SO NOT THE DRAMA by Paula Chase

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!

Open Discussion: What's Missing?

This week on the Cafe, we thought we'd try a change of pace and open the floor to a general discussion on YA lit. So here's your chance to weigh in and sound off. The topic, from one of our readers:

What genre or subject matter seems to be neglected in today's contemporary teen lit?

What do you think? Let us know in the comments!

Story of a Girl by Sara Zarr

In a starred review, School Library Journal calls Sara Zarr's debut novel, Story of a Girl, "realistic fiction at its best," and VOYA says the first person narrative is "unusually senstive and perceptive." We are thrilled to have first time novelist, Sara Zarr, here at the Cafe to talk about her well-received book and also share a little about herself.





Mary P: Tell us about Story of a Girl! What was your inspiration for this story?

Sara Z: The character Deanna Lambert was my inspiration. She'd turned up as a side character in another book I wrote, and I realized she was the most interesting thing going on in that book and I sat down to write about her and the voice was just there. The specifics of her story changed through various revisions, but her voice and her outlook on life were the guiding forces. I wanted to know what had happened to her that made her so tough, and what was beneath that exterior? The surface details of the story are that her father caught her with an older boy when she was 13, and how that changed all her relationships. For me, it's mostly about family, and emotional survival under extreme duress.

Mary P: I loved the relationships in the story and how they evolved. Like VOYA said, it was unusually sensitive, which made it all so real. How has the publication of your first book been different than you expected?

Sara Z: Well, I was a bit surprised that the publication didn't suddenly make me feel validated, secure, fearless, and complete. I still struggle with all the same old demons, plus some new ones. That said, my first book experience has been about as awesome as it could possibly be. My publisher (Little, Brown) has been amazingly supportive and enthusiastic, reviews are good, reader response (from both teens and adults) is positive, and I feel like it's gotten the right kind of attention. I know many authors have a different experience on various fronts or have excellent books that fall through the cracks when they shouldn't. I feel very fortunate.

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

Sara Z: Getting started on the daily work always feels like an epic battle for some reason. There are so many other things vying for my attention---things that seem to offer a lot more on the instant gratification front. Writing is the ultimate delayed gratification. You can work for months on something before seeing any results that you're happy with.

Mary P: Yes, I think authors win the award on the delayed gratification front. But there are all those little moments too, where the writing just feels so right and that keeps you moving forward. There were lots of those great "moments" in Story of a Girl. Do you have a favorite line, passage, chapter from this book?

Sara Z: I really love the scenes between Deanna and her older brother, Darren. I don't think I could pick something specific---it feels like a betrayal of whatever I don't pick! There's something about their relationship, though, that I find really sweet and tender even though they are both so tough in their own ways.

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

Sara Z: With this book, I never shied away from the emotionally difficult parts. They were actually pretty cathartic for me; the hard part is always hitting exactly the right pitch---not overstating, not understating, not being too literal but still being clear, etc. I never saw Deanna as a victim and wanted to make sure she didn't come across that way. At the same time, she definitely took unfair knocks and the people who should have helped her deal with them (i.e. her parents) abdicated that responsibility. So overall, the biggest challenge was writing honestly about a situation in which no one had really been right and weaving all the fallout into a compelling story.

Mary P: Which you did beautifully. Have you ever wanted to quit writing?

Sara Z: I don't know if "wanted" is the right word, but there were definitely times I wondered if I should. It took about ten years from when I started writing seriously to when I made my first sale, and every single year during that time I'd think, "This is my year." And then it wouldn't be, and I'd wonder how many more years it would take. I didn't take career jobs because I knew I wanted to write, so around age 32 or 33 I really started thinking maybe I should go back to school and get a real career and move on from this dream. Also around that time I lost my first agent, got laid off of my job, and basically had no hope or prospects. It was a tough time. It was actually Deanna and her story that kept me going. I just had a feeling about this book, that this would be the one.

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

Sara Z: I would love to make a movie some day. ("What I really want to do is direct!") During my career crisis, I thought about being a nutritionist before realizing that you actually had to take chemistry and science and stuff and basically be pre-med. I also really enjoy the house-wifey aspects of my life now that I'm home more.

Mary P: What were you like as a teen?

