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Marie Lu is author of the Legends and the Young Elites trilogies.

Her books have "interesting, complex plots that never settle for easy answers," Lin said as she introduced Marie, an extraordinarily successful writer.

SCBWI was one of the first conferences Marie ever heard about as an aspiring writer. LEGENDS is set in a futuristic LA and it's about a boy who's the most wanted criminal and a girl who's the most gifted hunter of criminals.

"I'm a very happy person. My books do not reflect this," she joked.

Marie always liked writing, but didn't know you could do it for a living. She was born in Beijing, and was five years old during the Tiananmen Square massacre. Her family came to the states and settled in New Orleans. The family knew no English. Her mom wanted to go out and see what typical American families do. So they set out—and it was Mardi Gras.

"I have this memory of standing there in this crazy street where people were throwing beads at you for no reason." She didn't know what had just happened—"but I liked it."

She started writing to learn English. In kindergarten, she had to look up five English words every day and put them into sentences. "I eventually realized I liked the practice of putting words into stories."

She became a voracious reader. She loved Brian Jacques's Redwall Series, Harry Potter, and Tolkien. She had a writing desk in her room, and she made the space where the chair went into a library, which she enclosed with a curtain and illuminated with a flashlight.

She also loved to draw and would put a paper up to the screen a trace a frame of a Disney movie. "I eventually figured out how to draw on my own." Her childhood was drawing and reading and playing games. "I loved every second of it."

She wrote her first novel at 14, and she thought it was "amazing." It involved a chosen one on the quest with dwarves and elves "for a shiny thing." She submitted to 100 agents, but didn't get any bites.

She used to set her alarm clock during high school for 2 AM, and she'd write two hours a night. Her second manuscript, written when she was 16 or 17, was "a little bit less bad." It got her an agent, but many more rejections. She would draw and write in her spare time, and before her school work, but her parents worried she wouldn't be able to support herself. So she studied political science in college. She kept submitting books and kept getting rejections, and parted ways with her agent.

She applied for a Disney internship. Her parents: "Our basement is here for you. You go and do what you need to do to make yourself happy." She got the gig and worked there for two years. "It was absolutely a life-changing experience. This was the first time in my life I had been surrounded by fellow creative people."

"Once I started working in video games, I started writing again." She got a new agent, Kristin Nelson, and her fourth novel went out on submissions. She got a lot of rejections. By the time her fifth novel, LEGEND sold, she'd been rejected 500 times. "Rejection eventually becomes a piece of paper. Put it on the pile. We'll build a fort out of it."

Because rejection didn't bother her as much, she could concentrate and write LEGEND.

"Every writer succeeds at their own pace. It took me 12 years and four unpublished manuscripts... There are no guarantees in this business."

She gave us some terrific writing advice: about the importance of hard work, about learning to take criticism, and about the importance of not comparing ourselves to others.

"Be brave and listen," she told us. "None of us know everything. None of us is always right. We can always learn more." She feels she made mistakes with the relationship of a couple in LEGEND. She didn't know at the time, and she learned to see her failure there because she listened. "No one enjoys being called out," she said. But our intentions don't matter if they don't come across on the page.

"We are all in this together. The journey to publication is not always fair. It takes all of us to lift up those voices that struggle to be heard."

Follow Marie on Twitter.
Start reading THE YOUNG ELITES
Marie Lu on Tumblr

Happy New Year! Can you believe PubCrawl is four years old this year? How time does fly! This little blog will be toddling off to grade school before we know it, sniff.

Anyway, to start off another awesome year with us, we thought we’d let y’all know what we PubCrawlers (current and alumni) are publishing this year!

E.C. Myers

Against All Silence

Available May 23, 2016!

After being a key figure in the exposing of government corruption, Max Stein has spent a quiet semester abroad in Paris, studying, staying off the Internet, and looking for his long-lost mother. But just as he is about to fly back to the United States for the holidays, trouble manages to find him once again.

