Teen Read Week with Marlene Perez

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.

13 Questions with Marlene Perez

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.