Sara Z: Sort of the social version of "jack of all trades, master of none." That is, I had friends in a lot of different social circles but never felt entirely a part of any of them. My closest cohorts were the drama geeks. I was fairly studious and well-behaved...a dork, is what I'm trying to say.

Mary P: But a very talented one ; ) Thank you so much, Sara, for sharing with us. Congratulations on such a fine debut. We wish you, Deanna, and Story of a Girl 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 Sara, fire away! !

WICKED LOVELY by Melissa Marr

Marlene P: Tell us about WICKED LOVELY

Melissa Marr: Wicked Lovely is the story of a faery king's search for his destined queen. It's the story of a mortal girl who can see the faery world and wants nothing to do with it. It's the story of a once-mortal girl who exists to oppose the faery king. It's a story about choices made and un-made, love fated and un-fated. And at the core, for me, it's a story about refusing to let anyone or anything steal your choices.

Marlene P: What was your inspiration for this story?

Melissa Marr: One of the most important reasons for writing this was hearing my kids remark on the great frequency of "weak" girls or male characters who seemed not to struggle with the difficulties of doing the right thing. Some fabulous folks have given us strong female characters and thinking male characters, but there's still not enough. So I wrote a book.

Marlene P: What is the hardest part of writing for you?

Melissa Marr: Beginnings are awful. I don't know the beginning until I write the ending, and sometimes even then, I'm still not sure of it. I enjoy middles a great deal: the rush of charging forward to see how the story ends is great fun. Endings are entertaining because they allow me to see where I need to change the rest of the text. Beginnings stress me out terribly.

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

Melissa Marr: Did you know there's tea/coffee/chocolate shop that just opened near your house and delivers 24hrs a day?" No one ever asks me that. I live in hope though. . .

Marlene P: What are you working on now?

Melissa Marr: I turned in the second novel (Ink Exchange) mid-February. The next day I was invited to write a story for a new anthology (also for HarperCollins). I'm toying with a few different stories for that to see which one amuses me most. My hope is to get that sorted out before I get my revision notes from my editors, but my editors (I have 2 because the books were co-acquired by Harper US & Harper UK) are both perversely prompt people.

There's another project I'm working on too, but my agent has made me promise to practice discretion and not share details while we're still in negotiations for it. It's fun though--enough that I'm working on it before the contract is in order. I was positively gleeful over it when the offer came and am quite hopeful that the contract can be sorted out to everyone's satisfaction.

Plus, of course, I'm starting to jot random sketches for the third faery novel. My notes are still rudimentary, but they're in process. I'm looking forward to this one a great deal.

I like to be active. Now that I'm not teaching, I need many writing tasks to allay restlessness.

Marlene P: Tell us something about you that no one knows.

Melissa Marr: No one? I'm not sure. How about this--I once went on a date with a guy because he recited a bit of Lord Byron's poetry to me . . . in a cemetery . . . where he was smoking a cigarette . . . while lounging against the door of a mausoleum. He was a total stereotype, but quite lovely. I have a weakness for interesting people (and places).

Marlene P: How did you become a writer?

Melissa Marr: I really don't know how to answer this. I've always wanted to write, but I wasn't planning to truly try until I was 40. But when I was about thirty, my spouse suggested I could write now. My "I'm not 40" objection was not very logical, so I decided to give it a go. I allotted myself 3 years to try it. I wrote a bunch of stories, poems, & two novels.

Alternately, I could admit that when I was a smallish mammal I told stories nonstop. By 12, one of the good Sisters handed me a creative writing book and sent me to the library to write. I wrote poetry from then until now.

I wasn't ready to write a novel though. I wrote stories, but I shredded or burnt them all. I had this theory that not destroying them would trap the words in the wrong order, so I still destroy or delete texts that don't feel right. When I wasn't able to destroy Wicked Lovely, I knew I finally had the right story.

Marlene P: What is your favorite passage from this book?

Melissa Marr: I don't have the same one from day to day, but there are a few sections that are often my favourites.

At one point, Ash (the mortal MC) and her best friend (Seth) are talking. He's telling her a story.

[Ash:] “Does [the girl in the story] live happily ever after?”
[Seth:] “Shouldn’t there be something in the middle?”
"I like to read the ending first.” She waited, curled up in her bed, to hear his assurances, to believe--for a minute at least--that everything could be okay. “So did she?”
That's why storytelling matters to me--that moment, however brief, when we can suspend our disbelief, when we can hope and believe that everything will be okay. Ash is dealing with some serious stress, but she's still looking for reasons to believe. Stories are where we find that sometimes.