Max receives a call from Penny, his on-again-off-again girlfriend who is part of the expert hacking duo DoubleThink. She wants him to meet with Ada Kiesler, a high-profile whistleblower hiding out at a foreign embassy in Berlin. Max has no interest in getting drawn into another corporate conspiracy. But when airport security suddenly detains him on suspicion of cyber-terrorism, he has little choice but to get involved. Soon Max and Penny are tangling with a new group of shadowy figures who are determined to control how the world shares its information. And some figures from Max s past resurface, including his own mother, whose life has mirrored his own in more ways than he d realized.

In this action-packed follow up to The Silence of Six, Max and his hacker friends must fight to expose a corrupt corporation that has been systematically taking control of the Internet.

E.C. MYERS was assembled in the U.S. from Korean and German parts and raised by a single mother and the public library in Yonkers, New York. He is the author of the Andre Norton Award–winning young adult novel Fair Coin and Quantum Coin, as well as numerous short stories. His latest novel, The Silence of Six, is a thriller about teenage hackers and government conspiracies. You can find traces of him all over the internet, but especially at ecmyers.net and on Twitter @ecmyers.

Stacey Lee

Outrun the Moon

Available May 24, 2016!

From the author of the critically acclaimed Under a Painted Sky, an unforgettable story of determination set against a backdrop of devastating tragedy. Perfect for fans of Code Name Verity.

San Francisco, 1906: Fifteen-year-old Mercy Wong is determined to break from the poverty in Chinatown, and an education at St. Clare’s School for Girls is her best hope. Although St. Clare’s is off-limits to all but the wealthiest white girls, Mercy gains admittance through a mix of cunning and a little bribery, only to discover that getting in was the easiest part. Not to be undone by a bunch of spoiled heiresses, Mercy stands strong—until disaster strikes.

On April 18, an historic earthquake rocks San Francisco, destroying Mercy’s home and school. With martial law in effect, she is forced to wait with her classmates for their families in a temporary park encampment. Mercy can’t sit by while they wait for the Army to bring help. Fires might rage, and the city may be in shambles, yet Mercy still has the ‘bossy’ cheeks that mark her as someone who gets things done. But what can one teenaged girl do to heal so many suffering in her broken city?

Breakout author Stacey Lee masterfully crafts another remarkable novel set against a unique historical backdrop. Strong-willed Mercy Wong leads a cast of diverse characters in this extraordinary tale of survival.

Stacey has two books coming out in 2016!

Catch a Falling Heart

Pub date not yet available

A 16-year-old aromateur with an extraordinary nose, the last in a long line of love witches, scrambles to reverse the effects of a love elixir after giving it to the wrong target—all while trying not to fall for the woman’s attractive son. Publication is set for fall 2016.

STACEY LEE is a fourth generation Chinese-American whose people came to California during the heydays of the cowboys. She believes she still has a bit of cowboy dust in her soul. A native of southern California, she graduated from UCLA then got her law degree at UC Davis King Hall. After practicing law in the Silicon Valley for several years, she finally took up the pen because she wanted the perks of being able to nap during the day, and it was easier than moving to Spain. She plays classical piano, wrangles children, and writes YA fiction.

Jodi Meadows

The Mirror King

Available April 5, 2016!

Wilhelmina has a hundred enemies.

HER FRIENDS HAVE TURNED. After her identity is revealed during the Inundation, Princess Wilhelmina is kept prisoner by the Indigo Kingdom, with the Ospreys lost somewhere in the devastated city. When the Ospreys’ leader emerges at the worst possible moment, leaving Wil’s biggest ally on his deathbed, she must become Black Knife to set things right.

HER MAGIC IS UNCONTROLLABLE. Wil’s power is to animate, not to give true life, but in the wraithland she commanded a cloud of wraith mist to save herself, and later ordered it solid. Now there is a living boy made of wraith—destructive and deadly, and willing to do anything for her.

HER HEART IS TORN. Though she’s ready for her crown, declaring herself queen means war. Caught between what she wants and what is right, Wilhelmina realizes the throne might not even matter. Everyone thought the wraith was years off, but already it’s destroying Indigo Kingdom villages. If she can’t protect both kingdoms, soon there won’t be a land to rule.

In this stunning conclusion to THE ORPHAN QUEEN, Jodi Meadows follows Wilhelmina’s breathtaking and brave journey from orphaned criminal on the streets to magic-wielding queen.

