Deb Class of 2007

The Debutante Ball was founded in 2006 by a group of six authors whose debut novels were scheduled for publication in 2007. Eileen Cook, Tish Cohen, Anna David, Kristy Kiernan, Mia King, and Jennifer McMahon banded together to support each other during this exciting time, and to connect with readers as well as other writers who were curious about the road leading to publication.


The 2007 Debutantes are:


Founding Deb Eileen Cook

eileen-headshot-thumb.jpg

Eileen Cook is a founding member who joined the 2008 Deb class to await the release of her book, Unpredictable, lead title for Berkley in February 2008.

Unpredictable has been optioned by New Line Cinema, and she finds every excuse to drop this into casual conversation. Eileen grew up in Michigan and pursued a career in working with people with catastrophic injuries or illness. As this provided a bit too much reality- she turned to writing where she could control how things turned out. Eileen now lives in Vancouver Canada with her husband and two dogs where she she is hard at work on her next book and tackling her chocolate addiction.

unpredictable-thumb.jpg

Unpredictable was published in February 2008.

Eileen was the last one to join the The Debutante Ball and with a pushed back publication date she’ll be the last to leave. She never did know when to leave a party. She joined the dance as a way to promote her book- it became much more.”It became a group of friends and fellow book launch survivors. Every debut author deserves a place to share their fears and excitement and a group of fellow authors who will tell her if she has lipstick on her teeth or toilet paper stuck to her shoe. The Deb Ball is exactly that kind of place.”

Visit Eileen’s website
Read Eileen’s Debutante Ball posts


 

Founding Deb Mia King

Deb Mia is the national bestselling author of GOOD THINGS (Berkley Books, 2007), SWEET LIFE (Berkley Books, 2008) and TABLE MANNERS (Berkley Books, 2009). Her fourth novel, FRIENDSHIP BREAD, was published in hardcover on April 19, 2011 by Ballantine Books under her own name, Darien Gee, with foreign sales to 11 countries and audio rights. Her second novel, THE AVALON LADIES SCRAPBOOKING SOCIETY, hits bookshelves on January 29, 2013. She lives on the Big Island of Hawaii with her husband and three children. She is currently at work on her next novel.

Good Things: A Novel
Debut Date: February 6, 2007
Publisher: Berkley Trade (Penguin USA)
Paperback: 352 pages
ISBN: 978-0425213711
Buy it: Amazon | Barnes & Noble | IndieBound
Other formats: e-book, foreign, Audible

Deidre McIntosh became famous teaching women to live simply, and simply live–ironic for a woman who thrives on the chaos of a television career and shares a home with her best friend, the one man she can count on–who happens to be gay.

But when her Seattle cooking-and-lifestyle show gets bumped off the air, and her best guy moves in with his boyfriend, she’s left trying to figure out the next segment. Seizing on a chance encounter with an attractive stranger, Deidre accepts his offer to use his country home. She hopes to get away for a while and learn to practice what she preaches. To appreciate life without voice mail. To gain the courage to start again, and take the first slow, cautious steps toward a new kind of success – and maybe even love.

It seems like a simple task. But it may be the hardest thing she’s ever done…

Visit Mia’s website
Visit Darien’s website
Find Mia on Facebook
Find Darien on Facebook
Visit Mia and Darien in their virtual kitchen on Facebook

Read Mia’s Debutante Ball posts


Founding Deb Kristy Kiernan

website-color-headshot.jpg

Author Kristy Kiernan lives in Southwest Florida, close to the beaches and the Gulf of Mexico that she writes about with her husband and their dog.

Catching Genius
Debut Date: March 6, 2007
Publisher: Berkley Trade
ISBN: 0425214354

In this hauntingly beautiful, lyrical debut, two estranged sisters struggle to define their relationship, as they confront long-buried childhood memories and family secrets.As children, the Sykes sisters—Connie and Estella—were unassuming, precocious, and very close, until one sister was discovered to be a math prodigy.

Estella, pushed to focus on her gift, fell into her father’s favor, leaving Connie to grow up in her shadow. Connie, the “normal” little sister, became defined by her beauty rather than her intellect. Now years later, at the request of their mother, the sisters are forced to reunite on the Gulf Coast of Florida as they pack up their childhood home and ready it for sale. The reunion comes at a time of crisis, in which both Connie and Estella must come to terms with painful revelations and devastating consequences. And once again, her sister’s genius may change Connie’s life in ways she can not control…

Visit Kristy’s website
Read Kristy’s Debutante Ball posts


Founding Deb Jennifer McMahon

jennifer_website_thumb.jpeg

USA Today bestselling author Jennifer McMahon grew up in suburban Connecticut, and never once dreamed of being a debutante. Thinking running away with the circus might be the answer to all that was wrong in her life, she seriously contemplated going to clown school in 1987, but at the last minute decided to go to Goddard College in Plainfield, Vermont to study creative writing instead. She and her partner, Drea, live in Vermont with their two-year-old daughter, Zella.

Promise Not To TellPromise Not To Tell
Debut Date: April 1, 2007
Publisher: Harper Paperbacks
ISBN: 0061143316

Kate Cypher, a reserved 41-year-old school nurse, has just returned to the small town of New Canaan, VT, to care for her Alzheimer’s-afflicted mother. The night she arrives, a young girl is murdered. Slowly, Kate is drawn into the investigation—and deep into the childhood she’s tried to escape—for the killing eerily echoes the death of another young girl: her childhood friend, Del. Poor, misunderstood, Del suffered the taunts of classmates who shunned her and called her “Potato Girl.

