YA Authors Cafe

SCRAWL by Mark Shulman

2010-12-08T04:50:00.000-08:00

Tod Munn is a bully. He's tough, but times are even tougher. The wimps have stopped coughing up their lunch money. The administration is cracking down. Then to make things worse, Tod and his friends get busted doing something bad. Something really bad.

Lucky Tod must spend his daily detention in a hot, empty room with Mrs. Woodrow, a no-nonsense guidance counselor. He doesn't know why he's there, but she does. Tod's punishment: to scrawl his story in a beat-up notebook. He can be painfully funny and he can be brutally honest. But can Mrs. Woodrow help Tod stop playing the bad guy before he actually turns into one . . . for real?

Read Tod's notebook for yourself.

And join us in welcoming Mark Shulman to the Cafe!

Melissa: Tell us about your book, Scrawl.

Scrawl is the story of Tod Munn, a tough kid from a bad neighborhood. And he’s in big trouble. The book is a journal he’s been forced to write as a condition of his not going to the juvie.

Everyone thinks they’ve figured Tod out – he’s supposed to be a bully and a thug and a budding criminal -- and he likes that they’ve got it wrong. Every day after school, he’s stuck with a guidance counselor who sees something in Tod that is actually right. He’s smart, and clever, and funny… all liabilities in Tod’s world.

As Tod goes through the short time period of the book, he is forced to reckon with his gang of friends, setting a path for himself that will either lead to bigger trouble or redemption. It sounds so grim, but it’s actually quite funny.

Melissa: What was your inspiration for this story?

A writer and an editor conspired to make me write a novel, but they weren’t in cahoots. The writer, Alison James, put me and a few others through a writing exercise that ended with my hypnotically-induced scribblings in the voice of Tod. Not long after, the editor Neal Porter more or less challenged me to write a novel. And when Neal Porter says “write a novel,” a writer listens. So I did.

Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?
Not only are they the same, but they were barely edited. I figured out how to put them in the front of the book. You meet Tod at the point I met Tod – while he’s busting some kid’s glasses in my old high school. But he’s detached, almost sanguine as he considers the finer points of beating a kid up.

What kind of research did you have to do for this story?
I closed my eyes and thought about the layout of my old high school. Seeing how I spent six highly-formative years there, it was easy to set the stage. Having a fundamental blueprint of the school made all the difference in what’s where and how to get there. One other tool was Google Calendar. Since the book is told entirely in journal form, the days and dates had to click. The book is set on the same calendar as 2010.

Melissa: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

For me, writing is like one of those huge science-museum soap bubbles you pull up with a hoop. A number of circumstances need to be in place – the environment, the lack of interference, and steady focus on my part. Of course, when I’m crushing under deadline, all I need is some coffee and another hour.

Melissa What one question do you wish an interviewer would ask you but never has?

“Is the female lead, Luz, based on a real person?”

None of my characters are real people. Some are composite and some are entirely fictional. Luz the artsy goth girl is a favorite of mine because she muscled her way into the book far more than I expected. She was supposed to have a bit part, but she and Tod started talking and there were sparks. Not romantic sparks. More like the pre-romantic way two teenagers might use each other as knife-sharpening wheels. In their particular public school, there isn’t so much high intellectual wattage. So despite themselves, they’re drawn together. That’s why she promoted herself from a supporting role in one scene to a lead role in several.

Hey – I didn’t answer my own question! Luz is a composite of a few girls I knew in school. But she’s also quite a work of fiction.

Melissa: What are you working on now?

Several projects at once. I’ve finished an early reader. And a picture book. And I’m in the middle of a fun nonfiction title. And I’m fleshing out the next novel, which is in outline at the moment. And there’s another book opportunity that might be too good to pass up. And I’m volunteering in a few places, which always requires more time than I budget for. I’m an involved parent in my kids’ school, and I often pick up. And I’m married. And I do the laundry. And I read a lot. That’s about it.

Melissa: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

I’ve got an O- blood type, which makes me the universal pincushion. What’s more, my blood hasn’t got antigens, so even fragile recipients won’t reject it. That makes me extremely desirable, hematologically. So I give blood as often as I can. We O- folks have to stick together. So go out there and give it up.

Melissa How did you become a writer?

I got an old Royal manual typewriter for my 11th or 12th birthday. I’ve been at it ever since. In high school I wrote comics and a sci-fi magazine, and parodies of the school paper I would publish and sell. I’ve written advertising, tours, bad TV scripts, worse stand-up comedy, positioning papers, more advertising, CEO speeches, radio contests, a very funny menu for a hot dog restaurant in the garment district, cover letters, corporate videos, poems, apologies to traffic court judges, and anything even remotely resembling advertising. Then I met a wonderful schoolteacher, married her, and started to write books for kids. Those include picture books, nonfiction, preschool, novelty, movie tie-ins, TV tie-ins, books with glowing monster heads, voodoo dolls, trivia quizzes, humor, celebrity picture books, quote books, books with snails that slide around the page, and a novel.

Melissa What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

“I like reading. It’s free travel.”

Melissa: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Oh,yes. There’s a part about one-third of the way when Tod is going to make a defining choice. It’s one of those early winter afternoons when the weather is oobleck and the sky is prematurely dark and he does NOT want to be in this place making this choice to be a good guy or bad guy. So he is standing outside a door and he freezes up. And so did I. I hated the moment as much as he did. Then the phone rang and it was Discovery Channel with a bunch of projects and I took them all. Many moons later I picked up the book again, having received a piece of invaluable advice: Write the part after this scene, and then come back to it. How simple! And how very, very effective.

Melissa What's on your nightstand right now?

The Pullman trilogy, which I’m reading aloud to my daughter… Holes, which I read every so often for clues… Mockingjay, because I read the other two… a handful of mythology books, which my son loves… various issues of the Ultimate Spider-Man series… The New Yorker, because I’ve been reading it for 35 years and I’m only 48… and a lamp.

Melissa: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

New York City, jazz, architecture, history, going on drives. And my family. We’re a tight group.

Melissa: What are your hobbies?

New York City, jazz, architecture, history, going on drives. And my family. Also, every two years, I follow politics the way other guys follow sports.

Melissa: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Yes. Because it’s hard. And then when it isn’t, I don’t want to quit.

Melissa: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

I imagine I’d like to be designing things. My mind is always at work improving on backpacks, carts, kitchen set-ups, lamps, toys, car accessories and room layouts. I’m especially keen on inventing all-new, multi-purpose objects. I don’t think there’s a living in that, though.

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As a regular feature of the Cafe, Mark will be available to answer your questions over the next week. So drop by the comments and leave him a question or just throw some confetti!

Interview with Robin Benway, author of THE EXTRAORDINARY SECRETS OF APRIL, MAY AND JUNE

2010-12-01T12:49:00.000-08:00

Marlene:Tell us about your book.

Robin:My most current book is “The Extraordinary Secrets of April, May & June”, about 3 sisters who discover they have superpowers after their parents divorce: April can see the future, May becomes invisible, and June can read minds. I thought, “What would be worse than having your little sister be able to read your mind?!” and the rest of the superpowers unfolded from there.

Marlene: What was your inspiration for this story?

Robin: I saw a tattoo on a male model, the words “April May June” written across his collarbones in this beautiful script. My first thought was, “Oh my God, those are sisters,” and it wasn't until later that I thought, “Oh, and they're months of the year, too.” I figured I should find out who those sisters were.

Marlene: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Robin: The first scene I wrote for the book was when May drives a car for the first time and ends up disappearing while behind the wheel, causing havoc on the road and with her sisters. It was a much more serious scene than what appears in the book now, but it helped me figure out the sisters' personalities and how they interacted with one another.

Marlene:What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Robin:Very little, actually! It's sort of difficult to research superpowers, and I really wanted to stay away from the typical superhero story, with villains and whatnot. I love those kinds of stories, but I wanted the focus to be on the girls' lives and how what makes them different is what makes them special.

Marlene: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Robin:“I hugged my sisters and they fit against my sides like two jigsaw pieces that would never fit anywhere else. I couldn’t imagine ever letting them go again, like releasing them would be to surrender the best parts of myself.”
It was one of the first sentences I wrote, without knowing who would say it, or why they would be so desperate to hug their sisters, and I think it helped me set up the plot of the book. I liked this phrase so much that I needed to fit it into the storyline!

Marlene: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Robin:There's a scene where May and her father have a phone conversation that was exceptionally difficult for me to write. I knew both of them would be upset after it and I didn't want to do that to May, but it had to be done. Sorry, May.

Marlene:What's on your nightstand right now?

Robin:Right now, I have “Matched” by Ally Condie, “Across the Universe” by Beth Revis, “One Day” by David Nicholls, “Decoded” by Jay-Z, and about a million back issues of magazines. I really want to get the Keith Richards biography and the Mark Twain autobiography, too, but I'm pacing myself.

Marlene:Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Robin:I'm sort of obsessed with music and I even have a Song of the Day blog called The Songs that Saved Your Life (robinbenway.tumblr.com) I'll listen to anything and I love going to concerts and seeing live music. The character of Audrey from my first book, “Audrey, Wait!”, and I are very similar in that way. We're both music junkies.

Marlene: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Robin:At least once a day. Seriously. I love it, but I either psych myself out or get frustrated by a sentence that doesn't work and I start thinking about 9 to 5 jobs again. And right when I'm ready to delete everything, the sentence works and I remember why I like writing so much. It can be an incredibly frustrating job at times, but it's worth it. Sometimes ten words strung together make it worth it.

Questions or comments for Robin? Feel free to leave her a message in the comments and she will check in throughout the next week.

And the Winnah Is.......

2010-10-20T07:17:00.000-07:00

InspiredKathy is the winner of a copy of Ellen Jensen Abbott's wonderful fantasy novel Watersmeet! Congratulations to InspiredKathy and thank you to everyone who entered!

Please check back for more fun, interactive interviews and future giveaways!

Interview and Giveaway with Ellen Jensen Abbott, author of Watersmeet

2010-10-13T05:09:00.000-07:00

Join us in welcoming author Ellen Jensen Abbott to the YA Authors Cafe! And stick around for a chance to win a copy of Ellen's wonderful debut novel, Watersmeet!

Melissa: Tell us about your newest book?

Ellen: Watersmeet is the story of Abisina, an outcast in her home village, who flees those who want to kill her to find the father she’s never met. On her journey, she is rescued by dwarves, kidnapped by centaurs, contacted by a ghost, and aided by a mysterious necklace.

Melissa: What was the inspiration for this story?

Ellen: There were many! I was a big reader of fantasy when I was a tween and young adult, and I still read the genre as much as I can. Naturally, when Abisina’s story started to spin out in my head, it was a fantasy. I love monsters and creatures and magic and mythology. I have a lot of fun playing around with the possibilities that such otherworldly ideas present.

But I was also intrigued by a conversation I had with a dear friend who came out to me as a gay man after years of friendship. In our following conversations, he talked about the homophobia he carried with him and this really surprised me. It sounds silly to say now, but I had never thought about prejudices we are taught and hang on to, even when we are the objects of that prejudice. Watersmeet is not about homophobia, but it does explore the question of letting go of one’s prejudice, even when one has been deeply injured by that prejudice.

Finally, the setting of Watersmeet is inspired by the years I spent growing up in New Hampshire’s White Mountains. In some ways, Watersmeet is set in New Hampshire—but it is New Hampshire as I saw it as a kid: the mountains are bigger, the water is colder, the sky is bluer. When I go back to visit, I can still catch glimpses of that place.

Melissa: What are you working on now?

Ellen: The sequel, of course! The continuation of Abisina’s adventures, tentatively titled The Centaur’s Daughter, is scheduled for a Fall 2011 release with Marshall Cavendish. I just turned in my first big round of revisions and am waiting to hear back from my editor. I also sent in a larger, expanded version of the map that appears in Watersmeet and can’t wait to see what the artist will do with it!

Melissa: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Ellen: Invention. There is definite fun in this part of the process as you get to know your characters and your setting and the conflicts that will drive the story, but this is also when I have to work the hardest. I write pages and pages of exploratory writing—often thinking that “I’m on my way,” only to discover that I took a wrong turn back there around chapter 3! I almost always know where I want to start and where I want to end, but making my way through the uncharted middle can be difficult. Unlike some writers, I adore revision. That’s when I feel like I really get to practice craft and pull the story from the tangle of threads I’ve created. I cut, cut, cut and love seeing the sleeker lines emerge.

Melissa: Have you ever wanted to quit writing?

Ellen: There have been many times when I’ve thrown my hands up and asked myself why I do this to myself? Why do I keep struggling with these characters who I made up but still won’t listen to me?! I may have even tried to quit once or twice, but it was quickly clear to me that writing isn’t really a choice. Those characters find you whether your sitting at your keyboard or not. For better or for worse, I’m a writer. I am happier when I’m writing regularly. Often, when I’ve just finished a big project, I stop writing for a few weeks while I dig myself out of the hole I’ve created by ignoring bills, house cleaning, and laundry. Invariably, the time away extends longer than I anticipated—mostly because I dig very big holes. Then inertia sets in, I’m out of practice, and it is easier and easier to say, “Oh, I’ll work on that story tomorrow.” I get grumpy. My family starts avoiding me. Finally it will hit me: I need to write! Even a sentence or two. Pretty soon, I’m back in it—pulling my hair out over misbehaving characters—and much happier.

Melissa: I can completely relate! (And so can my family.) What is on your nightstand right now?

Ellen: An eclectic mix! The Secret Year, by Jennifer R. Hubbard, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, by Anne Brontë, King Leopold’s Ghost by Adam Hochschild, The Wee Free Men, by Terry Pratchett, and Stranded by JT Dutton.

Melissa: Ellen, thank you for visiting us at the Cafe! For more information on Ellen and her books, visit http://ellenjensenabbott.wordpress.com/

Questions or comments for Ellen? Feel free to leave her a message in the comments and she will check in throughout the next week.

BONUS! Everyone who leaves a question or comment for Ellen will automatically be entered to win a copy of Watersmeet! Make sure you include a working e-mail address so we can contact you if you are the lucky winner!

Interview with Holly Cupala, author of Tell Me a Secret

2010-08-25T09:08:00.000-07:00

Marlene: Tell us about your book:

Holly: It’s been five years since Miranda’s bad-girl sister disappeared into the night and died in a mysterious crash. Five years of holding her family together – her drama-obsessed mother, her disappearing father. In just one year, she will escape to college on the arm of her boyfriend, Kamran, and disappear herself. Until then, she has a new best friend with the keys to unlock her sister’s secret world.
But now Miranda has a secret of her own…two lines on the pregnancy test that will shatter everything she hopes for—and may even show a way into her own future.

Marlene: What was your inspiration for this story?

Holly: A very hard year—two losses that changed my life. After that, my writing didn’t have much meaning. Then one day, the idea for Tell Me a Secret landed in my lap, and I just started writing. Notes, at first. With the encouragement of many writing friends, I got up the courage to write the book.

Marlene: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Holly: Vividly! Only because it was 3 a.m. I had a tiny baby who had just fallen asleep, and at that point I was so sleep-deprived that I should definitely not have been operating machinery…when the first line hit me. It’s tough, living in the shadow of a dead girl. I knew if I didn’t get up to write it down, Miranda might never speak to me again! So I got up and wrote the passage that in now the first few pages in the novel.

Marlene: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Holly: Much of it was experiential. Beyond that, I talked to friends, professionals, rocket scientists…
Even in a contemporary story, there are a million details that must be investigated. The hospital scenes were crucial, and I had some terrific consultants on those. I’ve heard from readers who have had similar experiences—it means a great deal to me that they thought I captured her story in a true and meaningful way.

Marlene: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Holly: Line: probably the first.

Passage, from Chapter 10, after the breakup:
Nothing I knew about Xanda prepared me for this. She left no roadmap for rejection…I had tried to pour Kamran into myself, filling those tunnels of despair left over from Xanda with tendrils of hopefulness, the way being with Andre seemed to fill my sister with a kind of tempered steel. Now that Kamran had forcibly ripped them out, I was reeling from emptiness.

Chapter: the Halloween party. I love love love the Q-tips scene! That was a lot of fun to write. Plus I was able to include my favorite word, palimpsest.

Marlene: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Holly: Me, avoid?? Uh, yes. The ultimate showdown chapter. In fact I pretty much skipped it through the first draft, only writing notes. I knew it would be a critical convergence of secrets and reality, and that we had to come out of it with some kind of resolution. Dialogue is probably the hardest ingredient for me, so I had to really wrestle with what Miranda and the primary villain would say…and in the process, realized the villain had so many secret reasons for her behavior throughout the novel. I hated every minute of it until the pieces finally fell into place!

Marlene:What's on your nightstand right now?

Holly: A giant pile. But I’ll give you the ones at the top: The Clearing, by Heather Davis; Stolen, by Lucy Christopher; Forget-Her-Nots, by Amy Brecount White. So little time, so much to read…

Marlene: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Holly: Like Miranda, I am an artist—though I love to paint and collage (labyrinths are way too exacting for me). The engraving of a medieval pregnant girl which Miranda avoids in Chapter 5 is actually from one of my paintings. I also love to do all kinds of crafty stuff and have a running DIY Friday series on my blog.

Marlene: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Holly: Absolutely. After our loss, I honestly couldn’t see the purpose in writing. Much of what I’d written up to that point had been to please other people, not really delving into anything true. But many encouraging friends wouldn’t let me quit, and they were a tide that lifted me and the story all along the way. And that experience stripped away all of the fears I had about writing something deep and scary. I wonder now if that was part of the process, to get to the story I was meant to write.

Thank you so much, Marlene and Melissa and Mary, for inviting me to YA Authors Café! I have such admiration for all of you and am very excited to be here.

For more information about Holly and her books visit her website at http://www.hollycupala.com/

Readers, now it’s your turn. Ask a question! Leave a comment. Holly will pop back in for one week to respond. You’re up!

A BLUE SO DARK by Holly Schindler

2010-05-19T07:00:00.000-07:00

After obtaining her master’s in English back in 2001, Holly Schindler decided to nix the idea of getting a full-time job in favor of pursuing a writing career, her lifelong dream. She says, “After wearing out a half-dozen or so keyboards drafting far too many manuscripts to count…after revising and submitting and revising again…after seven and a half years of rejections…I sold my first novel, a YA titled A BLUE SO DARK, to Flux!” In addition to her debut novel, Holly sold two more books that will be forthcoming in 2011!

The buzz for A BLUE SO DARK:

"Breathtakingly, gut-wrenchingly authentic...A haunting, realistic view of the melding of art, creativity, and mental illness and their collective impact on a young person’s life."
—Booklist, starred review

“A Blue So Dark is one of those rare books: It never shies away from the darkness yet still manages to find the light. A truly real, emotional, and honest read.”
—Catherine Ryan Hyde, author of Pay it Forward and Love in the Present Tense

“Schindler’s lyrical debut explores the nightmare of mental illness in a voice that is sharp and funny and all her own. This is as real as teen fiction gets. A must-read.”
—Crissa-Jean Chappell, author of Total Constant Order

“A Blue So Dark is a raw, compelling and eloquent portrayal of art and madness, and the freeing, healing gift of creativity. Schindler's voice is brilliant and true.”
—Carrie Jones, New York Times bestselling author of Need and Captivate

Congratulations on your debut and the awesome reviews, Holly! Welcome to the Café! Let’s get started . . .

Mary: Tell us about your newest book, A BLUE SO DARK.

Holly: In short, A BLUE SO DARK follows a young girl’s attempts to care for her schizophrenic mother (an artist and art teacher), while fearing that her own artistic ability is an indicator that she, too, will become mentally unstable.

Here’s the jacket copy, which offers a little more detail:

"Fifteen-year-old Aura Ambrose has been hiding a secret. Her mother, a talented artist and art teacher, is slowly being consumed by schizophrenia, and Aura has been her sole caretaker ever since Aura’s dad left them. Convinced that “creative” equals crazy, Aura shuns her own artistic talent. But as her mother sinks deeper into the darkness of mental illness, the hunger for a creative outlet draws Aura toward the depths of her imagination. Just as desperation threatens to swallow her whole, Aura discovers that art, love, and family are profoundly linked—and together may offer an escape from her fears."

Mary: It sounds like a gut-wrenching book to write. Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Holly: I remember writing the scene in the kitchen, which appears in chapter 1: Aura making a sandwich for her mother, who’s already beginning a descent into madness.

But as I rewrote and rewrote, the mermaids (driftwood carvings that were always hanging from the ceiling of the kitchen) began to feature more dominantly in the book. The last things I wrote were the prologue and epilogue (which both take place in Florida). I really love the bookends they put on the novel. With Aura being in the same physical place at the beginning and end of the book, it kind of forces readers to consider the EMOTIONAL place she’s in at the novel’s start and at the novel’s end.

Mary: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Holly: First draft. I think most readers assume that the first draft is the fun part—the discovery part, the time when an author’s imagination can run wild. But I really dislike the first draft. It’s sort of painful for me to have to start from scratch.

Revision? I ADORE revision. I feel much, MUCH better when I get something DOWN to work with.

Mary: I'm right there with you on revision. That’s when the fun starts.

Holly: The thing is, I love a book that’s layered. A book that has multiple dimensions. And I think a book gets layered with successive rewrites. Every single time an author goes back, she (or he) adds a new subplot. Or a secondary character that forces the protagonist to reveal another dimension of their personality. Or a simple turn-of-events that notches up the tension in what can so often be the saggy mid-section of a book.

When I’m writing that first draft, it seems so…two-dimensional to me. But once I start to go back, start to add in all those layers, and my book starts to come alive? THAT’S when my juices REALLY start flowing.

Mary: Do you work on more than one book at a time?

Holly: I ALWAYS have another book in the works. I’ve got a towering stack of manuscripts that I drafted in my pre-acceptance period, which now need to be revised and resubmitted. And, of course, there are the two books that are still in development. I know…to go from no publications to THREE in one year…I was incredibly lucky.

New ideas for novels pop up all the time. Drafting one project, I’ll get ideas for half a dozen additional books! When ideas pop into my head, I jot down whatever’s just come to me—a character sketch, a premise, a basic outline—then try to put it aside so that I can finish my task at hand. That also means I have a stack of notebooks FILLED with ideas for books! Honestly, once I finish a project, it's kind of hard to decide which idea / outline I want to tackle next. (What a fantastic dilemma, right?)

Mary: Yes, that is one great dilemma to have! What three things are always on your desk?

Holly: Confession time: I have a tendency to be a little bit of a slob while drafting. But I also tend to really want to tidy everything up while I’m revising! So my desk can either look totally cluttered or completely clean and dust-free, depending on what stage my writing’s in.

Three constants, through either clutter or clean, are a cup of hot coffee (cream, no sugar), my dog, Jake (who’s usually UNDER the desk or the nearby couch), and my glasses. (I’m totally blind—20/700 vision! So if I want to completely turn off my inner critic, I take my glasses off and type away. If I can’t SEE it, I can’t second-guess it!)

Mary: I love this! It’s a great way to tame that annoying internal critic.

Readers, now it’s your turn. Ask a question! Leave a comment! Holly will pop back in for one week to respond to questions and comments.

Operation Book Drop

2010-04-14T10:13:00.000-07:00

From Readergirlz website:

In 2008 and 2009, readergirlz (http://www.readergirlz.com), Guys Lit Wire (http://guyslitwire.blogspot.com), and YALSA (http://www.ala.org/yalsa) orchestrated publishers' donations of nearly 20,000 new young adult books to hospitalized teens across the country.

For 2010, If I Can Read I Can Do Anything (http://www.ischool.utexas.edu/~ifican) has joined forces with these three organizations to drop over 10,000 new YA books, donated by publishers, into the hands of teens on Native American tribal lands. Nationwide, librarians, over 100 YA authors, and teens will drop YA books in their own communities on April 15th, 2010, to raise awareness for Operation TBD 2010 and Support Teen Literature Day. Everyone will join an online TBD Post-Op party at 6 PM PST / 9 PM EST that evening at the readergirlz blog (http://readergirlz.blogspot.com).

So Rock the Drop!

Interview with Ron Koertge

2010-03-09T22:02:00.001-08:00

Marlene: Tell us about your book.

Ron: Shakespeare Makes the Playoffs is a sequel to Shakespeare Bats Cleanup, so readers are following Kevin Boland—poet and first baseman. (Both are novels-in-verse, free verse and not-so-free, but every page had to be a poem of some kind.)
In Shakespeare 1, Kevin hooks up with a girl who might not be much of a ball fan and only likes poems about her, but she is great looking! Every reader knows there’s going to be trouble. In Shakespeare 2, trouble shows up in the form of another girl, Amy. Not as cute but she loves poetry, too, and is big fun to be with. How’s Kevin going to work this out? He’s a good kid, so he’ll find a way. But it might not be easy!

Marlene: What was your inspiration for this story?

Ron: My wife and I like AAA and AA baseball. Major league teams have these farm clubs with stadiums (actually it’s stadia) within fifty miles or so of L.A. We were at the one in Lake Elsinore a few years ago and I saw a kid, thirteen at the most, sitting with is dad and writing something. I started thinking of a story about a boy like this, a fan of two very different things. I’d just written a novel and was tired of prose, so I thought I’d try my hand at poetry.

Marlene: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Ron: I’m one of those writers who revises a lot. A lot! And first drafts for me are almost always junky and fat. I write fast and blow by mistakes. Then I start over, sometimes from scratch. So I don’t remember the first words. There’s every chance they were for a poem that ended up deep in the book, anyway, since I don’t write novels-in-verse in order.

Marlene: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Ron: Are you kidding? I hate research. I’m a fiction writer. I make stuff up. Well, I guess you could count going to ball games. But I think of research as sitting indoors with a big book in front of me and wishing I were anyplace else.

Marlene: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Ron: There’s a form-of-poetry called a sestina. It doesn’t rhyme and it doesn’t have to be metrical, right? No da-Dum, da-Dum, da-Dum. But every stanza (except the last) has six lines. There are six stanzas (not counting the last) and the last words of stanza #1 have to be used as the last words of every line in every stanza but in a different order. Are you following this? Sestinas are so hard to write! The one in Shakespeare 2, though, is not only good, it’s hilarious. So that’s my favorite page.

Marlene: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Ron: The part of any book that makes me want to avoid it, is where I go first. That part is like the monster in my nightmares. When that happens in the night, I go right to the monster and put my arms around him and hug him and kiss him. Then he isn’t a monster anymore. And that works with the so-called hard part of a novel. I go right to it with my arms open wide. And the hard part melts like a Popsicle.

Marlene: What's on your nightstand right now?

Ron: Donald Barthelme. He’s such a weird and wonderful writer. I don’t read a lot of kids’ fiction and students I talk to during school visits sometimes don’t either. They read odd cats like Jack Kerouac or Italio Calvino. If I get something out of the library that’s too hard for me (that usually just means it’s dull), I take it back. I like to read over-my-head and I especially like to read “things I shouldn’t.”

Marlene: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Ron: I love to bet on thoroughbred horses. And, like my visits to the various AAA baseball diamonds around where I live, I like to go to different race tracks. A buddy of mine and I take a trip every year to see a different race track or two. So we’ve been to Canada and Arizona and Kentucky and six or eight other states. My wife likes the little tracks in Arizona—Sonoita, especially.

Marlene: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Ron: Gee, no. It’s about the only thing I’m good at. It costs me a few thousand dollars a year to bet on horses, so I can’t afford to quit writing even if I wanted to.

Marlene: Leaving aside reading other writers, are there things that inspire you?

Ron: Besides my wife and horses, I love the movies. I go to probably 60 or 70 of them every year plus watching TCM and IFC on TV plus renting videos. (Just last night I saw “Near Dark” again, a terrific vampire movie set in the Southwest. Cowboy vampires in a van. Who wouldn’t like that?) I love to sit in a theatre with thirty or three hundred strangers. And when I’m working on something of my own, little bits of the film fly off the screen and stick to me and want to be used in the new book. A word or turn of phrase. Maybe the furniture in a living room. Maybe just a barrette in some girl’s hair. I almost never go to a movie and come out empty-handed.

Readers, now it’s your turn. Ask a question! Leave a comment. Ron will pop back in for one week to respond.

Interview with Libby Schmais, author of The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein

2009-12-02T07:45:00.000-08:00

Marlene: Tell us about your book

Libby: The Pillow Book of Lotus Lowenstein is a novel about existential dread, cupcakes and l’amour. It’s the story of a teenager named Lotus Lowenstein who lives in Park Slope and is kind of obsessed with Sartre (who she calls JP), France and falling in love. Her diary book chronicles her day-to-day life in Brooklyn, falling in love, going to Montreal, not to mention a falling out with her best friend Joni over Sean, the boy they both have feelings for.