Jodi also has two books coming out in 2016, plus an e-novella!

My Lady Jane

Available June 7, 2016!

For fans of The Princess Bride comes the comical, fantastical, romantical, (not) entirely true story of Lady Jane Grey.

Lady Jane Grey, sixteen, is about to be married to a total stranger—and caught up in an insidious plot to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But that’s the least of Jane’s problems. She’s about to become Queen of England. Like that could go wrong.

JODI MEADOWS lives and writes in the Shenandoah Valley, Virginia, with her husband, a Kippy*, and an alarming number of ferrets. She is a confessed book addict, and has wanted to be a writer ever since she decided against becoming an astronaut. She is the author of the Incarnate Trilogy and The Orphan Queen Duology (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen).

*A Kippy is a cat.

Julie Eshbaugh

Ivory and Bone

Available June 14, 2016!

The only life seventeen-year-old Kol knows is hunting at the foot of the Great Ice with his brothers. But food is becoming scarce, and without another clan to align with, Kol, his family, and their entire group are facing an uncertain future.

Traveling from the south, Mya and her family arrive at Kol’s camp with a trail of hurt and loss behind them, and hope for a new beginning. When Kol meets Mya, her strength, independence, and beauty instantly captivate him, igniting a desire for much more than survival.

Then on a hunt, Kol makes a grave mistake that jeopardizes the relationship that he and Mya have only just started to build. Mya was guarded to begin with—and for good reason—but no apology or gesture is enough for her to forgive him. Soon after, another clan arrives on their shores. And when Mya spots Lo, a daughter of this new clan, her anger intensifies, adding to the already simmering tension between families. After befriending Lo, Kol learns of a dark history between Lo and Mya that is rooted in the tangle of their pasts.

When violence erupts, Kol is forced to choose between fighting alongside Mya or trusting Lo’s claims. And when things quickly turn deadly, it becomes clear that this was a war that one of them had been planning all along.

JULIE ESHBAUGH writes young adult fiction. She is the author of the upcoming Ivory and Bone (HarperCollins, 2016.) You can visit Julie’s website, add her on Goodreads and follow her on Pinterest and Twitter @JulieEshbaugh.

S. Jae-Jones

Wintersong

Available September 13, 2016!

Beware the goblin men and the wares they sell.

All her life, nineteen-year-old Liesl has heard tales of the beautiful, mysterious Goblin King. He is the Lord of Mischief, the Ruler Underground, and the muse around which her music is composed. Yet, as Liesl helps shoulder the burden of running her family’s inn, her dreams of composition and childish fancies about the Goblin King must be set aside in favor of more practical concerns.

But when her sister Käthe is taken by the goblins, Liesl journeys to their realm to rescue her sister and return her to the world above. The Goblin King agrees to let Käthe go—for a price. The life of a maiden must be given to the land, in accordance with the old laws. A life for a life, he says. Without sacrifice, nothing good can grow. Without death, there can be no rebirth. In exchange for her sister’s freedom, Liesl offers her hand in marriage to the Goblin King. He accepts.

Down in the Underground, Liesl discovers that the Goblin King still inspires her—musically, physically, emotionally. Yet even as her talent blossoms, Liesl’s life is slowly fading away, the price she paid for becoming the Goblin King’s bride. As the two of them grow closer, they must learn just what it is they are each willing to sacrifice: her life, her music, or the end of the world.

S. JAE-JONES (called JJ) is an artist, an adrenaline junkie, and the author of Wintersong (Thomas Dunne, 2016). Before moving to grits country, she was a YA fiction editor in New York City. A southern California native, she now lives in North Carolina, and many other places on the internet, including Twitter, Instagram, Tumblr, and her blog.

Stephanie Garber

Caraval

Available September 20, 2016!

An original world. A legendary competition. A mesmerizing romance. An unbreakable bond between two sisters.

Welcome to Caraval—the spell-casting first book in a fantasy series that’s perfect for fans of Marissa Meyer’s Lunar Chronicles series and The Night Circus.

Before you enter the world of Caraval, you must remember that it’s all a game . . .

