Everything changes. Example: Love Wins.

My parent's biracial marriage was actually illegal in several states when their union occurred. People's eyes widen in shock when I say that.

But many marriages of my dear friends were illegal in several states until yesterday.

I'm thrilled that both of those sentences will sound equally ridiculous to our children.

We are all so lucky to have witnessed & now to enjoy this major shift from fear into love.

In my series, Between Lions, sixteen-year-old Anna is discovering what happens when the seemingly indestructible, powers-that-have-been-&-assume-they-always-will-be, begin to crumble. Old ideas that no longer serve us fall away & old truths we've always known, deep inside our guts, resurface, demanding that we honor our highest selves. 
 
This morning, scrolling thru my Facebook newsfeed, seeing picture after picture covered in rainbows - men & women, but also pictures of FAMILIES, as one of my friends pointed out today in her post - all showing their support & joyful celebration for love, freedom, & equality winning... an, OMG - TRUTH & LOVE REALLY DO WIN feeling burst through me.

Amazingly powerful.

Love changed the world yesterday.


I am so excited to see what we collectively create next in this brave, new, love-filled world. 

I want to mark today's ebook  release of my debut novel TRUST with gratitude for all of the support & encouragement I received journeying to this moment! I'm so insanely grateful this day has come. 

So in this blog, I am sharing my Thank You-s (which are also known as the Author's Acknowledgements section) which can be found inside of book. :)

THANK YOU
A decade ago, I had a conversation that changed my life. I was in NYC, having brunch with my genius playwright friend, Zohar Tirosh. I confided to her that I’d had a re-occurring weird flash of a vision in my head of a librarian climbing a strange spiral staircase.

“I want to know where she is going and what she’s looking for,” I told her.

“So write it, Jodi,” she said seriously, as if she believed that I could.  “Write it and find out.”

Ten years, many miles, drafts, and doorways later, I’d like to acknowledge her and all of the people who said: “Yes, you can”. Thank you Zohar Tirosh-Polk, Jamie Azevedo, Mike Melkovic, Terrace Yeats, James Babson, Gina Arizpe, Cristina Gavin, Megan Bauer, Olivia Osby, Marilyn Kresge, Kathleen Kaufman, Melanie Elms, Gretchen Berg, Jen Berg, Aaron Harberts, Scott Director, Sascha Alexander, Courtney Greene, Tim Cummings, Tamara Braun, and my sister, Holly Baker-Johnson.

I’d like to thank my parents, Nancy and Orlando Baker, who took me to the library every single week when I was growing up. Surprisingly, since they were both teachers, they never pushed me to be an academic centurion.  Instead, they gave me the freedom to try and become the artist I wanted to be.

Thank you Harry Oosterom, my incredible grandfather, who supported me in so many amazing ways and told me he was proud of me no matter what.

I would like all of the Gods in the multiverse to bless Tatum Crigger, my BFF and artistic soul-mate, who lovingly read, critiqued, and cheered every single draft - really, every single word - I wrote. Thank you for the many times when, on dark days, you repeated the title of my own book to me, reminding me to: “TRUST.”

Thank you to my agent, Andrea Somberg, who read my original draft in one night and called to tell me she loved it. While she was editing my book with discerning eyes and an unbelievably perceptive ear, she would email me the most terrifyingly wonderful questions, like: “What would happen if most of the story took place in NYC?”  I’m glad I always answered: “I’ll write it and find out!”

Thank you to Miranda Spigener-Sapon, PR-Goddess and queen of making the seemingly impossible, possible!

Thank you Lino Azevedo, for the brilliant and beautiful cover of TRUST.

Thank you to all of the breathtakingly magical (and patient) artistic and academic teachers I’ve had, especially at Walnut Hill School of the Arts. Great teachers make information sing in the hearts and minds of their students. I’m grateful I had so many. Also - thank you, my fellow ‘Walnuts’. Non Nobis Solum (Not for ourselves alone), always and forever.

