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Spring is definitely HERE.
The weather is absolutely perfect today on this Easter Sunday.
I thought I'd take a few pics of the wonderfulness going on in my yard.

Irises. I love how they look before they unfurl themselves too.

Azaleas. Pretty!

A little ladybug on the daisies. See her in there?

The tall skinny thing on the left is a fig tree that sprouted itself. How cool!
The others are a giant rose and a lilac.

Awww, daisies. Bless their hearts, they bloom all year round, even in nasty winter storms.

And there are things sprouting inside the house too! Right there on the kitchen counter.

THE BOOKS: The Squad: Perfect Cover and The Squad: Killer Spirit

THE PITCH: From the author of Golden, Platinum and Tattoo comes a new series about high school cheerleaders who are more than what they seem, and an outsider who must become one of them- to save the world. Part Charlie’s Angels, part Bring It On, The Squad focuses on a group of government operatives who double as high school cheerleaders. Already optioned for television by The N, The Squad takes you behind the perfect smiles and too-short skirts to prove that there’s nothing more dangerous than underestimating a cheerleader… especially if she’s on The Squad.

THE BLOG: http://jenlyn-b.livejournal.com/

THE EXTRAS: Quiz: Do you have what it takes to be a spy?

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING:

“Thoroughly addicting.” – Publishers Weekly

“In addition to offering crafty plotting and time-honored typical teen conflicts and rivalries, Barnes maintains a sharp sense of humor in this action-adventure series…Give me a C, give me an I, give me an A, give me more of Toby’s adventures in espionage.” - The Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books

“If you cross Ally Carter's spy books with Meg Cabot's THE MEDIATOR series, you've got your smart-aleck anti-social heroine kicking butt and taking names...in a cheerleader outfit. If you haven't discovered this series yet, you're really missing out.” – Teensreadtoo.com

Jen! Jen, Jen, Jen, Jen, Jen. I am so so so happy to hear of The N optioning The Squad series - and I can't wait to read the books for myself (currently en route from Amazon). While I'm waiting, feel like answering a few questions? Great! Let's dive in!

What is your favorite word?

Spatula. I just really like saying it - there's a great rhythm to the word; it's been my favorite since I was in the eighth grade, when my friends and I would just randomly shriek "spatula!" with no provocation whatsoever.

What is your least favorite word?

Duty. I have a friend who laughs every time anyone says it because it sounds like "doody"- and that's just awkward.

What turns you on, creatively, spiritually, or emotionally?

Cheesy pop music, hugs, people who cry when they're happy, television shows that I can watch over and over again, books that make me forget where I am, families, little kids singing, scarves and mittens, dancing around in my pajamas

What turns you off?

Unfriendliness, the sound of fingernails on a chalkboard, anger, reality television that is neither good nor bad enough to be funny (and that gets renewed when shows like Veronica Mars get cancelled)

What's your favorite curse word?

I really like "beeotch" (though there's some debate on how to spell it), just because it's fun to say.

What sound or noise do you love?

The sound of bubblewrap popping. Or maybe I'm just conflating the sound with the fact that I really like popping the bubbles.

What sound or noise do you hate?

The sound of chewing - I'm fine with normal chewing, but remarkably loud chewing is like the worst sound ever.

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt?

I'd love to write for television, and I'd love to teach. Beyond that, though, I'm pretty content with the professions I have!

What profession would you not like to do?

Even though it's a pretty cool profession, I wouldn't want to be a historian- I love enjoying the spoils of their work, but wouldn't want to do it myself!

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates?

You know, I kind of like the idea of God smiling silently.

BONUS QUESTION: If someone were to make a movie of this book, who would you want to bring your characters to life?

