The LiLa Publishing Timeline

February 1981: Laura and I met for the first time. I was really excited about my little sister until I found out she was living with us. Forever.


We got bigger...


And less cute....

1984: Lisa went to Kindergarten and discovered her love for reading and being a know-it-all...

1986: Laura went to Kindergarten and discovered her love for reading and being really, really sensitive (she got made fun of all day for that teal-colored tie)...


The late 80's were mostly about questionable fashion choices...


The 90's were solely focused on how cool we were...

Laura won homecoming queen....

Lisa...didn't...

Starting in 2001 we graduated from college, got married, had some babies, and then we were left with our biggest challenge of all: Figuring out what the hell to do with our lives.

We had a limited, but intriguing set of qualifications:

• We loved to read;
• We watched a LOT of MTV; and
• We liked to pretend we were still 17-year-olds.

And that's when we knew we had to write a young adult book.

September 2008: We finished the book, and started a blog.

December 2008: We figured out that the book sucked.

February 2009: We completed our first draft of Gmail/Saving Grace/The Haunting of Pemberly Brown.

March 2009: We signed with the amazing Major (to be said in your best Victoria Beckham accent) Agent, Catherine Drayton.

April 2009: We revised the entire book, and lived off of Diet Coke and Twizzlers.

May 2009: We went on submission to editors and completely freaked out.

August 2009: We revised the book again and lived off of Diet Coke and Twizzlers.

October 2009: We cursed ourselves for ever thinking that writing a book was a good idea.

October 22, 2009: We celebrated...

Because we got an offer on The Haunting of Pemberly Brown from the amazing Dan Ehrenhaft at Sourcebooks.

November 2, 2009: We are finally able to tell the world (and most importantly all of Laura's friends at her impending high school reunion) that we are going to be published authors.

From Publisher's Marketplace: Lisa Roecker and Laura Roecker's A Kate Lowry Mystery: THE HAUNTING OF PEMBERLY BROWN, a quick-witted mystery starring a private-school sleuth with attitude and pearls, who receives an email from her dead best friend, to Daniel Ehrenhaft at Sourcebooks, for publication in Spring 2011, by Catherine Drayton at Inkwell Management (NA).

We are beyond excited about taking this next step in the process and we owe our families, friends, and especially our readers a huge thank you for all of your support over the past year or so. We could never have done this without you.