I have to thank those incredible writers - some of whom I’ve spoken to and most of whom I only ever met on a page - whose stories changed me: Madeline L’Engle, Norton Juster, Maya Angelou, J.D. Salinger, Laura Ingalls Wilder, Toni Morrison, Raymond Carver, Laini Taylor, L.M. Montgomery, Zilpha Keatley Snyder, Lois Lowry, Julia Cameron, Joseph Campbell, Andrew Lang, Louise Fitzhugh, Lewis Carroll, Susan Ee, C.S. Lewis, Maud Hart Lovelace, Noel Streatfeild, E.L. Konigsburg, Tom Robbins, Maurice Sendak, Holly Black, Neil Gaiman, Kelley Armstrong, Terry Pratchett, William Golding, Marion Zimmer Bradley, Sara Beth Durst, L. Frank Baum, Suzanne Collins, Jon Skovron, Justine Larbalestier, Ntozake Shange, Eva Ibbotson, Ray Bradbury, Garth Nix, Megan Whalen Turner, Phillip Pullman, J.K. Rowling, Maria Dzielska, Sandra Cisneros, Don Freeman, E. Nesbit, Paulo Coelho, Adriana Trigiani, and so many, many more.

When I was a kid, the faces of children’s librarians in my hometown lit up whenever I walked in the library. They showed me that being a librarian is the noblest of professions. No matter what a person is looking for, a librarian will do anything and everything to help you find it, without knowing why you need it. They just assume that if you ask, it’s important. They believe in the pursuit of knowledge and dedicate their lives to organizing and protecting information so that it is accessible to all.

Thank you Librarians, everywhere, for all that you do.

Thank you to Freddy, the love of my life. I knew he was extraordinary the moment I met him. Like Cax, he always miraculously shows up where and when I need him  (and want him) most. He always bets on me - even when things are not obviously in my favor. Thank you for inspiring, supporting, and sharing this experience with me. My love, I want to hold hands with you forever, through every step of each journey we take towards becoming more solidly ourselves.

My last - but definitely not least - acknowledgement is for you, the reader:

Thank you for turning my dream into a reality. 
Thank you for reading my book.

I love books with shape-shifters. Skin Walkers, old school Werewolves... I love them all, but I didn't want to do what had been done before in my first book. My original idea for TRUST didn't involve any kind of Weres.

But. Then my Muse intervened.

While creating the world for my Between Lions series I spent a lot of time researching Egyptian mythology. I loved how the Ancient Egyptian Gods were all depicted with animal-heads. Their stories say they can shift shape into that animal or appear human to their followers.

Then it hit me: Egyptian Gods are shape shifting creatures, which, to a modern day reader would fall into a 'Were' category. 

THANK YOU MUSE!!!

The first Egyptian God I looked at with this perspective was Anubis, the Funeral God of Ancient Egypt.

Head of a jackal + Body of a human = Werejackal.

That's where the Werecreatures in my Between Lions series were born. 

Next, my Muse inspired me to re-imagine these incredible ancient mythological characters in all their terrifying glory & put them in modern day NYC! Through my research, I found that on every continent of the world, throughout various cultures, they all had myths about shape-shifting creatures.
The most prominent & ferocious of those creatures are featured in my series, because each ancient Library culture has its own mythological protectors. I had a ridiculous amount of fun with my Werecreatures in book one & more will be revealed as the books progress.

But for me, it all started with Anubis. 

When you read Book One: TRUST, you will meet your first Werejackal. But as I said, they aren't the only kind of shape-shifters that appear in the Between Lions series.

Can you guess what kind of shapeshifter appears on the cover of TRUST?
Hint: This shapeshifting creature is found in myths from Mesoamerica.

On Thursday all with be revealed with the ebook release!
Everything begins with TRUST. :)

As a kid, I was often informed that I was 'a little too'. 
A little too different. A little too sensitive. A little too outspoken. A little too weird. She reads a little too much.

As I got older the 'little' dropped off, leaving me with 'Too'.

