So excited that my Rowohlt Verlag novel Das Rätsel von Ainsley Castle was chosen as one of ten novels to be presented in March with “Books at Berlinale,” an event sponsored by the Berlinale – Berlin International Film Festival with the Frankfurt Book Fair. It offers publishers and agents the chance to pitch their books to internationally established film producers. The working title for the film adaptation of my book is “Double Puzzle.” More about the novel here.
I’m thrilled to be this year’s recipient of the German Children’s Radio Drama Award for “Stella Menzel and the Golden Thread” (rbb/NDR) with many thanks to the award’s sponsors, Film- und Medienstiftung NRW and the ARD Radio network.
The photo shows us in the rbb-studio in July 2019 during a break. We see Theresa Zertani (left), who played Stella, Leslie Malton (right) Stella’s mother, Isabel Zwickel-Menzel, and yours truly (middle) who was cast as Stella’s Oma from America, Josephine. (Me? A grandmother? Yikes!) The photo is a little out of focus. And do you know why? Director Leonhard Koppelmann’s hands were shaky because he just couldn’t wait to get a bite of the cake, a surprise from the folks over at Ohrenbär (rbbKultur). Many thanks to the baker, Birgit Patzelt, and producer, Sonja Kessen. They were all a part of this wonderful production and I am deeply grateful to them!
More about the radio drama here.
I am thrilled to report that my novel “The Mystery of Ainsley Castle” has been awarded two more book awards this fall: the LEKTORIX, awarded by the Austrian weekly magazine “Die Furche,” the Institut für Jugendkultur and the STUBE-Vienna. Equally wonderful: “The Mystery of Ainsley Castle” was named Children’s Book-of-the-Month October by the German Academy for Children’s and Young Adult Literature in Volkach, Bavaria.
