Lisa Jenn Bigelow: STARTING FROM HERE

BIO: Lisa Jenn Bigelow writes young adult and middle grade fiction and is represented by the inimitable Chudney Agency. She's also a youth services librarian in the Chicago area; if you need someone to do storytime, demonstrate how to make macrame keychains, or help you find that one book about the kid with the thing, she's your gal. Lisa's pointy-eared mutt, Carly, provided foot-warming services instrumental to the writing of this novel.

DEBUT: STARTING FROM HERE (Marshall Cavendish, Fall 2012)

Sixteen-year-old Colby Bingham's heart has been broken too many times. Her mother's been dead almost two years, her father's away long-haul trucking, her ex-almost-girlfriend has dumped her for a boy, and now she's failing chemistry. Why bother? she wonders. But a stray dog she rescues knocks a chink in the walls she's built around her heart, allowing her to love and live.

FIVE DEWEY DECIMAL NUMBERS FOR THE APOCALYPSE: 796.5 (wilderness survival), 796.8 (martial arts), 133.3 (prophecies and omens), 817 (humor), 636.7 (puppies)