Marlene: What was your inspiration for this story?

Libby: I was inspired by The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagan, which is a diary book written by a young woman in the Imperial Court of Japan in the year 1002 It’s called The Pillow Book because the author, Sei Shonagan, was given some notebooks by the Empress to make into a pillow. She used the notebooks to write her thoughts down. When I first read The Pillow Book, I was struck by how modern and even witty it was. I’ve always loved diary books, so I wanted to find a way to use the diary concept and The Pillow Book in a novel. I came up with the idea of a girl living in Park Slope, Brooklyn who was studying The Pillow Book of Sei Shonagon in English class, and has the assignment of writing her own pillow book. This also allowed me to include a number of quotes from the original Pillow Book.

Marlene: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Libby: Yes, I remember writing the first sentence and immediately liking the character of Lotus. The beginning is pretty straightforward, in the classic first person narrative “Call Me Ishmael” tradition. Lotus starts with: As you may have guessed, my name is Lotus Lowenstein and this is my diary.

Marlene:What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Libby: The research for this book was, as Lotus would say, très enjoyable. I read a great biography about the relationship between Jean Paul Sartre and Simone de Beauvoir, perused some books of French slang and existentialism and took a road trip to Montreal to eat Poutine (a Canadian concoction of French Fries, cheese curds and gravy). I also wandered around Park Slope, eating cupcakes and drinking cappuccino.

Marlene: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Libby: I am particularly fond of the opening of the book where Lotus describes her hopes and dreams, which involve moving to Paris and wandering around in a Trenchcoat with her imaginary French boyfriend, Jean-something.

Marlene: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Libby: One of the parts I had particular trouble with was the fight between the two best friends, Lotus and Joni, and accurately portraying the deep emotions of a friend breakup. Towards the end of the writing of the book, I actually had a falling out (later resolved) with one of my own close friends, which actually helped give me insight into how painful it was for Joni and Lotus.

Marlene: What's on your nightstand right now?

Libby: A glass of water, my Juice Beauty moisturizer, a book on Henry the VIII by Alison Weir (research for my next YA novel), Life in Tudor England (see the theme here), On Writers Block by Victoria Nelson (a great book) and Gidget (highly recommended & who knew she was Jewish).

Marlene: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Libby: Yes, there have been times that I’ve definitely wanted to quit writing. It’s easy to get discouraged when the writing isn’t going well, or when you start comparing yourself to other writers (always a bad idea). Before I started writing this book, I hadn’t written for a while. But I find than when I stop writing, I actually feel worse, not better, so I need to keep reminding myself of that during difficult writing periods.

Marlene: What’s the French Word du Jour?

Libby: Today’s French Word du Jour is Chouette, which means great. If you collect all the French words du jour on the Blog Tourapalooza, you can enter a contest to win fabulous prizes (A $25 Sephora gift card and a personally autographed Pillow Book!). Once you’ve visited all the blog tour stops and collected all the words, email the list of words to lotuslowenstein@gmail.com with the subject line “French Word du Jour Contest.” The deadline for entries is December 20th and a winner will be selected at random on December 22, 2009. The complete My-Life-Is-Merde-but-Have-a-Bonnes-Fêtes-Anyway Blog Tourapalooza schedule can be found at lotuslowenstein.com. Our next tour stop is Carrie’s YA Bookshelf http://carriesyabookshelf.blogspot.com/ on December 3, 2009. See you on the road, mes amis!

Readers, now it’s your turn. Ask a question! Leave a comment. Libby will pop back in for one week to respond. You’re up!

Interview with Alyson Noel, author of Shadowland

2009-11-18T07:27:00.000-08:00

She always believed he was her destiny—but what if fate has other plans?

Enter the realm of The Immortals—and experience the extraordinary #1 New York Times bestselling series that has taken the world by storm.

Ever and Damen have traveled through countless past lives—and fought off the world’s darkest enemies—so they could be together forever. But just as their long-awaited destiny is finally within reach, a powerful curse falls upon Damen…one that could destroy everything. Now a single touch of their hands or a soft brush of their lips could mean sudden death—plunging Damen into a bleak afterlife in the Shadowland, an eternal abyss for lost souls. Desperate to break the curse and save Damen, Ever immerses herself in magick—and gets help from an unexpected source…Jude Knight.

Although she and Jude have only just met, he feels startlingly familiar. Despite her fierce loyalty to Damen, Ever is drawn to Jude, a green-eyed golden boy with magical talents and a mysterious past. She’s always believed Damen to be her soul mate and one true love—and she still believes it to be true. But as Damen pulls away to save them from the darkness inhabiting his soul, Ever’s connection with Jude grows stronger—and tests her love for Damen like never before…

Marlene: Tell us about your book

Alyson: SHADOWLAND is the third book in THE IMMORTALS series and it picks up right where BLUE MOON left off, with Damen and Ever unable to touch due to a poison that turns their touch lethal, prompting Ever to turn to magick, hoping to find a cure. Along the way encountering the mysterious Jude Knight who will test her love for Damen like never before . . .

Marlene: What was your inspiration for this story?

Alyson: The inspiration for the series was grief. A few years ago I lost three people I loved in five months, and shortly after that I nearly lost my husband to leukemia (he’s in full remission now!). Experiencing that sort of loss got me thinking a lot about life and death, mortality and immortality, the bonds that tie us even after a loved one is gone, and how our youth loving culture sort of seeks physical immortality by trying to remain youthful looking for as long as we can—and yet, what would happen if we really could achieve it? What would it mean for us, our loved ones, society in general? And since I’ve been interested in all things paranormal since I was a kid, Ever and Damen’s story seemed like the perfect vehicle to explore all of those themes.

Marlene: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Alyson: Yep—and it’s the same routine with each book. Before I start the actual writing, when I’m still in what I call the “organizing stage,” where I’m outlining, researching, and getting my notes together, that first sentence always just pops into my head, and so far, oddly enough, it’s never once changed!

Marlene: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Alyson: The research I’ve done for this series has been eye opening, mind-blowing, fascinating, and fun! I took a three-day, psychic development course with world famous medium James Van Praagh that exceeded all my wildest expectations, and I went under hypnosis for a past life regression with best selling author, Dr. Brian Weiss where I saw things I never could’ve imagined! I also read a ton of books on psychics, mediums, ghosts, reincarnation, near death experiences, past lives, chakras, crystals, you name it! And I took a few field trips as well, like one to The Getty museum where I checked out an exhibit I reference in SHADOWLAND, as well as a really fun trip to the “Shake Shack” in Crystal Cove where I pretty much had no choice but to consume a variety of milk shakes to ensure I got the flavors in EVERMORE right. Oh how I suffer for my art!

Marlene: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Alyson: Well, without giving anything away, I have two favorite scenes in SHADOWLAND. One that takes place in The Getty Museum in LA where some secrets of Damen’s are revealed, and one that takes place in an art gallery and Amsterdam that actually made me tear up!

Marlene: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Alyson: My deadlines are such that I have no time for avoiding or prolonged struggling—I just plow my way through no matter what!

Marlene: What's on your nightstand right now?

Alyson: The Encyclopedia of Ghosts and Spirits—research!

Marlene: I have that book too!

Marlene: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Alyson: Travel, Travel, Travel, reading, art, food, wine, movies, music, TV, shopping, and did I mention Travel?

Marlene: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Alyson: Nope, not once. I’ve had so many jobs I either disliked or hated, and this is not one of them. In fact, it’s not even a job—writing books is still a dream come true for me!

For more information about Alyson and her books visit her website at http://www.alysonnoel.com

Readers, now it’s your turn. Ask a question! Leave a comment. Alyson will pop back in for one week to respond. You’re up!

Teen Read Week with Marlene Perez

2009-10-24T13:09:00.000-07:00

October 18-24 is Teen Read Week! Sponsored by YALSA, this year's theme is Read Beyond Reality @ your library, which encourages teens to read something out of this world, just for the fun of it.Here are a few "beyond reality" musings from YA Author Marlene Perez:

What is the strangest thing you have ever seen? I once lived in a house that I thought was haunted. Flickering lights, banging noises, and strange voices. I have a suspicion that it may have been one of my brothers playing a prank, but at the time, I was scared silly. Nevertheless, it left me with the idea that anything is possible.

Which Beyond Reality character would you want to have dinner with? All of them! But if I had to pick just a few, I'd say Aragorn from Lord of the Rings, Holden Caufield from Catcher in the Rye, Meg Murry and Calvin O'Keefe from A Wrinkle in Time.

In ten words or less, what is the most "Beyond Reality" thing in your newest book? Nightshade, CA (where the DEAD IS books take place) is a pretty unreal place, so the abnormal is the normal. So everything. And I can never say ANYTHING in ten words or less.

Laura Wiess Celebrates Teen Read Week

2009-10-23T08:00:00.000-07:00

October 18-24 is Teen Read Week! Sponsored by YALSA, this year's theme is Read Beyond Reality @ your library, which encourages teens to read something out of this world, just for the fun of it.

Here are a few "beyond reality" musings from YA Author Laura Wiess:

What is the strangest thing you have ever seen?

Stranger than large, hairy men strolling the beach wearing nothing but Speedos, black socks and sandals? Sorry. That was an old summer flashback. But even my lone brush with the supernatural still kind of pales in comparison.

Have you ever encountered a ghost?

Well…I don't think of it as a ghost, exactly. More like a leftover imprint in time. But yes, I have.

About fifteen years ago, I was living in an old farmhouse in New Jersey, home alone writing in the studio off the living room, and I wanted fresh coffee. So I got up and totally preoccupied, walked through the living room and as I entered the kitchen (still lost in thought), I glanced down the hall leading to the back door.

There, standing inside and next to the door was a tall, thin old man wearing a plaid hunting shirt and a pair of old, worn-looking gray work pants.

I looked away and just kept walking, thinking distractedly, Oh, there's an old man by the door, and then skidded to a stop and was like What?? So I backed up three steps and looked again, and of course there was nothing there.

I waited a moment to see if I felt anything, but no. No chill, no threat, no ghostly whispers. I made sure the door was still locked – it was – and then I just started laughing because it was so cool. He was a stranger, maybe a hobo who'd stopped for food once a long time ago, maybe a former occupant. I have no idea, but I'd never seen him before, and never did again.

UFO?

No, I can't even manage to catch sight of a shooting star, despite the night sky being full of them here.

Other?

Not yet, but I'm pretty open to whatever comes along. (Even if nothing ever does.)

You wish you could:

Twitch my nose like Bewitched with the same grand spectrum of results. Oh, what a time I would have!

Which Beyond Reality character would you want to have dinner with?

I have two, both from A.M. Jenkins' novel Night Road. Cole, the main character, because he endlessly fascinates me, and Sandor because I think he'd be great to hang out with. I'd love to hear more of the stories of their lives.

Where would you go? What would you eat?

We'd need to be able to relax, talk freely and just hang around with nobody giving us dirty looks for hogging the table, so maybe an empty park with picnic tables in the shade. I'd bring deli food and coffee, but they would either have to feed before we met up or bring a Building omni along for a snack because my blood is definitely not on the menu.

In ten words or less, what is the most "Beyond Reality" thing in your newest book?

A secret past is invisible, unless it's deliberately revealed.

Laura Wiess is the author of Such a Pretty Girl, Leftovers, and the recently-released How It Ends. For more information, visit http://www.laurawiess.com/.

Thanks, Laura!

Your turn--have YOU ever seen a ghost?

David Macinnis Gill Celebrates Teen Read Week

2009-10-22T08:00:00.000-07:00

Melissa Wyatt Celebrates Teen Read Week

2009-10-21T13:22:00.000-07:00

October 18-24 is Teen Read Week!
Sponsored by YALSA, this year's theme is Read Beyond Reality @ your library, which encourages teens to read something out of this world, just for the fun of it.

Here are a few "beyond reality" musings from YA Author Melissa Wyatt:

Melissa, what is the strangest thing you have ever seen?

I'm looking at it right now. My dog is on her back with her legs crossed. All four of them.

Have you ever encountered a ghost? UFO? Other?

No, but my great-great-grandmother was a witch. Seriously. She was a Pennsylvania Dutch pow-wow witch, and she used to drive my grandmother crazy, always casting spells (good ones!) on the children. I have her spell book, so watch out!

You wish you could:

Really make that spell book work.

Which "beyond reality" character would you like to have dinner with?

Eugenides!

Where would you go? What would you eat?

I imagine we would go to a tavern and have good wine, crusty bread and olives.

What is the most "beyond reality" thing in your newest book?

Me! Okay, I sort of wasn't going to admit this, but a very minor character in Funny How Things Change is based on me. And I'm not particularly proud of her behavior, either.

Melissa Wyatt is the author of two very realistic novels for young adults, Raising the Griffin and Funny How Things Change. Visit her at her website: www.melissawyatt.com

Your turn! What is the strangest thing you've ever seen?

THE INDIGO NOTEBOOK by Laura Resau

2009-10-21T04:00:00.000-07:00

We are very happy to welcome YA author Laura Resau to the Cafe today!

With a background in cultural anthropology and ESL-teaching, Laura has lived and traveled extensively in Latin America. Her first book in a new travel-adventure series, The Indigo Notebook, has just been released.

Her previous novel, Red Glass, won numerous awards, including the IRA YA Fiction Award and the Americas Award, and was selected as an Oprah's Kids' Book List Pick. Acclaimed for its sensitive treatment of immigration issues, a starred review from Publishers' Weekly calls Red Glass a "vibrant, large-hearted story."

Laura's award-winning debut novel, What the Moon Saw was praised as "a powerful, magical story ... a rare glimpse into an indigenous culture" in a starred review from Booklist. Laura now lives with her husband, toddler, and dog in Colorado. She is donating a portion of her royalties to indigenous rights organizations in Latin America. Please visit her at http://www.lauraresau.com .

"The characters fairly brim with life in this thoughtful, poignant novel filled with cultural details." – Kirkus Reviews on The Indigo Notebook

Please join us in welcoming Laura to the Cafe . . .

Mary: Tell us about your newest book, The Indigo Notebook.

Laura: This is the first novel in a new series about a teenage girl named Zeeta who lives in a different country every year with her flighty, ESL-teaching mother. In this first book, Zeeta and her mom are in the Ecuadorian Andes. It appears that Zeeta's wish for a "normal," settled-down life might come true. It's in Ecuador where she meets Wendell, an American boy who needs her help on his search for his birth parents. As Zeeta and Wendell have adventures together, they explore what it means to have their greatest wishes come true.

While writing this book, I thought a lot about the idea that what we think will make us happiest might not be what truly makes our spirits fly. In some ways, this story was my attempt to work through this "happiness trap."

Mary: What was your inspiration for this story?

Laura: I've always loved living abroad and traveling, and there's a part of me that wishes I could live a wandering life, like Zeeta and Layla. That's how I got the idea for the series premise. I felt inspired to set the first book in Ecuador after spending time in indigenous Quichua communities in the Otavalo region. At the time, I was researching a different book-- a memoir co-written with my Ecuadorian friend Maria. On my first trip there, I fell in love with the landscape and heard fascinating stories and met new friends… and not surprisingly, the beginnings of a novel started brewing.

On my second trip, I focused on research specifically for this novel, which led me to a healing ritual with a shaman. During that ritual, I realized I was ready to adopt a baby (after five years of trying to have one). When I returned home, I spent the next several months filling out the adoption paperwork, going to adoption workshops, and writing a draft of The Indigo Notebook. Inevitably, my reflections on my son's possible future feelings about his adoption became woven into the novel.

(Update: My son came home to us from Guatemala almost two years ago, and he's an exuberant, loving, beautiful little toddler.)

Mary: Congratulations! Your writing really did take you on an incredible life-changing journey!
Do you work on more than one book at a time?

Laura: Normally I work on one book at a time during the first several drafts, although this book was different. During an early draft of The Indigo Notebook, I was inspired to write Star in the Forest-- a middle-grade novel about a girl whose dad was recently deported to Mexico (a story interwoven with magical folklore). I felt a sense of urgency to write this novel, and didn't think I could wait until after The Indigo Notebook.

I was motivated by a fan of What the Moon Saw (my first book), who identified strongly with the main character, Clara, but with one important difference: Clara had documents, which enabled her to come and go across the border to visit her grandparents' Oaxacan village. This girl, however, came to the U.S. as a young child without documents, so she was unable to go visit her father (since the return trip would be too dangerous).

A complete story idea came to me. I was afraid that if I didn't write it down immediately, I'd never do it. So (without telling my agent or editor, hee hee hee) I put The Indigo Notebook aside for a few weeks and wrote Star in the Forest like a madwoman. It felt like playing hooky, since I had a contract and a looming deadline for The Indigo Notebook. The guilt made me spin the story out that much faster, so that I could get back to working on what I was supposed to be doing. The resulting book, Star in the Forest, will be released in March 2010. I'm so grateful I gave into that impulse to play hooky-- I'm really proud of the final product (and I ended up finishing The Indigo Notebook on time anyway. Happy ending!)

Mary: Wow, that is amazing, and I am sure your agent and editor are happy you played "hooky" too. Do you do other types of writing besides YA or MG?

Laura: I love writing short travel memoir pieces (for adults). People who read these pieces get a special glimpse of the inspiration for my novels, since my fiction is largely based on experiences I've had. These pieces are mostly set in southern Mexico, with some mysticism and humor thrown in. I have a piece appearing in The Best of Lonely Planet Travel Writing, to be released in November. (On the links section of my website, I link to anthologies that have published these short works.)

Mary: Can you tell us what you are working on now?

Laura: I'm revising The Ruby Notebook, which is the sequel to The Indigo Notebook. It's set in Aix-en-Provence, France, where I lived for a year during my junior year abroad in college. I'm also jotting down notes about the third novel in the series, The Jade Notebook, set in a small coastal village in Oaxaca. And I'm getting ready to revise The Queen of Water, the collaborative memoir with Maria Virginia Farinango, to be released in spring of 2011. Okay, I'd better get to work now…

Thanks for a great interview! It's been a pleasure!

Mary: The pleasure is all ours, Laura! Best of luck with your new book!

Cafe Note: As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Laura, please feel free to post away in the comments!

Cynthia Leitich Smith celebrates Teen Read Week

2009-10-20T09:00:00.000-07:00

October 18-24 is Teen Read Week!
Sponsored by YALSA, this year's theme is Read Beyond Reality @ your library, which encourages teens to read something out of this world, just for the fun of it.

Here are a few "beyond reality" musings from YA Author Cynthia Leitich Smith:

What is the strangest thing you have ever seen?

The yard gnome that Libba Bray gave me. I swear it comes to life at night.

Have you ever encountered a ghost?

Yes, my house is haunted.

A UFO?

Nope, though I'm told my father saw some in the Air Force.

Other?

Do '80s Brat Packers count?

You wish you could:

Take a month-long driving tour of the new South.

Which Beyond Reality character would you want to have dinner with?

Zachary from Eternal.

Where would you go? What would you eat?

The restaurant bar at the Edison Hotel on South Congress. Beer-battered fish sticks.

In ten words or less, what is the most "Beyond Reality" thing in your newest book?

A Dracula with a taste for homemade rhubarb pie.

Cynthia Leitich Smith is the YA author of Rain Is Not My Indian Name, Tantalize, and Eternal--a Beyond Reality Book. The casts of Tantalize and Eternal will crossover in a forthcoming novel, Blessed. Her latest short stories appear in Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd, Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, and Sideshow: Ten Original Dark Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical. Cynthia makes her home in Austin, Texas with her sometimes co-author husband and four bossy cats.

Thanks, Cyn!

Your turn--have YOU ever seen a ghost?

E. Lockhart celebrates Teen Read Week

2009-10-19T08:36:00.000-07:00

October 18-24 is Teen Read Week!

Sponsored by YALSA, this year's theme is Read Beyond Reality @ your library, which encourages teens to read something out of this world, just for the fun of it.

Here are a few "beyond reality" musings from YA Author E. Lockhart:

Emily, what is the strangest thing you have ever seen?

I live in New York City. Yesterday, I saw a group of teenagers dressed in black corsetry waving red flags and carrying swords, giggling on the subway. Ask me again tomorrow.

Have you ever encountered a ghost? UFO? Other?

I probably have -- but I missed it. My nose was in a book.

You wish you could:

Fly. I have dreams about it all the time.

Which "Beyond Reality" character would you want to have dinner with?

Mr. Tumnus.

Where would you go? What would you eat?

We'd go to Pure Food and Wine, an all raw-food, very upscale restaurant near Grammercy Park. I think he'd like it.

What is the most "Beyond Reality" thing in your newest book?

In The Treasure Map of Boys, Nora bakes (possibly) magic cookies. If you give one to a boy, he will (possibly) do your bidding. You kind of have to wish while he is chewing. Or maybe you have to tell him what you want. Or maybe you need to eat a cookie, too. It's not entirely clear how these magic cookies work. However, they very often work. That is the point.

E. Lockhart is the author, most recently, of The Treasure Map of Boys, book three in the Ruby Oliver series. Her other books include Dramarama and The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. www.e-lockhart.com

Thanks, Emily!

hm . . . what character would YOU have dinner with?

TEEN READ WEEK!

2009-10-18T18:05:00.000-07:00

October 18-24 is Teen Read Week!

Sponsored by YALSA, this year's theme is Read Beyond Reality @ your library, which encourages teens to read something out of this world, just for the fun of it.

Here at the Cafe we are helping to celebrate Teen Read Week by having a different YA author each day sharing some "Beyond Reality" experiences! Find out the strangest things they have ever seen! If they have ever seen a ghost! What "beyond reality" character they want to take out for dinner! We will want to hear YOUR answers to these far out questions too

Look for the first author tomorrow!
(hint: the author's initials are E.L.)

READ ON!

Jumping Off Swings by Jo Knowles

2009-09-23T05:49:00.000-07:00

Jo Knowles' newest YA novel sensitively and tenderly explores the repercussions of teen pregnancy among four friends.

In a starred review, Publishers Weekly said "Absorbing from first page to last, this sensitively written novel explores how a teenager's crisis rocks her life as well as the lives of others. "

We're delighted to welcome Jo Knowles to the YA Authors Cafe!

Melissa W: Tell us about your book, Jumping Off Swings.

I always do a lousy job at describing my books, so here’s my publisher’s description:

“Ellie remembers how the boys kissed her. Touched her. How they begged for more. And when she gave it to them, she felt loved. For awhile anyway. So when Josh, an eager virgin with a troubled home life, leads her from a party to the backseat of his van, Ellie follows. But their "one-time thing" is far from perfect: Ellie gets pregnant. Josh reacts with shame and heartbreak, while their confidantes, Caleb and Corinne, deal with their own complex swirl of emotions. No matter what Ellie chooses, all four teenagers will be forced to grow up a little faster as a result. Told alternately from each character’s point of view, this deeply insightful novel explores the aftershocks of the biggest decision of one fragile girl’s life — and the realities of leaving innocence behind.”

I know that’s totally cheating and I am sorry. But really that’s much better than I would’ve done. :-)

Melissa W: Summaries are tough! I always say if I could tell the story in a hundred words, I wouldn't have taken up two hundred pages!Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

The words aren’t the same but the scene is quite close. In early drafts, Ellie’s chapters were all written in free verse. I decided to change that form when it became too restricting for what I wanted to say and needed to accomplish with her chapters.

Melissa W: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

I think it’s different for every book. But with the last two manuscripts (PEARL, which is coming out with Henry Holt in 2011, and my current work-in-progress), it was getting that first draft DONE and then realizing one of the reasons it was so hard to finish was that I’d chosen the wrong tense to write it in. For both novels, I scrapped the entire manuscript and started from scratch. This actually happened with LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL too. I’m hoping it’s not my “process” because WOW, that is a very inefficient way to write! However, I will say that it helps me to rethink the story, to get closer to it somehow, to hear it in a new voice. And that has been extremely helpful.

Melissa W: What are you working on now?

My next novel is called PEARL and it’s set to come out in Spring ’11 with Henry Holt. It’s about a girl who lives with her mom and grandfather and what happens when her grandfather dies and family secrets are unleashed. There’s also a lot about friendship, mother-daughter relationships, love and row-boat rides in a smelly river.

Melissa W: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

I don’t think it was a questions of wanting to quit, but rather a question of whether I should quit. Just before I sold my first book, LESSONS FROM A DEAD GIRL, I was reaching the point of lots of close calls but no offers. I’d been with my agent for a while and kept thinking any day now he was going to drop me and I wouldn’t blame him. I think at some point, you just start to think, Well, I know I came close but I guess I just don’t have what it takes. But let me tell all you writers out there that this is the WORST thing to think because if you are having close calls, it means you are SO CLOSE to getting THE call. The only sure way to fail is to give up. So just stick it out. Keep writing. Keep getting better. Keep getting your best work out there. Sometimes, you just have to wait for the stars to align exactly right. Seriously. There is a lot of luck involved in this crazy business. But there is also a lot of heart and bravery and believing in yourself and the characters you love. Don’t give up on them and don’t give up on yourself.

Very true and wise. Thanks so much for stopping by the Cafe, Jo!

For more information on Jo and her books, please visit her website.

As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Jo, please feel free to post away in the comments!

LIVING ON IMPULSE by Cara Haycak

2009-08-19T08:00:00.000-07:00

Cara Haycak started her writing career at Columbia University’s graduate writing program and received an MFA in 1995.

Her first YA novel, Red Palms was awarded a Work-in-Progress grant from the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators in 2000, and was published in 2004 by Random House Children’s Books/Wendy Lamb Books.

Dutton Children’s Books will publish her second novel for young adults, Living on Impulse, on August 20, 2009. She lives in Los Angeles, with her husband and young son.

Booklist calls Living on Impulse ". . . stirring, smart, and affirming read."

And Publisher’s Weekly says, "Haycak creates a realistic portrait of a teenage girl whose life is spiraling out of control . . . With painstaking yet gratifying care, Haycak eventually starts Mia along the path of self-realization and forgiveness."

Please join me in welcoming Cara Haycak to the YA Authors Cafe!
　
　
　
Mary: Tell us about your newest book, Living on Impulse.

Cara: It’s about a 15-year-old girl named Mia, a high-school sophomore growing up in a college town in upstate New York, who has a bit of trouble controlling her impulses. When she gets caught shoplifting, her mother gives her an ultimatum—get a job and pay off your debts or else you’ll be out your own.

Mia takes an unusual route. She winds up accepting a job in the university’s entomology department…breeding flies.

On a deeper level, this a story about metamorphosis…Mia’s. She’s completely transformed as we read about her, and in a way that one might not expect. It’s not beauty or perfection that inspires her, but its opposite—an ugly white worm, a horribly dysfunctional family—it’s the harsher realities which show her how fragile yet tremendous the world can be.

And the idea of a cocooning is central to the story, too. Mia is forced to enter a cocoon of her own as everything familiar is torn away in the first half of the book: Her friends desert her, her family breaks down, even her sense of self is shaken to the core. And so, in order to emerge as an adult she must build a new life in the dark and by herself, using truth and passion—and most importantly, her instinct for risky impulses—as her guiding forces.

Mary: Do you remember writing the first words? 　Are they still the same?

Cara: This book started as a short story that was published in Cicada Magazine, many years ago. That story opens with a scene of Mia shoplifting, and so does the book. The only difference between them is a change of tense…in the book, the opening paragraphs are written in the present tense.

"In early April, Mia hits the department store downtown on the Commons…"

Mary: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Cara: You bet. I wanted this girl to be a troubled and troublesome character. I wanted her acting out in ways that weren’t so pretty. She’s not always nice, she’s not always thoughtful, and she definitely makes some big mistakes.

But I didn’t want her to be an unlikeable character. I found out this is hard to do. I didn’t want teens to write her off, or think she wasn’t worth their time.

Sometimes I could walk this fine line by editing a bit to temper her behavior. Sometimes I could pump up the volume on the thing that triggers her to act out, so the reader can understand why she’s reacting badly. Sometimes I just let her be angry, and do what she’s got to do.

Ultimately, I’m hoping that teens will relate to her because of her dark side.
　
Mary: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

Cara: Since the heart of the story takes place in the entomology lab of the local university, where Mia works breeding flies, it seems important to mention that I did this same job between my junior and senior years of college at Cornells.

Like Mia, I was unsure of what I wanted to do when I graduated. I thought about studying law, which meant I had to take the LSATs, but I’m a terrible test taker. So I decided to stay at school for the summer, do the Stanley Kaplan course and test before the fall semester buried me in other studies.

I worked hard and the night before the exam, I decided to prepare a healthy and delicious dinner. I bought fresh scallops, grilled them, and immediately got food poisoning. I spent the whole night on the floor of the bathroom.