Scarlett has never left the tiny island where she and her beloved sister, Tella, live with their ruthless father. Now Scarlett’s father has arranged a marriage for her, and Scarlett thinks her dreams of seeing Caraval, the legendary, once-a-year performance where the audience participates in the show, are over.

Then, Scarlett’s long-dreamt of invitation to Caraval finally arrives. So, Tella enlists a mysterious sailor’s help to whisk Scarlett away to this year’s show. But as soon as the trio arrives, Tella is kidnapped by Caraval’s mastermind organizer, Legend.

Scarlett has been told that everything that happens during Caraval is only an elaborate performance. But she nonetheless soon becomes enmeshed in a game of love, heartbreak, and magic with her sister, with Legend, and with the other players in the game. And whether Caraval is real or not, she must find Tella before the five nights of the game are over, a dangerous domino effect of consequences is set off, and her sister disappears forever.

STEPHANIE GARBER loves Disneyland because it’s the one place on earth where she feels as if the fantastical stories she loves to write about could actually come to life. When she’s not writing young adult fantasy, she teaches creative writing a private college in northern California. Her debut novel, Caraval, will be published by Flatiron Books/Macmillan (US) and Hodder & Stoughton (UK) in fall 2016.

And of course we couldn’t let the publication of our dear PubCrawl alumni pass without a mention! Here are some forthcoming books from PubCrawl members past!

Alexandra Bracken

Available now!

Susan Dennard

Available now!

Sarah J. Maas

Available May 3, 2016!

Sarah J. Maas

Throne of Glass #5 (no pub date available)

Marie Lu

The Young Elites #3 (no pub date available)

Amie Kaufman

Gemina (Illuminae #2) (no pub date available)

(with Jay Kristoff)

Leigh Bardugo

Crooked Kingdom (Six of Crows #2) (September 27, 2016)

What a year 2016 is shaping up to be! Go us!

Our hand-picked list from the Best Selling Young Adult list from The New York Times remains the same this month. The best selling young adult titles include books by super-talents Rainbow Rowell and Marie Lu.

The Rose Society

Once upon a time, a girl had a father, a prince, a society of friends. Then they betrayed her, and she destroyed them all.

Adelina Amouteru’s heart has suffered at the hands of both family and friends, turning her down the bitter path of revenge. Now known and feared as the White Wolf, she and her sister flee Kenettra to find other Young Elites in the hopes of building her own army of allies. Her goal: to strike down the Inquisition Axis, the white-cloaked soldiers who nearly killed her.

But Adelina is no heroine. Her powers, fed only by fear and hate, have started to grow beyond her control. She does not trust her newfound Elite friends. Teren Santoro, leader of the Inquisition, wants her dead. And her former friends, Raffaele and the Dagger Society, want to stop her thirst for vengeance. Adelina struggles to cling to the good within her. But how can someone be good, when her very existence depends on darkness?

Happiest of book birthdays to Marie Lu’s The Rose Society! If you love immersive high fantasy, morally grey protagonists, villain stories, then you’ll definitely have something to love in Marie’s work. But don’t just take our word for it: check out these great reviews!

★ A tightly woven tapestry of a story that ensnares even as it disturbs.

—Booklist, starred review

★ Lu constructs a fascinating triangle of opposing forces seeking power, and the ensuing twists and epic battles leave many dead, broken, or forever changed.

—Publishers Weekly, starred review

Original and sobering, Adelina is an antihero of nigh-unremitting darkness: an unusual young woman in the mold of such archetypes as Lucifer, Macbeth, and Darth Vader.

—Kirkus Reviews

Teens will be fascinated to watch the main character descend into villainy and revel in it.

—School Library Journal

Doesn’t this sound AMAZING? We think it’s pretty fitting Marie wrote a villain book, as she wrote a lot about villains for us here at PubCrawl.

Buy a copy here today! And to celebrate, we are giving away ONE HARDCOVER COPY OF THE ROSE SOCIETY TO ONE LUCKY WINNER! (Sorry, US only!)

Comment with your favourite villain, tweet, add to your Goodreads page! Giveaway ends October 20, 2015.

a Rafflecopter giveaway

When possible, give the gift of books for birthdays, baby showers, or any other celebration that requires a present—books are special and therefore worthy of special occasions.