But in Del, 10-year-old Kate found a kindred spirit, until a painful falling out shattered their relationship shortly before Del’s death. As the investigation unfolds, the facets of Kate’s life collide in a terrifying way: her mother is quickly deteriorating, her old friends are never quite what they seem, and the ghosts of her childhood have emerged to haunt her.

Visit Jennifer’s website
Read Jennifer’s Debutante Ball posts


Founding Deb Tish Cohen

tish_headshot-thumb.jpg

Tish Cohen is the author and illustrator of a series of children’s middle grade books forthcoming in Summer 2007, the first title being The Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama. She has edited an online women’s magazine and contributed articles to some of Canada’s largest newspapers, including The Globe and Mail and The National Post, as well as Post City Magazines. She lives in Toronto. Film rights for Town House have already been sold to Fox with Ridley Scott’s Scott Free producing. Golden Globe, Pulitzer Prize and Tony award winning screenwriter, Doug Wright (Quills, Memoirs of a Geisha, I am My Own Wife), has adapted to screen.

townhouse-new-cover-2-thumb.jpgTown House
Debut Date: May 1, 2007
Publisher: Harper Perennial
ISBN: 0061131318

Jack Madigan is, by many accounts, blessed. Thanks to his rock superstar father, he lives an enviable existence in a historic Boston town house with his teenage son, Harlan, and can effortlessly turn a pretty head. But there’s one tiny drawback: Jack is agoraphobic. Living on his dad’s (albeit dwindling) royalties, his condition hasn’t been a problem. Until the money runs out…and then all hell breaks loose. Suddenly the bank is foreclosing, Jack’s ex is threatening to take Harlan to California, and, Lucinda, the little girl next door, won’t stay out of his kitchen. Or his life.

To save his sanity, Jack must do the impossible, outwit the bank’s adorably determined real estate agent, win back his house, keep his son at home, and, finally, with Lucinda’s help, find a way back to the world outside his door.

zoelamathumbnail.jpgThe Invisible Rules of the Zoe Lama
Debut Date: July 19, 2007
Publisher: Dutton Juvenile
ISBN: 0525478108

Life is full of official rules, and seventh grade is no exception. If you are one of Zoë’s lucky friends, you know all about the invisible rules too, from what to wear on Picture Day to which boy is the Most Vile. Ever since the day Zoë Monday Costello neutralized the playground bully, she has been the go-to-gal for classmates and teachers alike.She applies her talents at home too, giving her harried single mom much-needed dating advice and keeping a careful eye on her grandmother, who has been acting very strange lately.

When a new girl, Maisie, comes to school with a “reputation,” Zoë is determined to help her fit in. Despite Zoë’s best coaching efforts, however, things go terribly wrong. And Maisie isn’t her only problem. Zoë’s interfering backfires on many people–worst of all on herself. Just when Zoë’s name is complete and utter mud, Grandma goes and splashes it all over school.

Visit Tish’s website
Read Tish’s Debutante Ball posts


Founding Deb Anna David

anna_thumb.jpeg

Anna David has been on staff at Premiere and Parenting, was a fulltime freelancer at People, had a contract with Us Weekly and wrote a sex and relationship column for Razor.In addition to her first-person sex stories for Playboy, Anna has done celebrity cover stories, first-person essays, and reported pieces for The LA Times, Vanity Fair, Cosmo, Redbook, Self, Details, Stuff, TV Guide, Women’s Health, Ocean Drive, Vegas, The Saturday Telegraph, Esquire UK, Teen Vogue, Variety, The New York Post, LA Confidential, Distinction, Calabasas, Tatler (Hong Kong), King, Fade In, Emmy and Maxim, among others. Twice a week, she answers viewers’ sex and relationship questions on the “In Your Pants” segment of G4’s Attack of the Show!, and she regularly appears on The Today Show as a pop culture expert and Reality Remix (Fox’s Reality Network) as a relationship commentator.She’s also been on Dayside (Fox News), The Best Damn Sports Show Period (Fox), The Most (MSNBC), The Other Half (NBC), Cold Pizza (ESPN), The Modern Girl’s Guide to Life (Style Network), Queer Edge (Q Network), CNN, E!, and VH1 — usually either talking about sex, doling out relationship advice, or discussing the personal lives of celebrities she doesn’t know. (She’s done the same thing on the radio – for national shows on Fox, ABC, XM and Sirius, among others.)

Party GirlParty Girl
Debut Date: June 1, 2007
Publisher: HarperCollins
ISBN: 0061198722

Amelia Stone is a quintessential L.A. party girl known for sharing wild stories about her hot (and often hilarious) nightlife. Invited to Hollywood’s most exclusive, star-studded events, she rubs shoulders—and occasionally has trysts—with celebrities, stays out until all hours of the night, and indulges in the ultimate sex, drugs, and rock and roll lifestyle. A writer for celebrity magazine Absolutely Fabulous, Amelia struggles to stand out and is finally offered the chance to prove herself by interviewing several high-profile stars. But as she engages in more and more self-destructive partying, involving increasing amounts of “Alex” (her affectionate term for cocaine), Amelia loses control of both her personal and professional lives.

Almost ruined by her escapades, Amelia makes the drastic decision to end her drug abuse. Finally sober, she meets the man of her dreams and is hired away to an even better magazine to write a column about her steamy adventures. Little does the magazine know that Amelia’s partying days are in the past. Faced with the most exciting opportunity of her career, she must now decide to either save herself or salvage her reputation as the ultimate party girl.

Visit Anna’s website
Read Anna’s Debutante Ball posts