I missed the test, of course. And I never became a lawyer. But I did get to write about the fly lab, so I know that all the things we go through (the negative as well as the positive) are useful experiences. Especially, if what we really want to do is make art. It’s a choice that ultimately seems right for the character, Mia, too.

Mary: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Cara: First draft. It kills me. I may know exactly what I want to write, and I’ll have the outline sitting there next to me, but getting it on paper feels like I’m literally pulling the gray matter of my brain out between my ears.

Mary: I can totally relate to that! I think I’ve lost a bit of gray matter that way myself! How did you become a writer?

Cara: I chose an obvious way, and went to graduate school for an MFA in Creative Writing (Columbia University, 1995).

But I think storytelling intrigued me starting with watching Bugs Bunny cartoons when I was a kid growing up in the 1960’s. I loved all the Looney Tunes, but Bugs, in particular, blew me away. He was funny and irreverent, but he also had this amazing ability to control events as they were happening. You know, if the hunter has his shotgun aimed down your rabbit hole…well, then you just pull on it, and stretch it, then send it out a new rabbit hole and aim it back at his butt.

I really liked how Bugs was able to create the world he inhabited…and that he could make it work the way he wanted it to. That seemed to be a superpower.

And when writing is going well, I get to experience some of that. I think that’s the thrill for me.

Mary: I loved Bugs Bunny for all those reasons! He never lost his cool. What were you like as a teen?

Cara: See answer above, referencing Bugs Bunny. Rebel Rebel.

Mary: What's on your nightstand right now?

Cara: A lovely YA novel called If I Stay, by Gayle Forman. I never want it to end. A girl lying in coma narrates it, but it’s not dreary or a downer. It’s the most life-affirming book, about our relationships to the people we love and how they make life worth living, and how sometimes those relationships can tear you apart. It’s going to be made into a film directed by Catherine Hardwick (Twilight). Gosh, I should be her agent, I’m talking it up so much. But this book has me by the throat.

I just finished reading Prodigal Summer by Barbara Kingsolver. I adored it. She is an inspiration for me…She can write about things in a way that is so detailed and knowledgeable, and yet it’s so accessible because she writes characters that you fall in love with. And boy, she really lets you get to know the place she’s writing about, as well.

I’m just starting Haruki Murakami’s, Kafka at the Shore. His books are so out there. I love that feeling I get reading his work…that anything could happen.

Mary: What do you do to "unblock" writer's block?

Cara: Ignore it. Does that sound trite? I mean to say that if I’ve got a project going, instead of letting inertia take hold, I force myself to sit down and write. It helps to have an outline, because then you have an assignment: "Today is the day I write the scene in which the girl argues with her mother about money," etc.

Sometimes it goes very slow. But I always work where other people are working. A café, a library. That way I don’t feel so isolated.

In between projects, I can get very very….not blocked, but dry. Like, there’s nothing left but a dribble of brackish water way way down in the well. So I read, and that becomes the first step toward writing, because at least I’m doing something with words that have been put together with much tender care. Or I may get an idea for how to handle something that’s been percolating in my mind about a new story.

But just as often I start to feel a bit competitive or challenged. Like the gauntlet has been thrown down… "Top this sentence, why don’t you?" Or, it might be a gentler prod… "Do you think you could write a book this good? Wanna try?"

Thanks so much for including me on YA Authors Café!

Mary: Thank you so much, Cara! I loved hearing about your book, process, and the rebellious cartoons of your life! Congratulations on the imminent release of Living on Impulse!

For more information about Cara and her books visit her website at http://www.carahaycak.com

Readers, now it’s your turn. Ask a question! Leave a comment. Cara will pop back in for one week to respond. You’re up!

Been dumped?

2009-08-05T11:16:00.000-07:00

A new book is born!

THE COMEBACK by Marlene Perez

Congratulations, Marlene! And to celebrate, we are asking all of you out there to be brave and fess up--have you ever been dumped? Answer the questions at the bottom of the post. Yes, misery does love company.

And to sweeten the misery, three random posters will receive a free signed copy of The Comeback! (Isn't the cover gorgeous?) Here is a little snip of what it's about:

Sophie Donnelly is one half of the most popular and powerful couple in school, until new girl Angie Vogel shows up and compromises everything. Angie steals Sophie's starring role in the school play, and, worse, her super-popular boyfriend. Sophie has been quickly dispatched to social Siberia, but not for long--she'll do anything it takes to make a triumphant comeback.

The Book Muncher says: "There's something undeniably endearing about her character despite her all-consuming and sometimes desperate desire to be the top of the social food chain. It's probably because all of us have felt some degree of Sophie's jealousy before."

You got that right!

So here are your questions:

1. Have you ever been dumped?
2. What did you do?
3. How long did it take you to get over it?
4. Looking back now, was it for the best?

Brave Bonus question:

5. Have you ever been the dumper? Did you feel bad?

Let's hear it!

****************************************************************************
The posters who have won the random drawing for a signed copy of THE COMEBACK are jpetroroy, MotherReader, and Alissa.
Please e-mail Marlene at marlene@marleneperez.com with your snail mail address to receive your prize.

Project Sweet Life by Brent Hartinger

2009-07-15T08:20:00.000-07:00

BRENT HARTINGER is the author of many books for teenagers, including Geography Club, The Last Chance Texaco, Grand & Humble, and Project Sweet Life. Brent's book honors include being named a Book Sense 76 Pick (four times) and the winner of the Scandiuzzi Children’s Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the Judy Blume Grant for Best Young Adult Novel.

Also a playwright and a screenwriter, Brent has several scripts under option and in the process of studio or network development, including a film version of his novel, Geography Club.

Brent teaches writing on the faculty at Vermont College in the MFA program in Writing for Children and Young Adults. He lives in Seattle with Michael Jensen, his partner since 1992.

Brent writes regularly on gay entertainment for AfterElton.com, and founded and now edits a fantasy-themed website, TheTorchOnline.com. Visit Brent's author website at www.brenthartinger.com.

Reviews for Project Sweet Life:

"A hilarious story filled with mishaps, close calls, and outrageous adventures....the novel will be especially appealing to middle school boys."
-- School Library Journal

"The boys’ friendship, lightly and expertly depicted, drives the book, while their smartly plotted moneymaking schemes are creative, highjinks-filled, and hilariously almost effective."
-- Horn Book Review

"Marked by sly wit and a certain old-fashioned jauntiness, this tale of three chums on a quest for indolence strikes many a wish-fulfillment fancy...Hartinger blends urban legend with the actual history of Tacoma’s routing of its Chinese community (author’s note included) to craft an irresistible setting (who wouldn’t want to explore lost tunnels under a city in search of treasure?), humorous episodes tinged with mild danger, and a light-hearted mystery"
-- BCCB

Marlene P:What was your inspiration for this story?

Brent: Project Sweet Life is about three 15 year-old boys who are told by their dads to get jobs -- "because work builds character!" But they've always been told that age 16, not age 15, is the year that you're required to get that first "summer job," so they were all counting on having one last summer of job-less freedom to share together. They don't feel they're dads' demand is fair.

So, seeking to preserve one last golden "job-less" summer, they invent "fake" jobs to satisfy their dads, and then embark on a series of "get-rich-quick" schemes in order to make the money they should be making from working. But getting rich quick is more difficult than they think!

The inspiration? Well, it was very, very much the way my friends and I felt when we were teenagers: we took "summer freedom" very seriously. As we got older, we worked, of course, but the way we saw it, we'd worked hard all year long, and we'd work hard for the rest of our lives, so there was nothing wrong with taking some time off in the summer and enjoying ourselves. We were only going to be young once! Work hard and play hard.

Ironically, just as in the book, I'm convinced that playing hard, at least the way we did, builds far more "character" than if we'd worked at KFC all summer.

Marlene P: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Brent: What an interesting question!

I had to check this. This first words are:

"Dave," my dad said at dinner, "it's time you got yourself a summer job."

And yup, they were the words right from the beginning. I have a tendency to jump right into things, and you can see that the book's central problem is right there at the start.

Marlene P: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Brent: Interestingly, the very first inspiration for the book, even before I knew the story, was a true story I'd heard as I child: how my hometown of Tacoma, Washington, rounded up all its Chinese residents back in the 19th century, burned down Chinatown, and forced all the residents out of town and on a train down to Oregon. It was an historical event that ended up being called the "Tacoma Method" for a city's dealing with its immigrant population, and even today, over a hundred years later, Tacoma has a very small Chinese American population (not surprisingly).

I've been haunted by the story all my life. Can you imagine? Having your home burned down and being told to just leave? "Go away -- you and your whole community are not wanted here"?

As I got older and became a writer, I knew I wanted to write about it. But I didn't trust myself to write a historical novel or a literary novel -- I'm not a particular fan of either genre as a reader, and I'm a big believer that you should write the kind of book you love.

Anyway, Project Sweet Life is my attempt to write about this chilling historical event. I admit it's a "light," very round-about attempt! But there ends up being a treasure, and a big mystery that the kid attempt to solve, and it involves the expulsion of the Chinese, and the tunnels the Chinese supposedly dug under the city.

I'd like to think there's also a lesson about racism and historical accuracy in there somewhere.

And yes, I did a lot of research! I talked to town historians and read lots of local books. The best part was trying to find evidence of those actual tunnels -- which I sort of did. Do they really exist? I honestly think they do, but I can say no more -- I've been sworn to secrecy!

Marlene P: Which books influenced you most when you were growing up?

Brent: It's funny, because this book was very much inspired by the kinds of books I loved and read over and over again when I was a kid. Which were books like The Mad Scientists' Club, The Great Brain, The Chronicles of Narnia. Basically, stories about kids who go on pretty crazy, often "episodic" adventures, usually involving mysteries, but -- as I sort of mentioned above -- also end up discovering some important things about themselves and the world.

A lot of reviewers have commented on the "old-fashioned" nature of the story (in a good way!), which makes me happy, because that's exactly what I had intended: just a good, old-fashioned, somewhat outrageous, somewhat wacky comedy of errors -- but with contemporary characters and a more contemporary feel.

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Brent, please post them now.

And the winners are:

2009-07-07T09:05:00.000-07:00

Grand Prize winner:
Bissie

Four (4) First Prize winners :
DVE
Erin
Jen
Summer

Please e-mail me (Marlene) at marlene@marleneperez.com for details on how to collect your prize.

Suite Scarlett by Maureen Johnson Contest

2009-06-16T20:45:00.000-07:00

We're having a contest!Please check out the video below and tell us one thing about Scarlett. You can also enter a second time by naming at least two other novels that Maureen Johnson has written. At the end of the week, posters will be chosen at random to receive the prizes!

One (1) Grand Prize winner will receive:
$50 Gift Card to PBteen®
Suite Scarlett paperback book

Four (4) First Prize winners will receive:
Suite Scarlett paperback book

Suite Scarlett Synopsis

When Scarlett Martin turns fifteen she is put in charge of the Empire Suite, one of the rooms in her family’s hotel. Enter Mrs. Amberson, an aging C-list starlet who decides to employ Scarlett. Soon, she is taking dictation, running around New York City, and getting caught up in Mrs. Amberson’s crazy adventures. In the midst of it all, Scarlett falls in love–or so she thinks–and it takes Mrs. Amberson to help her see the light. Now available in paperback!

Don't forget to leave your comments on the YA Authors Cafe blog in order to be eligible to win! And find out more about PBteen at www.pbteen.com and more about Maureen's books at www.thisispoint.com.

A Kiss in Time by Alex Flinn

2009-05-26T11:21:00.000-07:00

Talia fell under a spell . . . . Jack broke the curse.

I was told to beware the accursed spindle, but it was so enchanting, so hypnotic. . . .

I was looking for a little adventure the day I ditched my tour group. But finding a comatose town, with a hot-looking chick asleep in it, was so not what I had in mind.

I awakened in the same place but in another time—to a stranger's soft kiss.

I couldn't help kissing her. Sometimes you just have to kiss someone. I didn't know this would happen.

Now I am in dire trouble because my father, the king, says I have brought ruin upon our country. I have no choice but to run away with this commoner!

Now I'm stuck with a bratty princess and a trunk full of her jewels. . . . The good news: My parents will freak!

Think you have dating issues? Try locking lips with a snoozing stunner who turns out to be 316 years old. Can a kiss transcend all—even time?

Alex Flinn brings a new twist to an old tale. Her novel Beastly is being made into a major motion picture starring Vanessa Hudgens. We're thrilled she stopped by the Cafe for a chat!

Melissa W: How gorgeous is that cover? Tell us about your book, A Kiss in Time.

Alex: Sleeping Beauty in South Beach. It's about Talia, who is almost 16 circa 1700, and who is not supposed to touch spindles . . . but she does and falls asleep, along with her entire kingdom. It's also about Jack, who is on an uber-boring European tour. He gets tired of visiting the Museum of Napoleon's Nose Hair and watching the tour guide walk backwards, so he ditches the tour and looks for the beach. Instead, he finds a sleeping kingdom and a really hot princess. His friend dares him to kiss her. She wakes . . . and that's when it gets hairy. Everyone's mad at Talia for touching the spindle and messing things up. They're also furious at Jack for kissing the princess. You're not supposed to do that. So they throw him in the dungeon. Talia, meanwhile, wants out, so she offers to spring him if he'll take him with her . . . to Miami.

Melissa W: What was your inspiration for this story?

Alex: It never seemed right to me that Sleeping Beauty is awakened by a prince she doesn't know, a hundred or so years later, and lives "happily ever after." How would you be happy, in a new century whose customs you don't know, and married to a stranger? The thought reminded me of Rip Van Winkle, or the musical, Brigadoon, and I was off, bringing Sleeping Beauty to my world.

Melissa W: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Alex: The story came to me in a gush as I was trying to revise another book (I never did). I wrote the first 50 pages very quickly and was happy not to have to go back to that other novel that wasn't working. Virtually everything about those 50 pages is the same.

Melissa W: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Alex: The ending was tough. The hero of the story must face a challenge, but because of the modern setting, Jack couldn't face an actual dragon or other historical battle. And yet, because of the quasi-historical setting, a kidnapping at gunpoint didn't seem appropriate either. In the end, I thought of an appropriate magical climax that also reflected the humor of the novel.

Melissa W. What's on your nightstand right now?

Alex: Today, I finished reading Moloka'i by Alan Brennert. It's a historical novel set in a leper colony in the late 19th and early 20th century. Although it's not YA, it appealed to me as a young-adult reader because the main character is 6 when she contracts Hanson's disease and is ripped from her family and banished to the Hawaiian island of Moloka'i, and much of the novel takes place in her childhood and young-adult years. Because Rachel, the heroine, is taken to a group facility, it reminds me a lot of the British boarding school type of novels I've always liked, such as Jane Eyre, or Libba Bray's Gemma Doyle books.

Melissa W: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

Alex: Probably a librarian. I've often thought I'd enjoy being a librarian or a school media specialist. I've come into contact with many good ones, and I think I'd enjoy working with teens and coming up with innovative programming ideas. I've often wished I'd come up with that prior to going to law school.

Melissa W: What are you working on now?

Alex: A story that is a melange of different fairy tales -- The Frog Prince, The Shoemaker and the Elves, The Six Swans, The Golden Bird, The Salad, The Magic Fish, and The Brave Little Tailor. It's about a shoe repair employee in a South Beach hotel, who is asked by a princess to complete a quest . . . for her brother, who has been turned into a frog and set loose in the Florida Keys.

I can't wait to see how you get all of that into one book! But for now, congratulations on A Kiss in Time and the Beastly movie!

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Alex, please post them now.

The Chosen One by Carol Lynch Williams

2009-05-04T09:00:00.000-07:00

CAROL LYNCH WILLIAMS, a four-time winner of the Utah Original Writing Competition and winner of Nebraska’s Golden Sower Award, grew up in Florida but now lives in Utah with her husband and seven children. She has an MFA in Writing for Children and Young Adults, and helped develop the conference on Writing and Illustrating for Young Readers at Brigham Young University.

The Chosen One, her newest book is about thirteen-year-old Kyra who has grown up in an isolated polygamous community without questioning her father’s three wives and her twenty brothers and sisters. Or at least without questioning them much—if you don’t count her secret visits to the Mobile Library on Wheels to read forbidden books, or her meetings with the boy she hopes to choose for herself instead of having a man chosen for her. But when the Prophet decrees that Kyra must marry her 60-year-old uncle—who already has six wives—Kyra must make a desperate choice in the face of violence and her own fears of losing her family.

Kirkus says The Chosen One is, “Intensely gripping and grippingly intense . . ."

and Booklist says it is “a heart pounder.”

Please join us in welcoming Carol Lynch Williams to the Café . . .

Mary: Tell us about your newest book The Chosen One

Carol: The Chosen One is about a 13-yr-old girl named Kyra Leigh Carlson. Kyra lives in a polygamist community that is stuck in the middle of nowhere. She has a loving father, three mothers and 20 brothers and sisters. Kyra has discovered the outside world by reading—something that is not allowed in her community. And she has also met someone that she cares about. But where Kyra lives the prophet chooses who you will marry, and the young women are saved for the old men of the community. When Kyra finds out that she has been chosen to marry someone else, she has to make some dangerous decisions.

Mary: What was your inspiration for this story?

Carol: Several years ago I heard about a girl who had run away from home several times. She ran because she was supposed to marry someone in her extended family. The girl was part of a small polygamist group. At that moment I knew, someday, that I would write something to do with polygamy.

Mary: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Carol: The first words of the book are, “If I was going to kill the prophet, I’d do it in Africa.” I do remember coming up with the line, though I don’t remember what I was doing—not writing, that’s for sure. As soon as the words came to me, I knew I had the start of the novel.

My friend, Richard Peck, once spoke to a group of writers here in Utah. He said, “You are no greater than your first line.” For me, my first line was a strong one—one I hope Richard Peck would approve of. J And that beginning hasn’t changed.

Mary: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Carol: I did a lot of research. I read many articles about polygamy, watched several specials that were aired as I started writing, talked to people who practiced polygamy or came from a polygamist background, and spent a lot of time making sure the facts for my story were right for my story—if that makes sense. This is a piece of fiction. But a lot of what I talk about has happened. Abuse occurs in all religions—and in homes where there is no religion.

Mary: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Carol: The hardest part of this book was knowing that much of what I wrote truly happened in some homes. I cannot abide the thought that any child might be in a dangerous situation. So I didn’t relish the dark scenes of the book. When I talk to people about writing I always say, “Someone is either dead or naked in all the books I write.” When I realized exactly what was going to happen in this book, I was not happy.

Mary: What one question do you wish an interviewer would ask you but never has?

Carol: How do I stay so young and beautiful—and all without surgery or smoke and mirrors.

Mary: Ha! Love it. I never get asked that question either. What are you working on now?

Carol: At this moment—and for maybe two more days, I am actually in between pieces. I just turned in my next novel for St. Martin’s Press, a young adult book called Lost in Peace. I’ll be working on rewrites as soon as I hear back from my editor. I’m thinking, though, that I need to write something lighthearted next. I’ve been in some icky places with my last few novels. Something funny would be nice.

That said, I do have a story that isn’t so happy that I’m about a third of the way finished with. So, we’ll see.

Mary: How did you become a writer?

Carol: I have always wanted to write. As a young girl I wrote as soon as I was capable of putting stories together. I wrote plays that my family performed. And when I was in ninth grade we actually had a creative writing section (about 9 weeks long) in English. During that time my regular teacher was gone, but we had a substitute and she read my story out loud in class. I was thrilled. Later, when I turned 16 or so, I began working on a collection of short stories. A few of those wound up in my first novel, Kelly and Me.

A hint for all the readers who want to be writers: writers write. So if you’re writing? You’re a writer.

Mary: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Carol: I struggled with the format of the book. In order to tell the story, I had to spend a lot of time with flashbacks, in Kyra’s past. You have to know Kyra’s life before to see why she does what she does at the end. And I couldn’t figure out how to do that. I went to bed every night for like two weeks wondering how to fix the novel. Slowly it came to me what to do, and like an experiment, I started rewriting. And it worked out.

The saddest part of the novel for me is the final scene between Kyra and her sister, Laura. That was painful to write.

Mary: What's on your nightstand right now?

Carol: Cynthia Leitich Smith’s Eternal, Ann Dee Ellis’ Everything is Fine, Jeanette Ingold’s Mountain Solo, the scriptures, and my journal. Also a stack of cooking magazines, a couple of notes from my girls, and a lamp. Dust. A cross-stitch chart. A tiny music box (broken). Vitamin E lotion. And a novel for adults that I will never read.

Mary: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

My daughters. Reading. Dreaming about planting gardens and having a countertop in the kitchen that is solid surface granite. I love to watch movies—though I haven’t in a long time. I love watching American Idol—but right now our satellite is broken and I don’t know why. I love hanging out with my writer friends. I love to teach writing. But only children’s writing because that’s the only thing I can do. I love to sing and make people laugh.

Mary: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

Carol: A Country and Western singer. Or a solid gold dancer, but I would have to be SOLID gold. Or I would like this job: Reading books for a living. But only books I loved. I wouldn’t read books that I didn’t love. Now that would be a darn good job.

Mary: I agree. Sign me up for that job. Thanks for all the insights, Carol, and congratulations on the publication of your newest book.

Okay, blog readers, now it's your turn. Throw confetti and cheers Carol's way, or ask her a question.

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Carol, please post them now.

2009-04-08T05:48:00.000-07:00

Today, the Cafe welcomes Jeannine Garsee, celebrating the publication of her second YA novel, Say the Word, published by Bloomsbury USA Childrens Books. She is also the author of Before, After and Somebody Inbetween.

The world expects perfection from seventeen-year-old Shawna Gallagher, and for the most part, that’s what they get. She dates the right boys, gets good grades, and follows her father’s every rule. But when her estranged lesbian mother dies, it’s more than perfect Shawna can take. Suddenly, anger from being abandoned ten years ago is resurfacing along with Shawna’s embarrassment over her mother’s other family. As she confronts family secrets and questions from the past, Shawna realizes there’s a difference between doing the perfect thing and doing the right thing.
Shawna’s honest and relatable voice will draw readers in and hold them until the last page in this coming-of-age story. Jeannine Garsee has delivered a compulsively readable second novel, perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen and Laurie Halse Anderson.

Melissa W.: What was your inspiration for this story?

Jeannine: The gay marriage issue received a lot of attention back in 2006, which started the wheels turning. I’d also done a paper in sociology class about the children of gay couples and what happens to these kids when the couples either break up, or one of the parents dies. I wanted to explore this subject, so I wrote the story.

Melissa W.: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Jeannine: Yes, the first paragraph is very similar to the first words I word—unlike my first novel where the opening lines were changed many, many times before the book was published.

Melissa W.: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Jeannine I actually did quite a lot—most of it was reading, visiting websites, and familiarizing myself with firsthand accounts by straight children of gay parents, plus the research I’d done for my earlier paper. I also drew on my own experiences for certain aspects of the story.

Melissa W.: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Jeannine: Finding the time to write, first of all. As for the writing process itself, I have a terrible time maintaining the timeline in the story. My first drafts are always all over the place.

Melissa W.: I hear you, sister. What are you working on now?

Jeannine: A YA paranormal that I am totally in love with!

Melissa W.: Oo! Love the sound of that. Tell us something about you that no one knows.

Jeannine: I can play Mary Had a Little Lamb by clicking my teeth with a fingernail.

Melissa W.: You are my new best friend! How did you become a writer?

Jeannine: I was born a storyteller. Then I learned how to write. It comes naturally to me. I’ve never taken a college level creative writing class. It’s all I’ve ever wanted to do, but it took a lot of years to discipline myself enough to actually write a book and see it through to publication.

Melissa W.: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Jeannine: I love the scene where, at a family dinner, Shawna’s father calls her “stupid” and she tells him off for the first time. I swear I cheered when I wrote it.

Melissa W.: What's on your nightstand right now?

Jeannine: A doggie chew, my alarm clock, and a pack of Nicorette gum.

Melissa W.: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Jeannine: I love reading, of course, and live theater.

Melissa W.: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Jeannine: I’ve considered it because I’m often overwhelmed trying to balance writing with my regular job and family responsibilities. Although I don’t have any immediate plan to stop writing for publication, if I did I would still continue to write for pleasure.

Melissa W.: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

Jeannine: Realistically, I’d like to teach creative writing or work with animals. In my dreams I’d be a star on Broadway!

Thanks so much, Jeannine! And congratulations on the publication of your fantastic new book. You can visit Jeannine at her website.

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Jeannine, post them now! She'd love to hear from you!

Purge by Sarah Darer Littman

2009-04-01T05:28:00.000-07:00

Janie Ryman hates throwing up. So why does she binge eat and then stick her fingers down her throat several times a day? That’s what the doctors and psychiatrists at Golden Slopes hope to help her discover.But first Janie must survive everyday conflicts between the Barfers and the Starvers, attempts by the head psychiatrist to fish painful memories out of her emotional waters, and shifting friendships and alliances among the kids in the ward. In order to get better, Janie must talk about things she's admitted to no one - not even herself.

Marlene: What was your inspiration for this story?

Sarah: My mother was scanning old photos from her albums and she sent me this one (below) from a family vacation when I was fourteen or fifteen.

Looking at it as a woman in my forties, I thought, "Wow, I had a nice figure back then." But it made me sad, because I still remembered how I felt at the time - how I was convinced that I was fat and ugly.

I've suffered from body image problems my entire life, and struggled with bulimia for many years as an adult. I wanted to write a book for the girl I was then, and for the girls - and guys - out there who feel the same way today.

Marlene: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Sarah: I wrote the first words in a writing workshop at Kindling Words, in response to a picture of Ellen Wittlinger's niece in a bridesmaid's dress, taken from the back. From that exercise emerged a character who was unhappy at a wedding, felt uncomfortable with herself and the
clothes she was wearing, and was generally angry at the world. None of those words are in the book, but they got me started, and certain elements of that exercise remain in the finished novel.

Marlene:What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Sarah: Although I have suffered from bulimia myself, I did a lot of research about eating disorders. I also had an eating disorder professional read the manuscript for accuracy.

Scholastic was terrific about putting a resources section at the back of the book, and we listed the best of the books I read. One book I particularly recommend is The Body Project by Joan Jacobs Brumberg. Brumberg tracks the history of how as a society we've stopped emphasizing the importance of what girls DO and placed more focus on how they LOOK. As the mother of a daughter, this is something I try very hard to fight.

Marlene:What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Sarah: I would have to say "The Cucumber Scene". You have to love an emotional breakthrough that revolves around a salad vegetable.

Marlene: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

It was hard for me to write any of the scenes that involved the destructive behaviors, such as purging or cutting. Even though I'd been in recovery for five years at the time I was writing the novel, writing about those behaviors brought me back into some very dark and
painful places, and I had to really look after myself during the periods I was writing those scenes.

Marlene:What's on your nightstand right now?

Sarah: Alive and Well in Prague New York by Daphne Grab

Marlene:Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Sarah: Chocolate! Don't the two always go together? I also love reading, traveling, watching movies, messing around in the garden & cooking. In my "grown up" life I write a political column, which generates lots of interesting hate mail.

Marlene: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

I wouldn't say I wanted to quit, but I felt extremely discouraged while suffering from an extended period of "second book blues." As idea after idea was turned down for my second book, I wondered if my first book was a fluke and if I would ever be published again. It wasn't until I reconciled myself with the thought that maybe I was just one of those authors who had to write the whole book before she could sell it that I was able to free myself up enough to write the
book I needed to write. Ironically, my agent was then able to sell my third and fourth books on proposal, but in my mind I was convinced that I was an author who might have to write the whole book first.

I can't imagine every wanting to give up writing - it took me so long to finally give myself the permission to do this thing I've wanted to do my whole life, I'm not about to give it up now!

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Sarah, please post them now.

The King's Rose by Alisa Libby

2009-03-25T05:52:00.000-07:00

Appointed to the queen’s household at the age of fourteen, Catherine Howard is not long at court before she catches the eye of King Henry VIII. The king is as enchanted with Catherine as he is disappointed with his newest wife — the German princess Anne of Cleves. Less than a year from her arrival at court, Catherine becomes the fifth wife of the overwhelmingly powerful, if aging, King of England.

Caught up in a dazzling whirl of elaborate celebrations, rich gowns and royal jewels, young Catherine is dizzied by the absolute power that the king wields over his subjects. But does becoming the king’s wife make her safe above all others, or put her in more danger? Catherine must navigate the conspiracies, the silent enemies, the king’s unpredictable rages, as well as contend with the ghosts of King Henry’s former wives: the abandoned Catherine of Aragon, the tragic Jane Seymour, and her own cousin, the beheaded Anne Boleyn. The more Catherine learns about court, the more she can see the circles of danger constricting around her, the threats ever more dire.