Hello, readers! Once again, we’ve brought out the Upcoming Titles feature. This month we’re focusing a bit on spooky reads as October is HALLOWEEN MONTH! (Or at least that’s what all the stores tell us.) As always, this is by no means a comprehensive list of forthcoming releases, just a compilation of titles we think our readers (and our contributors!) would enjoy.

Without further ado:

October 6th

• Through the Dark (A Darkest Minds novella compilation) by Alexandra Bracken**
• Carry On by Rainbow Rowell
• The Rest of Us Just Live Here by Patrick Ness
• Happy! by Pharrell Williams
• The Sword of Summer by Rick Riordan
• Against a Brightening Sky by Jaime Lee Moyer
• Ancillary Mercy by Ann Leckie
• The White Rose by Amy Ewing
• We’ll Never Be Apart by Emiko Jean
• A Madness So Discreet by Mindy McGinnis
• A Thousand Nights by E. K. Johnston

October 13th

• The Rose Society by Marie Lu**
• First & Then by Emma Mills

October 20th

• Illuminae by Amie Kaufman** and Jay Kristoff
• Career of Evil by Robert Galbraith¹

October 27th

• Our Lady of the Ice by Cassandra Rose Clarke
• What We Left Behind by Robin Talley

** Distinguished PubCrawl alumni

Hot New Releases & Popular Kids Stories We think our list of the best new kids books for October is sensational! It highlights some amazing books from many different genres: non-fiction, reality fiction, and fantasy. Take a gander and let us know which titles and covers catch your eye ... Read the rest of this post

I’m back from the American Library Conference in San Francisco! Well, I’ve been back for almost a week, but was so wiped out (and still nursing minor injuries), so this post is just now going live. But here I am with tidbits and goodies to share. Fair warning that I was bad at taking photos this year, but it was for good reason–I was having such a good time that I often forgot! Last year’s trip was great, but ALA 2015 surpassed my expectations, in ways I didn’t even imagine. Stick around, since we’re also giving away TWO prizes–a box of 10 coveted ARCS to a U.S. reader, and an awesome tote “Reading is my Everything, Everthing” bag filled with swag to an international reader. The Authors There were so many great authors at ALA this year, and I trotted around like an obedient pony trying to find them all.... Read more »

The post ALA 2015: event recap + giveaway! appeared first on The Midnight Garden.

Over the weekend, the organizers behind YALLFEST announced the launch of a new West Coast-based sister event called YALLWEST. The 2015 dates for both festivals were also revealed.

YALLWEST will take place in Santa Monica, CA from April 11th-12th, 2015. YALLFEST will follow later on in the year in Charleston, SC from November 13th-14th, 2015.

Librarian Robert Graves announced on Twitter that he will be working on the programming for YALLWEST. Several writers will also be taking part on the YALLWEST team: Holly Goldberg Sloan, Pseudonymous Bosch, Brendan Reichs, Tahereh Mafi, Margaret Stohl, Marie Lu, Ransom Riggs, Leigh Bardugo, and Melissa de la Cruz.

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

The We Need Diverse Books team have launched a crowdfunding venture on Indiegogo.

This group hope to raise $100,000.00 that will be used towards several different projects. Future plans include bringing diverse books and authors into disadvantaged schools, initiating the Walter Dean Myers Award & Grant program, and launching the inaugural Kidlit Diversity Festival in Washington, D.C.

We’ve embedded a video about the campaign above; it features appearances from Matt de la Peña, John Green, Marie Lu, Cindy Pon, Grace Lin, Lamar Giles, Tim Federle, Jacqueline Woodson, and Arthur Levine. Follow this link to read a transcript. What do you think?

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

We’ve collected the books debuting on Indiebound’s Indie Bestseller List for the week ending October 12, 2014–a sneak peek at the books everybody will be talking about next month.