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

Melissa Marr: Yes. There's a couple scenes with volition issues in them. They're some of the most important scenes to me as a writer and as a person, but they were unpleasant to write. I'm a rape survivor, but that doesn't mean that dealing with it is ever entirely comfortable. There are emotions I needed to allow myself to feel in order to do justice to the topic. They aren't on the list of emotions I like feeling though.

Marlene P: What's on your nightstand right now?

Melissa Marr: A Brief History of Death (Davies), Psyche & Death (Herzog), an empty water bottle, alarm clock, a squirt gun, flashlight, and a rather gaudy lamp I found in an antique store.

Marlene P: What are your hobbies?

Melissa Marr: I really enjoy tattoos--getting them, seeing them, reading about them. My current artist has even taught me about the assembly of the tattoo machine. What else? Roaming pleases me. Museums, deserts, streets, beaches, paths in national forests--wandering is good.

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

Melissa Marr: Sure. Sometimes I'm certain my writing isn't ready yet and/or it takes too much time from my family. I rant and rave (or pace and sulk). My spouse is sane and wonderful though: he takes me to a museum or the beach or sends me to take a bubble bath when I freak out too severely.

Marlene P: Melissa, thank you so much for writing this book and for being our guest this week!

~~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, fire away! Melissa will answer as many as she possibly can. Congrats and confetti are always welcome, too!