Melissa W: Tell us about your book, The King's Rose.

Alisa: The King’s Rose tells the story of Catherine Howard, a teenage girl who became the fifth wife of King Henry VIII.

Melissa W: What was your inspiration for this story?

Alisa: When I first read about Catherine Howard I was immediately intrigued. Here was a girl—young and fresh and new to the world of the Tudor court—chosen from a crowd of other ladies in waiting by King Henry himself. Henry showered her with lavish gifts, and they were married before Catherine had been at court for a year. It’s like a Tudor-era Cinderella story. But what does she do, after such a dramatic rise to royal favor? She was condemned for having an affair with a groom in the king’s chamber. So, assuming that she really did it, what in the world was she thinking? King Henry had already executed his second wife, Anne Boleyn, on similar charges – and Anne was Catherine’s own cousin. How could she have taken such a risk? Was she cruel to the king, terribly misguided, overwhelmed by passion, or simply incredibly naïve? I began writing to come up with a reason for her seemingly illogical actions.

Melissa W: I can see why you were so intrigued! Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Alisa: I do remember writing the first words: initially the first scene of the book was the scene of Catherine’s execution, and the rest of the story was told in the past tense. By eventually changing the story to the present tense, it gained more immediacy, making the urgency of Catherine’s story more palpable.

Melissa W: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Alisa: I read a variety of books about Catherine, Henry, and his other wives:
A Tudor Tragedy, the Life and Times of Catherine Howard by Lacey Baldwin SmithKatherine Howard by Joanna DennyThe Six Wives of Henry VIII by Alison WeirThe Wives of Henry VIII by Antonia Fraser
I also read about the history of England in that time period, the way of life, culture, customs, clothing, music, food:
Birth, Marriage, and Death: Ritual, Religion and the Life Cycle in Tudor and Stuart England by David CressyAll the King's Cooks: the Tudor Kitchens of King Henry VIII at Hampton Court Palace by Peter Brears
I pored over portraits of the time period and descriptions of their clothing, which was fascinating—so much detail and so many layers! Absolutely gorgeous, and so telling of the pomp and ceremony in which they lived their daily lives at court—particularly for royalty. I also listened to music composed by King Henry VIII.

My husband and I took a research trip to England, where we visited the different places where Catherine lived, the halls where she danced, the palace where she was arrested, and the Tower where she awaited her execution. We searched for her ghost at Hampton Court, where she supposedly haunts a particular gallery shrieking Henry’s name. I didn’t have any ghostly encounters (this is probably for the best, for both of us) but I did visit her grave at the Tower of London, which was a powerful experience. Anne Boleyn gets many visitors and many flowers; Catherine Howard does not. But we were there for her, and we like to feel that her spirit appreciated our efforts.

Melissa W: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Alisa: There are some scenes with Catherine and her grandmother, the Dowager Duchess of Norfolk, that immediately come to mind. The character of the Duchess (how I chose to portray her) is cold, manipulative, frightening. Add to that Catherine and her eagerness to please, her desire for familial connection and affection…it’s a dangerous combination.

Melissa W: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Alisa: I had a lot of difficulty figuring out where this story should begin. My first draft started in Catherine’s childhood and told the story of most of her life. That draft was also very long. It was well over 400 pages. My agent advised me—rightly so—to cut the first 190 pages and have the story begin when Catherine arrives at court. Still, I was stuck for a while: should I start the story when she first arrives at court, or when she suddenly is noticed by King Henry? Or should it start later, when she is already the king’s favorite? I ended up starting the story just before Catherine marries the king, as that is when the excitement truly begins. But it took quite a few false starts before I landed on the opening scene.

Melissa W: What's on your nightstand right now?

Alisa: The Apple that Astonished Paris by Billy Collins.

Melissa W: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Alisa: Reading, certainly! I also enjoy music, listening to NPR, and taking walks at pretty state parks—I especially like the paths that go right into the woods. I used to sew little dolls but I haven’t had much time for that lately; most recently my sewing projects include a stuffed pig, a giraffe and an elephant. I love visiting libraries, wandering around the collection, requesting random and obscure titles through interlibrary loan. I love talking with people who love books—I work at Simmons College Graduate School for Library and Information Science, so luckily I’m surrounded by book people.

Melissa W: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Alisa: I’ve never wanted to quit writing, but there have been times when I worried that writing had quit me. My muse had thumbed a ride and gone backpacking without me; I couldn’t find her anywhere. It was a scary experience. Writing is so much a part of who I am. If I identify myself as a writer, then what am I when I’m not writing? I feel a bit off when I don’t have some project kicking around in my head.

That said, I’ve wondered (especially in moments of frustration) what it could be like to not have the constant compulsion to write. I wonder if I would be better able to live in the moment and not always be wondering about what project I should be working on. But it turns out that I’m simply not that person; even when the muse deserted me (she needed a vacation, apparently) the compulsion to write remained. And in spite of the frustrations involved in writing, it’s very much worth it.

Melissa W: I'm sure your readers feel much the same way!

Unlucky in Love

2009-02-13T08:05:00.000-08:00

A Novel Idea by Aimee Friedman

Required reading has never been so hot.
Once upon a time there was a Brooklyn hipster named Norah. Unlucky in love, and short on extracurriculars for her college apps, Norah decided to start a book group. She knew the perfect locale -- a local indie bookstore with a crush-worthy cutie manning the soy latte counter.
When the first meeting arrives, Norah gets a page-turning surprise. The attendees may be bookish, but there are also a few hotties! Most noteworthy: sweet, literary James. He's like a modern Jane Austen hero.... Only, how to snag him?
Ever the romantic heroine, Norah devises a secret plan. And if it works, Norah may just find her "Happily Ever After" love story. The End.

What other books are unlucky in love?

Love Conquers All

2009-02-12T07:40:00.000-08:00

Scribbler of Dreams by Mary Pearson

Seventeen-year-old Kaitlin Malone was born to hate the Crutchfields. The hatred her family has harbored for generations is the one thing she can count on--and the very thing she believes will sustain her now that her father has been imprisoned for murdering Robert Crutchfield. But then Kaitlin stumbles on a rare opportunity to walk in the "enemies' shoes" and what she discovers rocks the foundation of her entire world.

"Fans will be glued to this weepy tale of love and deception.
Irresistible . . . " –Booklist

Love Rocks!

2009-02-11T08:20:00.000-08:00

The wait is over for the paperback of this irresistible, fast-paced, hit-worthy debut!

When funny, charming, absolutely-normal Audrey Cuttler dumps her boyfriend Evan, he writes a song about her that becomes a number-one hit-and rockets Audrey to stardom!

Suddenly, tabloid paparazzi are on her tail and Audrey can barely hang with her friends at concerts or the movies without getting mobbed-let alone score a date with James, her adorable coworker at the Scooper Dooper. Her life will never be the same-at least, not until Audrey confronts Evan live on MTV and lets the world know exactly who she is!

“Benway displays a keen ear for dialogue; this fi rst novelist has a knack for showcasing her characters’ wit as well as their sincere concern for one another. Irresistible.”—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Okay, rock 'em if you got 'em. Let's hear your suggestions.

Love Games

2009-02-10T08:13:00.000-08:00

LOVE IN THE CORNER POCKET

by Marlene Perez

Scholastic/Point (Summer, 2008) ISBN-10: 0545019915ISBN-13: 978-0545019910

All’s fair in love and billiards.

At the pool table, Chloe is an expert. She can see all the angles, sink all her shots. But when it comes to love, she’s more of a novice—unlike her beautiful best friend Bridget, who plays to win.
But when Alex comes to town, he changes everything. Slick and confident, he makes Chloe feel things she’s never felt before, and he even beats her at pool. The trouble is, Bridget also has her sights set on him. Meanwhile, Chloe’s old friend, Theo, seems to want to be more than her pool partner.
When dealing with friendship and love, will Chloe be stuck behind the 8-ball? Or is this a game she can win?

" . . . a sweet novel of first love." --TeensReadToo.com

Let the games begin! Any other suggestions for the "games" love plays?

Love is Loyal

2009-02-09T08:01:00.000-08:00

Sweethearts by Sara Zarr

Little, Brown - February, 2008

When Jenna Vaughn’s childhood sweetheart unexpectedly comes back into her life during her senior year of high school, she is forced to confront her troubled past.

A story about the power of memory, the bond of friendship, and the quiet resilience of our childhood hearts.

Available in hardback, paperback, and as a Kindle E-Book!

Kirkus says: "Haunting and ultimately hopeful....A convincing, fire person narrative voice....Zarr transfixes teen readers with enticing explorations of identity and enduring love."

Any other books that come to mind of enduring and loyal love?

Love is Magical

2009-02-08T09:34:00.000-08:00

Impossible by Nancy Werlin

Lucy is seventeen when she discovers that the women of her family have been cursed through the generations, forced to attempt three seemingly impossible tasks or to fall into madness upon their child's birth. But Lucy is the first girl who won't be alone as she tackles the list. She has her fiercely protective foster parents beside her. And she has Zach, whose strength amazes her more each day. Do they have enough love and resolve to overcome an age-old evil?

Inspired by the ballad "Scarborough Fair," Impossible combines suspense, fantasy, and romance.

Any other "magical" faves? Let's hear them!

Love Bites

2009-02-07T08:57:00.000-08:00

Today's theme is "Love Bites" and our featured book is ETERNAL by Cynthia Leitich Smith. Again, we'd love to hear your suggestions.

With diabolical wit, the author of TANATALIZE revisits a deliciously dark world where vampires vie with angels — and girls just want to have fangs.

At last, Miranda is the life of the party: all she had to do was die. Elevated and adopted by none other than the reigning King of the Mantle of Dracul, Miranda goes from high-school theater wannabe to glamorous royal fiend overnight. Meanwhile, her reckless and adoring guardian angel, Zachary, demoted to human guise as the princess’s personal assistant, has his work cut out for him trying to save his girl’s soul and plan the Master’s fast-approaching Death Day gala. In alternating points of view, Miranda and Zachary navigate a cut-throat eternal aristocracy as they play out a dangerous and darkly hilarious love story for the ages.

Love Smarts

2009-02-06T10:54:00.000-08:00

In honor of the upcoming Valentine's Day, we are posting a series of Love Lists for Teen Readers. Today's list is "Love Smarts" and we'd love to hear YOUR suggestions. To get you started, we're suggesting THE DISREPUTABLE HISTORY OF FRANKIE LAUNDAU-BANKS.

Synopsis

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14:
Debate Club.
Her father's "bunny rabbit."
A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15:
A knockout figure.
A sharp tongue.
A chip on her shoulder.
And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Landau-Banks.
No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer.
Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society.
Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places.
Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them.
When she knows Matthew's lying to her.
And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16:
Possibly a criminal mastermind.

This is the story of how she got that way.

2009 Quick Picks for Reluctant Young Adult Readers

2009-01-28T08:17:00.000-08:00

2009 Titles
Fiction

Bodeen, S.A. The Compound. 2008. Feiwel & Friends, $16.95 (978-0312370152).
They never thought the world would come to an end.

Booth, Coe. Kendra. 2008. Scholastic, $16.99 (978-0439925365).
Looking for love in all the wrong places.

Collins, Suzanne. Hunger Games. 2008. Scholastic, $17.99 (978-0439023481).
A survivor game, gone deadly.

Divine, L. Drama High, (series). 2008. Dafina Books, $9.95.
Drama, drama, drama.

Fahy, Thomas. The Unspoken. 2008. Simon & Schuster, $15.99 (978-1-4169-4007-4).
Cursed with your greatest fear.

Fields, Terri. My Father’s Son. 2008. Roaring Brook Press, $16.95 (978-1-59643-349-6).
Wearing the face of serial killer is tough.

Giles, Gail. Right Behind You. 2007. Little Brown, $15.99 (978-0-3161-6636-2).
Life is rough; living with the knowledge you killed a kid.

Golden, Christopher. Poison Ink. 2008. Random House, $8.99 (978-0-385-73483-7).
Group tattoos gone bad.

Hernandez, David. Suckerpunch. 2008. Harper Collins, $16.99 (978-0-060117330-1).
Roadtrip with gun.

High, Linda Oatman. Planet Pregnancy. 2008. Boyds Mills Press, $16.95 (978-1-59078-584-3).
Adopting, keeping and leaping.

Hopkins, Ellen. Identical. 2008. McElderry, $17.99 (978-1-4169-5005-9).
Taboo, which twin has it worse?

James, Brian. Thief. 2008. Push, $8.99 (978-0-545-03400-5).
Foster kids forced to steal.

Jordon, Dream. Hot Girl. 2008. St Martin’s, $9.95 (978-0-312-38284-1).
Things you want sometimes costs you more than you want to pay.

Kern, Peggy. No Way Out. 2008. Hip Edge, $4.95 (978-1-49194-176-7).
Bluford High kid desperate for money.

Kropp, Paul. Behind the Door. 2008. HIP Edge, $10.95 (978-1-897039-26-7).
Trapped without a door.

Krovatin, Christopher and Yates, Kelly (Illus). Venomous. 2008. Ginee Seo Books, $16.99 (978-1-4169-2487-6). When rage is in your blood.

Langan, Paul. Schooled. 2008. Townsend Press, $4.95 (978-1-49194-177-4).
Bluford boy has NBA dreams.

Mac, Carrie. Pain & Wastings. Orca Soundings, $9.95 (978-1-55143-904-4).
Facing life with death.

Mancusi, Mari. Gamer Girl. Dutton, $16.99 (978-0525479956).
Avatar or the real you?

McDaniel, Lurlene. Prey. 2008. Random House, $10.99 (978-0-385-73453-0).
Who’s using whom?

McDonnell, Margot. Torn to Pieces. 2008. Random House, $15.99 (978-0-385-0-73559-9).
When mom disappears, secrets are revealed.

McMann, Lisa. Wake. 2008. Simon & Schuster, $15.99 (978-1-4169-5357-9).
Stranded in other people’s dreams..

Mead, Richelle. Frostbite: A Vampire Academy Novel. 2008. Penguin, $8.99 (978-1-59514175).
Love and jealousy collide.

Millner, Denene and Miller, Mitzi. Hotlanta (Series). 2008. Point, $8.99 (0-545-00308-3).
Atlanta just got hotter.

Neri, G. Chess Rumble. 2007. Lee and Low Books, $18.95, (978-1-58430-279-7).
Real life battles, chess style.

Olsen, Sylvia. Middle Row. 2008. Orca, $9.95 (978-155143-899-3).
When you are not where you are supposed to be…

Pauley, Kimberly. Sucks to Be Me: The All-True Confessions of Mina Hamilton, Teen Vampire (Maybe). 2008. Mirrorstone, $14.95, (978-0-7869-5028-7). It bites when your parents are vampires.

Perez, Marlene. Dead is the New Black. Harcourt, $7.95 (978-0152064082).
Latest accessory: a mini-coffin..

Reisz, Kristopher. Unleashed. 2008. Simon Pulse, $7.99 (978-1-4169-4007-4).
Why be a human, when you can be a werewolf?

Schroeder, Lisa. I Heart You, You Haunt Me. 2008. Simon & Schuster, $7.99 (978-1-4169-5520-7).
Imagine having your dead boyfriend “living” at your house.

Schumacher, Julie. Black Box. 2008. Delacorte, $15.99 (978-0385735421).
Depression, close to home.

Scott, Elizabeth. Living Dead Girl. 2008. Simon Pulse, $17.00 (978-4169-6059-1).
Painful to the end.

Shiraz, Yasmin. Retaliation. 2008. Rolling Hills Press, $14.95 (978-0971817432).
Everyone’s involved when one girl gets jumped.

Sitomer, Alan Lawrence. The Secret Story of Sonia Rodriguez. 2008. Hyperion Books for Children, $17.99 (978-1-4231-1072-9).
Sonia is everything to everyone except herself.

Snow, Carol. Switch. 2008. Harper Teen, $16.99 (978-0061452086).
Shocked into a gorgeous body.

Stolarz, Laurie Faria. Project 17. 2007. Hyperion, $15.99 (978-0-7868-3856-1).
Teens and an abandoned insane asylum take on a Blair Witch twist.

Taylor, Brooke. Undone. 2008. Walker Books, $16.95 (978-802709763-6).
Losing a friend—inheriting a friend’s to-do list

Trondheim, Lewis. Kaput and Zosky. 2008. Roaring Brook Press, $13.95 (978-1-59643-132-4).
Two rotten aliens coming to a planet near you.

Varrato, Tony. Fakie. 2008. Lobster Press, $7.97 (978-1-897073-79-7).
New town, new identity, same danger.

Varrato, Tony. Outrage. 2008. HIP Edge, $10.95 (978-1-897039-28-1).
Bad days sometimes just get worse.

Weaver, Will. Saturday Night Dirt. 2007. Farrar, Straus Giroux, $14.95 (978-0-374-35060-4).
One night can make a difference at the speedway.

Nonfiction

Abel, Jessica, and Soria, Gabriel. Life Sucks. 2008. First Second, $19.95 (978-1-59643-107-2).
Vegetarian vampire looks for love.

Badillo, Steve and Werner, Doug. Skateboarding: Legendary Tricks. 2008. Tracks Publishing, $12.95 (978-1884654305).
Skateboarding, trick by trick.

Black, Holly and Naifeh, Ted (Illus.). Good Neighbors: Kin. Scholastic, $16.99 (978-0439855624).
Problem parents and faeries.

Boos, Ben. Swords: An Artist’s Devotion. 2008. Candlewick, $24.99 (978-0763631428).
Amazing blades.

Bower, Crai S. and Millard, Travis (illus). Farts: A Spotter’s Guide. 2008. Chronicle, $12.95 (978-0811866095).
SBD’s and more: full sound effects.

Bowman, Robin (photographer). It’s Complicated: The American Teenager. 2007. Umbrage Editions, $40.00 (978-1884167690).
414 intriguing portraits.

Carey, Percy and Wimberly, Ronald (Illus.). Sentences: The Life of M.F. Grimm. 2007. Vertigo, $19.99 (978-1-4-12-1046-5).
Sesame Street to drug dealer to rap star.

Comickers Magazine. Comickers Art 2: Create Amazing Manga Characters. 2008. HarperCollins, $24.95 (978-0061452543).
Essential guide for all aspiring manga artists.

Conley, Erin Elisabeth. Uncool: A Girl’s Guide to Misfitting In. 2008. Orange Avenue Publishing, $9.95 (978-0-977-2660-9-8).
When fitting in isn’t what you want.

D’Arcy, Sean. Freestyle Soccer Tricks. 2008. Firefly, $14.95 (978-1554074044).
Bend it like Beckham and then some.

Ecclesine, Patrick. Faces of Sunset Boulevard. Santa Monica Press, $39.95 (978-1595800404).
LA comes alive.

Editors of Cosmogirl. All the Questions About Hair, Makeup, Skin & More. 2008. Hearst Books, $5.95 (978-1-58816-644-9).
Your beauty questions answered.

Eminem. The Way I Am. 2008. Dutton, $40.00 (978-0525950325).
In his own words.

Fardon, John. Do Not Open: An Encyclopedia of the World's Best-Kept Secrets. 2007. DK, $24.99 (0-7566-33205-6).
South Park meets World Book.

Franco, Betsy (Ed.) Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers. 2008. Candlewick Press, $15.99 (978-0-7636-3437-7).
Love in their words.

Franzini, Michael. One Hundred Young Americans. 2007. Harper Collins, $29.95 (978-0-06119200-5).
Photos and true stories, state by state.

Fulbeck, Kip. Permanence. 2008. Chronicle Books, $19.95 (978-0-8118-6131-1).
Behind every tattoo there’s a story..

Garza, Mario. More Stuff on My Cat: 2x the Stuff +2x the Cats =4x the Awesome. 2008. Chronicle, $12.95 (978-0811862257).
Feline hijinks.

Greenberg, Steve. Gadget Nation: A Journey Through the Eccentric World of Invention. 2008. Sterling, $19.95 (140273686X). Quirky innovations and inventions.

Haden, Christen. Creepy Cute Crochet: Zombies, Ninjas, Robots, and More! 2008. Quirk, $14.95 (978-1594742323).
Make your own zombie.

Hague, Michael. In the Small. 2008. Little Brown, $19.99 (978-0-316-01323-4).
When predator becomes prey.

Harrison, Ian. Take Me to Your Leader: Weird, Strange, and Totally Useless Information. 2007. DK, $25.00 (0-7566-3202-1).
Trivia and pop culture, strange but true.

Horowitz, Anthony and Johnston, Antony. Point Blank: The Graphic Novel. 2008. Philomel, $14.99 (978-0-399-25026-2).
Alex Rider in full color.

Hudson, Noel. The Band Name Book. 2008. Boston Mills Press, $29.95 (978-1-55046-487-0).
The good, the bad, and the shocking.

Khidekel, Marina. The Quiz Life. 2008. Delacorte Press, $6.99 (978-0-375-84263-4).
The real you, revealed.

Kibuishi, Kazu. Flight: Vol. 4. 2007. Villard, $24.95 (978-0-345-49040-7).
Short stories go graphic.

King, Dennis. Art of Modern Rock: Mini #1: A-Z. 2007. Chronicle, $18.95 (978-08118-634-2).
Posters that rock.

Kuklin, Susan. No Choirboy: Murder, Violence and Teenagers on Death Row. 2008. Henry Holt, $17.95 (978-0805079500).
Teen inmates: raw and uncensored.

Li, Yishan. 500 Manga Creatures. 2008. HarperCollins, $19.95 (978-4921205072).
Chibis, dragons and manga mania!

The Manga University Culinary Institute and Hattori, Chihiro. The Manga Cookbook. 2007. Japanime Co. Ltd., $14.95 (978-4921205072).
Japanese cooking, manga-style.

Ngo, Karen. Indognito. 2008. Little, Brown and Company, $0.00 (978-0-316-03550-7).
Doggies in costumes= irresistible.

O’Meara, Donna. Volcano: A Visual Guide. Firefly, $29.95, (978-1-55-407353-5).
Lava flowing around the world.

Paglen, Trevor. I Could Tell You But Then You Would Have to Be Destroyed By Me. Melville House, $22.95 (3933633328).
Military secrets revealed.

Peckham, Aaron. Mo’Urban Dictionary: Ridonkulous Street Slang Defined. 2007. Andrews McMeel Publishing, $12.99 (978-0-7407-6875-0).
Holla! A funky, fresh fularious book.

Powell, Ben. Skateboarding Skills: The Reader’s Guide. Firefly, $16.95 (978-1-55407-360-3).
All the moves, tricks and tips to get you skating.

Reber, Deborah. Chill: Stress-Reducing Techniques for a More Balanced, Peaceful You. 2008. Simon & Schuster, $9.99 (978-1-4169-5526-7).
Relax, take a deep breath…and chill.

Redd, Nancy Amanda. Body Drama. 2008. Penguin Group, $20.00 (978-1-592-40326-4).
Real girls, real bodies, real issues, real answers.

Saffel, Steve. Spider-Man, The Icon. 2007. Titan Books, $49.95 (978-1-845-76685-6).
A ginormous visual feast.

Sanchez, Reymundo and Rodriguez, Sonia. Lady Q: The Rise and Fall of a Latin Queen. 2008. Chicago Review Press, $24.95 (978-1556527227).
The titles says it all.

Scalin, Noah. Skulls. 2008. Lark, $14.95 (978-1600593758).
From bread slices to garbage bags.

Shapiro, Bill. Love Letters: 150 Letters You Were Never Meant to See. 2007. Crown Publishing Group, $22.50 (978-0-307-38264-1).
Voyeuristic valentines.

Smith, Larry and Fershleiser, Rachel. Not Quite What I Was Planning: Six Word Memoirs by Writers Famous and Obscure. 2008. Harper Perennial, $12.00 (978-0061374050).
Short quips summarizing life.

Smits, Kim and Maat, Matthijs. Custom Kicks. 2008. Laurence King Publisher, $19.95 (978-1-85669-542-8).
Sneak peek at cool sneaks.

Spears, Rick and BB, Chuck (Illus.). Black Metal, Vol. 1. 2007. Oni Press, $11.95 (978-1932664720). Death Metal misfits invade suburbia.

Steinberger, Major Aimee. Japan Ai: A Tall Girl's Adventures in Japan. 2007. Go! Media, $16.99 (978-1-933617-83-1).
The ultimate J-pop fan’s travel book.

Tanen, Sloan and Hagen, Stefan. Appetite for Detention. Bloomsbury, $14.99 (978-1599900759).
Move over peeps, these chicks are cute!

Willin, Melvyn. Ghosts: Caught on Film. 2007. David & Charles, $16.99 (0715327283).
Believe it or not.

Wilson, Daniel H. How to Build a Robot Army: Tips on Defending the Earth Against Alien Invaders. 2007. Bloomsbury Publishing, $13.95 (1-59691-281-2).
Robot allies are in your future.

Zinczeko, David. Eat This, Not That!. 2008. Rodale, $19.95 (978-1-59486-854-2).
Look at a pie chart in a whole new way.

2009 ALA's Best Books for Young Adults

2009-01-28T08:16:00.000-08:00

2009 Best Books for Young Adults

Fiction

Almond, David. The Savage. Candlewick. 2008. 978-0-7636-3932-7 $17.99
Blue Baker is writing a story about a wild savage living in the woods…at least he thinks it’s a story. When realities shift, the reader must discern what really happened.

Anderson, Laurie Halse. Chains. Simon & Schuster. 2008. 978-1-4169-0585-1 $16.99
Slaves Isabel and younger sister Ruthie are sold to harsh Loyalists at the beginning of the Revolutionary War. Isabel must decide to be loyal or spy for the American patriots.

Anderson, M.T. The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation: Vol. II: The Kingdom on the Waves. Candlewick. 2008. 978-0-7636-2950-2 $22.99 Having escaped from his captors, Octavian joins the Royal Ethiopian Regiment of the British Army in 1775 Boston when they promise freedom to any slave who fights the rebel forces.

Bartoletti, Susan Campbell. The Boy Who Dared. Scholastic. 2008. 978-0-439-68013-4 $16.99
Told through flashbacks, this is a fictionalized biography of German teenager Helmuth Hubener, who was imprisoned and executed in 1942 for openly resisting the Nazis.

Bell, Hilari. The Last Knight. HarperCollins. 2007. 978-0-06-082503-4 $16.99
An anachronistic knight errant takes a criminal as squire, mistakenly frees a woman charged with murdering her husband (brother to his father's liege), and becomes captive in her keep.

Benway, Robin. Audrey, Wait! Penguin/Razorbill. 2008. 978-1-59514-191-0 $16.99
Audrey's ex-boyfriend records a hit song about their breakup, and suddenly all eyes (and cameras) are on Audrey. Fans, Facebook, and tabloids - it's all too much for Audrey.

Blundell, Judy. What I Saw and How I Lied. Scholastic. 2008. 978-0-439-90346-2 $16.99
When Evie’s father returns from the war, she expects life to return to normal but a mysterious trip to Florida, secrets, deceptions, and a first forbidden love complicates things.

Booth, Coe. Kendra. Scholastic/Push. 2008. 978-0-439-92536-5 $16.99
Kendra is thrilled her mom, Renee, has completed her Ph.D. program—now they can finally be a real family. But is Renee excited for their future together, too?

Bradbury, Jennifer. Shift. Simon & Schuster/Atheneum. 2008. 978-1-4169-4732-5 $16.99
Chris and Win take a bicycle trip across America after graduation, but only one returns and that person is pressured to reveal what happened.

Brothers, Meagan. Debby Harry Sings in French. Henry Holt. 2008. 978-0-8050-8080-3 $16.95
After Johnny’s dad dies in a car accident and an unintentional drug overdose lands him in the hospital, he moves in with an uncle, gets a girlfriend, and starts to explore his interest in cross-dressing.

Bunce, Elizabeth. A Curse Dark as Gold. Scholastic. 2008. 978-0-439-89576-7 $17.99
When young Charlotte Miller takes over the family's woolen mill after her father's death, she is faced with unexpected debts, catastrophes, and a hidden curse that threatens her family's future.

Caletti, Deb. The Fortunes of Indigo Skye. Simon & Schuster. 2008. 978-1-1469-1007-7
$15.99
At 18, Indigo wants no more out of life than to be a waitress and give people food, until a customer gives her $2,500,000. Can she stand the changes?

