(A stamp with Zinn’s signature was created, too, for use at signings). Signings of Poison are scheduled across the country, including a mega-signing at Portland’s A Children’s Place Bookstore on March 16 featuring authors Laini Taylor, April Henry, Sara Ryan, Virginia Euwer Wolff, and others, who plan to read passages from the book and sign it. Kokie are hosting a video chat on March 12, and remembrances of Zinn and praises for Poison may be tweeted using the hashtag #Poison. Over the next month, a flurry of events will honor Zinn and promote her book both online and around the country.
“ Poison is a wonderful legacy for her to have left us.” It’s not anything I or Bridget could have done alone,” Dowell says. “I feel an overwhelming sense of gratitude for people’s kindness and generosity with their time and talent. It’s these same supporters who have returned to help Dowell promote the publication of her book.
Throughout her course of treatment, friends, family, and colleagues banded together to raise money for her medical expenses, holding a nationwide auction that offered up original art, signed books from other authors, and services like manuscript critique sessions to the highest bidder. According to Dowell, Zinn was working on two other novels – both featuring strong female characters and her sharp wit – as well as a few picture book ideas. Perfect.” (The book was a gift from Dowell – Sarah Dessen’s What Happened to Goodbye.) And she kept writing. All the while, Zinn continued reading – her last tweet was “Sunshine and a brand new book. Her high school sweetheart Barrett Dowell immediately proposed and they got married in the hospital – and then had three more wedding ceremonies in fairly rapid succession, calling the events their “Summer of Love.” Over the next two years, they traveled, moved into their dream house in Portland, Ore., and planned further adventures with friends.
But a few weeks later, when she should have been celebrating her good fortune, Zinn received a stage four cancer diagnosis.ĭespite rounds of chemotherapy, she never let her illness best her. The novel stars a feisty 16-year-old heroine with a knack for concocting potions who is on a mission – assisted by an enchanted pig and a hunky hero the author named in honor of Fred Weasley – to save her kingdom. But how can a book be successfully launched without an author? In the case of the YA fantasy novel Poison (Hyperion) by debut author Bridget Zinn, who died of colon cancer in May 2011 at the age of 33, the answer is simple: with a lot of help from friends.Īfter years of attending writing conferences and workshops, editing and revising, and fine-tuning her manuscript, Zinn was offered representation by Michael Stearns of Upstart Crow Literary on February 14, 2009, for Poison and a sequel. There are parties to attend, interview requests to fulfill, and books to sign. The publication of a first book is a once-in-a-lifetime experience.
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