SUCH A PRETTY GIRL by Laura Wiess

This week, we welcome author Laura Wiess, author of the recently released and already highly acclaimed Such a Pretty Girl (MTV Books, 2007,) an unflinchingly honest portrayal of sexual abuse, summed up in a starred Kirkus review as “Tough, darkly humorous, yet achingly vulnerable. A nail-biter of an ending." Author Luanne Rice says of the novel “Brilliance comes in a small package." But it is nurtured by a great heart. We think you’ll agree as you take a few minutes to meet Laura here at the Café.

~~~
Melissa W: Such a Pretty Girl is evoking powerful responses from readers and reviewers. Tell us a little about the story:

Laura W: Meredith Shale’s father is a pedophile. Thanks in large part to her white-knuckle testimony when she was twelve, he was convicted and sentenced to nine years in prison for molesting her and other kids in the community. Meredith though she had time to grow up, move out and start a life of her own before her father was released.

Instead, at fifteen, Meredith’s time has run out. Her father’s being released after serving only three years in prison. Her mother still loves him, insists the rape was a mistake and that he’s learned his lesson, and is bringing him home. Terrified and desperate, Meredith is determined not to let him hurt her or anyone else, ever again.

Such a Pretty Girl begins on Friday, with Meredith’s father’s homecoming, and pretty much ends on the following Monday. What happens over that long weekend is a nightmare no one, especially a kid, should ever have to endure.

Melissa W: Your story involves a powerful and painful subject matter. What kind of research did you have to do for this story?

Laura W: The most intense research I did was speaking with survivors of childhood sexual abuse, who very generously shared their personal stories, and watching James Ronald Whitney’s documentary Just Melvin: Just Evil which I highly recommend to anyone adamant that no parent would ever leave their child in harm’s way, or who would dismiss the life-altering after effects of childhood sexual abuse.

I also spoke with law enforcement, researched Megan’s Law, sex offender registries, recidivism rates, pedophilia, incest, crossover offending (molesting both boys and girls, instead of just one sex), sentencing, read firsthand accounts, and more.

I’ve received a lot of emails from adult abuse survivors since the book came out in January, saying things like, ‘Wow, I felt just like Meredith did,’ or ‘That’s exactly what happened to me.’ These readers go on to share moments from their childhood abuse and while these stories are very private, I will say that at least 90% of them say they did tell an adult, usually their mothers, only to be hushed, shushed and still expected to function within the family unit alongside the abuser, as if nothing had happened, or was continuing to happen. I’m not kidding. I wish I was.

Melissa W: What is your favorite line, passage, chapter from this book? (I have my favorite. We’ll compare notes!)

Laura W: Definitely the climax chapter. My adrenalin spikes just thinking about it. My favorite line is the last line in that same chapter. I was feeling it all as I was writing, sitting there desperate, crying, frantic, not knowing what was going to happen, and when we got right to the edge (don’t want to say what, and ruin it) there was this incredibly pure moment where time stopped – truly – and I knew what came next, and it was just overwhelming. That last line still sends chills up my spine whenever I think of it.

Melissa W: Yes! That was my favorite, too. Terrifying, courageous and utterly satisfying. Was there any part of the story that you struggled with or avoided writing?

Laura W: When Meredith first brought me her story, I actually considered changing her abuser from her father to her stepfather, or even making him her mother’s boyfriend. I didn’t know if I could stretch far or deep enough to do Meredith’s circumstances justice. In addition, walking with her through the nightmare of sexual abuse by an outsider was terrifying enough, but having to be there – fully there – when one of the two people in the world who were supposed to love and protect her above all else betrayed her, well, I knew that was really going to be raw and rough.

The thing is, if I’d turned away and rewrote her history to make it easier for me as an author, I would have done what every other adult in her life did, and that was unthinkable. Once I listened to survivor stories, heard how many kids were silenced so as not to ‘upset the family’ and desperately wished it had been otherwise, well, it was a done deal, with no going back.

Childhood sexual abuse happens. The kids are not the ones who ‘upset the family’; the adult predator has already done that by his/her deliberate, chosen act. Ignoring sexual abuse will not make it stop. On the contrary; it only smooths the path for the abuser to continue unchallenged.

Melissa W: Your commitment to the hard truth of Meredith’s situation is evident in every word of this novel. I’m sure everyone who has read it is wondering what you are working on now.

Laura W: I just received my editor’s notes on my next MTV book tentatively titled Leftovers, which is the story of what causes two good-hearted girls to commit an unforgivable act in the name of love, and justice. I’m very much looking forward to digging in and working on revisions.

And thanks so much to you, Marlene and Mary for hosting me, and for making the Cafe such an inviting place to hang out. It's been a real pleasure.

Melissa W: You’re welcome any time. Thank you for creating such a fabulous 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, fire away! Laura will answer as many as she possibly can. Congrats and confetti are always welcome, too!

A Call for Topics

As we mentioned in our first post, in addition to author interviews we will also post discussion topics for everyone to weigh in on. Are there any hot topics that you would especially like to discuss that center on young adult literature? Topics can range from industry news, to trends, to the craft of writing as long as it relates to YA books.

What kinds of topics would you like the YA community to weigh in on?
Let's get a list going!

TANTALIZE by Cynthia Leitich Smith

Award-winning author Cynthia Leitich Smith, writes fiction for everyone, from toddlers to teens. Her books include JINGLE DANCER (Morrow, 2000), RAIN IS NOT MY INDIAN NAME (HarperCollins, 2001), INDIAN SHOES (HarperCollins, 2002) and SANTA KNOWS co-authored with husband Greg Leitich Smith.

Her latest book, TANTALIZE (Candlewick, 2007), marks her debut into the world of young adult fiction. We are very honored and pleased to have her as our first guest at the Cafe.

~~~

Mary P: Tell us about Tantalize! What has you most excited about this story?

Cynthia: Tantalize is the story of Quincie P. Morris, 17, whose family owns an Italian restaurant in Austin, Texas. Just when the restaurant, Sanguini's, is about to relaunch with a vampire theme, her long-time chef is murdered and suspicions land on her hybrid werewolf best friend/first love. Meanwhile, Quincie's job is to "makeover" the dorky new hire chef--to bring him from blah to bite--in time to play a convincing "master vampire" for opening night. Before Quincie knows what's happening, though, real vampires swoop into the mix and clash with humans and shape-shifters as the question arises: who is predator, and who is prey? I'm most excited about the story itself, but I don't want to give too much of that away. Let's just say it's a genre bender, offering gothic fantasy, suspense, mystery, romance, and humor with a serving of blood-and-tongue sausages on the side. I'm pleased to have offered a strong, ambitious, female protagonist whose sensuality...unlike in so many horror stories...is what makes her human, not a monster. Beyond that, it's fun to share my gothic vision of near south and central Austin. My world is eclectic, and (also unlike most genre fiction) reflects the diversity of our real one. Peel back the scary romp, and there's depth there--thematic treatments of alcholism, feminism, race and class relations, all through analogy. But many YAs will just enjoy the marinara-baked chills, and that's just fine.

