Welcome
When JD Salinger died on January 28, 2010, the world, and not just the literary world, lost a master. His novel The Catcher in the Rye inspired my forthcoming novel Catcher, Caught. Salinger, renowned as a pioneer of the ‘unreliable narrator,’ created Holden Caulfied, a character instantly adopted by teenagers and adults alike as an authentic interpreter of the issues faced by teenagers. Salinger’s influence remains today despite his withdrawal from the world and his refusal to publish new work after his retreat to New Hampshire in the 1950s. Fans of Holden Caulfield continue to revere the book. A quarter of a million copies are sold every year, and it is required reading in most high schools. Please read the excerpt from Catcher, Caught, previously available under Honenberger on Amazon.com as a semi-finalist in the 2009 Breakthrough Novel Contest and now available here. Please let me know by email what you think. Read more about Salinger at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/books/29salinger.html?hp

Heartfelt Thanks
Thank you for all my dear friends, family, and supporters who were so generous with time, food, encouragement, patience, and love. The wonder of all that continues to carry me along. Regular treatments, surgeries, etc, finished in December, and now it’s monthly drug trial infusions. Chris and I spent a lazy warm week in Florida in January with sweet, funny friends, though it was too windy for tennis. I will head back to the sailboat for a much shorter stay this year. But Palmetto Friends of the Library will welcome me on February 27 for Cowboy Life Lessons and a reading from Waltzing Cowboys.

Waltzing Cowboys - Editor's Pick and Nominee
Waltzing Cowboys, released in January 2009, was an Editor’s Pick on www.bookviews.com last December and is a 2009 nominee for the Library of Virginia Fiction award, against some stiff competition. Winners will be announced at the best writers’ party of the year in October 2010 at the Library on Broad Street in Richmond. Last year’s winner, Janet Peery, is a former workshop teacher of mine, the praise for her stunning prose was well-deserved, a hard act to follow, even as a nominee.

Buy Now
Clicking on any of the book covers to the right will lead you to information about my books, including how to purchase them.

Novel Manuscript Semi-Finalist Under Contract
Daniel Landon deals with his leukemia diagnosis at sixteen in Catcher, Caught, my third novel, and his parents who refuse to follow the traditional treatment. A semi-finalist in the Amazon Breakthrough Novel Contest, the novel is under contract to a major publisher with a 2010 publication date. Watch for a more detailed press release this spring. An excerpt from the manuscript can be read here. The NY Times obituary notes the impact of The Catcher in The Rye: “With its cynical, slangy vernacular voice, its sympathetic understanding of adolescence and its fierce if alienated sense of morality and distrust of the adult world, the novel struck a nerve.” What I’d give for praise like that when Catcher, Caught is released.

Books Alive

The author with Librarian Jayne McQuade from Northumberland County Library and head of the Books Alive Program in Heathsville, Earline Dickinson and Jay Walker.

Virginia Festival of the Book
The 17th Annual Virginia Festival of the Book has posted their panels for this year’s celebration of authors. Saturday March 20, I’ll be moderating a panel for writers about contests. And Cedar Creek hosts its authors in the OMNI atrium on Publishing Day, Christmas shopping in March. This year the evening fiction readings include appearances by Elizabeth Strout and Colum McCann and require tickets at a minimal cost to benefit the Festival, my favorite five days of the year.  You can send a donation to defray their expenses for the cast of international authors who make the Virginia Festival one of the premier book festivals in the United States.

Featured Books

Other books with
Honenberger's stories: