WAS AWAY

And one of the most endearing and heartfelt guest posts I have ever read by an author...
Karen Schreck

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How Inspiration Can Come From Anywhere:

Even a Trip to the Grocery Store

and a Handful of Long-Lost Photographs

By Karen Schreck

  

I sometimes wonder what my mother would say if she knew that her story—one of the saddest, sweetest love stories I’ve ever heard—was retold in a new way in my young adult novel, While He Was Away.

Now Sourcebooks Fire is sharing the story yet again, in a second, exclusive edition, released nation-wide at Walmart.  The fact that Sourcebooks believed enough in While He Was Away to bring it to life the first time felt like a much-needed confirmation of years of hard work.  The fact that they are standing behind my book again in this way . . . well, it feels like a miracle.  I’m truly grateful.

I wonder what my mother would say to this incredible news? I like to think she would be grateful too.  I like to think she would be happy.  She wanted her story heard after all.  So much so that it was one of the last things she told me, just before she died.

One rainy night when I was fourteen, right before cancer left her too ill to talk, let alone drive a car, my mother said, “Come with me.  We’re going shopping.”  We drove to the little local market and wandered up and down the aisles, as she threw in a can of tuna, some dishwashing soap, and other little things we didn’t need.  We paid for these little things.  She looked anxious and tired, still she hadn’t said a thing; we hadn’t spoken a word.

It was only when we were parked in our driveway again that my mother said, “I was married once before when I was very young.  He died a hero in WWII.”

And that was that.  Soon after, she died.

I thought about my mother’s mysterious love story for many years.  I talked to relatives, found long-lost photographs.  The story took seed in me.  It flowered into a novel about a young women whose boyfriend leaves for the Iraq War.  In her loneliness, she seeks out a grandmother she’s never met, whose first husband died in WWII.  She seeks out a character inspired by mother.

A late night drive, a few words spoken in the dark.  Even things as simple as this can inspire a novel.

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While He Was Away Walmart-Exclusive Cover Reveal

This new cover took my breath away!
If you know me at all, you know that I have a 'thing' for black/white covers with just a touch of a color - especially when that color is PINK!
Isn't it stunning?! I loved the original paperback cover, but this one is definitely a must have too!
I really like how they kept the same theme and the font too...

What do you think??? 

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While He Was Away
by Karen Schreck
Original release date: May 1st, 2012
Published by: Sourcebooks Fire
Genre: Contemporary - Romance

Original Paperback Cover

SUMMARY

One year - he'll be gone for one year and then we'll be together again and everything will be back to the way it should be.

The day David left, I felt like my heart was breaking. Sure, any long-distance relationship is tough, but David was going to war - to fight, to protect, to put his life in danger. We can get through this, though. We'll talk, we'll email, we won't let anything come between us.

I can be an army girlfriend for one year. But will my sweet, soulful, funny David be the same person when he comes home? Will I? And what if he doesn't come home at all?...

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Karen Schreck

Karen Schreck is the author of the young adult novel WHILE HE WAS AWAY (Sourcebooks Fire, May 2012), as well as the novel DREAM JOURNAL, which was a 2006 Young Adult BookSense Pick, and the award-winning children's book, LUCY'S FAMILY TREE. The recipient of a Pushcart Prize and an Illinois State Arts Council Grant, Karen received her doctorate in English and Creative Writing from the University of Illinois at Chicago. She writes and teaches for a living, and she loves visiting schools and other gatherings of readers and writers to talk about her books the writing process.

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