Too stubborn. Too fast. Too easily agitated. Too smart. Too happy being by herself.

Then, of course, there was the visual of me. I'm interracial. My white mom's side of the family has roots going back to New Amsterdam, my grandfather's family was actually from Holland, while my father's side boasts African American, Jamaican, Cherokee folks in their midst. Of course most Americans are descended from an interesting & beautiful blend...but as an interracial kid with freckles I felt like I always stood out in a crowd. Don't even get me started on the hair issues & insecurities...GAH.

I was shocked as a teen to hear white people say: 'you are too black'. And then, double shocker: black people saying: 'you are too white'.

To my great relief & joy, I eventually found a pack of other kids at my performing arts high school who were also 'a little too.' We had great adventures, collectively exploring being TOO EVERYTHING.

But once I graduated college, leaving the academic side of the arts, it felt like I needed exchange my 'Toos' for a new list of Things I Had "To".

I tried so desperately hard to follow, to obey, to please, to fit... because it seemed like that's what was required to succeed in the world. 

But a few years ago, it occurred to me that that was a little too stupid.

I was acting like a Zebra, standing - no - hiding in a herd of horses, hoping to just blend in.

Pretty hysterical image, right?

Once my Muse sent me that thought, I started considering the metaphorical possibilities.

Zebras aren't 'a little too' anything. They are completely and irrevocable here. Can't miss them stripes. Has anyone actually ever looked at a Zebra & thought:
"Um, that's just Too Much." Anyone who ever said - out loud: "That Zebra is too black/too white", would sound like an idiot.

Interestingly, the stripes are used as camouflage when a Zebra herd is charging. The predators get confused about which Zebra to attack because all they see are a maze of lines. Also, colorblind animals can't tell the difference between a Zebra stripes & tall grass... making them invisible to those they wish to not be found by... others who wish them harm or simply would not appreciate their Zebra-ness. 

Technically they are horses. But-
Nobody rides Zebras. Nobody.

After considering all these angles... I have happily accepted my Zebra-ness.

A large part of finding my voice as a writer was accepting that both I & my book are different. Which is totally & completely awesome.

So, a week before the ebook release of my debut novel, titled TRUST:

I'm trusting that the other Zebras in the world are going to find my book, even if the color-blind can't see it.
I'm trusting that I'm going to find, love & support their work as well.  
There's an army of Zebra folk out there; I've met them before & I'll find them again. If you're a Zebra, that will makes you feel excited. :)
I'm trusting that when we charge together, the world will explode in a maze of lines that will be A LOT TOO GLORIOUS.

Now! In celebration of all Zebras, I want to hear about your stripes. Tell me:

What's Zebra-like about YOU?

Librarians are rock stars at Book Expo America - they get a LIBRARIANS-ONLY Lounge to chill in between visiting all of the booths! 

In addition to bloggers, bookstore owners & people who had seen reviews of TRUST.... the Librarians I had met in the morning showed up with big smiles waiting to get my book!

I told them all, full of excitement & gratitude: "This book is a love letter to you!"

Signed so many copies with: 'Thank you for all that you do'.

One Librarian came back a half hour later to tell me she read chapter one of my book in the Librarian Lounge & loved it!!! OMG!!!

A librarian brought her teen daughter to the expo. I was thrilled to sign my first copy of my young adult book for a teen! Loved her ferociously blue-streaked hair. :)

Then I met my newest favorites: Library For All! They are curating an online library of kids books for children & teens in developing countries. Hearing about their amazingly well organized accomplishments & plans for the future opened my heart in so many ways.

The themes in my book, TRUST, match up with their mission in so many ways. I'm feeling like this was the beginning of what will be a great relationship!

Ebook comes out June 18th... and for the fall release of Hardcover edition of TRUST we are planning a bunch of Los Angeles events! 
So stay tuned Los Angeles readers & librarians! 
TRUST & LA Librarian Love is on its way to you, coming soon!