(Debuted at #2 in Hardcover Fiction) Lila by Marilynne Robinson: “Lila, homeless and alone after years of roaming the countryside, steps inside a small-town Iowa church—the only available shelter from the rain—and ignites a romance and a debate that will reshape her life. She becomes the wife of a minister, John Ames, and begins a new existence while trying to make sense of the life that preceded her newfound security.” (October 2014)

(more…)

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Adelina is scarred from a disease and has become an abomination in her world. Gaining a mysterious, powerful gift, she joins the outcasts of the Young Elites to battle the wickedness of her Kingdom and the darkness in her heart. Following the Legend trilogy, this series is full of the same promise. Books mentioned in [...]

Anna Banks’s first two novels in the Syrena Legacy trilogy, Of Poseidon and Of Triton (a New York Times Bestseller), have won her many fans. Her latest work is Of Neptune, the stunning conclusion to her bestselling Syrena Legacy. She lives in Crestview, Florida, with her husband and their daughter. Here are her picks for 5 YA must-haves ... Read the rest of this post

Emmy Laybourne is the author of MONUMENT 14, SKY ON FIRE and SAVAGE DRIFT (out May 6th). Both her first two books were YALSA Teens Top Ten Nominees. Here are her picks for 5 YA titles to watch for.

A few weeks back I posted an article about Hugh Howey’s dystopian novel WOOL, because it was such an inspirational success story. Since I own a Kindle Fire and the first part of the book was free, it was a no brainer to slip over and get it. After reading part one, I wanted to read the rest. For those who have read about the journey of WOOL and how Hugh started by publishing part one of WOOL  as an ebook, you may want to run off and do the same with your book.  I want you to know his writing is the reason for his success. If you decide to read the first part for free, I think you will see that we put up a polished story. Something we all should strive to achieve.

UNDER THE NEVER SKY:

After getting my Kindle, of course, I wanted to buy some ebooks to read.  Since I was enjoying all the YA dystopian novel series, I was looking for some new ones to read.  I looked at all the ebooks listed for $2.99 or lower and bought Under the Never Sky.  A few weeks later, I was on facebook and Carol Ferderlin Baldwin said she had just read Veronica Rossi’s Under the Never Sky and loved it, so I started reading, while reading the hardcover of Requiem. I never tried that before, but both books kept me reading and wanting to turn the page. Then I found myself away with only my Kindle and I tore through the second half of Veronica’s book. I have to agree with Carol Baldwin – I loved it! I tell you putting up her book on Kindle for $2.99 really  is a good marketing strategy, because there wasn’t any question about paying $10.00 plus tax for the second book, UNDER THE EVER SKY, which I am reading as we speak. Of course, I finished reading Requiem before I started Veronica’s second book. Veronica is represented by the wonderful Adam’s Literary Agency.

And have you noticed the other marketing tool that authors and publishers are using? Most of the authors are writing short stories about various characters in their books. This works really well, because they charge a few dollars for the ebook, so it brings in money and it keeps the excitement going while the author finishes their next book. Plus, if the author probably has the stories of the other characters in their mind in order to write the series, so they can put it out without having to come up with another plot. I see this as a great boom for authors and their fans.

REQUIEM:

Requiem is the third book in Lauren Oliver’s Delirium Series. It came out on March 5th. I highly recommend all three. Sometime the second book can not live up to the first, but I actually think the second was even better. If you like dystopian YA novels, don’t miss this series. When I noticed that Lauren lives in Brooklyn, I immediately suggested the New Jersey SCBWI Conference Committee consider Lauren for the keynote speaker. Lauren agreed and better yet, Stephen Barbara is Lauren’s agent, so we’ll be treated to both at the conference in June. Come join us: www.regonline.com/njscbwi2013conference

What a great book month March was for me.  I have twenty ebooks sitting in the cue on my Kindle and a bunch of hardcovers on my nightstand waiting to be read. I really didn’t think I would enjoy reading books as much on the Kindle, but I was wrong. The funny thing is I read the ebooks much faster, which has surprised me. I am looking forward reading in April:

Before I Fall by Lauren Oliver
Crossed by Ally Condie
See you at Harry’s by Jo Knowles

The little character study “Hold you over” ebooks for Marie Lu’s Legend Series and Veronica Roth’s Divergent Series that are sitting in my Kindle to keep me going until their next books.

What are you planning to read this month? What are some of the recent books you  loved?

KUDOS:

At Little, Brown Children’s, Pam Gruber has been promoted to associate editor.