Cashore, Kristin. Graceling. Harcourt. 2008. 978-0-15-206396-2 $17.00
Katsa was born with ability to kill men with her bare hands but can she find moral courage to stand up to evil rulers and fight for what is right?

Colfer, Eoin. Airman. Hyperion. 2008. 978-1-4231-0750-7 $17.99
Conor Broekhart spends his days dreaming of flying hot air balloons and inventing flying machines until murder and court intrigue sends him to prison and labor in the diamond mines.

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. Scholastic. 2008. 978-0-439-02348-1 $17.99
Katniss has been providing for her family since her father died, but is she strong enough to win the Hunger Games, a deadly competition that can have only one winner?

Conner, Leslie. Waiting for Normal. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-089088-9 $16.99
Left to live in an old trailer under the overhead train track with Mommers, Addie is the child that has to learn to take care of herself. She almost succeeds.

de la Pena, Matt. Mexican WhiteBoy. Delacorte. 2008. 978-0-385-73310-6 $15.00
Half white, half Mexican and 100% confused, Danny struggles with baseball, his absent father and first love while spending the summer with his familia in San Diego.

Doctorow, Cory. Little Brother. Tom Doherty. 2008. 978-0-7653-1985-2 $17.95
There's been another major terrorist attack and the Department of Homeland Security has clamped down big time. It's up to Marcus, computer geek, to save everyone from this police state.

Dowd, Siobhan. Bog Child. Random House/David Fickling Books. 2008. 978-0-385-75169-8
$16.99
When Fergus and his uncle find the body of a girl buried in the peat bog near their home, all sorts of troubles comes to light.

Dowd, Siobhan. The London Eye Mystery. David Fickling/Random House. 2008. 978-0-375-84976-3 $15.99
When their cousin Salim disappears into thin air during a ride on the London Eye ferris wheel, Ted and his sister Kat try to solve.

Fleischman, Sid. The Entertainer and the Dybbuk. HarperCollins. 2007. 978-0-06-134445-9 $16.99
The Great Freddie, a second-rate ventriloquist, is inhabited by the spirit of a 12-year-old Jewish boy killed in the Holocaust.

Fletcher, Christine. Ten Cents a Dance. Bloomsbury. 2008. 978-1-59990-164-0 $16.95
Ruby wants to support her family, but when her taxi dancing causes problems she could not have anticipated, it will take all of her strength to come out on top.

Gaiman, Neil. The Graveyard Book. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-053092-1 $17.99
This often chilling story describes the life of a boy growing up in a graveyard as he is looked after by ghosts and a mysterious guardian.

Gardner, Sally. The Red Necklace: A Story of the French Revolution. Penguin/Dial. 2008. 978-0-8037-3100-4 $16.99
During the French Revolution, Yann a 14-year-old magician's assistant, witnesses the death of his employer and the evil that ensues.

Geerling, Marjetta. Fancy White Trash. Penguin/Viking. 2008. 978-0-670-01082-0 $16.99
Abby Savage is determined not to be like her mother and sisters-each became pregnant as teens-but her only confidant is Cody who has his own sexual issues.

George, Jessica Day. Sun and Moon, Ice and Snow. Bloomsbury. 2008. 978-1-59990-109-1 $16.95
A woodcutter's daughter agrees to live with a great white bear after he promises her impoverished family fabulous wealth. When he disappears, she begins an arduous quest for him.

George, Madeleine. Looks. Viking. 2008. 978-0-670-06167-9 $16.99
Meghan, the invisible fat girl, and Aimee, overlooked and anorexic, form an uneasy alliance to get revenge on a mutual enemy.

Green, John. Paper Towns. Penguin/Dutton. 2008. 978-0-25-47818-8 $17.99
Quentin idolizes next door neighbor, Margo Roth Spiegelman. When she includes him in a wild night of revenge and then disappears, Q must follow the clues to find her.

Harmon, Michael. The Last Exit to Normal. Alfred A. Knopf. 2008. 978-0-375-94098-9 $18.99
To get him on the right track, Ben Campbell's dad and stepdad accompany him to Montana, where he encounters small town life, homophobia, an abused boy, and a special girl.

Hernandez, David. Suckerpunch. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-117330-1 $16.99
The guilt that Marcus feels because he couldn't keep his father from beating his brother Enrique compels him to go along when Enrique seeks answers - and maybe revenge.

Hijuelos, Oscar. Dark Dude. Simon & Schuster. 2008. 978-1-4169-4804-9 $16.99
Tired of taking abuse for being a light-skinned Cuban in his drug-infested Harlem neighborhood, Rico follows a friend to rural Wisconsin, where he struggles with his Latino identity.

Jenkins, A.M. Night Road. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-054604-5 $16.99
Eighteen-year-old Gordon, a heme or blood feeder, must learn the rules of his new life while on a road trip with Cole and Sandor.

Johnson, Maureen. Suite Scarlett. Scholastic/Point. 2008. 978-0-439-89927-7 $16.99
The keys to a hotel suite and the responsibility to care for the room and its occupant—the wealthy and eccentric Amy Amberson—turn Scarlett's summer into a major challenge.

Juby, Susan. Another Kind of Cowboy. HarperCollins. 2007. 978-0-06-076518-7 $16.99
When horse-crazy Alex finally gets a chance to switch from western pleasure to dressage, he feels more in tune with both his riding and his overall identity.

Katcher, Brian. Playing With Matches. Random House/Delacorte. 2008. 978-0-385-73544-5 $15.99
Leon Sanders is a loser until an extremely disfigured girl makes him feel special. Should he stay with her or be lured away by the girl of his dreams?

Kibuishi, Kazu. Amulet: Book 1: The Stone Keeper. Scholastic/Graphix. 2008. 978-0-439-84680-6 $21.99 Emily and her brother Navin descend into a dark and dangerous world below their great grandfather's mansion hoping to save their mother, who's been kidnapped by a large creature with tentacles.

Lanagan, Margo. Tender Morsels. Random House/Alfred A. Knopf. 2008.
978-0-375-84811-7 $16.99
Liga has suffered unspeakable assaults and creates a magic, safe haven for herself and her two daughters, but the real world intrudes and they cope with beauty mixed with brutality.

Lester, Julius. Guardian. HarperCollins/HarperTeen. 2008. 978-0-06-155890-0 $16.99
Ansel’s world set in the 1946 deep South disintegrates from the hatred and injustice consuming his family and community following a brutal murder and an innocent man being lynched.

Link, Kelly. Pretty Monsters. Viking. 2008. 978-0-670-01090-5 $19.99
From straight fantasy to magic realism to horror, this collection includes tales of magic libraries, wizards,and dead girls getting tattoos.

Lockhart, E. The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks. Hyperion. 2008.
978-0-7868-3818-9 $16.99
Frankie Landau-Banks has a chip on her shoulder and is determined to bring down the all-male Loyal Order of the Basset Hounds of Alabaster Preparatory Academy.

Marchetta, Melina. Jellicoe Road. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-143183-8 $17.99
Taylor Markham was abandoned by her mother when she was eleven and is finally ready to discover the reason why.

Marillier, Juliet. Cybele's Secret. Random House/Alfred A. Knopf. 2008. 978-0-375-83365-6
$16.99
Paula travels with her merchant father to Istanbul and discovers a world filled with eunuchs, pirates, dervishes, and an entrance into the Other Kingdom.

Mazer, Norma Fox. The Missing Girl. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-623777-0 $16.99
The five Herbert sisters find their innocent lives exploding in emotional turmoil when one of the sisters is abducted and held captive by a truly creepy child predator.

McMullan, Margaret. When I Crossed No-Bob. Houghton Mifflin. 2007. 978-0-618-71715-6 $16.00
Twelve-year-old Addy McDonnell struggles to come to terms with her family's unpleasant legacy and the events happening around her in post-Civil War Mississippi.

McNamee, Graham. Bonechiller. Wendy Lamb/Random House. 2008. 978-0-385-74658-8 $15.99
An ancient demon, intent on satisfying its hunger for human flesh, stalks Danny and his three friends in the brutal cold of backwoods Canada.

Meldrum, Christina. Madapple. Random House Children's Books / Alfred A. Knopf. 2008. 978-0-375-95176-3 $16.99
After growing up in almost total isolation believing she is was immaculately conceived, 15-year-old Aslaug's world begins to crumble when her mother dies.

Meyer, Stephenie. The Host. Little, Brown. 2008. 978-0-316-06804-8 $25.99
Set in a believable futuristic time when Earth and other worlds have been taken over by the "souls”, this is a story of love, betrayal and compassion.

Monninger, Joseph. Baby. Front Street/Boyd Mills Press. 2007. 978-1-59078-502-7 $16.95
Fifteen-year-old Baby leaves the middle-aged Potters, her last chance at foster care, to be with her old boyfriend while she figures out her own needs and wants.

Murphy, Pat. The Wild Girls. Viking/Penguin. 2007. 978-0-670-06226-3 $16.99
Twelve year old Joan hates her new life in California until she meets the Queen of the Foxes and becomes one of the Wild Girls.

Napoli, Donna Jo. Hush: An Irish Princess' Tale. Simon Pulse. 2007. 978-0-689-86176-5 $16.99
Melkorka, a 10th century Irish princess, must adapt to a harsh new life after she is stolen from her home by Russian slavers.

Ness, Patrick. The Knife of Never Letting Go. Chaos Walking. Book One. Candlewick. 2008. $18.99
Todd Hewitt is the last boy in a town of all men. In a town where everyone can hear each other’s thoughts what kind of secrets can be kept?

Padian, Maria. Brett McCarthy: Work in Progress. Alfred A. Knopf. 2008.
978-0-375-94675-2 $15.99
Eighth-grader Brett McCarthy--once good student and best-friend-to-Diane, now suspended and friendless--faces school and family troubles as she grapples with her redefined life.

Pearson, Mary E. The Adoration of Jenna Fox. Henry Holt. 2008. 978-0-8050-7668-4 $16.95
Jenna Fox wakes from a year-long coma. As her memory begins to return, she has more questions than answers about who she was, and who she is now.

Pratchett, Terry. Nation. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-143302-3 $17.89
Mau is caught in the tidal wave that destroyed his island and Daphne is the only survivor from her ship. Together on the devastated island they form a new Nation.

Reeve, Philip. Here Lies Arthur. Scholastic. 2008. 978-0-545-09334-1 $17.99
A fresh look at the Arthur legend told through the eyes of a young girl who pretends to be a boy to survive.

Reinhardt, Dana. How to Build a House. Random House/Wendy Lamb. 2008. 978-0-375-84453-9 $15.99
Devastated by her parent's divorce Harper Evans spends the summer with 11 other students building a house for a family in Tennessee and finds herself healing while making new friends.

Schmidt, Gary D. Trouble. Clarion. 2008. 978-0-618-92766-1 $16.00
Henry’s father said Trouble would not find this family. But it did one horrific night, setting off tensions in Blythbury-by-the-Sea. Maybe it had it been there always, just waiting.

Schumacher, Julie. Black Box. Random House / Delacorte. 2008. 978-0-385-73542-1 $15.99
Fourteen-year-old Elena struggles to hold steady ground and help her sister Dora, who has been admitted to a psychiatric ward after swallowing an entire bottle of antidepressants.

Scott, Elizabeth. Living Dead Girl. Simon and Schuster/Simon Pulse. 2008.
978-1-4169-6059-1 $16.99
Abducted at the age of ten, Alice has lived as a sex partner for Ray for 5 years until he informs her that she’s "too old" for his love.

Scott, Elizabeth. Stealing Heaven. HarperCollins. 2008. 978-0-06-112280-4 $16.99
Living by burglarizing expensive homes with her mother, Dani’s friendship with another girl stalls when it becomes clear she lives in the house they are planning to rob next.

Sheth, Kashmira. Keeping Corner. Hyperion. 2007. 978-0-7868-3859-2 $15.99
In India during World War I, twelve-year-old Leela's husband dies, and she is forced to shave her head and keep corner, staying inside her family's house for a year.

Shusterman, Neal. Antsy Does Time. Penguin/Dutton. 2008. 978-0-525-47825-6 $16.99
One simple act – offering dying classmate Gunnar Umlaut a month of his life – takes hold with the entire student body and turns Anthony “Antsy” Bonano’s life upside down.

Smith, Andrew. Ghost Medicine. Feiwel & Friends. 2008. 978-0-312-37557-7 $17.95
The summer that cowboy Troy Stotts turns 17, he and his two best friends band together to fight the trouble that surrounds them by creating a medicine all their own.

Smith, Roland. Elephant Run. Hyperion. 2007. 978-1-4231-0402-5 $15.99
Thirteen-year-old Nick is trapped on his father's teak plantation during the Japanese invasion of Burma during 1941 and must find a way to save his father as well as himself.

Stein, Garth. The Art of Racing in the Rain. Harper. 2008. 978-0-06-153793-6 $23.95
Puppy Enzo is chosen as racecar driver Denny's special friend and remains faithful as Denny marries, becomes a father, loses his wife, and has to fight to keep his daughter.

Tamaki, Mariko. Skim. House of Anansi Press / Groundwood Books. 2008. 978-0-88899-753-1 $18.95
Friendship, love, identity, and a general feeling of isolation in an all-girls private school contribute to Kim Cameron (Skim)'s growing depression.

Tharp, Tim. The Spectacular Now. Random House / Alfred A. Knopf. 2008. 978-0-375-95179-4 $16.99
Sutter Keely glides through his senior year’s final days soaked with heavy amounts of booze but his joy ride is detracted by love issues and an unclear future.

Valentine, Jenny. Me, the Missing, and the Dead. HarperCollins/HarperTeen. 2008. 978-0-06-085068-5 $16.99
Five years after his dad’s disappearance, Lucas senses that a dead woman is trying to communicate with him and he is driven to listen and respond.

Venkatraman, Padma. Climbing the Stairs. Penguin. 2008. 978-0-399-24746-0 $16.99
When Vidya’s father is seriously injured, her family moves from their progressive home to the household of her conservative relatives, where she must adjust to a new set of expectations.

Voorhees, Coert. The Brothers Torres. Hyperion. 2008. 978-1-4231-0304-2 $16.99
Frankie Torres (or Towers depending which side his heritage is viewed) narrates his coming-of-age story of falling for a girl as his idolized brother runs with a group of cholos.

Werlin, Nancy. Impossible. Penguin/Dial. 2008. 978-0-8037-3002-1 $17.99
Lucy, 17, discovers the women of her family have been cursed with madness unless they complete three impossible tasks. All have failed. Will Zach's help and her resolve save her?

Wood, Don. Into the Volcano. Scholastic. 2008. 978-0-439-72671-9 $18.99
Duffy and Sumo set off on an adventure into the belly of an ancient volcano without knowing exactly what they’re looking for. Their discoveries shock and then nearly kill them.

Woodson, Jacqueline. After Tupac and D Foster. G.P. Putnam’s Sons. 2008.
978-0-399-24654-8 $15.99
The friendship of three girls from very different families fills the emptiness of uncertainty as they struggle with Tupac Shakur's troubles as well as their own.

Zarr, Sara. Sweethearts. Little, Brown. 2008. 978-0-316-01455-7 $16.99
High school senior Jenna has successfully remade her life, but has to confront long-suppressed memories of a traumatic childhood when her only friend from childhood, Cameron, suddenly reappears.
Nonfiction

Aronson, Marc and Campbell, Patty. War Is...Soldiers, Survivors, and Storytellers Talk About War. Candlewick. 2008. 978-0-7636-3625-8 $17.99
A balanced collection of contemporary and historical writings including interviews, stories, memoirs, and a miliblog addresses the experience of enlisting, serving, and surviving war from a variety of perspectives.

Barry, Lynda. What It Is. Drawn and Quarterly. 2008. 978-1-897299-35-7 $24.95
Questions, images, story, comic illustrations and workbook pages guide and push readers to break down barriers, experiment and grow through writing or drawing.

Bowman, Robin. It's Complicated: The American Teenager. Umbrage Editions. 2007. 978-1-884167-69-0 $40.00 This random collection of black and white photographs of teenagers from across the country includes short testimonials about their lives.

Engle, Margarita. The Surrender Tree: Poems of Cuba's Struggle for Freedom. Henry Holt. 2008. 978-0-8050-8674-4 $16.95
Caves and hidden huts serve as secret hospitals for Rosa as she risks her life nursing the sick and wounded during three wars for Cuba’s independence from 1850-1899.

Fleischman, Sid. The Trouble Begins at 8: A Life of Mark Twain in the Wild, Wild West. HarperCollins. 2008. $18.99
Meet the young Samuel Clemens and the coast-to-coast experiences that molded America's most famed humorist and social commentator.

Kuklin, Susan. No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row. Henry Holt. 2008. 978-0-8050-7950-0 $17.95
Inmates sentenced to death as teenagers give firsthand accounts of life on Death Row and relatives of both victims and prisoners share their experiences in this collection of interviews.

Menzel, Peter and D’Aluisio, Faith. What the World Eats. Ten Speed Press. 2008. 978-1-58246-246-2 $22.99
This book examines the meals of 25 different families from all around the world using lush photographs and health statistics.

Nelson, Scott Reynolds. Ain't Nothing But a Man: My Quest to Find the Real John Henry. National Geographic Society. 2207. 978-1-4263-0000-4 $18.95
Historian Scott Reynolds Nelson chronicles his journeys, both on land and in historical records, to find the truth about the man behind the myth of "John Henry."

Parker, David L. Before Their Time: The World of Child Labor. Quantuck Lane Press. 2007.
978-0-618-23378-6 $35.00
Presented are portraits of the world’s children who labor under harsh and dangerous conditions in factories and on farms as miners, garbage pickers, sex workers and brick haulers.

Porcellino, John. Thoreau at Walden. Hyperion. 2008. 978-1-4231-0038-6 $16.99
Simply but beautifully illustrated, this adaptation of "Walden" introduces new readers to Thoreau's work while providing a fresh perspective for those already familiar with the text.

Shields, Charles J. I Am Scout: The Biography of Harper Lee. Henry Holt. 2008. 978-0-8050-8334-7 $18.95
Curious about Harper Lee, author of To Kill a Mockingbird? Finally her story is told; her childhood, success, seclusion and rejection of fame.

Weatherford, Carole Boston. Becoming Billie Holiday. Wordsong. 2008. 978-1-59078-507-2. $19.95

Wendel, Tim and Villegas, Jose Luis. Far From Home: Latino Baseball Players in America. National Geographic. 2008. 978-1-4262-0216-2 $28.00
The rich history of Latino baseball players is presented along with a feel of growing up in Latino communities passionate for the game.

Congratulations to the Printz winners

2009-01-28T08:11:00.001-08:00

2009 Award Winner

Jellicoe Road
by Melina Marchetta
published by HarperTeen, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers

2009 Printz Honor Books

The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing 2The Astonishing Life of Octavian Nothing, Traitor to the Nation, Volume II, The Kingdom on the Waves, by M.T. Anderson, published by Candlewick Press.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks by E. Lockhart, published by Disney-Hyperion, an imprint of Disney Book Group.

Nation by Terry Pratchett, published by HarperCollins Children’s Books, a division of HarperCollins Publishers.

Tender Morsels by Margo Lanagan, published by Alfred A. Knopf, an imprint of Random House Children’s Books, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

Post-Dating the Printz

2009-01-22T12:46:00.000-08:00

With the announcement of the 2009 Michael L. Printz Award only days away, and there is lots of fun speculation all over the kidlitosphere over which of the fantastic 2008 titles might win the prize.

But I've been thinking about great YA novels of the past, published before the establishment of the award. The Printz was first awarded in 2000 (Monster by Walter Dean Myers was that first recipient) but--contrary to what some people seem to believe, YA literature has been around long long before then. The American Library Association's Best Books for Young Adult committee has been around since 1966, compiling annual lists of the finest YA books.

So I thought it might be fun to play around with the idea of books that we think ought to have gotten the Printz--if the Printz had been around when they were published. Here are a couple of my nominations:

The Grounding of Group Six by Julian F. Thompson, 1983: Five high school students discover that their parents have sent them away to boarding school not for an education but to be murdered. Fun!

Owl in Love by Patrice Kindl, 1995: Were-creatures in YA are more common now, but this story of a wereowl remains highly original.

Squashed by Joan Bauer, 1992: Best book about a girl growing a giant pumpkin you'll ever read.

The Right Hand Man by K. M. Peyton, 1977: This might be one of those "What the heck?" titles, but it's wonderfully vigorous historical fiction.

And oh so many more, obvious titles come to mind like Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden, Ironman by Chris Crutcher, So Much to Tell You by John Marsden, The Chocolate War (natch) by Robert Cormier and some less obvious.

But what are yours? If you could go back in time and hand out Printz awards to pre-1999 titles, which would you pick?

Melissa W.

Reader's Choice Best YAs of 2008

2009-01-07T08:11:00.000-08:00

Which young adult novels did you think were the best of 2008?

Feel free to include overlooked, understocked, and misunderstood favorites.

Some of my favorites this year include:

THE ADORATION OF JENNA FOX by Mary Pearson
IMPOSSIBLE by Nancy Werlin
GRACELING by Kristen Cashore
THE SPECTACULAR NOW by Tim Tharp

What were your favorites?

Mar

13 Questions with Marlene Perez

2008-10-17T10:33:00.000-07:00

Marlene Perez is the author of DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK. She lives in Orange County, California, where she's always on the lookout for vampires roaming her sunny suburb. So far, she hasn't spotted any. www.marleneperez.com

1) what's your book about?
DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK is the first book in a trilogy.

2) favorite Halloween candy?
mini mint Three Musketeers bars or those mellocreme pumpkins.

3) favorite spooky novel?
LOST BOY LOST GIRL by Peter Straub creeped me out. But my childhood favorite was WOLVES OF WILLOUGHBY CHASE by Joan Aiken.

4) fangs or fur?
Fangs. Vamps rule and werewolves drool.

5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
It's a tie. I love The Time Warp, but Thriller has Vincent Price doing a voice-over.

6) cape or no cape?
cape. I'm old-school.

7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
Gary Oldman! I know Bela Lugosi is the premiere vamp, but Gary Oldman rocked the house as Sid Vicious, Dracula and Sirius Black.

8) Trick or Treat?
treat.

9) favorite costume?
Hmm. On me or someone else? My best friend and I (our names both start with M) once dressed up as M&M candies. Not very scary, but fun.

10) favorite scary movie or television show?
SCARY MOVIE: THE LOST BOYS
TELEVISION SHOW: Buffy, of course

11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
Lots of things. I'm a wimp. Spiders, heights, people who don't vote.

12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
The people in our neighborhood all hang out together, then a group of parents & kids go trick-or-treating. I stay home and hand out candy. Then after the kids have gorged themselves on chocolate and have crashed, my husband and I watch a movie.

13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
When I was growing up, I lived in an old farmhouse that was haunted.

13 Questions with A.M. Jenkins

2008-10-17T08:01:00.001-07:00

Bio: A.M. Jenkins likes Halloween best out of all the holidays. It
requires little work, and the payoff is tons of chocolate.

1) what's your book about?
I've got three out right now that deal with the supernatural:

Night Road ("vampires" take a newbie on a road trip).
Repossessed (demon takes over a teenager's body).
Beating Heart (dead girl stalks living guy).

2) favorite Halloween candy?
Right now, Milky Ways.

3) favorite spooky novel?
For spooky, I like true crime. Nothing says scary to me like serial killers.

4) fangs or fur?
Me personally, I'd be a werewolf. But if I had to choose a romantic
partner, I'd choose a vampire just to be on the safe side. I'm not sure
how much body hair werewolves have normally.

5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
Werewolves of London!

6) cape or no cape?
No cape, not nowadays. That's just freakin' weird.

7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
Louis Jourdan!

8) Trick or Treat?
Treat (see above, #2)

9) favorite costume?
Anything with fake gore. The gorier the better.

10) favorite scary movie or television show?
Scariest movie ever: The Changeling, with George C. Scott.

11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
City ordinances about not wearing saggy pants. I lie awake nights,
terrified that my tax dollars are being used to nag somebody about their
pants.

12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
Handing out stuff that's not candy, like glow-in-the-dark eyeballs,
while I eat the candy I bought to give out.

13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Having to give a keynote dinner speech to 400 sleepy, full-bellied
librarians.

13 Questions with Kristopher Reisz

2008-10-15T13:37:00.000-07:00

Find out more about Kristopher Reisz at http://www.kristopherreisz.com

what's your book about?
Unleashed is a werewolf love story set in the crumbling, beautiful city of Birmingham. It's got lies, truth, a mushroom god, and as much merry hell as I could fit into 300 pages.

favorite Halloween candy?
Anything shaped like an eyeball.

favorite spooky novel?
I read Nick Mamatas' Move Under Ground earlier this year. It has Jack Kerouac fighting Cthulhu. If the sheer bad-assery of that idea didn't just knock you out of your chair and hurl you into the wall, my heart weeps for you.

4) fangs or fur?
Dainty little blood-sipping fangs or inch-long, bone-crusher, meat-ripper fangs? I've always preferred werewolves over vampires. How anybody can respect a monster that cleans under his fingernails is beyond me.

5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
I'll be difficult and pick Werewolves of London.

cape or no cape?
Cape does not allow wearer to fly.

7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
Is this a real question? Gary Oldman is a good actor and probably a very nice guy. Bela Lugosi is a legend. It's like comparing apples to Jesus. The Jesus of creepy.

8) Trick or Treat?
Or? Who says there has to be an 'or'?

9) favorite costume?
Once I dressed up like a barrel of toxic waste. That costume got extra points for being environmentally savvy AND having lots of room for candy storage.

10) favorite scary movie or television show?
The Real World

what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
Heights. All my nightmares are about falling. Or different body parts turning into Jell-O. But my answer's still heights.

12) what's your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
Looking out for house-rollers and egg-throwers. Keeping watch over the night makes me feel a little like Batman.

what's the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Once I was visiting Glasgow, fell down some stairs, and got a concussion. I left the hospital with four stitches in the back of my head and no idea where I was. I spent the night trying to find my hotel, but I kept blacking out, then realizing I'd walked God-knows-how-many blocks without remembering.

I wound up at a police station, but don't know how. The police dropped me back off at the hospital, who just sent me out again. It was a long, ugly n

13 Questions with Cynthia Leitich Smith

2008-10-15T08:21:00.000-07:00

Cynthia Leitich Smith is the author of the YA Gothic fantasy novel
Tantalize (Candlewick, 2007, 2008) and "Haunted Love," which appears in
Immortal: Love Stories with Bite, edited by P.C. Cast (BenBella,
2008)(exclusive to Borders/Waldenbooks).
Visit: http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/

1) what's your book about?
Tantalize is the story of Quincie P. Morris, who's trying to help save
her family's Italian restaurant by launching it with a vampire theme.
But just before the debut party, the chef is brutally murdered, and the
question lingers--is the murderer a vampire in wolf form or the hybrid
werewolf who's also Quincie's first love and best friend. Tantalize is
the first of three companion books, including Eternal (Candlewick, 2009)
and Blessed (Candlewick, TBA) in an overarching storyline, all from
Candlewick Press. Here's also a graphic novel adaptation in the works.

2) favorite Halloween candy?
Mini Snickers.

3) favorite spooky novel?
Blood and Chocolate by Annette Curtis Klause.

4) fangs or fur?

Both.

5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
Thriller.

6) cape or no cape?
Cape.

7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
George Hamilton.

8) Trick or Treat?
Treat!

9) favorite costume?
Vampire.

10) favorite scary movie or television show?
Classic: "The Lost Boys" (1987)
Contemporary: "The Faculty" (1998)

11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)
Heights, germs, enclosed spaces, children under 3, lettuce.

12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?
Watching spooky movies with my very cute husband--having already had a
party for my pals the weekend before.

13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?
Farrah hair.

13 Questions with Annette Curtis Klause

2008-10-13T17:48:00.000-07:00

Bio:

Annette Curtis Klause was born in England and came to the U.S. as a teenager bringing her warped imagination with her. She has published four novels and several short stories in an attempt to rid herself of her demons. Apparently it's not working, so she'll just have to keep on writing.

Web Site:
http://www.childrensbookguild.org/klause.htm

1) what's your book about?
I'm working on two novels right now, but none are close enough to print for me to talk about--but be prepared for more weird romance and some very strange sisters. I do have a short story in an anthology coming out from Candlewick next year. The collection is called Sideshow: Ten Original Tales of Freaks, Illusionists, and Other Matters Odd and Magical. My story is "The Mummy's Daughter". and if you have read my book Freaks, Alive, on the Inside! you'll guess who she's related to.

2) favorite Halloween candy?
Skull Pops

3) favorite spooky novel?
Ghost Story by Peter Straub or Waking the Moon by Elizabeth Hand. I'd say anything by H.P. Lovecraft, except he wrote short stories mostly.