I love this question! And, of course, I've thought about it at length. My current favorite pick for Toby, my loner turned cheerleading secret agent would be Alyson Stoner - but a younger Amber Tamblyn would also fit really well. For the squad captain and co-captain, I'd go with Lucy Hale (most recently on Bionic Woman) and Lyndsey Fonseca (of Desperate Housewives and How I Met Your Mother). For Toby's partner, I'd cast Willa Holland, and in my dream-world, Miley Cyrus and Hayden Panettiere would also make appearances, because they rock.

Okay, so we totally should write a TV show together. I'm completely serious here. You + me + TV = RATINGS GOLD. Are you with me?


Jennifer Lynn Barnes is a Fulbright Scholar and a recent graduate of both Yale University and Cambridge University. A former competitive cheerleader, she was named an All-American Cheerleader by the National Cheerleaders Association in 1997. She can neither confirm nor deny any experience she may or may not have had as a secret agent, but she can tell you that in addition to The Squad series, she’s the author of three other teen novels: Golden, Tattoo, and Platinum. Jennifer wrote her first book when she was still a teenager and she is currently hard at work on her next. Visit her online at www.jenniferlynnbarnes.com

THE BOOK: Don't Get It Twisted: A Del Rio Bay Clique Novel

THE PITCH: In Don’t Get It Twisted, the sequel to her debut, So Not The Drama, Paula Chase gives readers a peek into the Del Rio Bay clique’s foray into dating, while also dipping her toe into the issue of student athletics and cheating. Using humor and earnest insight, Chase continues the story of Mina Mooney and her mixed bag of friends.

Don’t Get It Twisted [Kensington Books/Dafina for Young Readers] finds Mina scheming to go on a date with her crush, Craig, to The Frenzy, a coveted party thrown by the school’s football team. As she draws her friends into the plans, a newcomer throws an unexpected monkey wrench into her blossoming relationship with Craig.

The same newcomer has JZ sweating his spot on the Varsity basketball team and soon, both Mina and JZ are on the ‘by any means necessary’ road to trouble.

Don’t Get It Twisted is about the consequences and repercussions of the choices we make when we set out to get the things we really want.

THE BLOG: Paula's Jort Too :: http://www.paulachasehyman.com/blog.html

THE EXTRAS: Check out Paula's cool book trailer. Then, read an excerpt here.

Hey, Paula! I'm ringing in on the very tail end of your book tour, but I'm psyched to have you here. Let's get it started!

What is your favorite word? Obsession because I have many

What is your least favorite word? Calm down – okay, I know that’s two!

What turns you on, creatively, spiritually, or emotionally? When I’m writing and I reach the sweet spot, that moment when I feel as if I’m literally among the characters in the book. It’s what I imagine being high is like, very surreal and comforting.

What turns you off? Stage fright, those days when I want to write but am almost afraid to because the vibe’s simply not humming. The blank page is not my friend during those moments.

What's your favorite curse word? Oh dear, am I really allowed to say? It’s the Eff word. I think it actually releases endorphins when said under the proper circumstances.

What sound or noise do you love? Rain, especially those mid-level downpours where it’s not too hard or too light

What sound or noise do you hate? Constant sniffling drives me nuts

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? Professional dancer

What profession would you not like to do? Uck, that guy Mike Rowe’s job as host of Dirty Jobs on Discovery

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? Massage table #3 is waiting for you. An eternal massage, now that’s heavenly.


Author Paula Chase has written for Girls Life, Sweet 16 and Baltimore Magazine, among others. In addition to her background in corporate communications and public relations, she founded the Committed Black Women, a youth mentoring program for 14-17 year old girls. Her Del Rio Bay Clique series helped launch Kensington Books YA line and joins a burgeoning 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, 106 & Park-ing, pop culture hungry hip hop generation. The author lives in Maryland with her husband and two daughters. Learn more about the series and author at www.paulachasehyman.com.