At Abrams,  David Blatty has been promoted to director of managing editorial, Dervla Kelly moves up to senior editor, Laura Dozier has been promoted to editor, and Samantha Weiner moves up to assistant editor.

Regional publisher Tilsbury House in Maine, which has a successful line of children’s books, was sold to Jonathan Eaton and Tristram Coburn, founders of Cadent Publishing. They plan to grow the company’s lines.

Talk tomorrow,

Kathy

I have never done a Best Books list, mainly because although I absolutely love to read these types of lists, I generally have a hard time choosing ten favorites from a given year.  I read so much, but for me to put a book on a BEST list, it had better be damn good. And some years, as much as I read, I don't read ten great books. Let's see if I make it to ten for 2011. My favorites, in no particular order:

Marie Lu's smart, fast-paced addition to the dystopia coterie begs for a sequel. Violent and bloody, Legend is an in-your-face commentary on how the chasm between the haves and the have-nots in our society continues to expand.

Not a YA novel, but I'm pretty sure The Magician King, the sequel to Grossman's The Magicians will show up on a lot of high school reading lists. It's Harry Potter for grown-ups, wizardry with humor and intellect. Completely unpredictable and totally original. I loved it.

Of the spate of dystopian novels from this post- Hunger Games YA literary landscape, Delirium stands out. Sure, it's set up for a sequel, but that won't interfere with your enjoyment of this story. Is a life without love a life at all? Delirium is a perfect read for those who grew up reading The Giver and now want a YA experience.

Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children is a creepy, weird, atmospheric book. I love the harsh and hearty Welsh island setting.  The odd, quirky characters remind me of a kids' version of Twin Peaks. I think the use of the old photographs is a little gimicky, and sometimes, author Ransom Rigg seems more enamored of the photos than how they actually f

Legend by Marie Lu releases today. How better to celebrate than with the trailer?

If you've read this book, write your review here for a chance to win a Bag of Books from our YABC Book Shelf!




Clockwork Prince by Cassandra Clare
The highly anticipated trailer for Clockwork Prince released yesterday. What do you think?

Have you read this book? Write your review here! Each review you write enters you into our Bag of Books drawing at the end of the month!




Here is a cinematic trailer for The Alchemyst by Michael Scott, the first book in The Secrets of the Immortal Nicholas Flamel series. If you've read this book, write your review here!

Marie Lu‘s debut novel, Legend, hits the shelves tomorrow. We caught up with Lu (pictured, via) to learn more about how authors can utilize social networking tools, the writing process for the book and her views on being an Asian-American author. The highlights follow below…

Q: How did you land your book deal?
A: My agent, Kristin Nelson, first took me on for a novel that we ultimately didn’t sell. While we waited for feedback on that one, I began writing Legend. After two intense rounds of edits with Kristin, we submitted Legend to publishers in the summer of 2010, and I recall shrieking in my apartment when Kristin told me it was going to auction with six interested publishers. Legend sold to Penguin a couple of weeks later!

Q: You drew inspiration for Legend from watching a musical production of Les Miserables. During the writing process, did you consult with Victor Hugo‘s Les Miserables?
A: It’s odd–Les Miserables triggered the first flash of inspiration for Legend (a criminal versus a detective-like character), but after that, I never referred to it again. I think the story just started going in a completely different direction. I did consult Ender’s Game and Ender’s Shadow a few times for inspiration on how to write from the point of view of a child prodigy.

continued…

New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

Crossed by Ally Condie
On sale November 1, 2011




Destined by P.C. Cast and Kristin Cast
On sale now!




Legend by Marie Lu
On sale November 29, 2011

    Absolutely everyone has noticed the rash of dystopian YA novels kicking around the bookstore these days. I was recently in the wonderland that is Powell's Books in Portland, Oregon, and their YA room had a great "I'm Dystopian!" display. Author Philip Reeve wrote about the phenomenon in this month's School Library Journal. And you can't escape the promotions for the upcoming movie version of The Hunger Games. I'm guilty of being quietly obsessed with the genre ever since I started teaching Lois Lowry's classic The Giver twenty or so years ago.

    Well, in the past few years, I've read: The Hunger Games series, The Maze Runner series, the Chaos Walking series, the Gone series, the Uglies series, Incarceron, Divergent, Matched, Delerium, Enclave, Shipbreaker, The Roar, etc., etc., etc. Lots and lots of 'em. Some of them are great (Shipbreaker, Delerium, Chaos Walking series); some are very good (Maze Runner, Uglies, Gone, Incarceron). All of them are addictively readable.  For some reason I cannot fathom, we are fascinated with our own inevitable, horrific future. What we know for sure: Earth will suffer many cataclysmic disasters which will (probably) be our fault; the new government of what is left of the U.S. will be oppressive and totalitarian; the poor will be really poor and the rich will be really rich. And one last thing: Some plucky teenager with mad fighting and survival skills will soon see it all for what it is and will fight back.

    So what is different about Marie Lu's Legend, which will be published later this year and has already been optioned for the screen? Truthfully, not much. When I received the galley of Legend and read the back cover, I actually groaned. Aloud, not inwardly. My obsession was in danger of spilling over into compulsion: Yet another dystopian novel I must read. No, really, I just can't do it again. Please make it stop!

    Still, I cracked Legend open and began. Original it ain't, but, I gotta tell you, I liked it.  I liked it a lot. Despite being able to predict almost everything that was going to happen, I couldn't put Legend down. And if it's done right, it could make an awesome film. At the very least, it would be a great video game.

    June is a war-ready prodigy in the future Republic of America, a perfect soldier-to-be, who grew up in the golden light of Los Angeles's richest district. Day is a prodigy of another kind. He is from one of the city's poorest districts, and he's also the country's most wanted terrorist/criminal.  June and Day could not have come from more contrasting origins, but their worlds are about to collide in a big way.

    When Day's family is quarantined because of a breakout of the newest strain of plague to run through the L.A. slum areas, he needs to steal some plague cure quick. June's brother Matias, who seems to be the ultimate Republic soldier, is murdered at the hospital on the night that Day tries to swipe a few vials of the cure. Now, Day is the number-one suspect in the crime, and June is out to exact her revenge.

    Soon, however, June and Day cross paths in a most unlikely way.  An uneasy alliance, even a touch of romance develops, and June and Day start to uncover some horrifying trut

Writers Veronica Roth, Marie Lu and Erin Morgenstern all landed movie deals for their debut novels.

Roth released Divergent in May; Morgenstern’s book The Night Circus is due out in September and Lu’s title Legend will hit bookstores in late November. Lu sold her book’s movie rights to CBS Films. Summit Entertainment snatched up the rights to Roth and Morgenstern’s novels.

According to Variety, Harry Potter film producer David Heyman is interested in The Night Circus film. Deadline reported that Twilight film producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey are looking at Legend. All three authors made an appearance at this year’s San Diego Comic-Con.

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New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.

CBS Films has acquired screen rights to Marie Lu's exciting dystopian novel, LEGEND.  Twilight Saga producers Marty Bowen and Wyck Godfrey will produce through their Temple Hill banner. The first book will be published this November by Penguin Group. (Click here to read more.)

A bit about LEGEND:
What was once the western United States is now home to the Republic, a nation perpetually at war with its neighbors. Born into an elite family in one of the Republic's wealthiest districts, fifteen-year-old June is a prodigy being groomed for success in the Republic's highest military circles. Born into the slums, fifteen-year-old Day is the country's most wanted criminal. But his motives may not be as malicious as they seem.

From very different worlds, June and Day have no reason to cross paths - until the day June's brother, Metias, is murdered and Day becomes the prime suspect. Caught in the ultimate game of cat and mouse, Day is in a race for his family's survival, while June seeks to avenge Metias's death. But in a shocking turn of events, the two uncover the truth of what has really brought them together, and the sinister lengths their country will go to keep its secrets.

LEGEND will appear on bookstore shelves November 29, 2011. Until then, head on over to the LEGEND Facebook Page to discuss the book, enter contests, read excerpts and quotes, and keep updated on all the latest film news.

We'll keep you updated here too, so stay tuned!

Visit Marie Lu's official website for more info: http://marielu.org/