4) fangs or fur?
Fur

5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?
Time Warp

6) cape or no cape?
It depends what's under it.

7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?
Geez--how can a girl choose?

8) Trick or Treat?
Trick

9) favorite costume?
My Bat Fairy costume I made from an old pink bridesmaid dress and lots of black felt.

10) favorite scary movie or television show?
Suspiria directed by Dario Argento and released in 1977.

A newcomer to a fancy ballet academy gradually comes to realize that the staff of the school are actually a coven of witches bent on chaos and destruction
It's totally surreal and visually disorienting with some great shocks. The psychedelic soundtrack is amazing and the incredibly tacky wallpaper in the spooky old school is one of the scariest parts of the movie. LOL

11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)

Wow! So much scares me. I am a total coward. That's why I write books, so I can be vicariously brave. I think what scares me the most right now is a certain candidate for Vice President. Spiders I'm cool with, though.

12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?

Well, if I can't go to a rip roaring costume party with a loud punk band, then I like to be dressed as a ghoul, standing by my front door, next to the Victorian Child's coffin I bought on eBay, holding a witches cauldron full of candy in my arms, a skeletal hand emerging from the pot. I whip open the the front door growling as soon as someone knocks and I count how many children fall backwards off my steps. Yah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha!

13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?

In college, one of my overly-trusting house mates made friends with a guy who turned out to be nuts. We didn't want him visiting the house because he was creepy and violent. I remember one night after he had taken irrational offense at something someone at the house had said. He came to the house and stood on the street outside, screaming that he was going to kill us. We didn't know if he had a weapon or not, so we locked the doors and crouched by the windows peering out, hoping he wouldn't find a way in. He wouldn't leave and kept on screaming threats and finally someone called the police. It was like being in a mad slasher movie.

13 Questions with Kimberly Pauley

2008-10-13T07:31:00.000-07:00

Kimberly Pauley loves a good book you can sink your teeth into. She majored in English at the University of Florida and took as many classes in adolescent fiction (and science fiction) as she could find. As her alter-ego, the Young Adult Books Goddess of YA Books Central (yabookscentral.com), she has been reading and reviewing books since 1998 and meeting tons of great authors. Sucks to Be Me is her first novel, though she has published various poems and short stories over the years that she will even periodically admit to. She now lives in Illinois outside of Chicago with a husband who loves her even though he hasn’t read a young adult book since he was about twelve and can’t quite comprehend what the whole fuss is about, a brand-new baby boy already completely surrounded by children’s books, and a devious cat who looks a lot like a tub of lard.

Website Address: www.kimberlypauley.com

1) what's your book about?

Mina is a high school junior who has a pretty normal life, other than that her parents are vampires. When the local vampire Council discovers her existence, they give her a month to decide whether or not she wants to be one too. And they make her take vampire lessons to help her in her decision. Add in normal teenage girl stuff like drama over boys and stress over prom, and you've got Mina in the middle of a crisis. What's a girl to do, when blood is the last thing on her mind?

2) favorite Halloween candy?

Those really horrible peanut-buttery-ish (and I say "ish" 'cause they really aren't all that peanut buttery) candies in orange or black wrappers. Do they still make those?

3) favorite spooky novel?

Coraline by Neil Gaiman. Hands down. Love it.

4) fangs or fur?

Fangs!

5) Monster Mash, Thriller, or The Time Warp?

The Time Warp, definitely. I actually own the soundtrack...and the movie.

6) cape or no cape?

Um...no cape...Didn't you see The Incredibles? Capes can kill you.

7) Bela Lugosi or Gary Oldman?

Bela Lugosi.

8) Trick or Treat?

Treat, definitely (I have a total sweet tooth)

9) favorite costume?

I have this kind of combo vampire / devil costume that I've worn at Halloween a couple of times (I got the horns at a Renaissance Festival). I have a picture of myself in it, but I was about 4 1/2 or 5 months pregnant at the time, so I am SOOOOOO not going to show that one to anyone.

10) favorite scary movie or television show?

Scary? Um...I'm not a big scary movie / tv show person, really. But I guess I could say Clive Barker's Hellraiser, but ONLY because a) I love Clive Barker because he is awesome (I interviewed him once and he's just so cool) and b) the movie is partly responsible for me meeting my husband Tony.

11) what really scares you? (like spiders or the dark or whatever)

Stupid people.

12) what’s your favorite way to spend Halloween night?

Passing out candy.

13) what’s the scariest thing that ever happened to you?

When I was about 13 or 14, I thought I saw a ghost in the middle of the woods at night (of course, you might be asking 'what the heck were you doing out in the middle of the woods at night??' and you'd have a very good question there).

2008-10-12T18:59:00.000-07:00

Teen Read Week Books with Bite

Celebrate Teen Read Week at the YA Authors Cafe

Our guests will be:

Monday, October 13- Kimberly Pauley, author of SUCKS TO BE ME
Tuesday, October 14-Annette Curtis Klause, author of BLOOD AND CHOCOLATE and FREAKS
Wednesday, October 15-Cynthia Leitich Smith, author of TANTALIZE
Thursday, October 16, Kristopher Reisz, author of UNLEASHED
Friday, October 17, A.M. Jenkins, author of NIGHT ROAD
Saturday, October 18, Marlene Perez, author of DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK

DEAD IS THE NEW BLACK by Marlene Perez

2008-09-01T09:16:00.000-07:00

It's here! It's here!

The first installment of Marlene Perez's hilarious and mysterious new trilogy debuts today! See what readers and reviewers are saying . . .

Teri Lesesne, YA goddess librarian says:
"Humor, romance, and the undead: a perfect combination of elements . . . "

The Hip Librarian's Book Blog:
"Strong female characters abound . . . "

Enchanting Reviews:
"If you're looking for a fun paranormal series, this is the one."

AND, it's a Seventeen Magazine Summer Buzz Book!
". . . a supernatural mystery featuring a new batch of characters that walk that Twilight fine line between hot and, well, undead."

And now, what do YOU say? Open up your coffins! Throw some confetti! Show off your fangs for Marlene! DEAD IS SO . . . worth it!

Alive and Well in Prague, New York by Daphne Grab

2008-07-22T18:47:00.000-07:00

Matisse Osgood is a New York City girl through and through. She buys her clothes at Andy's Cheapies, watches indie films at the Angelika, and wouldn't be caught dead on a hayride. But when her father gets sick and Matisse's parents decide to leave Manhattan for a small town in upstate New York, her perfect world crumbles. As Matisse trudges through life in Prague, she dreams of waking up in her apartment on West 78th Street with a father who's well enough to walk with her in Central Park and a mother who doesn't pretend that everything is okay. When rumors surround Matisse at school and her father's symptoms worsen, Matisse realizes that the friends she's making in Prague are the kind you can count on. They help Matisse find the strength to reach out to her father, who may not be as far from her as she thought. And one particular farm boy shows Matisse that country living is a lot more magical than she ever imagined.

Daphne Grab grew up in upstate New York, so she knows whereof she writes! She holds a MFA in creative writing and is a member of the Longstockings group. We're delighted Daphne has dropped by the Cafe this week.

Melissa W: Tell us about your newest book

Daphne: ALIVE AND WELL IN PRAGUE, NEW YORK is about a girl whose dad has Parkinson’s Disease. The family is in denial as his symptoms are worsening and they’ve just moved from NYC to a small town so Matisse is taking on a whole new social scene in addition to trying to come to terms with her dad’s illness. There are boys and evil cheerleaders involved as well.

Melissa W: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Daphne: Ironically my favorite scene had to be cut from the book. It was when I was in my last round of edits and my lovely editor Jill Santopolo pointed out that I had too many flashbacks in the first two chapters. This scene was the one that was the easiest to cut and I knew it was the right thing to do, even though it was painful to press delete. But I was unable to let it go completely and it’s posted on my website. You can read it here.

Melissa W: Argh! The proverbial killing of the darlings! I feel for you. What are you working on now?

Daphne: My second book will be out spring 2010 and it’s about Louis, a 12 year old boy who is a bit of a misfit in school and a huge football fan. At the start of the story he learns that the baby his mom gave up for adoption 21 years ago is the best college football player in the country and he wants to come meet his biological family. The story is all the ways Louis’s life changes and he grows as his brother enters his life, and it includes bullies, girls and some pretty tough choices. My editor and I are just getting started working on it together so that is exciting (and a lot of work!).

Melissa W: What's on your nightstand right now?

Daphne: TOP 8 by Kate Finn. I was lucky enough to get an ARC and it is so good!

Melissa W: What were you like as a teen?

Daphne: Pretty insecure. I was obsessed with staying part of the cool crowd at my high school and spent way more time than I should have worrying about what people thought of me. It was really fun to write Matisse because she is so confident and could care less how people judge her.

Thanks so much for having me at the café!

Melissa W: Our pleasure!

Stealing Heaven by Elizabeth Scott

2008-06-25T05:59:00.000-07:00

Dani has been trained as a thief by the best--her mother. Together, they move from town to town, targeting wealthy homes and making a living by stealing antique silver. They never stay in one place long enough to make real connections, real friends--a real life
In the beach town of Heaven, though, everything changes. For the first time, Dani starts to feel at home. She's making friends and has even met a guy. But these people can never know the real Dani--because of who she is. When it turns out that her new friend lives in the house they've targeted for their next job and the cute guy is a cop, Dani must question where her loyalties lie: with the life she's always known--or the one she's always wanted.

Elizabeth Scott is the author of such popular and acclaimed books as Bloom and Perfect You and coming this fall, Living Dead Girl. As you can see, she's a busy girl and we're happy she took a moment to join us at the Cafe!

Melissa W: Tell us about your newest book, and what was your inspiration for this story?

Elizabeth: Stealing Heaven is about a girl named Danielle, who travels around the country with her mother, robbing houses. They focus on stealing antique silver. (For real!) But when they travel to a small coastal town, Danielle starts to really question what she and her mother do, and tries to decide what kind of life she wants.I got the idea for the story because I wanted to write a book about a mother/daughter thief team, and I wanted the daughter to *not* want to be a thief. The only problem was, what could they steal? I didn't want them robbing banks or anything like that, and after reading an article about someone who'd tried to steal antique silver, I thought "huh." It was just such an unusual thing to steal, and the more I thought about it, the more it felt like it was the right thing for my two thieves to chase after.

Melissa W: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Elizabeth: I do, and they are! (A rare thing, that!)

Melissa W: It sure is! What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Elizabeth: I did a lot of research--I read about antique silver, of course, but I also read about thieves, and lock-picking, disabling alarm systems (they really have books about that), police work--all kinds of stuff, really.

Melissa W: So if you ever need a part time job, you'll have something to fall back on! What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Elizabeth: Revising. I have to do a lot of it, and there are times when I'm rewriting a story for the third (or fourth. or fifth.) time when I start to get pretty tired of it. It's one of the many reasons why I don't read anything I've written once it's published.

Melissa W: I'm with you on the revising! How did you become a writer?

Elizabeth: Totally by accident! I was 27, bored out of my mind at work, and decided to try writing a short story. I ended up finding a bunch of people who were willing to read it, and were very supportive, and from there I just kept going.

Melissa W: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

Elizabeth: If I could get paid to read books, I would do that in a second. Half a second, even!

Melissa W: What were you like as a teen?

Elizabeth: Completely and utterly average!

Melissa W: Well, you are far from an average writer. Thanks so much for visiting the Cafe this week!

The Comeback Season by Jennifer E. Smith

2008-03-12T09:58:00.000-07:00

When Ryan Walsh cuts class to visit Wrigley Field on the fifth anniversary of her father's death, she meets Nick, the new kid from her school, who seems to love the Cubs nearly as much as she does. But Nick carries with him a secret that makes Ryan wonder if anyone can ever really escape their past, or believe in the promise of those reassuring words: "Wait till next year." Is it too much for Ryan to hope that this year, this season, might be her comeback season?

Join us in congratulating Jennifer E. Smith on the publication of her warm and poignant debut novel.

Melissa W.: Tell us about your newest book.

Jennifer: It’s a love story about two kids who meet at a Cubs game, and the way they teach each other to hope, even when the odds are against them.

Melissa W.: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Jennifer: Yes, actually the whole first chapter is almost exactly the same. I’d been watching the Cubs lose for what seemed like the millionth time, and when I turned off the game, the movie Fever Pitch happened to be on another channel. I have nothing against the Red Sox, but I remember thinking that the Cubs have just as many curses and an even longer losing streak, and that their fans have done their fair share of suffering too. I went straight to my computer without knowing what I was going to write, but almost as soon as I sat down, the character of Ryan just kind of appeared in my head, sitting there on the train on her way to Wrigley Field, the way she does at the opening of the book. It only took me about an hour to write the first chapter, and it’s hardly changed at all. It was one of those really rare and lucky moments, when something comes so naturally that it almost seems like you’ve been carrying the story around forever, without even knowing it.

Melissa W.: It's a great feeling when that happens. What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Jennifer: I’ve been to a lot of Cubs games over the years. It was a very tedious research process!

Melissa W.: What was your inspiration for this story?

Jennifer: It’s a story about hope, but it’s also about loss. A lot of people can’t bear to read sad stories, but I’ve always been really drawn to them, because they move you in a way that makes them really meaningful. My favorite books growing up were always the ones with a lot of heart, books like Where the Red Fern Grows and Bridge to Terabithia – the kinds of stories where you really feel like you’ve really been through something by the time you reach the end. Those are the ones that have stayed with me through the years, and I think there’s something to be said for that. So I guess I took inspiration from a lot of different places, but mostly I just wanted to write the kind of book I’d like to read.

Melissa W.: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Jennifer: Finding the time to do it. I work in publishing too, so I spend a lot of time focusing on other people’s books. It’s something I love to do, but both writing and editing take a lot of creative energy, so it’s sometimes hard to balance the two. Overall, I think it’s a good thing – I think I’ve become a better writer because of the time I’ve spent editing books, and a better editor for being a writer. But it would be helpful if there were more hours in a day to do both!

Melissa W.: If you can work on that more hours thing, I know plenty of writers who would be grateful! What are you working on now?

Jennifer: Another YA novel called You Are Here, about a boy and a girl who come from different backgrounds and seem like opposites, but who get thrown together on a sort of haphazard road trip, and find out they’re more similar than they thought. It’ll be out from Simon & Schuster in Summer 2009.

Melissa W.: Sounds fantastic! I love a road trip story. What’s on your nightstand right now?

Jennifer: War and Peace (partly as decoration, partly as wishful thinking), Love in the Time of Cholera, Alice in Wonderland, and a somewhat chewed up copy of Beagles for Dummies (I have a three month old puppy who likes to eat books almost as much as I like to read them).

Melissa W.: Congratulations on your first novel, Jennifer and good luck with that puppy!

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Jennifer, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

Something to Blog About by Shana Norris

2008-02-27T06:44:00.000-08:00

Shana Norris is the author of SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT, which is about a fifteen-year-old girl, Libby, who starts a secret blog after she burns half her hair off thanks to a run-in with a Bunsen burner. She starts writing about her secrets and her friends' secrets, but then she gets into a bit of trouble when the blog is found out and posted all over her school. Please visit Shana at www.shananorris.com

Marlene Perez: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Shana Norris: I do remember writing them! I save all of my old drafts, so I still have the very first one I wrote.The first words have changed since then. They used to be "Really, who gets a pimple on the bottom of their earlobe?" This was the first sentence of the very first blog entry I wrote for Libby.

Marlene Perez: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Shana Norris: I know a lot of writers struggle with the first draft, but the hardest part for me is what comes after: revision. I usually write a first draft really quickly and don't worry too much about timelines or delving too deeply into subplots or consistency in names or personalities. During the first draft, I just want toget the main story down. So that means I have to do A LOT of cleaning up during revisions. I'm usually pulling out my hair while trying to make sense of my messy first draft!

Marlene Perez: What are you working on now?

Shana Norris: Right now, I'm working on my second book, which is a modern day retelling of a story from Greek mythology, set in high school. I don't want to say a lot about it right now since it's not done, but I'm really excited about it!

Marlene Perez: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

Shana Norris: I can recite all 50 United States in alphabetical order in less than 20 seconds. I was a bit odd as a kid and used to come up with things like that to challenge myself!

Marlene Perez: What is your favorite line, passage, or chapter from this book?

Shana Norris: There's a fight scene in the book. I won't spoil it for people who haven't read it yet, but that was my favorite scene to write. It's meant to be funny, so I really enjoyed writing it.

Marlene Perez: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Shana Norris: Developing the character of Seth, the love interest, was the hardest part for me. At first, he was a little too detached and mysterious, so I had to really work at him to make him into someone that Libby would be attracted to.

Marlene Perez:What's on your nightstand right now?

Shana Norris: Right now, I'm about to start on I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME by Lisa Schroeder and THE ASSASSIN KING by Elizabeth Haydon.

Marlene Perez: What are your hobbies?

Shana Norris: I like to knit, sew, and scrapbook. I also dabble a little into photography from time to time.

Marlene Perez: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Shana Norris: I have, several times. Before I wrote SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT, I wanted to be a fantasy writer. I wrote a huge fantasy trilogy and tried to get an agent for it. But all of my queries were rejected without any requests for partials or fulls, so I fell into a deep funk and considered giving up trying to be published all together. Even after I wrote SOMETHING TO BLOG ABOUT, I had moments of wanting to give up. I remember getting a rejection from an agent for STBA the same day that my dog died and that sent me into a three month period of not querying or writing at all. I think any creative field is a very hard career to get into because your work is so personal and rejections can feel like an attack on you as a person rather than just one person's opinion on this work in particular.

Marlene Perez: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

Shana Norris: An archaeologist. I've always loved history and I would love to go around digging up ancient cities!

I HEART YOU, YOU HAUNT ME by Lisa Schroeder

2008-01-23T08:27:00.000-08:00

Lisa Schroeder, a native Oregonian, received her bachelor's degree from Oregon State University. Her debut YA novel with Simon Pulse, I Heart You, You Haunt Me, is a novel-in-verse that gives new meaning to the words "undying love." She is also the author of the picture book Baby Can't Sleep (Sterling, 2005). Lisa, the officialdog-walker of the family, lives with her husband and two sons near Portland, Oregon. Visit her website at www.lisaschroederbooks.com for more information about her and her books

Please join me in welcoming Lisa to the Cafe.

MaryP: Tell us about I Heart You, You Haunt Me.

Lisa: It’s a novel-in-verse about a fifteen-year-old girl, Ava, whose boyfriend dies, and comes back to live in her house as a ghost. More than a ghost story, however, I believe it’s a story of love, loss, healing, and hope.

MaryP: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Lisa: I do remember writing the first words, because it was the morning after I had a dream about the characters. The first words initially were of Ava looking at her scribbles on a notebook from school, all of which included the words “Ava” and “Jackson” in one form or another.

That beginning is since gone, although the first words that are there now are ones I did write that first morning. During the revision process, I decided that although it was a sad place to start, starting the story at Jackson’s funeral made the most sense.

MaryP: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Lisa: It’s hard to pick, but one of my favorites is the following:

An excerpt from Beauty Everywhere

“The sun starts to set
and tangerine orange
turns to
cotton candy pink
and I wish
my man
Jackson was here
to give me some
cranberry red love.”

MaryP: What's on your nightstand right now?

Lisa: I received THE POSSIBILITY OF FIREFLIES by Dominque Paul for Christmas, and I’m enjoying that. Plus, being a member of the Class of 2k8 has its advantages, as I am currently reading an ARC of Debbie Reed Fischer’s BRALESS IN WONDERLAND, which is wonderful.

MaryP: What do you do to "unblock" writer's block?

Lisa: For me, writer’s block usually means I don’t have a clear idea of where the story is going. Or it may also be that I’ve chosen to go somewhere that isn’t working, and I need to backtrack and make some changes. I don’t do a detailed outline like some authors do, because so many wonderful things appear when I don’t have everything all planned out, but I do make notes on note cards about characters and plot. So, if I’m stuck, I pull out my notecards, look at what I already have, and write up some more and see if I can figure out what I’m missing to give myself more direction.

MaryP: Do you do other types of writing besides YA?

Lisa: I am one of those writers who likes to write whatever strikes a chord at the moment. My writing runs the full gamut – picture books, mid-grade novels, and YA. I have one picture book published – BABY CAN’T SLEEP, Sterling, 2005, and another one with Sterling under contract. Recently my agent and I have been trying to sell a mid-grade novel-in-verse, but we haven’t found the right editor. Yet.

MaryP: I am sure you will, Lisa! Thanks so much for joining us at the Cafe! We wish you much success with your new book!

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Lisa, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

The Opposite of Invisible by Liz Gallagher

2008-01-08T16:57:00.000-08:00

Liz Gallagher grew up in the suburbs of Philadelphia and was an English major at Penn State. She worked on the editorial staff of Highlights for Children. She is a graduate of the University of Denver Publishing Institute and the Vermont College MFA program in writing for children and young adults. Her home in Seattle is within chomping distance of the Fremont Troll. This novel is her first, and her dream come true. Visit her online at www.lizgallagher.com

MaryP: Tell us about The Opposite of Invisible.

Liz: Sure! It's a story about a fifteen-year-old girl, Alice, who has been in a comfy cocoon (metaphorically speaking!) with her best friend, Jewel, a boy she grew up with. He's an outsider-artist type of guy, so she has that same reputation around school. But she's getting itchy to break out of their cocoon. She wants a date for the Halloween dance that's coming up at school,and that is totally not the type of event Jewel would attend, except as a joke. So when things start happening with a popular boy she has a crush on, she steps onto a new road. And Jewel starts spending time with uber-artist Vanessa, who has a bit of a rivalry with Alice. They live in Seattle, and one of the parts I like about the book is how the rainy setting works; it helps to heighten both cozy moods and uncomfortable ones.

MaryP: What was your inspiration for this story?

Liz: When I needed a piece for my first workshop in Vermont College's MFA program, I wanted to write about Halloween. I must've been walking to my old job at a school when I passed this junk shop in my neighborhood, and they had a Halloween display in the window. I don't think there was actually a witch dress in the window, but I loved the idea of buying the perfect costume at a junk shop like that. And then came the characters of Alice and Jewel, who shop at places like that and spend a lot of time walking around their neighborhood -- which is my neighborhood! I knew that Alice's dress would end up being an important catalyst for change. The first draft of this story opened with, "It all started because of this dress."

MaryP: It came out in Italy before it did here. Can you tell us about that?

Liz: Sure. One of the things that my agent, Rosemary Stimola, works toward is selling foreign publisher rights. With the help of her subsidiary rights agent, that happened for me with RCS Libri in Italy. I still can't believe that my words have been translated into Italian! The original publication schedule called for OPPOSITE to come out both in Italy and here in the states during September, 2007. When the American schedule changed (to January, 2008), RCS Libri decided to keep theirs the same. So the book, in Italian, did come out first over there!

MaryP: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Liz: Without a doubt, it's sticking to a schedule and pushing the rest of my responsibilities out of my head!

MaryP: Oh boy, I think that's every writer's lament, including mine. How did you become a writer?

Liz: My kindergarten teacher encouraged me to write. I think that always stuck with me, and was reinforced by other teachers all the way through college. Still, knowing I wanted to work in the book world, I thought I'd be an editor. I didn't think I'd actually be a novelist until I decided to go to Vermont College's MFA program. In the program, with the help of the amazing faculty and of my classmates, I proved to myself that I can actually do it. I wrote THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE during the program, and started a few other things. Right before graduation, I signed on with my agent, Rosemary Stimola. And she talked to Wendy Lamb, and here we are!

MaryP: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Liz: Yes. The biggest struggle was how to take the character of Simon -- who is basically a popular jock -- out of the stereotype of a popular jock. For a lot of drafts, he was kind of mean and interested only in that proverbial One Thing. He was pretty flat as a character. I had to work hard to take him beyond that, and it was difficult. He went through lots of incarnations. He didn't just show up intact, like some of my characters do. In the end, though, I do think he is close to how I want him to be -- a kind, funny, interesting guy who just also happens to be popular at school and good at sports.

MaryP: What's on your nightstand right now?

Liz: My nightstand is home to my alarm clock and a pile of hair tie things that I pull out in my sleep. But I do have a BIG stack of books waiting to be read. The four on the top of the pile are advance reader's copies of books by some of my Class of 2k8 classmates! We're all first-time middle-grade or young adult novelists. I can't wait to read those books, and for the world to get to know these writers. Also near the top of the pile is Libba Bray's new one: THE SWEET FAR THING. So excited to read it, but sad for the trilogy to end. It was a door into the genre of not-quite-realistic fiction. I read magic-power books and vampire books as a kid, but not at all since then, until Libba's fabulous characters came around. The series also brought me back to historical fiction.

Thank you for the insights, Liz. We wish you and THE OPPOSITE OF INVISIBLE much success!

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Liz, post them in the comments. She'd love to hear from you!

A New Year of Great Books

2008-01-01T07:58:00.000-08:00

Happy New Year! Here's to 2008 and another year of great reading!

Do you have a YA book that will be out in 2008? Or is there one you are looking forward to? Let's hear it! Give us the title, the pub date, and to make it fun (and challenging!) a ONE liner to describe it.

Uninvited by Amanda Marrone

2007-10-31T09:03:00.000-07:00

Marlene P.: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Amanda Marrone: I do remember it. I was working on a middle grade and all of a sudden I got the idea for Uninvited. I opened a new file, and my fingers flew on the keyboard. Most of the first chapter is exactly the same as it was when I first wrote it. I get an idea and bang out a first chapter in a couple of hours. Then I take a month or so to figure out what happens next! The same thing happened with my second book, Revealers, due out next year. I wrote the first chapter, and then dwelled on it a bit to figure out what happens next.

Marlene P.: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Amanda Marrone: Opening the file everyday. I have Inattentive ADD and I get easily sidetracked—the Internet has been very bad for my writing. Luckily deadlines are a huge motivator—give me one and I can sit and write.

Marlene P.: What are you working on now?

Amanda Marrone: I just sent Revealers to my editor a few days ago—the first chapter is in the back of Uninvited. It’s about five teen witches who hunt vamps, werewolves, and demons as sort of a public service—but they discover their coven in hiding a secret worse than any of the creatures they hunt. Next up I’m revising a middle grade for my agent, while working on a new paranormal YA and a picture book!

Marlene P.: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Amanda Marrone: I researched vampire facts—I was always a vampire lover, but I wanted to dig deeper. I found some fun things I didn’t know—you can kill a vampire by immersing it in water, or hire a Bulgarian sorcerer to do it for you!

Marlene P.: How did you become a writer?

Amanda Marrone: I always wanted to be a writer, but I didn’t actually start until I was 29 years old! I have a screwy pencil grip and writing was always painful, and tedious. Once I learned keyboarding I was set. I started out with picture books—I wrote and illustrated two, got some nice personal rejections, and the third picture book turned into a novel. I fell in love with writing longer stories, and I always said I’d never go back, so this new picture book idea that just popped up was a surprise.

Marlene P.: What is your favorite line, passage, or chapter from this book?

Amanda Marrone: Probably the end of the first chapter—it shows how conflicted Jordan is about Michael.

But the leaves are falling and soon Michael will sit on bare branches. Moonlight will finally find its way to his face and I’ll see what I know is true: that Michael is a monster. I’m just afraid that one of these nights I might let him in.

Marlene P.: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Amanda Marrone: I struggled with chapter two! I avoided writing it for six months! That seems to be the way I work, but I’ve decided it’s because I need to think about where I’m going with a story after the first chapter was written in such a frenzy. I’m hoping to be a little speedier with my new YA and tackle chapter two in a more timely fashion!

Marlene P.:What’s on your nightstand right now?

Amanda Marrone: Jo Knowles’ Lesson from a Dead Girl. It’s a haunting story about abuse—beautifully written.

Marlene P.: What are your hobbies?

Amanda Marrone: I love to draw, read, study insects—I have hissing cockroaches, and I love to hike.

Marlene P.: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Amanda Marrone: I’ve never wanted to quit, but I have gotten discouraged in the past. Finding an editor seemed like such a needle in the haystack scenario—I actually only sent my story out to two editors I’d heard speak at conferences. Luckily, I got an agent and she took over with the matchmaking.

Marlene P.: What’s your favorite Halloween candy?

Amanda Marrone: Hershey’s special dark miniatures.

Marlene P.: What scares you?

Amanda Marrone: The basement after I’ve been watching something spooky like Supernatural, and mean girls.