I know that I've been covering a lot of books recently, but hey, there are a lot of new good ones coming out, so...with that said, I'm really excited to host Jenny Gardiner, a new member of the GCC today, not least because I think her book, Sleeping with Ward Cleaver, might have one of the best titles this year. When I picture it, I actually picture sleeping with Wally Cleaver, which is a little bit disturbing, but nevertheless, the title certainly lodges in your mind and stays there. :) More seriously, the themes of this book echo similar themes as in Time of My Life, and I'm really looking forward to reading it. Sounds like it will resonate with a lot of women. Here's the synopsis:

Claire Doolittle is not a happy camper. The married mother of five seems to have lost her way in life. Swept off her feet years earlier by Mr. Right, she’s dismayed that husband Jack has turned into Mr. Always Right, and the only sweeping happening in her life involves a broom and a dustpan. Jack’s officious, perfunctory way has left fun, spontaneity and laughter at the doorstep, and Claire is beginning to wonder if she’s actually married to a modern-day version of Ward Cleaver, the stuff-shirted father figure from Leave it to Beaver sitcom fame.

Worse yet, she’s so bogged down by her overwhelming life and so turned off by the idea of getting it on with her stodgy father-figure of a husband, she’s simply blocked out all of her memories of the Claire-who-used-to-be. Cue a former fiancé, who re-enters her life when she desperately needs to figure out who she was, who she is, and who she wants to be. And if she wants to salvage her sagging marriage, or fall back on her old fiancé, who’s wooing her with promises of what could have been. Throw in a predatory hottie from Jack’s office who’s set her sights on Claire’s ho-hum husband, and you’ve got the recipe for a mid-life crisis of epic proportions.

Jenny Gardiner’s novel, winner of Dorchester Publishing’s American Title III contest, is sure to lure you into the mundane yet compelling world of Claire Doolittle and will leave you cheering for her marriage.

Here, Jenny drops by to answer a few of my standard questions:

1) What's the backstory behind your book?
I've always liked to watch people, I love to observe, pay attention to what is going on in their lives and what motivates them. And I couldn't help but notice that so many women who I remember from their wedding days, so full of hope and optimism, had settled into more of a daily grind in their marriages--life, work, kids all get in the way of sustaining that level of positive emotions you experience when you first get married. We were starting to see marriages fail, which is always so sad.

And at the same time I was really interested to see how so many women became empowered as they approached middle-age. All of a sudden their kids are getting older and more self-sufficient. Many had left jobs behind to raise their kids, so found themselves in the position of having to reinvent themselves. Sometimes having to reinvent yourself is a really awesome gift, really. It forces you to explore what it is you want out of life, what it is you think is missing.
And at the same time I started noticing this difference with women and men at that point in life--while women seemed to be blossoming, men seemed to become more set in their ways. It's ripe for conflict, in that regard.

It made me think that many men really do become Ward Cleaver-like. And I don't know about you, but the idea of sleeping with Ward Cleaver isn't really so appealing LOL. Hence the title came to me, and with all of these musings swimming about my head, I started working on this idea, and the next thing you know I had a book!

2) It seems that a lot of readers confuse fiction with real life, assuming that a novel must be an autobiography of the author as well. How many elements of your real life are reflected in your book?
There's no doubt that my sarcastic voice is the thread running through the book--I've injected that into my protagonist's head. But generally-speaking, I sort of compiled all of those things that I'd heard sitting around over drinks with girlfriends--all those enormous chasms that occur between men and women once kids come along, and incorporated them into a composite marriage. I do, however, have a parrot who poops all over my house and it makes me CRAZY!

3) A lot of my blog readers are aspiring or new authors. How did you land your first book deal?
I followed an unconventional path to publication. I'd entered the American Title III contest in the hopes of expediting getting my book in front of an editor's eyes. In general, I think entering contests is a good idea--it helps to get feedback (albeit sometimes not the most useful feedback). And if you do well enough, it *can* expedite getting your writing in front of an editor or agent, which is a pretty nice thing.

Much to my surprise my book was chosen as a finalist in the contest. For the six months following that, I had to hunker down and become a marketing maven, spending many, many hours online especially, trying to enlist support for my book in the contest from all sorts of crazy angles. Little did I know I would be laying the groundwork for marketing/publicizing my book. I was just busy trying to stay in the contest, and because of the nature of the contest, and it was sort of before contests started becoming fairly ubiquitous, people were generally pretty enthusiastic about backing me--they felt somewhat vested in the process.

In the meantime, I had prior to all of this been talking back and forth with a lovely agent who had kind of taken me under his wing. We'd been batting about some book ideas, tried to flesh things out, but he was very busy and things kept being sidelined. But ultimately he facilitated my signing with my agent, as he thought we'd be a good match-up, which we have been. At around this time is when I won the contest, which meant that I won a book deal--hugely thrilling and I just didn't realize how lucky I was that on top of all of that, I had built up a potential readership along the way.

4) I have a serious procrastination problem when it comes to tackling my fiction. What's your routine? How do you dive in? Do you have any rituals or necessary to-dos before or while you write?

So I'm totally fascinated with the concept of today's GCC book, Earthly Pleasures. Of late, as I've mentioned on this blog, I've been contempating those big WHY questions - why are we here, what is our purpose, and of course, religion and God and all of that plays into it. So it's easy to see why I'd be drawn into the description of this book, which was a Notable Book Sense February pick and which Publishers Weekly called "smart, funny and appealingly unorthodox."

THE BOOK: Earthly Pleasures

THE PITCH: Welcome to Heaven. Use your Wishberry to hustle up whatever you want. Have an online chat with God. Visit the attractions such as Retail Rapture, Wrath of God miniature golf and Nocturnal Theater, where nightly dreams are translated to film.

Your greeter might just be Skye Sebring who will advises her newly dead clients on what to expect now that they’re expired. “Heaven is like a Corona Beer commercial” she assures her charges. “It’s all about contentment.”

So different than Earth where chaos reigns. Unfortunately for Skye, she’s been chosen to live her first life. She’s required to attend Earth 101 classes, which teach all of the world’s greatest philosophies through five Beatle songs.

Skye has no interest in Earthly pursuits, until lawyer Ryan Blaine briefly becomes her client after a motorcycle accident. Just as they are getting to know each other, he is revived and sent back to Earth.

She follows his life via the TV channel “Earthly Pleasures” but discovers he has a wife as well as a big secret. Why then does he call a show for the lovelorn to talk about the lost love of his life?

In Earthly Pleasures (Simon and Schuster, February 2008, $14) great love can transcend the dimensions, narrowing the vast difference between Heaven and Earth.

THE BLOG: Southern Comfort http://karingillespie.blogspot.com/

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: "...Appealingly unorthodox... a heaven where angels lust, drink and follow terrestrial celebrity gossip… A tangled story of cold ambition and true love unspools. Neches’s funny and sweet novel shows that to err is human and angelic as well." – Publisher's Weekly

Also, Earthly Pleasures is a Booksense Notable for February 2008!

Hi, Karin! Shall we get started?

What is your favorite word? scintillating

What is your least favorite word? barf

What turns you on, creatively, spiritually, or emotionally? An exquisite meal

What turns you off? Left turns in heavy traffic

What's your favorite curse word? dang

What sound or noise do you love? My husband playing the piano

What sound or noise do you hate? Leaf blower

What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? Rock star

What profession would you not like to do? Chicken plucker

If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? This way to the chocolate.

BONUS QUESTION: If someone were to make a movie of this book, who would you want to bring your characters to life?

Kate Hudson as my main character, Skye Sebring a greeter in Heaven because she has a sunny, angelic look. Matthew McConaughey as her love interest, Ryan because he’s so good with Kate and Ryan can be cocky at times.

One of the main characters is a 85-year old black woman named Caroline and I’d like to Cicely Tyson in that role (with appropriate make up of course.) God, who is female in my novel, would have to be played by Bette Midler, because she never takes herself to seriously.

Now that's an incarnation of God I'd love to see!


Karen Neches was single for over twenty years. She used to tell people she was in the “hospice stage” of being single as she never expected to recover. Then at the age of forty-three she finally met her soul mate. Earthly Pleasures is dedicated to him. She maintains a web site at www.karenneches.com.

Neches also writes under the name Karin Gillespie and is the nationally bestselling author of The Sweet Potato Queen’s First Big-Ass Novel with Jill Conner Browne and three novels in the critically acclaimed Bottom Dollar Girl series. She’s founder of the virtual tour The Girlfriend Cyber Circuit as well as the grog for Southern authors, A Good Blog is Hard to Find. She is a former lifestyle columnist for the Augusta Chronicle.

THE BOOK: Project 17

THE PITCH: Breaking in was easy. Getting out will be harder.

High atop Hathorne Hill, near Boston, sits Danvers State Hospital. Built in 1878 and closed in 1992, this abandoned mental institution is rumored to be the birthplace of the lobotomy. Locals have long believed the place to be haunted. They tell stories about the unmarked graves in the back, of the cold spots felt throughout the underground tunnels, and of the treasures found inside: patients' personal items like journals, hair combs, and bars of soap, or even their old medical records, left behind by the state for trespassers to view.

On the eve of the hospital's demolition, six teens break in to spend the night and film a movie about their adventures. For Derik, it's an opportunity to win a filmmaking contest and save himself from a future of flipping burgers at his parents' diner. For the others, it's a chance to be on TV, or a night with no parents. But what starts as a playful dare quickly escalates into a frenzy of nightmarish action. Behind the crumbling walls, down every dark passageway, and in each deserted room, they will unravel the mysteries of those who once lived there and the spirits who still might.

THE BLOG: http://lstolarz.livejournal.com/

THE EXTRAS: Check out the Official Book Trailer for Project 17, made by Mike Dijital: http://youtube.com/watch?v=2Nkt9p0eLDM, and this fan-created one made by M2 Productions: http://youtube.com/watch?v=wakkVfTrcJg

WHAT PEOPLE ARE SAYING: “Page-turning action, genuine scares, and a satisfying conclusion should make this a hit with teens, particularly those who enjoyed the suspense of Stolarz's "Blue Is for Nightmares" series (Flux). – School Library Journal

Welcome to the new and improved tour format, Laurie! You're the very first author to take on these questions (which, yes, I stole from James Lipton - but he stole them from somewhere, too, so I will call then "borrowed" and not feel guilty). Anyway, let's get started!

What is your favorite word? Fabulous
What is your least favorite word? Can't
What turns you on, creatively, spiritually, or emotionally? Dark chocolate, moments of silence, a long walk, a great yoga session, a really good movie
What turns you off? Narrowmindedness, intolerance, arrogance, deceit
What's your favorite curse word? f*%k
What sound or noise do you love? children laughing, my cat purring
What sound or noise do you hate? children crying
What profession other than yours would you like to attempt? holistic nutritionist
What profession would you not like to do? mortician, prison guard
If heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the pearly gates? In the words of Pink: Let's get this party started.

BONUS QUESTION: If someone were to make a movie of this book, who would you want to bring your characters to life? Wes Craven

Laurie Faria Stolarz grew up in Salem, MA, attended Merrimack College, and received an MFA in Creative Writing from Emerson College in Boston. She is currently working on Deadly Little Secret, the first book in the Touch series, also for young adults. To learn more about Laurie, please visit her website at http://www.lauriestolarz.com.

THE BOOK: KnitWise: Chicks with Sticks #3

THE PITCH:

For Scottie, Amanda, Bella, and Tay, life in Chicago has been all about seeking shelter. They’ve found it in their firelit stitch ’n bitch at Joe Coffee; in the halls of their quirky private school; in the arms of boyfriends—and always in the comfort of the friendship that bonds them together.

But now the Chicks are staring down the end of high school and it's time to contemplate life beyond the protective web of their knitty ensemble. Will the stresses of college applications and service projects, debutante balls and long-distance loves, mean the end of the Chicks? Or can this unlikely foursome bind-off the happy ending that only true friendship can craft?

The Chicks with Sticks books aren’t just for crafty types (though each book does include several original knitting patterns and projects). They’re for anyone juggling the works-in-progress that are friendship, first love, and surviving high school; for anyone who’s ever found friends in the most unlikely place—or wanted to. Sometimes you just need some string and sticks—with some full-fat hot chocolate on the side—to get you there.

THE BLOG: http://elizabethlenhard.typepad.com/

THE SAME THREE QUESTIONS I ALWAYS ASK:

Welcome, Elizabeth! Let's start with your Top Ten Desert Island Discs.

It seems every musician I love ends up being featured on NPR. I don't know if this makes me cool or hopelessly square. Probably the latter. But anyway. . .

"The Mysterious Production of Eggs" Andrew Bird
"Beneath the Country Underdog" Kelly Hogan
"Catch the Moon" Elizabeth Mitchell/Lisa Loeb, the only kiddie music my daughter and I can agree on
"Mass Romantic" the New Pornographers
The "Once" soundtrack
"Illinoise" Sufjan Stevens
"XO" Elliott Smith
Annie Lennox's "Diva," which got me through college.
Ditto the soundtrack to "Hair"
Handel's Messiah, because when you're stuck on a desert island, you need some inspiration

Hello, nostalgia! (But I'm always a sucker for musical sountracks.) Okay, next question: if you were to appear on Jeopardy!, what would your seven dream categories be?

Minutia of the Little House books
Tragically trendy baby names
Candy of the Seventies (Choco-Lite, anyone?)
Southernisms
Yiddishisms
How to gloss over mismatched blacks
Essential elements of the Chicago hot dog

Okay, I was SO expecting some variation of knitting on that list. Color me surprised! Final question: if you could live inside any TV show, which would it be and why?

Gilmore Girls, even though it's now tragically defunct. I'd happily live in reruns I've seen three times. Why? Because I'd kill to be so witty and wacky and, might I add, well-dressed.

Oh, I am so with you on that one. In my next life, I want to BE Lorelei ...


Elizabeth Lenhard grew up in Atlanta and studied English and creative writing at the University of Michigan. She’s been a features reporter for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, a contributing dining critic for Chicago magazine, and the author of more than thirty series books for teens and children. Elizabeth lives with her husband and daughter in Atlanta. Now that the Chicks are college-bound, she’s assuaging her empty nest syndrome with lots and lots of knitting. You can visit her on the web at http://elizabethlenhard.com/ and http://myspace.com/elizabethlenhard.

THE BOOK: The Boys Next Door

THE PITCH:

Lori has spent every summer on the lake, swimming and wakeboarding with the three boys next door, and working at the boys’ family marina. Lori is close to Adam, the “baby” of the family, who's her age. But secretly, she’s always had a thing for the middle brother, Sean. And this summer, Sean actually seems to be—dare she think it—flirting with her. She figures he’s only being nice because they're like family, since he’s not into younger girls. Until he steals Adam's (even younger) girlfriend.

Lori and Adam team up to get Adam’s girlfriend back, and to get Sean for Lori. But then Lori begins to notice ADAM. He’s grown taller. More mature. And Lori thinks Adam is interested in her, too. And that’s when their ploy finally works. Adam gets his girlfriend back, and Lori gets Sean. The right couples are finally in place, and everything should be smooth sailing. So what’s with all the waves?

THE BLOG: http://jenniferechols.livejournal.com

THE SAME THREE QUESTIONS I ALWAYS ASK:

Hi, Jennifer! Tell us: what are your Top Ten Desert Island Discs?

Earth Wind & Fire - The Eternal Dance
30 Seconds to Mars - A Beautiful Lie
Nickelback - All the Right Reasons
Alison Krauss & Union Station - Live
Incubus - Make Yourself
Justin Timberlake - FutureSex/LoveSounds
Chicago - The Very Best of Chicago
John Mayer - Heavier Things
Kelly Clarkson - Breakaway
Nickel Creek - Why Should the Fire Die?

Talk about eclectic! I can't wait to hear what your seven dream Jeopardy! categories are!

Modern lit
Southern lit (I spent a long time in grad school)
Post-traumatic stress disorder
Allergy and clinical immunology
Electroconvulsive therapy (I copyedit medical journals)
1970s television
Birds

That sounds like a pretty intense round of Jeopardy!. Last question: if you could live inside any TV show, which would it be and why?

The O.C., because it was beautiful and on the beach and Adam Brody and Benjamin McKenzie were there. But I want to live only in the episodes before people started dying and things caught on fire.

Yeah, but didn't Ryan burn down the model hom in, like, the second episode?


Jennifer Echols is the author of the National Readers Choice Award-winning Major Crush, about a high school pageant queen turned band geek in a small southern town. Boy in Blue, about a rebellious teen who is sentence to accompany a police officer on his night shift patrol—and falls for him, will be published by MTV Books in February 2009. Growing up on beautiful Lake Martin in Alabama, Jennifer learned to water-ski when she was five (wakeboarding wasn't invented yet). She now lives high and dry with her husband and son in Birmingham. Visit her on the web at www.jennifer-echols.com.

THE BOOK: Beyond Cool

THE PITCH:

Floe Ryan was frozen for ten years. Crazy, but true. She was vitrified at sixteen because of a rare disease. Now she’s been thawed back to her normal self, but absolutely everything else has changed. Her little sister’s older than her, her teachers are now holograms (but still annoying), and instead of learning to drive a car, she’s trying to master a hovercar. And just when she starts warming up to this new scene, everything falls apart…

Her boyfriend is giving her the, er, cold shoulder, and worse, Dr. Dixon at the Cryonics Center tells her that people who were frozen are more susceptible to illnesses. The one doctor who can cure this immune system weakness has gone AWOL. Now it’s up to Floe and her brainy friend Sophie to find him. But they’re not the only ones looking for him--and this time, Floe could be iced for good…

THE BLOG: http://www.myspace.com/bevkatzrosenbaum

THE SAME THREE QUESTIONS I ALWAYS ASK:

Welcome, Bev! Spill it, lady: what are your Top Ten Desert Island Discs?

Jackson Five Greatest Hits
The Supremes Greatest Hits
Wicked soundtrack
Hairspray soundtrack
Rent soundtrack
A Chorus Line soundtrack
Breakaway, Kelly Clarkson
The Reminder, Feist
James Taylor Greatest Hits
Come Away With Me, Norah Jones

Oh! Oh! I love the WICKED soundtrack - and RENT is a perenial favorite. But what about LES MIZ? Moving on ... if you were going to appear on Jeopardy!, what would be your seven dream categories?

Chick lit
Celebrity Gossip
Chocolate
70s hairdos
HGTV shows
Teen slang
Beauty products

You and I would so make a winning bar trivia team! Okay, final question: if you could live inside any TV show, which would it be and why?

I'd have to say Gilmore Girls (if you'll let me use a cancelled show) 'cuz I think it would be totally awesome to be a writer in the town of Stars Hollow. I'd take my laptop to Luke's Diner every day (even though he might get cranky about loitering), and hang with Lorelai. (We'd def be bffs.)

Not if I beat you to it!


Bev Katz Rosenbaum is a former fiction and magazine editor who found her calling when she fell in love with the books her kids were reading and the TV shows they were watching. She lives in Toronto with her family. Be sure to check out her website at www.bevkatzrosenbaum.com.