Handcuffs, straightjackets, evil magician, underworld labyrinth: no problem for The Handcuff Kid!

In The Carnival of Lost Souls, Jack, a quick-witted orphan, is sold to an evil magician in the underworld, where he must perform with other children in a vaudeville act to entertain the dead. Jack uses the tricks of Harry Houdini to escape and save them all. The Carnival of Lost Souls will be published by Amulet in the fall of 2010.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

With the wind whipping through her Dorothy Hamill haircut, Laura raced through childhood and adolescence with minimal plans for the future. Her motto in youth was carpe diem. As a child, her literary influences included Judy Blume, Nancy Drew, Madeleine L’Engle, and Stephen King. Though she enjoyed reading, she had no idea she would one day become a writer. After a checkered career in marketing, advertising, and book production, doing everything from graphic design, copy writing, coordinating, coffee fetching (okay the coffee was for her) and paper pushing, Laura gave it all up to pursue her dream of writing novels for children. The fact that she has an identical twin made it very easy to pretend that she was someone else, and so making up stories was a good fit.

Laura was born in Maryland where she currently lives. She enjoys cooking, eating, and lounging about reading, watching movies and way too much television. When not writing she enjoys doing yoga, traveling, and hitting the trail near her house.

quimby_laura@yahoo.com