Lessons From a Dead Girl by Jo Knowles

2007-10-24T08:55:00.000-07:00

Jo Knowles received her M.A. in children's literature from Simmons College. She was the 2002 recipient of the SCBWI Work-in-Progress Grant for a Young Adult Novel, and the 2005 winner of the PEN New England Children's Book Discovery Award. She lives in Vermont with her husband and son. Lessons From a Dead Girl is her first novel. Kirkus praises it saying, “Clearly and concisely written, Knowles's provoking exploration of children abusing children portrays the tense and finely crafted dynamics between the two girls. Lainey's character is extremely well-developed . . . . A razor-sharp examination of friendship, abuse and secrets.”

Please join us in welcoming her to the Café.

Mary: Tell us about Lessons from a Dead Girl. What was your inspiration for this story?
Jo: Lessons is a YA novel about an abusive friendship and one girl’s struggle to understand and forgive her friend, as well as herself. I got the idea from an article I read many years ago about kids abusing kids. I was working on a nonfiction piece about child abuse and the article just struck me in a really powerful way. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. I went home and started writing.

Mary: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?
Jo: I do remember! And I believe the words are the same: “Leah Greene is dead.” So much has changed since the writing of the first draft, but that opening scene, with Lainey waiting in her bedroom to hear the news she already knows, has survived.

Mary: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?
Jo: Well, the story itself was sparked by a news article, as I mentioned above. I then found several additional articles about kids abusing kids. But for the story, I did not do a lot of research. Lainey came right out of my heart. Her story was just there. Of course there were tons and tons of revisions and a lot of digging deeper, but she was always there with her story fully formed. Research confirmed the story but I don’t think it informed it very much.

Mary: What is the hardest part of writing for you?
Jo: Not giving up. I’m not the most self-confident person in the world and a lot of times I just think, Well, this stinks. You really should stop now and try something else. I have to force myself to get through the first draft, and sometimes even the second. I am so grateful for those moments when I’m writing and I just fall into the zone and see the story playing out in front of me. At those moments, I don’t hear my doubts, I only hear what’s happening in the scene I’m writing. If only every writing day could be like that!

Mary: Amen to that! What one question do you wish an interviewer would ask you but never has?
Jo: Can I treat you to dinner?

Mary: Well, heck, that’s an easy one. Let’s go! I know a great little Mexican place . . .

Tell us something about you that no one knows.
Jo: I’m still terrified of the dark and I still believe stuffed animals come to life when you leave the room.

Mary: Kind of like Chuckie, huh? A writer’s imagination can be very dangerous at times.

How did you become a writer?
Jo: You know, I’m not sure, really. I always liked writing poems and silly stories about my family and our pets when I was little. And when I was a teenager I wrote some really bad poetry about boys I loved and feeling all alone. When I started reading amazing books like The Chocolate War when I was in high school, I started thinking about the power of words. And then I think I was most inspired by my sister’s writing. She’d call me from her dorm room when she was in college and read me some of the short stories and things she was working on in class and I was just blown away. I think all my early writing in college reflects my sister’s style, which is funny because we went to the same school and had some of the same instructors. They never criticized me for it though. :-)

Mary: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?
Jo: I think my favorite chapter is when Laine goes to the park with Web and Jess, and she watches the two young girls playing among the trees. While it’s a really painful scene, it’s an important tipping point. Laine doesn’t fully see it yet, but that moment sparks the beginning of being able to leave her own childhood friendship behind and embracing her new friends who are there beside her.

Mary: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?
Jo: I think the hardest scene to write was the final confrontation between Laine and Leah. I can’t imagine how many times I rewrote that scene. Then I had this great phone conversation with Holly Black about it. And she said something, asked a question really, that made me face the parallel between Leah and Sam and Leah and Laine that I’d been hinting at all along, but hadn’t quite been able to put into words, exactly. Or else I guess I was just avoiding them. But after talking to Holly, I knew they had to be spoken aloud and acknowledged by both girls. I couldn’t just hope the reader figured it out. That was taking the safe way out. Leah and Laine had to speak them out loud to make it count. I think that made all the difference. Thanks Holly!

Mary: What's on your nightstand right now?
Jo: Some random pony-tail holders, one earring, a red wooden box that holds special memories, three framed photos of my son, an ugly lamp that really needs to be replaced, and several books:
The New Policeman
This Is What I Did
A Drowned Maiden’s Hair
The Plain Janes
The Princess and the Hound

Mary: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?
Jo: I volunteer at a women’s prison where I run a writing workshop, and I’m also teaching Writing For Children at Simmons College this semester in their MFA program. I absolutely LOVE running writing workshops. Oh shoot. Does that count as writing? Since it doesn’t involve me actually writing, I hope it’s OK.

Mary: What are you hobbies?
Jo: Oh my gosh, I don’t think I have any! Yikes. This is very sad. I tried to learn how to quilt but failed miserably. Ditto for knitting. I like to go on hikes but my son prefers to, in his words, “Observe nature though a window.” Can reading be a hobby? My favorite thing to do is sit on the deck with my son on a warm day and read to him for hours. We also play a lot of board games which I’m no good at. His latest obsession is Yu Gi Oh which I cannot for the life of me figure out the rules for.

Mary: Have you ever wanted to quit writing?
Jo: No, I don’t think so. I’ve thought of giving up on certain projects though, that’s for sure. I’ve learned that sometimes it really is important to let go of something that isn’t calling to you anymore, rather than try to force it. If it was meant to be, it will start whispering to you again.

Mary: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?
Jo: My son and I dream of opening a chocolate-dipped store, in which we sell all the treats we love dipped in chocolate.

Mary: What were you like as a teen?
Jo: I think I was fairly quiet. Very insecure. I wasn’t that popular but I did have friends and probably did many things that I wouldn’t want my own son doing when he reaches the teen years. I think that a lot of the things I did as a teen were a result of my insecurity (kind of like the partying Laine does, even when she’s not that into it).

Mary: Which books influenced you most when you were growing up?
Jo: Definitely Robert Cormier’s books, and J.D. Salinger’s. There was this one year in high school when we read all of these amazing books in my English class. The first day of school our teacher flipped through this hugely thick grammar book (see how I used bad grammar there?) and read the headings of each chapter, then quickly defined anything important we needed to know. Then he dumped the book in the wastebasket, went to the closet, and handed us worn-out paperback copies of The Chocolate War. We spent the whole year reading books like Catcher in the Rye, A Separate Peace, Lord of the Flies, etc. I became a true reader that year.

Mary: What do you do to "unblock" writer's block?
Jo: I ask my two writing partners to kick me. Seriously. They can be pretty tough. Usually they tell me to write 200 words. That’s all. And they tell me I can do it. I can almost feel them tapping their fingers as they wait. But it always works. I don’t think I get blocked so much as simultaneously really lazy and insecure. I’m lucky to have friends who believe in me and know that sometimes all I need is to be told I’m capable.

Mary: Do you do other types of writing besides YA?
Jo: I’m a freelance writer and do lots of nonfiction writing. But as far as fiction goes, so far I’ve stuck with YA.

Mary: Can you tell us what you are working on now?
Jo: I’m revising a new YA novel while I wait for notes from my editor on my second book that will be coming out with Candlewick probably in Spring ‘09, called Jumping Off Swings. The newer novel is a bit different from my first two, with a little more humor (I hope). I haven’t shared it with my editor yet, but hope to be able to soon.

Thanks for all the great questions, Mary! It was nice chatting with you. :-)

Mary: Thank you, Jo!

~~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Jo, post them in the comments. She'd love to hear from you! And don't forget to visit her website.

2007-10-17T05:23:00.000-07:00

Welcome Alex Flinn, author of the new young adult novel Beastly!

I am a beast.
A beast. Not quite wolf or bear, gorilla or dog but a horrible new creature who walks upright—a creature with fangs and claws and hair springing from every pore. I am a monster.
You think I'm talking fairy tales? No way. The place is New York City. The time is now. It's no deformity, no disease. And I'll stay this way forever—ruined—unless I can break the spell.

Alex Flinn, author of such acclaimed YA novels as Breathing Underwater and Fade to Black pens a new twist on the Beauty and the Beast fairy tale, set this time in contemporary New York City. Kirkus Reviews says ""Teens will race to see if the beast gets his kiss, lifts the curse, and lives happily ever after." We are pleased to welcome Alex to the Cafe!

Tell us about your newest book, Beastly.

It's a modern, urban BEAUTY AND THE BEAST. Kyle Kingsbury is a prince in his upper-crust New York prep school, handsome, athletic, and son of a network news anchor. He's also a jerk. He meets Kendra, a goth scholarship student at his school and plays a mean trick on her. She gets revenge by turning him into a beast. He has two years to find true love to transform him back. When MySpace doesn't work, he must try other means.

Fun fact: My mother wanted to name me Kendra.

What was your inspiration for this story?

Beauty and the Beast, of course. There were certain things that bothered me about it -- specifically that the Beast has no family. Where are the king and queen? Did they abandon him and move to the summer castle because of his beastliness? Also, it bothered me that in most versions of Beauty and the Beast (not the Disney version, I tell the kids at school visits -- the Disney people must have been bothered by it too), Beauty's father breaks into the Beast's garden to steal a flower. When the Beast catches him, he says he will kill him unless he lets the Beast have his daughter. While the father always goes, "No, no, I can't do that," a few days later, he's always there, giving his daughter over to a beast. This seems like highly irresponsible parenting to me! So I conceived of Beauty and the Beast as a story of two lost souls who found each other.

In general, I felt sorry for the Beast and wanted to tell his side of the story. I have always told stories in the "wrong viewpoint" and this was another. I really felt attuned with the character and couldn't stop thinking about him.

Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

No. The first words I wrote were, "I was not always as you see me, skulking in doorways and behind garbage dumpsters, searching for my one true love." The whole thing was very gothic, as I initially envisioned it. It became more modern in later execution, almost realistic except for the whole witchcraft thing.

What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Well, not the same type of research I had to do on my other, realistic, books. With those, I am often researching life and death issues such as school violence, AIDS, and domestic violence. This came more from my mind, but since it took place in New York City, I had to do a lot of research about that. I know all the subway routes, for example. Okay, "know" is probably a strong word. I'd probably still get lost. But I learned them for the book. Also, I went through the real estate ads and found a brownstone for Kyle to live in, his castle. So when people asked me about the layout of the house, I knew because it was a real house. I still have the floor plan and photos. Also, I had to research rose gardening because Kyle has a greenhouse with a ton of different kinds of roses.

Finally, I reread many versions of Beauty and the Beast because I didn't want my story to take too strongly from any one version. Many versions are similar with elements like red flowers, a magic glass, etc. That said, the main basis for my story is the le Prince de Beaumont version, which is the most familiar version to American audiences. It's the longest, most fully-realized version of the story, so it just seemed right to me.

I also researched other fairy tales.

What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Sitting down and doing it on days when I'm not that inspired.

Ain't it the truth. What one question do you wish an interviewer would ask you but never has?

Oh, I don't know. I can think of one question that everyone asks and I really hate answering because the answer never sounds satisfactory to me ("Why did you give up being a lawyer?") and you haven't asked it, so I think we're doing pretty well.

What are you working on now?

I just started a manuscript about a hit list and how it affects a middle school. We'll see how it goes. There seem to be a lot of hit lists in middle schools lately. I visited two schools last year that had hit list issues. They mostly turn out to be jokes, but of course, the school has to treat them seriously and it causes a lot of turmoil.

Tell us something about you that no one knows.

I'm really bad at sports, always have been. I think I'm actually afraid of getting hit by the ball because I am less bad at softball, where you have something to hit back with (but I can't field). When I was in law school, my then-boyfriend, now-husband and I joined a volleyball team through a club we were in. These two women, sisters, teased me mercilessly about what a bad volleyball player I was. I was really upset and quit the team. When I got home that night, it dawned on me that I was 23 years old, I had never enjoyed team sports, and I could go the rest of my life without playing a team sport again if I didn't want to. So I never have.

How did you become a writer?

I always thought I would be one, but I always did other things too. When I was in college, I started writing a YA manuscript, which I then lost and didn't think about. I was on vacation with my parents when I wrote it, so it may well be somewhere in Arizona. A good ten years later, when I had my first daughter, I thought, "I should try to write that book again." So that's what I did, and it eventually became a very different novel, which got published.

What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from Beastly?

The one I got Harper to excerpt on the back cover. Chapter 6, page 123. Kyle has become a beast and changed his name to Adrian. He has given up hope of ever finding true love and, instead, has devoted himself to books like The Hunchback of Notre Dame (my favorite in high school), The Picture of Dorian Gray, and The Phantom of the Opera. And he says (in part):

"I lived in darkness now. I started sleeping during the day, walking the streets and riding the subways at night, when no one could really see me. I finished the hunchback book (everyone died), so I read The Phantom of the Opera. In the book -- unlike the dorky Andrew Lloyd Wibber musical version -- the Phantom wasn't some misunderstood romantic loser. He was a murderer who terrorized an opera house for years before kidnapping a young singer and trying to force her to be the love he was denied.

"I got it. I knew now what it was to be desperate. I knew what it was to skulk in darkness, looking for some little bit of hope, but finding nothing. I knew what it was to be so lonely you could kill from it.

"I wished I had an opera house. I wished I had a cathedral. I wished I could climb to the top of the Empire State Building like King Kong. Instead, I had only books, books and the anonymous streets of New York with their millions of stupid, clueless people . . . I scared me."

Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

This book flowed very easily to me. If anything, there were scenes (like the ending) which came to me out of order. I wrote them in the back of the notebook and went on to writing in order.

One challenge was the chat scenes -- which were fun to write but required a great deal of wangling. The book has some chat room sections where Kyle chats with other fairy tale characters who have transformed or, in one case, are thinking about transforming. All their stories are told within the book. It took me a while to choose which ones to include in that. I included the Frog Prince and the Little Mermaid as a matter of course, because they are the most familiar transformation stories. Then, I added the Bear Prince from Snow White and Rose Red, which was a story I liked as a kid, but which I thought would be less familiar to most readers. I had wanted to include Lampwick, Pinocchio's friend who was transformed into a donkey, because it really appealed to me to have characters from so many different places (the mermaid from Denmark, the bear from Germany, Lampwick from Italy, and my beast in NYC though the story is French), but it got unwieldy to have so many characters chatting, and also, Lampwick couldn't type very well, due to having hooves, on top of another character with webbed feet. I had also included a pair of selkies, but again, it got unwieldy.

What's on your nightstand right now?

I'm reading The Shadow of the Wind by Carlos Ruiz Zafon, which is an adult book, though the protagonist is a teenager so far in my reading. It's actually one of those books that sort of annoys me because no way would a real kid or teenager think like this character, but because it's an adult book, it's okay. But it is an interesting premise, about a boy who receives an out-of-print book from his father and is then stalked by a mysterious, disfigured man bent on destroying all copies of this author's work. The writing is very beautiful.

Next in line is Deadline by Chris Crutcher. I read the first chapter, and it looks good. But I have to finish the other first, because it's for my book discussion group.

Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

My kids

What are your hobbies?

Cooking, baking (I like decorating cakes too, and I designed a special Naruto-themed cake for my daughter's birthday recently and a flip flop cake for the other daughter), running, and biking. I need to do the second two to manage the first two.

Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

When I was about a year into getting my first book finished and published, I thought, "It wouldn't be so bad if I quit." Then, I thought, "Yeah, if you did that, what you'd have accomplished in the past year would be reading a lot of teen books." So I kept going.

If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

A Broadway musical theater star. As a teen, I used to fantasize about dying my hair red and being the next Angela Lansbury. Dance was my downfall, which is why I switched to opera, but I never had the same level of passion for it that I had for musical theater.

What were you like as a teen?

I was Jerry Renault, a maverick. I had a leather-bound, gilt-edged copy of GONE WITH THE WIND which I used to bring to school to read, and kids would tease me about it because it looked like a really big Bible. Did that stop me from bringing it to school? Nope. On one occasion, I used this white nail polish, which no one had ever heard of at that time. People made fun of that too, saying it looked like Liquid Paper . . . so I wore it for a week because I didn't want anyone to think they could tell me what nail polish to wear. Oh, and I sang opera and had an encyclopedic knowledge of musical theater, but absolutely no knowledge of what normal people were listening to. Like Caitlin in my book, DIVA, I used to listed to AT40 to try and figure it out, but that didn't work.

