Madelyn Rosenberg

Remember how I said that marketing myself was going to be way better if I could do it with a friend? It already has been, even though my book with Mary Crockett isn’t due out until next July.

This summer, we decided we needed some publicity photos together, to show that we’re actually, you know, friends. My mother offered to take them. So did Mary’s husband. But we decided we’d be more relaxed with someone we both knew really well, so we asked Cece Bell if she could deal with us.

And she did.

We followed Cece up the mountain near her house in Christiansburg, Va., to an outcropping of rocks in the woods. (The woods are central to Dream Boy, and we wanted to make sure we were in them, even if the photos were just going to focus on our faces.)

I am proud to say I did not get poison oak.

Cece was a real sport, following Mary’s directions…

and accommodating our height differences.

"Maybe if Mad could stand on a rock." By Cece Bell

In a few of the photos, we tried to look pensive. But it turns out, we weren’t very good at it.

Pensive 1 by Cece Bel

Pensive 2 by Cece Bell

In most of the photos, we were laughing.

Laughing 1 by Cece Bell

We sent the rest of our photos to our publisher this week. We also got a glimpse of our cover, but we’re not allowed to show you that one quite yet. Stay tuned…