Mary P: What kind of research did you have to do?

Cynthia: I returned to the dark master, started with Bram Stoker's Dracula (1897). It was a secondary character, Quincey P. Morris, a Texan among Van Helsing's vampire hunters who had first set me on this course. As an Austinite, I longed to "bring home" the mythology and update it for the 21rst century--especially when it came to gender (Victorians wrote their women as virginal or fiendish, which didn't work for me) and clashing cultures (Dracula as a metaphor for the "dark, evil foreigner," which also didn't fly). It was intriguing, though, how those "dated" prejudices persist in the modern world and addressing them in my supernatural one.That said, to write in a literary tradition, you must know it. There's a difference between being derivative and making a contribution to a long conversation of books. So, I not only studied Dracula, the novel, but also other fictional works (film and literary) it inspired and related scholarly criticism. I offer a sampling of books and DVDs I considered via a bibliography on my official site at:

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/CLS/cyn_books/tantalize/tantalize_biblios.html

But vampires aren't the only fantasy creatures in Tantalize. I also included a variety of shape-shifters, drawn largely from the Central Austin setting (though there's nothing to prevent, say, a wereantelope, from hopping a plane). Consequently, I spent quality time reading and watching videos of such diverse characters as wolves and turkey vultures. I also camped out for a few days taking notes at the Austin and Nature Center. Some of the resources I consulted are listed at yet another bibliography on my site at:

http://www.cynthialeitichsmith.com/CLS/cyn_books/tantalize/tantalize_biblios.html

Then it was a matter of dealing with real Austin, juxtaposing and synthesizing the worlds. For the fiction restaurant, Sanguini's, I interviewed restaurant pros, dined at every Italian joint in town (such a burden), scoured cookbooks, and enlisted my cook-in-the-family husband's aid with the menu. Moreover, I put together outfits for my characters at local boutiques. I went "house shopping" for each one, confessing my agenda to real estate agents (all of whom thought it was cool) and left with floor plans. I even walked the Fairview, South Congress, Bouldin Creek, and Old Enfield neighborhoods with a camera. Imagine me at Jo's Coffee on main street Texas approaching a large tatoo-covered man in much leather and many chains: "Excuse me, sir, I'm a horror novelist, and I think you'd be a wonderful model for a vampire. Would you mind if I took your picture as a reference?" He was enthralled.

.

Mary P: What is your favorite line, passage, or chapter from this book? (I always have favorites in mine but no one ever asks!)

.

Cynthia: The story includes a minor character, Meara Morales, who'd been a dear friend of Quincie's late parents and is the werewolf mother of leading man Kieren. Meara left her pack long ago to marry her human husband and now works as a wedding planner. When Quincie goes to visit Kieren, early in the story, Meara sits her down in the living room for "a talk." She begins, "It's time a woman explained to you the facts of life." Quincie, believing this is going to be about sex, is temporarily mortified. Although Meara is the closest thing to a mom she has, the boy of Quincie's desire is of course Meara's own son. But then Meara qualifies that she's referring instead to Kieren's need to leave them both and join a Wolf pack, both for his safety and everyone else's. This, to Quincie who loves him so much, is even worse. It's just one example of moments where the natural and supernatural blur in a specifically adolescent context, one that speaks to the YA characters (and hopefully YA readers) on more than one level while also advancing the story.

MaryP: What are you working on now?

Cynthia: I'm currently polishing another YA gothic fantasy manuscript, this one tentatively titled Eternal, to send to my Candlewick editor at the end of the month. The book is under contract but not yet scheduled. It's set in the same universe as Tantalize; however, there isn't any crossover between the characters. That said, if my muse and the market cooperate, I'm hoping to do that in the next book that follows. In any case, though it's not structured as a lineal series, readers should consider Tantalize an introduction to the world and its ending on the Sanguini's dance floor a spawning ground for more story to come.

Mary P: And what a world you have created! It drew me in immediately! Thank you so much for answering my questions, Cynthia! But I don't want to hog the floor--I hope you will answer a few more questions from blog readers 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, fire away! Cynthia will answer as many as she possibly can. And feel free to send congrats and confetti her way too.