One of my college professors, Dr. Wagner, used the word "maverick" to describe me. At the time, I was arguing with another professor because the computer had misgraded a test paper of mine. Dr. Wagner said if I'd been nicer, he could have gotten her to regrade my paper. I said, "But I want her to regrade everyone's paper because it wasn't only mine she got wrong." That's when he called me a maverick, and I guess he was right. Still sort of am, but I try to pick my battles more now. I try.

~~~
Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Alex, post them in the comments. She'd love to hear from you! And don't forget to visit her website.

Interview with K.L. Going, author of Saint Iggy

2007-09-18T21:38:00.000-07:00

Please welcome K.L. Going, author of SAINT IGGY, to the YA Authors Cafe.

Marlene P.: Do you remember writing the first words of your books? Are they still the same?

K.L. Going: Oh yes! I remember writing the first words of each of my books, and they are practically the only parts of my novels that remain intact. Those first lines always set the tone for the book and establish the character in my mind.

Marlene P.: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Honestly, the hardest part is putting my work out there and hearing what people think. I’ve mostly heard great things, but it’s tough when people say stuff that’s mean spirited. I thought I’d get more used to it when I had more books out, but instead there’s just more to hear! My first novel, Fat Kid Rules the World, has been challenged in a couple school districts and that is difficult.

Marlene P.: What one question do you wish an interviewer would ask you but never has?

K.L. Going: How much ketchup would be too much? Answer: Is there such a thing as too much ketchup? I really don’t think so.

Marlene P.: What are you working on now?

K.L. Going: I have a lot of projects going on at once. I’m finishing up a how-to book for Writer’s Digest called Writing the YA Novel which is due out in spring of 2008. Plus, I’m also finishing up a new teen novel for Harcourt called King of the Screw Ups, which will also come out in 2008. I have a picture book under contract which is waiting for an illustrator, and I am contracted to write a short story for an anthology. *phew*

Marlene P.: What kind of research have you done for your stories?

K.L. Going: Fat Kid Rules the World was the most fun to research because I got to explore the world of punk rock. For Saint Iggy, most of my “research” came from my time living in a housing project in New Orleans when I did volunteer service. With my middle grade novel, The Liberation of Gabriel King I researched the 1970’s since it’s a historical novel, and for my upcoming novel, The Garden of Eve, I researched apple orchards.

How’s that for variety?

Marlene P.: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

K.L. Going: I’ve attended a very odd list of concerts. They range from Huey Lewis and the News, to Motley Crew, to John Mellencamp, to Pete Yorn.

I’ve also studied three different martial arts: Tae Kwon Do, Goju Ryu, and American Kempo.

Marlene P.: How did you become a writer?

K.L. Going: I started writing as a kid and never stopped. I became published when, years later, I finally worked up my courage to submit my work to publishers and one of my books got accepted!

Marlene P.: What is your favorite line, passage, or chapter from your book?

K.L. Going: I’m going to answer this question using my newest YA novel, Saint Iggy. My favorite passage from this novel is the scene where Iggy stands in the circle of color created by the church window. I loved writing this scene and still appreciate what it stands for.

Marlene P.: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

K.L. Going: Oh yes. I fantasize about it often, even though I know I would never go through with it. Writing is hard. Being published is even harder. Having a published book requires you to do a lot of things that are contrary to an introverted nature such as mine. Like giving speeches. The whole marketing piece of being an author is counter-intuitive for me.

Marlene P.: What are your hobbies?

K.L. Going: I work part-time at a local gym. I know that doesn’t sound like much of a hobby, but I do it for fun because it’s social and I like to work-out. I also love independent film. I like watching them, creating them, and supporting them in any way I can.

Marlene P.: What’s on your nightstand right now?

K.L. Going: I’m reading Orson Scott Card’s Alvin Maker series. He’s such a great writer, and these books are pure fun and escapism!

***** I’d love to invite any of your readers to visit me on my forums as well: www.klgoing.com/forums. We have great discussions and I’m always looking for new participants!

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for K.L., send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

2007-08-22T07:58:00.000-07:00

NOT LIKE YOU is the story of 15-year-old Kayla, who is trying to create a life for herself after years of taking care of her alcoholic mother. It’s about first love, alcoholism, mother-daughter bonds, and the search for independence.

Please welcome Deborah Davis, author of NOT LIKE YOU, to the YA Authors Cafe.

Marlene P: What was your inspiration for this story?

Deborah Davis: NOT LIKE YOU has many inspirations. I began with just an image of a girl finding her passed-out mother on the floor of their New Mexico trailer, and that image intrigued me: how would the girl resolve her conflicting feelings of love and fury? How does a girl in Kayla’s position get out from under the burden of having to mother her own mother? How would she find love for herself?

Marlene P: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Deborah Davis: My own life experiences provided much material for NOT LIKE YOU: I have lived in a trailer in New Mexico, I loved and trained dogs like Kayla, I’ve known many alcoholics and have had my own issues with drinking in the past, and, like Kayla, I had an older boyfriend when I was a teen. I did additional research, as well, on social service agencies and foster care, on alcoholism, on New Mexican plants, and on the cities of Dallas and Denver.

Marlene P: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Deborah Davis: Consistently trusting that I have something worthwhile to write, and getting myself to my desk to write it. Consequently, I tend to write a lot or not at all. Also, sometimes I hit a wall after the first 75 or 150 pages, after the first burst of enthusiasm for a story wanes and I have to dig in and figure out what the story is really about and where it’s going. I start to wonder, is this really worth telling? Is there even a story here?

Marlene P: What one question do you wish an interviewer would ask you but never has?

Deborah Davis: How do you get past those moments of self-doubt? My answer: I keep writing. I have to ignore the feelings of doubt and the inner critics and let my character take some sort of action. It doesn’t matter if it makes sense to the story or not: the act of writing the next scene erases much of my trepidation and gets me involved in the story again. I can then decide, does this scene work or not, and change it or keep going. The act of writing is itself a solution to the problem of not writing! I’ve also come to realize that getting stuck is a sign of how important the story is to me. I want it to go well. I’m scared that it won’t. I’m scared that I’ll fail. When I recognize how much I care about the story, it helps me be willing to continue.

Marlene P: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Deborah Davis: I changed the last quarter of the book several times. I can’t say why without revealing what happens at the end, but I will say that I tried to make Kayla’s life easier in ways that diminished the impact of the story. I agonized over this. I didn’t want Kayla to have to face such difficult circumstances and choices. But in the end, those difficult circumstances and the choices she makes around them are what make the story interesting and powerful, so I had to include them. It’s hard to do that to a character you’ve lived with and loved for years.

Marlene P: What's on your nightstand right now? Deborah Davis: A great book called Half of a Yellow Sun by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, about the Nigerian-Biafran civil war in the 1960s. The latest New Yorker Magazine. The latest Horn Book Magazine. Bicyling Magazine. A really funny book titled Everybody into the Pool. There’s other stuff on my nightstand, but that’s private!

Marlene P: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Deborah Davis: Spending time in the wilderness: in mountains, on the ocean, anyplace that’s wild and lightly visited by people. Other passions: freedom of speech, travel to other countries, reading, my family, and dark chocolate.

Marlene P: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Deborah Davis: Yes, but the desire doesn’t last for more than a minute. I have moments of wanting to stop because writing is so challenging : I have to sit for long periods of time; I have to dredge up memories and emotions that can be painful to feel; I have to make myself very vulnerable—to my critique group, to my editor, to my publisher, to readers, and—gulp!—to reviewers. I take this story that I’ve sweated and lost sleep over and I put it out to the world. Sometimes it feels like I’m removing my heart and handing it over to strangers. What if they trash it? Or even worse: what if they simply don’t give a hoot about it? What if this thing I’ve slaved over has no ripple effect at all and simply fades into obscurity (otherwise known as “ignored by reviewers” and “going out of print”)?

Marlene P: What are you working on now?

Deborah Davis: A novel about a high school senior named Lina who wants to be a doctor but whose parents take her to India, interrupting her plans to graduate with honors. Her experiences in the impoverished small towns of South India present a challenge to her plans, her aspirations, and her beliefs about suffering and her ability to alleviate it. There’s a romance, too, that challenges her beliefs about love and sex.

Marlene P: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

Deborah Davis: That’s a tough question. I try not to have too many secrets: it’s no fun, and it takes a lot of energy to hold them in. I have some really close friends who know pretty much everything about me. Okay, here’s something: when I was 19 and going to college in Bogota, Colombia, I met a very sexy Colombian musician—a drummer—and had a really nice time kissing him, unbeknownst to my then-boyfriend, who was in Colombia at the time.

Marlene P: How did you become a writer?

Deborah Davis: I grew into being a writer. I’ve always been a storyteller: even as a little girl, I made up stories, using my stuffed animals as characters and giving each animal a different voice. Through 9th grade I wrote stories and poems, but in high school I had to write essays, which I struggled with, and I began to think I was not creative and had no talent for writing. It wasn’t until my last two years of college that I began to enjoy writing again—even as I still agonized over completing my college papers. After college, while working with teenagers in wilderness challenge and community service programs, I started having lots of ideas again for stories. I felt compelled to write—but I also felt very afraid both to write them down and to show them to anyone. I finally broke through my fear after taking a workshop at the Proprioceptive Writing Center (see www.pwriting.org), which consisted mostly of writing everything that came into my head and reading it aloud in a group setting, over and over again. Getting support for whatever I wrote, and hearing how brilliantly people write when they are not being judged and when they truly write without editing, was a huge help, and I began to write a lot, trusting the ideas and words that came to me. That was over 20 years ago, and really, I’m still becoming a writer. I’m still learning how to write better, still learning to trust the words and stories that come to me, still trying to improve how I write dialogue, reveal character, and tell a story with a whopping impact.

Marlene P: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Deborah Davis: The beginning...the middle...and the end? This is a tough question, sort of like asking a mother to choose her favorite child. I love when Kayla meets Shirley and Sherrie, because they’re so funny. I love the scenes where Kayla and Remy are exploring the Anasazi ruins, scenes that are romantic and tense, in a fascinating setting. And the scenes when Kayla and her mom interact: their relationship is unusual in YA literature, it’s the emotional heart of the story, and those are the scenes with the most depth.

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Deborah, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

OPEN TOPIC: YOUR FAVORITE CHARACTERS

2007-08-15T08:41:00.000-07:00

bloodymandy suggested we ask everyone about their favorite characters who have certain characteristics. We think this is a great discussion topic. Sometimes favorite or memorable characters are not the main characters or even ones from favorite books. We've created five categories. Let's hear who your favorites are. And how about trying to give us a male and female character in each category if you can?

1. Most Sassy, Attitude Overloaded Character

2. Most Unexpectedly Funny Character (As In You Snort Milk Out Your Nose)

3. Character You Would Most Like To Slap

4. Character You Would Most Like To Give A Hug To

5. Character You Will Never Forget

BLOOD BROTHERS by S.A.Harazin

2007-07-25T08:04:00.000-07:00

BLOOD BROTHERS is S.A. Harazin's debut novel. Delacorte says: "S. A. Harazin's gritty, powerful story takes the reader into the emergency room, the world of teenage parties and drug use, and the lives of two friends who are as close as brothers." Kirkus says: "This compelling story, told in diary entries that cover hours and days, never loses the pace as Clay races to discover what happened during Joey’s last day. The antidrug message is never didactic, and the story will grab readers from the first sentence." Young adult literature expert Teri Lesesne says, "S. A. Harazin has written a terrific novel of friendship, family, longing and belonging in BLOOD BROTHERS."

Please welcome S.A. Harazin to the YA Authors Cafe.

CATHY A: Who are the "blood brothers" of your title, and what happens to them in the story?

S.A. HARAZIN: The “blood brothers” are Clay and Joey. When they were seven, they spit into a bottle to become blood brothers. They dreamed of taking a cross county bike trip, and they spent the next ten years preparing. But one evening Clay went to Joey’s house and found him hallucinating and violent. Joey ended up in ICU at the hospital where Clay worked as an orderly.

CATHY A: Clay is poor and Joey is rich. How does this affect each of them in
their lives and expectations?

S.A. HARAZIN: Clay began to notice the differences when they were in high school. Joey had more friends, more money, a car, and was planning to go to Duke University and someday become a doctor—something Clay wanted desperately to do. Clay worked hard but he never seemed to get anywhere. Even Clay’s girlfriend preferred Joey. Joey saw Clay as his best friend, but he did not completely understand Clay’s life.

CATHY A: You have many strong supporting characters. Chief Baker and Mrs. Hunt are two of my favorites. Tell us about a few of your supporting
characters--literally, how do they *support* Clay in the story?

S.A.HARAZIN: Mrs. Hunt is a nursing supervisor, and she took a chance when she hired and trained Clay as an orderly. This was an opportunity for Clay, and he was good at his job, but he made mistakes. He realized how much he wanted to become a doctor. On the outside, Mrs. Hunt is stern and expects the best from Clay. Later in the story she does something to help Clay offstage that is both risky and surprising.

Chief Baker has grown children, so he tries to understand Clay. He begins to look at the facts, he listens, and he realizes there is more to the story than Clay knows. He sees Clay as vulnerable and worries that he will get into trouble.

CATHY A: What was your inspiration for Blood Brothers?

S.A. HARAZIN: It is loosely based on life experiences. It was a story that had been with me for many years. But the first grain of the story came to me at work when a patient was going through the process of brain death diagnosis. He was just a kid, and what happened next really affected me. That also was when I realized how much life was unfair, and how we can do everything to save somebody, but it isn’t enough.

CATHY A: Most of Clay's peers treat him badly in BB. How do you think they see him? Do you think their views will change as they all get older?

S.A. HARAZIN: Clay is mostly invisible to his peers. But while his peers are having normal teenage experiences (and partying), Clay is thrown into life and death situations. Joey knows that part of him—the others do not. I definitely feel that their views will change—and towards the end of the story, the views of Alicia and Wade (minor characters who wanted to blame Clay for everything) have changed.

CATHY A: You worked in a hospital yourself as a teen. Were you able to use that experience as research for this story?

S.A. HARAZIN: Yes. I could remember my emotional reactions the first time I would see anything bad happening. But there were many mundane times, too. I came to love the mundane. People who watch shows like ER see the excitement. With me, there were times when I was afraid I would not know what to do.

CATHY A: I am in awe of the smooth way you wove separate time periods
together--distant past, recent past, and present. It gave the book a
propulsive feeling, like I couldn't turn pages fast enough. How did you
choose that structure, and how did you get it to work?

S.A. HARAZIN: Thanks! My editor suggested the flashbacks and placing the time at the beginning of scenes. He deserves lots of credit for helping me make BLOOD BROTHERS what it is. I had to figure out where to place the flashbacks, and I worried that I would slow down the story. There was a lot of hard work involved, and I was glad that with the help of an editor, I was able to take the story to another level.

I also benefitted from the advice of critiquers.

CATHY A: You have strong male lead characters in your work that I've read, with devastating dry deadpan humor. How do you find these male voices, and do you have plans to write a female lead at some time?

S.A. HARAZIN: I have three kids. Their friends hang out at my house. I listen whenever I can. The kids have different, distinct voices that I know well.

I don’t know if I’ll be writing with a female lead. I feel more comfortable with a male POV.

CATHY A: You are a moderator on the Children's Writer's and Illustrator's Chat Board. How has the internet changed things for writers in the past ten years or so? What is the value of community as a writer?

S.A. HARAZIN: A writer can find just about anything he needs to know on the internet. Verla Kay’s site offers support to writers. It is a good place to cyber- meet other writers. Sometimes we have editors or agents drop by and post advice or answer questions. This is helpful for people who can’t go to conferences.

The down side is that the internet can turn into a major distraction.

Thank you for sharing with us! Now for the blog readers to have a turn . . .

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Shirley, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

Many thanks to guest interviewer, Catherine Atkins, author of When Jeff Comes Home, and Alt Ed.

Interview with Judy Gregerson, Author of BAD GIRLS CLUB

2007-07-11T06:35:00.000-07:00

What reviewers are saying

MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW-"Bad Girls Club is as riveting as Dave Pelzer's A Child Called It books, but is far better at exploring the psychological reasons why the abused remain so loyal to their abusers. This is definitely a novel all young adults should read!"

PROFESSORNANA-"Books like A CHILD CALLED IT have long been popular with teens. This book will appeal for many of the same reasons. It is the story, ultimately, of triumph over incredible odds."

Marlene P.: Tell us about your newest book BAD GIRLS CLUB.

Judy Gregerson: BAD GIRLS CLUB is very special to me. It is so much a part of what happened to me as a teen and I wrote it to show what abandonment and abuse does to the soul and mind of a teenager. We read stories about abused kids in the paper all the time or we see it on the news, but we don't hear much about their inner conflicts and how they struggle with their own feelings and thoughts about what has happened to them. But I think that every teen knows someone who wrestles with these issues and I thought there was a place in teen literature for this story.

Marlene P.: What was your inspiration for this story?

Judy Gregerson: Several things, really, but probably the biggest one is that my mom left when I was thirteen and went into a mental hospital. She never returned and because of it, one of the biggest themes in my writing has been abandonment. No matter what I write, it just shows up.

I tried writing other stories for a long time, but this one kept calling to me. I didn't want to write it at first. It was too close to home. Too scary for me to tackle. But eventually I decided that I would have to take a stab at it. And as I got deeper into the story, I knew that I had to keep going.

Marlene P.: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Judy Gregerson: The hardest part for me is finding the real, naked truth of the story and bringing that to the forefront. It's easy to write off the top of your head, but when you go deeper, through layers of what you think is truth, eventually you find the real core of the story or the character. It's difficult because you have to keep digging until you find it and that is real work. The other hard part for me is a first draft. I hate first drafts. They're like ugly little anemic stories that are going to have to be fixed.

Marlene P.: What are you working on now?

Judy Gregerson: Right now I'm pretty busy with marketing this book, but I have a humorous YA I'm trying to find a home for and a silly midgrade that I'd like to polish. I've also gotten back into a novel I started in 2002 and couldn't finish. I woke up one night at about 2:30 a.m. and all the answers to the problems were very clear to me. So the next morning I got up and started writing. That's going well, but it's slow because I tend to veer off into marketing or chatting or something else. I'm easily distracted, probably too easily, and I really have to fight to stay on track.

Marlene P.: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Judy Gregerson: Ooooh. You're going to go make me fish it out? Ok, let me go find it.

My life, this island on which I stand, is built with sand, and with each step I take, my feet sink to my ankles. Some days I sink all the way up to my knees. Today I will pull my little sister behind me, sometimes carrying her on my back because she is too small to pull herself out of the quicksand that often traps us. And on our way across this island, I will tell her jokes, and I will hold her hand, and I will shield her from the woman who used to be my mother.

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Judy Gregerson, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

OPEN DISCUSSION - Why do you read?

2007-06-13T10:05:00.000-07:00

In a call for topics, "little willow" asks:

"Why do you read? Do you look for books that are similar to YOUR life or vastly different?"

So, are you looking to relate or escape?

REPOSSESSED by A.M. Jenkins

2007-05-30T11:10:00.000-07:00

A. M. Jenkins's favorite deadly sins are Sloth and Gluttony. The others are also enjoyed in moderation. The award-winning author of Damage, Breaking Boxes, and Beating Heart: A Ghost Story, Jenkins lives in Benbrook, Texas, with three sons, two cats, and two dogs . . . and has never been possessed by a demon, so far as anyone can tell.

Her latest book is REPOSSESSED, and HarperCollins says, "In this devilishly funny look at the complexities of being a teen, Jenkins tells the story of an unforgettable--and irresistibly endearing--demon's sojourn on earth, where he learns more than he ever expected about humans and himself. "

And Jennifer Hubert of Reading Rants says, "A.M. Jenkins' inspired portrayal of a sympathetic demon and his longing to stay human, so that he might actually be NOTICED by the all-powerful (an apparently, all-too-busy) Creator, is funny, thought provoking, and surprisingly deep."

I will add a hearty amen to both of those descriptions. This latest book is humorous, deep, surprising, and a testament to the many layers of Jenkins writing talents.

Join me in welcoming her as our guest this week at the Cafe.

Mary P: This story has so many layers, including a surprising romance. The love story that unfolds in this is amazingly tender. It started out as a Lust Quest, and ended up--well I don't want to give it away--but Kiriel's quest was transformed into something much richer. One thing that is endearing is that he is often so clueless. Did you know the direction Kiriel was going or did you bumble along with him as he pursued Lane?

A.M. Jenkins: When I write a book, I generally know what will happen in the end, and then my process always takes me down blind alleys while I'm getting there. I have to back up, reassess, delete, and rewrite. With Kiriel and Lane, same old same old; I knew where they were ultimately heading, and there were the usual dead ends. But most of the bumbling I did with Lane wasn't due to Kiriel--it was due to Lane herself. Girl characters are not my strong point and I kept going off course with her and that made Kiriel's reactions inaccurate. That last scene between Kiriel and Lane took several different rewrites after the rest of the book was done; I knew what happened in that scene, but I couldn't get the emotional arc of it right, and by that point I had looked at the ms so many times I couldn't really "see" it anymore. My editor would read it and say, "Nope, this doesn't ring emotionally true." So I'd tackle it again, trying to nail it without pushing the characters around. I don't remember how many times I rewrote that scene, but it was a bunch. I'm very glad my editor kept handing it back to me instead of saying, "Eh, I guess this'll do."

Mary P: This book, while dealing with many deeper issues, is also packed with humor. There were so many places that I was snorting out loud as I read. Did you have as much fun writing it as readers have reading it? Was there a particular scene that still makes you laugh?

A.M. Jenkins: There were a *ton* of scenes I enjoyed writing in this book, but the only one that ever made me laugh was the bit where Kiriel cries. No kidding.

Mary P: The story touches on several deep theological questions, such as separation from the Creator, which I think you explore particularly well, raising questions but leaving it to the reader to supply the answers. It makes us think which is what I think any good story should do. Were these questions difficult for you to explore?

A.M. Jenkins: Nope. It's hard for me to believe that everybody doesn't think about this stuff all the time. My feeling has always been that religion, the supernatural and the afterlife are *the* most important issues any human has to face. We're alive on this earth for less than 100 years (most of us, anyway), and then there's the question of what happens to us for the rest of eternity. I'd say the answer to that question is crucial. And the answer--or lack of an answer--that each of us comes up with is what provides us with a moral system to live by. Even if you feel that you have the one true and correct answer to the question of eternity, how can you blithely go about your business without weighing your daily choices, attitudes, and actions in terms of that answer?I was just talking about this with a couple of friends, and one presented the theory that most people don't think about the above, that most people don't like to think at all, and especially not when they read books. It made me wonder about YA in general: do people prefer books that present answers and solutions rather than asking questions? I guess this blog is my forum for a few days, but I'd like to know other people's opinions: Is a good book one that makes you think? One that gives you a model to emulate? One that confirms your feelings about something? One that entertains you for a few hours?

Mary P: Do you hoard ketchup packets?

A.M. Jenkins: No, just the little tubs from Whataburger.

Mary P: What are you working on now?

A.M. Jenkins: I just sent a ms off to copyediting. The book is currently titled NIGHT ROAD, and will be out in spring 2008. This completes what has turned out to be an unintentional trilogy of three weird little books about the supernatural: BEATING HEART (2006), which is about a ghost; REPOSSESSED (2007), about demonic possession; and then NIGHT ROAD, a book about hemovores--blood-drinking humans who are not your typical vampires. These three books are weird not because they're about the supernatural, but because they sound like horror books when they aren't, not exactly. I don't know what they are. I just know I've enjoyed writing them.

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Amanda Jenkins, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

2007-05-16T09:00:00.000-07:00

STUCK IN THE 70s by Debra Garfinkle

Marlene P.: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Debra G.: I actually do remember writing the first words for this book. The first line was really the genesis of the book, and I think it’s a catchy one: “There’s a beautiful naked girl sitting in my bathtub.”

With my first novel, STORKY, I wrote many drafts of the first few pages. With this one, the first few pages hardly changed from the first draft to the final book. Soon after I wrote the first page, it was read aloud at a writing conference and got a lot of laughs. That really encouraged me to keep going with the manuscript.

Marlene P.: What are you working on now?

Debra G.: I’m writing the third book in a series of humorous children’s books called THE SUPERNATURAL RUBBER CHICKEN. I’m having a wonderful time writing about wacky situations involving a cranky rubber chicken, bickering twins, their smelly teacher Mrs. Crabpit, and the twins’ neglectful mother, a children’s book author obsessed with winning a Newbery Award. The first RUBBER CHICKEN book will be out in June 2008.

Marlene P.: What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Debra G.: I did a lot of research on news events, movies, music, fashion, etc. from the fall of 1978, when STUCK IN THE 70s is set. That was fun. I also researched Albert Einstein, since one of my main characters loves him. That was fascinating. And to get the time travel theories down right, I researched physics. That was excruciating.

Marlene P.: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

Debra G.: For many years, my best friend and I collected empty toilet paper rolls from around the world. We wanted to be in The Guinness Book of World Records. When our friends and family went on vacation, they knew to bring us back a roll. We would write down the date and place on the roll. We never did write to the Guinness people. At my friend’s wedding shower years later, her parents presented her with the many, many bags of toilet paper rolls they had stored in their garage.

Marlene P.: How did you become a writer?

Debra G.: I loved to write as a child and teenager, but took the practical route and majored in economics and became a lawyer.

After practicing law for nine years (part-time for the last four years) and having two children, I was falsely diagnosed with cancer. I reevaluated my life. I quit my job, decided to have a third child, and started writing a novel (STORKY). I began it the day after I left my job, and wrote most of it while I was pregnant. Under the “write what you know” principle, there’s a pregnancy in STORKY, as well as a heroic retired lawyer.

I liked practicing law, but I LOVE being a writer.

Marlene P.: What is your favorite line, passage, or chapter from this book?

Debra G.: There’s a funny scene when Tyler goes to the movie theater with Shay and two other girls. He really wants to hold Shay’s hand. A preview for Rocky II comes on, and he predicts it will bomb, that no one will want to see another Rocky movie. The girls go to the bathroom. When they come back, Tyler finally gets up his nerve and holds Shay’s hand. She squeezes it back. He’s thrilled! Then he realizes the girls switched seats and he’s not holding her hand after all. Well, I think it’s funnier when you read the whole scene than when I try to summarize it.

Marlene P.: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

My editor at Putnam didn’t like the ending. I had to throw away the last fifty pages. He sort of liked the next ending I wrote, but had me do a ton of revisions to it. Even though the ending gave me a lot of trouble, I think it came out good “in the end.”

Marlene P.: What are your hobbies?

Debra G.: I have three children, a puppy, and a husband who travels a lot. I’ve spent the last year simultaneously writing a trilogy for teens and a chapter book series for children. And I’m supposed to have hobbies? Are you nuts?

Well, when I have spare time, I do like to take walks, watch reality TV, play Hearts on the computer, and watch movies. And I always make time for reading.

Marlene P.: Have you ever wanted to quit writing? Why?

Debra G.: Never! Okay, about every other day. It’s a wonderful way to make money, but it’s also a difficult way to make money. I’d be happy just to draft and revise my manuscripts. The stuff that drives me crazy is having to promote my books as a midlist author, the long waits for responses from editors, the laborious contract negotiations (thank Gawd for my agent, but I still bite my nails until I have both the check and the book in my hands) … I could whine for hours.

I doubt I’d ever really quit writing. I love creating a scene I’m proud of, a character I care about, a joke that makes me laugh, etc.

And just when I’m feeling really low, I always seem to get a wonderful email from a teen reader that makes everything worthwhile.

Beauty Shop For Rent by Laura Bowers

2007-05-09T11:43:00.000-07:00

Abbey Garner has it all planned out. Become a millionaire by the time she's thirty-five and avoid making the same mistakes the other women in her family made. School Library Journal says of debut author Laura Bowers' warm and funny novel "This deceptively simple book reveals Abbey as a wonderful character who will appeal to a broad spectrum of readers. Her quiet, almost folksy lifestyle demonstrates the powerful impact of a loving family and good mentors."

We're delighted to welcome Laura to the Cafe to talk about Abbey, writing and why you should never give her nice jewelry.

~~~

Melissa W.: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Laura B.: My favorite chapter from BEAUTY SHOP FOR RENT has always been the final one, because the setting was inspired by my county's annual 4-H & FFA fair. A close second would be the first chapter that was set in the beauty shop. I love the sassy, fun, "let your hair down" conversations that happen when it's just the ladies around and how this chapter shows the close, unique relationship between fifteen-year-old Abbey, Granny Po and the other Gray Widows. But my favorite lines are from chapter twenty-four, when my characters are driving into Ocean City: "But now the town didn't cast the same spell. Instead of enchanting, it seemed noisy and cheap, almost tacky, like I was no longer childlike enough to see its beauty."

Melissa W.: Do you remember writing the first words? Are they still the same?

Laura B.: I do remember writing the first words. It was for the opening scene in chapter one, where Abbey is stuck in the middle of another one of the Gray Widows' many tiffs. Writing that scene was one of those rare, wonderful moments when the words tumble out so fast your fingers can't keep up. The main points and concept of this chapter have always remained the same, despite the many rewrites, but my original opening line was, "I'll be dead. Dead and done buried by the time this shop is ever rented." I've since changed it to the first of many "hypothetical questions of the week."

Melissa W.: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

Laura B.: Well, my husband is perfectly aware of this, but not too many people know that I cannot be trusted with fine jewelry. Seriously. We've been married for fourteen years and in that time I've already lost my diamond engagement ring, my original wedding band, my replacement wedding band, and a diamond tennis bracelet. But, my husband is a lovely man who doesn't get upset over material things, (my character Gena is based on him,) and I'm happy to report that it's been a while since I lost something. Why? Because I hardly wear jewelry now out of fear of losing it! ;)

Melissa W.: If you could be anything else besides a writer, what would it be?

Laura B.: I would be a photographer. And, after the kids go to college, my dream assignment would be to travel the country with Bob taking beautiful pictures of historic main streets, town festivals and county fairs that could be used for a super-thick coffee table book. Talk about a cool job! That or someone who's sent to different hotels and resorts to rate them. Being paid to travel? I'm in.

Melissa W.: That does sound ideal! Can I come along? What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Laura B.: At the beginning, I think the hardest part of writing for me was viewing it as a job rather than a hobby. Before, I would only allow myself time to write after the laundry was done, my to-do list was finished, the house picked up, etc. While I still have the occasional lapse, I view my writing as a full-time job now and I no longer feel guilty about editing during my boys' baseball practice if I have a tough deadline! ;)

Melissa W.: Good for you! Thanks so much for stopping by the Cafe. We wish you the best of luck with your wonderful new book and many more to come!

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Laura, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!

BAD TICKETS by Kathleen O'Dell

2007-05-02T06:01:00.000-07:00

Join us this week as we welcome Kathleen O'Dell to the Cafe. Well-known for her warm and funny mid-grade novels, including Agnes Parker, Girl in Progress, for which she was named a Publisher's Weekly Flying Start, Kathleen enters the wild world of YA fiction with her newest novel, Bad Tickets, which has already garnered a starred review from Booklist and which School Library Journal calls a "humorous and engaging story with just a bit of spirituality."

The Cafe is delighted to host Kathleen this week and be a part of celebrating her wonderful new novel.

Melissa W.: Tell us about your new book.

Kathleen O.: BAD TICKETS features Mary Margaret Hallinan, a Catholic high school sophomore in Portland, Oregon during the summer of love. Rumblings of what’s going on in San Francisco are being felt all over the world, but she’s still living in a place where most girls believe that their entire destinies are tied to the men they marry. When Mary Margaret meets Jane Stephens, she loves her new friend’s rebel spirit, but upon closer examination finds that for all her so-called adventurousness, Jane is actually following a pretty old-fashioned script.

This is my first young adult book. As I was writing it, I kept on thinking about how many adult struggles are just modified adolescent struggles. One of life’s central conundrums concerns figuring out when being good is actually bad for you and being bad is good for you and being good is good for you and being bad is bad for you (and bad for everyone else). Before you hit your teens, the answer is: be good. Growing up requires examining received wisdom. Even if you conclude that ninety-nine percent of everything your parents taught you was good and true, at least you’ve made it your truth.

Melissa W.: What was your inspiration for this story?

Kathleen O.: I was a kid in 1967, but I remember that summer. On one of the first sunny Portland summer days, I put on my baggy, hand-me-down, red, one-piece bathing suit and went with some fourth grade friends to Blue Lake. The park was filled with glamorous baby-oiled girls in gold and silver bikinis and gorgeous, sulky boys with long bangs hung over their sunglasses. Every kid there had the radio tuned to KISN and Jim Morrison was daring everyone to “Light My Fire.” Sex hung heavy in the air. We picked our way through the crowd of these simmering, shimmering creatures, and when I finally got to the lake I plopped down and stared at my knobby knees in a state of shock. It hardly seemed like the place for a pigtailed girl in an inner tube anymore.

I wanted to capture the experience of these girls who came of age just before the first wave of modern feminism. Even though young people were breaking all kinds of taboos and experimenting with different ways of living in the 60’s, many men still wanted a cool “old lady”--someone nurturing and mellow who tended to her man and the organic baking.

Another source of inspiration is my memory of a recurring nightmare I had in my teens. I dreamed I was getting married in my high school gym, and that I was wearing a Jackie Kennedy suit and a leopard pill box hat--something that even someone my mom’s age was too hip to wear. The priest would be reading the vows as I kept on urging myself to run away! Now! Before it’s too late! I always woke up breathless and terrified before I realized that I was safe in my pink bedroom in my twin bed and perfectly single. The thought of lock stepping from the high school gym into a married life was scary to me in part because like Mary Margaret, I was the oldest in my family. I had already devoted a big chunk of my life to domestic stuff such as babysitting and dishwashing and cooking. The romance I was looking for involved the freedom to take care of only myself. Oh, and to have my own bedroom. That was a big thing to me.

Melissa W.: Was there any part that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Kathleen O.: Mary Margaret’s mother, with her omnipresent cigarette and laundry basket, really got to me. Every time I got into her head, I felt incredibly sad. I was a homemaker with little kids for years, and whenever I felt burnt to a crispy critter, I would set myself down and tell myself that staying home for now was my choice, that my two kids would eventually grow up, and that there was a different life waiting for me not too far down the road. That’s not true of Cynthia Hallinan. She feels she made a lifetime bargain when she married her high school sweetheart, and she’s determined to deal with pregnancy after pregnancy even though she’s depressed, unsupported and miserable.

Melissa W.: What's on your nightstand right now?

Kathleen O.: There are Starbucks receipts with scribbled revision notes all over them. At night, right before I fall asleep, I get these flashes on how to work out the kinks of my latest manuscript. I jump out of bed, dig blindly through my purse for scrap paper and start scrawling. You’d think I’d keep a notebook nearby, wouldn’t you, seeing that I’m a writer tending toward nightly inspiration? But no. I’m also superstitious and believe that if I’m too premeditated, the inspiration won’t show up. This morning’s note read: “Tessa-- SWITZRLND--Boarding school? Has to rtrn home @ the end ar havee aplace.” At least I think that’s what it said. I wrote it in the dark.

Melissa W.: Best of luck deciphering your notes! And thank you so much for stopping by the Cafe. We wish you much success with your new book! Congratulations!

OPEN DISCUSSION - Who is reading Young Adult books?

2007-04-25T11:17:00.000-07:00

"Exactly 'who' are YA readers? Is the age range broadening? "

This was a question posted by one of our visitors and it is a question we all hear periodically.

And so many other questions are tied into it: Is the defintion of YA changing? What makes a YA book a YA book? Content? Publisher designation? Something else?

Tell us your thoughts!

Open Discussion: Let's Talk About Sex

2007-04-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

As an ongoing feature of the Cafe, we occasionally open the floor to general discussion of topics related to YA literature.

This week, one of our readers poses the following always-fascinating and often controversial topic:

"I want to know what YA authors and other readers think about a lot of the sexual content in YA books. I know a lot of people are totally fine with it but I also know I can't be the ONLY girl who doesn't feel entirely comfortable reading some of it. And it's not about censorship; it's about me being selective about what I read - and NOT reading the stuff I don't feel comfortable reading."

So what do you think? Please feel free to express your honest opinions in the comments, but keep in mind the fact that we do have younger readers and moderate your language accordingly. Thanx!

SO NOT THE DRAMA by Paula Chase

2007-03-28T09:24:00.000-07:00

Today, we welcome young adult author, Paula Chase, to the Cafe. Paula has written for Girls’ Life, Sweet 16, and Baltimore Magazine among others. Her Del Rio Bay Clique series helped launch Kensington Books YA line and joins the growing number of YA books targeted to multi-culti suburbanite teens. Chase calls her brand of teen literature, Hip Lit, a nod to the diversity spawned by the MTV-watching, 106th & Park-ing, pop culture hungry hip hop generation.

The Cafe is pleased to have her as our guest as she celebrates the debut of her first YA novel.

Mary P: Tell us about So Not the Drama! What was your inspiration for this story?

Paula: It's about a high school freshman's quest for popularity and how that quest is abruptly ended when a sociology project's assignment to eliminate prejudice backfires, causing a rift between she and her best friend.

At its core, So Not The Drama is a friendship story. But surrounding it is a light, fun look at the highs and lows that go along with making the transition from middle to high school and how that period can be such an awakening for some teens. The story’s very much in the vein of Two-A-Days and The Hills or any t(w)een show that proves, when you're under the age of 20 life is drama. The two are so interconnected, you can't tell the difference at that age. And I love it. Dramalicious!

Several things inspired this book:
1) my own experiences as a 'burb teen
2) knowing my daughter would likely go through a similar ‘black in the 'burbs’ experience
3) my absolute adoration for how simple and complex being a teenager can be

Mary P: Tell us about "the" call. How did you find out you sold a book and how did you react?

What sticks out most in my mind about the call was it was actually a series of calls. My agent and I were on the phone back and forth the entire day as she passed me key parts of the deal and kept me in the loop on the verbal negotiations.

It felt very much like wheeling and dealing should...even though I wasn't doing any of the wheeling. More like riding along while my agent did the work.

I'll confess that my reaction was boring. I didn't scream or cry or start shaking. I was incredibly happy and I kept filling my husband in on every detail each time the phone rang. But I guess I'm not excitable. And yet, I don’t have a poker face. Go figure.

My favorite part was when she called back with the final numbers. It was hilarious. If a camera had taped that moment it would have caught me looking pretty dumbfounded. It felt just like when you go into a fancy store where you know you can't afford anything. But just for kicks and giggles you ask, in this real serious tone "How much is this?" As if you could actually afford it. And they say, "Fourteen."

In that moment, you're attempting to keep your face stoic. But for one brief millisecond your real emotions seep out and the look says, "Thousand? Is this thing really fourteen thousand?!"

Of course, you don't say that out loud because obviously the person doesn't mean it's fourteen dollars since everything in the store costs more than what you pay for your mortgage.

So when my agent uttered the number that's how I felt because she didn't say the full out number. She said it like they do in fancy circles. That's why I love my agent. She's such a cool cucumber.

Mary P: How did you become a writer?

I've always been one. As a kid I made up stories all the time. I also read voraciously, which only fed my urge to write my own.

Then as a teen, me and my best friend Nicki would write stories and exchange them. Instead of paying attention in class I'd read the story she wrote and then I'd add on to it. She'd do the same and we'd just keep exchanging stories like that.

It was sort of like a write-your-own-adventure. It was fun because she might take the story a place I never intended. It was equally as exciting to read what she wrote as it was to add on.

As much as I love writing, I detoured to PR in college. So I ended up doing a lot of corporate writing for a long time. Fairly boring, but no matter what I wrote about I still felt there was some art to it. No doubt there are a few thousand purple (read: flowery) press releases walking the earth thanks to me.

In '01 I jumped back into writing by doing music reviews and eventually I began contributing to magazines. Once I started doing that I was hooked. It made me wonder why I never bothered to seriously pursue Journalism.

But my PR background isn't just a nice thing to have, now that I have books to promote, it's a Godsend. So that cliche, "everything happens for a reason," is true this time round.

Mary P: Besides writing, do you have any other passions?

Paula: Pop culture!!

I'm the queen of mindless (often useless) information. I was so geekily excited about the VH1 show, World Series of Pop Culture. It was cool seeing that there are others out there like me - hopelessly addicted to information as inane as the name of the housekeeper that took Alice the maid's place for a brief period on The Brady Bunch. I mean, seriously, who keeps this type of minutiae in their head?

Oh right, I do.

Music, TV, Film, whatever. I consume it all. And I consider a great deal of it research for my YA. Well, at least that's my story…and I'm sticking to it.

Mary P: Thank you so much for sharing with us, Paula. We wish you much success with your new book! Congratulations!

~~Cafe Note~~ As a regular part of our interviews, featured authors will pop back in for one week after their interview is posted to answer any other questions blog readers may leave for them. So if you have any questions or comments for Paula, send them now! She'd love to hear from you!