Publisher's Weekly Rights Report: Week of October 13, 2014 "Chelsea Eberly at Random House has bought Six Feet Over It author Jennifer Longo's UP TO THIS POINTE, in a two-book deal. In the novel, a girl who is the descendent of an explorer who died in a race to the South Pole knows that big dreams come with big risks. When her dream of becoming a star ballerina dies, she's willing to go to the ends of the earth (literally to the South Pole) to chart a new path. Publication is slated for spring 2016; Melissa Sarver White at Folio Literary Management did the deal for world rights."
People, can I just say that as a writer, sometimes we spend years turning a story into a novel. And the writer may think to themselves, "If I can just publish this book - just one book - I'll feel like maybe I know what I'm doing, that all these words I love so much may be loved by readers. Maybe a publisher may agree, they may love this story, too." And then sometimes that novel is published. And the writer thinks..."Okay, maybe that book was the only, the last best idea I'll ever have." Sophomore Slump, all that. But sometimes it turns out - not true.
I am so overwhelmed with joy and love for this story I have been all weepy for weeks.
As was the case with SIX FEET OVER IT, my second novel, UP TO THIS POINTE began as a full-length play called FROZEN, part of my graduate school thesis. The story has become new, but was sprung from my deep and passionate love of studying Antarctica, and the stories of the early explorers of that beautiful continent. And embedded in my love for The Ice is my love of the agonizing perfection and impossible beauty of Ballet. The Ice, The Great Age Of Antarctic Exploration, Ballet...these terrible beauties, along with my devoted affection for the city of San Francisco, make up the heart of the story of my second novel. MY SECOND NOVEL. That's just ridiculous to say. Even more nuts is that this is a two book deal. So in a while I'll be yakking about MY THIRD NOVEL.
Hopefully. I mean it is the publishing world, one never knows what will happen. But for now there is this contract, I'm writing, revising, sitting with a computer and a dog on my lap, in a state of delighted gratitude and disbelief. Oh my gosh. I've got an unbelievably amazing agent (Melissa Sarver-White), a dream of an editor (Chelsea Eberly) and I love this story so much. That always seems to be a good place to start when working to write a book readers will love. It's a good place to be.